Chapter 691: Gratitude
Duskhand’s eyes widened in shock.
Reacting immediately, he elementalized his body and shot straight into the sky, just a split second before Lostvayne came crashing down on the space where he had been.
The sword slash cleaved into the land with immense force, tearing deep into the planet’s crust and ripping through the mantle beneath.
Magma surged upward like a geyser, splashing on Duskhand’s elementalized form and forcing his body back to its physical state while searing him with its heat.
On sheer instinct, Duskhand raised his spear to block Lostvayne’s sudden downward strike. The force of the blow sent him crashing across the horizon, his body skidding and tumbling for hundreds of meters.
As soon as his body came to a halt, Arthur reappeared beside him, delivering a kick aimed at his head. Reflexively, Duskhand swung his spear to intercept the kick, the metal striking with a resounding clang.
The moment he did that, Duskhand realised how bad of a decision that was, but by then, Arthur’s sword was already descending from above, heading straight for his neck.
With no weapon to block or parry and no time to form a barrier, Duskhand unleashed a burst of pure lightning energy, the shockwave blasting Arthur away, giving him the time and distance he needed to recover.
Without hesitation, Duskhand went all in, unleashing a trump card that not even Alvey had borne witness to.
Duskhand bit into his thumb, using a canine tooth to draw blood, before yanking out the tooth to reveal its artificial nature. He crushed the tooth between his thumb and forefinger, and golden blood spilt out, mingling with the red blood from his cut.
Using the blood mixture, he drew a seal on his chest, and as soon as the seal formed, a series of messages flooded his vision.
[The god King of z̴̖̹̓͛̋c̷̼̜̞̥̀̊̈́͘s̷̤̜̺͖̄͒d̷̢̆c̶̳̍̽d̸̪̲̎ cautions against using...]
[The -̸̯̤̹̞͒̏̓̚-̷̡̰̅̿-̷̨̒̓̈́-̵͇̆͛-̷̟̰̑-̵̻̝̦͓̓ god Queen warns of catastrophic consequences...]
Each message warned of the dire consequences of what he was about to do, claiming it could kill him if he wasn’t careful.
But Duskhand dismissed the warnings without even looking at them.
’If I don’t use it, I’ll die anyway.’
With that thought, he slammed his left palm into his chest and activated the technique.
"Ancestral Regression! True Form Release!"
The name that echoed from Duskhand’s lips sent Arthur’s eyes wide with shock, momentarily petrifying him and halting his impending counterattack.
Of all things, he never expected an Ancestral Regression to be Duskhand’s trump card.
His shock was broken through by Celestia’s loud voice.
[Master, snap out of it! Now is not the time to be stunned!]
"No, no, no, Celestia, you don’t understand! This is an Ancestral Regression, you know?! The one that draws on the dormant powers in one’s bloodline!
Who’s crazy enough to pull off Ancestral Regression mid-fight?!"
[Clearly, the guy you’re fighting is! Now, can you save the shock for later and focus on killing him first?]
Arthur let out a resigned sigh.
"Fine, fine, I’ll kill him first."
In the span of time he and Celestia had their little back-and-forth, Duskhand closed the distance between them.
His spear thrust forward, piercing through Arthur’s multilayer barrier and aiming straight for his neck.
But just before the spear could touch his skin, Arthur vanished again, reappearing behind Duskhand in the same moment and swinging his sword down.
Duskhand reacted quickly, spinning around to block Arthur’s slash with his spear. The force of the clash reverberated through the air, momentarily recoiling Arthur’s arm as Duskhand’s spear shattered.
Unfazed, Duskhand condensed the lightning into his hand, solidifying it into a new weapon. He swung it with incredible speed, meeting Arthur’s sword head-on in another explosive clash.
They clashed in rapid succession, their weapons meeting with a series of violent sparks and shockwaves. Each strike was a blur, the sound of their blades hitting reverberating through the air several seconds after they moved from their positions.
Arthur’s sword met Duskhand’s spear, again and again, each time leaving a trail of energy in their wake.
As they clashed, Arthur got a good look at Duskhand’s ’True Form’ state. The first thing he noted was the dense armour of law energy surrounding Duskhand’s body, blocking his destruction energy from making direct contact.
Besides that, the glow in his hair and eyes, along with the runic markings tracing his face and the circular seal on his chest, he looked no different from usual.
With the little appearance analysis done, Arthur’s 100% focus turned back to their clashes, each one distorting the space around them and sending ripples through the landscape.
Their speed was too fast for any eyes they passed to follow, but the destruction they left in their wake was clear as day.
Scorched earth, broken terrain, and the sound of battle echoing long after the actual blows were struck.
Another collision sent the two combatants hurtling in opposite directions, the force of their shockwaves scattering debris like leaves in a storm.
Arthur flipped mid-air, landing on his feet with ease, while Duskhand hovered above, his left arm raised high as golden lightning gathered around him.
Massive constructs of pure lightning materialized and rained down on Arthur’s position, each one detonating with an explosion that tore apart the planet’s crust for miles, sending up dust clouds and shockwaves that reached the atmosphere.
But the chaos was short-lived. A sudden pulse of energy dispersed the debris in an instant, revealing Arthur’s unscathed figure, his hands raised high, Lostvayne glowing with a crimson-silver hue.
|¬Continental Split! ¬|
The destruction energy in his blade was unleashed as a massive slash that reached Duskhand faster than he could move to evade.
To be precise, the ’time’ it needed to cross the distance between them was ’skipped’, making it arrive instantaneously.
Duskhand’s expression was unchanged as he crossed his arms in defence. The slash struck his guard, triggering another explosion as the law energies ignited on contact.
From the heart of the blast, a concentrated beam of lightning erupted, moving so fast that Arthur’s Memories of the Future barely caught it. By the time his vision showed him the attack, it was already upon him.
Arthur tilted his head at the last possible moment, the beam grazing his neck with a searing hum.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Another beam of lightning descended from above, tearing through the land like scissors cutting paper and carving a path of devastation that left magma spewing into the air.
Yet, Arthur burst out of the midst of the molten chaos, reaching Duskhand in an instant and unleashing a powerful strike in close range.
’Cataclysmic Divide!’
Arthur’s dimensional-rupturing slash collided with Duskhand’s spear, the force hurling the man over a hundred kilometres in a flash. But Duskhand flipped mid-air and landed on his feet, using the ground as a springboard to launch himself back into the sky.
His spear pulsed with energy as he pulled it back.
"Divine Convergence! Judgment’s Edge!"
His Unique Skill activated, converging divinity, lightning and light law energies into the tip of his spear which he hurled towards Arthur with all his might.
Arthur met the attack head-on, swinging Lostvayne downward with another Cataclysmic Divide. The two forces collided, triggering another blinding explosion of power.
Without pausing, Arthur infused even more destruction law energy into his blade, its length extending as he carried his swing into a full revolution.
’Law Resonance: Time. Continental Split. Space-Time Skip!’
Arthur’s slash erupted from his blade, reaching and colliding with Duskhand in an instant as the time itself was skipped once more.
**BOOOOMMM!!!
The destruction energy detonated on contact with Duskhand’s dense law energy armour, the force sending him plummeting toward the earth with meteoric intensity.
He stabilized mid-descent, wiping blood from his lips as he landed heavily, shattering the ground beneath him.
Immediately, Duskhand leapt skyward once more, vaulting over the horizontal Extinction Slash Arthur sent his way.
Duskhand extended his arm, activating his Unique Skill and channelling all his power into the colossal bolt of lightning forming in his grasp.
The ambient magic power in the sky spiralled toward his hand like a voracious vortex, feeding into the Lightning Pseudo-Origin core glowing fiercely within his soul.
As he poured every ounce of energy into the attack, a blinding radiance erupted, illuminating the skies of Zefesh with golden brilliance.
Lightning lashed out omnidirectionally, obliterating the meteor shower of destruction Arthur had summoned. Bolts rained down upon the land, tearing through the terrain and carving trenches so deep that magma bubbled to the surface, transforming the ground into a molten sea.
When the golden bolts surged toward Arthur, he waved a hand, unleashing a massive wave of gravity energy that bent everything.
The lightning veered off course, magma was forced away, and even the residual energy waves emanating from Duskhand were redirected.
Spotting Duskhand siphoning virtually all the ambient energy in the skies, Arthur mirrored the act, drawing the energy on the ground.
Magic power and cosmic energy surged into his body and travelled out from his hands racing up Lostvayne’s length in a violent rush.
Arthur’s law energies converged and coalesced, merging into one as they flowed from his Pseudo-Origin cores to the blade’s edge.
The ground beneath him fractured, shattering and caving under the sheer density of the energy, while the energy gathered around Lostvayne spiralled upward into the skies, punching a hole into the vacuum of space.
Then, almost as if planned, their voices rose in unison.
"By my soul and flesh."
|¬The power of time shall accelerate. ¬|
"I seal thy fate beneath the golden radiance of the heavens."
|¬And destruction shall end your very existence. ¬|
The seal on Duskhand’s chest expanded to cover his entire torso as he infused his soul power into the massive bolt of power in his hands and pulled it back.
"The divine lightning shall shred you to pieces!"
Arthur, taking a page from his father’s book, incorporated an additional clause into his chant that amplified its power.
|¬With this strike, I shall return you to the nothingness before creation! ¬|
.
With a roar, Duskhand hurled his spear with all his strength.
[Divine Convergence: Zenith Strike!!!]
A thunderous roar echoed beyond the land, the sound rupturing distant eardrums as the colossal mass of power tore through space towards its target.
Facing this, a smile appeared on Arthur’s face as he expressed his gratitude.
|¬I thank you, Duskhand. If not for you, I might never have created this. ¬|
Arthur calmly swung his blade downward.
|¬Extreme Nothingness: Chaos.¬|
...
The strike carved through the air in utter silence.
There was no sound.
The silver glow of nothingness erased the laws of sound in the area.
The slash jagged forward, cleaving through the air as its silver glow tore through space and met the oncoming golden radiance head-on.
Within the torn space, time unravelled, its fabric fracturing to briefly expose a glimpse of another dimension.
The silver glow cut through everything in its path, piercing the golden brilliance and reaching the existence at its source.
...
The silence lingered.
Then, gradually, the planet’s auto-repair mechanisms began to take effect and sound returned to the devastated expanse.
Arthur sheathed Lostvayne without a word.
With a single step, he vanished, reappearing high in the sky, above where the clouds once lingered.
From there, he saw Duskhand floating in the air, his hand rising to touch the blood trickling down his forehead.
"...ah...I see. It’s the same as that time..."
He lifted his gaze to meet Arthur’s as he continued.
"...to think... I was the catalyst for the creation of the thing that would end me...How ironic."
A loud cracking sound echoed in their ears.
Slowly, cracks began to spread across Duskhand’s body, a deep fissure running from the top of his head down to his waist.
His flesh started to disintegrate, flaking into dust. A gust of wind swept through, scattering his whole body into the void.
Duskhand had been erased, returned to nothing.
