Chapter 433: Meeting Erebus again Ethan’s main body entered the negative plane. Deep within the overlapping folds of non-space, something stirred. The Presence. It was the Negative Plane’s immune system, a sentient force of nature tasked with the execution of interlopers. It didn’t have a face, only a vast, looming consciousness that permeated the darkness. The moment Ethan’s boots touched the nothingness, the Presence felt the ripple. To the executioner, Ethan was a recurring infection. A parasite that had escaped its clutches once before. "Vermin," a voice boomed, vibrating through Ethan’s very marrow. It wasn’t sound; it was a psychic assault that tore at the atoms of his soul. "How dare you enter my domain again?" The Presence didn’t wait for an answer. It didn’t care for motives. It simply reached out with the power of Erasure. A wave of absolute non-existence rolled toward Ethan, designed to delete his timeline, his physical matter, and his memory from the fabric of reality. But Ethan was not in the mood for games. He was tired of the constant pursuit, the endless biting at his heels. "Quiet," Ethan whispered. He reached into the void and drew the Sword of Infinity. The blade hummed with a light that shouldn’t exist in this plane. As the wave of Erasure bore down on him, Ethan swung the blade in a single, horizontal arc. "Extinction," he commanded. The clash was silent but absolute. From the sword erupted a Grade 2 Absolute Continuum level of power. It wasn’t just a physical strike; it was a fundamental overwrite of the local laws. The power rushed forward like an unstoppable tide, meeting the Presence’s Erasure and simply consuming it. The Presence didn’t even have time to scream. The extinction force hit the core of its consciousness, unmaking the executioner so thoroughly that even the concept of its "death" was erased. One moment, a god-like entity ruled this fold of space. The next, there was only Ethan and the drifting embers of entropy. The void tried to heal itself. The Presence began a slow, agonizing process of regeneration, feebly pulling at the endless entropy of the secret fold to reconstruct its shattered essence. But the damage was too deep. For now, the executioner was gone. There were no tremors. No cosmic explosions. No alarms. The transition was so swift and the power so refined that the rest of the Negative Plane remained oblivious to the fall of its guardian. Ethan sat cross-legged in the center of the silent void. He looked inward, surveying the landscape of his own power. Inside his body lay an infinite sea of entropy. Back then, he had used a portion of it as a detonator to facilitate his escape. As a result, the rest of the energy had been placed under a subconscious lock. It was a safety mechanism. His body had sealed the sea of entropy to prevent it from dissolving him from the inside out before he was ready. He began his cultivation. As Ethan entered a deep trance, his cells, honed by countless battles, began to react. They began to pulse with a voracious rhythm, biting into the edges of the seal. The "lock" was a complex weave of his own origin energy, acting like a dam holding back an ocean. With every breath, Ethan directed his focus toward the seal, thinning the barrier. [Current State: Cells absorbing external entropy. Target: Unlocking the internal Sea of Entropy. Time Required: 10 days of continuous synchronization.] Day by day, the tension in the space around him grew. His body became a black hole, drawing in the stray entropy of the Negative Plane to fuel the breaking of his own internal chains. On the third day, his skin began to take on a metallic, obsidian sheen. By the seventh day, the space within a hundred miles of him began to warp, bending toward his physical heart. On the tenth day, the final strand of the seal snapped. The internal sea of entropy surged. It was no longer a threat. It was a part of him. His cells absorbed the energy directly from the source, fueling a rapid, silent evolution. His bones became denser than dying stars. He was no longer just a visitor in the dark. He was becoming its apex. Ethan stood up, his evolution was now being proceeded by his own sea of entropy. He didn’t need to stay here any longer. He prepared to tear a hole back to the positive plane, intending to return to the safety of the Space Cube. Suddenly, a foul, familiar aura locked onto him. It was cold and ancient. Ethan didn’t turn around immediately. He knew that scent. He knew that weight. Erebus. The primordial shadow had found him again. But the fear that had characterized their previous encounters was gone. Ethan turned slowly, his eyes now glowing with a faint, entropic light. He looked at Erebus, but he didn’t just see the shadow. He saw the essence. Ethan’s eyes widened. He saw the swirling clouds of entropy within Erebus, which was expected. But deep beneath that layer, tucked away in the core of the entity’s being, was a vast, shimmering sea of Origin Energy. It was pure, vibrant, and completely neutralized. However, it was locked behind a seal far more sophisticated than the one Ethan had just broken. "You’re not a creature of this place," Ethan mused, his voice calm. "A perfected being from the Neutral Plane, cast out into the trash heap of the universe." Erebus stopped a few paces away, a thin, unnerving smile playing on his lips. He didn’t look like a monster in this moment. He looked like a fallen king. "You have a keen eye," Erebus said. His voice was like grinding stones. "I know I cannot beat you now. Your evolution, it has placed you beyond my reach. But I am not here to fight." Ethan remained silent, his hand resting near the hilt of the Sword of Infinity. "I am a prisoner here," Erebus continued. "Cast out and sealed. But you, you have the potential to undo what was done." "If you help me unseal my sea of energy, I will give you something you desperately need." "Information. Genuine knowledge about the Apocalypse Race and the true nature of the Neutral Plane." Ethan’s expression didn’t change, but his mind raced. The Apocalypse Race was a shadow that hung over everything he cared about. "Give me the info first," Ethan said casually. "If it’s worth the hassle of unsealing your origin energy, I’ll consider it." "If not, I’ll leave you here to rot." Erebus didn’t hesitate. He knew he had no leverage other than the truth. He stepped closer, moving beside Ethan until he was close enough to whisper. For the next hour, the only sound in the void was the low, rhythmic murmur of Erebus’s voice. He spoke of the hierarchy of the Neutral Plane. He spoke of the "End-Timers". The high-ranking members of the Apocalypse Race who viewed entire world as mere fuel for their ascension. He spoke of their biology, their weaknesses, and their current trajectory. As the details unfolded, Ethan’s posture changed. His jaw tightened. He thought of Zara. The information regarding the Apocalypse Race’s methods of "harvesting" was gruesome. According to Erebus, they were closer than Ethan had ever imagined. By the time Erebus finished, a heavy tension had settled over Ethan. He looked out into the darkness, his heart heavy with the realization of the scale of the threat. "Is it enough?" Erebus asked, his eyes gleaming with desperate hope. Ethan didn’t answer. He simply reached out and placed his hand on Erebus’s head. He closed his eyes, sending a probe of his newly evolved energy into the seal that bound the shadow’s origin energy. The moment his energy touched the seal, a cold shiver ran down Ethan’s spine. [Master, stop!] The system’s voice rang out in his mind, sharper and more urgent than ever before. [You must not do this. This seal was not placed by a common entity. It is the handiwork of a Grade 4 Absolute Continuum being.] [If you tamper with it, the caster will sense your signature immediately.] [You will be flagging your location to a being that can erase this entire sector with a thought.] Ethan froze. He pulled his hand away as if he had been burned. Erebus’s eyes flew wide, his face a mask of shock and disappointment. "Why did you stop? You were right there!" Ethan looked at him with a mixture of pity and annoyance. "You have a very powerful, very vengeful enemy, Erebus." "You failed to mention that the one who put you here is a Grade 4 being." Erebus gasped, stumbling back. "How... how do you know the Grade? I never told you..." "That’s none of your business," Ethan snapped. He looked at the shadow entity, weighing his options. Despite the danger, the information Erebus provided was invaluable. Having a "perfected being" as a debtor was a powerful card to hold. "I can’t unseal you," Ethan said. "I’m not making an enemy out of a Grade 4 being. Not yet." "But I’m not leaving you here either." Ethan waved his hand, opening a rift to his own inner world. The private dimension he had cultivated. "You can stay inside my world," Ethan offered. "It’s hidden from the senses of this plane." "If you want to leave this void and live, get in." "But if you try anything, I’ll let the entropy consume you piece by piece."