CHAPTER 1160: WHIMSICAL.

Each drone that came close, he cleaved apart. Each one that detonated, he endured. Slowly, meter by meter, he advanced toward the Core again.

Nebula, watching from the side, clenched his jaw and slammed his hand against the ground. The metal beneath his palm shivered and rose, forming a jagged barrier that caught a cluster of drones before they reached him.

He wasn’t helping Cain out of kindness—it was instinct, self-preservation.

The Core turned toward him, and a spear of light shot out, punching through the barrier and searing the air.

Nebula barely dodged. His armor split open down the middle, and he crashed to the ground, coughing blood. "This... this is beyond us," he rasped.

Cain didn’t answer. He didn’t even look back.

Every muscle in his body screamed, every breath hurt, and the ground was collapsing under him, but he kept moving.

{Eidwyrm} pulsed with golden light—unstable, fracturing at its edges.

He could feel the weapon itself protesting, its form barely held together by his will.

But if he stopped now, it was over.

The Core raised its hand again. This time, Cain didn’t dodge. He leapt toward it.

The strike came down like divine judgment. Cain met it head-on, slamming {Eidwyrm} against the descending palm. The collision unleashed a shockwave so violent the crater imploded, sending molten shards into the upper atmosphere.

For a moment, everything vanished into light.

Then, out of the blinding explosion, a figure fell—Cain, bloodied, weapon shattered, coat in tatters, crashing into the debris.

The Core was still standing, but its chest glowed unevenly now, its rhythm broken.

Nebula coughed and spat blood, staring at it through blurry vision. "You... cracked it?"

Cain forced himself to his knees, panting. "Not enough."

The Core’s voice came again, louder this time.

"System integrity compromised. Activating containment."

The air turned electric. Rings of energy formed around the Core’s feet, expanding outward until they encompassed the entire crater. Everything inside began to levitate—rock, metal, bodies.

Even Cain.

He felt gravity dissolve, the air turning heavy as liquid. The Core raised its hand once more, light gathering into a singularity at its palm.

Nebula looked up, his face pale but defiant. "You wanted to see what gods fear, Cain? You’re looking at it."

Cain steadied himself in midair, gripping what was left of {Eidwyrm}. "Then I’ll make it fear me instead."

The Core released the beam.

Cain dove into it.

Light consumed everything.

The crater vanished from the map.

And somewhere within the storm of energy, two mortal forms refused to disappear quietly.

The light finally faded, but the silence that followed was worse.

What had once been a crater was now an abyss—a wound carved into the world, molten rivers trickling down its jagged walls. The Core was gone. The storm clouds had been ripped apart by the blast, revealing a sky stripped bare, pale and hollow.

At the center of it all, floating amidst the distortion, was Cain.

Barely conscious.

His armor was torn to ribbons, his blade gone, his body laced with burns that glowed faintly from the inside out. He hung in the air for a heartbeat before gravity reclaimed him, sending him crashing into the ruins below.

The sound echoed for miles.

A few moments later, a figure dragged itself out of a pile of smoldering rubble. Nebula’s once-pristine coat was burned to the thread, his left arm twisted at an unnatural angle, but his eyes were still bright—mad, unyielding.

He limped toward where Cain had fallen, each step crunching glass and charred ash. "You... survived that? Of course you did." He coughed hard enough to spit blood, his grin returning even through the pain. "You stubborn bastard."

Cain stirred. His voice came rough, dry as stone. "You talk too much."

Nebula snorted. "You talk too little."

For a brief, impossible second, both of them almost laughed. Then the world shifted again.

The air vibrated—not like wind, but like a sound without a source. The ground beneath them pulsed once, and the molten lines at their feet began to glow gold.

Nebula’s expression darkened. "That... wasn’t you, was it?"

Cain forced himself up on one knee, wiping blood from his mouth. "No. It’s not done."

The glow deepened, and something began to rise.

From beneath the melted crust, shards of metal broke free—pieces of the Core, fragments of divine machinery that refused to stay buried. They hovered above the abyss, spinning slowly, gathering around a central void where the Core had once stood.

Cain reached instinctively for {Eidwyrm}, forgetting it was gone. His fingers closed around empty air.

The shards connected, one by one, reforming—but not as they were. The Core was rebuilding itself, smaller this time, denser, meaner. The air screamed from the pressure as the new construct solidified, glowing like a sun trapped inside a cage of black metal.

Nebula’s voice dropped low. "You can’t be serious..."

Cain didn’t answer. He was already moving.

He pushed his body harder than he should’ve been able to—his legs trembling, his vision doubling—but every instinct screamed that if he didn’t finish this now, there wouldn’t be another chance.

The ground exploded under his first step.

He launched himself upward, fists glowing with faint trails of Ki, slamming into the reforming structure before it could stabilize. Sparks burst from the impact, but the metal barely dented.

The Core’s fragments responded immediately, releasing arcs of plasma that tore through the air like lightning made solid.

Cain blocked one with his forearm and felt the skin sear to the bone. Another grazed his side, sending him tumbling back through a column of molten stone.

Nebula shouted after him, "You’ll die for nothing!"

Cain spat blood, pushing to his feet again. "Then it better mean something."

Nebula hesitated—then cursed under his breath and thrust his unbroken arm forward. His blades, still orbiting weakly, shimmered back to life. The metal twisted unnaturally, glowing with the last dregs of his magic.

He hurled them toward the Core.

The blades sliced through the air and struck true, embedding into the construct’s half-formed shell. For a moment, the glow dimmed.

Cain saw it—the opening—and dove through the burning air once more.

He hit the Core dead-center, driving his fist into the exposed joint where two shards met. The explosion that followed was deafening.

The Core’s structure convulsed, its plates twisting violently as the light inside began to stutter.

Nebula collapsed to one knee, panting, watching the impossible unfold. "You’re actually breaking it..."

Cain didn’t hear him. His vision had gone white.