The Genius Mage Was Reincarnated Into A Swordsman Family-Chapter 198: Void Consumption

In the barrier control chamber, all was darkness. The Duke's hybrid form continued to disintegrate despite his desperate attempts to draw more power from the Eternal Rift. Gluttony watched with those depthless black eyes, observing the creature's struggles with detached curiosity.

"You fight admirably," Gluttony acknowledged, Klaus's voice layered with those alien resonances. "But your resistance only prolongs the inevitable."

The Duke's once-magnificent form had been reduced to less than half its original size. Opalescent fluid hardened and shattered wherever Gluttony's darkness touched it, turning to ash that floated momentarily before dissolving into nothing. Despite this, the hybrid creature continued to rebuild itself, drawing energy directly from the threshold.

"The Opposition... will not... be denied," the Duke's fractured voice declared, his mechanical components straining to maintain cohesion. "Those Who Wait Beyond... already approach."

Through the shattered viewing ports, the Eternal Rift's barrier had fully transformed into a colossal archway of violet energy. Beyond it, vast shapes moved—entities of impossible geometry that seemed to bend reality around them as they approached the threshold between worlds.

"I am aware," Gluttony replied. "That is why I am here."

With casual grace, he raised Klaus's hand again, the obsidian rune blazing with intensity that seemed to bend the very light around it. The primary node at the chamber's center, already transformed by Gluttony's earlier intervention, pulsed in perfect synchronization with the rune.

"What you fail to understand," Gluttony continued, "is that I am not here to prevent the threshold from opening."

The Duke's remaining form stilled, confusion momentarily overriding his struggle to survive. "Then why interfere at all?"

A terrible stillness fell over Gluttony's borrowed face—an expression of such alien coldness that it made even the Duke recoil. "Because what passes through will not be what your masters intended."

With those words, Gluttony thrust both hands toward the primary node. Darkness erupted not in waves but in precise tendrils that connected to specific points on the crystalline structure. Where they touched, the node's obsidian energy patterns shifted, reconfiguring according to some incomprehensible design.

The chamber began to shake violently, pieces of ceiling collapsing as reality itself protested the forces being manipulated. The Duke's hybrid form trembled, not from fear but from some resonance between his own substance and the energies Gluttony was manipulating.

"What are you doing?" the Duke demanded, genuine alarm evident in his voice.

"Consuming," Gluttony answered simply.

Beyond the viewing ports, the archway's violet energy suddenly inverted—flowing not outward but inward, creating a vacuum effect that pulled at the entities approaching from beyond. What had been a doorway opening into this world had become a maw, drawing everything toward it with irresistible force.

The Duke's remaining form began to fragment even faster, pulled in two directions simultaneously—toward Gluttony's consuming darkness and toward the inverting threshold. "This is not possible!" he cried, his layered voice rising in genuine terror. "The calculations were perfect! The Opposition's design cannot be subverted!"

"Your masters are not the only ones who have planned for millennia," Gluttony replied, darkness expanding around him until it filled the entire chamber. "They are merely the most impatient."

The primary node began to crack under the strain, obsidian energy pouring through the fissures like liquid shadow. The control systems throughout the chamber failed simultaneously, displays shattering as darkness consumed them from within.

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Gluttony stood unmoved at the center of this chaos, Klaus's body somehow withstanding forces that were tearing apart reinforced steel and crystalline structures. The rune on his palm now blazed so brightly it seemed to create a negative space in reality itself—a hole through which something vast was gazing.

"Your role in this game is concluded," Gluttony informed the Duke, extending his hand one final time. "You will not witness what comes next."

The darkness surged forward, engulfing the Duke completely. This time, there was no resistance, no desperate reconfiguration. The hybrid creature simply ceased to exist, every particle of his being consumed by Gluttony's void-like power.

As the Duke disappeared, Gluttony turned his attention fully to the Eternal Rift. The barrier's archway had become a maelstrom of energy, violet and obsidian patterns fighting for dominance as the threshold between worlds destabilized. The entities beyond—Those Who Wait Beyond—were caught in this cosmic tide, pulled forward against their will yet unable to fully materialize.

Gluttony raised both hands, darkness flowing from the rune to connect with the primary node and, through it, to the Eternal Rift itself. His voice, when he spoke, seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere simultaneously.

"Now, the consumption begins in earnest."

***

Miles away, Alexandra ran toward Northwatch with desperate determination. Each time her foot struck the frozen ground, the impact sent jolts of pain through her exhausted body. Blood had dried on her uniform, and her muscles screamed for rest, but she pushed onward, driven by that single moment of recognition she'd glimpsed in Klaus's eyes.

The landscape around her had taken on an eerie quality. Colors seemed muted, sounds dampened as if passing through thick fabric. The closer she got to Northwatch, the more pronounced these effects became. Reality itself felt thin, stretched to its breaking point by whatever confrontation was occurring between ancient powers.

From her position on the hillside, she could see that nearly half the city had already turned to ash. Buildings, streets, and the surrounding defensive structures were simply... gone, leaving only darkness in their wake. At the center of this destruction, the Eternal Rift pulsed with chaotic energy, violet light fighting against expanding darkness in a conflict visible even at this distance.

"Hold on, Klaus," she whispered, though she knew he couldn't possibly hear her. "Keep fighting. Don't let it consume you completely."

She crested another hill, gaining a clearer view of the catastrophe unfolding at Northwatch. The Eternal Rift's archway had transformed into something resembling a vast whirlpool, energy spiraling inward with increasing velocity. The barrier that had contained it for over a century was disintegrating, segments of it simply vanishing as Gluttony's darkness spread.

Most terrifying were the shapes briefly visible beyond the threshold—massive forms of impossible geometry that seemed to fold through dimensions that shouldn't exist. These entities were being drawn toward the spiraling energy, yet seemed to be fighting against the pull with cosmic desperation.

Alexandra paused, gasping for breath as she tried to process what she was witnessing. This was beyond anything in her training, beyond anything she could have imagined. The scale of power being manipulated made her feel smaller than an insect before a storm.

Yet still she ran onward, driven by that fragile hope. If Klaus was still in there somewhere, still fighting beneath Gluttony's control, she couldn't abandon him—not after everything they had endured together.

A tremor passed through the ground beneath her feet, strong enough to make her stumble. Looking up, she saw the Eternal Rift pulse with blinding intensity before suddenly contracting. The archway collapsed inward, energy spiraling down to a single point of absolute darkness.

For one breathless moment, everything went still—colors, sounds, even the wind itself seemed to pause as if the world were holding its breath.

Then, with devastating force, an explosion of darkness erupted from where the Rift had been. It expanded outward in perfect silence, consuming everything it touched. Buildings turned to ash in an instant. The ground itself disintegrated. Even the air seemed to be devoured by the advancing wall of void.

Alexandra froze, watching as the wave of darkness approached with impossible speed. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from something that consumed reality itself. She stood her ground, cyan blade held before her in a final, futile gesture of defiance.

"Klaus," she whispered one last time. "I know you're still in there."

The darkness engulfed her.

And then, nothing remained of Northwatch except a perfect circle of dark ash where a city had once stood, with the Eternal Rift—and whatever lay beyond it—nowhere to be found.