Revona's words had barely faded when the entire arena fell silent again.
"Then I will stop watching them separately."
The Void Origin Realm behind her no longer expanded outward. Instead it condensed, drawing inward as the hollow world that had spread across the battlefield began collapsing around her eyes, her palms, and the empty space between her and Max.
The pressure of that emptiness became terrifyingly pure, as if Revona had decided to stop erasing Max's attacks one by one and instead erase the entire meaning of the battlefield before him.
Max's eyes sharpened as he felt the change at once. This was no longer the same defensive nullification she had used earlier, nor was it merely the Void Origin Eyes tracking his sword, his lightning, his movement, and his divine-vein rhythm.
This was something much deeper. The Void Origin Realm was gathering all the power it had erased, all the hollow authority it had accumulated, and all the origin-level emptiness that made Revona so frightening into a single point.
The pale light in Revona's eyes vanished, replaced by absolute darkness without color, weight, or sound. She raised one hand as the air before her palm began to hollow.
"Void Origin Realm."
The hollow point solidified before her palm, drawing the emptiness around it into a single condensed core.
"Return To Nothing."
The moment those words fell, the whole stage seemed to lose its hold on existence. The seven-colored lightning around Max dimmed violently, and the cracks in the ground disappeared, not because they were repaired but because the damage, the ground, the sound, and the very concept of impact were being dragged into a silent point of origin emptiness.
The storm of Divine King Punishment trembled while Dragonheart's hum quieted, and even Max's four Divine Veins felt the pressure of being hollowed from the outside inward.
Across the Divine Realm, countless spectators lost their voices. They had seen Return To Nothing before.
Against Orion, it had erased the terrifying Starfall Extinction and turned collapsing star power into emptiness. Against Rakan, it had nullified the core force of his strongest War God Body strike. Against Kaiden, it had entered the Final Corridor and hollowed the Void Beyond Return from within.
Now it was being used against Max, and this time Revona was not using it defensively. She was attacking.
The point of nothingness moved toward Max, slow, almost too slow to seem dangerous. But no one laughed at that slowness, because everyone understood that speed was meaningless before it. It did not need to chase like lightning, and it did not need to cut like a sword.
Anything that entered its range would be erased from the foundation, and the more power used to resist it, the more material it would have to return to nothing.
Max stood still for one breath. Then black flames erupted from his body.
Boom!
The stage vanished beneath a wave of darkness. It was not the darkness of the abyss, and it was not the emptiness of void. It was flame, pure flame, but blacker than a moonless night and hungrier than a bottomless beast.
The flames burst from Max's body, from beneath his feet, from the air around Dragonheart, and from the cracks in space itself, expanding outward in the next instant with terrifying violence.
"Pseudo Cosmic Path."
Max's voice sounded from within the black fire.
"Devouring Flames Domain."
The entire arena shook as a vast domain of black flames descended and swallowed both Max and Revona. The flames rose into walls, waves, pillars, and burning curtains so dense that even the viewing formations of the Eternal Hourglass flickered.
For the first time in the final competitive stage, the spectators outside could no longer see the full battle clearly. They could only see an enormous black-flame domain occupying the central arena, its surface constantly writhing as if countless ancient dragons and devouring beasts were moving beneath the fire.
The Divine Realm exploded in shock.
"Another Pseudo Cosmic Path!"
"Black flames!"
"How many Pseudo Cosmic Paths does Max Morgan have?"
"No, this is impossible. A sword path, lightning path and now even a flames path?"
"The domain blocked the view!"
"What is happening inside?"
Even the top geniuses on the pillars were shaken. Rakan Thorne stared at the black-flame domain with wide eyes.
"That bastard still had another path?"
Orion Starfall's expression froze before he laughed in disbelief.
"I thought he had already shown enough against me. He was hiding this too?"
Kaiden Voidmere's eyes narrowed as he tried to sense through the domain, but the black flames swallowed even the faint spatial perception he released.
"This flame has devouring nature.... If I am not wrong this should be flames form the black dragon bloodline the disciples of the Black Dragon Palace carries among them."
Damian Voss's hand tightened around his sword hilt while Ervin's abyss-like gaze grew heavier.
Inside the Devouring Flames Domain, the outside world disappeared entirely. There was no audience, no pillars, and no golden arena. Only black fire remained.
Revona stood within the domain, her eyes fully open, her Return To Nothing still moving forward like the condensed will of origin emptiness. The black flames immediately surged toward it, devouring the outer layer of hollow power the moment both forces touched.
For the first time, Return To Nothing slowed.
Max stood opposite her, surrounded by black flames, seven-colored lightning, and the pressure of four opened Divine Veins. His face was calm, but his eyes were sharper than before.
The Devouring Flames Domain did not try to erase Revona's attack. It consumed. It ate the power that Return To Nothing carried, swallowed the hollow ripples around it, and burned away the erased fragments before they could fully return to origin emptiness.
The black flames curled around the point of nothingness like countless hungry serpents, biting into the surrounding void power again and again.
Revona's eyes narrowed.
"Your flames devour nullification."
Max replied calmly, "Not all of it."
He was being honest. The Devouring Flames Domain was terrifying, but Return To Nothing was also Revona's strongest ability. The black flames could devour its outer layers, weaken its momentum, and prevent it from expanding freely, but they could not swallow the entire technique outright.
At the center of Return To Nothing, origin emptiness still remained absolute, and every time the black flames tried to consume too deeply, that emptiness erased the devouring structure before the flames could complete the act.