Chapter 564: Three Worlds: World 2 III
Arthur waved his hand and sent a wave of destruction energy crashing down on the heroes with the force of a tsunami. The Sovereigns barely managed to raise their shields in time, but the impact sent them sprawling with their defences cracked.
Nylia, however, wasn’t taken down so easily. She recovered quickly and lunged at Arthur again, her blade slicing through the air at supersonic speed, but Arthur’s thought speed was too fast for such an attack to get him.
He coated his palms in cosmic energy and caught the blade with his hand, the edge barely grazing his skin. He then activated his strength enhancement, and pulled on the blade, dragging its wielder along with it and flinging them both to the ceiling.
Nylia bashed through the ceiling and towards the top floors of the castle, and the other two Heroes tried to capitalize on Arthur’s destabilized movements after he had just thrown someone.
But they made the mistake of using projectile-based attacks, and like all projectiles in Arthur’s bounded field, they were trapped within Chronospheres, suspended in time.
Two bodies suddenly crashed into the group from behind, and Arthur glanced ahead to see Evan dragging the third Legendary hero back into the ruined throne room.
He’d been toying with them, batting them around like a cat playing with mice.
"Hey, Arthur. I was wondering. Between Dead Red and Dead Red 2, which one do you prefer?"
Evan casually asked a question that had nothing to do with the current situation, showing how little he regarded the Hollorians as a threat.
"I don’t know man."
Arthur responded as he dodged the strikes of Nylia who attacked him from behind. She repeated her lightning-fast attacks, but Arthur’s time-accelerated movements allowed him to sidestep them with ease.
Nylia didn’t even realise that Arthur also slowed her time so in his POV, she was a lot slower than she thought she was.
The boy coated his hands in cosmic energy and activated his Progenitor Authority, parrying her blade to the side with his right hand, before infusing his left with gravity law energy and throwing it forward.
His movements were a blur, and by the time Nylia even realised what was happening, Arthur’s fist had already hit her chest five times.
**BA-BA-BAAAAMMM!!!!
The sound came a few moments later, but by then, Nylia’s body had already crashed into the wall of Arthur’s Bounded Field.
The impacts of his punches were bone-shattering, cracking her ribcage and sending shockwaves through her body. She gasped, blood spraying from her mouth as she was hurled backwards, her breath knocked out of her.
After this, Arthur turned towards Evan and responded with a shrug.
"Dead Red 2, I guess."
"You like 2 as well, huh? I didn’t really like the whole hostage situation with his family in part 1."
As Evan spoke, the dragonkin Hero whose feet he was dragging opened his mouth and spat out a breath of green flames, but they never reached Evan as his body was instantly covered by a spherical barrier of his signature golden magic power.
Without a second thought, Evan flung the dragonkin in Nylia’s direction, knocking her back down just as she was trying to rise.
"Wouldn’t you kill them? You need the EXP, right?"
To Arthur’s question, Evan glanced at his status board, then nodded in affirmation.
"Yeah. I would."
Arthur didn’t say any more. He turned to the two Sovereigns who were trying to help Nylia and disappeared, reappearing right behind them.
"?!"
Celestia cut through the air with a graceful arc, and though one of them reacted and attempted to block, Arthur’s blade sliced through his defences as if they were made of paper.
Arthur then infused more cosmic energy, amplifying his law energy damage as he pulled the blade back and swung down with extra force, splitting the man’s body in two.
The other one tried to retreat but Arthur was faster. He stepped forward, closing the distance in the blink of an eye and delivered a swift horizontal slash with the power to split an island into two halves.
It severed the Sovereign’s torso from his legs, spraying blood across the floor as the Sovereign crumpled to the ground, his life fading away.
Arthur then turned his attention to Nylia, who had finally managed to stand again, albeit shakily. There was a fire in her eyes, a last spark of defiance that refused to be extinguished.
"You’re tenacious, I’d give you that. But it wouldn’t save you."
"..."
The young woman gave no words in reply and charged at Arthur, her flames burning brighter than ever before.
She conjured a five-ringed spell circle and launched a stream of flames at him, but Arthur used a spatial barrier to block them, before sidestepping to dodge her slash that came through the flames.
He observed as the blade cut through the air, carving a deep fissure into the ground where he had stood moments before. Nylia noticed his eyes looking away and subtly drew in ambient spatial power, infusing it into her blade at that moment.
Without missing a beat, she reversed her grip and unleashed an upward slash, the flames trailing behind her sword like a comet’s tail.
However, Arthur simply teleported behind her and struck with a cosmic energy-coated Celestia. But just as his attack connected with her back, his instincts screamed a warning, and his eyes widened in shock.
But it was too late.
A sudden surge of pain erupted from within him as he felt silver blood rush up his throat, staining his lips. Surprise filled his eyes as the sound of his bounded field’s dome-shaped barrier shattering echoed in his ears.
’She was aiming for my bounded field...’
Now he realised that the spatial power in her sword was not for his spatial barrier but to destroy the Hall of Fractured Time.
Arthur staggered back a bit, clutching his chest where the pain radiated from. The young woman, though injured, had been prepared to sacrifice everything for this one chance, and she had succeeded in breaking through his Bounded Field.
Her communicator shone with light and the SOS signal she tried to send earlier went out, bouncing off numerous signal towers at light speed as the warning was transmitted to her comrades on the front line.
Radio Signals travelled at light speed, so by the time Arthur could even think to stop time, it was already out of his range.
Instead, he simply took out his own communication device and warned the Four-Star General that the Hollorians were aware of his presence and he should act as soon as possible.
Just as he did that, he and everyone else felt an enormous surge of demonic energy wash over them and the ground beneath him began to tremble, as if the earth itself was quaking in fear.
The vibrations grew stronger, rattling the walls of the ruined throne room and sending cracks spider-webbing across the stone floor.
Arthur turned his gaze outside through the broken walls and saw a colossal pillar of black fire erupting in the distance, setting the heavens ablaze.
The inferno spiralled upward, its flames a furious mix of midnight black and deep crimson, reaching towards the sky as if seeking to consume the very sun.
Its heat was so intense that even from a distance, the air shimmered with waves of heat, distorting everything in sight.
"Oof...Damn. This guy is as strong as Alvey at the very least."
Arthur remarked as he saw the attack of the Demon General from a distance, holding out his hand and conjuring a cosmic energy barrier to block the shockwaves that came a few seconds later.
Nylia was knocked down to the ground, her eyes widening in shock and despair. Who knew how many millions of Hollorians had just died in that strike? She didn’t even want to think about it.
"!!"
Her soul suddenly screamed out in fear and she rolled out of the way just before Arthur’s sword pierced down where she was a moment ago. But before she could get to her feet, Arthur kicked her in the stomach and sent her flying.
She flipped around mid-air and landed on her feet, nearly falling but she used her sword as a crutch to keep standing.
Arthur flashed in behind her and she conjured another blade of energy to block his first strike, before grabbing her actual sword and attacking him just as her energy blade shattered.
A silver haze erupted from Arthur’s body and wrapped around Celestia, and the next time the sword touched Nylia’s, the elf’s weapon shattered to pieces.
The godslayer kicked her in the stomach and then poured his Null power into his blade, releasing it as a beam of destruction that collided with Nylia, obliterating her feeble defence attempts and shredding her durability.
Her body trembled and crashed on the ground and with a final merciless swing, Arthur brought Celestia down upon her neck.
The blade sliced through flesh and bone with ease, and Nylia’s head was severed from her body, falling to the ground with a dull thud.
As her lifeless body crumpled to the floor, Arthur flicked the blood of his sword and sheathed it, before turning around and walking back to the ruined castle where Evan sat on the remaining throne, scrolling through his System Archive.
Arthur used magic to rewind the entire castle to its previous state, before plopping down on the remade throne and pulling out his portable console.
"I feel like playing Dead Red now."
"Ohh, gimme the other console. I wanna finish Souls of the Dark."
Evan asked and Arthur tossed the console to him.
Just like that, the two boys began playing games and this was the scene the High-Rank Demons met when they returned from the battlefield.
