Life Before Becoming an Omniverse Entity

But he refused to let it discourage him.

'No… Calm down, Renan,' he told himself. 'There's no point in getting frustrated. Instead, I need to approach this carefully… and I should use my true form.'

And with that thought, his body was suddenly engulfed in a brilliant white light.

And just as the white light shone, it also disappeared, and there a being walked out of it.

His face was still the same as Renan's, his hair still pure white like snow, and his eyes, which used to be red-golden, now also, just like his hair, turned pure white, with a mark appearing on his forehead and a halo forming behind him. It shone so brightly, as if it was meant to erase the darkness from this world. If anyone were to look at Renan right now, the only word they would speak would be "Divine"—a being different from anyone else, a true form of Renan Ryvern.

"Ascension," Renan suddenly spoke. Then, slowly, a smirk formed on his face, and he spoke again, "Yes, from now on, I'm going to call this form of mine Ascension." He said this as he slowly looked at Elaris, who still stood in her place, gazing at him with a new intensity.

"What do you think of it?" he spoke softly, although the distance between them was quite a lot. But for beings of power like them, their hearing capabilities were enhanced to new heights that normal people couldn't even imagine.

Elaris, who had been observing Renan's new form from head to toe, suddenly heard his voice and was brought out of her thoughts. "Huh?" she sounded confused before understanding what Renan was asking. "Yes, the name truly matches that form of yours," she said, and slowly a smile blossomed on her face. "A mortal's ascension to divinity—it truly matches that form of yours," she added.

Renan's smirk widened even more, but he didn't reply immediately. Instead, he took one step ahead and—

*SWISH*

—he was in front of Elaris in a split second.

Elaris who still stood in her place, looking straight at the spot where he had been standing with a smile. But now, her vision was covered by a chest she was quite familiar with—one she had been sleeping on for almost two weeks.

"Really? So you like it?" A voice was heard, coming from right in front of her. A voice she had grown quite fond of.

Slowly, she raised her head and looked up from where the voice had come. "Yes, I do," she said with a smile while looking at Renan's face, which was now quite close to hers.

Renan, who had just appeared before her, looked at Elaris standing there, but since she was shorter than him, he had to look down. He saw her raise her head and reply to his question with a smile.

"I see," Renan said as he gazed into Elaris's golden eyes with his own pure white ones.

"And I would love to appreciate it even more, but it looks like you would prefer if we finished this fight first before continuing this talk of ours, right?" Elaris asked, knowing exactly what Renan was thinking.

Renan simply nodded his head. Then—

*BOOM*

Smoke rose, and when it dissipated, they could both be seen still standing in the same place, looking at each other. Slightly above them, two hands made of earth itself were pushing against one another.

"Hmm, I didn't know you liked to show off," Elaris remarked.

"Indeed, I also didn't know," Renan replied. Slowly, he raised his hand, bringing it toward Elaris's cheek, moving gently as if he were just going to hold it softly.

Elaris, who saw this, was confused. 'Huh? Weren't we fighting?' she thought. But just as his hand was inches away from her face, Elaris disappeared from her spot.

And just as she vanished—

*SWISH*

*SWISH*

*SWISH*

—many sharp blades of wind passed through the space she had just occupied, cutting through the air like they were meant to slice anything in their path.

"Hmm," Renan hummed as he saw his wind blades meeting only empty space.

"So, you also like to use tricks in a fight?" a voice came from a bit away from where he stood. Slowly, he turned and looked at Elaris, who was now quite far from him, watching him with amusement.

Renan didn't reply immediately, but instead, he raised his hand in front of him and spoke, "In a fight, everything is fair. Nothing is unfair."

As he said this, suddenly, a fire formed above his raised hand. It slowly started to rotate rapidly, and then it began changing color until it became a pure white flame.

"I see," Elaris responded, her gaze falling to the fire in Renan's hand. "Interesting. So now you're using fire," she said as she carefully observed the way he controlled it.

"Yes, I am," Renan confirmed and flicked the ball of fire in Elaris's direction. Its speed was so fast that within a second, it was right in front of her. But to Elaris, the ball was still slow. She began to move, intending to dodge it, but before she could even shift an inch, she suddenly felt as if she couldn't move. No, rather, she felt like she was moving but also not moving at the same time.

"What is this?" she asked, genuinely surprised. But before she could think much more about it—

*BOOM*

A loud explosion rang out, and the ground where Elaris had stood was scorched as smoke filled the air.

Renan remained in place, watching, with his hand resting under his chin in a thinking pose. "Hmm, interesting. So it worked," he muttered, observing the smoke rising into the sky.

And from within that smoke, a voice came.

"Indeed, it looks like it worked, whatever it was that you were trying to do," Elaris's voice rang out as the smoke slowly cleared, revealing her still standing there, perfectly unharmed.

"Yeah," Renan said, taking in the sight of Elaris completely undamaged—not even her clothes were singed.

"So what was that?" Elaris asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Well, that was space element manipulation," Renan answered before continuing, "You know, I've been trying to create an independent dimension for quite a while—one that can hold things like a storage ring but different. A dimension where even living beings can enter and without needing any kind of physical object to contain it, like a ring or anything else. Completely independent. And while I haven't succeeded in that yet, I did manage to discover something even more amazing."

"And that is?" Elaris prompted.

"Using the space element to increase the distance around someone—just an inch of space—but infinitely stretching that inch so that moving from that spot becomes impossible. But even though it's an incredible ability, I can only maintain it for twenty seconds since it consumes a tremendous amount of energy. My current limit in this form is just twenty seconds," Renan explained.

"Wow, amazing. As expected of you, Renan," Elaris said, genuinely impressed. She instinctively tried to move her hand to clap at Renan's discovery, but since his space technique was still active, she found that she couldn't move.

"Oh, right. It's still active. And although it's amazing, against someone who also uses the space element, it's useless," Elaris said with a smirk.

The next second—

*SWISH*

—she disappeared from her place and reappeared right beside Renan, her fist pulled back slightly before she launched a punch straight at his chest again.

"Ohh, shit," Renan muttered as he saw the punch coming.

*BANG*

And the fight continued—though it was hardly a fight and more of a one-sided beating.