Chapter 390: Transformation Sequences are very costly
"...what...did you just do? How did you do that?"
"Huh?"
Arthur turned towards Stelan with a brow raised, tracing the man’s gaze to the divine sparks in his hands before replying.
"I just extracted the Divine Sparks to absorb them and strengthen myself. For slayers like us, it’s the easiest means of gaining more power.
It also increases the potency of our racial abilities.
Don’t you absorb do this as well?"
"....I usually absorbed the residual energy from their corpses, or through their blood when they were half dead.
To think I could actually extract their Energy Cores just like that..."
Stelan had grown up with the common sense that consuming another being’s energy core was the height of folly, so in his forty years of life, the man had never extracted the energy core of a humanoid opponent before.
And considering that most Divine beings were humanoid, he naturally had not done this to them. Besides, ripping apart someone’s chest to pull out their heart to extract the crystal in their heart wasn’t something one usually considered after defeating an opponent.
"I don’t know about you, but my progenitor Authority makes it easier for me to use ’Extraction’ and ’Attraction’.
You might probably have to carve their chests open."
When Arthur said this, Stelan dropped to his knees, his hands on his head and an expression of deep regret on his face as he muttered under his breath.
"All those demigods...I could have reached transcendence by now if I was able to absorb their cores directly..."
"..."
Arthur legit felt pity for the man when he saw him like this, along with a hint of curiosity about the world the man had originated from where he fought against demigods.
"Here, have this one."
Deciding to be a magnanimous progenitor, Arthur decided to gift the man one of the two divine sparks that he extracted, conveniently ignoring the part where Stelan was the one who had killed one of the two gods in the first place.
As soon as he touched it, the Divine spark started to break down in his hands. The energy contained within it escaped in the form of a golden mist that silently seeped into his body.
This was the first time Stelan was experiencing this phenomenon, so he could not control it and stop his body from automatically absorbing the divine spark’s energy.
"How do I stop this...?"
"Oh, to be honest, I can’t really explain it. You gotta figure that out on your own."
From the get-go, Arthur had always had the choice of picking whether he wanted to absorb the energy automatically or not, and he usually didn’t do so; partly because of his desire to eat Divine Sparks like candy.
"You can put it away in a subspace or something, that should stop the absorption."
Stelan did as Arthur said, tossing the divine spark into his interspatial ring and nodding in affirmation as he noticed the energy flow into his body had stopped.
"Still, I’d need you t-?!"
His words were cut short as he felt a massive presence descend upon the area. The sheer amount of divinity and magic power he sensed was not the kind that could ever come from a lower existence.
It sent chills down his spine and cold sweat dripping down his back as he knew that even if he were to burn all of his life force, he would not be able to defeat the existence that was descending.
Slowly, he turned to the side and saw the humanoid figure of a man hovering in the air—an avatar of light created by divinity—looking right at him and Arthur.
|You Filthy Demons shall pay for daring to desecrate our lands. |
A genuine true voice boomed out, ringing out across the entirety of Duskhand as if trying to make sure the people in the Outer City noticed his presence.
’Like the whole light show wasn’t enough...’
Naturally, Arthur figured out the intentions of this man who was descending, about to roll his eyes when his ears caught Stelan’s mutter.
"...a high-ranked god..."
|¬Wait...what?!¬|
Arthur could not help but voice out his shock when he heard Stelan’s words, and the man could not blame the boy for his surprise.
However, he was sorely mistaken about the reason for Arthur’s surprise.
While he believed that Arthur was surprised because he had never met such a powerful being before, Arthur was dumbfounded because the strength he could sense from that avatar of light was only a little bit lower than Lute’s.
Meaning that the owner of this avatar of light was nothing more than a Half-Deity/Demigod realm existence.
|¬Mere Half-Deity realms are considered ’High Ranked’ gods? What sort of premium bullshit is this? ¬|
It was only after he spoke that Stelan finally understood the reason for his earlier exclamation of surprise.
If gods like Asclepius and Hecate were to hear this, they might wipe out both Aramis and Stelan’s home world for the disrespect.
’Wait, with the way dad described Asclepius, that guy wouldn’t bat an eye unless they said something like ’we can make better medicine than you’...
Hecate might also just turn them into ingredients for her magic experiments...’
Arthur thought this to himself as he placed a hand on his chin, not at all bothered by the newly appearing presence.
This was because he could see the real essence of what was happening due to his Progenitor Authority that was still active, as well as his eyes which were infused with law energy.
Putting it in layman’s terms, this ’High Ranked god’ was only a tiny soul fragment of the real person, which was also currently in a spirit-like state, and could not do anything without possessing a material body.
So, while he indeed possessed the power of a Half-Deity realm, that only applied to his true body and not this spirit form he was currently in.
After possessing a material body, probably that of the god whom Arthur had blasted away with his dragon breath earlier, the Half-Deity would be able to exert influence on the material world, however, he would be greatly limited in how much power he could display.
This was simply because the Sovereign Realm body of the god who was currently weakened by Arthur could not hold the full power of a Half-Deity realm existence.
And just like Arthur guessed, the ’High Ranked god’ spirit only frowned before transforming into a streak of light that shot down onto the body of the god on the ground.
His eyes and mouth opened wide and released glowing beams of light as the Demigod’s spirit temporarily took control over the body.
There was a loud ’crunch’ sound and the god’s body started to contort and shift, trying to adapt to the essence of the being who was currently inside it.
Seeing this, Arthur held out his hand and used his Pseudo Authority of Time, using ’Temporal Reduction’ to slow the speed of the flow of time around them.
He then turned towards Stelan and asked the man a simple question while pointing at the still-transforming god.
"So, what in his right mind made him think we were gonna just sit back and watch him transform?"
"...I honestly have zero idea."
Stelan was surprised as he had expected a more...sensible approach.
A being on his level should have known that body possession was not something that could happen instantly, especially if the target body was injured greatly.
There was a transition period which could range from a few seconds to minutes depending on the compatibility with the possessor and the possessed.
"We should probably kill him now, right?"
"We should."
The instant Stelan answered, he unsheathed his blood blade while Arthur switched Celestia for Lostvayne and coated the blade with the purple-silver light of Null.
Both godslayers kicked off the ground and dashed forward through the slowed world, arriving in front of the god whose transformation sequence had been delayed by Arthur’s action of slowing time.
They attacked simultaneously with Arthur targeting the god’s neck while Stelan aimed for the legs.
**SWIIISSHH!!!
Their weapons cut through the god’s body like butter, lopping off the neck and amputating the legs, however, they weren’t done yet.
Arthur and Stelan pulled their blades back and stabbed them into the god’s collar bones, dragging the swords downwards and splitting his torso into three parts.
It was only after this did Arthur’s Time Reduction reach its limit and expired, returning the time flow speed to normal.
|GARGH?!|
