They hovered in the void.
No sky. No ground. Only a swirling maelstrom of unrealized possibilities—fragments of dead timelines, frozen choices, and broken fates spinning endlessly around them.
Two versions of the same being.
Both forged in nothingness.
Both kings of the Void.
But only one would survive.
"You're sloppy," Obsidian Ardyn said, his voice deep and calm like a funeral bell. "You waste power on mortal bonds and moral restraints."
He raised his hand.
A pulse radiated from him—thousands of "what-if" weapons materializing midair: swords forged from erased destinies, spears shaped from failed timelines, chakrams carrying memories of the worlds that should've been.
Ardyn didn't flinch.
"I learn from mistakes," he replied, summoning his Void Shard Blades—fewer in number, but each etched with runes pulsing in sync with his heartbeat.
Obsidian Ardyn's crown of broken timelines shimmered.
"Then learn this—"
The fight began.
It wasn't a clash of fists—it was a war of existence.
Each strike wasn't just physical—it tried to overwrite the other's reality.
Obsidian Ardyn hurled a Paradox Pike—a spear that forced its target to experience a death it never had.
Ardyn deflected it with a Causality Fold, bending time around the blade and sending it back—but the King caught it, smirking.
Blades danced.
Void screamed.
Each movement sent shockwaves through the voidspace, tearing through failed timelines and absorbing echoes of dead worlds.
They teleported mid-swing, parried in six realities at once, phased in and out of probability like chess pieces skipping turns in chaos.
But slowly—
Ardyn started losing ground.
[System Status: Suppressed]
[Energy Core: 68%]
[Void Strain Reaching Limit]
His blade cracked.
Obsidian Ardyn's did not.
"See?" the King said. "You're still clinging to structure. Still obeying rules."
He raised his hand—and conjured a vision.
Tsunade. Bleeding.
Sasuke. Controlled.
Naruto. Erased.
Lyra. Dismantled—her Omnitrix shattered in her hand.
"You can't save them," Obsidian Ardyn whispered. "You were never meant to."
Ardyn's breath caught.
His vision flickered.
His doubt surged.
Is he right? Was I just delaying the inevitable?
No.
He's wrong.
He clenched his fists.
And remembered—
The moment Naruto smiled at him.
The time Sasuke warned him without words.
The way Lyra stood back up, even with death behind her.
He was more than Void.
He was choice.
He was the anomaly that couldn't be predicted.
He let go of his fear.
And tapped into the unwritten parts of the Void.
The parts Obsidian Ardyn had abandoned.
A new blade formed in Ardyn's hand—one not made from failure, but from potential.
The Possibility Edge.
Forged in belief, powered by paradox, and sharpened by every moment he had chosen his own path.
Final Clash.
The King's blade—Oblivion Fang.
The Prince's blade—Possibility Edge.
They charged.
Their strikes collided—
And the void split.
A pulse of light.
Then silence.
Only one figure remained.
Elsewhere – Real World, Konoha
Lyra gasped.
Her Omnitrix lit up.
[Dimensional Signature Detected]
[Anchor Restored]
[HE'S BACK]
A pulse of void energy shimmered in the sky.
And from the center of it—
Ardyn fell.
Cloak torn. Blade broken. But eyes still burning.
He hit the ground hard, coughing, bleeding—but alive.
And in his hand?
A single shard of Oblivion Fang.
He whispered:
"Next time… I'll finish the job."
Far Away – Between Realms
Obsidian Ardyn hovered, his form flickering, cracked—but not gone.
He smiled.
"Good," he rasped. "You passed the first trial."
Then he vanished.
[CHAPTER END | NEXT: War Council – The Multiversal Alliance Forms]