SSS Awakening: Starting With Infinite Soul Copy

Chapter 293: Battling The Death Emissary (I)

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Boisterous laughter echoed loudly atop the skyscraper where they stood as Emissary Exorus laughed uncontrollably, eventually clutching his stomach from the pain.

"You? leave me alive or kill me? Hahaha."

"You think my life and death are in your hands."

SCOFF!

A loud scoff escaped him as he rose upright, coming to levitate off the building and higher into the sky.

"You really have grown beyond being arrogant these past years, haven’t you?"

He asked, and White watched as entire skyscrapers were suddenly uprooted from the ground, a total of nine coming to hover around the Death Emissary.

"Arrogant? Perhaps. I’d prefer to call it an understanding of my adversary’s power."

He replied, unperturbed.

"You know nothing of my power. Now..."

"DIEEEEEE!"

The air exploded forward as a total of nine massive skyscrapers, the shortest of them more than four hundred meters in height, all came slamming down toward White.

Erratic as their fall may be, it was an incredibly precise attack that completely blocked the airspace above White, falling at a speed too fast for the normal human eye to even perceive.

In response, White raised one of his legs before calmly slamming it into the ground beneath him.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPLE!

What followed from that simple step was an instant rush of darkness so fast that a domain of pitch black swallowed the entire upper part of the building White stood upon, the nine falling skyscrapers, and even the Death Emissary hovering in the air, in a thousandth of a second.

[Black Sun Domain Activated!]

Raising two of his hands as if to welcome the crashing buildings,

CLAP!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

In an instant, all nine skyscrapers exploded, not into bricks, but straight into dust, leaving a massive cloud drifting down into the void beneath them.

[Effect, Absolute Collapse - Designated target may be crushed, compressed, or broken apart regardless of durability, has been activated.]

The System panel flashed, and calmly, White stretched one of his hands toward Emissary Exorus, who still hung in the air, before making a pressing down motion.

"What the—!"

"GGGRRRRRRRH!"

A groan escaped the lips of the Death Emissary as he suddenly felt as though the weight of an entire world had descended upon his back, bending his spine and sending him plummeting at terrifying speed.

[Effect, Gravitational Sovereignty - Gravity may be increased, reduced, redirected, or concentrated at will, has been activated!]

"HAHAHAHA!"

Despite being crushed downward, loud laughter suddenly escaped the Emissary.

"You truly have perfected the Authority of Space. Increasing gravity by a factor of 666x in less than a split second."

Emissary Exorus said, his voice filled with awe.

"But unfortunately..."

All of a sudden, his eyes snapped up toward White, a powerful ray of white light bursting from them as though a star had exploded deep within his irises.

His mouth spread into a wild grin as he whispered.

"Chrono Dominion: Temporal Lock!"

His falling body suddenly froze.

Tick!

A sound echoed throughout the Black Sun Domain, drawing White’s attention.

Tick!

Tick!

Each tick reverberated through the Domain, the world around the Death Emissary seemed to shatter as countless clocks with ticking hands manifested, and all at once,

CRACK!

The gravitational force vanished entirely as the Death Emissary straightened himself before slowly rising back into the air.

"Surprised?"

Emisary Exorus asked, but there wasn’t much change in White’s expression because he knew exactly what had happened.

The Chrono Dominion skill the Death Emissary activated was, as suggested, a Time Skill, but it wasn’t that his control over time had overpowered White’s control over space.

Instead, time itself existed on a completely different layer of reality.

White’s Black Sun Domain manipulated the current state of existence, while the Emissary of Death manipulated when that state existed.

Those were two entirely different questions.

When White used Gravitational Sovereignty, he designated the Death Emissary as the target of an overwhelming gravitational force.

Gravity had successfully acted upon him, forcing the Emissary downward.

But when the Death Emissary activated Chrono Dominion: Temporal Lock, he created a bubble where time no longer progressed normally.

Inside that bubble, every process stopped.

Like pressing pause on a movie.

The boulder was still falling.

The man was still underneath it.

But the movie had been paused, so the boulder never reached the man.

[Moments exist, but time never arises.]

The system panel flashed quietly.

"Interesting."

White muttered beneath his breath before extending all six hands once more.

Space before each hand shook, as tiny black spheres no larger than marbles silently appeared before each of his palms.

They emitted neither light nor sound, yet space around each sphere began folding inward violently, stars seemingly reflecting across their pitch-black surfaces.

He lowered his hands, leaving all six hovering in the air before pointing a single finger toward the Emissary.

Instantly, all six Black Suns shot forward.

The surrounding space collapsed into them as they rushed violently toward the Emissary, who merely watched with a sneer before raising both hands.

Forming a simple circle with his fingers, white-colored runic lines bloomed throughout the air around him, forming the shape of countless clocks.

Then, in the next moment, he whispered.

"Ages Reversed: First Hour."

Immediately, the six Black Suns began to slow, and as they did, they started shrinking.

Their overwhelming gravitational pull gradually weakened, and by the time they reached the Emissary’s attack range...

They disappeared completely.

As easily as that, the power of six Black Suns had been erased, making White’s eyes narrow slightly.

He had yet to truly process what had happened when a light bloomed through space.

The world around them was already dark due to the Black Sun Domain, yet through the darkness, a dark light began to ripple outward.

White looked forward, narrowing down the source of the dark ripple, and it came from none other than the Death Emissary.

Precisely, it was from his forehead, where the runic image of a cross had begun blooming at its center.

Exodus slowly lowered his gaze before extending his left hand to the side.

The surrounding air darkened further, not from darkness itself, but from the simple absence of life.

Space distorted, and then a long object gradually emerged from the distortion.

Its sheath was pitch black, carrying no ornamentation save for countless white runes that crawled endlessly across its surface like living things.

Then his hand moved to the hilt.

SHRIIIIIIIING!

The blade was drawn outward, settling in the Emissary Exoru’s right hand as the sheath disappeared.

It was a katana, but an unusually long one, the longest White had ever seen, stretching for almost ten meters in length alone, vastly taller than the Emissary himself.

Its edge possessed no reflection whatsoever, appearing less like steel and more like a perfectly carved fracture running through reality itself.

Along the length of the blade, countless white runic lines flowed continuously from the hilt toward the tip before reversing direction, repeating the cycle over and over as though the sword itself possessed its own circulation.

White could see time fluttering from the mere presence of those lines, tiny cracks appeared and disappeared throughout the nearby space.

The Emissary opened his eyes, and it was as though another soul had taken over his being.

Long gone were those white eyes.

Instead, were pitch-black eyes, not born from darkness, but formed from the complete absence of life.

Taking a step back, Emissary Exorus lowered his stance, one hand stretched forward while the other stretched back, holding the katana out as those lifeless eyes locked onto White.

"I’ll end you before your Umbrawyric Army ends the Supernaturals."

He declared.

In the next moment, he flashed forward with terrifying speed, appearing instantly above White with both arms raised high.

SHRRRRRRRRING!

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!

The blade tore downward with terrifying speed and precision, descending right toward White’s forehead.

The aim was simple, to cleave straight through his forehead, slicing him into two halves, yet White remained absolutely unmoving, allowing the blade to descend upon him.

The intent to dodge was nonexistent, but at the very last second, he suddenly shifted to the side, the blade cleaving down across his shoulder.

SOAAAAAAR!

For the first time, White’s expression underwent an absolute change.

From calmness...to horror.

Two hands, still glowing with astral energy soared into the sky as the blade completely cleaved through White’s arm.

VROOOOOOOOOM!

Space shook, and he reappeared two hundred meters away in a flash, instantly turning toward his arm.

He could see the astral light surrounding the severed portion of his arm, trying to regenerate the wound, yet...It was failing.

His regeneration was failing him.

In shock, he turned toward the katana being wielded by the Death Emissary, who already resumed stepping towards him.

"What... what is that blade?"