This was the part of the formation that decided the tier, and Zayden didn't want his law neiden to be low-tiered.
With that, he started drawing energy from the power shard of the umbra serpent. A stream of black energy came out of the power shard and started floating into Zayden's body, or specifically, his left arm.
Not just that, large amounts of cosmic energy in the surrounding area were rushing into Zayden's body. The bead of flesh started absorbing the energy like a black hole, a weird phenomenon happening around Zayden.
His aura soared into the air, and the area, a hundred meters around him, had some kind of pitch black dark energy swirling all around. The ground was being eroded down to its very essence, unable to produce crops for the next hundred years at least.
The once black power shard was now becoming transparent as Zayden absorbed energy at an alarming rate. The bead was now a dark colour, showing the large amounts of dark energy that it absorbed.
But Zayden still had a feeling that the bead could absorb more. His eyes were shut tightly as his focus increased. The rate at which the energy inside the power shard was reducing increased, and Zayden's absorption increased.
The aura of darkness, corrosion around his body, increased, and the field of darkness spread out by a few more meters. The formation of the law neiden was reaching the most critical stage. Zayden's aura towered, but the rest of the team was unable to see this. After all, they were fighting for their life against a constellation; they had no time to look around.
At this point, all Zayden needed to do was to stop the darkness from leaving his body while the bead of flesh gradually changed to a neiden of darkness.
This was the most critical juncture, more so for Zayden, who filled the bead to the brim with darkness energy. Any lapse in concentration could make all his hard work go down the drain.
Zayden shut his eyes tightly, beads of sweat falling down his head. He was holding on as much as he could as the neiden was being formed; he didn't want any ounce of dark energy to leave his body. he needed his neiden to be as strong as it possibly could get.
Suddenly, his towering aura burst out; he had finally formed his darkness law neiden, but nobody felt it, because at the same time, the phantom warlock's aura also burst out as he decided to stop holding back.
"Boom!!"
The law of darkness and the law of phantoms clashed, creating a large shockwave that sent everyone flying.
"Die!!"
The phantom warlock roared as he kicked against the air, arriving in front of Zayden in a flash. Almost immediately, phantoms converged on his clenched fists, and some scary screaming faces could be seen on his fist.
But Zayden's eyes were still closed, meaning that he was not able to react. Everybody could see this, and their hearts almost leapt out of their chest.
"Zayden, watch out!!"
Slowly, Zayden's eyelids opened up. The once beautiful violet irises were now a deep black. The familiar ding of the system messages entered his ears as some hints of blue flashed past his deep black irises, but Zayden decided to ignore them for now.
His gaze met the furious face of the phantom warlock as he saw the fist of phantom energy coming his way.
The punch landed, creating a shockwave, and dust and debris were kicked up, blocking the view of everyone.
The Phantom Warlock had a weird expression on his face. He didn't feel the familiar feeling of a fist hitting flesh, so he was sure that his attack missed Zayden.
'But how was he able to dodge at point blank?'
The warlock suddenly felt a presence of someone behind him, and without looking back, he quickly dodged.
First met air, and a shockwave spread out from the impact where he was standing before. The eyes of the warlock widened.
'How did he suddenly become so strong?'
Of course, Zayden knew that even with this newfound power, he would be unable to defeat the phantom warlock, but that wasn't what he was aiming for.
He just needed to keep the constellation busy enough for its remaining energy to deplete, and with the sealing chains of the world helping him out, it wasn't going to take that much time.
He jumped up, his rare sword covered with oblivion flux, but the property of darkness was very fierce around it, the corrosion extending to the air.
"Umbral Slash"
This was one of the skills that he learnt thanks to the comprehension of darkness and forming his darkness neiden.
And arc of oblivion flux with the corrosive property of darkness at thirty percent flew out from the sword and towards the constellation at alarming speeds.
Nobody could see it, but there was a slight frown on Zayden's face. He raised his sword to look at it, and his frown deepened.
It was very inconspicuous, but there was a slight crack in the middle of the sword near the hilt.
'Isn't this supposed to be a rare sword? Or was there a problem with my forging?
One should also remember that the sword was forged from his cocoon shells, so it should be way stronger than a normal, rare sword, but it was cracking from one attack.
Zayden made a mental note to do some research after the battle, that is, if he managed to survive in time.
He raised his head to look at the results of his previous attack, and couldn't help but frown.
The phantom warlock already managed to counter the attack with an attack of his own and was coming toward Zayden at alarming speeds.
Zayden quickly raised his sword to block the attack coming at him. Even though his sword was already cracked, it was still a rare sword.
Even after dodging the attack, Zayden was sent crashing into the ground. And of course, the Warlock wouldn't let go of such a chance to deal damage.
"Die for me, Ingrate!!"
He roared and dived down at Zayden, his aura towering.
Everyone could feel their hearts palpitate; they wanted to help, but they couldn't do anything. The shockwaves from the attack made them unable to watch at a safe distance.
The Phantom Warlock raised his hand as large amounts of phantom energy converged around his hand, and before long, a three-pointed spear, about nine feet in length,w as formed in the sky.
He was becoming desperate, as his energy was waning, and the time he could remain on the planet was also decreasing.
Zayden's eyes widened, and he knew that if he let the attack hit him, dying was a certainty; there was no two ways about it.
He needed to do something, and fast.
Very quickly, he gathered up all the cosmic energy he could muster in an instant and performed the strongest skill in his arsenal at the moment.
Cosmic energy converged around Zayden as his oblivion flux appeared, covering his sword. The darkness property reached an all time high of forty percent.
Before long, the oblivion flux gathered at the tip of the sword, and Zayden's voice rang out.
"Umbral Blast"
With a loud boom, a large blast of darkness filled oblivion flux met the tri-pointed spear in the end.
"BOOM!!"
Both attacks landed, but Zayden could feel that his umbral blast was going to lose, but he wasn't aiming to win anyway.
There were a few seconds of stillness, both attacks trying to overwhelm the other, and using this chance, Zayden managed to leave the attack path.
Almost immediately after, the attack of the Phantom Warlock one, but unfortunately for him, Zayden wasn't there, so the attack just slammed into the ground, not achieving the task for which it was sent out.
The phantom warlock was desperate; he had less than three minutes remaining, and if he couldn't kill Zayden, he would regret it for a long time. After all, he was going to get punished when he got back.
His form was becoming transparent, showing that his time remaining on this planet was coming to an end.
"I'm going to kill you today, no matter what", he bellowed
His already towering aura became stronger and stronger. The chains on his body were glowing brighter, trying to seal him, but it wasn't working anymore.
The power of the constellation was too much for the planet to handle, as spatial cracks appeared.
Everyone fell to the floor face flat, despair on their faces. The pressure was too much for them to handle.
Zayden was on one knee, looking up and the constellation that was still drawing energy.
"This is how I'm going to die"
It was now that he saw the seriousness of the butterfly effect. His coming back to the past changed so many things, and the world was going to be destroyed one week after the apocalypse.
They had not even made it to the second apocalypse yet.
As he felt his heart palpitate, and despair appeared on his face, that was when something unexpected happened...