Chapter 1010: The Sacrifice of Wings
’Authority of Time: Temporal Reversal!’
Arthur quickly used his Authority to reverse time around the injuries along his right arm, flesh and blood restoring themselves instantly as though the spear thrusts had never landed.
Roseborn’s eyes widened just as Arthur swung Lostvayne, the crimson silver blade cutting straight toward Roseborn’s neck.
But just when it seemed like Arthur was about to land a lethal blow, Roseborn unfurled more of his wings, four feathered wings bursting from his back and curving around the side of his body before folding over one another into a multi-layered barrier that blocked Lostvayne from reaching his neck at the cost of the wings themselves.
Arthur’s blade cleaved through feathers, flesh, and bone alike, causing Roseborn immense pain, but the Flugel still succeeded in stopping the sword.
The feathers scattered through space from Arthur’s slash immediately glowed with curse law energy, and then Roseborn used his Authority of Alacrity to launch all of them straight toward Arthur.
Arthur instantly activated his Temporal Aspect to slow time around himself, but even that wasn’t enough to fully halt the incoming feathers, which were already at point-blank range. Several still pierced through his body, tearing holes through flesh before bursting out the opposite side.
Before the remaining feathers could perforate him further, Arthur activated Annihilation Sphere, releasing a rapidly expanding dome of destructive energy from his position that blasted both the feathers and Roseborn into the distance.
’Shit, his Curse Authority’s too strong for me to fully reverse the damage! In that case...!’
Arthur immediately dropped onto one knee and activated his Temporal Authority on the pierced sections of his body, stopping not only the progression of the wounds, but also the spread of the curse law energy infused within them.
The instant he did that, Roseborn flipped through space before landing on his feet after being blasted away by Arthur’s Annihilation Sphere.
He immediately roused his magic power and activated his Spatial Authority, his eyes glowing brightly as he shouted, |Domain Declaration!|
The surrounding space instantly fell under Roseborn’s influence as his energy began terraforming the area itself.
Arthur immediately looked up toward him and shouted, |You think I’ll let you?!|
He activated his own Spatial and Gravitational Authorities without hesitation, unleashing waves of law energy that collided directly against Roseborn’s rapidly expanding domain.
Roseborn poured more magic power into his Origin Cores and demonstrated his superior Authority over the universal law of space as he shouted back, |You think you can stop me?!|
And to this, Arthur calmly replied.
|Yeah, I can.|
Holding up his left hand, he clenched his fist, and the vortex of cosmic energy surrounding both of them immediately contracted.
The eye of the energy storm rapidly shrank, encroaching upon the region of space Roseborn was trying to dominate and declare as his Domain, and the immense cosmic energy shattered Roseborn’s nascent domain completely.
The backlash forced Roseborn to vomit blood, and Arthur immediately harnessed the ambient cosmic energy surrounding them and activated his Authority of Destruction.
|Eradication Torrent!|
Spinning spears of destructive energy shot toward the Flugel from every conceivable angle, several pelting his body before he managed to raise defensive barriers, though the barriers quickly began cracking under the force of the destructive cosmic energy.
Arthur immediately leapt forward through the storm of destructive spears, closing the distance in a second. With Lostvayne in one hand and Celestia in the other, Arthur swung both swords downward while descending toward the Flugel.
|Galactic Split.|
Lostvayne descended first, and a colossal crimson silver slash erupted from the blade as cosmic energy roared through space and split apart the ambient law energy in its wake.
Roseborn immediately twisted his body sideways to avoid the incoming slash while still enduring the barrage from Eradication Torrent, but the instant he moved to evade Lostvayne’s attack, Arthur swung Celestia down as well.
|Galactic Split.|
Another massive slash exploded outward, but unlike the first, this one was powered by anti-divinity instead.
Roseborn barely managed to raise his spear in time, the anti-divine Galactic Split slamming directly against the spear shaft, and the moment the collision occurred, Arthur detonated the anti-divinity infused within the slash.
***BOOOOMM!!!
A violent explosion erupted point-blank against Roseborn, the anti-divinity washing over his body, making the Flugel feel as though he’d been drenched in boiling acid. Burns and scalds immediately spread across his skin while parts of his hair disintegrated from the reaction.
Even Arthur’s eyes widened slightly at the sheer intensity of the reaction, as this was the most violent anti-divinity backlash he’d ever witnessed from someone who wasn’t an actual god, only a being possessing divine factors.
But Arthur didn’t allow the thought to distract him for more than an instant before immediately descending upon Roseborn with both swords.
Lostvayne slashed horizontally toward Roseborn’s neck while Celestia thrust toward his chest in the same instant, forcing Roseborn to twist his spear between both attacks and redirect them one after the other.
Sparks of cosmic energy exploded outward from every collision as Arthur continued attacking without pause, using the advantage of wielding two swords against Roseborn’s single spear to force the Flugel entirely onto the defensive.
And Arthur was accomplishing all of this purely through skill alone. He wasn’t using Memories of the Future to predict Roseborn’s movements, nor could he even if he wanted to, because Roseborn’s higher Existence Realm and numerous Authorities prevented Arthur from properly reading his future actions.
Roseborn still managed to block at first. His spear spun through Arthur’s barrage with incredible skill, deflecting Lostvayne before immediately intercepting Celestia, the shaft moving so quickly it seemed to appear in multiple places at once.
Arthur’s swordsmanship, however, became increasingly oppressive the longer the exchange continued.
Celestia swept low toward Roseborn’s legs while Lostvayne descended toward his shoulder. Roseborn blocked the descending blade and pulled his spear downward to stop Celestia, but Arthur instantly reversed Lostvayne’s trajectory and cut back upward, the edge sliding across Roseborn’s cheek and opening a bloody line across his face.
Roseborn retaliated immediately with a spear slash toward Arthur’s throat, but Arthur tilted his head aside while Celestia knocked the spear slightly off course, and Lostvayne stabbed toward Roseborn’s ribs before the Flugel barely redirected the blade away with the lower end of his spear shaft.
Arthur continued pressing him, one sword attacking while the other immediately followed from a blind angle, forcing Roseborn to constantly transition between blocks and parries without even a moment to counterattack properly.
Celestia carved a shallow cut across Roseborn’s forearm, Lostvayne sliced through part of his shoulder moments later, and another slash passed across his abdomen and opened a longer wound that sprayed blood into the surrounding cosmic clouds.
Roseborn’s expression darkened further as Arthur’s dual-wielding style became increasingly difficult to handle.
Arthur swung Lostvayne downward with enough force to split galaxies apart, and the instant Roseborn blocked it, Celestia pierced forward from beneath the collision and punched directly into Roseborn’s chest.
Blood exploded from the Flugel’s mouth, and before Roseborn could recover, Arthur used time-accelerated movements to pull Lostvayne free and slash horizontally toward Roseborn’s neck again while Celestia carved toward his side, both blades moving in perfect coordination.
Roseborn used his remaining wings to block Arthur’s blades, folding them in layered formation across his body as the impact of Lostvayne and Celestia tore through feathers, flesh, and bone, sacrificing the wings to halt the descent of Arthur’s attacks.
This sacrifice resulted in him losing a total of five wings on his left side and two on his right, the torn remnants scattering through space under the pressure of the clash.
Roseborn immediately leapt backwards, creating distance while simultaneously activating multiple Authorities in sequence.
|Authority of Alchemy + Dreams + Extinction: Transmuted World of Entropic Nightmares!|
Black-blue energy erupted from his body and rapidly condensed into a gigantic orb that filled the space between him and Arthur, expanding with violent pressure that forced Arthur to halt his advance and teleport backwards to avoid being engulfed.
Arthur immediately looked up and noticed a jagged fracture forming across the surface of the planet-sized orb, which then split open like a set of jaws, revealing a fanged opening that widened into a gaping mouth.
Inside was a swirling, kaleidoscopic expanse that made Arthur feel dizzy just looking at it, forcing him to immediately avert his gaze.
[The Law of Dreams?! Master, no matter what you do, don’t look inside that thing’s mouth,] Lostvayne warned.
Arthur didn’t need the warning to understand the danger. That momentary sensation of disorientation he’d felt when he glanced in earlier was enough for him to know that staring into it would drag him into the Entropic Nightmare in the technique’s name.
However, Roseborn didn’t create this thing to just stand there and look pretty, as the moment it completed its formation, it moved.
The orb lunged at Arthur with FTL speed, attempting to gobble Arthur with its jaws, forcing him to teleport again to evade its path. As he reappeared, Arthur bent the surrounding cosmic energy to his will, forming a crimson sphere around Transmuted World.
He released Lostvayne from his grasp for a moment and clenched his right fist.
|Extreme Nothingness Authority: World Collapse.|
The crimson sphere contracted violently, crushing the expanding Entropic Nightmare construct within its boundary before detonating it in a violent burst of raw energy that tore the Transmuted World apart.
The blast scattered waves of law energy in every direction, obscuring Arthur’s vision, so he expanded his spatial perception across space to locate Roseborn.
For a moment, he detected nothing, but in the next instant, his eyes widened, and he ducked just in time to avoid Roseborn’s spear as it cut through the space where his neck had been a moment earlier.
Arthur rolled forward and rotated into a counter motion, summoning Lostvayne back into his right hand and swinging the blade upward to deflect Roseborn’s follow-up strike. At the same time, he thrust Celestia forward with his left hand, aiming directly for Roseborn’s chest.
Before the thrust could complete, a beam of extinction law energy fired from behind the remnants of the destroyed Entropic Nightmare behind Arthur pierced his left shoulder, obliterating the joint and forcing his attack with Celestia completely off course.
Arthur groaned in pain as his left arm hung from the destroyed shoulder, silver blood spilling from the wound.
Roseborn did not hesitate to exploit the opening, beams of energy erupting from the tips of his remaining wings and merging together into one massive blast of extinction law energy.
|World End Cannon!|
The combined attack pierced through Arthur’s Anti-Divine Gravity barrier and crashed into his chest, sending him hurtling through space. He crashed through the surrounding cosmic energy clouds before slamming into the universe’s barrier with enough force to blast straight through solid planets.
[Arthur!]
Celestia screamed out his name as she tried to charge at Roseborn, but Arthur immediately shouted an order at her.
’Stay down!’
[!]
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