Chapter 799: Temporal Shift
Now, Arthur did hold the advantage in one area—he had the higher level of cosmic superiority. Which meant, in theory, he should have been able to restrict Kalvaro’s access to the ambient cosmic energy.
But Arthur had only just become a full cosmic being, like, what, three days ago? He didn’t know how to use Cosmic Energy Domination yet.
So now, these were the odds.
Kalvaro had a higher Existence Realm, but Arthur had higher Cosmic Superiority.
Both sides were injured. Creusery’s Healing Flames hadn’t finished healing Arthur, and a thin line of golden blood traced down Kalvaro’s lips.
Maybe he’d been caught in the blast when the realm collapsed, or had suffered backlash from the destruction of his Permanence Anchor.
Then there was the issue of internal energy. Arthur’s divinity and anti-divinity were fine, but his magic power and cosmic energy had been depleted and hadn’t recovered much. Kalvaro, on the other hand, still had more magic power and divinity left than Arthur.
Bottom line is, Arthur was at a disadvantage.
’I need to even the odds.’
With that thought, Arthur immediately unleashed his anti-divinity, which he hadn’t relied on much during the realm’s collapse in favour of using cosmic energy.
Power burst from the Origin Core within his soul, and he immediately declared his command on gravity.
|Anti-Divine Gravity Authority: Maelstrom!|
A gravitational well instantly materialised above him, invisible to the eye but undeniable in effect, as every piece of debris from the destroyed planet, every particle of dust and broken rock floating through the remains of the ruined celestial body, was violently pulled toward that singularity. Kalvaro included.
In fact, Kalvaro was the one most affected by the pull, as not only was Arthur’s inherent godslayer nature amplifying the effectiveness of everything he did against divines, the Anti-Divine nature of his Gravity Authority made it doubly potent.
Kalvaro’s body was yanked upward before he could fully counteract the effect with his own Authority, and the debris streaking through space began slamming into him, one after another, each impact loud in its silence, heavy in its violence.
The shattered moon, which had been in low orbit around the now-destroyed planet and still hovered close, was pulled in next, slamming into him at full speed.
Arthur then clenched his fist, and the gravitational field condensed, compressing the debris and folding all of it inward toward Kalvaro’s position, attempting to crush him completely with sheer pressure.
However, just as his fist clenched and began to draw everything together, there was suddenly a backlash. His hand snapped open involuntarily, and a massive eruption of cosmic energy and divinity burst outward from the heart of the Maelstrom, scattering the debris and blowing the field apart.
Kalvaro roused his divinity again, about to activate another Authority to immediately attack Arthur, but right before he did, his eyes widened as he realised something.
Arthur was no longer in front of him.
’I can’t sense him...!’
Just as that realisation dawned, he felt two distortions in space, one ahead and one behind.
’Which one...behind!’
His Authority instantly identified which of the two spatial channels formed from cosmic energy had an ’existence’ emerging from it, but just as he turned around, time slowed.
Kalvaro’s reaction was delayed by a whole second, and in that moment, a voice echoed.
|Authority of the Progenitor godslayer.|
Ambient cosmic energy immediately rushed into Kalvaro’s body the instant he heard that declaration, clinging to his divine spark and wrapping around it like a vice.
That cosmic energy forcibly suppressed the energy output of his divine spark, restricting his overall power. Simultaneously, the energy within his cells that enhanced his physical body was diminished, reducing both his strength and durability.
Following that, his Existence Realm began to drop, to the bottom of the Mid-Tier Deity Realm, and below that, into the liminal zone between Low-Tier and Mid-Tier Deity.
Kalvaro’s expression contorted as he felt his power drop, his movements slowing even further.
And in the middle of that second-long delay, while his body was stunned and his power crippled, Arthur appeared behind him.
Lostvayne was already pulled back, purple and silver light spiralling around the blade.
|Extreme Nothingness!|
Full power. No holds barred.
The attack slammed into Kalvaro’s side, the impact blasting him across space, into the swirling cosmic energy portal in front of him that Arthur had created using the Cosmic Teleporter.
Kalvaro’s body was ejected from the other end, crashing violently onto the surface of the next planet’s moon in their current solar system, his body skidding violently, bouncing off the cratered terrain like a ragdoll.
Arthur immediately leapt into the portal as well, emerging above the god rolling uncontrollably across the moon’s surface and immediately clenched his left fist, commanding the lingering destruction energy clinging to Kalvaro’s body.
’Explode!’
**BOOOM!!!
The energy detonated violently, a secondary explosion that launched Kalvaro’s body upward again, flinging him off the moon’s surface and into open space.
Arthur moved to pursue him for a follow-up, but just as he did, a wave of pain tore through his entire body, forcing him down to his knees, heavy breaths escaping his lips.
[Master, focus on yourself first! He can’t heal from the wounds caused by your anti-divinity anyway.]
Lostvayne’s voice echoed in his head, and Arthur took a deep breath to stabilise himself, drawing in ambient cosmic energy, not just to replenish his internal reserves, but also to mend his damaged Energy Circuits, the previous healing from Creusery’s flames undone by the strain he had just endured.
Just then, something slammed into the moon’s surface with a deafening impact. Moon dust blew in his direction, pushing against Arthur’s body as he raised his head and looked forward.
From within the darkness of the moon’s horizon, his eyes met the figure of Kalvaro, who had risen to his feet, his upper body scalded and blackened, the entire left side looking as if it had been soaked in boiling acid.
The clothes on his upper torso were completely gone, leaving the burned flesh exposed and allowing Arthur to see clearly the full extent of the damage he had inflicted.
He could also see the trails of Kalvaro’s flowing divinity snaking around the wounds, attempting to undo the damage, and he could feel the surrounding cosmic energy converging toward Kalvaro’s body, trying to aid the regeneration process.
But it was slow, excruciatingly slow, because the injuries were caused by Arthur’s potent destruction energy, reinforced by his Unique Authority.
Kalvaro staggered forward, glaring furiously at Arthur as he roared out, |What kind of—?!|
However, before he could finish the question regarding Arthur’s strange Authority, he froze, eyes widening as he realised Arthur was drawing cosmic energy directly into his body.
|You... how can that energy enter your body?|
The astonishment in his voice confirmed that Kalvaro was definitely a Sub Cosmic who had once tried to contain cosmic energy within his body and had learned the repercussions the hard way.
Hence, seeing Arthur do so without his body bursting stunned the man to the point of immobility.
Arthur wasn’t going to waste the opportunity, though.
Using gravity to propel himself forward, he shot toward the stunned god in an instant, closing the distance like a bullet tearing through the void.
Kalvaro snapped out of his daze just as Arthur moved and instantly retaliated by unleashing a burst of divinity.
|Temporal Permanence Authority!|
His divinity fused with the surrounding cosmic energy, forming a violent tornado of dark brown that surged outward and struck Arthur mid-charge, halting his momentum and hurling him backwards.
Arthur flipped in the air and landed against the cratered ground, sliding back before quickly regaining balance.
*CLICK!
The moment he looked up at Kalvaro, Arthur felt something reminiscent of a time stop, a strange disconnection in the flow of moments.
But he couldn’t see or feel any time stop effects. Instead, he saw time law energy gathering unnaturally within Kalvaro’s body, for a reason he couldn’t yet discern.
’His Unique Authority...’
Arthur activated his own Authority, cloaking his body in Anti-Divinity to shield himself from its effects, while simultaneously infusing Lostvayne with Extreme Nothingness’s power as he tossed the blade into his left hand.
It was almost as if he was about to activate the base technique, but cancelled the activation before the energy reached a critical point, keeping its power imbued into Lostvayne.
The two rushed at each other, fist meeting sword in a collision that cratered the ground beneath them.
Arthur summoned Celestia into his right hand, slashing downward and slicing through Kalvaro’s already-wounded flesh, drawing more of the golden blood.
The blow knocked Kalvaro back, and Arthur immediately followed up with a thrust from Lostvayne, but Kalvaro parried it with his right hand cloaked in cosmic energy and immediately countered with a fist aimed at Arthur’s face.
Arthur raised Celestia in front of his face to block the strike, but he couldn’t react fast enough to the follow-up kick that struck the back of his right knee, breaking his balance.
With time-accelerated movements, Kalvaro instantly drew back his fist and launched another punch infused with cosmic energy at Arthur, faster than the godslayer could use his swords to block.
However, Arthur managed to straighten his body at the last second, lifting his body just enough for the punch aimed at his face to slam into his right shoulder instead.
The impact hurled him backwards across several dozen metres, accompanied by the audible sound of bones cracking.
But overlapping that sound was a strange echo from the law of time.
*CLICK!
"!"
Before Arthur’s eyes, the wound he’d inflicted with Celestia vanished as if it had never existed, as the flow of time abruptly halted, then skipped backwards.
