Absolute Being: I Am Nothing Chapter 61

Valer

A man watched the bodies without interest.

Valerians lay broken everywhere. Some torn clean through. Some crushed into shapes that no longer looked alive. Some were just pieces, still twitching before they finally stopped. Warriors. Commanders. Heralds. It didn’t matter. They all ended up looking the same.

He stood straight among them, tall and still, as if the slaughter had happened around someone else. His armor was dark, layered like scales but smooth as glass. From his shoulders flowed a long cloak of deep blue light, slow and heavy, like a quiet river. His helmet was curved and sharp, horns glowing faint gold at the edges. Where his eyes should have been, there was only a steady, pale glow. No anger. No pleasure. Just a job being done.

He tilted his head, looking down at one of the fallen near his boots.

"Pathetic," he said, his voice calm and clear. "To think a backwater rock like Velar managed to produce a Concept. Honestly."

He lifted his gaze, staring out at the ruined horizon as if he could see through the planet itself.

"Well," he continued, sounding almost bored. "Its time’s up. I wonder when that local Concept will finally show its face. If it’s got any sense, it’ll bring friends."

A soft presence announced her arrival. Not a sound. Just a sudden knowing that she was there.

She stood a short distance away, untouched by the blood and wreckage.

The leader of the Lumen Veil.

She was wrapped in close-fitting dark fabric, traced with lines of soft, pulsing light. A perfect, unwavering halo of gold floated above her head. It didn’t brighten or dim. It just was, a constant, quiet law.

Her face was calm. Not cold. Not cruel. Just deeply tired.

Her eyes moved over the bodies once. She didn’t pause on any of them.

"Enough," she said.

Her voice was quiet, but it cut the air like a blade.

The man turned his head slightly toward her, the glow beneath his helm shifting a fraction.

"Impatient," he noted. "I was enjoying the quiet. It has a certain... finality to it."

She looked at him then. A direct, weary look.

"Be quiet," she said, flat and simple. "Finish it. Destroy this planet. Completely."

He paused.

Not because he was ordered. He was amused.

A low chuckle vibrated from him. "You’re no fun when you’re in a mood. Look at it. It’s already finished. Its defenders are dead. Its so-called guardians failed. Even the little gods it prayed to couldn’t keep it in one piece."

He gestured idly with one hand at the carnage surrounding them. "This was their great army."

"They were in the way," she replied, her tone not changing. "Now they are not. We are not here for a tour. We are here for an erasure."

Her halo rotated once, a slow, deliberate turn.

He straightened, the energy of his cloak swelling slightly, responding to the finality in her words.

"Fine," he said. "But don’t come complaining to me if the local specialty shows up late to its own funeral."

She turned her gaze forward, past the dead, past the broken landscape, to the heart of the world below.

"If he comes," she said, "good."

A smile touched the space beneath his helmet.

"Now that," he said, the boredom leaving his voice, "would finally make this interesting."

"Would’ve been more interesting if he was actually on his way," the man in the horned helm said, his tone conversational. "But he cleared out most of the Valerians before you even got here. Knew he couldn’t win. So he chose... a different exit. I might have... suggested it. Gave him a little nudge. Saved him from running headfirst into you two and getting himself erased."

Aurelion and Veloris lifted their heads at the same instant.

A figure hung in the air above them.

He didn’t glow. He made no sound. He was just there, solid and still, like a decision made permanent.

He wore no armor, but his presence felt denser than any metal. His hair was white, loose, with a single, sharp streak of gold cutting down the middle. Curved horns, dark and seamless, rose from his temples—not decoration, but part of him, like his sharp ears or his eyes. His eyes were a deep, quiet red. They held no madness, no rage. Just a focus that seemed older than the ground they stood on.

His clothes were simple, tailored—dark layers with a hint of crimson beneath. Nothing for show. Everything about him was measured, contained.

He looked down at them. There was no anger in his gaze.

"You’re probably wondering who I am," he said. His voice was even, carrying easily. "I’ll save us the time. I know you. Aurelion. Veloris."

Veloris went rigid.

Aurelion let out a slow breath. She’d already guessed.

"So you’re one of them," she said, her own voice cool. "Another Absolute Being. Crawling out of the woodwork lately."

She straightened, the golden halo above her head turning with a soft, inevitable motion.

"Let me be clear," she continued. "We are not the Night Regalia. We didn’t come here to lose. You come for us, you’re signing your own end."

The man didn’t even blink.

"Relax," he said. "Threats only mean something if you can follow through."

He drifted down until he floated level with them, a few paces away. Composed. Unthreatened.

"If I wanted you dead," he went on, "you’d be gone already. I’m not here for a fight. I’m here to ask you to leave. Walk away from this planet."

Aurelion’s eyes narrowed, just a fraction.

"Do that," he said, "and I’ll owe you. A debt from someone like me is not a small thing. Ignore me, and you make an enemy of me. And yes, I am an Absolute Being. You really don’t want to learn what that actually means."

For the first time, Aurelion hesitated. It was barely a flicker, a half-second of calculation.

Veloris saw it. His mouth curled into a sharp, impatient grin.

He turned toward the stranger, energy crackling at his fingertips. "Big talk," Veloris said. "Funny thing is, truly powerful people don’t usually need to explain themselves. If you could wipe us out, you’d have done it. Talking means you’re stalling."

A massive, jagged axe formed in his grip, humming with violent light.

"Talking is for the weak."

Veloris moved.

He didn’t make it.

His strike froze in mid-air, stopped by nothing visible, as if the space itself had hardened.

In the next heartbeat, the man was gone.

Veloris felt the shift—a presence now directly behind him. He spun and vaulted back several steps, his boots scraping the ground. The man stood where Veloris had just been, hands relaxed at his sides, utterly unruffled.

"There’s a concept called being sensible," the man said, his red eyes resting on Veloris. "I’m fond of it."

He didn’t sound angry. He didn’t sound impressed. He just sounded... sure.

"I don’t attack people just because I can. I talk first. I prefer it. I hope you listen. If you don’t..." He paused, letting the silence hang. "Then I have to show you why a calm dragon is the most dangerous kind."

Veloris said nothing, his grip tightening on his axe.

Aurelion smiled. It was a thin, cold smile.

"For a second," she said, "you almost had me believing you."

She lifted her chin, her halo brightening imperceptibly.

"But I won’t stop. I’ll destroy this world because I choose to. And I’ll break every Absolute Being I find until there aren’t any left."

The man sighed. It was a soft sound, almost disappointed.

"And here I thought you were the reasonable one," he said.

He straightened then. Something changed. Not in his posture, but in the air around him. His deep red eyes seemed to pull inward, like wells leading to something ancient and slow.

"Alright."

He looked at each of them, one final time.

"My name is Vrael," he said. "Primordial Dragon. Absolute Being of Time."

For a single, suspended moment, the world felt heavier, as if every second had just leaned in to listen.

"Do what you want with this world," Vrael said, his final words dropping like stones. "The next time we meet... will be the last time."

And then he was gone.

No flash of light. No ripple of power. No sound.

Just empty space where he had been.

Veloris and Aurelion stood perfectly still, staring at the spot.

For the first time since setting foot on the dying planet, neither of them had a word to say.