Born in Blood

'Ora' wasn't really repulsed, in a sense. 

It was literally in everything.

Humans. 

Air.

Nature.

Even most dead things had a similitude of 'Ora' connected to them.

Thus, even when chaos repulsed matter, it didn't 'negate' it.

More than that, Liam's chaos had never disrupted his own spells and techniques.

Sure, it repulsed and weakened them to a degree, as seen with Liam's Black Blade and chaos combination.

But it had never utterly distorted them.

Liam didn't think it was even possible.

But he was proven wrong.

No matter how hard Liam tried to conjure up a darkness spell, it failed to leave his body.

Mental attacks still worked fine.

They were immaterial, after all. 

But everything else was a no go.

Liam gulped heavily.

Didn't this mean the Black Hole was rendered useless?

And by extension, his Void?

…But so was everyone else's!

If Liam wasn't able to use any spells, neither was his opponent!

Instead of grimacing, Liam smiled broadly.

This was fine.

It actually wasn't bad.

This was actually a sort of Anti-Magic ability!

Still, he had to make sure his Void worked. 

If anything, Liam would rather have Void than a strengthened version of his chaos.

Deleting matter sounded more enticing than disrupting it.

'But first, to test how strong it's gotten,' Liam thought.

Liam pinched the ball of chaos.

Now that it was so densely packed with potential energy, Liam could actually handle it!

It was no longer a strange, almost gaseous energy with no set form.

A similar consistency to it would be a mix of rubber and clay. 

Liam could stretch, squeeze and pull on the strand of chaos, but even if it tore apart, he could put it back together.

It gained a mendable quality.

First, Liam used Hone on it.

The bright crimson energies buzzed and crackled like electricity, but took on a sharp form. 

Thankfully, Hone still worked.

Afterwards, Liam put the ball of chaos between his index and middle finger.

Then, empowering his fingers, he flicked it horizontally through the air, aiming at the fake dimension's fake wall. 

WHOOOSHHHHH!

It screamed as it surged through the air.

As Liam's chaos flew, it actually accelerated!

Paired with Liam's empowered flick, it shot forward like a lightning bolt, closing the distance between the wall in a—

BOOM!

A thundering explosion rippled across the wall.

The noise produced as a result lingered for two seconds, before fading into silence.

'I'd say it's gotten 25% stronger than its predecessor. Good, good,' Liam nodded sagely to himself. 

'I'd have to finetune the ratio between the chaos and the Black Hole because of that, though.'

A moment later, he tested out whether or not his Void still worked.

Like Liam thought, it didn't.

However, not in the normal sense.

The Black Hole connected with the repulsion effect of Liam's chaos!

As long as Liam kept the two forces away from each other, then slowly brought them together, it wouldn't immediately break apart.

But there was a power struggle. 

An imbalance.

This meant that Liam's chaos was still perfectly compatible with the Black Hole, so long as he worked on a solution.

Liam was not entering the final Trial until he managed to make it work.

After several weeks of tweaking and tuning the proportions of the Black Hole, and several tests, Liam attempted it.

…And it worked!

Liam remerged his chaos and the Black Hole.

Their repulsion and absorption abilities had achieved balance due to the differences in size.

Liam just had to make the Black Hole 25% larger.

And a silent Void was born as a result.

But there were no changes to Void itself.

Other than its size being a bit bigger and just a little more mendable, as well as lasting longer. 

Besides that, there were no major changes.

After all of that, Liam trained with his sword style for a bit.

With all this done, 3 weeks had passed.

In the total time that passed, Liam was now 21 years old, plus 10 months. 

'Twilight is probably eating her nails,' Liam chuckled.

'She's probably waiting for me in the final Trial this whole time. If she got past all the others.'

Liam hadn't seen her sword play, so he didn't know whether or not she'd passed all the Trials.

Liam took a deep breath.

He finished all his preparations.

His swords were tweaked and enhanced.

His condition was at its peak.

His thoughts were no longer honed in on the nightmare he experienced.

Now, Liam's fierce gaze connected with the final Trial.

With slow steps, and the Black Blade gripped in his hand, Liam walked through the final gate.

As he entered through, Liam felt his senses mute while his vision went dark. 

But he could still think.

Before he lost his mind in a panic, Eternal Sword's voice rang out. It wasn't glitching, strangely, which was a good sign.

"A duel is sacred to a swordsman." 

"Never must they forget a soul they have taken." 

"You have done well to come this far."

"But there can only be one successor to my sword and remaining techniques."

"You will put your life on the line." 

"The Black Blade, and the Sword of Stars."

"May your swords never chip or shatter."

Silence followed.

'Sword of stars? Why does she deserve a nickname like that?!' 

Then suddenly, Liam's senses returned.

His vision regained light.

It turned out, he was in a cocoon of sorts that enveloped around the last and final Trial gate.

But as it unveiled, a cacophony of screeches and barbaric noises filled his senses.

Time slowed.

Liam made a grim discovery.

The fake dimension was teeming with life.

In front of him.

Behind him.

To his sides.

All around him.

…Goblins!

Hundreds of thousands of goblins!

Green-skinned, skinny, obese, tall, short creatures that wore leather armor on their groins and shoulders. 

They had long, pointy green ears.

Humanoid bodies. 

Their faces were strangely human-like, but disgustingly ugly and deformed. 

Either they were skinny, or they were insanely obese. There was no middle-ground.

Some were massive.

They wielded clubs of wood and stone, with the bigger ones wielding crude pieces of rock.

Liam made another discovery.

His heart sank a bit.

The fake dimension walls…

They were fractured and ripped apart, revealing the outside!

Through them, he could see water running through. 

It was the World's Cut.

Time resumed.

'Ah… curses.'

At once, all the goblins charged him!