Chapter 953: A Year in Fiction [Bonus 17]
’Why is he using his swords like projectiles? Doesn’t he have ranged attacks?’
That question went unanswered as Arthur dashed in with Celestia, silver light coating the blade as he swung it towards Harlamagne’s head.
Harlamagne leaned back to avoid the slash, then threw two rapid punches that Arthur avoided with paper-thin margins, seeming to move before Harlamagne’s hands even shot out.
’Future vision?’ the ash dragon questioned internally.
Arthur immediately followed with a sideways slash, but it was blocked by Harlamagne’s right arm, the dragon countering with his other arm, only for Lostvayne to appear in Arthur’s right hand and swing down to hit the side of Harlamagne’s incoming fist, redirecting the punch away from Arthur.
Harlamagne immediately pulled back his left hand, then weaved his right around Arthur’s left and grabbed his wrist holding Celestia, the light coating his palm instantly scalding Arthur’s skin.
With his left hand, he hit Arthur in the chest, slid his arm to the left to hit Arthur’s right elbow, disrupting his attempt to swing Lostvayne, but before he could continue, Arthur delivered a weighted impact kick from the right, knocking him to the side and weakening his grip on Arthur’s left hand.
Arthur quickly freed his left arm and swung Lostvayne with his right, but Harlamagne easily blocked the hit, the strikes cancelling each other out with an impact that cratered the ground.
Arthur immediately attempted a low kick, but Harlamagne blocked it effortlessly with his own foot. He was about to respond with a right hook to Arthur, but his fist in motion was hit by an arrow from the side, sending it wide and causing him to miss entirely, giving Arthur the opening to land a strike on the dragon’s neck.
Before the sound of ringing metal even echoed from Lostvayne being stopped by the scales on Harlamagne’s neck, Arthur followed up with a left hook at the same moment that Rishia’s lightning-coated boot crashed into the right side of Harlamagne’s head, the double impact knocking the ash dragon to the side as the pieces of broken tiles flung into the air earlier finally fell to the ground.
Arthur and Rishia exchanged a glance, speaking no words as they immediately flooded their weapons with cosmic energy and charged after Harlamagne.
Before this battle began, the two had agreed on one principle.
No flashy or complicated techniques. Just pour every ounce of energy into enhancing their physical capabilities and raw damage amplification.
Arthur would use his Temporal Authority to accelerate both his and Rishia’s movements to match Harlamagne’s speed as much as possible, while Rishia also used her Amethyst Fulgur to boost Arthur’s base speed.
They planned to hit as hard as they could, conserving as much energy as possible for the bigger moves they needed to execute later down the line.
As for Harlamagne, he noticed their law comprehension had increased slightly from the minor strengthening of their Authorities, but beyond that, he didn’t see anything that could convince him to give them a pass.
’They didn’t come here without a plan, did they?’
The thought passed through his mind as he parried Arthur’s slash, then he shook his head lightly.
’Of course not. They’re not that stupid.’
He caught Rishia’s arrow, spun, and threw it at Arthur, then spun back to deliver a high kick aimed at Rishia’s naginata.
’In that case, let me bait their plan out of them.’
With that thought, he leapt backwards, and the moment his feet touched the cracked ground, he extended his right arm and unleashed an omnidirectional wave of ashen-grey light from his body.
""!""
Arthur and Rishia’s eyes widened at the sight of that light, and Harlamagne’s lips seemed to curl upwards as he declared.
|Be trapped in a world of doomed creation. Pure FictiioooOooOo—|
The man’s speech trailed off, the sound stretching as everything around him slowed to a crawl.
’Oh? Aspect Manifestation?’
Harlamagne’s thoughts, still moving at normal speed, immediately deduced the cause to be Arthur’s Aspect of Time.
’Slowing things to near-cessation, it seems.’
Caught within the effect of Arthur’s Aspect Manifestation was the deployment of Pure Fiction.
The ashen grey light emanating from Harlamagne moved more slowly than it should, and in the extra moment this created, Arthur extended his right hand towards Harlamagne and commanded.
’Define Coordinates!’
A crimson-silver sphere formed around the expanding wave of light surrounding Harlamagne, and clenching his fist, Arthur declared.
|Extreme Nothingness: WORLD COLLAPSE!!!|
Time’s flow returned to normal, and the crimson-silver sphere contracted, clashing against the rapidly expanding light of creation, while at the same time, Rishia activated her Umbra Authority.
|Umbra: New Moon!|
A wave of darkness wrapped around Arthur’s crimson-silver sphere, the pitch-black shadow dimming the light of creation, weakening it and creating an opening for World Collapse to completely crush the nascent Pure Fiction in an immense explosion of cosmic energy that shook the entire Tower.
The crimson-silver sphere overwhelmed the creation as it collapsed atop Harlamagne’s body, and the resulting blast ruptured the fabric of space, tearing it apart along the seams.
Rishia and Arthur were nearly pushed back by the shockwaves of the explosion, but Arthur used his Gravity Authority to anchor them where they stood.
The two dropped down weakly, having expended an immense amount of cosmic energy all at once.
’He got caught in World Collapse, but that’s far from enough to take him down.’
’Still, it should give us a few seconds to repair our energy circuit damage.’
Those thoughts ran through Arthur and Rishia’s minds, but they couldn’t think anything further than that as their visions suddenly blurred, and by the time their senses registered what was happening, their backs were slamming into what was left of the throne hall’s walls.
"I’m disappointed."
Harlamagne’s voice echoed as the ash dragon stepped out from the centre of the crater, only a few scratches marring his skin and soot covering his clothes as he continued speaking.
"A single opening and you immediately used your trump cards, paying no mind to the possibility that it might have been a trap."
The man sighed, shaking his head as he went on, "Nevertheless, I’ll give you both credit where it’s due."
Looking up at Arthur, he asked, "World Collapse, you called it?
Harlamagne held up his palm and conjured an orb of grey light, which was then encased by a sphere of white light that contracted, crushing the orb within.
"Using your Aspect of Time to slow the deployment of Pure Fiction, buying yourself time to define the spatial coordinates around it and crush it with a sphere of destruction before it could fully deploy.
Then the Progenitor’s descendant used her darkness to tip the balance in the battle between my creation and your destruction, weakening the light fused with my creation and allowing you to seal the deal."
The dragon clapped once, a faint smile crossing his face as he said, "Wonderful. I’m impressed."
The smile vanished immediately, and he shook his head. "But both of you made one fatal miscalculation. You assumed I deactivated my Pure Fiction after sending you back to Floor 1 of this Tower."
’...what?’
Arthur’s body was immobile, but his ears still worked fine, and he couldn’t hide the confusion at the words Harlamagne had just spoken.
Seeing their expressions, Harlamagne slipped his hands into his pockets, slowing his steps as he said, "I’m an Ultimate Realm Existence. The amount of cosmic energy I possess is infinite relative to you. So what makes you think I cannot maintain one of my abilities on a space as small as this for close to a year without pause? Because you noticed I was restraining my attack potency to match your current level of power?"
The dragon scoffed at the question, and Rishia’s expression turned difficult as she immediately realised the implication of his words.
At that moment, Harlamagne’s steps came to a halt, and the ruptures in space around them slowly closed up.
The broken ground was restored, and the damage to the throne hall vanished, Arthur and Rishia collapsing to the floor as all signs that a battle had taken place in the hall disappeared...just like an illusion.
"Since the last time we came here..." Arthur muttered, his expression dark, and Harlamagne completed his words.
"I never deactivated my Pure Fiction since the last time you were here."
A mocking grin spread across the ash dragon’s face, his expression full of derision as he declared, "From the moment you two stepped onto this Floor, you were already inside my World of Doomed Creation."
