The world around Rehan fractured violently. One moment, he was on the ruined streets of Tokyo, and the next, he plummeted through an endless void of darkness, the air thick with oppressive energy. Reality itself seemed to dissolve into black mist and shifting shadows.
Rehan's golden aura flared, carving out a small sphere of light around him, resisting the dimensional pull.
"Where… am I?" he muttered, gritting his teeth.
A low, mocking chuckle echoed through the void. The shadows coalesced, forming a massive figure. Morgath, the Dimension Shredder, materialized, floating effortlessly in the darkness. His aura twisted space around him, bending gravity and creating floating fragments of cities, mountains, and lava rivers in miniature.
"Welcome, Rehan of the Scarlet Line," Morgath hissed, eyes glowing green-black. "This is my domain. Here, your limits are meaningless."
Rehan's hand gripped his sword tightly. Golden aura flared like sunlight piercing through the void.
"Then I'll make my limits mean something!"
Morgath extended a hand, and reality shattered into multiple mini-dimensions, each spinning in chaotic orbits around Rehan. He swung his blade through one rift; Rehan barely dodged, the air slicing past like a hurricane. Each swing generated shockwaves, threatening to tear Rehan apart.
"Your sword… ordinary," Morgath sneered. "In my dimensions, even the strongest fall!"
Rehan leapt through a floating shard of reality, aura burning brighter with each move.
"I don't fight ordinary!"
He struck a fragment with Phantom Severance — a golden slash that cut through the floating terrain, stabilizing a small area to prevent himself from being crushed.
Morgath's eyes narrowed.
"Impressive. But only barely enough to amuse me."
Morgath's power fully manifested. He opened mini-dimensional rifts, designed to trap Rehan in looping corridors, accelerate time inside certain fragments to age and drain energy, and twist space so attacks would miss no matter how precise.
Rehan's aura pulsed, countering each distortion. He focused on one rift at a time, cutting through the illusions with Phantom Severance, golden energy leaving streaks across the void.
"You can bend reality… but I bend my will," Rehan muttered. "And that's stronger than any trick!"
Rehan realized direct attacks wouldn't work. He needed strategy, not just strength.
He concentrated his golden aura, forming multiple projections of himself, each slicing through rifts and attacking from different angles. Morgath's eyes flickered — the first sign of surprise.
"Clever… but still insufficient," Morgath growled, spinning a mini-dimension tornado that threatened to engulf all of Rehan's projections.
Rehan synchronized his aura, merging the projections into one focused strike. Phantom Severance slashed through the tornado, shattering Morgath's dimensional assault and stabilizing the void around him.
"I'm not just fighting you… I'm surviving for everyone!" Rehan shouted, aura blazing.
The void became a ballet of energy and reality-bending attacks. Morgath sent waves of shadow rifts to crush Rehan. Rehan countered with precise golden slashes, destabilizing rifts. Time and space shifted — fragments of cities, lava, and frozen mountains spinning around them.
Each strike, block, and maneuver was life-or-death, the slightest mistake meaning annihilation. Rehan's aura flared brighter than ever.
"You're stronger than I imagined… but strength alone won't win this," Rehan muttered.
Morgath's green-black eyes glowed brighter.
"Then let us see whose will dominates!"
Reality fractured further. The void tore open in massive shards, Rehan barely standing on a floating fragment of skyscraper debris. Morgath's aura surged, compressing space around him, forcing Rehan to fight on the edge of existence itself.
Rehan gritted his teeth, golden aura blazing like a beacon in the black void.
"I will survive… I will cut through your darkness!"
Rehan stood alone in the black void dimension, sword glowing intensely, facing Morgath, whose aura warped reality in massive waves.