For you, what are Abilities?
Special powers consuming Aura awakened by the desires of users? Or the gifts of creation and other sources?
Both of them are correct.
So how can those abilities stay connected to the users?
The answer is their souls. Creatures exist in three worlds, physic, soul and mind. To survive in this world of threats and monsters, abilities have awakened as nature weapons for weak creatures to avoid being food for others, also the weapons for the stronger ones to rule the weak.
Abilities are source codes attached in souls that are indicated in the physical world via Aura and spiritual power in the soul field. In another way to say, Abilities can be used in different bodies by the same users because they all carry the same source codes.
This is how true Aetheria (female) and Aeth (male) couldn't use the abilities in Aetheria's body.
As I said, Aurorize always tries to eliminate the "unusual" life form, in which two-soul-one-self like Aetheria's case is also included. Via a contract, Aetheria accepted a long term sleep to allow Aeth do whatever he planned on. In this case, Aurorize accepts it as a normal case with an undefined dormant soul.
Until the moment Aetheria woke up, the nature of them was changed to an unusual life form again. If one of them tried to activate the abilities, source codes, the Aurorize would automatically check them.
Body – Soul – Mind of oneself were created with one specific identity in Aurorize Causality System, you can imagine it as a tag. If one of those three selves has a different identity or tag compared to the rest, it's counted as an unusual existence. Aurorize will automatically delete that kind of existence then reform it back to the nature kind it should be.
*This process has alternative decisions based on the situation, rules and curses… can cause oneself to continue his life in other forms of existence.
Yet, with Parallel Existences, that limit is no longer able to stop them.
"Ah." – Pressing her tone heavily, Fenryn finally realizes everything.
*Fsh!* – Then she shoots a beam of light toward Raigan to send him far away from Aeth.
"I wonder why I've been carrying the hatred to you." – She unleashes her power straight outside to form a spiritual avatar of mana.
"May we talk close after this fight, Aeth?" – Glancing straight at Aetheria, her eyes don't show the manner of asking.
"Sure, but we must win first." – Parrying the strike from Raigan, Aeth steps forth to launch the cross cut again.
*Bang* – Deflecting the strike, Raigan stands up with the seal evaporating away. The monster is finally freed. He swings the spears just to release a shockwave, and it actually stops the current movements of his two enemies.
"Betelgos" – Explosion I; 1.5x damage
*Clash* – Healing his arm, Raigan parries an assault of Aeth immediately while moving out of the Fenryn's attacking zone. Thanks to the trade off between power and speed, the light swords that can damage him aren't that fast compared to his max speed.
Moving around, he chants another special term: "Wasp" – Explosion II; 1.3x damage
Lacking information, Aeth can't predict the next term of Raigan's chants. So he comes up with a tactic that he'll also chant on his own and release the impact at once via Supernova.
"Moonlight" – He keeps chasing Raigan from behind, Aeth rushes forward at Mach 150. With the Aura Boosting Technique and limit breaking on his own, it's already at Mach 250.
*Bang* – All of a sudden, Raigan swiftly leaps back for a sneaky strike at Aeth's throat, of course, he parries it. The shockwave straight up tore down the Cathedral.
The protection is negated, that brat. Frowning a bit, Raigan curses Rudolf quietly. He knows that Holy Aura can break all the logic of normal power, but breaking over thousands sigils forming the massive formation that quick is too impossible.
"Adomeus" – Taking that advantage, Aeth chants his own.
*Splash* – Being distracted by himself, Raigan instantly got two swords pinning right at his left arm. It doesn't do that much damage, but indeed stops him moving freely with the spear.
Realizing that he's left behind in the race, Raigan also chants, "Eta–"
Immediately, he stops chanting the term but enhancing his mind with spiritual power. Because right in front of him, Aphenim is already on launch. As predicted, Aeth recalls the shield and stabs his daggers through Raigan's throat. Obviously, he wants to stop the incantation.
Aeth also comes up with a term, "Astral Rage"
Ignoring the damage, Raigan drives a knee kick into Aeth's chest. While spitting the blood toward Aeth's face, he's swinging the Dragon Slayer just to save himself out of that light beam.
*Splash* – Also detonating the blood he spitted before, Raigan creates a small mist of blood. As predicted, Aeth wipes it out and rushes forward. And by that chance the two light swords were also removed. Yet, it's not the only thing that evaporated, the seal also did the same.
"EtaCal" – Explosion III; 1.2x damage
As I said, Raigan's chanting technique is different compared to Aeth's. By combining three chants marked "Explosion" with the specific order of one, two and three, he can activate the Triple Detonations (1.2x damage).
Three orbs instantly cover Aeth with the energy that can wipe the entire big mountain into dust. Yet, its nature is three separated orbs, so it's always thrice easier for Fenryn to solve the issue.
Light spell, level 9: Teleportation
Variant: Gates
Casting the high spell, Fenryn was required to stop moving for a moment. As a trade off, those three orbs were already shifted away via the gates. Yet, also as another trade off, Raigan has already approached her directly.
"Platinus" – Successfully parrying the hell flame slash, Aeth also moves to back up his ally.
*Clash* – Mana Avatar instantly parries a strike for her, but the Dragon Slayer Spear is also approaching. Back to many years ago, Drakha was known for the special power of devouring power of the slayed enemies. It's not the standard scenario of novels, Drakha wasn't dyed in madness and bloodlust. Instead, people those days didn't really care about it due to the low durability.
After the Massacre of Dragons, luck had chosen Drakha. Being one of the rest, it's finally appreciated by the value itself. Reigning in the storm, it'd been staying at the top of a thunderous mountain for years. Until that guy came, Raigan, a middle-aged man in shabby clothes.
Drakha: Dragon Flame – Cross Slashes!
*Bang* – Filling up the loophole, Aeth instantly covers Fenryn with the ultimate move. Swinging the daggers, he also throws them later. Switching to a random sword, legendary item, he swings it for a following attack.
*Clash* – Parrying the strike, Drakha's blade is already at Aeth's neck.
*Clash* – Two light swords have already stopped that strike, even though it's not able to last for half a second, it's still enough to buy him time dodging away. Lowering himself, Aeth pushes his body forth by a step. This movement looks weird, however, it opens for him a wide angle to attack downside up.
On the other side, Raigan has also chanted, "Shattered Meteor."
*Clash* – Parrying the slash, the second spear has been broken. Don't forget that it's just a random legendary item Raigan stole from Aeth before. Even though his Bind technique is good, lasting under the pressure of thousand strikes of Aeth, it's already at the limit. Overrated, don't you think? Unfortunately, Aeth's strength is rated at SS threat in this body, which means the maximum destruction he can bring up is the smash of the entire huge mountain range. As same as the detonation of Raigan's with triple orbs.
*Aeth faces the ceiling during that quick movement.
*Clash* – Supporting from the back, Mana Avatar shoots three bullets to deflect the slash of Drakha. Following that movement, Aeth also drives a kick to the chest of Raigan. And also following that impact, Raigan leaps backward to draw a distance between them.
"Evolution" – He chants while stepping back.
=> Tag: "evolved" has been applied.
At the same time, Aeth has already finished his set up, "Boundary"
With the difference of two chanting systems, Aeth knows that Raigan is always faster than him in accumulating power in shorter incantations. On the contrary, Aeth can launch a better output via a longer incantation in the perfect order. So pressing Raigan is the best thing Fenryn can do to support Aeth, and Aeth, he can take advantage of that chance to boost his chanting speed twice.
Calling a term isn't just saying a word, it's the way for ritualists interacting with the mentioned concept, celestials, beings… It requires spiritual power, which determines the strength of the soul/spiritual form of oneself. Also, the process of that interaction is usually unable to be shortened. Except, Aeth's really bursting his soul.
To interact with the mentioned beings, Aeth needs to unleash a spiritual wave toward the mentioned beings and sense their spiritual waves. Whenever his spiritual waves reach the range of the mentioned beings, the connection between them is finally built up. And via that spiritual bridge, the Arcane Force is led to Aeth. You can imagine it as a long contract of equilibrium among him and the mentioned beings, approved by Aurorize Volition, so you don't need to worry about the legility. The same thing is also held by Raigan, trading the long term benefit to receive the short term advantages is his deal.
And while you're forced to hear me yapping about the difference, the situation has changed. The incantation of Aeth is already expanded with three more terms, in order:
Moonlight (1) – Adomeus – Astral Rage (2) – Platinus – Boundary (1) – Sun and Moon – Sky (1) – Eronimus
And Raigan is also ready to finish his one with "Twin Lights" and "Torn Night" – straight up boosting his Arcane Force output to 80% in total.
And right at this moment, they are both at the turning point, whether to release the incantation, or keep lengthening. Despite the contract of shortening the chanting system, Raigan isn't charged if he obeys the rules and expands his ritual with more terms legally. Both of them are aware of the opponent's special order, which boosts the output differently based on the system.
To explain, it's like two industry insiders instantly clicking without needing to say much. Their senses can feel the "perfection" of each other, yet, none of them can know exactly the opponent's perfect order step by step. Stretching down the veil stopping them moving forth, the interrupter this time is Fenryn. After controlling her Mana Avatar to swing its two swords toward Raigan, she leaves it behind after a fore dash.
Unleashing three bombastic shots, Fenryn approaches the target with her fastest speed. Wiping those whatsoever weak things, Raigan doesn't even care about her. Giving a slash among slashing blood, he skips the "NPC" without a glance dropped back.
Yet, hiding at the no zone where he couldn't see clearly before, another Fenryn steps forth and cuts a deep slash on his left arm.
Realizing the issue, Raigan instantly kills that clone and keeps the distance between him and the enemies. Letting it slide not, Aeth comes forth with another Cross Slashes! They actually deal damage on the left arm, it's almost cut away after the blast.
*Splash* – By adjusting the flows of mana and Aura, while covering Raigan's vision with two clones, it's just enough for her to stab these light swords through his torso.
"It doesn't work, idi–" – Rotating back, Raigan–
*Bang* – Via Supernova, a Neutral Term in his chanting system, allowing Aeth to unleash all of his power at once. With the detonate effect of Sun and Moon, this wave of energy is even enhanced to another level of instant damage. It carries no delay, directly drawing an impossible gap that Raigan's perception couldn't keep up with.
And that strike just sent Raigan flying away, while Fenryn was still holding the light swords.
*Splash* – That light sword cuts away two fingers of Raigan's right hand, also Drakha cuts away Fenryn's head as a counterstrike. As predicted, it's also a clone made of mana. The worst part is Fenryn is still using Null to hide away her existence trace, while these clones are somehow built to release no energy outside as solid rocks. Raigan can't determine the true target among those clones, as trying to find who was camping inside the speakable bushes those days.
As such, there's only an option left. Raigan has revealed his hand gesture. By closing all the left fingers and pointing the index finger upward, the first one is finished. For the right hand, he closes the fingers together while straightening them, except the thumb is positioned at the right angle. He places his right palm against the edge of the left little finger. It stands for the destruction, the calamity brought upon mankind by God.
Hand gesture – Vessel
Chanting mantras – Speech
And spiritual connection – Mind
Whenever these three requirements are met totally, the output of ritualists is enhanced to a higher level. This hand gesture is also made as a contract between Raigan and his mentioned beings. And as a contract, the price is necessary to build up the bridge connecting them. Also, the hand gestures for domain expansion are somewhat casters' personal choices, not the marks for contracts.
*Smack* – Driving his left leg upward, that movement cut a deep slash into Raigan's chest, and it's also enough to break the hand gesture at that moment.
Cross Slashes! Two more wounds have been carved upon that body of the vessel. With the overflowing blood, the vessel is too weak at this point. Which means the end is really near, isn't it?
With the same hand gesture, despite the new wounds made by two clones, "Io" – instantly increasing the total Arcane Force output to 180%, and don't forget that there's no way for Aeth to protect himself right now. His incantation was released already and Arcane Force can't be blocked by below Demi-God level protection.
The Arcane Force was released as plasma and that wave of power instantly melted down all the Cathedral into plasma itself. Luckily, Aphenim also contains three lines of Divine Force saved from the very beginning of the Age of Heroes. It's exactly the power of Demi-God level, luckily saving Aeth by a hair's breadth.
Back to Fenryn, she had to sacrifice both of her arms to stop the impact, preventing it burning all her body down to ashes. That bomb didn't carry the piercing power, which was fine enough for Fenryn to build up many clones and transfer them into flesh temporarily via Alchemist Circle. Fun fact, third-class Alchemist is the second hand job of Fenryn, so surviving with some tricks is all in her capability.
And without hands, she can't cast spells with the same speed and output anymore. The last chance is all on the three veils of high quality healing liquid, which she'll do an all in after escaping the Dragon Slayer Spear.
Catching that movement, all of them instantly move. Fenryn withdraws while Aeth covers her with Cross Slashes! On the contrary, Raigan recalls the Dragon Flame and kicks Aeth away.
It's a surprise attack so he couldn't parry it but let it pass his guard, landing straight at the chest. Chasing Fenryn, Raigan is surely aiming to take down Aeth's home front first. Yet, the Mana Avatar is quite in the way.
At the same time, Aeth doesn't stand there just for fun. Rushing toward the enemy, he sacrifices two daggers for the final Cross Slashes! It's just enough to draw a distance between them, but the weapons are already destroyed as I mentioned.
Taking the advantage, Aeth drives a kick toward Raigan's neck after a half rotation.
Parrying that kick, Raigan also drives back an instant counter strike toward Aeth. However, it's slower than the previous time obviously. Right at that moment, Aeth is even more sure about the limit of that vessel.
Losing the upper hands of combat trading, Raigan is forced to face the worst scenario already. If Aeth's going to approach and fight hand to hand with him, Raigan can't do much but rely on Drakha.
Yet, in that case, Raigan must activate Dragon Flame with full power to balance the fight since Fenryn has recovered totally.
And it's not what you can use at will, right Raigan? Approaching with the last two gauntlets, Aeth stops Raigan immediately before he could move toward Fenryn.
"Bring it on." – Tug-of-war, they both put every drop of power into this strength battle.
Smirking, Raigan burns the Hell flame around him first, "As you wish."
"But don't forget that her body can't tolerate this kind of damage." – Driving a punch at Aeth's face, Raigan bypassed his guard and sent him flying away.
"Anomalous Bi-Soul." – Clowning on Aeth that they are nothing but the same kind of anomalous existence, Raigan instantly covers him with two flames. This is his time for all out attacks.
As Raigan has unleashed his trump card, Aeth knows that he can't win with incantations anymore, since they require a lot of steps to launch.
Ready? Asking Aetheria, who has been preparing for her abilities.
Absolutely.
*Vrm* – Sealing his hands together, Aeth detonates everything around in the radius of ten meters, just enough to hit Raigan away.
There are many special abilities that have many advantages compared to others, but the trade off is also equal. As Jack of All Trades, Paragon has to activate it as an Ultimate Move instead of a normal Ability. Which means if his Aura maximum output didn't reach 200%, he wouldn't be able to activate it. For the benefit, instant strike of 100% maximum output whenever Paragon touches and activates the weapons. Can be 120% if he activates Ignite.
And this ability of Aetheria is also that kind of case, but the requirements are more complicated. The first one, known as The Sun. It has four different phases.
Morning: Standing for the flame of Eastern. As the rising sun, the flame is just a flame, no special power, no payment.
Noon: Standing for the cruel flame. Reaching its peak, the sun is now at the highest place, also the strongest phase. The flame will not stop until the targets die in pain. As a trade off, whenever Aeth got Overheat state, the flame immediately stops and The Sun is negated in one minute.
Each phase will automatically change after half a minute after activating, or after five strikes in one phase. And right now, the Noon Phase has already applied on Aeth.
*Crackle* – Throwing a strike back, Aeth hit Raigan before getting a strike on his face for another time. Stepping into a combat trade, hand to hand, they fight closely with no hold back. Among the blazing flame and the golden flame, their skins are burnt to scorched just by being hit barely grazed.
Four…
*Smack* – Five! Counting silently, the phase has changed again.
The next phase, known as Afternoon, which stands for the dying flame. In short, Aeth sacrifices the ability to burn permanently for the crazy localized heating just by a touch. Overheat applies twice faster, but also removes itself twice faster.
The sun mark on his right hand slightly changes to ash color, slightly burning. And right at that moment, Raigan's senses instantly kicked in with the red warning. Knowing what he should do, he steps back and expands his Zone. Automatic Counter System, this is the temporary plan to avoid being damaged.
Rushing forward, Aeth approaches with the right hand of nothing. On the contrary, Raigan only stands there as a rock, but his brain is working with 200% of its potential, just to find a way to save his flames as much as possible while–
*Splash* – The thought is instantly cut away by a light sword. Of course, he forgot that Fenryn is still here with her spells.
Luckily, Raigan has already parried four out of five slashes. The last one wasn't that strong to damage him with a deep wound, yet, it opened a chance for Aeth to sneak him with a touch. Thankfully, the Automatic Counter System helped him right immediately to deflect the right hand of Aeth. However, the price was half of his left hand, it's burnt, all burnt to coal.
Realizing the true danger, Raigan analyzes that the burning damage is only applied when the right palm touches the target. Which means…
*Smack* – Hitting the back of Aeth's right hand, as predicted, he didn't get burnt, yet, it's still fast enough to take away two ribs of Raigan. Cursing inside his mind, Raigan kicks Aeth away. At the same time, he also rotates to the left to disarm Fenryn as quickly as possible.
*Fshh* – Acid kicks in! Throwing two different potions of poison in close range, Fenryn has successfully destroyed two eyes of the Pontiff. Aeth also rushes back with a kick to deflect the counter strike of Raigan.
*Clack* – Catching the staff, she pointed it toward him with no hesitation.
Spell level 4 - Lazer
*Fshh!* – Something is being melted.
Indeed, due to the Zone, Raigan was able to locate the beam and stop it right at the magic circle. Nevertheless, his Guard was enough to stop the heat, the impact was reduced by nothing.
After two seconds of struggling with three more heavy kicks into the body, Raigan is already able to break the magic circle and kick Fenryn away. Getting one more hit at the face, he's enraged. Smashing the elbow toward Aeth, he finally has a second to breathe in peace.
*Splash* – Nevermind, light swords kicked in.
*Crackle!* – All in! Raigan instantly bursts two flames into a beam, this is his special technique. It's hard to fuse two flames for the new formation, especially one of them is hell fire and the other is dragon flame. In the cores of those flames, they are already set to be opposite from each other.
To fuse these flames, Raigan has to twist the cores of them. And he knows that Aurorize doesn't like that trick, so this beam is only a semi-finished product. Yet, surprisingly that semi-finished product was enough to burn Aeth's arms into coal.
*Crackle* – Reversed Amplification Aura kicks in instantly to heal his arms, Aeth rushes toward Raigan again. No one here is dumb, looking at that damage, both Fenryn and Aeth know that Raigan can't do it at will. So here comes a pressing from back and front, he's again sent to the dead end.
Five more seconds! Aeth is always aware of the next phase.
How can this guy be alive after all of those wounds? Not only Aeth, even Fenryn can't understand how Raigan is still able to fight against them while none of his body is undamaged.
Raigan has nothing to say, just a short F word as usual.
The next phase of The Sun is known as Dusk, the vestige of the flame. It only gives Aeth a Sun mark at the back of right hand and because the flame has gone out, Aeth's unable to burn anything anymore.
Observing that phenomenon, Raigan also takes a look at Aeth's left hand, where a Moon mark is also shining hazily. Thirty seconds for The Sun to reach Noon, five strikes to skip to Afternoon and thirty more seconds to get to Dusk, it's just enough for The Moon to finish the set up.
The Moon has three phases:
Twilight – The Hazy Moonlight
Midnight – The Magnificent Moonlight
Dawn – The Fading Moonlight
And after over a minute, Dawn Phase is already on his left hand. It doesn't do much, but leaves a Moon mark on Aeth's back of left arm. Raigan immediately knows what Aeth will do next. In the case the marks don't do anything special, the combination of them would do.
As predicted, Aeth moves his arms together. Letting the Sun mark inside, the Moon mark outside, the hand gesture has been used.
All of sudden, the entire space around them is covered by a distorted field. The barrier has been built up almost instantly, which is too fast for Raigan to even do anything.
Domain Expansion – Sun and Moon: Three Eyes of Heaven
Oscillating as ocean waves, the entire space inside the domain looks like a perfect room of mirrors, but not the same kind of multiple patched ones as Yone's. It's like a glass enclosure, perfectly painting a blue sky above and a clear ocean under his feet.
*Vrm* – Closing his hands together, the first layer of sky has been revealed with the color of crimson and the first moon – which is known as Blood Moon, Inz.
*Vrm* – The second layer of sky is also presented in this domain. At the firmament of cyan floating clouds, the second Moon – Ane, Aqueous Moon, presents.
*Vroom* – The third layer of sky is known as the realm of angles, the closest throne to the roots of Hilyforth* – where the Sun, Ull, reigns over with its flame.
*Hilyforth: One of three parts of The Sacred World Tree. It was known as the bridge to seven firmaments of Heaven, a part of the bridge that held up the structure of Aurorize in the old eras.
It's split into two phases, Day and Night. Burning mid-air, a moonlit flame slowly drops itself to the ocean of gentle ripples. And when it reaches the destination, an infinite ocean is filled up by a plenty of blazing lunar flowers, which reflect the moonlight hazily.
I mentioned that Aeth didn't use the Morning Phase, which doesn't mean that Aetheria didn't do the work.
By combining Morning and Twilight Phases together, the flame of moonlight was created and hidden inside his inner world, which is just painted inside this domain. It directly supports the Day Phase of this domain, burning both physically and spiritually the opponents.
Because it's a Day Phase, so Inz and Ane are already hiding away.
"Sh*t." – Sealing his hands, Raigan applies Counter-field on himself. I shouldn't yap anything about this technique anymore, should I? Yuiz showcased it perfectly already, how dare you forget that performance of his?
Because of the danger that Fenryn could be burnt into nothing, Aeth had to split her out of the plan from this moment. However, he has enough confidence to finish Raigan inside this domain.
He raises his left hand, "The flame of the West."
Following his hand, the entire domain is dyed in the color of blazing flames. From the flowers, they burn, from the three layers of sky, they fall down – covering everything inside the flares of blazing sun.
He raises his right hand, "The flame of the North."
Flicking between his hands, a blazing orb of flame sparkles with the destructive power. Even Raigan feels threatened by it alone, incredible.
He closes his hands together, "The flame of the South."
*Fshh* – All the flames are concentrated into many orbs around him and Raigan, leaving the entire domain back to its origin scene. Yet, Raigan doesn't feel any better, instead, he sees death.
Aeth both puts his arms forward, aligning both the Sun and Moon marks are attached together, back to back his two hands. For more details, the left hand faces downward, the right hand faces upward.
"The flame of the East."
Its original function is strengthening the burning effect of this domain of Day Phase. Yet, when the four flames are all gathered all at once, it will come.
Descending from the third layer of the sky, Ull is moving. The fact that it's only a simulation object, so the power is also a spark compared to the true celestial.
"But it's still enough to kill you, don't you think?" – Throwing the massive sun above his head into the ocean under his knees, Aeth has used everything he has currently.
Binding Vow* (temporarily): Cancelling the domain after this Sun explodes, the power will increase twice.
*Binding Vow: different from contract of equilibrium, binding vow is like a one-used ticket, built on a specific price. The only purpose is sacrificing one thing for getting back another thing in a specific amount of time.
Do you still remember the moment I mentioned Aeth was bursting his soul? So it's obvious that he'll use the rest of his soul for this binding vow. Which means that Aeth has not much time left. It's also revealed when he tried to fasten everything, including this domain and the four flames.
"Unless I have this one, idiot."
Raigan hasn't stood there for fun, he has been preparing for a while. His plan is really easy. By anomalizing his own soul, Raigan could access the "anomalous abilities" that anomalies should have. But this is only the first step.
Next one, Raigan used his spiritual core* as a central core. Spinning both the Hell Fire and the Dragon Flame to incredible speed, Raigan achieved the blended structure of two incompatible flames in a ring form.
Non-stop, Raigan instantly used his spiritual power to break down that ring all into particles of purest essence.
Different from Aeth, Raigan can do all of those steps on his own without ducking a face. He doesn't need help from a third party to reach this far. Yet, he knew that it's just not enough to win against Aeth. So this was when the binding vow truly participated in. By setting these things on the scale: a huge amount of Aura and spiritual power; losing the ability to burn by the flames; no protection for both enemies and the user. All of these sacrifices just to upscale the attack potency to the continental level.
And inside this domain, it's nothing but a clash of two thermobaric bombs in a closed room, also the goal that Raigan aimed for. Aeth was really genius to trap only him and Raigan into this closed space, just to bet on whether he or Raigan will die first. Nevertheless, since Raigan revealed his trump card, it's instantly changed to the bet that if they are going to survive or not.
"This move, I'll call it Die Together. Romantic, don't you think?" – Mocking, he laughs with no holding back.
"It's just fine, but only me, not her."
"Oh~?"
*Tch* – Fenryn was enraged when Aeth crossed her out of the battle. Yet, she isn't a kind of an easily sulking girlfriend. She has been setting up a lot of traps by spells around the barrier. Honestly, she has to praise Aeth, she knows that to create such a small domain from outside but paint the whole world inside is really hard to do.
As I explained in Yujin's case, the domain is only a replaced area, a gate leading toward the inner world of imagination of the user. Like a signal announcing to the world that casters are going to call out their inner worlds and paint them inside the captured space. Which means casters can create a sphere, square, cylinder, pyramid or whatever kind of domain with various sizes. And those sizes don't matter the true scale of the inner worlds.
*Crack* – Catching the signal, she instantly realizes that she needs to stay in position right away. For whoever the winner is, she must be ready for the next step. Yet, no one knows, even Fenryn, that Raigan is still saving one last trump card.
This strategy was made since The flame of the West was activated. At first, Raigan tried to bend the space to isolate him from the flames, yet, when the Sun was called out, he felt despair. At the moment facing death, his brain finally came up with another bet.
By bending the space in lozenge shape, leaving an isolated room around Raigan – reducing as much damage as possible. This technique requires a virtual barrier, which is like the edge of Instant Domain. For explanation, he needed a frame to build up a bended spatial structure, and a barrier was nothing but a shield. In that moment, directly withstanding the impact of two massive bombs was too dumb to do, so a virtual barrier was more reasonable.
Yet, it doesn't mean that he could ignore all the damage. Losing his entire left arm, being burnt all the front of the body, losing the accuracy in sight and the Aura is almost drained out, it's all because of the explosive impact, which that craftsmanship couldn't bear alone.
On the contrary, Aeth almost lost half his life. Aphenim is a blessed shield. At that moment, it actively sacrificed its power and the last two sparks of Divine Force just to reduce the majority of those two bombs.
Heavily breathing, Raigan doesn't look happy, "F* it. If only your soul were better, I'd have died."
*Splash* – Letting the blood drop, "Ah, why do I forget that there's another brat?"
F* I can't even move, this body is already at its limit. Raigan only smirks, he's done.
"You f*ing bastard!" – Enraged, Fenryn can't accept the fact that Aeth looks like he's dying. All because of this Pontiff right in front of her, it's so close. It's so close to the truth that she's been searching for it.
*Splash* – Almost cutting him into half, a deep wound is cut on the body of Raigan. His right arm is also cut down within a slash. Non-stop, the wrath has reigned her mind, she can't think of anything.
"Die!" – *Crack*
"So be it." – Knocking Fenryn away, even though he's carrying a lot of disadvantages, it's still enough for Raigan to win against Fenryn.
"Shattered Meteor." – Can't move, can't see, can't fight hand to hand, so chanting is the last option.
His hand gesture can also be done with only one hand, the only disadvantage is the increase in output is reduced by half. Covering his mouth by the right hand, Fenryn can't determine the terms Raigain's using.
Hey, won't you just stand there?
The key is always in your hands. I didn't prohibit anything, go wild.
"Astral Rage" – The term has been chanted, and it instantly triggers the sense of danger inside Raigan's mind.
That brat, is he still alive?
*Tch* – "Twin Lights"
It's still fine, I'll end it right there, it's just enough to kill him.
"Moonlight" – "Weryl"
It's too clear to see that Raigan has finished his incantation first with 150% output. While Aeth still stops at 40% damage addition.
This is why I can win, slower than a snail!
*Vrm* – Is that…
At that moment, Raigan has gotten a chance to face him.
"Sky"
You… are you God?
Nothing replies him, in the private dimension, only two eyes are gazing.
Why!?
"Boundary"
Why do they always be chosen!? Tell me! That brat Rudolf, and now that anomalous bi-soul brat, why!?
Aeth heavily raises his right hand upward, with the height neatly at the middle of Raigan's torso, "God Slayer"
*Zip* – A short roaring hiss is the trace, and the impact is the cut space. The slash that was known as a beheading weapon for Gods. The slash that he used against all the entities who dared to claim them eternal along with creation.
*R-R-Rip!* – Wavering as a crashing wave, the entire zone of 800 kilometers was totally destroyed. Thankfully, Rudolf was there to stop the shockwave by his Aura, yet, he still needed to dodge the slash.
According to him, if he was trying to stop that slash, there would be two separated parts of Rudolf, nice and neat. Of course, that slash split a lot of trees into parts, even three major mountain ranges were also destroyed. If there had to be an optimistic thing to thank, it would've been the loss of human life was reduced to zero in total.
*Crack* – His right hand heavily smashes on the ground, he's at the limit already.
*Fsh* – Surprisingly, Fenryn rushes toward him with a face full of despair. On hand the potions of regeneration IV, healing potions III and the others, she soaks Aeth inside a block of multiple liquids just to catch back a hope to save him once.
"Let me help you." – Waving his hand, Rudolf appears with his Holy Aura. Touching Aeth's heart, he transfers a flame into that heart, fixing his core first. Then it swiftly spreads out all her body, healing everything instantly.
*Urgh!* – Vomiting a bunch of blood to the ground, that body slowly turns back to a female one. Which means Aeth has finished his wish.
Unleashing her spiritual wave, Fenryn calls out his name while looking around. Yet, nothing replies.
"Is he dead?"
"I don't think so." – Rudolf also does the same thing.
"I see." – Then he stands up leisurely.
He says the issue instantly, how kind, "There's one entity working with him, just wait."
"Is he okay?" – Can't hide the worriness, she asks without hesitation.
"Don't worry, there's no use if that entity is going to kill Aetheria." – Looking to the back, she slightly smiles.
*Urghh!* – Dragging himself along two steps, vomiting blood once. There's no need to describe how terrible his body is right now, nothing but a rag.
F* that, how unfair…
*Urghh!* – Hypertensive crisis, Raigan heavily throws away the wrath and keeps crawling toward Ian.
*Clonk!* – "Brat."
*Haha* or *Hehe* whatever, he just laughs.
"It seems like you are left behind too."
*Clank* – Distorting the iron bars, Raigan fell on the ground. At the same time, his eyes also open up, he has woken up.
Looking around, Ian swiftly takes control back of his body after days being sealed right here.
*Bang* – An explosion, a broken prison and an unsealed demon.
*Splash* – Back to several minutes ago, Kura has been slashed. As mentioned, Adevon is able to strengthen his slashes sharper and stronger and faster over time. It's different between a newbie and a professor doing this kind of boosting. It's harder for the first time trying, but Adevon is built differently. The only chain is this vessel, for him, strengthening his power is nothing but repeating what he did years ago.
And by hiding the true slash until the end, he tricked both Yone and Torun to leave enough space back then to just cut Kura in half. The risk that Kura could react was even eliminated since the slash was too fast to see in his sight.
Almost instantly, Yone backs up his partner while Torun is shooting a bunch of bombs toward Adevon no matter the cost. Kura also heals himself as fast as possible just to stop his body falling into two parts.
It's sharp.
"Can you hit that core?" – Even Yone at this point feels the tiredness on his entire body. He's been moving under pressure on himself for too long, don't forget that he entered this fight with injuries.
"Yes, but my fused chain…" Murmuring with a quiet voice, Kura and Yone come up with a strategy.
*Clash - Clash* – Swinging the chains as fast as possible, Kura forces those slashes flying away just to draw a line for Yone to burst his speed. Frame Skipping, our speedster comes with a gift is a kick toward that face of the demon. Even though it's blocked, Yone still has time to drive another kick forward.
*Bang* – Approaching with a touch, 300% of his maximum output has been detonated on both hands, as a six times stronger punch to Adevon's ribs.
*Splash* – Swinging his fingers, Adevon instantly cuts down one of Torun's arms. But he doesn't know that even a part of Torun can also be detonated.
*Bang* – Pushing him to the ground, Yone carries all the slashes by his body. Letting the blood flow away with pain, he doesn't snafflebit his grab even a little. This is the last thing he can do in the last five seconds.
*Swish* – This is the chance that Kura's been waiting for. While Torun is detonating everything around them, just to open a slit among the explosions for that fused chain to penetrate.
Kura aims for it, Yone aims for it, Torun aims for it, also Adevon aims for it. At the start, to this moment, he still keeps his eyes on that fused chain. Via senses, via experience and via observation, it's too obvious that chain is the important puzzle of the entire painting.
*Bang* – Adevon instantly releases a spiral bomb around him just to knock Torun and Yone away. Yet, it seems like that guy's letting him down. Still grabbing the shoulders of Adevon, he pushes the demon onto the ground even harder. Among the shattered mirrors, the entire domain is going to collapse.
*Clank* – Catching the chain, Adevon transfers as much deadly wind as possible into it, in order to twist Kura into a mess. Bursting the Aura into his fists, Torun interrupts with two massive blows of Etheron landing at the demon.
*Smack* – A quick jab was launched right at Torun's face, a strike that slipped through Yone from his back, what a weird strike. The impact was enough to break his neck just by a punch, brutally. For the next step, he pulls the chain to drag the last brat into the deadly zone around him.
*Splash* – Pinning his sword to the ground, perfectly sealing that arm of Adevon. Of course, Hazen has been camping "in the bush" for a while. His goal is really simple, being annoying to limit Adevon, no matter the issue that may come.
At the same time, the chain is moving. And before that movement, Algamos is already swinging toward the demon with the massively hypersonic speed.
But who is doing it? Obviously, Hazen is. The third move of Larizupi, Phantom Light Assault, allows him to delay the light reflecting from the attack to the opponent.
Indeed, Zone can remove all of that disadvantage, however, the spiral bomb before had canceled the zone of Adevon already. Everything always comes up with a price, there's no way for him to use multiple techniques strong enough to beat against these dudes, while he's only at the rank of a Baron in this vessel.
*Clink!* – When the sound clangs around, Adevon has been decided to be locked in the thin glass called a frame.
Nicely and neatly, the fused chain had been also able to lock the core before Adevon was framed. And let me remind you for one more time, the framed object is separated from the others. Since the moment the core was locked by the fused chain, it's counted as a separated object from Adevon already.
"All good." – The chance has come.
*Crack* – Breaking after five seconds since the moment Yone pinned Adevon to the ground, the domain has collapsed, leaving there a shattered structure of plenty of broken mirrors.
Doesn't matter, it'd only be another heavy strik– Struggling with the thought inside his mind, Adevon has seen something dangerous.
As distancing the entire world among them, it's too far for those hands struggling. Locked inside the frame, Adevon can't do anything but witness that human rushing toward.
It's been a while, hasn't it?
Ultimate Move: Spatial Distortion Field – has been activated.
*Vrm* – For another time, his feet landed on the space with waves. After a blink, the entire background has been switched to an absolute whiteness. His existence has been upscaled to the fourth dimensional axis.
Five million images is the total amount he can endure right now. The rest of his Aura can't bear more than that, yet, it's just enough to eliminate Adevon in a kick.
And for another time, Yone has to play with death again. Zero to one, whatever it is, Yone must keep it below within the range of 0.2, unless he wants to die together with that demon.
The Kaleidoscope World of Mirrors reflects the images of the object into the countless mirrors flying around. And Yone also performed a bursting power when a lot of mirrors were destroyed inside the domain, which I had explained related to the kaleidoscope and preservation.
So when the domain collapsed, all the images instantly were shifted back to the object, which means it's just a stepping stone for Yone to launch another deadly strike. Half a million times stronger, this kick will destroy his entire body if he messes up right now.
The last kick that he launched outside the Cathedral, to form a massive emptiness of 10^9 cubic meters. Do you know how fast Yone was? Zero points seventy-two percent of lightspeed and only 0.08% the reaction force applied back to him was enough to crack his body slowly over time.
And do you know how fast this kick is? With the five hundred thousand times faster his base speed at three hundred meters per second, it of course reaches the relativistic level of 50% speed of light. At this level, 0.01 or even 0.001 second of deviation is too much to destroy his current injured body.
So it must be right at 0 second.
*Vsh* – The air is no longer gas but a massively dense and heavy block for him to pass through. However, it's not his work – the projection of his in the 3D structure.
I know, I know, I know that I was sucked in explaining his Ultimate Move before. There are two kinds of jumping outside of the three dimensional structure, the first one is for the true 4D entity, who isn't limited in the three dimensions below. And the second kind is for Yone, who can upscale his existence to a false-4D entity temporarily.
He doesn't have the godly authority as them, yet, the better vision is also counted as an advantage. But it's only the side information, the true issue is how he can ignore the reaction force. When entering this stage of over three-dimensional structure, the "Yone" that is still moving, is counted as a projection of him in the 4D layer.
When that projection attacks something, Aurorize will load the velocity and the impact the strikes cause. And that being will order Yone to get back to where he belongs to, one second is the deadline. If he comes back after more than one second, he'll be deleted and sent to the afterlife immediately. If he comes back more than one second before landing a strike, his ultimate move just simply stops working.
The damage is determined by the spatial jump deviation divided for a second, expressed as a percentage. When he does a perfect timing, the reaction force is applied perfectly on the projection, which is immediately erased because Yone has come back at the same time.
However, no matter which explanation makes you feel better in understanding the mechanics of this ultimate move, it's still based on the skill issue of Yone.
*Vrmm!* – Rising his kicks forth, Yone's silhouette is painted over and over again by multiple impact frames. Here they come! The unlimited frames of black and white, shading the various sides of him and his attack after the light sources non-stop relocating themselves.
Now!
Jumping back to where he belongs, the impact is instantly released as a true calamity.
Two million images, three point seven petajoules (10^15 J in words). Five million images, which is two points five times compared to the previous kick. In kinetic energy, it doesn't simply 2.5 times stronger, we count it via a function: Ek = ½ m.v^2
But why, you may ask.
Let me explain, one image doesn't strengthen the output or speed alone 10%, but both of them are boosted. Now we applied the 2.5x to the function.
2.5x stronger and 6.25x faster.
After a simple calculation, we can get the answer of 15.625 – this strike carries the energy of 15.625 times compared to the 884 kilotons TNT strike before.
13.82 Megatons TNT is the final answer – ¼ the Tsar Bomba, the strongest atomic weapon of us.
*Crack* – Trapped inside the folded spatial box, that kick is a detonation of half a Tsar Bomba non-stop destroying Adevon inside the frame. Of course, there's always a delay when the force hits the frame before it breaks apart. And that 0.1 seconds of delay is enough to erode 70% of the power of the strike. Yet, Yone didn't try to control it like that before.
The 0.1 seconds of delay is due to the capability to hold the frame stable of Yone, which he hasn't done before. The opponents were so weak that he didn't even try to use this technique. And this is the first time that he has to face such a strong opponent, which means it is his first time actually.
The rest of 30% of the power is of course converted all to destruction. According to A– I mean my genius brain, it can wipe out two to three huge ranges of mountains. The last good thing that I can tell is the direction and zone, Yone landed the strike to the west, where the loss of people will not be that bad. And it won't destroy much but drawing a long valley with multiple shockwaves bursting forward the west.
As a piece of fact, Adevon was burnt to nothing, also the space around Yone. Yet, the Holy Aura that Rudolf left there previously just saved him by a hair's breadth. Also, with the energy loss in open space, this kick is enough to destroy an Empire. And with the frame, Adevon was forced to endure the massive power that's enough to crush down the small island into fragments.
Apparently, Adevon couldn't stand a chance beneath that strike, all's done. No more plot armor, no more hidden trump cards. Adevon is still locked in a rank of Baro Veneratus, he has enough chances to flex his power already, time to get back his home.
"The core…" – Almost collapsing down onto the ground, Yone struggles with standing but still asks for the thing.
"Here." – Throwing it toward the speedster, Kura also steps toward him to heal the teammate real quick.
Here's the lesson. If you want to determine the quality of the core, you need three steps. The first one, Yone puts it under the sun light, which reveal if there's any remnants of demonic miasma*
Demonic miasma: the trace of Black Aura which is revealed by sunlight, sensed by Aura and purified by Holy element.
Next one, he asks Torun to transfer as much Aura as possible into the core. From the light shining inside out, Yone is sure that there's no scratches in any layer of the core. Finally, he pulls out a container of a transparent liquid.
This liquid is called Aether-Chromatic Reagent, its function is reacting to the curses attached on objects with corresponding colors. Luckily, it doesn't change anything, there's also no demonic miasma and cracks.
Preliminarily, Yone has enough examination to evaluate it as a medium-high quality core. It's in the range of capacity to endure the existence of a Baro Ordinis IV Veneratus like the avatar of Adevon, yet, it's an imperfect product of the ritual.
It's actually a big question for Yone. According to his point of view, Raigan has no reason to waste such an opportunity like this. Compared to the standard requirement of one million souls, the sacrifice he used was actually better due to the quality of the immolated souls. Yone has no idea about this one, but he's still able to understand that the reason this core isn't the high quality one yet is because of Raigan. He had to do this on purpose.
But why…? Frowning, Yone can't understand that move.
Didn't he aim to win?
No! Not that, it can't be… Aeth. When that name is mentioned, Yone instantly rejects the support of Kura but rushes toward the Cathedral. He wants to find out if he's really on the track.
"Ey!" – Missing his grab, Kura is one step behind chasing Yone. Yet, without Frame Skipping due to the overworked body and mind, the distance is easily reduced to two steps.
"What's up?" – Kura asks.
"The core was intentionally left at medium-high quality. Raigan is aiming for something, I need to examine it." – Yone bursts his Aura, coercively boosting his speed to S tier, around Mach 56.
*Vsh* – His movement left not even a trace behind, literally a speed blitz in Kura's vision.
*Crack* – Breaking the wall, he instantly faces Aetheria, the female one.
"Eh? You are female?"
Throwing the shirt away, Aetheria was healing herself with the maximum output. Because the previous two bombs were too devastative, her body is totally burnt to coal. Rudolf indeed helped her, however, it's just giving an anchor to keep Aetheria alive. The wounds are still there.
Consequently, there is nothing but a chest wrap and a short on her body. Lying on the ground next to her, Fenryn is having a date with Aeth in the soul field.
"Oh… sorry…"
"It's fine, what's the issue?"
"Umh… So you are the second soul of Aeth?"
"You can think of it that way. But this body is mine right now."
"Okay, the problem is I need to ask Aeth about Raigan. I doubt that he's aiming for something else–"
"I know it." – Interrupting him, Aetheria explains.
"I'm not sure about his move, but this book mentions that a bird must leave its home for a while." – Calling out the broken book with runes, she opens the Third Canto of Volume Two.
Activating it via Aura, she already tells Yone a part of the story without speaking up in a long dialogue.
"Is… that…?" – Frozen in shock, Yone can't believe what he just saw.
Book of Prophecy III – The Awakening of The White Tern
This is one of twelve fragments building up the true scene of the future of this realm. Mentioning the image of a white tern, a stranger to this world. And this event is also written in the book, Volume III, Canto IV – that Ian will leave this place to start his journey on his own.
Aetheria only shakes her head, "It's not a coincidence that he found Ian."
"..." – Catching a spark hidden inside those eyes, Aetheria instantly unleashes her Aura.
"We can't prevent the prophecy, or at least…"
Standing up, she doesn't mind about her wounds right now. Aetheria picks up the daggers and points one of them toward Yone, who is still hesitating.
"I won't let any one of you lay a finger on changing that destiny."
"..." – All silence, Yone knows that he can't win against Aetheria with this body. After cancelling all the limits, Frame Manipulation was also locked for a day. Compared to stats, Aetheria is stronger than Yone, despite they are both injured, the gap of speed between them is roughly up to twentyfold sound speed.
Rising his two hands above his head, Yone gives in, "Alright, I'm done."
He looks at the right side of the pillar next to the broken gate. He smiles, "You reckless."
Clap, that might be the sound if he was really there hand by hand bidding farewell. Among the white mist of spiritual power, his silhouette again appears.
Farewell.
In the soul field, he's only standing there with silence as his companion. Aeth quietly observes everything that happens on its own. The divide between two worlds is too far for him to actually do anything.
Regret?
No, just a bit of haziness.
…
Don't you think my life is just a stepping stone? That it could've been a scene becoming my future with a home where I should belong to exist?
To us, you are merely isolated numbers. Tied by the threads of fate, some depart, others remain—together or alone. Yet, variables will ever twist that predetermined destiny. What you so desperately long for may well be set in stone, only to be replaced by the variables of fate.
…
Please tell me, what if that book didn't exist, would my sister…
She'd stay alive.
Daring not to face him, Aeth only looks above, letting his sadness flow down as the imaginary tears. What should he do? Crying out loud in madness? Diving deeply in sadness? Or giving up everything with happiness?
Hey… I heard that whenever I die, I'll need to face all my memories again. Can your kindness spare me a wish?
No.
Oh…
According to the last contract we made in our previous life, we stated that your soul would belong to me whenever you finish your longing with the second chance.
Yes…
But I stated that it's Yharn, not Zekhir.
Pardon?
Your ticket to keep your journey to Reincarnation Gate was collected by me. Then you again made another contract with that girl to borrow her Yharn for this current life. In short, you are now an ego. Based on the rules of Aurorize, without Yharn like in your case, there's no chance for you to exist.
Showing the mentioned clauses in the contract to Aeth, Yujin makes sure that there's no more misinformation between them and in this employment contract. Then he snaps his fingers, burning down the contract without a trace left. Don't worry, it's just animation and visual effects, the contract is still available.
But there's still more places for a Zekhir like you can work on. Your identity has been transferred to that girl, your desires and contracts are all done. Now it's time for you to work for me, I didn't grant you a wish just for fun, idiot.
Catching the information, Aeth instantly realizes the purpose of Yujin. I still remember those days he forced 3000 unemployed guys to join his branch of the Holy Knight Council. It's so similar.
I'm not a kind one, so get your ass up real quick and head on your first mission.
He turns back, but still waits for Aeth.
Don't you want to know why I and those entities are trying to expand the chessmen? Also the truth behind the twelve books of prophecy, are you curious?
With no time to waste, Yujin opens a white gate and enters it with a smile hanging on his mouth.
And right at that moment, those feet start running again.
To the north, he also starts his journey. Grumbling the ghost flying around him, that young man left to write his own story on the new chapter. And the White Tern has flown away, with the winds.
[Prophecy of Aurorize: Book III – The Awakening of The White Tern
Volume III: The Leaving of The Tern
Canto IV: Leaving This Place, Wandering Through Days
"Accompanying the ghost, the young man left at dusk. Among the red sun sparks, the promise of another reunion was made."]