Clark opened his eyes and fell into absolute nothingness.
Not darkness—darkness still had outlines.
This place was pure "void," a silence where even light had completely died.
He floated there, his body heavier than it had ever felt before, as if every bone had been filled with molten lead.
The "S" emblem on his chest—the Kryptonian symbol of hope and strength—had dimmed into lifelessness, like a stone buried beneath dust.
His power was draining away irreversibly.
Instinctively, he looked up, searching for the familiar warmth of starlight.
But all he saw was a graveyard of the cosmos:
The shattered cores of gigantic planets.
Twisted wreckage of starships.
Nebular dust frozen into eternal stillness…
Everything was motionless, as though time itself had frozen here.
No stars.
Not a single one.
The realization struck his heart like ice.
A Kryptonian's strength came from young yellow stars. In this cemetery of dead worlds, his body had become a vessel that could only empty, never refill. Every second pushed him closer to exhaustion.
He thought of the Kent farm in Kansas, where the sunlight had always been warm.
He thought of Metropolis.
Of Lois.
If he remained trapped here forever… what would happen to them?
Three meters away, Levi floated silently.
His eyes were closed. Golden cracks spread across his body like fractures on a priceless porcelain artifact moments from shattering.
The cracks slowly healed—only to be forced open again by even greater energy surging within him.
Over and over.
Golden blood seeped from the fissures, crystallizing instantly in the vacuum into tiny glittering shards.
Clark struggled toward him, trying to support him, but the moment his hand touched Levi, a gentle yet irresistible force pushed him away.
"Levi?" he called softly.
Sound couldn't travel through the void. His voice only echoed within his own mind.
No response.
Clark focused, using what little super hearing he had left.
Levi's heartbeat was almost imperceptible.
Three beats per minute.
But every beat unleashed a violent energy pulse—as though a miniature supernova exploded inside his body.
This guy had devoured five universe-destroying nodes, and that catastrophic power was now rampaging through him.
Any other being would already have been reduced to cosmic dust.
And yet Levi was still trying to digest it.
What a lunatic.
Clark smiled bitterly—then his expression suddenly changed.
Something moved in the dead silence beyond.
Not one thing.
A whole swarm.
They had no physical forms, like shadows peeled directly from darkness itself, gliding soundlessly between planetary ruins.
Void predators.
They had clearly been drawn by the energy leaking from Levi's body, like sharks smelling blood.
And they were converging from every direction.
Clark clenched his fists and stood firmly in front of Levi.
The solar energy left in his body had dropped below thirty percent—and was still falling rapidly.
This cursed place was like a greedy black hole, mercilessly draining everything from him.
But he didn't retreat a single step.
Levi had saved everyone.
Now it was his turn to protect him.
The first predator lunged soundlessly, jaws opening wide to reveal fangs made entirely of shadow.
Red light flashed in Clark's eyes.
His heat vision erupted like divine judgment, slicing the creature cleanly in half.
But it was like kicking a hornet's nest.
More predators surged in from every direction, countless enough to blot out the already empty void.
Clark inhaled deeply and charged straight into the tide of darkness.
His fist smashed into one predator's body.
There was no sensation of impact—only the hollow feeling of energy being annihilated.
The creature released a silent shriek before dissolving into black smoke.
Three more attacked from the side. Their claws scraped across his Kryptonian suit, leaving harsh white scars.
Clark countered instantly.
One was blasted away with an elbow strike.
Another had its "neck" snapped in his grip.
The third was pierced through the skull by heat vision.
But there were too many.
Endless.
His energy drained rapidly. His movements slowed. His breathing grew heavier.
Every punch. Every blast of heat vision.
Each one brought him closer to collapse.
A gigantic predator descended from above, massive enough to swallow an entire truck whole.
Clark tried to dodge—
But his body reacted half a second too slowly.
Just as those shadow-fangs were about to close—
Levi suddenly erupted with blazing golden light.
The radiance transformed into countless rune-covered chains that shot outward like living serpents, wrapping tightly around the giant predator.
The chains constricted violently.
The creature let out a soul-rending scream as it was dragged toward Levi.
The instant it touched the cracks covering Levi's body, it was torn apart completely and transformed into pure dark energy, greedily absorbed into those golden fractures.
One of the cracks on Levi's body visibly healed.
Clark froze.
Even unconscious, this guy could instinctively counterattack—and feed?
The greater energy burst only attracted more predators.
They went mad.
Ignoring Clark entirely, they now treated Levi as the ultimate feast and swarmed toward him.
Clark gritted his teeth and stepped forward again.
Punches.
Heat vision.
He stood like a burning reef against a black tidal wave.
But his strength was fading at terrifying speed.
His vision blurred. His fists weakened.
Finally, one predator broke through his defense.
Its claws tore across his shoulder, ripping through the Kryptonian suit and carving a wound deep enough to expose bone.
Blood drifted through the void, freezing instantly into dark-red crystals.
Clark staggered backward.
At last, he could no longer hold himself up and dropped to one knee in the emptiness.
Looking up, he saw over a hundred predators surrounding them completely.
It's over.
Just as his consciousness began to fade—
The golden light around Levi exploded again.
Brighter.
More violent.
More dazzling than before.
Countless golden chains burst forth like raging dragons, wrapping around every predator in sight.
The chains tightened.
Hundreds of monsters shattered simultaneously, transforming into a torrential flood of dark energy that poured directly into Levi's body.
The cracks across his body healed at astonishing speed.
The leaking golden blood flowed back into him.
Even the chaotic aura surrounding him gradually stabilized.
Clark had just begun to relax—
When his expression became even uglier than before.
Something vastly more terrifying than the predators was awakening in the darkness.
A void beast the size of an asteroid slowly emerged.
Its body was stitched together from shattered spatial fragments and broken laws of reality.
Every breath it took devoured nearby matter and light.
Six gigantic crimson eyes pierced through the endless void and locked onto Levi with pure, primal greed.
Perhaps this thing was the will of the dead universe itself.
The gravekeeper of this cosmic cemetery.
Clark forced himself upright, his legs trembling uncontrollably.
The solar energy in his body had dropped below ten percent.
The beast opened its mouth.
Inside wasn't flesh—
But a rotating miniature black hole pulling in everything around it.
Clark closed his eyes, preparing to burn away the last of his divine power.
Then—
Levi opened his eyes.
The entire universe trembled.
This was resonance at the very foundation of the laws themselves.
Within Levi's pupils, countless stars were being born and destroyed. Thirteen lights representing thirteen supreme laws intertwined into a mysterious wheel.
Levi slowly raised his right hand.
Then gently pushed forward.
The void beast's world-ending charge stopped instantly.
Its colossal body froze in place.
Confusion flashed across its six crimson eyes—
Then endless terror replaced it.
The next second, its body began collapsing from within, erased completely from reality itself.
The beast didn't even have time to scream.
It transformed into an enormous torrent of energy far greater than all the previous predators combined and was devoured entirely by a new black vortex that had appeared on Levi's chest.
The final cracks on Levi's body healed completely.
His skin regained its luster.
And his aura stabilized at a level so terrifying that even Clark felt his heart tighten.
"You're awake."
Clark finally relaxed, exhausted.
"Your body…"
"Still not enough," Levi interrupted, his voice rough from the ongoing reconstruction of his body.
"The energy from the five nodes is too massive. I still need time to digest it."
He looked around, brows furrowing.
This dead universe was lethal to Clark.
And the hidden dangers here were far worse than expected.
More troubling still—
Levi could feel the devoured energy resisting him.
Fragments of the Anti-Monitor's will were rampaging through his Inner Universe, attempting to corrupt the foundation of his laws.
"We need a safe place."
He traced a golden line through the void with one hand.
The Law of Space activated.
A spatial rift slowly tore open.
But the process was extremely difficult, as though invisible hands were resisting him.
Clark noticed cold sweat already forming on Levi's forehead.
"Your condition…"
"I'm fine. Get inside."
Clark didn't argue.
Supporting Levi, the two entered the rift together.
On the other side was an isolated subspace roughly one hundred meters wide, surrounded by translucent golden barriers formed from spatial laws.
The moment they entered, the rift sealed shut behind them.
Levi's body weakened instantly, nearly collapsing before Clark caught him.
"You're hurt worse than I thought."
"Not hurt." Levi shook his head and sat cross-legged in the center of the space.
"Just indigestion."
He closed his eyes, letting his consciousness sink into his Inner Universe.
Clark watched golden light spread across Levi's body as complex runes flowed beneath his skin.
Inside Levi's Inner Universe, the Thirteen Laws were operating at unprecedented intensity.
The Law of Space built the framework.
The Law of Time accelerated digestion.
The Law of Life repaired damage.
The Law of Death suppressed resistance.
The Law of Alchemy decomposed and reconstructed…
Everything existed for one purpose:
Refining the antimatter energy and the fragments of the Anti-Monitor's will.
But those fragments weren't dead things.
They were extensions of the Anti-Monitor's true consciousness, attempting to seize control and turn Levi's Inner Universe into a new nest.
Levi could clearly feel his proudest law—the Law of Space—being contaminated by black power.
Dark red stains began spreading across the golden chains of law.
He didn't resist.
Instead—
He made a completely insane decision.
He actively guided that destructive power into himself.
A gamble.
If he succeeded, he would gain a Fourteenth Supreme Law:
The Law of Destruction.
If he failed, his Inner Universe would collapse, and he would be completely devoured by the Anti-Monitor's will.
Time passed slowly.
Clark guarded the area vigilantly, staring into the darkness beyond the barrier.
The energy drain here was slower—but still present.
Levi's body suddenly began trembling violently.
Golden blood burst from all seven orifices.
Clark's heart tightened, and he stepped forward instinctively—
Only to be blocked by an invisible force barrier.
"Don't come closer."
Levi's voice forced itself through clenched teeth.
"This is… necessary."
The war inside him had reached its climax.
The fragments of the Anti-Monitor's will launched their final assault, becoming a flood of darkness crashing directly toward Levi's law core.
Levi activated the full power of the Concept of Greed.
Within his Inner Universe, it transformed into a gigantic golden maw large enough to devour the heavens themselves.
It swallowed the entire flood of will fragments and antimatter energy in one bite.
Then—
It began chewing.
Every chew felt like his soul was being carved apart.
Every swallow was like gulping molten iron.
But he didn't stop.
Only by completely digesting it could he truly make it his own.
Finally—
Within endless agony—
Transformation occurred.
The antimatter energy and will fragments were completely refined, decomposed, and reconstructed into an entirely new power flowing through him.
Pure destruction.
Absolute destruction.
A power capable of erasing existence itself on a conceptual level.
The Fourteenth Law—
The Law of Destruction—
Had formed.
Levi opened his eyes.
Deep within his pupils now flickered a dark crimson glow.
He slowly stood up.
Every injury had vanished completely.
His aura had become even more unfathomable than before.
Clark noticed a slowly rotating crimson rune now embedded in Levi's right palm.
"What is that?"
"The Mark of Destruction," Levi said softly.
"You could call it… the Anti-Monitor's 'gift.'"
From his coat, he pulled out a fist-sized golden crystal and handed it to Clark.
"An artificial miniature sun. Energy density a thousand times greater than an ordinary star. Absorb it and recover your strength."
He paused.
"The road ahead is still long."
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