The sapphire crystal trembled as Luminescent hit it, but it did not break. That was the first thing he noticed when he regained enough focus to think properly again.
He was still alive.
He was a Krepsuna. He was not going to die just because some arrogant bastard with a violin and a fucking suicide plan had trapped him in a shell of crystal and sealed it with enough Soul Energy to make the air itself feel heavy. No, death was not going to be the easy answer here. He could still think.
And right now, that was enough.
Luminescent let out a low, slow laugh from inside the crystal and looked up through the translucent blue prison around him.
"Vastarael really is a monster."
That was not in admiration. It was more like annoyance at the scale of the thing he had just witnessed. Because that was the problem, wasn't it?
Vastarael had not just won the battle. He had won it with such sheer, unhinged thoroughness that it almost felt insulting. He had used his own soul, burned it down to the last layer and forced it into the shape of a temporary Primordial Deity just long enough to complete his plan. He had separated the Hidden Citadel from the world hard that even the enemy chain of command had gone dark.
Luminescent had tried to reach the other Overlord Ravagers after the fusion began. There was no response it any familiar presence of the others pushing back through the network like they always did when something changed.
That alone was enough to make him want to snarl. Vastarael had not only isolated the Hidden Citadel. He had isolated Luminescent too.
The sapphire shell around him was thick with dense Soul Energy. Sealing Runes crawled all over it in patterns and reinforced with such precision that even someone like him could feel the structure mocking his attempts to escape. He could strike the walls of the prison all he wanted but the crystal would not yield easily. Vastarael had made sure of that.
And the worst part, he had done it while smiling.
Luminescent pressed one hand against the inside of the prison and felt the runes flare faintly under his palm. The crystal absorbed the motion and contained it.
He scoffed.
"Ha. Buying time, for what?"
He could already guess, which made him hate the answer. He did it for his companions breathing inside the Hidden Citadel.
Vastarael had not just removed the Overlord Ravagers from the battlefield. He had severed their ability to lead the charge, delayed their advance and forced them into disarray. Now they would have to search for him.
Pragmatic bastard.
Luminescent leaned back against the inside wall of the crystal and exhaled slowly. The sound came out rough.
"And then he dies and his little companions start wanting revenge."
That part irritated him more than the rest.
Vastarael's death would not end the war. It would only sharpen it. Every companion he had left behind would feel it. Every bond tied to him would turn into fuel. They would not curl up and break. They would get more dangerous and on top of that, Vastarael had already twisted the flow of time enough that before the effects even wore off, decades would have passed in the altered rhythm of the Hidden Citadel.
Decades was enough time for those people to grow and prepare.
Luminescent let out another short laugh.
"Pragmatic. That's what you are."
He had not wanted to admit it before. He did not want to admit it now but Vastarael had done the one thing Luminescent hated most. He forced him to respect the enemy's intelligence. That was irritating enough on its own. What made it worse was that Vastarael had underestimated him exactly once and still managed to beat him so completely that Luminescent now sat in a crystal prison while the Hidden Citadel disappeared from the rest of the world.
What a humiliating outcome.
He had come here planning to wipe out the Transmigrators living in the Hidden Citadel and convert the survivors into Krepsunas. That was the goal. That was the direction the whole thing had been supposed to go. He had wanted to take over what remained, reshape the population and turn the entire place into a clean slaughterhouse for the Ravagers. Instead, Vastarael trapped him inside a sapphire cage with enough power to make his own soul ache.
Now he was being shipped away like a sealed relic all he could do was sit there and be furious about it. He frowned, then leaned forward, staring into the blue wall in front of him.
"When I get out, I'm killing them all."
He did not mean that as a threat. He meant it as a schedule.
He would go for Vastarael's loved ones first, of course. They would all learn what it meant to stand on the wrong side of a Krepsuna with time on his side.
"Your death will make them reckless. That's fine. Let them come. Let them learn what happens when they chase revenge."
He was still angry but the anger had changed shape now. He had been cut off from his own plans and for a being like him, that kind of silence was almost insulting enough to become boredom. He tilted his head against the crystal and looked up again.
For the first time, the annoyance slipped into something closer to calculation.
What should he do in the meantime?
The question sat there in the stillness of the sapphire prison and although he hated asking it, he hated wasting time more. He had time now. Too much of it, maybe. Vastarael had trapped him in a state where escape was difficult and the world outside was already moving on without him. Which meant if he was smart, he should use the forced pause instead of fighting it blindly.
He had lost this battle. There was no point pretending otherwise. That much was clear.
So the real question was not how to win this moment. It was how to use the loss.
Luminescent folded his hands behind his head and stared at the crystal ceiling above him, pretending the prison was not tight enough to feel like a grave with better lighting.
"What should I do to waste my time?"
The words sounded lazy but the mind behind them was already turning. If Vastarael wanted decades to pass, then fine. Let them pass. If Vastarael wanted his people to become stronger, then fine. He would remember that too.
If Vastarael wanted him trapped and useless while the Hidden Citadel burned itself into a harder shape, then Luminescent would simply do what he always did. He would wait and then return with enough force to make everyone regret surviving the first round.
"You really are my nemesis."
He had underestimated Vastarael once. That mistake had cost him everything important in this phase.
The Hidden Citadel had been severed. The Ravagers had been scattered and we're now searching for him. He knew that the Ravagers wouldn't attack because he was missing. They would be searching for him. He also knee that the battlefield had been thrown into confusion. His own contact network had gone dark and now he was sitting here sealed in sapphire, burning with irritation, because one man with too many burdens and too much will had decided to turn his death into a weapon.
Luminescent shook his head slowly. Vastarael had seen the entire shape of the board and moved through it like he had been born to ruin other people's plans.
"Fine. I'll wait. But after I get out…"
He did not finish the sentence. He did not need to.
Luminescent sat in the middle of that sealed blue prison and let the hatred settle into something useful. Then, with a long, irritated sigh, he leaned back against the crystal wall and stared into the brightness like a man deciding how long forever ought to be.