CHAPTER 441: CHAPTER 441 - SEVENTH LAYER ERASED

The silence thickened.

Durjahan itself exhaled a hollow breath, the ruins bowing beneath an unseen weight.

Bifrons raised his skeletal hand, and all sound vanished.

Not a whisper of wind.

Not even the beat of Taufik’s heart.

"This is silence," Bifrons intoned, thought bleeding into thought, "and silence is Death’s shadow. You cannot kill what you already are"

The wraiths stirred.

They came without screams, without voices, with mouths wide yet soundless, eyes hollow yet heavy with forgotten lives. They clawed toward Taufik, not for flesh, but for existence itself.

Taufik’s eyes narrowed.

The scythe in his hand thrummed, not with noise, but with resonance. It was not silence, nor shadow, but a vibration born of truth. Death gathered around him, alive, relentless.

"...You’re mistaken," Taufik’s voice cracked the void like lightning. "Silence is not Death. Death has a song. A requiem. An ending that sings louder than eternity"

He swung his scythe.

The strike did not cleave air, it severed concept. Wraiths dissolved where the blade passed, not destroyed, but released. Their hollow eyes softened, as though grateful, before vanishing into nothingness.

Bifrons tilted his head. No rage. No panic. Only inevitability.

"You think to define Death? I have lingered since the First Silence, since the first heartbeat fell quiet. You are but a pretender, a child draped in the corpse of a god"

The Harbinger extended his hand.

The citadel turned pale. Stone, sky, and shadow drained to white. Taufik felt a weight tear at him, his very name dragged away, erased. His scythe flickered. His outline blurred.

For the first time, Taufik’s feet sank. His body collapsed into stillness. Silence tried to swallow him whole, to deny his right to exist.

And then, he grinned.

"...Interesting"

He pushed forward, body unraveling, yet his aura blazed brighter.

Darkness and Night folded into one. The Living Void awakened. His eyes gleamed like twin stars buried in abyss.

The system warned him, but Taufik ignored it. Ending this was all that mattered.

"I don’t deny Silence. I don’t reject Death. I am Death. Not the shadow, not the absence... I am the conclusion"

The scythe grew vast, its edge bending reality, a crescent horizon of pure negation.

For the first time, Bifrons stilled. The Harbinger’s hollow mask dimmed, as though recognizing a power unseen since the Old Wars.

"...You dare"

Taufik stepped forward, his voice shaking the silent dominion.

"No. I don’t dare. I decide"

The End of Silence fell. The blade did not cut matter, it severed authority itself, sundering the dominion of erasure.

The wraiths screamed, not in terror, but in relief. The silence shattered like brittle glass, and Durjahan roared with the song of true Death.

[Master, if you keep using the Concept of Void, you’ll collapse before you can achieve anything]

The system’s warning stabbed through him, but Taufik did not listen. His Living Void form deactivated, and his body buckled. Cracks spread across his flesh like broken porcelain. He dropped to one knee.

Using three Concepts at once was tearing him apart.

If it had been any other being, they would have died instantly. Only Taufik’s dual anchors, his Concept of Life and Eternity, and his unbending Will kept him alive.

Blood threatened to pour from his body, but he forced it back with his vampiric power, veins burning as he sealed himself shut.

[Master, your body-]

"I know..." His voice was ragged, yet unyielding. He forced himself upright. "...Let’s continue"

Taufik’s body was already broken beyond repair. Yet still, he walked.

"Where do you think you’re going?"

The voice crawled through the ruins, cold and unyielding.

Taufik stopped. A sigh slipped past his lips.

"...Could you just die quietly?"

"Die? Me?" Bifrons chuckled, a hollow, endless sound. "Do you know why I was placed in the Seventh Layer? Because here, in this Domain, I cannot die. Silence is the end of all things. Silence comes after death. Come! Kill me if you ca-"

"FUCK! SHUT UP!!" Taufik roared. His fury shook the fractured land. "If I can’t kill you, then I’ll destroy everything!"

A katana shimmered into his grasp, its edge sharp enough to divide thought itself. His mana surged uncontrollably, boiling through his veins, and six orbs ignited behind him, fire, water, earth, air, darkness, and light.

This was no harmony. No balance. Unlike Aksara’s SwordMagic: Cosmic Form, this was its antithesis. This was annihilation.

The orbs converged, spiraling, merging, until they disappeared into the void. But Taufik knew better, nothing had vanished. Something far worse was waiting.

He lowered the blade. The ground trembled.

"...If this doesn’t kill you," he muttered, voice raw, "then I’ll admit you’re the strongest. Because I doubt even I can survive this"

His katana moved.

"...SwordMagic - Unity:... Chaos!"

The world stilled.

For a breathless moment, nothing. Then the air warped. Colors bled into one another. The sky shattered like brittle glass. The Seventh Layer convulsed, twisting under a force that reality itself rejected.

The vanished orbs reappeared, not as flame, water, or shadow, but as essence itself. Pure chaos. They pulsed like a heartbeat, then unraveled into threads of existence, coiling around Taufik’s blade.

Bifrons laughed. "You fool... You can’t destroy Silence. You’ll only-"

His words ended. Not cut short, erased. Silence devoured his voice.

Taufik’s body cracked under the strain. Mana poured from him in molten rivers, skin burning, veins tearing apart. Yet he stepped forward. Each step split the ruined ground like breaking glass.

And then... he swung.

One slash.

It did not cut stone. It did not cut flesh. It cut concepts. It split Silence. It carved through the unbreakable laws that held the Seventh Layer together.

The realm screamed. A scream without sound.

A rift tore open, endless and consuming, devouring sky, land, and the existencel itself.

At the center stood Taufik, broken, bleeding, his katana dissolving into shards of nothingness.

"...Even if Silence can’t be killed..." His voice was faint, but defiant. "...I’ll erase the stage it stands on"

The Seventh Layer fell. Silence vanished. Bifrons was nowhere.

And Taufik drifted in the void, barely alive, his existence hanging by will alone.

Then, two figures emerged from the void before him, ethereal and divine. One cloaked in shadow and silence, the embodiment of Death, her presence cold yet tender. The other bathed in radiant warmth, clothed in flowing hues of gold and emerald, Lady Life, the gentle sovereign of renewal.

"...Didn’t you once say he was different from Will?" Lady Life’s voice was soft, but her eyes were sharp, burdened with memory. "And yet, look at him now. He sacrifices himself for others... just like Will did in the past"

Death lowered her gaze, unable to deny it. Her lips parted, the weight of desperation in her voice, "...Can you save him?"

Lady Life tilted her head, a sigh slipping from her lips like the wind before a storm. "You realize what we are doing now is wrong, right? If Fate learns of this, he will-"

"I don’t care what Fate will do," Death cut her off, her voice trembling yet resolute. Her hands clenched tightly at her sides. "Just answer me. Can you save my Darling, or not?"

Silence stretched between them. Lady Life closed her eyes, as if weighing the laws of existence themselves. Finally, she spoke, her tone reluctant, "...If it were anyone else, I could not. His wound is... beyond help, etched deeper than flesh or soul. But because he carries the Concept of Life within him, I can keep him alive. It will not heal him, but it will hold him together"

"Do it," Death urged, stepping closer, her composure cracking. "As long as he lives, he will find a way. He always does"

Lady Life gave a long, weary sigh. "Very well... but mark my words, Sister, if Fate discovers this, the consequences will be yours alone. Don’t drag me into them"

"I know," Death whispered, her voice almost pleading. "Just save him, Sister, please"

With a resigned shake of her head, Lady Life extended her hand. Her slender fingers, glowing with verdant light, touched Taufik’s forehead.

In that instant, a torrent of Life Force surged forth, luminous rivers of green and gold flooding through his broken essence. His crumbling soul was mended, piece by piece, threads of vitality stitching him back from the brink of nothingness.

When it was done, Lady Life pulled her hand away, her expression distant. "It is finished. He is safe for now... but mark my words, if he continues like this, if he dares to face Lucifer in his current state, no one, not even us, knows what will become of him"

Death’s eyes softened as she turned toward her sister. "Thank you. I knew I could count on you, Sister"

Lady Life rolled her eyes, though her tone carried a faint smile. "You only call me ’sister’ when you need something. Hmph. We should leave before Fate notices our absence from the Sanctuary"

"Just a moment," Death murmured, drifting toward the unconscious Taufik. She knelt, her form casting shadows like a shroud over him, and pressed her lips gently against his forehead.

"...I’ll be watching from the other side, Darling," she whispered, her voice quivering with tenderness. "So don’t you dare die yet"

And with that, both Life and Death vanished into the void.

Moments later, Taufik’s eyelids fluttered open, his breath ragged but steady, as though drawn back from the edge of eternal silence.

"... Death?... Thank you"

....

...

..

.