The Guardian gods
Chapter 583

Chapter 583: 583

Kaelen felt himself increasingly in the blind, unable to anticipate Vorenza’s next move until the very last moment. Every calculation screamed that she should have focused on Lyra, whose domain had been heavily restricting her. Yet, she had done the opposite, eliminating Korvin with a brutal, unexpected cunning.

The grim reality of Korvin’s demise settled heavy in the abyssal air. With the Earth-Shaper gone, Kaelen knew their strategy had to pivot. Someone needed to engage Vorenza directly, physically pressing her, denying her the precious seconds she needed to react, to plan, to unleash her devastating conceptual weaves. That task, he now realized, fell to him.

Kaelen understood the immense personal cost this new approach would demand. He had to begin applying his Lawof Recursive Self-Replication not just to external constructs, but to himself. This would be no ordinary replication. His previous drones, while numerous, hadn’t drained his mana core significantly. But to manifest a truly potent construct clone of himself, one capable of matching Vorenza’s terrifying speed and power in close combat, would put a substantial, constant strain on his already finite mana reserves.

Furthermore, he couldn’t afford to leave his main body vulnerable. It needed to retain enough mana to continuously run the complex, rapid-fire calculations required to even begin to keep pace with Vorenza’s increasingly opaque and unpredictable conceptual weaving. This wasn’t just about mana; it was about protection. If Vorenza located the vulnerability of his core self amidst the chaos of battle, it would be an opening she wouldn’t miss, and one they would be hard-pressed to stop. The stakes had never been higher.

The air around Kaelen rippled with pure, self-replicating computational energy, his mana core humming under immense strain. He initiated the full power of his Law of Recursive Self-Replication. With a visible surge of power, a duplicate of Kaelen, fully armored in black iron and radiating immense physical might, detached from his main body.

This wasn’t a clone; it was a Self-Replicated Combat Unit, a perfect, independent duplicate designed for brutal close-quarters engagement. Its Ogre-like frame was dense, its every muscle imbued with the same recursive power that defined Kaelen’s Law. As this unit surged forward, Kaelen’s primary body seemed to contract slightly, growing leaner and denser, its armor hardening, allowing it to transition into a more energy-efficient state for pure calculation.

"Lyra, focus on containment!" Kaelen’s primary form, its voice now colder and more precise, echoed with urgent clarity. "Don’t let her break free!"

The Self-Replicated Combat Unit roared, a sound of synthesized fury, and charged Vorenza. It moved with startling speed, closing in on Vorenza.

Lyra’s face remained a mask of cold resolve. She pointed to the churning abyssal sky, and dark clouds coalesced with terrifying speed. From them, a relentless storm of thick ice hails began to plummet. These weren’t mere frozen water; each hailstone hummed with the Law of Chilling Nullification, designed to nullify kinetic energy and movement. As the hails rained down upon Vorenza, they momentarily froze her in place, binding her limbs with a conceptual ’stillness’.

In the very next moment, Vorenza shattered the temporary bonds, but her freedom was short-lived as another volley of hails made immediate contact, forcing her back into that agonizing, nullified state. Trapped in this cycle, Vorenza could only watch, snarling, as Kaelen’s formidable Self-Replicated Combat Unit’s black iron fist slammed into her across the face.

Vorenza’s face crumpled in a grimace of pain, a rare sight, yet a flicker of satisfaction ignited in her multifaceted eyes. The force of the punch threw her out of Lyra’s concentrated cloud zone. Or so she thought. To her frustration, the dark clouds, a relentless extension of Lyra’s will, relentlessly followed her figure, still raining down their agonizing, nullifying hails.

Kaelen’s primary body, in its energy-conserving state, whirred with relentless calculations. Its sophisticated internal systems, linked with his Self-Replicated Combat Unit, precisely tracked Vorenza’s movements, the rhythm of Lyra’s hailstorm, and the subtle flex of Vorenza’s conceptual weaving. Time and again, Kaelen found the exact, infinitesimally small window when Vorenza was frozen and conceptually ’stuck’ by Lyra’s Law of Chilling Nullification.

It was a brutal, relentless rhythm. Lyra’s chilling hails would descend, momentarily binding Vorenza, and in that precise instant, Kaelen’s combat unit would strike—a heavy, crushing blow delivered with the full force of its Ogre-like might. Vorenza, roaring in pain and frustration, would break free, only to be caught again by the pervasive, pursuing clouds and the next volley of nullifying ice. This same tactic continued for a grueling stretch, as Vorenza struggled to adjust her conceptual defenses against such a perfectly synchronized, multi-pronged assault.

Her body, a canvas of obsidian chitin, was now streaked with luminous, abyssal blood from the accumulated damage. Each strike, though not conceptually ’fatal’ on its own, was chipping away at her physical form. Unknown to Kaelen and Lyra, however, Vorenza was playing a deeper game within this agonizing rhythm. With each forced ’repulsion’ from a blow, with every desperate re-positioning to escape Lyra’s storm, she had been subtly, incrementally, closing the distance. And now, she was close enough to Lyra.

Suddenly, with a guttural roar of pure, unleashed fury, Vorenza changed tactics. She didn’t try to evade Lyra’s next hailstorm. Instead, as the nullifying ice descended, she briefly, infinitesimally, re-conceptualized her ’vulnerability’ into ’immense kinetic potential’. The force of Lyra’s chilling hails, rather than pinning her, became a coiled spring of explosive, outward momentum. She then used her Law of Concept Weaving with lightning speed to redefine her ’position’ to ’proximity to Lyra’.

In a blink, faster than Lyra could react or Kaelen’s calculations could predict, Vorenza ceased being a target and became a blur. She rocketed through the air, propelled by the recoiled force of Lyra’s own attack, and appeared directly in front of Lyra, her monstrous form filling the mage’s vision.

Lyra’s eyes widened in dawning horror. She instinctively threw up a shield of shimmering black ice, a last-ditch effort powered by her Law of Chilling Nullification. But Vorenza was already there, her primary spider leg, now a blur of obsidian, lashing out. The shield, infused with the concept of ’nullification’, should have frozen Vorenza’s strike, but Vorenza’s conceptual attack was swifter and more insidious.

Vorenza didn’t physically shatter the shield. Instead, her strike, imbued with the Law of Concept Weaving, specifically targeted the very ’concept’ of Lyra’s Law, Vorenza herself paid a heavy price for such bold move as cracks can be seen in her domain. With a chilling, almost silent snap, Vorenza conceptually ’severed’ Lyra’s connection to the Law of Chilling Nullification. The shield around Lyra flickered, losing its defining conceptual property, becoming merely brittle ice. It shattered into a thousand useless fragments.

Before Lyra could even register the profound, terrifying loss of her core power, Vorenza’s leg continued its arc. It plunged directly into Lyra’s chest, not tearing flesh, but rather, her form seemed to implode inward, as if the ’concept’ of her very being was suddenly ’nullified’. There was no scream, no final plea. Lyra, the embodiment of chilling nullification, was herself nullified.

In the ensuing silence, Lyra’s astral form, the titanic figure of ice, flickered violently, then began to disintegrate into fine, conceptual dust. But Vorenza’s brutal conceptual strike did more than destroy Lyra’s form; it shattered the suppressive hold her Law of Chilling Nullification had maintained over her own emotions. All the grief, the fury, and the raw pain Lyra had so diligently contained erupted in a torrent. The agonizing loss of her mate, the Crystal Mage, who had met his end by Vorenza’s hand, surged forth. Then came the fresh, searing wound of her friend Korvin’s brutal demise.

From the dissolving remnants of her astral form, a voice, imbued with a chilling cold that far surpassed her Law, resonated through the Abyss. "You have taken enough from me," Lyra’s spectral voice declared, devoid of warmth, filled only with absolute resolve. "It’s time you pay for it."

Lyra forcefully ignited her very soul. The raw power of her being flared, and with it, she regained control of her Law, wrenching it back from Vorenza’s conceptual severing. Her dissolving form solidified, albeit flickering, and with a desperate, iron grip, she seized hold of the very spider leg that had pierced her. Vorenza’s multi-faceted eyes widened in dawning comprehension as she sensed Lyra’s horrific intent.

Vorenza struggled, thrashing violently, attempting to rip her limb free, but Lyra held fast, her grip imbued with the absolute, unyielding stillness of her revived domain. A decisive, almost desperate look flashed across Vorenza’s face. A sword woven from the sheer concept of ’severance’ materialized in her free hand, and without hesitation, she severed her own impaled leg to retreat.

But it was too late. Lyra, her spectral form burning brighter than ever, unleashed her final, devastating act. She didn’t just expand her domain; she imploded it. Her entire being, her Law of Chilling Nullification, her very essence, manifested as a howling, all-consuming wind of absolute zero ice that ripped through the Abyss, spreading outwards in an unstoppable wave of utter nullification.