Chapter 1070: Preventing Escape
Exhaling softly, Nyer massaged the bridge of his nose.
This wasn’t entirely out of his expectations. He knew that trying to usurp the Reaper’s powers and foundational Laws was going to be difficult.
It’s the reason why he spent so much time making sure things worked out the way they should.
Yet... Even so, even when he had expected this, seeing Alice achieve this outcome was surprising.
She must’ve grasped the Reaper’s mindset in a short period of time and managed to convince him to help her.
At least... to some extent.
’Had I kept her by my side, she would’ve never achieved something like this.’ Nyer thought to himself.
However, while he missed out on claiming the Reaper’s full authority, he still got what he needed. For the plan he wished to carry out, this was more than enough.
"The work here is done. If you wish to remain and fight, be my guest. I’m leaving." Nyer turned towards Theron and the others.
The Doctor glanced at Alice before turning back to Nyer.
Today would be a simple taste test. Nothing more, nothing less.
Their final battle would happen when the Zenia family was up in flames. That much he was sure of.
Adjusting his glasses, the Doctor shrugged off the Elven Lord’s attacks and made his way back to Nyer.
Even though the Elven Lord was displeased, there was not much she could do to stop him.
The battle was out of her hands the moment she failed to deploy her resonance on time.
But Alice wasn’t going to let the Doctor go so easily.
Now that the Reaper was safe, there was something she had to do if she wanted to figure out why the Doctor was unkillable.
*BANG!!!
A surge of energy erupted from Alice’s body as her hair fluttered behind her.
Spider lilies blossomed across the battlefield as she took aim with her finger. She posed as though holding an invisible bow.
Using the Void to attack would prove to be difficult. Nyer was there to stop things if necessary.
Therefore, rather than using it as a method of attack, she had to use it as a way to manipulate the world.
She needed to keep her attack safe while also making sure it had enough power to pierce through anything that stood in its way.
Personal artifact!
Controlling her artifact to condense its effects around her attack, Alice made sure not to destroy the personal realms that Karya and Lab had deployed.
"Are we doing it? They seem to be preparing for a retreat." Lab asked as Alice narrowed her eyes.
"Don’t make it easy for them." She ordered.
"Understood." Lab’s eyes burned with a radiant fire as her body rushed forward. Flames screeched behind her as they propelled her beyond her normal limits.
"!!!"
Widening his eyes, the Doctor was surprised to see a palm inches away from his face.
This burning heat...
His vision eroding from the corners...
*BANG!!!
A torrent of flames enveloped the Doctor’s head as his eyes and skin were melted away in an instant.
Without giving him a chance to breathe, she pivoted on her foot and slammed her fist into his spine, throwing him into the air.
With the Doctor flung away, Lab pressed her palms together and aimed at Nyer and Theron.
Flames were condensed to their absolute limit as cracks appeared across her forearms.
Through these cracks, a burning glow grew brighter as an obscene amount of energy condensed into her palms.
Theron rushed to intercept as his job was now over.
Summoning his sword, he twisted his body and unleashed a single slash that ripped across the gap between them.
"I don’t think so!" Gin glared.
With the Reaper now freed, he was able to move once more.
Standing in front of Lab, his scythe slammed into the slash and redirected it towards the Doctor, who had finally stabilized himself in the air.
"Duck!" Lab shouted.
Without hesitation, Gin ducked down as the world flashed white for a split moment.
Ashen Conflagration!
Since Gin was close to Lab, he was barely able to dodge the attack as the ground before him melted in an instant. It was as though an invisible sphere had been swiped across the land, erasing everything it touched.
All that was left was a molten landscape leading towards Nyer and the others!
However...
"Hot! My tongue will get burned at this rate..." a voice grumbled, causing Lab’s frown to deepen.
The Eldritch One had returned, and a bundle of Eldritch energy swallowed her attack before it could reach Nyer.
"What a pain..."
His complaints were cut short as warning bells sounded in his mind.
His instincts were telling him to stop taking things casually as his life was on the line.
How long had it been since he sensed this? Since the day he met Nyer?
But where was the danger?
It wasn’t Lab. Her attack was strong, but he was stronger. Reinforced by the Laws of their world, he was allowed the benefits of being an Outer God while also being a resident of this realm.
What about Karya?
She was still supporting the party, simply giving them buffs.
If not her then...
The injured one? Allura?
No, she was still just watching, not making a single move.
She was a lioness at the end of her rope. If needed, she would burn her life to save the people around her. But now was not the time.
So who was it?
He scanned the battlefield before finally landing on Alice.
The source of his anxiety.
Golden chains had already appeared around his arms, and her eyes had shifted.
Energy coiled around her body but... there was no weapon in her hand.
"Nyer, I can kill her, right? I can kill her, right!?" he asked, bordering on a shout as he rushed towards Alice without waiting for Nyer’s response.
Every fibre of his being was telling him that Alice couldn’t be allowed to live.
It didn’t matter what Nyer was planning. If she lived, he wouldn’t be around to see Nyer’s plans come to fruition because he would be dead by then!
Right here, right now, he had to deal with her!
"Sorry, I know I’m not right for this battlefield, but I can’t let you reach her." Elias intercepted with Nalem next to him.
There was a forced smile on his face, but aside from Alice, he was the best when it came to dealing with ’foreign’ elements!
Operation!
A dome expanded around him as the area was now designated as his workstation.
It wasn’t a big one, just large enough to encapsulate the three of them.
Diagnosis!
Elias’s eyes shifted as he immediately identified the sources of Eldritch energy inside his body. Though... it was strange.
After seeing Zal-Ka’Rith, he understood that Alice was an exception.
Even though she had Eldritch energy inside her body, she wasn’t being rejected by the realm.
But this ’thing’ in front of him? He was the same as Alice.
No, that’s not correct. He was more in harmony with the realm than Alice. It was as though, rather than being a foreign source of energy, he was part of this realm instead.
Regardless of what his strange background might be, a job still had to be done.
Scalpel + Sterilisation!
Unleashing a pulse of energy, he directly bypassed the Outer God’s defences and attacked his core.
An unstoppable force slammed into him, repelling him from the barrier.
Confusion spread across his face as he couldn’t understand how Elias was able to do this.
With their difference in power, it should’ve been easy.
His eyes snapped to Nalem, who was next to Elias.
In his hands was a book while faint tethers of energy could be seen linking the two of them together.
Nalem was providing support to Elias, boosting his abilities even further.
With Karya and Nalem’s buffs stacking on Elias, he was able to close the gap in their power, at least on a conceptual level.
In a direct fight, he was still going to lose.
But when it came to setting down rules, his Operation Skill was a perfect counter!
Having successfully delayed the Outer God, Elias didn’t push his luck and immediately retreated. As long as the Outer God lost his momentum, the plan was a success.
Clenching his teeth, the man-made Outer God pivoted on his heel and prepared to run towards Alice when...
He came face to face with her.
A chill ran down his spine. Her eyes stared into his, looking deep into his soul.
He wanted to move when a burning sensation filled his mind.
Wincing from the pain, he glanced down and saw his body restrained by golden chains.
"Ah... What a sorry existence." Alice mumbled, pity in her eyes as she had used Revenant Recollection on him and paired it with her other skills.
Her original intention was to find out his name, as Outer Gods usually followed their names like a bible. And yet...
This man-made god was nameless.
Though that wasn’t entirely correct. He had titles that others would call him by. But he was fundamentally lacking something as an Outer God. In other words, he was lacking the ’soul’ of an Outer God.
A man-made creation, much like herself.
But now was not the time for pity. Alice pinched her fingers.
The bridge between the surface and the Void shrank in an instant, allowing her to cross the gap before expanding once more, returning to normal.
This was essentially Void Step, but on a much bigger scale. Rather than just manipulating her own body, she was manipulating the connection between the two realms.
And seeing the Doctor, Alice understood the annoyance the Reaper felt whenever he saw people chasing after immortality.
For the sake of a ’punishment’, they were willing to go this far...
Disgust filled Alice’s eyes.
She didn’t think she could hate the Doctor more than she originally did. But clearly, she was wrong.
What he did to her, all of his experiments, they were merely a drop in the bucket compared to everything else he’d done in his life.
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