Chapter 948: A Familiar Foe [Bonus 13]
"How the hell can you use law energy!?"
Arthur couldn’t stop himself from shouting in shock, but Owen offered no response and continued directing the dragon breath-like beam of light toward Arthur’s position.
’Tsk!’
Arthur channelled his aura into his sword, the blade igniting with a crimson silver glow as he swung it in an attempt to counter the beam, but in that short moment before the swing was completed, his arm lifted higher.
That movement exposed the bracelet on his wrist, the sword generating artifact he always relied on, which became Owen’s target.
**CRACK
With a loud cracking noise, the artifact was hit by the beam of light and shattered, and Arthur’s wrist suffered severe fourth-degree burns.
"Ahh! Fuck!"
He swore aloud and leapt backwards again while clutching his injured wrist, and Owen immediately capitalised on the opening by rushing toward Arthur at near sonic speed, reaching him almost instantly.
Before Arthur could pull out another weapon-generating artifact from his storage ring, Owen’s sword blazed with the light of creation and came crashing down toward him.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Extreme Nothingness: Seismic Surge!"
Those words left Arthur’s lips as he unleashed the condensed divinity and anti-divinity within his sword, infused with the powers of time and destruction.
The ground trembled, and enormous waves of purple energy radiated outward in every direction.
The two celestials he faced felt their hairs rise as Arthur’s negative energy brushed against them, giving them goosebumps just by being sensed. They tried to distance themselves from him, but it was already too late.
The two opposing energies, forcibly condensed together, detonated in the next moment, forming a massive purple mushroom cloud and sending shockwaves across thousands of kilometres, obliterating the already fragile earth in their path.
The lightning-wielding celestial grabbed his comrade, infusing him with lightning and launching them both out of the range of Arthur’s Seismic Surge.
Arthur collapsed onto the ground, drained after expending such a massive amount of energy. The majority of his energy circuits had fried from the risky attack and wouldn’t recover anytime soon.
He opened his inter-spatial ring and downed as many healing and magic potions as he could, but as the cold liquid slid down his throat, he blinked in confusion.
’Huh?’
He forced his body upright, but his arms and legs felt heavy, leaving him barely able to move.
Arthur glanced around at the scene of burning destruction surrounding him, then looked down at the clothes he wore, his expression contorting into a deep frown.
’This...the Nemo Galaxy Auction? Ah, right, the box those Celestials were trying to take from me.’
He took a deep breath to regulate his breathing, placing a hand on his chest and muttering,
"Why the hell does the auction feel like it was so long ago?"
Arthur felt like he’d been busy doing something entirely different, unrelated to the auction his memories suggested he had just attended, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint it.
When he sensed the approaching presences of the Celestials he had been fighting, he set those thoughts aside and rose to his feet, pointing Celestia at the two charging toward him while calling out with a hint of anger in his voice.
"Sword of Victory."
Waves of silver-coloured aura surged toward the lightning Celestial in front, but he leapt high into the air before spreading his arms wide.
Dark clouds gathered above Arthur’s head as lightning poured down on him. He gritted his teeth and leapt out of the way before pulling the box from his inter-spatial ring along with a mirage artifact.
He then activated the mirage artifact and threw the two into the air, creating six boxes instead of one. Carefully wrapping his barely recovered magic around them, he sent the mirages alongside the real box like projectiles toward the Celestials, who dodged frantically to avoid being hit.
The lightning Celestial occasionally fired bolts to check for the real one, but he only struck the mirages.
When three boxes remained, the spear-wielding Celestial arrived and threw his weapon, forcing Arthur to dodge and temporarily lose control of the boxes, causing them to fall to the ground.
The real box was revealed, and the lightning Celestial immediately charged, but his instincts warned him of danger, and he formed two spears of lightning to halt his momentum just before Celestia came flying toward him.
He hurriedly deflected Arthur’s sword, but in that instant, Arthur leapt, recovered the real box, called Celestia back into his hand, and spun while using an aura slash to intercept incoming flame spears.
Arthur then charged at the spear-wielding Celestial, clashing weapons as sparks lit the night. Golden lightning bolts occasionally attempted to pierce Arthur, but he used the box in his left hand as a shield.
Once he recovered some more of his magic, Arthur tossed the box into the air, switched to aura, and swung his sword wildly while firing a condensed divinity beam from his other palm at the lightning user.
Flapping his wings, Arthur propelled himself upward and slashed toward the lightning user with an aura-filled blade, overwhelming the shield the Celestial had created to block.
The lightning user sacrificed his left arm, letting it be cut off for a chance to deal major damage to Arthur, coating his right arm with lightning and punching toward Arthur’s head.
Arthur, anticipating a possible counter, hurriedly tilted his head out of the way, though the right arm grazed his head, destroying his ear and earring artifact, which had altered his hair colour and reverted it to silver.
He quickly used his barely recovered magic to regenerate his ear with time magic, removing the other earring himself.
At that moment, the box he had flung high into the air dropped back down, and he raised his hands to catch it.
Closing his wings, he let gravity bring him toward the ground, flipped mid-air, and spread his wings again, using them to propel himself downward with his sword pointed forward.
He slammed into the ground, creating a small crater, before standing and facing the two Celestials.
All three were visibly exhausted and had used most of their energy, yet neither side showed any intention of backing down.
The spear-wielding Celestial then sighed and whistled, and before Arthur could understand why, a high-frequency pulse of magic power spread through the surroundings.
’Artifact cancelling magic!’
Arthur’s eyes widened with realisation as the pulse nullified the effects of the gauntlets he was wearing, and immediately, he felt the backlash from using the sixfold multiplier ability of the gauntlets.
His body lost all strength, his magic power and aura drained away, leaving him barely able to remain standing.
As he staggered, Arthur’s instincts screamed danger, and five gunshots were fired from a silenced sniper rifle.
He instinctively and forcefully turned his body toward the gunfire, even though he hadn’t heard the shots, and his kinetic vision caught the five bullets of ash-grey light as they zipped through the air and pierced his body.
One hit each leg, one hit his stomach, and two hit his left hand.
Arthur’s vision blurred, his body collapsing backwards, and as consciousness began to fade, a single thought crossed his mind.
’Something is definitely wrong...’
◇ ◇ ◇
"...hur! Arthur! Arthur Vaughn!"
Having heard his name, Arthur snapped to his senses, blinking in confusion as he scanned his surroundings.
There was the bifurcated corpse of a giant gorilla monster floating on the nearby river, while the two halves of the island it had been on slowly drifted apart.
"Are you okay? You said you wanted to spar with him, then suddenly started spacing out?"
The familiar voice of Lucifer rang in his ears, and he turned his head, meeting the eyes of the older crimson-eyed man who was giving him a strange gaze.
"Spar with who?" Arthur asked, lightly confused.
"...the heck? You fall asleep while standing or something?" Lucifer replied, his expression incredulous.
Arthur turned his gaze to the armoured man in front of him, whose expression held a mixture of tension and confusion. Behind him were similarly armoured men and women, but the difference in their armour made it clear that he was their leader.
"Right...I said I wanted to test out a new ability of mine," he muttered, his thoughts finally catching up to the reality around him.
’Wait...Reality?’
For some reason, that word evoked a strange feeling in Arthur, but he pushed the thought aside and raised his blade as the man before him charged at him.
What followed was a fierce battle that pushed Arthur to his limits, and in the end, he was cut down by the blade of the man who suddenly erupted with an ashen-grey light.
As his body fell backwards, Arthur’s vision went blank for a moment, and when light returned to his eyes, he saw the butt of a spear slam into his torso, knocking him to the floor.
The spear spun around and aimed for his head, bright golden lightning crackling at its tip.
Arthur instinctively turned his neck to the side with so much force that he almost snapped it himself, barely avoiding the spear that sought to skewer his head.
In that moment, his eyes registered his attacker’s features, and seeing the dirty-blonde-haired man with piercing murky gold eyes, Arthur’s own eyes widened in shock.
’Duskhand‽‽’
The thought came the same instant the murky gold-eyed man above him threw his fist coated in divine lightning.
The speed and impact of the punch that collided with Arthur’s shoulder instantly overwhelmed his durability and tore his right arm from his body, filling him with excruciating pain.
Silver blood sprayed through the air, coating Duskhand’s arm and face, and immediately a sizzling sound erupted, followed by a burning sensation as the man felt his skin beginning to peel from contact with Arthur’s blood.
’??’
Despite his surprise at the unusual nature of Arthur’s blood, Duskhand did not stop, pulling back his fist to prepare another punch.
Before he could strike, Lostvayne and Celestia launched into the air, hurtling toward him from both sides like projectiles. Still, Duskhand managed to pull his spear from the ground and knock the two weapons aside in a flash.
The short moment he took to do that bought time for Arthur, who had shut off his pain receptors to command the Anti-divinity and destruction energy in his blood.
|¬IGNITE!!¬|
**KABOOM!!!!
The resulting explosion tore through the area, deafening in its force, however, Duskhand emerged almost unharmed, with a few scratches the only evidence of the blast.
Power flowed into his weapon as he activated his Unique Skills, stabbing his spear down towards Arthur’s chest.
Law energy coalesced at the spear’s tip as it descended, a grey brilliance that penetrated the shimmering barrier of cosmic energy that formed a protective shield around Arthur and embedded itself in his chest.
Arthur’s remaining hand shot upward, clamping onto the spear’s tip, trying to halt its descent, every muscle in his arm screaming under the strain.
