Chapter 237: The Hunger Beyond Stars
The battlefield was not a world, nor a sky, nor a realm known to mortals. It was a sealed dimension ripped apart from creation itself, a prison of void and collapsing light where only titans dared to exist. Here, no ground was solid, no horizon fixed. Galaxies spiraled like sparks in a storm, and entire constellations cracked like paper toys under the weight of two powers colliding.
Igaris Vance stood at the heart of this broken dimension. His cloak burned away, shredded by the torrent of annihilation that surged through the void. His dark eyes glared forward, steady and unyielding. Each breath he drew burned with fire, water, wind, and earth, but these lesser forces bent beneath his command. What mattered now were the higher truths, the absolute laws.
Across from him loomed the Star-Eater. It had no body, no shape, no face to strike. It was a hunger so vast that suns caved into silence before its presence. Where it gazed, galaxies unraveled into filaments of light, swallowed into an abyss that knew neither mercy nor end. It was the unmaking of existence, and it had come for Celestara, his daughter.
The dimension howled as they clashed.
Igaris raised his hand, and fire poured from his soul, not flames of mortal kind but fire that was law, fire that reduced worlds into dust before the thought of burning reached them. The inferno stretched across lightyears, igniting entire clusters of stars.
The Star-Eater devoured them in silence, consuming the fire as though it were nothing more than another banquet offered to its endless maw.
Unshaken, Igaris opened the Law of Genesis. From the shattered fragments of dead suns, rivers of light and oceans of matter surged forth, birthing stars anew. For a heartbeat, the heavens bloomed with creation. Yet the Star-Eater was not deterred. It moved like a tide without form, collapsing the newborn stars into itself, stripping creation bare as soon as it was born.
Their battle cracked eternity.
Igaris thrust both hands forward, his body trembling under the burden of command. The Law of Ruination awakened, a torrent of finality that struck the void itself. The space before him folded, twisted, and collapsed as endless chains of black light spread outward, unraveling everything into nothingness. For the first time, the Star-Eater recoiled, its formless hunger shivering against the touch of true ending.
Yet even as it faltered, it retaliated. Whole galaxies bent, drawn like rivers into its abyss. Suns were torn apart and their ashes cast into silence. Time itself buckled in the sealed dimension, as though moments wished to devour one another.
Igaris stood firm. His body bled from fractures that ran deeper than flesh, but his eyes blazed brighter. Lightning roared through his veins, the Law of Storms striking forth with blades of judgment. Each bolt carried the wrath of planets, splitting into a thousand paths to shred the void. Light and Darkness surged in tandem, polar twins bending to his will, cutting and healing the wounds of the dimension itself. Fate coiled around his form, golden threads weaving his existence into inevitability, while Karma lashed out, chains of cause and consequence binding the hunger that should not have been.
Space obeyed him absolutely. He folded the battlefield, hurling the Star-Eater into pockets of imploding dimensions, collapsing it within cages of infinite distance. But each prison he forged was devoured. Each boundary was unmade.
Stars flickered and collapsed like fragile glass toys around them. Whole galaxies screamed as they were torn apart, waves of silence replacing their eternal music. The sealed dimension groaned as though its walls were ribs breaking under the pressure of gods.
Still, Igaris fought.
His voice rang out, not as a cry but as a decree. "I am Igaris Vance. My blood is stronger than the void. My will is sharper than hunger. You will not touch my daughter."
He lifted both hands, and for a single instant, the fullness of his laws united. Fire, Genesis, Ruination, Water, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Light, Darkness, Fate, Karma, Space. Each resonated, folding into a harmony that no mortal tongue could describe. The Star-Eater shivered. For the first time since its birth, it recoiled in fear.
The universe within the dimension collapsed.
Suns flared and died. Moons shattered like glass. The remnants of galaxies swirled into a vortex of unmaking as Igaris unleashed his ultimate command. Space itself folded inward like paper consumed by flame, binding the Star-Eater in an endless spiral. His Ruination swept through, devouring the hunger with the same certainty it devoured everything else. Fire roared. Genesis bloomed, then fed into Fate. Karma weighed down the abyss with consequences even it could not deny. Light and Darkness converged into one, carving the silence in half.
The dimension screamed.
And then... silence.
The Star-Eater’s presence wavered, collapsing beneath the absolute force of laws it could not consume. Yet as it disintegrated, a voice rose from the void, neither sound nor thought, but truth.
"This is not the end, Igaris."
The fragments of its abyss scattered like ashes on a windless night. Yet its essence clung to the void, whispering.
"We know you. We know all you are, all you will be. You are not unseen. Others are watching. Others hunger. They will come, and when they do, all you love will be ash."
The dimension cracked open, its seams tearing under the burden of the fight. The walls split, revealing only emptiness beyond emptiness. Igaris stood alone, his cloak shredded, his body bleeding light, his breath heavy. But his gaze did not falter. He understood now.
The Star-Eater was not the true enemy. It was only a herald.
Beyond this universe, something far greater stirred. The Outer Beings, those who stood outside creation, had sensed him. They knew of his rebirth, his rise, his child. And they would come.
For a moment, he thought of Celestara’s laughter, her small hands reaching for the stars. He thought of Evernight’s trembling embrace, Shirley’s tears, Diva’s quiet strength. He thought of his parents watching from beyond, of his generals kneeling in loyalty, of all who looked to him as their Overlord.
He clenched his fists. His golden eyes blazed.
If the Outer Beings were coming, then he needed more. More strength. More dominion. More eternity than even gods possessed.
There was only one way.
Within his soul lay his Inner Realm, a universe of infinite hunger, a mirror to Infinite Acquisition. It could consume all things, absorb them, claim them as his own. Until now, he had used it cautiously, weaving it into his rise. But if he wished to stand against what waited beyond the veil, hesitation could no longer exist.
He would consume it all.
The universe itself would be drawn into his realm. Every world, every star, every law. Not to destroy, but to preserve within him, to wield as his eternal arsenal. He would not wait for salvation from Orca, or for mercy from the heavens. He would become what no being had ever been.
An Overlord beyond existence.
He turned his gaze toward the endless night, whispering a vow that shook even the broken dimension around him.
"For my daughter. For all who follow me. For everything that is mine... I will devour eternity itself."
The ruins of the Star-Eater faded into silence. The broken dimension sealed behind him. And Igaris Vance descended once more, not as a victor of one battle, but as a shadow rising toward war with the infinite.
The true storm had only begun.
---
The Eternal Palace trembled as the rift opened and spat him back into the real sky. The branches of the Eternal Tree shivered, its silver leaves raining down like blessings of relief. His wives, his generals, his blood all waited in tense silence.
Evernight was the first to rush forward, her obsidian hair flying behind her. Her purple eyes brimmed with fear and love as she caught his arm.
"Hubby, You reckless fool. You left without a word and fought something that even the gods feared. I thought—" Her voice cracked, but she swallowed it down.
Igaris steadied her with one arm, his other hand already lifting toward the cradle. Celestara sat there, horns glowing faintly, her tiny hands waving. The instant she saw him, she squealed with joy.
"Ahhh! Da!"
Her golden-silver eyes sparkled, unaware of the abyss he had just crushed for her sake. She reached her arms out, demanding him as only an infant could.
Igaris’s expression softened. He stepped forward, lifting her into his arms. The weight of galaxies lifted when she curled her tiny fists around his finger, giggling. Her laughter was pure, untainted, and for a heartbeat the whole world felt safe again.
Shirley, the heavenly enchantress ran up, her eyes wet but shining. "Igaris... you came back. I was so worried." She pressed her forehead to his shoulder, careful not to disturb the child, but her trembling betrayed how close she had been to despair.
Not just her, one by one all 26 wives of his harem came forward to hug him. Even Lilya, who was becoming a budding beauty every day.
Behind them, the generals lowered their heads. Jian Longchen’s sword hummed as if in reverence, Malthius’s undead aura bowed low, and Serynthia’s draconic wings folded as she whispered,
"My lord... I knew it. No Star-Eater can destroy you."
But all of them were silenced when Celestara clapped her hands. The sound was small, soft, yet it rang with strange harmony. Her horns glowed faintly, her voice bubbled in childish delight. "Da! Da!"
The battle of galaxies and collapse of stars were nothing to her. In her innocent eyes, her father had simply left and returned to hold her again.
Igaris cradled her close, kissing the crown of her head. "I fought the void, my little star, and returned for this moment alone."
Everyone broke into soft smiles at this tender scene. But the next news from Igaris shattered their peace.
"They are coming..."