Chapter Thirty One: Suspense

It’s quiet…So quiet it’s deafening.
The trees.The wind.Even the dust.All of it—stopped in absolute stillness. The only things that dared to move were the slow-crawling clouds, charged and pregnant with thunderbolts waiting to strike. But then—
He moved.Directly in front of me.
“You’ve made a mess out of heaven…”
His voice cut through the frozen world like a blade.
How… how can I hear him when time itself has stopped?Of course.He stopped it. He controls this stillness.
“This is as far as you go,” he said, eyes glowing with malicious amusement. “Your little game is over. Your existence is no longer entertaining. We’ll find other ways to derive pleasure… oh, I know—how about annihilating a nation once every week?”
My eyes widened in pure disbelief.He smiled faintly, took a casual stance—then vanished.
The next instant his fists were everywhere.
A blur.A storm.A nightmare.His hands disappeared from sight, yet his fists crashed against every inch of my body in a relentless barrage.
It didn’t hurt… not yet.But I knew—I knew—what was coming.
THUNDERBOLT!
The heavens answered his silent command. Thunderbolts cracked open the frozen sky and speared me with blinding light. Lightning swallowed me whole.
What will happen when time begins to move again?
The question barely formed in my head before the truth ripped it apart.
GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!
The moment the thunder stopped, the universe resumed—and agony exploded inside me all at once. The delayed impact of a thousand fists and a thousand bolts crashed into my bones, nerves, and soul.
I blacked out for a heartbeat.When my vision returned, I was plummeting toward the vast crater carved earlier by his light wave attack. The ground rushed to meet me, but before I could even think—
“Time!”
The word froze reality once more.The fall halted mid-air.
“It’s a shame really,” he said almost wistfully. “But this… this is it.”
He stretched out his right arm, light gathering in his palm until it condensed into a radiant blade.
A sword of light.
No ordinary weapon—its glow burned with the memory of worlds destroyed.I’m no demon, but even I could feel it: one strike from that blade could erase me completely.
He drifted above me, my helpless body suspended in frozen time.The tip of his sword gleamed.
Then—
PIERCE.
The blade slid into my gut.
“AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Pain.Blinding, scorching, unbearable pain.How—how can it hurt this much when time itself is stopped?!
The sword drove deeper, its radiant edge slicing through flesh and bone. My thoughts fractured into static. My mind trembled as the blade inched toward my heart.
No.No!I can’t die like this!What will happen to humanity if I fall here?I haven’t surpassed the gods yet!I won’t end like this!
But the sword kept pushing.Deeper.Closer.

---
“Naum~…”
A soft, lilting voice slipped through the darkness.Sweet. Familiar.
“Are you sleeping again?”
Amira…?
“Jeez,” she teased gently. “You are so hopeless.”
Where… where is that voice coming from?
I opened my eyes.
Darkness.Infinite, endless darkness.No sky. No ground. Only silence.
Am I dead?Is this hell?
No.No, I can still feel her. Amira.She’s alive. I can sense her.
If I can still sense her…Then I’m not dead.
I looked down. Nothing but shadows.The last thing I remember is the god’s sword of light stabbing into me.
Hmm…
This isn’t any place I know.A dream? A void?
SPARK.
A sudden spark ignited in my mind. The answers flooded in.
Of course.I summoned myself here—instinctively.A world of my own making.A space between death and survival.A desperate escape.
But time is still frozen in the human world. If he controls time, he’ll find me. He’ll feel the disturbance of this moving pocket.
I touched my stomach, fingers trembling.The scar was deep where the sword pierced me. My body had already burned through precious Zinertia to heal it. The wound was closed—but at the cost of energy I could scarcely afford.
In the gods’ realm I could draw power endlessly. But here, in the human plane, I am at a disadvantage. Gods wield twice my energy—even sealed.
BAAAM.
A thunderous boom echoed through the void, vibrating through my bones.He’s coming.
I clenched my fists.I will pour everything I have into this.I will not die here.I will walk out victorious.
Reverse summoning!!Summon!!
GZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNG!
Light ripped across the darkness as my plan unfolded.I re-summoned myself back into the human world—and at the same instant, I dragged Light into the space I had just left.
The void would reject him. The creator had already escaped.
Before he could react, I pulled him back again—this time straight into a ball of Zinertia forming in my palm.
“ZINERTIA BALL!”
Just as I had done with Wa’e’rrut, I sealed him inside and began compressing the sphere.Tighter.Tighter.Closing the prison inch by inch.
But—
His form shifted.His entire body became pure light.
Thunderbolts rained against my barrier, each strike a screaming torment.
“It hurts…!!” I gritted through clenched teeth. “But if I can hold him just a little longer—”
GZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNG!!!
The sphere shook violently. I poured more Zinertia into it, strengthening it with everything I had. But the light inside only grew brighter, hotter, more furious.
Shooo!!
A spear of pure radiance pierced the surface of the ball.He broke free.
But when he reformed, I saw it—His right arm was gone.
The attack had devoured it before he escaped.
My resolve flared.I lunged forward with all my remaining strength.
Summoning!!Summoning!!
I attacked from every direction, my left fist landing super-charged punches as I warped through space.
“This has gone on long enough!!!” he roared, hair lifting, body cloaked in blinding light.
“That’s my line!!!” I shouted back, Zinertia bursting around me like a storm.
“IYAAAAAAAH!!!!!” we both screamed as our auras collided.The air itself split.
We charged—A hurricane of fists.Punch after punch, blow after blow, the sky thundered with each impact.
I was slower, but my strength matched his divine power.
“Super Punch!”“Reset Punch!”
Our attacks landed simultaneously—my Super Punch against his Reset Punch. The collision blasted us apart, each of us trembling in midair.
He hovered, chest heaving, his lone left hand glowing as he gathered a new mass of light.
A light wave.
No.Not again.
I summoned a wave of Zinertia in my left hand, only fifty meters separating us.If I release mine first, I might—
But he was faster.
BAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!
His wave struck before I could act.The world detonated in white.I crashed into the ground, charred and smoking, my vision blurring into static.
“You’ve made humanity proud,” he said coldly, floating above the crater. “But this is the end.”
Yes…This is the end.
For you.
“Reverse summoning!”“Summoning!”
In the same instant, I warped myself high into the sky and dragged the slowed god into my Zinertia Ball once more.
His previous attack had hit me dead-on, but I was ready.Instead of meeting his wave with mine, I used my own energy to reinforce my Zinertia coating, layering it threefold. The extra barriers absorbed most of the blast.
Now—NOW.
“Let’s see you escape this!!!”
He shifted into light again, desperate to break free.But I was faster.
“Summon! Summon! Summon! Summon!”
I called the escaping light back into the sphere again and again, compressing it tighter, crushing every flicker back inside—just as I once crushed Wa’e’rrut’s water.
“HIYAAAAAH!!”
I poured everything—every ounce of power, every shred of life—into the Zinertia Ball. My palms closed.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
The world erupted.A blinding flash swallowed the heavens.
When the light finally faded—
He was gone.