Chapter 397: Despair
However, as if the Observer’s body was naught but a mirage, the sword passed right through without doing a sliver of damage to the Observer.
Still, Ackster didn’t relent. He ignored the Observer’s counterattack and aimed to split the Observer apart. But once again, the sword did no damage.
It wasn’t even like when the sword had been unable to do anything to The Hero due to the protection of the world power. The sword had still been able to slice apart The Hero. But now, the sword didn’t even leave a trace in the Observer’s body.
The Observer gathered a lump of dark purple cosmic power in his hands that he blasted toward the clone, completely blasting it apart. Fortunately, Ackster retrieved the Demon Sword before the attack hit.
The Demon Sword rested in Ackster’s soul. Ackster soul was currently fused with all of the water in the Perfect World. He could summon it wherever he wanted.
Ackster created several dozens of clones that swarmed the Observer with attacks using the Unimportant Whatever Art that started flourishing and exploding into its full potential under the baptism of Ackster’s understanding.
Unfortunately, even with the rising power of his martial art, Ackster still didn’t do anything to the Observer. It seemed, however, like the Observer didn’t like the Demon Sword.
The Observer destroyed any and all clones that came at it. But it always used an especially powerful laser to try and destroy the sword. If Ackster hadn’t picked up on the pattern after the first attack directed at the clone with the Demon Sword, he might have lost it since keeping track of all the clones, the Demon Sword, and the Observer’s attacks was becoming too much for his already overwhelmed mind.
Ackster didn’t despair, even when it looked like he was only stalling the inevitable. He had long since overcome such feelings of weakness.
But he had to admit to himself that it wasn’t looking good.
At the moment, the only card Ackster could possibly play would be to have his martial arts reach the same divine rank as his Clear Mind. After becoming water himself, it seemed like that was the most plausible alternative.
Unfortunately, there was no guarantee that would be enough or that he would reach that realm before the Observer annihilated all the water.
Seemingly tired of trying to locate Ackster with its lasers, the Observer altered its tactics. Instead of creating small orbs of cosmic power that it launched at light speed all over the place, the being created a large sphere around itself.
’Shit.’
The slightly translucent sphere began expanding at a noticeable pace. It destroyed everything it came in contact with, whether it be water or air.
Ackster could somewhat sense that the cosmic power expenditure was significantly greater than the laser attacks. But if the Observer could reset the world by ten years, it could probably make a sphere large enough to destroy Ackster’s Perfect World with him still trapped in it.
Ackster briefly wondered if the Observer maybe had ended up tired or drained of much of his power after setting up this story. Or maybe there were limitations to what kind of power it could use or how much in one go.
Otherwise, what was stopping the Observer from turning back time and killing Ackster as soon as the supposed story had reached its conclusion?
Ackster wasn’t sure, but he figured that he might have a solution to his trouble if he could understand more about how the Observer’s power worked. If he knew that, maybe he could find a way to exploit a weakness.
The greatest difference Ackster could find in the present and the original timeline was his and the Observer’s presence. Maybe there were limitations to what the Observer could do when playing with time. Maybe it couldn’t rewind time when it was present or when Ackster, its creation, was present. Or maybe it couldn’t rewind time for the same world multiple times.
Whatever the case, it seemed like the Observer wouldn’t rewind time. That eased Ackster slightly. He didn’t even know how to begin fighting a being that could rewind time at will.
But he didn’t exclude the possibility of rewinding time being taxing and that the Observer was saving it as a last resort.
If the Observer was saving time alteration as a last resort, it didn’t matter to Ackster. He wouldn’t be able to force the Observer to use it. He was about to die.
The sphere of cosmic energy had expended and covered half of the area in Ackster’s Perfect World. Ackster spread his water out and retreated as far back as he could. But the boundary made it impossible for him to continue retreating.
The flames didn’t harm him. But the contents of the Perfect World and the boundary of the Perfect World were separate.
In peaceful times, Ackster could have controlled his flames not to touch the water. But with the fire inside Smelting Furnace fighting for its life against the storm of cosmic power, Ackster wasn’t stupid enough to even try it.
Ackster gathered all the water in one spot and transformed into his original state of flesh and blood.
The Observer saw him do that. But he didn’t change back to lasers. It was apparent the expanding sphere was a far more effective method since it scared Ackster back into his human body. It just had to continue growing the sphere until Ackster had nowhere to go. At that point, Ackster would either die or dispel the Perfect World unless the cosmic energy of the sphere did that for him first.
And as soon as the Perfect World broke, the full brunt of the Observer’s unrestricted power would smash into Millmeria, destroying it and dooming all remaining life forever.
Ackster took a deep breath, grabbed his sword, and faced the expanding sphere. Maybe if he could hold it off in one point, he could force the rest to expand and come in contact with his Smelting Furnace. It was a long shot, but burning the sphere before the sphere disintegrated him was the only option Ackster saw as viable in the current situation.
