Chapter 719: “Cruotis Prime’s Consciousness” IV
Evan hacked his way through the swarming undead, his Prismatic Flames erupting in violent bursts, incinerating everything within reach.
Yet no matter how many he felled, more appeared, their grotesque forms closing in like an unrelenting tide. His Danger Sense flared constantly in the back of his mind, a steady pulse warning of the threats surrounding him.
Suddenly, that pulse spiked to an unbearable roar, nearly deafening him.
His head snapped around just in time to see Bewússtsein materialize mere feet behind him.
Evan instantly activated his elemental shield, a sphere of swirling flames and crackling lightning expanding outward, forcing the undead behind him to recoil.
His left hand raised to summon his Gazebind Aegis shield, a motion that made Bewússtsein smile internally.
That was exactly what Bewússtsein had been waiting for.
Having witnessed Evan use the shield on numerous occasions, he was aware that when confronted with a threat at such close range, Evan’s instinct would be to defend himself with it.
As the shield materialized, Bewússtsein’s left hand shot out with hypersonic speed, slamming down on the shield’s top edge with overwhelming force. The impact jarred Evan’s entire arm, driving the shield downward and leaving his chest exposed.
[Blitzzerstörung.]
Bewússtsein’s right hand, cloaked in destructive cosmic energy, lunged forward at that same speed. A shockwave ripped through the air as his hand pierced through the left side of Evan’s chest—the default location of a humanoid body’s heart.
Flesh, bone, and the fragments of his heart exploded outward as the cosmic energy burned through his body.
[You’re dead.]
Bewússtsein calmly declared as his hand protruded from Evan’s back, dripping with blood and fragments of shattered ribs.
Evan staggered, blood pouring from his mouth. His vision blurred for a moment, and yet... he grinned.
Not a pained grimace, but a wild, malicious grin that revealed blood-stained teeth.
"Destroying my heart isn’t enough to kill me, bitch!"
Bewússtsein’s eyes widened as his instincts screamed at him. He attempted to yank his arm free, but Evan’s hands shot up like steel traps, gripping his forearm with ironclad force.
Evan’s body ignited with an intense surge of magic power, his aura burning brighter and hotter than ever before.
|MESARTHIM: WORLD FLAME! |
The world erupted in fire.
A massive explosion of energy tore through the battlefield, the brilliance of Evan’s Prismatic Flames turning the air into a scorching inferno.
Flames of every colour swirled in a spiralling maelstrom, consuming everything within kilometres. The undead were vaporized in an instant, their forms reduced to ash before they could even cry out. The ground cracked and buckled, shockwaves ripping outward and flattening everything in their path.
Bewússtsein was hurled back through the air, his right arm completely incinerated by the blast. His body was marred with horrific burns, chunks of flesh blackened and smoking as he crashed into the ground with a deafening thud, creating a massive crater.
Evan dropped to his knees amidst the devastation, his chest heaving as he clutched the gaping wound where his heart had been.
Blood poured freely from him, but it was not the damage to his body that left him trembling.
’Fucking destruction energy...I took... soul damage...!’
His perception of time slowed as he processed his damage recovery options, but none seemed enough to heal this level of damage quickly enough.
’Fuck it!
Mesarthim: VIOL—"
|EVAN!!!|
Arthur’s voice roared through the flames, with the boy cutting through the blaze faster than the sound reached Evan’s ears.
Without hesitation, Arthur pressed both palms against Evan’s back, his time law energy surging to its peak.
|False Time Authority: Temporal Reset! |
The blood dripping from Evan’s chest froze mid-air, the crimson droplets glinting like rubies in the eerie stillness.
Then, the blood flowed back into his body, his flesh knitted itself together, bones reformed and the gaping hole in his chest closed as the ’time’ that had passed since his wound had been ’reset’.
Evan gasped, grabbing his chest in shock as the excruciating pain was replaced by a surreal calm. He blinked, staring at Arthur with a mix of relief and awe.
Arthur’s mouth opened as he tried to voice a word of concern, but his left eye flashed and he immediately spun around, Lostvayne materializing in his palm.
He swung the blade upward with all his might.
|Co-Moon Split! |
The half-successful Slash technique carved through the air in a brilliant crimson-silver arc, intercepting the one-armed Bewússtsein as he emerged from the flames, his left hand lunging for Arthur.
The sword strike connected, deflecting the clawed limb with such force that it nearly severed the arm entirely. Bewússtsein recoiled, the impact sending a ripple of power through the battlefield.
Arthur’s left fist clenched, the power of his Anti-Divine Gravity Ultimate Seed surging to its limit as he drove it forward with everything he had.
|Weighted Impact! |
The punch landed squarely against Bewússtsein’s chest, the sheer force creating a shockwave that echoed like a thunderclap. Bewússtsein was launched backwards, crashing through the smouldering remains of the battlefield and carving a deep trench in the earth as he skidded to a halt in the distance.
Arthur gave chase without a second’s hesitation. He kicked off the ground with immense speed, Lostvayne raised high above his head, ready to deliver a decisive blow.
But just as he closed the gap, the ground before Bewússtsein split open, and dozens upon dozens of decomposing corpses erupted from the earth, clawing and reaching toward Arthur like something out of a nightmare.
Arthur’s left hand moved instinctively, summoning a crushing gravitational downforce.
|Fall.|
The command rang out like a death knell as the immense weight of his gravity attack descended upon the corpses. The earth cracked and groaned under the pressure, and the undead seemed moments away from being flattened into nothingness.
But in the same moment Arthur commanded Gravity, Bewússtsein commanded Slaughter.
[Opfer der Schlachtung!]
A torrent of slaughter-law energy erupted from Bewússtsein’s battered form, enveloping the corpses. Arthur’s instincts screamed in warning as the dead were compressed into a grotesque, pulsating flesh ball, radiating destruction energy so potent it warped the space around it.
Arthur immediately recognized the trap and tried to cancel his gravitational attack, but it was too late. The moment his gravity-law energy made contact with the monstrous creation, it triggered a cataclysmic explosion.
***KAAADOOOMMM!!!!
The blast was monumental, a deafening roar of destruction energy twice as devastating as Evan’s earlier explosion.
Dozens of tendrils—grotesque amalgamations of flesh and bone—shot out in every direction, each aimed towards Arthur with the intent to riddle him with holes.
But Arthur burst through the chaos completely unscathed.
[?!]
Bewússtsein’s remaining good eye stared in disbelief. How had Arthur emerged completely unharmed? That attack should have ended him.
And it would have—if not for the Stellar Guard.
Knowing it would protect him, didn’t attempt to defend himself and charged through the onslaught without hesitation, raising his sword high and unleashing a devastating full-powered slash.
But just as Lostvayne descended, the ground beneath Bewússtsein caved in once again, swallowing his body into the depths. The fissure sealed up just before Arthur’s attack could connect, and the sheer force of the slash obliterated everything in its path, creating a massive crater where Bewússtsein had stood moments ago.
Bewússtsein emerged from a seemingly random magma pool, but barely a second later, a blood-coated sword sliced down toward his head.
[?! Echobarriere]
His favourite cosmic energy barrier appeared, but it lasted only a second before being cleaved in half by Jamie’s Galaxy Sword.
That second, however, was just enough for Bewússtsein to roll away, the life law energy on his left arm gradually losing its intensity.
Jamie charged at Bewússtsein, forcing the man to pour more cosmic energy into his Destruction Sigil. But before he could attack, Evan’s voice boomed out.
|Hey, Bewússtsein! Look over here, you dumbfuck !|
[?!]
For an inexplicable reason he couldn’t understand, Bewússtsein found himself turning to look in Evan’s direction—a fatal mistake. In that instant, Jamie’s blade came crashing down, carving a twelve-column grid of slashes across his chest.
’What did he do!? Why did my awareness shift to him?! Was it the shield?!’
Confused and enraged, Bewússtsein was sent flying through the air. He gritted his teeth as a burst of death energy exploded from his body, creating a deterrent to any follow-up attacks.
He tried forcing his life law powers to reactivate, but Evan’s taunting voice rang out again.
|I said, look over here you idiot! |
Once more, Bewússtsein’s focus was torn from healing his wounds to glaring at Evan, who wore an impish grin on his face.
His rage turned to shock as Arthur appeared in his line of sight, his sword wreathed in a haunting purple mix of energies.
|Extreme Nothingness! |
Arthur’s unavoidable strike hit the head, ripping half of Bewússtsein’s face off. Flesh and skin shredded, bones splintered, and one of his eyes disintegrated into dust.
Bewússtsein roared in rage, and countless skinless arms erupted from the ground, the ceiling, and even thin air, each coated in a deadly mixture of death and destruction energy, surging toward the trio at supersonic speeds.
|False Destruction Authority: Shattered Horizon.|
Arthur unleashed a wave of law energy, sending crimson-silver laser-like beams radiating in all directions. The lasers obliterated the oncoming arms, reducing them to nothingness.
Watching the display, Jamie let out a laugh.
|Oh, I think I can do that too! Void Beam: Purgatory.|
Void energy condensed into a sphere before Jamie, which detonated into a torrent of dark blue beams ripping through space at relativistic speeds.
At the sight of the dual attacks, Evan’s jaw dropped.
|Wait, am I the only one without a scattershot attack?!|
A moment after he spoke, his expression changed as he remembered a skill he’d stolen from a certain Demon of Envy in the future.
|Oh, wait—I actually have one. Hydra x100.|
Space exploded as over three hundred serpentine dragons, each one spewing breaths of a different element surged outward from behind Evan.
At the sight, both Arthur and Jamie turned to him and shouted.
""Dude?! Too much!!!""
"Excuse me?!"
Arthur and Jamie burst into laughter at Evan’s incredulous expression. Still chuckling, they spun around in sync, building momentum before hurling their swords toward Bewússtsein without hesitation.
The two Rule Breakers sliced through the air at hypersonic speeds, reaching their wounded target faster than he could react.
Bewússtsein barely managed to raise his left hand, unleashing a blast of cosmic energy to deflect Lostvayne. At the same time, the Galaxy Sword grazed his neck, severing his arteries as it tore past him.
Before he could process the pain, spatial energy rippled behind him—signs of inbound teleportation.
In an instant, Jamie swapped places with his sword, appearing right at Bewússtsein’s back. He clamped one hand onto Bewússtsein’s shoulder, the other gripping the side of his head.
Jamie’s jaw widened unnaturally and he unhesitatingly sank his elongated fangs into Bewússtsein’s exposed neck.
|Blood Poison.|
Those two words echoed in Bewússtsein’s mind as his blood rapidly darkened, turning an inky black. The veins beneath his skin flushed deep red before shifting to black as the poison spread through his system.
Growling in rage, Bewússtsein seized Jamie by the back of his neck, yanking him away with such force that his fangs tore out of his flesh. He swung Jamie over and slammed him into the ground, the impact cracking the surface beneath them.
Without pause, he condensed cosmic energy in his palm and drove it into Jamie’s chest. The strike bypassed his durability entirely, phasing through his skin and crushing his heart directly.
Breathing heavily from the power expenditure, Bewússtsein tried to steady himself—only to see Jamie’s fist still moving.
[?—BAAMM!!!
Jamie delivered an uppercut that knocked Bewússtsein back, forcing him to stagger. The Hybrid then got to his feet, brushing dust from his shirt as the Galaxy Sword flew back into his grasp.
Black blood dripping from his nose, Bewússtsein’s glare darkened as he roared in frustration.
[Can all of you survive without your hearts or something?!]
Jamie tilted his head, giving him an amused look.
|Oh no, I can survive without my head as well. Here, see.|
Then, right before Bewússtsein’s eyes, Jamie swung the Galaxy Sword—
—and beheaded himself.
