Chapter 714: Transformations
"So, I’m the only one at risk of dying?!"
""Yep.""
Arthur and Jamie nodded in unison, utterly unbothered.
Evan stood there, staring at them in disbelief for a split second before turning and hurling the swirling orb of combined powers toward the incoming Death Nova.
Jamie couldn’t help but laugh, but as the two attacks drew closer to collision, his amusement vanished, replaced by wide-eyed alarm.
"Oh, crap!"
Without hesitation, he turned and bolted in the opposite direction. Arthur and Evan immediately caught on, sprinting after him as fast as they could.
The three of them dove behind the nearest outcrop, mere moments before the two attacks collided.
**KAABOOOM!!!!
A thunderous roar erupted as the Prismatic Destruction Void met the Death Nova head-on. The resulting explosion tore through the Core Dimension, fracturing the ground and sending shockwaves rippling outward.
Vibrant bursts of crimson, silver, blue, and prismatic flames intertwined with a swirling void of destruction, consuming everything in its path.
A blinding wave of energy surged over the outcrop they were hiding behind, shaking it to its foundation.
For a moment, it was as if the entire dimension trembled under the weight of the clash, and then, a deafening silence followed.
The trio cautiously peeked out from behind the outcrop, their eyes scanning the obliterated landscape for any signs of movement.
"Uh, guys...is it just me, or is he transforming right now?"
""It’s not just you.""
Arthur and Jamie confirmed Evan’s observation in unison. Without wasting another moment, the three of them leapt from the outcrop and bolted toward Bewússtsein in the distance.
The fleshy parts of the cavern walls that had been shredded by the explosion, began creeping toward Bewússtsein’s incomplete body, along with Life law and ambient cosmic energy.
The flesh clung to his waist, fusing with his body and as more flesh was pulled towards him, the incomplete lower half of his vessel began to construct itself as he hovered mid-air.
He was attempting to salvage his vessel, but the Protagonist Trio weren’t about to let their opponent complete his transformation in peace.
Evan launched himself into the air with a jump, his dragon wings unfurling from his back. Horns sprouted from the top of his head, and a scaled tail extended from his lower back.
However, his transformation didn’t stop there.
A bright white light engulfed his body, expanding outward before receding to reveal his fully transformed white-gold-scaled dragon form.
Opening his mouth, he condensed flames within it, and in a second, the gathered flames erupted into a beam of prismatic light, tearing through the air as it surged toward Bewússtsein.
Jamie vaulted into the air, a surge of energy rippling across his body as his muscles bulged and swelled dramatically.
Silver fur sprouted on his arms, spreading rapidly to cover his entire body. The fur bristled as his frame grew, towering higher and broader until he reached a staggering 50 meters in height.
His face reshaped, elongating into a lupine muzzle lined with sharp, gleaming teeth. Massive paws replaced his hands and feet, each digit tipped with gleaming silver claws sharp enough to carve through stone like butter.
When he landed, the earth trembled beneath his enormous weight, and the sight had Arthur’s jaw dropping in shock.
"What the hell?! That looks fucking cool!"
|Less admiration, more attacking.|
"But I don’t have a cool transformation like you guys do!"
Arthur’s protest came with a laugh, his amazement unhidden as Jamie launched himself toward Bewússtsein at supersonic speed.
As Evan’s prismatic breath attack and Jamie’s charge bore down on him, Bewússtsein clicked his tongue in annoyance and activated two techniques in quick succession.
[Echobarriere! Abgründige Todeswelle!]
A barrier brimming with equal energy to Evan’s breath attack materialized before him. The breath collided with it in a blinding explosion, neutralizing one another in a burst of destructive energy.
At the same moment, Bewússtsein unleashed a dark-crimson-tinged wave of energy imbued with the laws of death and destruction, sending it surging toward Jamie like a tidal wave.
Faced with the incoming wave, Jamie didn’t attempt to dodge. Instead, he countered.
|Aspect of the Wolf: Alpha King’s Roar.|
A deafening sonic blast echoed outwards, the sheer force distorting the surrounding space and sending shockwaves tearing through the air like a storm at sea.
The roar slammed into Bewússtsein’s Abyssal Death Wave head-on, overwhelming and shattering the wave, scattering the dark crimson energy into nothingness.
Simultaneously, Arthur teleported directly in front of Bewússtsein, his fist drawn back and radiating Anti-Divinity and Cosmic Energy.
|¬Weighted Impact: 200x! ¬|
[?!]
In the split second before impact, Bewússtsein summoned a cosmic energy barrier, but it was no match for the overwhelming force of 200x gravity combined with destruction law energy.
The barrier shattered like fragile glass, and Arthur’s fist slammed into Bewússtsein’s incomplete body.
**BAAAMM!!!
The impact sent Bewússtsein hurtling through the air, his body crashing to the ground and skidding violently for several hundred meters.
Before he could recover, Jamie appeared above him, massive wolf claws swinging downwards.
|Aspect of the Wolf: World Severing Claws.|
Bewússtsein wrapped his body around with cosmic energy and hurled himself to the side just as Jamie’s claws gouged out the space he occupied a split second ago.
But before his body could touch the ground, Dragon form Evan appeared behind him, maw open and brimming with condensed prismatic flames.
[Dawn Star.]
Evan launched the searing ball of fire at Bewússtsein, the point-blank collision releasing violent shockwaves that knocked him back.
[Zerstörerische Todesstrahlen!!]
Bewússtsein’s voice echoed through the cavern, and in an instant, countless magic circles materialized across the walls and ceiling.
Each circle unleashed beams imbued with a variety of law energies—fire, ice, lightning, death, and destruction—a LOT of destruction.
Evan quickly polymorphed into his smaller Dragonkin form, reducing his size to evade the barrage of beams.
Meanwhile, Arthur and Jamie activated their gravity powers.
|¬Four-Fold Authority Activation: AGSD! ¬ |
|Authority of Gravity: Gravitational Singularity! |
Jamie conjured a small but immensely dense singularity, its powerful gravitational force bending the trajectory of hundreds of beams, pulling them off course and drawing them toward it.
The singularity devoured the energy hungrily, its gravitational pull tearing beams apart as they were sucked into its core.
Arthur’s AGSD added its own gravitational force to the fray, rapidly reaching full capacity within moments as it consumed its share of the beams.
The opposing gravitational pulls from the two singularities caused a chaotic distortion, shredding a great number of incoming attacks before they could reach their targets.
Once AGSD reached full capacity, Arthur condensed it into his palm and charged forward. But he hadn’t gone very far when the ground beneath him cracked open and torrents of lava erupted from the fissures, streaking upward and surging toward him.
Just as he considered summoning Celestia, a massive armoured knight construct of frozen lightning, bearing a colossal shield and sword manifested in the space before him and the torrents.
The construct swung its frost-thunder sword, releasing a powerful slash of frozen lightning. The slash collided with the incoming lava torrents, resulting in a violent explosion of lightning, vapour, and molten rock.
Within the vapour cloud, Arthur teleported, reappearing behind Bewússtsein. Without hesitation, he drove his fist forward, but Bewússtsein sensed the attack.
The Candidate Sigil on the back of his palm flared as he spun around, meeting Arthur’s punch with his own.
Their fists collided, and the sheer destructive force of the impact sent shockwaves rippling through the cavern. Arthur gritted his teeth as he was overwhelmed in the clash, the force of Bewússtsein’s strike sending him reeling backwards.
’Haha! No surprise there.’
Arthur wasn’t bothered that he’d lost out in the clash. He calmly rewound the injuries on his arm and landed on his feet, looking up just in time to see Jamie warp in behind Bewússtsein.
Jamie’s World Severing Claws arced downward, but Bewússtsein conjured a barrier in the nick of time, blocking the devastating attack.
He responded by vomiting a dark orb of destruction energy from his mouth.
’That’s not good!’
Jamie’s instincts screamed DANGER, and he teleported away just as the orb detonated.
A nova-like explosion of destructive cosmic energy expanded outward, consuming the space Jamie had occupied a split second earlier. The force of the detonation rippled violently through the cavern, scattering debris and energy in every direction.
Arthur and Evan teleported as far as they could, reappearing behind Jamie, who had returned to his humanoid form. Cracking his neck, Arthur spoke casually.
"Well, that went about as expected."
Jamie and Evan turned to Arthur when he spoke, and he pointed at the Scales of Balance hovering at the ceiling of the Core Dimension within a cosmic energy barrier.
"It really ’balanced’ the sides. Bewússtsein’s power is now equal to the combined total of the three of us.
Individually, we each have about a third of his current power."
To put it simply: If Bewússtsein had 50,000 units of power before the Scales of Balance, while the trio had a combined total of 3,000. After activation, both sides were adjusted to 26,500 units, giving the trio 8,833 units each.
"Oh... that."
Evan muttered, clenching and unclenching his fists as he glanced at his arms. Beside him, Jamie nodded silently, gesturing to the massive sphere of plasma hovering above.
"And don’t forget—we’re still on his home turf, so he has the home advantage."
"That too."
Evan agreed, casting a wary eye over the Core Dimension. Since this was Bewússtsein’s domain, he benefited from percentage-based buffs tied to his power.
While the Scales of Balance had reduced his base power, thereby diminishing the buffs, they were still in effect.
’Well, he’s not the only one with buffs.’
