Chapter 646: Lostvayne’s Rage
Vonun clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"They got away."
The Infernal Archdevil didn’t like this situation one bit. He expected that at least one of them would die, but all he managed to do was inflict wounds that could be healed over time.
Around him, twelve Inferior and Intermediate Transcendent Red and Ash Dragons lay on the floor with their heads lowered.
Beside him, Yujia wore a frown on her face.
"It doesn’t make sense no matter how much I think about it. I am positive he was not a Transcendent. How did he block my time powers? I even tried to freeze him in time but it didn’t work..."
Jegunul, who was seated on the head of one of the dragons offered his suggestions.
"It’s either he can somehow comprehend laws before Transcendence and has higher comprehensions than you do..."
"That’s not possible. Only Transcendents and above can comprehend laws. This is common sense."
Yujia interrupted Jegunul and the man shrugged and offered his other suggestions.
"Then he might possess a strong Time Artifact...or he has a Bestowed Pseudo-Authority from a Deity."
"..."
Silence pervaded the area after he spoke.
’For him to have a Bestowed Pseudo-Authority...it means he has connections to a Deity of Time. Just who is that kid...?’
Yujia looked at the ruins of the mountain where the dungeon once was with narrowed eyes and Vonun finally spoke.
"We move with the assumption that he does.
It would also be prudent to assume that his Destruction power is even stronger than his Time Power. He most likely has a Destruction Pseudo-Authority as well."
Vonun assumed a worst-case scenario, throwing his common sense of mortals below Transcendence being limited to one bestowed Pseudo-Authority out of the way.
As he stepped forward, Vonun’s gaze fell on something protruding from the solidified lava.
"Excavate that. There’s something there... and it has the Silver-Haired one’s aura on it."
Two of the dragons moved in response to his command and within a minute, they unearthed an object buried beneath the hardened surface—a sword.
It was simple in design, almost unremarkable. The blade was jet-black, with dull silver lines tracing its length.
Despite carrying a lingering trace of Arthur’s destruction aura, Vonun found nothing immediately remarkable about it.
And yet, he didn’t move. Not out of instinct, but out of calculated caution.
He replayed the events of the past few minutes in his mind—Arthur had never summoned a weapon. Both of his hands had been occupied, maintaining the gravity barrier that had protected him.
So why was this sword here?
Before he could unravel the mystery, two streaks of light descended from above, landing with a thud in front of the blade.
Two Archdevils—Inferior Transcendents, both of them.
"Lord Vonun. We have eliminated those three you sent us to handle, but what happened here? Did you get the nuisances?"
"..."
Vonun didn’t answer them. He just kept staring at the black sword in silence.
A spatial tear shimmered open behind him, and Azzonnin, the Soul Devil, stepped through.
His eyes followed Vonun’s line of sight to the sword and the moment his gaze landed on it, an overwhelming wave of terror gripped him—an existential fear only a Soul Devil could understand.
Instinctively, he jumped back and shouted at the two Archdevils near it.
[GET AWAY FROM THAT SWORD!]
The two Archdevils froze, confusion flickering in their eyes.
"Wha—?"
**CHUK!
"Gargh!"
The sound of Azzonnin’s voice was too slow. By the time it reached the ears of the Archdevils, the sword had already vanished.
Vonun’s eyes widened and he looked around warily, however, the sword’s new location quickly revealed itself when one of the Archdevils coughed violently, blood pouring from his mouth.
Sticking from his chest, glowing with a faint, crimson-silver light, was the black blade.
[REMOVE IT FROM HIS BODY! IT’S DEVOURING HIS SOUL!!!]
"?!"
A weapon that could devour souls?! Vonun did not expect that kind of danger.
Azzonnin, as a Soul Devil, could feel the instinctive threat that this black sword—Lostvayne—posed to his existence.
And Lostvayne knew this as well.
The second Inferior Transcendent Archdevil tried to pull the sword from the chest of his first, but that was a bad idea.
While he succeeded in pulling the sword out of his friend’s chest and preventing it from devouring his friend’s soul, he also succeeded in making himself the sword’s next target.
Lostvayne was a weapon that could only be wielded by its owner. If you touched it without permission from the owner, you’d only be courting death.
The destructive cosmic energy in the sword lashed out and immediately, the Archdevil’s entire arm was blasted out of existence.
**SWOOSH!
Faster than he could scream, the sword spun around and blood sprayed in the air—along with the Archdevil’s severed head.
The power of the half-devoured soul had granted Lostvayne more leeway and it could release more of its innate power, allowing it to kill a Transcendent in a strike.
Vonun roused his magic power and a Pseudo-Authority was activated, while Yujia used her time powers.
Tendrils of wood burst from the ground and tried to wrap around Lostvayne, but the sword spun in the air and sliced them, before shooting through the air and piercing the chest of the Archdevil it attacked first.
It completely ignored Yujia’s time powers and focused on devouring the rest of the Archdevil’s soul.
As the corpse fell to the ground like a lifeless husk, Lostvayne’s power increased and immediately, it charged towards Vonun.
Vonun dodged and turned around to retaliate, but his eyes widened in surprise when he saw that the sword didn’t turn around to attack him like he expected, but instead went after Azzonnin who was trying to create a spatial gate.
Azzonnin jumped out of the way for his life and the sword split the spatial gate in two, causing the spatial power to explode and knock them back.
The breaths of the dragons who had bombarded Arthur tore through the spatial explosion and hit the sword, knocking it onto the ground.
But it suffered not a single scratch.
Lostvayne spun around and drilled itself into the ground, burrowing through the earth and emerging from underneath one of the red dragons, piercing through its neck. Destruction infused Cosmic energy exploded and so did the dragon’s neck.
It didn’t devour the dragon’s soul but instead shot towards the second one. But before it could slice that one, a giant claw swiped down from above and caught the sword, slamming it onto the ground.
The Black Dragon had appeared.
It glared at the sentient blade with its crimson eyes, hell flames smoking out of its open maw.
"Murobis."
Vonun called out to his dragon who infused more law energy into its forelimb, keeping Lostvayne down on the ground.
Lostvayne struggled but the law energy of the Superior Transcendent dragon was too great. As such, Lostvayne that was in a limited state and was locked to Inferior Transcendent Level power because Arthur had not become Transcendent yet could not break free.
It had devoured the soul of an Inferior Transcendent earlier, but that power was only good for killing two more Inferior Transcendents.
Suddenly—
[ḱ̶̯̦̮̓̐d̶̦̻̰̰͉͇̎̈̄b̴̂̓͐̿̚͘͜ḑ̶̖̻̲̓͠ḫ̶͔̯͖̫̘̃̋́͝f̸̗̘̙̯̯͆͜v̴̨̛̦̔̀̎b̶̡̲͐̈́̈́̀̈́͝ĥ̸̡͍͉̈́͐̃̓͛c̶̪̰͔̟̯̚d̵̜͎́͊̓͜ͅş̴̖̺̯̱͗ç̴̢̝͇̝̈́͆̽́ ̴̛̛̞̘̠̈s̶̨͔̫̯͎͌͐̌̋͝ċ̸̰͎̣ ̶̥͓̘̪͎̰̌͒̔̏̈x̴̨͙̬͉̭͔̏d̶͖͉̆̄!!]
"Ugh!"
"Aghhh!"
An unintelligible noise poured directly into their souls; a sound unleashed by the sentient blade in a frequency that mortals could not perceive.
Every soul present felt the assault: a visceral throb that crashed against their skulls like the relentless pounding of a hammer.
The Black Dragon was no different and its hold on Lostvayne loosened.
Taking advantage of that moment, Lostvayne slipped out of its claws and immediately the destruction energy the sword emanated vanished.
However, Azzonnin’s eyes widened and the fear he felt from the blade only increased.
Cosmic energy condensed around the blade and the dark silhouette of a hand holding the sword’s hilt appeared.
The silhouette expanded into a full arm, but before it could grow any further, a feminine voice resounded in the area.
[LOSTVAYNE! DON’T!]
[...]
The cosmic energy stopped gathering.
Lostvayne remained still in the air and then another short unintelligible sound rang out.
[T̵͖̥̩̩͋̏̚s̴̲̒k̵͉͖͛̂̂͝!̸̫͖̙̭̣͕̓͆̓͋]
However, despite not understanding it, everyone could somehow tell that the Ego Weapon had clicked its figurative tongue.
The arm silhouette disappeared and the sword turned around and flew away into the distance, leaving behind the shocked Archdevils.
◇ ◇ ◇
Sound was left behind as Lostvayne cut through the air, crossing thousands of kilometres per second.
The blade’s trajectory was so fast it barely existed in one place before vanishing. It crossed vast distances in a matter of minutes, eventually arriving at a cave that had a trail of silver blood leading into it.
Deep within that cave, slumped against the jagged stone walls was a wounded, barely conscious Arthur.
Silver blood poured freely from a gaping wound in his stomach, his flesh scorched so much one could see the organs it was meant to cover up.
The hell flames of the Black Dragon clung stubbornly to his arm and face, scalding his skin even now.
The implosion of space at the last moment had caused severe spatial damage that only made his situation worse, and he was violently spat out near this cave.
Ambient cosmic energy was drawn to his body, but his regeneration was snail-slow as the potent law energy within the hell flames hindered his regeneration.
His companions were nowhere in sight, each of them scattered far from him just as they had been two days ago.
[Master... Master!]
The voice of Celestia, his semi-transparent Ego weapon, trembled, strained and desperate as she used every last drop of ambient magic power she could draw in to keep his mind tethered to consciousness.
[Please! Just... just open it a little bit... your subspace... please!]
If Celestia had a physical body, she would have been on her knees, tears flowing uncontrollably. Instead, she used her blade to lift Arthur’s limp arm while pleading with every fibre of her being.
[A little bit, Arthur... just a little...]
Her voice cracked with fear, but Arthur barely registered her words, his consciousness slipping deeper into darkness.
Lostvayne, silent through it all, pulsed faintly. The silver lines along its blade began to glow, and without warning, it plunged itself into the back of Arthur’s palm.
