Awakening of the Mind Sovereign
Chapter 63: Is this… the true peak? - (4)

Chapter 63: Is this... the true peak? - (4)

Oros struck.

An attack so vast, so overwhelming, that even the stars dimmed in its presence.

But before it could reach Echo

Something happened.

A shift.

A ripple in the very foundation of this world.

And then

Echo moved.

Faster than the Elders’ eyes could follow.

Faster than Oros himself could process.

He appeared in front of the First Sage in an instant.

His eyes gleamed with something new.

Something terrifying.

"You’re not the only one who can break the rules anymore," Echo whispered.

And then, with all his power, he threw his second punch.

----

Oros had existed since the dawn of time.

He had witnessed the fall of gods, the destruction of civilizations, and the reshaping of entire dimensions.

Yet never not once had he seen anything like this.

When Echo’s fist connected, it wasn’t just an attack.

It was an impossibility.

CRACK.

The air itself split apart.

Not metaphorically.

Not as a mere shockwave.

A jagged tear formed in the very fabric of existence, stretching out like broken glass across the sky.

A wound in the Higher Realm.

The Elders watching from the distance felt a chill crawl down their spines.

The Higher Realm was built upon absolute laws immutable, eternal.

And yet, in this moment, those laws were shattered.

By him.

By a being who, by all logic, should have been nothing more than a worm beneath their feet.

Echo stood, his fist still extended, his breathing steady.

He wasn’t shocked.

He wasn’t confused.

He simply clenched his fingers, watching the damage he had caused.

As if...

He had known this would happen.

One of the onlooking Elders an entity whose presence could silence storms spoke with unease.

"If we don’t get rid of him now..."

Another Elder, his voice like grinding stone, finished the thought.

"He may become stronger."

It wasn’t a guess.

It wasn’t speculation.

It was a certainty.

Echo was evolving.

Right now.

Before their very eyes.

With every punch, every step, every breath, he was breaking past limitations that should have been absolute.

This wasn’t just a battle anymore.

It was a crisis.

A threat that, if left unchecked, could consume everything.

Oros’ Wrath

Oros steadied himself in the air, golden blood dripping from his lips.

A silence fell over the battlefield.

Then

BOOM.

The sky ignited in white fire.

Columns of golden flame erupted from the heavens, twisting and turning like living entities.

Oros’ aura expanded, engulfing the entire horizon.

This wasn’t rage.

This wasn’t vengeance.

This was annihilation.

"This has gone far enough," Oros declared, his voice echoing through the fractured sky.

"You were an anomaly. A mistake."

His hand rose, and the very laws of existence bowed before him.

"This realm shall correct itself."

A surge of power gathered in his palm pure, condensed destruction.

Not an attack.

Not a spell.

A reset.

The kind that erased things from history.

He would erase Echo from existence itself.

Echo, standing in the middle of the battlefield, watched Oros with cold eyes.

He could feel it.

This power that Oros was calling upon.

It wasn’t something he could just dodge.

It wasn’t something he could tank.

If that attack landed

Not just in body, but in all timelines, all possibilities.

And yet...

His body did not move.

His heart did not race.

Instead, a new instinct rose within him.

An instinct that had never existed before.

As if...

He knew exactly how to respond.

Oros unleashed the attack.

A beam of golden energy, the size of a mountain, shot down from the sky.

Everything beneath it disintegrated before even making contact.

Entire landscapes were erased.

The void itself trembled.

And yet

In the instant before it hit...

Echo raised his hand.

Not to block.

Not to dodge.

But to touch it.

His fingers brushed against the attack.

And then

Something snapped.

The golden energy

The force meant to erase him

It froze.

Then, in the next moment—

It shattered.

Like fragile glass.

Silence.

Absolute, suffocating silence.

Oros...

The Elders...

Everyone watching...

None of them understood what had just happened.

That attack...

It was inevitable.

It was meant to be an absolute end.

And yet Echo had touched it.

Not absorbed.

Not resisted.

Just touched.

And it ceased to exist.

As if it had never been there in the first place.

Oros’ Realization

Oros took a step back.

A step back.

He, a First Sage.

The most feared entity in the Higher Realm.

He was retreating.

Because now, he understood.

Echo’s power wasn’t just about destruction.

It wasn’t just brute force.

It was something far worse.

A force that did not obey the laws of the world

Because it rewrote them.

Echo finally spoke, his voice calm.

"You’ve spent your entire existence thinking you’re at the top."

His eyes, now glowing with an unfamiliar light, locked onto Oros.

"But tell me..."

He raised his hand again.

And space itself trembled.

"If I don’t follow the rules of this world..."

A smirk formed on his lips.

"Then why should I follow yours?"

---

Oros’ ultimate attack had been undone.

Shattered like fragile glass.

The golden flames that once threatened to erase Echo from existence had dispersed into nothingness, leaving behind a battlefield frozen in stunned silence.

For the first time in countless millennia, the Higher Realm trembled—not from the will of the Sages, not from cosmic forces, but from the actions of one person.

And then...

Not from an explosion.

Not from power being unleashed.

But from something far worse.

Something unnatural.

---

A dreadful sensation swept across existence itself.

The Higher Realm had always been built upon laws.

Unbreakable, eternal laws that governed the balance of power, existence, and reality.

But this thing that had arrived

It followed none of them.

It didn’t belong here.

It didn’t belong anywhere.

It was neither divine nor mortal. Neither an elder nor an anomaly.

It was outside of everything.

And everyone knew it.

The sky darkened, as if space itself was being rewritten. The very concept of "light" and "shadow" warped, bending into unnatural patterns that defied logic.

For the first time, the Sages the pillars of the Higher Realm felt something they had long forgotten.

Terror.