Two figures faced each other across the void.
Each radiated a terrifying presence.
Even after moving the battlefield into space, the shockwaves from their clash remained catastrophic. Vast tides of energy rolled through the darkness, battering the fabric of space itself.
Invisible particles collided by the trillions, producing dazzling bursts of light that painted breathtaking cosmic phenomena across the heavens.
The space within the Black Hole Dimension was far more resilient than the vacuum of normal reality. But in truth, it was little more than wallpaper.
Beneath that illusion lay an endless sea of black holes.
Not that Drex Valen believed his opponent could tear through the disguise.
The gap between them was simply too large.
The Void had only recently reached the Single-Universe level.
Drex had surpassed that threshold so long ago that the difference could no longer be expressed with numbers. The scale was so absurd that calculation itself became meaningless.
Even without using any abilities, Drex's physical body alone completely overwhelmed the Void.
He could stand motionless and allow the creature to attack forever without suffering the slightest injury.
The only reason this fight was still happening was because Drex was bored.
Otherwise, the Void would already have been consumed.
Whoosh!
Golden flames distorted space.
In the blink of an eye, the Void crossed the battlefield and appeared at Drex's side.
Its arm snapped upward.
An elbow strike shot toward Drex's head.
Drex smiled.
This time, he didn't even bother using an entire hand.
One finger.
A single raised index finger.
Ignoring the light-speed barrier entirely, he intercepted every attack at superluminal speeds.
The exchange was unbelievably violent.
Within a single femtosecond, offense and defense shifted hundreds of times.
Despite fighting at point-blank range and unleashing everything it had, the Void couldn't break through that solitary finger.
Every punch.
Every kick.
Every shockwave.
Every explosion.
All of it vanished into the silent vacuum of space.
Only the overflowing torrents of energy remained, pulverizing nearby cosmic dust into particles even smaller than before.
The two combatants continued fighting while racing through the stars.
BOOM!
Drex flicked his finger.
A terrifying blast of energy erupted forward.
The Void failed to evade in time.
Its left arm exploded into a cloud of shredded flesh and vanished completely.
The threat of death finally pushed it to unleash everything.
It roared soundlessly.
The vacuum swallowed the noise.
Golden flames surged higher.
Power flooded from its eyes.
Twin beams erupted outward like collapsing dams.
A torrent of destructive particles comparable to cosmic gamma-ray bursts swept across space.
Yet Drex remained where he was.
His finger moved casually through the air like a brush painting on a canvas.
Dozens of energy strikes appeared.
Every single one landed.
The Void's body disintegrated.
Its flesh exploded.
Its bones vanished.
Its existence nearly ceased altogether.
And then...
Drex lowered his hand.
Instead of finishing the fight, he watched with anticipation.
A vast black shadow spread across space.
It swallowed the golden radiance pouring from the Sentry's body.
Twisted tendrils emerged from the darkness.
The Void.
The true Void.
Everyone knew the rule.
Heroes became weaker after redemption.
Monsters became stronger after surrendering to darkness.
The Sentry was said to possess the power of a million exploding suns.
But under normal circumstances, he wasn't nearly that powerful.
Only by completely abandoning himself and allowing the Void full control could that unimaginable strength be released without restraint.
The version Drex had fought earlier felt wrong.
Like madness chained to the last fragments of reason.
Once he realized that, he'd shattered Robert Reynolds' remaining consciousness.
Now he was about to witness the real thing.
Crimson light mixed with black shadows.
The energy seeped into the chunks of flesh that had once been the Void's body.
Sharp, insect-like limbs burst from its back.
They spread outward like monstrous wings.
Drex watched its power climb at an impossible rate.
Before the transformation was even complete, it had already become several times stronger than before.
Most people would've panicked.
Most people would've tried to stop the transformation.
Drex did neither.
Instead, he created a comfortable chair in the middle of space.
Then he summoned an oversized bucket of fried chicken and an ice-cold cola chilled with Antarctic ice.
While dipping a drumstick into caviar worth tens of thousands of dollars per ounce, he patiently waited for the transformation to finish.
Eventually, the shadow-covered body regenerated a new head.
The face remained unchanged.
Robert Reynolds.
Yet everything else was different.
There was no expression.
No humanity.
No emotion.
The black eyes contained only destruction.
The earlier Void-Sentry had merely amplified Robert's darker impulses.
This...
This was the genuine Void.
A killing machine devoid of both reason and feeling.
Only in this state could the Sentry's full power be unleashed.
The Void raised its head.
An overwhelming aura of slaughter instantly spread across the cosmos.
It didn't speak.
It simply attacked.
A punch shot forward.
"Have you ever seen the strongest fried chicken drumstick in the universe?" Drex asked.
The Void didn't react.
The towering figure vanished.
Then it appeared directly in front of him.
Within microseconds, a storm of attacks descended.
Razor-sharp appendages.
Fists carrying enough force to trigger universal-scale destruction.
Every strike carried enough power to reshape the fundamental forces of creation itself.
And yet...
All of them were blocked.
By a fried chicken drumstick.
A single drumstick casually held in Drex's hand.
The scene was so absurd it would've driven most opponents insane.
But the Void possessed no pride to wound.
No emotions to provoke.
Its attacks only became faster.
More violent.
More relentless.
The void of space trembled under the assault.
Drex took another bite of chicken.
"The gap is too large."
He sounded almost disappointed.
"You're powerful, but you still don't understand how to transmit force through alternate mediums."
"You don't understand conceptual power either."
"I'm using nothing more than the strength an ordinary person would use to swing a drumstick."
"And that's enough to disperse attacks carrying the force of cosmic explosions."
After blocking several more strikes, Drex casually tossed the drumstick.
The fried chicken spun through space.
And struck the Void square in the chest.
The Void couldn't comprehend what happened.
Its reaction speed exceeded light.
It could perceive quantum fluctuations.
Predict future possibilities.
Yet it couldn't dodge a piece of fried chicken.
Even worse...
The drumstick carried an unimaginable force.
Its body, denser than matter compressed beyond neutron-star levels, shattered instantly.
The impact reduced entire sections of its form to nothingness.
The Void was forced to reconstruct itself from scratch.
This time, it didn't rush back into battle.
It stopped.
And thought.
For the first time since its emergence, it analyzed what had just happened.
Searching for clues.
Searching for answers.
Trying to understand the power Drex had displayed.
Unfortunately for it, transcendent abilities weren't something that could be mastered through observation alone.
If they were...
There would be no point in gods existing at all.