Chapter 701: Soul-Devouring Oblivion
It was an infinite darkness.
No matter how far one went, there was no end
No matter how long one waited, there was no dawn.
There was one spot, where there was light.
A humanoid figure that floated within the darkness—Only there.
’...what? Why am I here?’
Arthur recognized this place.
He had been dragged here multiple times throughout his life, always without warning or explanation.
Even now, he didn’t know where this place was or why it kept pulling him in.
As that thought crossed his mind, a voice called out from behind him.
[Master.]
"?!"
The voice was peculiar, distorted with static. Its tone was androgynous, making it impossible to discern whether it belonged to a man or a woman.
But Arthur knew exactly who it was.
He spun around, his gaze locking onto a silhouette standing in the darkness.
The figure had no defining features, no indication of gender—just a humanoid shadow outlined by a faint crimson-silver glow.
A sword appeared in front of Arthur, floating in the exact centre between him and the silhouette.
The silhouette tilted its head slightly, and a thin line appeared where a mouth should have been.
[Master.]
Its voice carried a question.
[What is my name?]
The words stirred Arthur’s memories—memories of the first time he had used a ’Partial Release’ on the weapon now hovering before him.
It had told him to ’Never Forget Its Name’.
And so, Arthur answered.
"Rule Breaker Number 3. Cosmic Sword of Destruction: Lostvayne."
He reached out and grasped the hilt of the blade. As expected, dozens of silver tendrils extended from the sword, piercing into his arm.
But this time, they didn’t stop at his arm.
The tendrils snaked through his body, piercing into his soul.
At that moment, Arthur felt like the dark silhouette before him—Lostvayne’s Consciousness—was smiling at him as it spoke.
[Let’s hope I won’t have to devour you as well, Master.]
With those words, Arthur was cast out of the space, vanishing in an instant.
The silhouette of Lostvayne turned away, its attention shifting to the other entity whose consciousness was within this space.
[Now then, shall we have a chat, Lady Celestia?]
◇ ◇ ◇
Arthur was forcefully jolted back to consciousness.
The agony of his shattered bones, broken ribs and torn lungs pierced his brain and he nearly lost consciousness again.
But he didn’t. No, he couldn’t—not as long as that sword remained clenched in his right hand.
Lostvayne’s cosmic energy erupted in a massive earth-shaking and heaven-rending storm.
The already weakened ground beneath Arthur collapsed, fissures radiating outward for miles, while space distorted from the density of cosmic energy being unleashed.
The sky darkened, streaked with violent flashes of crimson and silver light that tore through the atmosphere.
The raging energy surged through Arthur, pouring into his soul and obliterating the restraints on his Pseudo-Authority of Destruction.
His Sub-Cosmic body absorbed the seemingly endless cosmic energy, forcing his wounds to heal at an unnatural speed.
Bones snapped back into place, torn lungs mended and his breathing faculties returned to normal.
With renewed strength, Arthur gritted his teeth and forced out five words.
|¬Weapon Authority: Soul-Devouring Oblivion! ¬|
In an instant, his body shot upward and forward at hypersonic speed, his right arm pulled back as he activated his Unique Technique.
|¬Extreme Nothingness! ¬|
Lostvayne, now cloaked in far more destruction energy than necessary, was driven forward, its tip aimed directly at the back of the man whose fingers had just broken through the white-gold protective scales on Evan’s neck.
Naturally, the man sensed the threatening cosmic destructive power rivalling his own hurtling towards him, and he immediately categorized Arthur as the greater threat.
Ignoring Evan, he turned his head, intending to counter. But in doing so, he gave Evan the perfect opening to unleash the real spell he had been preparing all along, with the Nuclear Magic serving as nothing more than a clever misdirection.
"Spell Number 10: Severance of Reality."
At such close range, the man had no chance to evade the blast of energy unleashed from the Grimoire hovering in the tiny space between him and Evan.
The Sigil on the back of the man’s left hand flashed with light as both attacks struck simultaneously.
Evan’s Severance of Reality from the front.
Arthur’s Extreme Nothingness from the back.
Their effects were instantaneous.
Reality fractured, and the man’s left arm disintegrated into fragments of cosmic energy. The stump was unnaturally clean—no blood, no gore.
It was as if his arm had been wiped away with an invisible eraser.
Arthur’s Extreme Nothingness carved a semi-circular hole through the right side of the man’s torso.
The damage, though severe, was lessened only because he had twisted his body at the final moment.
Despite enduring these devastating blows that erased his left arm and tore through his torso, the man bellowed in fury, releasing a burst of cosmic destructive energy that blasted both Evan and Arthur away.
His eyes burned with fury as the Sigil of Time manifested on the back of his right palm, summoning the law of time’s power to repair the damage.
Yet, despite his efforts, the left arm remained lost to reality, and the hole in his torso refused to close.
’Those cursed Cosmic Artifacts!!!’
The man seethed with rage, his mind racing. He understood that while the attacks themselves carried the properties to hinder healing, they only succeeded because of the mediums used to deliver them.
Lostvayne—the Rule Breaker bearing the Serial Number 3.
The Akashic Page—a fragment of the Universe’s Akashic Record.
Both Cosmic Artifacts wielded the ’Authority’ to bypass his defences and impair his ’regeneration’.
While the man fumed with rage, both boys struggled to their feet, their breaths laboured, sweat dripping down their faces.
Evan reached for a potion with his right hand, pouring it over his left arm after he had twisted his bones back into place.
The pain would have been unbearable, but Evan couldn’t feel it. He had burned his pain receptors with his flame power, numbing the sensation to maintain a calm mind.
He summoned another item from his inventory—a juice pack containing a magic potion. It fell into his mouth, and he tore it open with his teeth, letting the contents flow into his mouth.
He had swallowed some of the paper in the process, but Evan didn’t care. His sole focus was on replenishing the magic energy he had expended.
Arthur, on the other hand, felt an intense heaviness in his right arm, both physically and metaphorically.
As he gripped Lostvayne, he finally understood the meaning behind its last words to him.
Soul-Devouring Oblivion.
Lostvayne’s Weapon Authority was no joke. As its name suggested, the sword could devour souls, converting them into raw power that was stored within the blade.
By ’Releasing’ Lostvayne, Arthur gained access to a fragment of its true power as the third strongest Rule Breaker, further boosting his overall power exponentially—though only for a limited time.
That time was dictated by how many souls Arthur had allowed Lostvayne to consume in the time he had owned the sword.
Once those souls were depleted, Lostvayne would begin devouring Arthur’s soul to sustain the ’Release’.
That was why the sword had hoped it would not need to do so.
Because once that path was taken, there would be only one outcome for Arthur: True Death.
◇ ◇ ◇
Arthur raised his gaze, his eyes darting toward the two female members of their quartet.
Unsurprisingly, Lostvayne’s eruption of cosmic energy had shattered the time stop placed on them.
The shockwaves from his and Evan’s simultaneous attack had blasted the girls back, leaving them wounded and sprawled on the ground, but they were still conscious.
Artemisia’s buffs on Arthur and Evan remained active only because she was still conscious, after all.
Just as his glance caught them in the corner of his vision, their assailant erupted in rage once more.
He had lost two of his bodies in what he thought should have been a straightforward task.
Kidnap one as bait, forcefully teleport the others, incapacitate them, and conduct the ritual to absorb their powers—clean, simple, and efficient.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
But no, not only had two of his bodies been destroyed by these teenagers, they had managed to inflict severe damage on the third as well.
To make matters worse, Lostvayne’s Release—which he had been attempting to prevent—had successfully occurred.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Evan also possessed a cosmic artifact of his own, not to mention a Deity-level shield for some universe-forsaken reason!
Nothing was going his way, and his fury boiled over.
Cosmic destructive energy erupted from him in a rippling storm. At that exact moment, Arthur and Evan moved.
Arthur dashed forward, Lostvayne glowing in his hand as he swung it downward.
|¬Continental Split! ¬|
The blade cleaved through the fabric of space-time itself, slicing apart the mass of cosmic energy the man had unleashed.
The sword descended, aiming directly for the man’s head. Yet even in his battered state—missing an arm and with a gaping hole in his torso—the man wasn’t out of tricks.
His remaining arm erupted with destructive cosmic energy, a Destruction Reinforcement technique activating as the sigil on the back of his hand shone brilliantly.
’Gigant-Stärke!’
The energy surged, coating his hand as he intercepted the strike, catching the deadly edge of Lostvayne mid-swing.
The collision of destruction-infused cosmic energies sent tremors rippling through the air, causing the surrounding space to splinter and crack under the strain.
Shockwaves rippled outward in every direction, their force reaching the wounded girls. But Evan dashed in front of them and activated his strongest defensive spell once more.
Though the shield eventually shattered under the intense cosmic energy, it absorbed enough of the blast to shield them from the worst of it.
When the eruption of cosmic energy from Lostvayne shattered the time-stop on the girls, it also disrupted the neutralization effects of the Aspects of Time and Destruction in the Sigils their opponent possessed.
This disruption, however, was only temporary—and only because they were within Arthur’s (Lostvayne’s) range. If they moved beyond his influence, their powers would once again be sealed.
Beatrix wasn’t aware of this. All she knew was that her time powers had returned—and with them, the ability to activate her Unique Skill and aid Arthur.
And she did so without hesitation or regard for her injuries.
"Chrono-Space Dominion!"
