A ratcheting explosion of Amras and Undeath essence blasted from outside the Egg of Future Dawn to mark the occasion – the decisive stretch of the conflict. It was grand, so grand that it might have pushed Aigas to its extinction faster.

...But it died out almost as soon as it had erupted. No one inside the Egg paid it any heed, however, Rias especially.

He was feeling for his face again.

’What did that woman do?’ he asked himself, picturing a grinning Vali.

He wasn’t dazed, however. His mind’s gears were spiralling to their limits. The Egg of Future Dawn’s shell was healing again, the world inside it repairing itself. Aimon shot up into the sky – into Aigas’ sky. When the Egg closed up, it would be outside, safe.

As all this happened, Rias had his eyes on the Unlimited Stars. All of them, save for Pherdanta, had their murderous eyes on him, not a hint of panic or distraction diluting their intentions. All the Stark Troops had rushed up to their Commander and used Stagnant Parameter – a defensive Starmation – at full throttle to shield her. The Starmation absorbed attacks of all natures before they reached the user.

The necromancer found this encirclement around Pherdanta pathetic. The next time he struck, he would kill her. But before then...

Yuyui was upon him an instant later, thinner than a blur, thinner than a mist. Baddan had approached from Rias’ rear, equally as fast. The necromancer swiped against Yuyui’s neck with a knife hand, but she ducked, stepped on his foot, and landed a furious gut punch. The speed behind it amplified its power to indescribable proportions for a mere mortal. Rias staggered into Baddan’s elbow, which smashed into the back of his head, and as he reeled... a Charged Stroke blasted his mind from Savast.

The former Cluster General had once again activated Autist Range. While in his gaseous state, however, the 2,000% increase in effectiveness granted by the ability became a 3,000% boost instead. If it had been a little more, the Charged Stroke against Rias might have killed him.

...Still, it set him up for death, because Yuyui and Baddan didn’t let up on their attacks.

As Rias’ brain hemorrhaged profusely, Yuyui blasted him with an unending combo of fists to the face. They were more lethal than that, however. With the Eye of Moving, Yuyui transferred the ferocious kinetic energy behind her fists towards Rias’ soul, rather than his body. Ten thousand blasts in an instant superheated the necromancer’s soul to the extent that it began glowing.

Baddan had his own method of torture for the necromancer. His colony of beasts had landed inside the Egg. Lipptis killed the lesser ones, harvested the Null Life Essence they generated upon death, and flooded it all on the battlefield in small, concentrated lumps. A majority of them orbited Rias and exploded around his eyes, ears, and arms, distorting his vision, hearing, and movement. Baddan beat the brakes off the necromancer right after each explosion, messing up his individual moves. His blows blasted his flesh, contending against his Undeath.

Blood splattered against the air, as though painting it in the condensed time. Nothing Rias did after recovering from the earlier Charged Stroke mattered, since Savast warned everyone about his intentions immediately. They all responded appropriately using the power of Yuyui’s Eye of Moving.

Indeed, even when Rias made the Egg twirl at light speed, altering the gravity, the light, and the nature of the space inside it, the Stark Troops were prepared.

An Aggrante blasted into Rias’ back through the chaos. Two more Nos Aggrante followed, exploding like buckshots and disorienting him as he hung in the air. Then Grim joined Yuyui and Baddan. Moving at more than forty times the speed of light, he targeted the back of the necromancer’s head and side; his striking hands, at times, transformed into fierce white serpents that bit the necromancer vengefully, injecting a frigid venom through his open wounds.

...But then something changed.

Suddenly, Yuyui, Grim, and Baddan lost their limbs. Each of the limbs that touched Rias...suddenly vanished. It wasn’t as though they had been severed. No. It was as though they had been deleted.

...!!!

The momentary shock caused the three to stagger, and Rias punished them for it. He grabbed Yuyui with one hand, his eyes raw with madness, bit into her jaw, and ripped it off. At the same time, he jabbed with another hand, livid with Undeath energy into Baddan’s neck and pulled everything he could out while burning him from the inside. Grim got off light. He caught Rias’ swift kick to the head and got the top of it blasted off.

...But this alone couldn’t kill the Unlimited Stars, of course.

Yuyui’s Inhuman Eye revived her, and Grim and Baddan were saved by their Granted Restoration. Even the limbs they had mysteriously lost before death were restored.

All three were still in a precarious situation, however.

’I can’t read him anymore!’ informed Savast grimly. ’He did something – his brain is different. He changed its nature and the nature of the waves it emits. I can’t decrypt or attack it.’

...But no one complained. They all faced the harsh reality with silent concentration.

SHIIIIIIIIING!

Invisible slashes rained from every direction within the Egg, and this time, the Unlimited Stars were slashed into dozens of pieces. (They didn’t see it coming). But even if they could heal, the slashes didn’t end. They had barely finished reviving before they were cut into quarters and sixths once again. For Baddan and Grim, this was especially dangerous. Their ability to regenerate with the Granted Star Armament was finite.

Their only option was...

’Don’t stop!’ Yuyui reminded them.

As the Egg continued whirling, the Unlimited Stars did as she bade. They kicked off the air and ran as fast as they could.

The only way they could survive the slashes was to avoid them. Even if they didn’t know which direction they would spawn from, moving faster than the slashes could touch them would increase their chances of surviving!

Suddenly, the Stars were invisible even to Rias’ eyes. Yuyui was exploiting her Eye of Moving dangerously.

Would this work?

The Stars felt that it did. Moving beyond seventy times the speed of light might have begun breaking down their bodies, but it allowed them to obtain a kind of seventh sense. They felt the intensity of the slashes – as they interacted with the world around them – an instant before they struck, and it allowed them to avoid most of the attacks as they bounced through the air, leaving ugly after-images in the Egg.

Grim was the first grow comfortable enough to go on the offensive again. He blasted an Aggrante at Rias, but because of his speed, it curved, bent awkwardly, and missed. Cursing at light speed, he ran along it before it disappeared and zoomed towards Rias. The necromancer snapped in his direction and met him midway.

Just like how he’d altered the nature of his brain and his mind, he altered his speed as well. His body was a secondary conduit, after all. Grim struck first when they were inches from each other, but his fist vanished upon coming into contact with the necromancer. It wasn’t severed. It was simply... removed from his wrist.

’That’s Kintar’s Infinitesimal Division!’ he realized, eyes wide, before losing his head to Rias.