Chapter 670: Progenitor godslayer vs Infernal Verdant I
The Height of Folly.
If something is the height of folly, it is completely ridiculous and will end up badly.
In this battle, three things could be considered the Height of Folly.
1) Fighting a Wood Law User in a Forest.
2) Trying to Compete in Damage Potency against a Destruction Law User.
3) Dragging this battle out for far longer than necessary.
◇ ◇ ◇
A Battle between Transcendents reshapes the landscape.
Beings at the top of the Mortal Pecking Order.
Beings whose bodies were being prepared to be deified.
If they could not reshape the landscape at will, then what mortal could?
**BOOOOOM!!!!
The battlefield trembled with the explosive force of their collision, sending a shockwave that rattled the air and cracked the ground.
Wood splintered with thunderous snaps, beams of energy sizzled as they seared through the air, and a lingering aura of destruction power filled the space.
Trees tore themselves from the ground, reshaping and entwining into massive wooden fists that hammered towards Arthur, each one tipped with thorny, spear-like roots.
Vines lashed out, sprouting from every direction, aiming to bind Arthur with iron-hard strength while pulsing beams of infernal energy shot from blooming flowers on the shoots emerging from the ground around them.
Unfazed, Arthur extended his hand and a monochrome filter fell upon the world. The writhing vines and colossal fists froze in place, but he wasn’t done.
Crimson silver energy gathered in his palm and he thrust it forward, obliterating each wooden appendage in a cascade of splinters and fire.
Suddenly, the ground erupted beneath Arthur’s feet, pillars of wood spiralling up and twisting into jagged towers, each crowned with dark flowers that crackled with energy.
They fired beams in rapid succession, an unending barrage of searing light that converged on Arthur’s position. But Arthur’s power over Time gave him the edge.
With both hands in his pocket, he moved through the onslaught, sidestepping the beams in the tiniest fraction of a second.
Finally, his eyes caught sight of Vonun’s position and Arthur’s right hand raised.
|¬Destruction¬|
One Word.
He transmitted his will to the law of destruction that was ever so eager to help, gathering his energy into a dense crackling sphere of crimson silver light.
In the next second, it was a beam tearing through towering wood constructs and hitting Vonun with meteoric force.
The impact was catastrophic. The blast sent Vonun reeling, shattering his wooden armour and blowing apart the trees he had called upon.
Vonun roared, summoning a forest of massive wooden spikes around him in a desperate attempt to shield himself, but Arthur didn’t let him.
Lostvayne appeared in Arthur’s still outstretched hand and he swung the sword, releasing arcs of destructive energy that vaporized Vonun’s defences.
With the power of time enhancing the speed of his strikes to blinding speeds, Vonun barely realised that Arthur had moved when he’d been struck.
Blood poured from the man as he glared up at Arthur floating in the air with his wings wide open.
’This kid has a devil bloodline?
But that’s not an issue. His law energy is ridiculously potent. This potency does NOT make sense. It’s almost as if...’
Vonun’s mind wanted to deny it. All common sense and convention dictated otherwise. Even nonstandard beings and Irregulars he’d met followed this Law of the Universe.
But the person before him was someone who had shown the power of two Pseudo-Authorities while being below Transcendence.
He had shown law energy as potent as that of a Transcendent, before Transcendence.
What if?
Just what if?
"..."
While Vonun was thinking this, Arthur charged at him so he had to put his thoughts aside for a minute and focus on not getting hit by Lostvayne.
He conjured a wooden spear and swung it, coating it with darkness law energy.
But the moment the spear connected with Arthur’s blade, the dark energy splintered and dissolved, destroyed by the power coursing through Lostvayne.
’Again...at this point, there’s no use denying the reality...this bastard has reached it!’
Jumping back to take distance, Vonun spat out the words that he didn’t want to believe.
"You...you’ve reached Law Completion."
"..."
Arthur froze, his eyes wide in surprise. He seemed so surprised he’d actually stopped his follow-up attack.
"Oh my, I apologize for that.
I thought I was already overestimating you, but if I assumed you wouldn’t notice, I must not have been."
"..."
Now, it was Vonun’s turn to fall silent. Arthur’s words were basically an admission that he had reached Law Completion.
Universal Laws had Ranks.
Each Rank had to be comprehended in order.
For each Rank, there was a place to start and a place to end.
When you reached that end, then you were said to have achieved Law Completion and became a Law Controller.
It wasn’t just a fancy term. It came with power.
If you reached Completion, then you’d already passed the stage where you needed to acquire an Authority.
The first perk of reaching completion was that the Authority’s power increased by 50%.
From Damage to Efficiency, it increased by 50% from whatever it was before.
This power boost...was stackable.
A 50% boost at Basic Completion. Another 50% at Low Completion. Mid Completion. High Completion. Until reaching Monarch Completion—the Peak of the Universe.
With this logic, someone like Arthur’s Mother, Cattleya who had comprehended the High Rank Law of Destruction to Completion, had gained this buff 4 times.
Of course, this was leaving out her ridiculous affinity for destruction. And the fact that she possessed a Unique Authority that gave 75% instead.
But it’s Arthur we’re talking about here, now, isn’t it?
Arthur’s affinity for Destruction was higher than Cattleya’s.
So, the moment he achieved Completion and gained his 50% boost, his affinities for Time and Destruction decided to rear their heads.
| Basic Law Controller Passive (Affinity Bonus): +50% (50%) |
Oh, and right now, Arthur’s Time and Destruction Laws weren’t ’Basic’ anymore.
The crystals he’d used to acquire the information of the two Laws held up to the ’High Rank’, so now he had completed basic, the puzzle of the Low Rank loomed before him.
It was apt to say that he was at 0.1% Low-Rank Law Comprehension, which was obviously stronger than 100% Basic Rank.
To say Arthur was overwhelmed would be a misnomer.
Like seriously, he was overwhelmed by his own power and was having serious control issues.
His energy quality had taken an enormous leap—the default Transcendence energy buff—but his body hadn’t yet adjusted to the demands of this new power. His instincts, conditioned to his pre-transcendence level, now led him to unconsciously release far more energy than intended.
More than needed.
This was the first reason Arthur sought to finish this battle quickly.
Since he was expending more energy than he should, he needed to end this before he ran out.
With that sense of urgency, Arthur lunged forward, swinging Lostvayne and releasing another arc of destruction law energy.
"I think I’d call this one ’Destruction Crescent’."
As he spoke, his gaze flicked briefly around him, casting out his cosmic energy in a sweeping pulse.
’I can’t sense that Black Dragon. Where is it? What is it doing?’
Such thoughts crossed Arthur’s mind as he tightened his grip on Lostvayne, letting the crimson silver energy coil around the blade like a torrent.
He shot forward, moving at hypersonic speed to meet Vonun head-on, their powers colliding in a blinding storm.
What was left of the forest around them rippled and splintered under the force of their attacks.
Vonun summoned thick vines that erupted from the earth, each one imbued with darkness law energy and sharpened to deadly points.
Arthur slashed through them effortlessly, his strikes leaving behind shimmering trails of destructive energy that dissolved the vines upon contact.
But Vonun didn’t stop there.
Arthur had said this earlier, but this man was stronger than even Alvey. He was in no way, shape or form, an easy opponent.
His Law Comprehensions, while not to the level of Completion, were well over the 70% mark. What’s more, he’d been a Transcendent far longer than Arthur and had far more control over said Transcendent power.
He conjured a massive spear of darkened wood, layered with infernal energy, and thrust it toward Arthur, forcing the boy to halt it in time.
His left hand slapped the spear’s side, and he released a pulse of destruction energy that obliterated the weapon.
But Vonun was already on his next attack. An Array of towering wooden pillars erupted from the ground, each one holding multiple ’flowers’ that bloomed into beams of law energy that shot out from every direction.
|¬Annihilation Pul- No!
Pseudo-Authority of Destruction: Shattered Horizon. ¬|
Arthur unleashed a burst of law energy, creating countless laser-like beams that erupted in all directions from his body.
Each beam bent and twisted, colliding with the wood law energy blasts converging on Arthur and exploding in a stunning display of power.
Swinging Lostvayne, he released an Extinction Slash that split the pillars horizontally, then dashed forward to Vonun.
Vonun let go of the half-broken wooden spear he held, then took a deep breath. Immediately, his right arm turned from flesh to wood, and in another second, his right hand had become a lance as long as he was tall.
Kicking off the ground, he met Arthur’s slash with one of his own, their weapons clashing with an impact that cratered the earth beneath their feet.
Vonun didn’t keep his lance pressed against Lostvayne for long as he saw Arthur’s silver energy beginning to turn it to dust, so he jumped up in the air, condensing an orb of energy in front of its tip.
Arthur’s pupils turned up and the boy’s left eye glowed, heralding the opening of a portal behind Vonun that launched a beam of Spatiotemporal energy.
Now having his Space and Time powers on the Pseudo-Authority Level, Arthur could bring out the best of both worlds, expanding his arsenal of attacks.
For this particular beam, Vonun conjured a giant wooden shield behind him, blocking the attack without even looking at it.
"Pseudo-Authority of Wood: Underworld Chorale."
The ground cracked open and a giant net-like dome interwoven wood emerged, with threads as fat as tree trunks. Faces were carved into the surface of the wood, and each one shot beams of concentrated infernal energy, at Arthur from all angles.
|¬Slow. Warp. ¬|
Arthur gave two single-word commands to the laws of time and space respectively, slowing the beams and warping the space they passed through to make them all collide with one another instead, shattering into bursts of useless light.
From the oculus of the dome, a massive beam of infernal energy pierced down, tearing through the warped space and heading straight for Arthur.
The boy calmly looked up, his pupils dilating as the wooden light descended towards him.
Just when it seemed like it would hit, Arthur finally spoke.
|¬Begone. ¬|
** WHOOSH—!
Vonun’s eyes widened at the sight.
The beam of light that was about to engulf Arthur was suddenly enveloped in a layer of silver energy. The silver spread like liquid mercury, swallowing the infernal beam in a split second.
