Despair, the monolithic nightmare from the deepest trenches of Hell, found himself completely stripped of his untouchable, chaotic supremacy. Zane still held the demon's clawed wrist in a vice-like grip, his knuckles turning white as the high-density bone armor beneath his fingers groaned, splintered, and finally turned to fine white powder. Despair's four vertically stacked crimson eyes vibrated within his cracked face mask, a primal panic short-circuiting his supernatural nervous system.
Zane didn't give him a single millisecond to get himself together, Zane yanked the massive demon forward, obliterating his balance, and drove a savage, silver-and-blue-infused left hook straight into the center of Despair's unhinged jaw.
CRACK!
The impact was catastrophic. The shockwave of the single punch didn't just rattle the demon; it sent a visible, ringed kinetic distortion wave traveling across thousands of miles of open space, shattering a passing belt of crystalline asteroids into microscopic dust. Despair's head snapped violently sideways, pieces of his white bone mask breaking away like brittle porcelain to reveal the raw, pulsing darkness beneath.
Before the demon could even drift backward, Zane closed the distance with a terrifying, zero-gravity flash-step. He materialized directly above Despair, Zane brought his right knee down with the force of a collapsing star, burying it deep into Despair's sternum. The dull, sickening THUD echoed through the vacuum as the demon's rib cage caved inward, forcing a torrent of black, unholy fluid from his jagged mouth.
Despair screamed, a sound of pure agony that no longer held the mocking, multi-frequency echo of the abyss. It was the raw, desperate cry of a creature experiencing genuine physical trauma.
He swung his long, clawed arms in a wild, frantic counter-assault, attempting to unleash a desperate, close-range Blade of Sorrow to slice Zane's head off.
Zane didn't even slip the punch. He met the attack head-on. Deflecting the demon's massive left forearm with a swift, rising palm strike, Zane pivoted on his heel, using the momentum to drive a brutal, downward elbow strike directly onto Despair's collarbone.
The bone snapped with a resounding boom, sending despair rocketing downward through the void like a fallen meteor.
Zane hovered in the empty space, his cold expression completely restored, looking down at the falling nightmare. He slowly raised his right hand, pointing his index finger toward the demon's descending silhouette. The newly manifested blue energy began to condense at the very tip of his finger, swirling into a microscopic, ultra-dense sphere of absolute, blinding white-blue light.
BOOM!
Zane shot an energy beam. The line of condensed, absolute piercing force tore through the vacuum at faster-than-light speed.
Despair, sensing the absolute lethality of the incoming beam, violently twisted his torso mid-air, using every ounce of his remaining strength to throw his body sideways.
The beam missed his main torso, but it grazed Despair, shearing off his entire left shoulder and arm in a clean, microscopic vaporization that left no blood, only a charred, empty socket.
The beam didn't stop there. It continued its unhindered path across the massive internal cosmos of the moving planet, traveling deep into space.
It slammed directly through a cluster of captive, stable star systems, piercing cleanly through the cores of three massive, planets.
The celestial bodies didn't just fracture—they detonated in a synchronized, cataclysmic trinity of white-hot planetary fire, their crusts and mantle layers completely wiped out in an instant.
Zane slowly lowered his hand, a thin trail of blue vapor rising from his fingertip. He glanced casually toward the distant, expanding explosions of the three destroyed worlds, his face completely indifferent to the cosmic devastation.
"Oops. Looks like I missed," Zane said, his voice carrying a flat, deadpan delivery that held absolutely no remorse or surprise.
Despair managed to stabilize himself against a floating piece of planetary crust, his breath coming in ragged, wet gasps.
He looked at his missing left arm, then up at the casual, terrifying stance of the human.
His eyes widened to their absolute limits, the pupils contracting into tiny pinpricks of pure terror.
"Impossible... how is this happening... what's happening to me... what did you do, human?!" Despair screamed, his voice cracking as he realized he wasn't regenerating.
The wound on his shoulder remained open, completely dead, refusing to heal.
Zane looked at him with cold eyes, his silver-and-blue aura flickering around his clothes like a silent, executioner's cloak. He slowly descended through the vacuum, stepping through the air as if descending an invisible flight of stairs until he was standing a few meters away from the trembling demon.
"It's simple. I used my Evoliths," Zane said, with a cold voice.
Despair's eyes widened further, his remaining hand clutching his ruined shoulder as he shook his head violently. "It doesn't explain what is happening to me... what did you do!"
Zane smiled, a small, humorless tilt of his lips that sent a chill straight down the demon's spine. It was a smile that promised absolute, inescapable finality.
"People usually think my ability is space or time or whatever," Zane said, his voice calm, dropping his hands loosely back into his pockets. "My true Evoliths is Enforcer."
Despair froze, the words echoing in his mind, but his understanding failed to grasp the depth of the title. "What are you saying, what does that even mean!".
"Let me explain," Zane continued, his eyes locking onto Despair with an unblinking, absolute authority. "I am the only human who managed to enter the Singularity Root."
"Singularity... it's not possible... you can't manipulate reality! Despair said.
"Singularity Root users don't always manipulate reality, that's the mistake people make," Zane said, his tone shifting into that of a cold lecturer dissecting a specimen. He raised his hand, counting down the fundamental truths of the universe.
"1. Morphic Roots are based on human biology, so they have less Evo-energy than any other roots but have incredible physical ability. They are the peak of biological form.
Elemental Roots control the law of nature and can even absorb the Evo-energy in the surroundings, but lack physical ability like the Morphic Roots. They rely entirely on the environment.
Universal Root. They manipulate the law of the universe, and have the highest amount of Evo-energy but are physically weak and can easily be defeated in a hand-to-hand combat with Morphic Roots."
Zane took a step closer, his shadow falling completely over the trembling demon.
"4. Singularity Root. They are divided into two: those that manipulate reality, and those that enforce the law of reality."
The realization slammed into Despair's consciousness like a physical blow. His jaw trembled, the jagged teeth clicking together in a frantic, uncoordinated stutter.
"Impossible... your true ability is..." Despair whispered, his voice failing him.
"Yes. I enforce the law of reality," Zane cut in.
"No one can escape it. No matter who they are. Not even the gods can escape."
Despair's mind completely fractured under the weight of the revelation. The absolute conceptual framework of his entire existence was being actively crushed by Zane's presence.
"No... no, it's not possible!" Despair screamed, his voice escalating into a chaotic, hysterical shriek. He clutched his head with his remaining hand, his white hair whipping wildly around his face. "I am a being who defies reality! I am a gag character! I always win! I am not bounded by any law!"
Zane stepped closer, completely unaffected by the flaring dark energy.
"My ability allows me to enforce the law on anyone, no matter who or what they are," Zane said, his silver irises burning with a terrifying, absolute clarity. He stopped mere inches away from Despair, looking down at the monster. "Let me tell you something. I've been holding back, using about 20% of my power."
Despair moved back, his boots dragging against the floating debris as he stumbled, his mind completely broken by the sheer, unscalable wall standing in front of him. He was a nightmare, but Zane was the absolute rule that governed the night.
"No... no... I can't be defeated..." Despair whimpered, his remaining arm dropping uselessly to his side.
Then, without warning, a sickening, wet CRACK reverberated through the void.
Despair's neck snapped sideways at an impossible, ninety-degree angle,
The demon froze, his head dangling uselessly over his ruined shoulder. But instead of falling silent, his remaining eyes flared with a sudden, twitching, completely unhinged madness. His jagged mouth split open into a wide, terrifying grin that stretched all the way to his ears, and he began to scream.
And he started smiling and laughing.
"Hahahahahaha! Hahahaha! Hahahahahaha!".