Chapter 655: Infernal Archdevil Commander: Yujia I
"Were you enemies in your sect, or is this just a new brand of idiocy?"
Xinyi’s eyes shook as she struggled to free her neck, but she couldn’t even grip his arm properly due to the gravity law energy around it.
The other disciple tried to rouse her energy, but Arthur cast her a chilling glare.
"Try anything, and I’ll collapse the gravity around your necks, turning you both into singularity cores."
His voice was accompanied by the activation of his Pseudo-Authority, something the two Transcendents sensed.
Just then, a faint voice whispered in his mind, broken and desperate.
’Please... let... with... my own hands...’
"..."
Arthur went silent when he heard the telepathic message. He glanced at Xinyi, studying her with new understanding.
"You comprehend the Law of Creation...your sect..."
Immediately, the pieces fell into place. He wouldn’t have thought about this if Charisse hadn’t spoken to him, but she did, and now he connected the dots.
With a sigh, Arthur released his grip on Xinyi, allowing her body to fall—only to spin and drive a back kick into her midsection, sending her soaring through the air.
The other disciple tried to do something, but Arthur just slammed her into the ground, knocking the wind out of her lungs before hurling her after Xinyi.
The two collided mid-air and crashed to the ground in a heap, with Arthur glancing at them momentarily, before his gaze shifted to the sky.
’She’s close...’
|¬Law Resonance. Pseudo-Authority of Time: Slipstream¬|
A crack ran through Arthur’s face, like a fracture in glass. The crack spread, splintering across his body, until he shattered into fragments.
The shards of his image dissipated into silver dust that dispersed and melted into the ambient time law energy.
The technique Arthur just used dissolved his presence into the flow of time itself, effectively erasing his temporal signature. While active, he was completely invisible to other time manipulators.
Ordinarily, while his Pseudo-Authority shielded him from temporal interference of anyone below his Authority level, he would still appear as a ’void’ in the perception of lesser time manipulators—a conspicuous blank spot.
But with Slipstream, he left nothing behind. No void, no hint. To anyone watching through the layers of time, it was as if Arthur had never been there at all.
◇ ◇ ◇
Yujia was enraged.
She had expected the Spirits to take some form of action, but not this!
With each wave of her hands, she broke space open, forming a gate that let her cross hundreds of kilometres in one jump, heading back to her base as fast as she could.
She’d left that place in the hands of her Inferior and Intermediate Transcendent Archdevil subordinates, normally more than capable—but the Ten Elder Spirits were no ordinary enemies.
Each one had power edging dangerously close to the Superior Stage, and all ten of them at once was a recipe for disaster.
She had left her army to continue their attack on the Spirit’s Stronghold and headed back by herself. A few other Archdevils were chasing after her, but they could not match the speed of the Superior Transcendent Time Manipulator.
No matter what, her home base could not be destroyed as the Infernal Devils relied on it to stage their dominance over this continent, and with the impending arrival of reinforcements, they would need a stronghold to regroup.
The Chasm was closing soon, so no setbacks could be allowed, not at this point.
Threads of time law energy wove around her, shifting her awareness to a different point in the present time, to the present of Nature’s Dwelling.
Seeing as she could easily view the Spirit’s Abode with her powers, her expression contorted. The Elder Spirits whose presence usually interfered with her powers were not present.
She switched up, shifting her awareness forward into a possible future—one in which she had already arrived at her base and she saw the figures of those Ten Elders at her own base.
’Damn it, did they go mad from desperation?!’
Yujia clicked her tongue internally as her vision receded. She tore through the last spatial gate, bursting through into the battle-scarred air above her base.
Immediately, her loud voice cut through the storm of battle.
"You damned—!"
But the shout died in her mouth.
Her battle-honed instincts roared with a warning, and her senses screamed that danger lurked behind her, closer than she’d thought possible.
She spun, summoning a network of Tier 6 magic circles that blazed to life, but it was too late.
|¬Be Still. ¬|
Time Obeyed that command given by an Authority that superseded her control.
Her body froze, trapped in the flow of time for a single, devastating second.
But one second was more than enough for a blade already drawn back, to be driven forward once more.
|¬Extreme Nothingness. ¬|
Point Blank, with zero defences up.
Even a Superior Stage Transcendent would not be unscathed.
Arthur’s blade enveloped in the violent purple mix of time and destruction, met her exposed back unimpeded.
The impact exploded through the air with violent force, tearing her from the sky in a space-breaking blast of purple and silver light.
The energy detonated, flinging her forward as her body rocketed across the ground, an unwilling projectile. The ground split and tore beneath her as she crashed, skipping across the earth in brutal arcs.
Each impact splintered the earth, blood scattering from her wounds as she finally came to a ragged halt, sprawled across a path of broken rock and dirt stretching kilometres behind her.
High in the sky, Arthur took a deep breath, releasing a small silver mist with his exhale. He’d struck with his full power, holding nothing back, so he needed a few seconds to let his Energy Circuit cool down.
[Master, go after her!]
Celestia shouted at him, as well as Lostvayne, telling the sword to move, but Arthur stayed his hand.
"Celestia, even a cornered rat will bite a cat. What do you think a cornered tiger would do?"
As the dust and smoke cleared, the truth of his caution was laid bare.
Surrounding Yujia’s wounded body were seven Tier 5 and 6 Magic circles glowing dangerously.
Arthur recognized one as a temporal disabling circle, one that interfered with the fabric of time, consequently, distorting space and preventing teleportation.
Had Arthur gone in for another strike, he’d have been caught in them, unable to teleport or evade the remaining six magic circles loaded with powerful law energy.
Feeling his energy circuits finally cool down, Arthur’s eyes glowed and he reactivated his Destruction Pseudo-Authority.
The energy of his attack in Yujia’s body came alive and began eating away at her, leaving her no choice but to try to expel it with her own law energy.
But Arthur wasn’t just going to stand and watch, was he?
A thin silver line of extinction law energy split the air, and Yujia instinctively rolled to the side, avoiding the slash but taking her focus off the destruction energy she was trying to expel.
As far as that destruction energy was there, Yujia could not fight with all her might since its power, backed by a Pseudo-Authority’s command, would relentlessly try to destroy her body and try to reach her soul.
It wasn’t something she could expel instantly. What’s more, Arthur’s attack had dealt A LOT of damage. He’d infused Cosmic Energy and divinity, after all.
What’s even more, Arthur’s Extinction Slash had torn through her spell circles, causing her backlash.
He’d secured an advantage, and now, Yujia would have to fight from the back foot.
’Attribute Resonance. Law Resonance. Force Amplification.’
Activating the Spirit technique trio, Arthur charged right at Yujia while the Elder Spirits hurried to end their battles so they could aid him.
He swapped out Celestia for Lostvayne, his destruction energy flowing smoother and amplifying with each pulse sent through it.
Sensing Arthur incoming, Yujia exploded in rage. A burst of powerful infernal energy surged from her body, melting the earth around her.
A Halberd appeared in her right hand, a construct formed from molten rock that glowed like liquid flame.
Lava bubbled in the distance, the nearby volcanoes stirred by her presence as she charged and swung her halberd down, leaving a trail of burning air.
Arthur did not make the silly mistake of trying to block that. He sidestepped the slash, but even as he did, the sheer power of her strike cracked the earth beneath him, sending lava shooting up in violent eruptions.
Not flinching, he raised Lostvayne and swung it in a wide arc, meeting Yujia’s next attack head-on. The clash of sword and halberd sent shockwaves through the atmosphere, sparks of destructive energy dancing with molten fire.
No words were exchanged. There was no need for that.
Yujia pushed Arthur back with her raw physical strength, forcing Arthur to skid backwards. Her halberd swung again, this time infused with her flame law energy that resonated with the weapon to birth lava.
The molten edge crackled with intense heat, threatening to engulf him in a wave of burning rock, but Arthur bent gravity to deflect her strike and instantly shot upward to avoid the molten deluge.
|¬Downforce!¬|
Gravity bent to his will once more, and a powerful surge crashed down on Yujia with immense force. The Archdevil faltered for a moment, losing control of the energy she was using to hold back Arthur’s malignant destruction power as her body was pinned to the ground.
As the air bent under the pressure, Arthur charged in, raising Lostvayne in preparation for an attack but Yujia was far from done.
She forced her hand up and punched the ground, causing a massive eruption of lava that shot towards Arthur and forced him to twist mid-air to avoid the searing wave.
The eruption provided Yujia with the opening she needed to block his destruction energy and charged at him once more, her halberd crashing down on his body with all her might.
Arthur raised Lostvayne just in time, but the impact rattled his bones, forcing him to grit his teeth as he felt the shockwave reverberate through his body.
The destructive energy of his sword clashed against Yujia’s molten power, but the force of her strike sent him crashing into the ground, carving the earth in his wake.
Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth as he pulled himself to his feet, his gaze locked onto Yujia who was moving in for a follow-up already.
Cosmic energy wrapped around his body and he vanished, appearing at Yujia’s right side and swinging his sword with all his might.
"Island Split!"
The slash of destructive energy hit her faster than she could block, sending her body crashing into the ground.
’Gravitemporal Harmony: Weighted Impact.’
Anti-Divinity surged from Arthur’s body as he tore through the air, reaching Yujia immediately and swinging his sword down.
Silver energy surged from the blade and Yujia’s soul screamed at her to do whatever she could to make sure that strike didn’t land.
Arthur swung his sword repeatedly and Yujia blocked with her Halberd, parrying his slashes. But before she could take advantage of the gap created by the parry, Arthur’s movements snapped back in place and he struck again with perfect form.
He was using time to skip the process of regaining his balance after having his strike parried, and unless Yujia had a Pseudo-Authority, she couldn’t stop it.
Arthur combined slashes, and thrusts, and eventually, one of his strikes slipped past her guard, slashing across her arm.
Blood splattered on the ground, sizzling as it met the molten earth and Yujia grit her teeth as she felt the pain of the unhealable wound.
She pulled back, cauterizing her skin as she used her power of time to slow Arthur’s movements. It was an instinctive reaction as she always used her time powers in battle, but it didn’t work this time.
