Chapter 838: Resilience
Lucifer hadn’t yet explained that each Aspect embodied a particular feature of its concept, so while Arthur had sensed it instinctively, he hadn’t realised that it was the defining feature of his Destruction Aspect he’d been perceiving.
After Barda’s explanation, it all clicked immediately.
Arthur only needed seconds to realise Selective Destruction was the defining feature of his Destruction Aspect—its ’Aspectual Authority’.
This was what he’d used earlier to counter Baruuk’s strange Aspectual Authority, which had been channelling Arthur’s own energy to repeatedly damage him in the spots Baruuk had successfully struck, surprising Baruuk.
Normally, dispelling Baruuk’s Aspect-powered destructive energy would involve some degree of self-harm, especially since it consumed the target’s energy to function, but Arthur could simply exclude himself from the damage, allowing him to destroy the destructive energy without injuring his own body.
Seeing Arthur frown at the mention of ’Selective Destruction’, Baruuk was certain his assumption was correct.
With that knowledge, it wasn’t hard to guess how Arthur would use it to his advantage.
By excluding parts of the environment or unintended targets from the destructive energy, Arthur could funnel all of his attack’s power into the target, effectively amplifying the damage since none of the energy dissipated elsewhere, making attacks exponentially more effective than non-selective strikes of the same raw power.
It was something anyone who had comprehended the law of Destruction to their level would instantly realise, with their Authority level, power control, and affinity for destruction dictating how much amplified damage the selected targets would take.
[Master, if it’s any consolation, his Aspectual Authority is likely ’Destruction over Time’,] Lostvayne, who had been quiet more often than not recently, suddenly said.
’Destruction? Not Damage?’
[Yes. His Aspectual Authority marks spots where he ’makes contact’ and, at regular intervals, consumes your energy to deal bursts of damage. His Aspect is definitely the embodiment of ’Gradual Destruction over Time’.
And as you can tell, he’s amplified its power by absorbing other Aspects.]
Arthur silently nodded at this as he commanded the squad of Divine Dragons he’d summoned to attack Baruuk’s minions, while leaping away from the three-pronged slashes of black destruction Baruuk was hurling at him.
’It’s why I’ve been using my Extreme Nothingness Authority to amp up mine so I can keep up.’
After responding to Lostvayne, Arthur narrowed his eyes as he noticed the Divine Dragons he summoned hurriedly fly away from Baruuk, clearly scared of him.
’That doesn’t seem like just fear of his Destruction...’
[They probably recognise him and are scared because of that.]
Celestia’s conjecture seemed likely, but Arthur didn’t have the luxury to dwell on it as he had to dodge Baruuk’s claw swipes, summoning both blades to launch counters.
His twin blades clashed against Baruuk’s claws in a blur, the sound of clanging metal ringing out as they tore through the air.
Each swing met a counter, each clash scattering arcs of destructive energy that carved through the fractured terrain below them. Baruuk evaded Arthur’s diagonal slashes and swiped for his ribs, only for the gravity acting on his arm to suddenly reverse, throwing his strike off course.
Arthur swung both blades down for a cross-slash infused with divinity, but Baruuk’s other hand, coated in cosmic destruction, intercepted it from below, forcing the blades wide and opening Arthur’s guard.
Baruuk grinned as his claws raked towards Arthur’s chest, only for his eyes to widen when he felt his claws halt against an invisible wall, the space in front of Arthur’s torso warping from the strain of his compressed gravity barrier.
The force of the impact still sent Arthur hurtling backwards through the sky, but he easily flipped upright mid-flight, raising Lostvayne above his head before swinging it down in one smooth motion.
’Ex—Planetary Split.’
Arthur changed his mind at the last second, holding back the Extreme Nothingness he had considered using, deciding to save it to catch Baruuk off guard.
His Planetary Split, while powerful enough to cleave through the crust, mantle, and cores of the planet beneath them like molten wax, was easily evaded by Baruuk, who dashed toward Arthur as a streak of black light.
|Shattered Horizon.|
A burst of destruction law energy erupted from Arthur’s body, creating countless laser-thin beams that lanced outward in every direction, slicing through space as they all converged on the approaching Baruuk.
Each beam disintegrated anything it touched, erasing entire swathes of floating rock and debris from the shattered planet as the sphere of devastation expanded around him, but Baruuk weaved through the gaps with paper-thin margins, the beams grazing the edges of his wings and shoulders as he forced his way closer to Arthur, who zapped away at full speed with Time Acceleration, crossing over 1500km per second.
Suddenly, Arthur stopped and spun around, cosmic energy flooding into Lostvayne as he swung his sword, combining Planetary Split and Extinction Slash to release a massive silver arc moving at relativistic speed, warping space along its trajectory.
|!Fu—!|
Baruuk couldn’t stop in time to avoid the sudden strike, and the slash slammed into him from the side, cutting through the Demonic Dragonkin’s metallic scales and flesh with ease and hurling his body through space until he crashed into a nearby moon of the planet Arthur had just destroyed.
Arthur extended his hand and used his Gravity Authority to create a massive maelstrom with the debris of the shattered moon, trapping Baruuk at its centre.
The fragments of rock, each coated in crimson-silver energy, converged on Baruuk from every direction, battering him and frustrating him more than they actually harmed him.
With a roar, he unleashed a wave of black demonic energy that shattered Arthur’s gravitational prison, blasting himself free, only to be struck an instant later by an explosive fist to the back of his head, the blow fracturing his metallic skin and cracking his skull, sending him crashing into a floating chunk of rock from the broken moon, dazed and disoriented.
Just as he crashed onto it and tried to push himself up, Arthur descended from above with Lostvayne glowing with pure silver light, unleashing a downward diagonal slash that made Baruuk’s Draconic instincts scream at him to RUN.
|Extreme Nothingness: Chaos!|
The jagged silver glow tore through space and through Baruuk’s wings, ripping them to shreds and slamming into his back with a blinding flash.
The chaotic fusion of powers within the slash erupted like a cosmic bomb the instant it struck, unleashing an expanding spherical shockwave that swept outward in a single pulse, vaporising everything within several hundred thousand kilometres in an instant.
Space warped and fractured under the force, and a streak of light stained with silver shot through the broken space, bursting out of the fabric a million kilometres away as it punched a gaping hole straight through a distant gas giant, its core collapsing from the impact, before slamming into one of its icy moons and carving through its crust, tumbling across its frozen surface while leaving a trail of cracked terrain and molten debris in its wake.
Cosmic energy swirled at the edge of the moon’s magnetic field, warping space into a Cosmic Gate from which Arthur emerged, his eyes widening at the sight before him.
’This fucker is still alive?!’
Indeed.
Arthur’s exceptionally keen vision caught sight of Baruuk, wings reduced to dust, scales shattered, flesh scorched, and blood gushing from his back like a fountain, yet somehow still standing.
This was the first time anything Arthur had hit with Extreme Nothingness’ Chaos hadn’t died.
Needless to say, Arthur wasn’t exactly pleased with this turn of events.
He shot through space at top speed, reaching Baruuk in an instant and throwing a punch aimed at the Demonic Dragonkin.
Somehow, Baruuk managed to leap back to evade the direct hit, and Arthur’s fist instead bored a hole straight through to the icy moon’s core, making it explode in a shower of rocks.
|Die already, you fucker!|
Cursing, Arthur hurled Celestia at Baruuk like a javelin, and Baruuk barely dodged the blade that sliced across the edge of his neck as it shot past, but just as he opened his mouth to unleash a breath at Arthur, he flinched, spinning around just in time to throw his right hand out to block Celestia’s blade.
His attempt to punch the blade was futile, as her divinity-infused tip pierced straight through his demonic energy-clad fist, piercing into his palm and tearing through the bones of his arm.
Arthur instantly appeared in front of him, grabbing Celestia’s blade and twisting it as temporal and destructive energies flooded into it.
|Extreme Nothingness!|
***BOOOM!!!
|GAurg—!!|
The purple mixture erupted from Baruuk’s arm, eliciting an agonised scream from the Demonic Dragonkin’s mouth as his entire right arm was completely erased.
He didn’t have long to scream, though, as Arthur’s left hand shot out and clamped onto the side of his face, dragging him through a Cosmic Gate and slamming his head down on a mountain peak, then hauling him down the mountain’s slope, raking his head through the rocks the entire way.
Baruuk’s face was smashed through rocks and ice and snow, with chunks of debris forcing their way into his eyes, nose, and mouth, making him choke.
Arthur kept dragging his head across the ground, seemingly intent on pulling him across the entire planet, when Baruuk coughed out a roar and unleashed a wild burst of cosmic energy that blasted Arthur back.
This inadvertently freed the wounded Baruuk from Arthur’s grip, but before Baruuk could even push his body up, a sword came down from above, stabbing through his remaining arm and pinning it to the ground, and in the same instant he screamed, another blade pierced through his chest, narrowly missing his heart, then a leg slammed down on his head, crushing his face into the icy surface.
