The transition from the Third Ocean to the Fourth was not a climb; it was a blinding ascension into a realm of artificial divinity.
As the Ink-Stained Wraith—now a terrifying vessel of matte-black metal and stolen Rank 9 gravity—breached the surface of the Cobalt Sea, the world exploded into a violent sensory assault. This was the Neon Heavens. Here, the water didn't feel like water; it felt like liquid electricity, glowing with a thousand flickering hues of pink, lime, and electric gold.
In the Fourth Ocean, the concept of "Darkness" was illegal. Every inch of the sky-sea was illuminated by massive, floating neon signs and holographic billboards that projected the "Perfection" of the Great Guilds. Here, the "Physics of Appearance" reigned supreme. If you weren't beautiful, you didn't exist. If you weren't glowing, you were a ghost.
[Ding!]
[Warning: High-Frequency Saturation Zone.] [Environmental Effect: 'The Blindfold of Paradise'.] [Description: The excessive light attempts to 'Over-Saturate' the Host's Void, forcing the soul to reveal its secrets.] [Host Resistance: 99.9% (The Void cannot be illuminated).]
Vane Varkas stood on the prow of the ship, his arms crossed behind his back. The neon lights reflected off his obsidian skin, but the colors didn't stick; they slid off him like water off a duck's back, disappearing into the vacuum of his presence.
"Master..." Lyra whispered, shielding her eyes. She was now a Rank 15 Void-Hound, her maroon suit darker and more regal than before. "The light here... it's aggressive. It feels like thousands of tiny needles trying to sew my eyes shut."
"It's not light, Lyra," Vane said, his voice a low vibration that cut through the humming electricity of the sea. "It's a mask. They use this brilliance to hide the fact that the Fourth Ocean is built on a mountain of grey corpses."
He looked toward the center of the ocean. Floating there was the Aurelian Sanctum, a city-sized cathedral made of solid light and glass. It was the headquarters of the Radiant Wing Guild, and more importantly, it was the location of the Starlight Ward.
That was where his sister, Mía, was being kept. Not as a guest, but as a "Biological Battery"—a Static whose rare "Faded" constitution was being used to stabilize the high-frequency fluctuations of the Guild's core.
"Sovereign," Lyra's nostrils flared, her [Ink-Sense] tingling. "A fleet is approaching. They don't have the heavy mass of the Third Ocean. They are... fast. Too fast."
Vane looked up. From the neon clouds above, dozens of sleek, white-and-gold interceptors descended. These were Photon-Strikers. They didn't use engines; they moved by "Refraction," teleporting across the water by bouncing off the light itself.
"Identification!" a voice rang out, echoing with a melodic, hypnotic tone. "You are trespassing in the Holy Waters of the Radiant Wing. By the order of the High Priestess Selene, surrender your vessel or be turned into Luminescence!"
Vane didn't even look at the ships. He looked at the system notification that appeared in his peripheral vision.
[New Target Detected: The Photon Fleet (Ranks 7-8).] [Analysis: Their bodies are made of 'Soft-Light'. Physical attacks will pass through them.] [Strategy: Apply 'Absolute Darkness' to force their solidification.]
"Lyra," Vane commanded. "Show them how the Void hunts in the light."
"With pleasure, Master," Lyra snarled.
She leaped from the deck, but she didn't fall. Vane had granted her a portion of his [High-Density Gravity]. She stepped on the air as if it were solid stone. Her maroon aura flared, turning into a dark, shadowy mist that began to "stain" the neon sky.
ZOOM!
A Photon-Striker teleported behind her, firing a beam of concentrated violet light. Lyra didn't dodge. She turned her head and snapped at the beam with her teeth.
"[Skill: Kinetic-Drain – Light-Eater Variant]!"
The violet beam was sucked into her mouth. Her eyes glowed with the stolen energy, and she spun in mid-air, her claws elongating into three-meter blades of dark-matter.
SHRED!
She tore through the hull of the interceptor. Because her claws were "Ink-Based," they didn't just cut the light-ship; they "Extinguished" it. The beautiful white-and-gold vessel turned grey and fell into the sea, its engine sputtering into a dull, colorless smoke.
"What?! A Static's beast just downed a Striker?!" the fleet commander screamed over the comms. "All units! Maximum Saturation! [Art-Physics: The Great Prism]!"
The remaining twenty ships formed a circle around the Ink-Stained Wraith. They began to spin, their hulls emitting a blinding, synchronized light that created a massive, burning prism in the water. The temperature rose to ten thousand degrees. The water itself began to turn into "Hard-Light" crystals, encasing the ship in a cage of solid radiation.
Vane stood in the center of the burning prism. His obsidian skin began to glow faintly—not with light, but with the heat of the friction.
"You call this a Sun?" Vane asked, his voice echoing with a terrifying calm.
He stepped off the ship, walking into the heart of the Prism. Every step he took left a footprint of black ink on the solid light. The "Hard-Light" crystals cracked under his weight.
"System," Vane whispered. "[Activate: THE EVENT HORIZON]."
Suddenly, the world went silent.
The blinding light of the Prism didn't just fade; it was violently pulled toward Vane's chest. A black sphere, no larger than a marble, manifested in front of Vane's heart. It began to spin, creating a gravitational pull so intense that the Photon-Strikers couldn't maintain their flight paths.
"My controls! I can't pull away!" "The light... it's being sucked into him! Everything is going black!"
Vane raised his hand and closed his fist.
"[UNPAINTED REALITY: THE COLLAPSE]!"
VOOM.
The massive, miles-wide Prism collapsed into a single point of absolute darkness. The twenty high-tech interceptors were dragged into the center, their elegant forms being crushed and "De-Saturated" in a matter of seconds. The "Colors" of the fleet—the whites, golds, and violets—were stripped away and funneled into Vane's open palm.
[Pigment Absorbed: 50,000 Units of 'Refracted Photon'.] [Level Up! Level 36... 37!] [Ink-Well: 100% (Overflowing).] [Temporary Buff: 'Light-Speed Reflexes' gained from consumption.]
Vane stood in the now-darkened patch of the Neon Heavens. The floating billboards nearby flickered and died as he drained the ambient energy of the area.
Suddenly, the sky above the Aurelian Sanctum split open.
A pillar of pure, moon-white light descended from the highest spire. Within the light, a woman floated. She was breathtakingly beautiful, with hair made of liquid starlight and eyes that shone like twin supernovas. She wore a gown of woven "Luminance" that trailed for fifty meters behind her.
This was High Priestess Selene. A Rank 9.5 powerhouse, second only to the Guild Master. In the Fourth Ocean, she was worshipped as a Living Goddess.
"So," Selene said, her voice like a choir of silver bells. "The smudge from the Abyss has finally reached my doorstep. Vane Varkas... you have caused quite a disturbance in my Gallery."
Vane looked at her. He felt the weight of her gaze—a gaze that tried to "Define" him, to turn him into a known quantity so she could control him.
"I didn't come for the Gallery, Selene," Vane said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "I came for my sister."
Selene let out a soft, mocking laugh. "Your sister? You mean the Faded Battery? She is currently the only thing keeping the Aurelian Sanctum from drifting into the Third Ocean. Her 'Static' nature is the perfect anchor for our high-frequency core. You should be proud, Vane. She is finally useful."
Vane's aura exploded.
The matte-black shroud around him transformed into a towering, monstrous silhouette of the Abyssal Sovereign. Two massive wings of solid ink unfurled, blocking out the neon suns of the Fourth Ocean.
"Useful?" Vane's voice cracked the very air. "You took a child and turned her into a fuel cell. You took a world and turned it into a prison of light. And you call it 'Art'?"
Vane disappeared.
He didn't run; he used the [Light-Speed Reflexes] he had just stolen. He appeared in front of Selene in a fraction of a second, his hand—now a claw of obsidian—aimed at her throat.
Selene's eyes widened, but she didn't panic.
"[Art-Physics: THE VIRGIN'S VEIL]!"
A shield of absolute, perfect white light manifested between them. This wasn't a physical shield; it was a "Moral Shield." In the Fourth Ocean's laws, "Light is Good" and "Darkness is Evil." The shield was designed to automatically repel anything with a lower "Moral Frequency."
Vane's claw hit the shield.
SIZZLE!
His ink-flesh began to burn. The white light was trying to "Purify" him, to turn his blackness into something "Acceptable."
"You cannot touch me, Vane," Selene whispered, her eyes glowing with a holy fervor. "The Heavens themselves protect the Radiant Wing. You are a creature of the mud. You are 'Wrong' by the very laws of creation."
Vane gritted his teeth, the violet rings in his eyes spinning with a murderous intensity.
"The Heavens?" Vane growled, his hand beginning to sink into the white shield. "Then I'll just have to Erase the Heavens."
"[SOVEREIGN SKILL: THE BLASPHEMOUS STROKE]!"
Vane didn't pull back. He pushed harder. He poured every drop of the "Solar Gold," "Cobalt Blue," and "Refracted Photon" he had stolen into his arm. The pigments didn't mix; they were crushed together by the Void, turning into a weapon of Absolute Non-Existence.
The "Moral Shield" began to turn black. The "Goodness" of the light was being corrupted by the "Emptiness" of the Void.
CRACK.
A spiderweb of black lines appeared on Selene's perfect white veil.
"What?! No!" Selene's composure finally broke. "This is Holy Light! It cannot be corrupted!"
"It's not being corrupted," Vane hissed, his face inches from hers. "It's being Cancelled."
SHATTER!
The shield exploded into shards of grey glass. Vane's hand shot forward and gripped Selene by her starlight hair, slamming her downward toward the surface of the sea.
BOOM!
They hit the liquid-neon water with the force of a nuclear detonation. Vane pinned the "Goddess" to the floor of the shallow sea, his knees on her shoulders.
"Where is she?" Vane demanded, his voice echoing from the depths of his black heart.
Selene coughed, her silver blood staining the neon water. She looked up at Vane, and for the first time, her supernova eyes were filled with the one thing a Goddess should never feel: True Horror.
"The... the Core..." she gasped. "She is... at the center of the Prismatic Storm... but you can't go there, Vane. Even with your power... the Guild Master... he is no longer human. He has become the Prism itself."
"Then I'll break the Prism," Vane said.
He didn't kill her. He reached into her chest and pulled out a glowing, white orb—her [Heart of Saturation].
[Major Boss Item Acquired: The Star of Selene (Rank 9.5).] [Effect: Allows the Host to bypass the outer defenses of the Prismatic Storm.] [Level Up! Level 38... 39... 40!]
Vane stood up, leaving the "Faded" High Priestess shivering in the water. He looked toward the Aurelian Sanctum, which was now beginning to vibrate as the "Battery" at its core started to fail.
"Lyra!" Vane called out.
The Void-Hound landed beside him, her tail wagging with a dark excitement. "The fleet is destroyed, Master. The way is open."
Vane looked at his hands. They were trembling, not from fear, but from the raw power of being Level 40. He could feel the entire Fourth Ocean groaning under his presence. He was no longer just a "Static" seeking revenge.
He was the Abyssal Sovereign, and he was about to end the First Volume of his legend with a blood-bath.
"Let's go," Vane said, his wings unfurling once more. "It's time to bring Mía home."
As they flew toward the final fortress, the System displayed a massive, blood-red screen across Vane's vision.
[VOLUME 1 FINALE: THE PRISMATIC COLLAPSE] [Current Rank: 40 (Peak of the Lower Heavens)] [Objective: Kill the Guild Master. Rewrite the Ocean.]
The "Neon Heavens" were about to go dark. And Vane Varkas was the one holding the switch.