*Thud* – He drives a punch into the target, sending that dude flying away. Within a leap, he catches up with a swift kick descending from the sky.
*Crack* – Despite the effort trying to block that strike, those two arms were still broken into many parts. Crumbled into pieces, that assassin's crushed into total paralysis on the ground.
*Splash* – That head is instantly uprooted, held by those five fingers, all his life from daily work into the deepest side of perception, everything is checked once beneath that power.
Behind a random tree, a guy with a sorcerer's outfit steps out with two more heads. He approaches then throws them all onto the ground as trash.
"They come from Aegista." – The first guy, who brings an uchigatana, speaks up.
He continues, "Eclipsed Moon, Celestial Moon rank, special mission, book…"
Then he claims, "They are trying to assemble all the books of prophecy."
"Isn't it too soon?" – The ritualist with a sorcerer's outfit asks.
"Based on their memory, that institute splits into many factions. And these three guys are working for–"
*Splash* – He instantly lands a slash onto the nearby corpse, because it's already transforming strangely.
"Back up, anomalous traces." – He swings the uchigatana around to split it into two pieces.
Meanwhile, the sorcerer has already captured the last two.
"Tenmei, I sense the eldritch power." – He summons a spirit with four arms to remove all the capability of two corpses moving.
*Splash* – Cutting the third corpse into a mess, he only saves a heart and a brain intentionally, "Bring them back to our base."
"Also extract that eldritch power out as usual, he's calling me right now, i have to go." – Cleaning his blade, Tenmei sheaths it as perfectly as usual.
Giving a sign, Kazu disappears inside the shade of a tree, hiding from the watch of their clan.
Taiyou Clan was one of the ten original clans on Aegista, led by Kegashiki Taiyou, one of the first disciples of Alacia, The First Saint of Aegista. He had ten wives, which is currently illegal in the majority of empires and kingdoms nowadays. That's why the clan was split into only one main and nine cadet branches up to now. And Tenmei is the cursed child of the main branch, carrying three demons that were prophesied destroying the entire clan in some days.
Being demoted and sent to the cadet branch as a misfit was the last humanity the previous patriarch gifted to him. For the same thing, Kazu, who was known as the unfortunate of the clan, was also sent to the cadet branch as a servant for Tenmei. If we look at his outfit, we can see the white bandage full of eyes covering his entire two arms. They present for the total of curses that Kazu seals inside himself.
To compare, if Tenmei could delete the entire clan by miscontrolling his three unknown demons by forces and brutal savage, Kazu could also do the same with his army full of curses.
Their rank in the clan is indeed lower than a normal maid or servant, yet, no one dares to mess with them. It obviously draws a line splitting those two cursed ones from the entire clan, far to farther, until there's nothing left to be called family bonds.
Today is another normal day for Tenmei, he checked around the clan as a guard then killed the suspicious ones as usual. Unlike Grantey Clan, Taiyou Clan doesn't hide themselves away from the world, even there's a guidance book in Aegista leading people toward their clan if they can survive through the seas. That's why Tenmei always has work to do daily.
And today is the only day each month Tenmei must come and report his work to the current patriarch of his clan. Through the hallway of amethyst lights, he walks through the doors of heavy black metal even without moving them just a bit.
"Thirty-one challengers, all dead." – Short and clear, he doesn't want to stay here for any longer.
Waving his hand leisurely, the patriarch tells him to do whatever he wants, their meeting is already done. Following that action, Tenmei also disappears within a leap, leaving a trace behind.
He looks to the left, with the gaze of demanding for a short answer.
"Stable."
Giving a sign again, that girl also steps back into the corner, lacking light. Boring is the first thing we can sense inside this room, nothing but a dim light on two sides, which is only enough to lighten up a very small part of the entire thing. This room was only painted black since the new patriarch sat on that throne, also known as the dark age of Taiyou Clan.
"What are you looking for?" – A strange voice clangs from behind Kazu, which instantly forces him to unleash ten curses toward that direction.
*Splash* – Tearing down those low quality curses, Lamti covers its wings around its master as a protection from the stained atmosphere around.
"Sorry for sneaking, but we came here with an offer." – Har opens a shadow gate next to him, and guess who just steps out? Not too long but still long black har, a way too complicated yet simplified style outfit and two sharp eyes.
Yozu speaks up, to the fourth guy, who is standing right there with an uchigatana, "Yo, long time no see."
"Why are you here?"
*Sizzle* – Back to the moment that they both had a BBQ party on a hill, when Har and Raigan had already gone for their own journey and when the sky was painted to the night. Yet, there are still two guys sitting there and slowly reducing two boxes full of food into nothing but ice and cold water left.
Yozu offers, "What do you think about being trained in order until you're strong enough? Around the SSS tier I mean."
"Not impressive, I'd like to learn everything on my own. I need the threads for me to touch and explore, not a frame that I must follow." – Har denies, he knows that he's sucked, yet getting helped that way is too boring.
*Sizzle* – Yozu flips the lobster and coats it with butter, "It's up to you. To crawl into this throne, I had to face everything on my own."
"What's your issue? I don't think we're just here for a question."
Yozu puts two more blocks of meat onto the barbeque table, "We shall go to Phelatust."
It's obvious that Har stops for a moment, "You mean the lands that we haven't explored for a full percent?"
"Yes, you'll need to see a guy there." – Yozu slowly removes the shell of the lobster, ready to eat.
"Who?"
"Tenmei Taiyou, he can help you a bit in controlling your beasts." – Yozu just finished that lobster in a bite, heavenly fast.
Chewing, "I also realize that your shadow beasts are quite wasted in potential. Sometimes utility is better than strength and he'll help you."
"Bet, I'll thank you later if this journey is worth it." – Har slightly touches his shadow drawn by the lighten up hanging oil lamp, where his strongest confidence's hiding.
*Lisp* – Crossing the forest, they're on their way to the south lands, where they can enter Fortune – the east gate to the rich seas beyond the Aegista. Different from what Har imagined, Lajuln is the best spot for everyone to cross over the outer seas. It's not because of the safety and rewards of exploring the nearby outer seas but also due to the land on the other side.
To the east gate of Lajuln, then crossing the gems oceans, you'll find the way to approach Taiyou Clan. And because of all of those benefits, despite the big gap being an inner sea, people just linked two continents together by bridges and underwater checkpoints, where the bridges are built on.
To understand what it looks like, we should talk about how the economy of this place works first. Two bridges across the inner sea are the ideal places for merchants to introduce their items. There are many slots on the bridges so it won't cause overcrowding. Flying around, there are many floating shops for a better chance to attract buyers. By the way, to rent a slot for a floating shop, you must be working for a high rank noble or being a high rank noble yourself.
Between two bridges, there are many crossover points connecting them together. Under those small bridges, two floating railway lines also shift a lot of people between two continents at a faster speed. Don't worry, because it's a center of merchants between two continents, a lot of guards and cameras are hired and placed around, with "no zone" being a concept that doesn't belong to this place.
Even better, the checkpoints under the sea level are the radars always loading every movement in water with a frequency of 5000 Hz. It's rare to see some creatures move with supersonic speed under water in the inner sea, so the chance for a creature bypassing all those radars is almost impossible to exist.
Of course, there are many aviation services like planes for quick business, fast hot air balloons for tourism or renting licenses for private transportations like private helicopters, private planes and private hot air balloons.
Oh I almost forgot it, this zone is split into many zones. Bridges, small bridges, under sea level zones, local air zones and the entire zone of the entire buildings, all of them are covered by formations and spells to keep on track all the movements and information inside.
The privacy of each individual is promised to be kept personal, yet, if there's an investigation, that promise will be set to the second priority. Normally, there are offices at each side of the bridges to check the brought items for transaction, double checking. Moreover, violence is absolutely prohibited after you step into the formation, as a safe zone, your movement causing damage, for ill will, will be prevented. So you don't need to worry about getting hit in your face at this place.
"So this is how the economy works huh?" – Ducking his face, this scene is way far from what he expected. It seems like he's been playing with monkeys among jungles for too long.
"Wait, I thought that it shouldn't be this modern. Is this still the same kind of commodity-based economy that I saw before?" – Trains, flying mounts, cameras, zone checking spells, radars… which are just too brand new for Har.
Sighing aside, "It's not that hard to see traces of modern technology like this in Aegista. Didn't your old world have the same thing?"
"Oh yes, there's no magic and Aura in my old realm but I didn't expect to see these kinds of modern inventions here. I thought it's just like the contiguous zone between Arezal and Niliphon." – Har almost flew away with the winds to buy some fun things, yet got held back by Yozu.
"Idiot, we need to prepare for the identity first." – Murmuring, Yozu "wala" then "kaboom" and now two cards are already created.
"Take this one, you are now Zaban and I'm Hidaerus. We can't let anything there record our traces, the two other factions in Eclipsed Moon will cause a bunch of trouble if they know I'm temporarily not in Aegista." – Yozu, now Hidaerus, flicks his fingers to switch both his hair style and hair color.
Har also does the same thing, "I thought that SSS+ tier threat like you can bypass the outseas easily, can't you? The delay of the information is the problem, I think?"
"Nope, Aegista is a big cage, splitting us from the majority of monsters and creatures from the outer continents. The stronger you are, the harder it is for you to break through the barrier. There're only ten gates that officially allow you to go in and out Aegista without a high price." – Yozu slightly takes out the slight silver arm armor that he's been wearing.
Under that veil, a seriously damaged wound is revealed, he continues, "This is for the first and also the only time that I ignored the rules. Almost leaving my life back then."
Within a laugh he hides it away, under the sleeve of the new black shirt.
"So I can ignore the rules with a lower price?" – Har instantly kicks in with a question showing not a part of Yozu's warning that matters to him.
"Shut up dude, you are an anomaly by the way. I was a human then I was able to stay alive, you would stand no chance, don't do anything stupid."
"Okay, whatever, because am I good citizen so–"
Don't worry, I know how bad it is to hear him glazing at himself , the kindest guy in the world so I cut it already.
*Slap* – The gentle waves come and leave, hitting the ship's side then dancing a way till they evaporate. They are shining the color of blue, to the east gate called Fortune, they'll cruise over five total different seas of gems.
"This one is known as Sapphire Waves, despite it's a sea. Not only because of the water color, but also the native sea creatures here." – Yozu sits on a luxury chair, in the VVIP room number one, slightly swaying the glass full of wine.
In the same room, Har is also here, "Is hunting them a legal behavior?"
"In case you are licensed and do the work in the allowed zones. Use your Sight, there are many green and red zones distinguishing everything. They are all decided by the Three Great Forces, the Round Table of Empires and other strongs." – Yozu teleports a rare sapphire tuna into the room then takes out everything he needs to serve sushi and sashimi.
"I wonder why on earth we have these kinds of outer seas. Different zones, different creatures, is there any core reason?" – Har of course takes out a full rice tureen for this small party. He reasonably can't let Yozu do all the work.
"It's quite weird to say but there are a lot of special gems always hiding under these outer seas. Their power slowly blended into the water, causing the mutation on nearby sea creatures. The crazy thing is if a fish is bound to sapphire, it can't go to ruby or other zones."
"As a dependent life." – Har realizes the issue.
"Yes, assimilation. Each century, those gem seas will melt all their gem sea creatures then absorb everything, leaving nothing left but eggs."
Har is shocked, "A circle, is it aiming to evolve itself by eating living creatures?"
Yozu stops a bit, he's quite surprised, "You must experience something like that in your old world, have you?"
"Ye, novels and creepypasta. This kind of horror story isn't that rare to see." – Har tries to make his first sushi himself, quite clumsy.
"Wait, who really combined creepy and pasta into a word?"
"No idea."
"The fish meat is also blue and crystal like sapphire, how wild." – Har uses the chopsticks to pick up a slice, it actually can be seen through as a true sapphire.
"Mutated products like this, don't eat them frequently, you don't want yourself to get mutated too." – Yozu this time teleports an emerald squid for a sashimi dish.
"I'm an anomaly dude." – Har cares not, eats the fish, eats the fish and eats the fish, doesn't matter.
A day later, "Hm, how long should it be?"
Yozu lies on a soft reclining chair, his fingers slightly playing with the luxury glass of wine a bit, "From the center to the edge of Aegista, you multiply it tenfold, it's the total journey we must cruise across."
"Are we serious? We're cruising with the supersonic speed, and the length of a total five Aegista– oh my god." – Har will die by age, he senses the future.
"Come on, you don't want to attract that monster. It only plays with the strong creatures and supersonic is the speed of a not too weak sea fish right there." – Yozu waves his hand, telling Har to shut up.
"Which kind of monster is it?"
Throwing him an old book of all the things he should know for this journey, Yozu lazily speaks up, "Page 73."
"Leviathan!?" – Almost jumping out of his bed, Har opens his eyes wide just to look at the image of the monster. In fact, Leviathan is one of the best sea beasts Yoshira always wants to tame in any game if it exists.
"Go bro, I'll tame one then put it inside my bathroom." - His eyes almost shine enough to lighten up the entire room.
"Then your bathroom must be enough to compare to the Cala Empire." – Yozu mocks.
He goes on, "Hey son, there's four beasts for four directions outside Aegista. To the South, out of Lajuln, we must get out of the hunting zone, where Leviathan usually sleeps in."
Yozu rubs his eyes, "Even Loye can't win that Leviathan without her ultimate power, you just stand no chance."
"Isn't there any small Leviathan?" – Har disappointed.
"Well, Eastern, Zone 5 to Zone of Kings, you'd find some Leviathans. I have no idea if there's a baby one or not, if you want to risk your life, then you can check it on your own. But down drag them all toward me, I'll run." – Yozu throws out information that he no way knows it's such a terrible move. No one could know what Har will do for sure.
"Can't you win it?" – His face looks so like a sandbag for Yozu to hit right now, Har ragebaits.
"Semi-Calamity Threat, you can try." – He smirks, that bait is too old for him to fall to.
"Hold on, how different is the threat between Semi-Calamity and SSS+ tier?" – He knows which one is stronger, but not that much to determine how different they are.
"The SSS+ tier isn't the strongest yet, we still have another higher tier is SSS++ which is temporarily used for whoever is not strong enough to get to the Calamity tier, also not that strong to overwhelm other SSS+ threats." – Yozu yawns.
He continues, "Semi-Calamity is the same thing as SSS++ tier, but if you are categorized into this tier instead of the other one, it means you're dangerous to clear the entire continent."
"A continent? You mean by a strike or a war?" – Har calculates simply inside his brain, when he fused with RampThica, he could destroy a large range of mountains easily. Even though the power wasn't concentrated, it wasn't efficient, yet still legally at SS tier.
"Both, but if you can destroy the entire continent by a strike, you'd be called a Calamity+ tier threat." – Yozu takes out the sealed NeHyenthanaph.
"With the strongest strike, I can reach the destructive capacity of the entire Aegista, but it must be done without the resistance of Aurorize Volition." – He smiles, quite proud of.
"Volition?" – Of course, Har only throws hands, he doesn't throw enough knowledge into his brain.
"A super planet like Aurorize can create for itself a Volition, who directly controls the power of this planet. Of course, they are two entities. And that Volition always prevents the Eldritch power like NeHyen or that brat." – Mentioning that brat, Yozu surely feels uncomforted.
"You mean Yuurei, don't you?"
Yozu takes out two glasses and strong alcohol, aiming for a private drinking session, "Knowing the Eldritch Entities' names is an advantage since we can acknowledge their core power. But with my eldritch power, I couldn't see the True Name of that brat. A second generation of Eldritch Entities, he shouldn't be that anomalous."
Har also starts his first time drinking alcohol, even though he isn't old enough but no one cares since he's not in the real world. Also this is just a simulation, committing no crime he believes.
Flowing with the drink, his thoughts are all out, "That's so dumb. He tore the world structure, he went against the World Volition as an Eldritch Entity and then he survived!? What the hell was even that!?"
"So basically he's immortal?" – Har wonders.
A sigh, "More like irregular. When I saw his true self, I sensed a zone full of chaos, there's no rules existing inside that field, just a pure mess with– ahh!"
"That means he isn't bound with the logic of this world, you say?"
"He still needs to obey some specific rules to be able to exist in Aurorize, the rest are meaningless." – Yozu almost crushes the glass into pieces, that power is so ridiculous he curses.
"But how can he blend into the society with that specific eldritch power? You mentioned the massacre of almost twenty assassins of the Eclipsed Moon, right?" – Har had already known about the mission and its failure.
"Eldritch power is the forbidden force in this world, it makes more sense if he only used Aura and physical power. In that case, he'd be a big trouble for you to solve." – Yozu summons a small lightning bolt of Eldritch power from NeHyen, then teleports it far away from the ship.
*Vrm!* – From the sky, it falls down a beam of destruction crushing everything into nothing. The devastation was bad enough to leave a massive whirlpool in the outer sea with a radius of 30 kilometers.
"Eldritch power is divided into two types: general and special. That lightning bolt was just a small spark of general Eldritch power, you can see how much hatred this world resists the Eldritch things." – Yozu waves his hand, stopping tons of water splashing toward the ship.
"The worst scenario is that damn brat really has some tricks to use the Eldritch power without being tracked by Aurorize unless his true self appears." – Yozu creates a model of a cube, an example of space.
He puts a black orb into the cube, "Imagine this is Yuurei."
When his line ends, the entire box is forced to twist and break itself whenever it tries to load the black orb inside. Har knows what it means, Volition of Aurorize always loads every data to continue every phenomena on the world as an impossible hyper-structure computer.
He comes up with a statement, "Yuurei ignores space in his core."
"Spatial power is useless to use on him and to exist as a normal creature, he must have something to bypass the check of Aurorize Volition for every tick and moment."
"So we just have no counter or natural enemy for that kind of monster?" – Har feels like he's going to beat the final boss of the entire arc.
"Literally." – Yozu confirms.
Then he sighs, "We can only hope that he might not be able to break the rules at will."
"Can we trigger any rule to force him to be exiled from this world?" – Har knows that he must use the rules in the game full of rules toward the enemies.
"It's hard. Forcing him to trigger the death sentence from Aurorize Volition is such a challenge without any loss. If you have any item related to a strong entity, then use it to damage him, it might be more possible." – Yozu swings NeHyen.
"As NeHyen, I can trigger its power to absorb the 'Yuurei' in this Aurorize. Leading to an obliteration of him, but still can't be an elimination."
He continues, "I–"
"Wait." – Har reverses his Shadow Gates for the Gates of Light, which shines up the entire room then slowly concentrates into a shimmering liquid.
Yozu is smiling, he just found what he needs to counter Yuurei, "Third Function, Imaginary Machine."
When both the dark and light orbs slowly change from rotating to merging between his hands, Har also releases it a bit to twist the space around. That action must be very dangerous since it can eliminate the entire ship, yet Yozu is here to isolate the aberration.
"Even though my reversed function is still imperfect, the Shadow Gates are also evolving, I can still perform at least three Aberration bombs until my body reaches its limit." – He looks so confident.
Until Yozu pulls the entire bucket of water into his head, "Your evolving power, postpone it until you can master your current ones first."
"I think so, sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my Ability on nothing. That speedster, he's around S to S+ tier right?" – Har speaks up.
"Yes, but his speed has already exceed S+ tier, at least the low SS one. You have no companion, the beasts are nothing but clones, you can smurf the noobs, yet not a group of S tier opponents." – Yozu confirms, he surely wants Har to learn the technique of evaluating opponents before actually kicking in.
"So we'll start with the Reversed Ignite. You reverse the technique not perfectly, the loss is over 53% right now."
"I'm trying bro, is there any tip?" – Har cuts down his arm and heals it, no pain, pure experiment.
"Ignite is like an open water tap releasing Amplification Aura around yourself. Reversed Ignite is the second step when you want to absorb that energy back into your veins for recovery." – Yozu also does an example.
"Don't forget to stabilize the Aura flow, if you want to recover, don't heal yourself with something that can damage you."
"Like this?" – A beautiful cyan Aura slightly flows through his arm, forming the cut part and regenerating an arm almost instantly.
Yozu opens his eyes wide, "That recovery speed is insane."
"I know, but the loss is still quite troublesome." – Har repeats the actions by cutting down his arm first.
"Just try to stabilize everything first."
"Got it."
*Swish* – That two meters long blade slightly cuts through his head, splitting Har's head into two pieces, "So this is your goal, just a training process?"
Recovering with better Reversed Ignite, Har approaches with his shadow gates. Even though the hands are both cut down, Har is still able to open the gates. Which directly confirms that he no longer needs a hand sign to activate his power right now. This is the reward for hard training for two months across outer seas.
To be clear, Time Dilation isn't that hard to create inside a closed space. That's why Har had enough time to learn whatever he hadn't known. The price is huge, but according to Yozu, it's worth the effort. Also, as Har already stopped his Shadow Gates from evolving overtime, his reversed function is temporarily set at equal.
*Clash* – Lamti has the best agility, so he's always the first move of Har. Attaching the gate into the muscular crow, or eagle, it's a chimera, whatever, Har enters the shadowverse within a step. For extra support, he activated Gates of Light to flash bang Tenmei for a moment, whether it's useful or not.
*Clash* – Two heads of a tiger suddenly burst out of Lamti's torso. That move actually surprised Tenmei a bit. Following that action, Dualtigra jumps out with a heavy push, pinning Tenmei to the ground. Although the result isn't that ideal since he hasn't fallen down, yet, still enough for the next move to come up.
*Thud* – Two muscular arms grow from the torso of Dualtigra, it's Gala trying to catch Tenmei with all its power. Meanwhile, Lamti has already moved to Tenmei's rear for an assault.
Catching the chance sparkling through those moves, Har rushes forward with a dagger. Of course he won't apply the Sure-Death effect, however, it's still a sharp weapon. But when did he jump out of the shadowverse? I'm glad that you asked.
In that case, Dualtigra was clashing with Tenmei, Lamti was assassinating, Gala was holding Tenmei, where should Hamung be? Crashing aside, the selected target was Tenmei's right ribs. Here comes a strike from the right side, should the left one do the same. Literally, the Gates of Light is a sudden light flash bang, with the selected spot, it draws a line of shadow into the tree's shade nearby. And whenever the shadow zones are connected, Har can pop up from anywhere in range.
Tenmei is forced pinning to the ground, he can dodge away with his own speed, but he has a better way to show Har how far the gap between them is. Rotating the uchigatana with his right hand, cutting down Dualtigra front legs and two heads. He keeps going until it's a full rotation while lowering that right arm technically to cut down Gala's arms at the same time, in one movement.
Performing a horizontal slash from left to right side, following his full swing movement, the blade swiftly splits Hamung into two separated parts. Yet, that blade is still moving until a sharp line has already been drawn behind him, perfectly parrying Lamti's claws in the hair's breadth. Don't forget that he's currently doing a reverse grip, which means the flipping movement before was even done at the point no one realized.
Tenmei finished with a slight dodge backward, just enough to let the slice from that dagger miss its target. Within a finger, he flicks the dagger away without an actual effort. While Har's still shocked, that left fist has already landed on his face. The attack was fast enough to burn everything into plasma theoretically. Nevertheless, as a professional Aura user, it's just a basic requirement for Tenmei to control his power like this.
In fact, when the flow of Aura is controlled perfectly, it leaves no impact on the surrounding space. Exceeding sub-relativistic tier, which means it's already over one tenth of light speed, that strike only stirred up the air around a little bit. Not even chaotic, the winds were made softly and stably, standing out as the most obvious evidence for the true gap between them.
"S tier maximum, is that all you have?" – Tenmei swings his uchigatana again, taking down Lamti before it can do anything.
On the contrary of that leisure guy, Har is running his Reversed Ignite with maximum output just to keep his body from collapsing. That strike was evil, it's not only fast, but also lethal since the Aura was concentrated, shot into Har's head then detonated as a bomb. Unlike Torun's detonations, that explosion left almost no wasted power to the outside. Actually, over ninety percent of the energy was converted to destruction non-stop breaking him inside out.
*Clap* – A hand sign, Har chooses to lock in.
"Still too soon for an evaluation, don't you think?" – That smile has already hung on his mouth, the special feeling that he lost since the day Shadow Gates had become too powerful. He feels it, he senses it, he sees it's sparkling.
Via a hand sign, Har enhances four beasts to another level. Hamung is now attached a temporary power trading off his flexibility in moving into one direction only for each attack, for exchange, it's able to manifest an unstoppable movement – Crashing Force.
If you have no clue about it, let me break it down. Hamung is currently only able to rush in one direction, until it stops before adjusting the trajectory again. As a trade back, the longer the road it runs through, the stronger the strike is. In the case Tenmei might stop Hamung, the force is still accumulating until Tenmei is knocked away.
Lamti sacrifices its arms for the enhanced four wings, the four meters height is now one fourth and the wingspan is only double how high it is. The specific ability Har attaches on it is a trade in agility and utility. Losing two arms and old size means Lamti is no longer able to do close combat, but it gains the power to clone itself while moving with the more incredible speed.
Har calls that power Feather Blades, it allows Lamti to clone itself many times, but each time it does, each time the power gets divided and speed gets boosted. To be fair, Har can abuse that ability by continuously cutting the target or disrupting one's senses via blocking their Zone.
Spiky Fists – the power that Har sacrifices the relentless attacking style of Gala for. With this new ability, Gala can only attack once each two seconds, but its fists are all penetrating through shields. Which means a hundred percent of shield ignorance, Har additionally adds one more second into the trade for damage boost. Overall, all these three shadow beasts can reach to A+ threat in base mode, possibly for S- if they can abuse their powers well individually, even stronger in jumping one dude.
Dualtigra is quite special, it's the only shadow beast of Har at the level of S threat. That's why besides RampThica and Savan, it's literally his trump card. Sacrificing its wings is mandatory, but Har doesn't have any best solution yet. Enhanced claws might be strong
but he doesn't think it should be useful against Tenmei. Enhanced fangs are also useless since Tenmei can outspeed it easily.
Lamti is for support, Hamung can burst with a strong strike, yet requires a long process, so Dualtigra must be the final guard who keeps Tenmei at one place. Control capability and durability, as an unshakable tower, Har bets the speed on the trade too.
Prison – Locking both Dualtigra and a single target into an invisible box isolated from the general space. While this Ability is activated, it can't do anything. For exchange, if Dualtigra is pressing a target with its claws, a crazy pressure will fall down upon that target. Because this ability is totally useless to put on Dualtigra as a killing machine, the enhanced durability is totally necessary for a tanker.
On the other side, Tenmei is still waiting for Har to finish his move. It's just a practice, beating Har, who is lower than himself 8 ranks in total, is nothing but bullying, not a fine way for training.
"Just show me all you have." – Tenmei starts first, a sharp swing cuts away those two arms of Har is the first move of our swordsman.
At the same time, Har moves on with a cloud of small four-winged chimera. They surround Tenmei with countless slashes, yet not that hard to block. From a very far distance away, Hamung has also started its journey, meanwhile Gala is approaching with two spiky fists.
*Clash* – As I said, the shield penetration power only counters protection, if Tenmei chooses to parry a strike or just clash with another strike, that power is kind of useless. Of course, if that strike had the power to spread the damage indirectly into Tenmei's arms, it would be dangerous. Yet, if is only if.
*Splash* – A swift slash, a thing is cut into half. Tenmei bursts in Aura outside flowing his rotation, wiping those small Lamti into dark essence.
*Smack* – A knee kick and a fast strike, Har switches to Gates of Light for instant beams. Converting himself into light essence, Har can move around with light speed theoretically but only at a sub-relativistic tier literally. It's not that easy to non-stop switching back from light essence to physical body as doing the same with dark essence.
Basically, light essence is the product of reversing shadow essence via running the reversed Shadow Gates. Light power is a balance between speed and mass, which Fenryn performed before. Har was able to run at eighty percent of light speed because he only aimed to run away. This time he aims for fighting, so the work is built to piles of course.
He also has an idea about this light power, manifesting it into a bunch of weapons is one way and Har's trying to apply some random things that he wants to test. You can't reshape the light into things while keeping its nature as light, the impressive move is exchanging the light into heat – Lazer.
And Har's current effort is coercively bending light into a non-stop rotating light dish. Imagine it like this, when you rotate the light, the light keeps going forward and it's such a waste of time. But what if we prevent the light from escaping outside?
Trapping them into a dish form, non-stop rotating it while putting more and more Aura until the color itself changes. When the mass doesn't change and the speed non-stop changes, the total energy will rise to the level that no one can handle alone. Yet, Shadow Gates grant Har the power to control the concept of darkness and shade in a specific field, Gates of Light also do the same. Absolute Control of Light essence is just a bassice, also the core power of this reversed Ability.
No loss of energy, no worry about the efficiency, Har's only job is putting more and more Aura while spinning the dish non-stop. His output right now is approximately equal to a true S tier strong, and with this strike, his attack potency can be upscaled to large mountain level easily.
*Bang* – Deflecting all that bomb into the air, forming nothing but a beam tearing the clouds down, a clean parry. He steps forth, stabbing the sword through Har's heart leisurely.
*Smack!* – He drives a kick into Har's face, stopping his move while landing a strike, another clean hit.
*Clash* – Counter-field, Tenmei rotates the Aura around him in sphere form just to deflect all the Lamti away. Despite the effort to approach, that uchigatana for another time has cut down the head of Har. Tenmei is just purely stronger than Har in absolute, in fact, he isn't using up to one fifth his power. Which means in the fight with Loye, she had to play around for a while until locked in with over thousands light spells located him in a tick.
So, to surpass that high fence between him and Tenmei right now, Har must use that move. In the fight with The Fixer, Har only felt the threshold of the Ultimate Move for a while, yet he denied since he believed it'd be too easy for him to end that fight. And after that day, even though his power got a quantum leap in both quality and durability compared to the moment he had to fight Rudy. Yet, that threshold hasn't been able to catch for the second time since that day.
However, here it comes.
Ultimate Move: [Error]
For another time, they meet each other again. Facing the golden hair sovereign, who is sitting there with a terrible manner. Obviously, he needs to be here to warn Har not to play something dumb.
You've messed up again.
"I have enough, that's too unnecessary to keep me away from the truth. I also don't care about the loss of sanity or whatever. I won't fall for it in any case, I am Hoshira, I am the one who decides how my gameplay should be." – Shouting out to the space above, he declares authority.
Come, Orighith.
In reality, Har has already come up with another form that hasn't been revealed before.
*Squalsh* – Dualtigra starts the ritual with its sacrifice into the vortex of darkness and sharp teeth in the air. Two wings spread out as a symbol of despair. Lamti also follows with its contribution for more wings and chaos.
Gala throws a strike toward Tenmei as heavily as possible until it's also called into the vortex, the third piece is already recalled.
Now, Hamung.
*Crash!* – Its Ability manifests an invisible drill crashing straight toward Tenmei, with the total distance of two seconds of Mach 23, the power is enough to shake the entire mountain in a large range thrice. However, Tenmei isn't that weak, his arm doesn't even shake for a bit.
*Grah!* – A dragon head suddenly grows from the vortex and roars to the sky above, shaking it into a mess. A wing full of bones yet no flesh cuts through the space around, totally destroying everything into fragments. A by-product is the second head floating around, as an abnormal creature, it was made by hunger and madness, even the eyes reflect them. Two black wings full of metal feathers spread out as two blades, they flap, they blow away the entire zone around. Those tentacles overflow as tidal waves, yet all of them are devoured by him, Har the Anomaly.
In the scream of madness yet no hatred, Orighith celebrates the fusion of it and its master by a roar to the sky above. They bend, they weave and they turn into a black orb floating mid-air. For more visual effect, the entire scene is dyed black with the silhouette of a six-arm monster with a long snake tail popping up behind the orb. That afterimage was painted hazily, as a mist in the morning, yet more intense than flame and thunder. RampThica is the second material of this ritual, all of them, slowly intertwine.
*Splash* – Growing from his right ribs, the second right arm appeared in the weirdest way possible. The entire left body is transfigured into red flesh, slowly a dragon head attached to a massive limb as a hammer. For the same thing, his two legs are also reconstructed into monster form, also a long snake tail with a sharp blade at the end. The mask of RampThica is also distorted into a true monster head blended perfectly into his body. And that unique eye is totally awakened.
Do you know why Har always brought a special eye mask only to hide his left eye after the time trip? Because that eye was already on its journey reaching to the higher authority. Unlike normal evolution, Har was forced to hide that eye away until this day. An anomaly can't keep evolving unless the core inside it hasn't reached the peak. Har has no limit, that is the shortest way to describe his nature.
Even Yozu can't evaluate the true value of Har at first sight, during the barbeque party and through the entire oversea trip. The true danger of a limitless anomaly is the potential of evolution. Evolution works as a long process to help creatures adapt to the environment, surviving is the final goal of normal evolution. However, anomalies don't have the same kind of evolution, they don't search for survival, yet the power granted to them after each stage.
And each stage of each anomaly is different, there is no standard for the power they'll get after evolution. Time is directly proportional to the difficulty and rewards, the time dilation that Yozu invested in him also boosted this process a quantum leap. Black as night, reflecting the waves of nebula while the stars non-stop sparkling and fading away. He lost to Loye, who is praised as The Stellar Grand Sage of Wisdom. He felt like he needed a counter to the special spells that she used to almost defeat Savan, and this eye came for his desire.
Yet, when the opponents don't use Arcane Fore, this eye is only here for a better vision and a slight distraction in sanity and accuracy.
*Swish* – The tail swiftly cuts through the air, it approaches Tenmei at the speed of Mach 600, the maximum speed of the SS tier.
*Clash* – The attack potency might reach the level of destroying the entire large range of mountain, which is possibly equal to the relativistic strike of Yuurei toward Yozu. Yet gets parried in just a slight step, it's only a sharp movement but also a big gap between them.
*Smack* – Not yet! Har drives a combo of two continuous punches from the right, attaching the Gates of Light to shoot a barrage of bullets into the target. That dragon head also throws a beam into Tenmei at the maximum output. Don't forget that Har doesn't need to duck a face about his Aura capacity, so non-stop reconstructing himself until the output reaches his expectation is an ideal move.
Even though that beam is strong, it still gets split away by that uchigatana. Har also realizes something unusual. In normal cases, no matter how strong you are in Aura control, you can't perform the same thing as easily as Tenmei.
That sword must be able to especially aim for cutting the flow of Aura, or even energy in the worst case. Har slightly frowns his eyelid.
An Aura-based fighter with special nature gets countered by a sword negating that special nature. That's crazy.
*Schwing* – A fast move, he sheathes the uchigatana while stepping backward.
*Clack* – Catching that movement, Har also comes up with a beam and slashes from both dragon head cannon and two unusual arms. Yet, when that sound clanged around, the true strike had already been launched.
*Splash* – If you perform a slash while drawing an uchigatana from the sheath, the velocity is way better than doing the same attack while the sword's on hands. It's not that hard for Tenmei to perform a full-swung attack at the speed of six thousand times faster than sonic level. The sub-relativistic strike before was performed in a short range, it's a surprise attack, not a decisive one. Unlike this slash, which just took away half of Har's body smoothly.
*Bang* – Despite the wound, Har shoots another beam toward Tenmei to blast away everything as much as possible. He approaches with a swift tail slash while shooting more and more light orbs toward the target.
Tenmei swings his sword, deflecting the orbs away. Meanwhile, the first beam is also forced to stop by his bare right hand. His fighting style isn't about special ability, in short, because he wasn't born with Ability, he can make this far only with swordstyle and experience.
*Fsh!* – Swift beam from Har, Tenmei does a swift dodge. He cuts that monster into three parts, then again leaps back to run out of the explosion range. Then another leap shooting him straight toward Har again, that uchigatana is also sheathed. Which means that strike is going to be launched for another time.
*Splash* – At the same time that he got cut, Har already caught Tenmei with his two right hands. Three bone swords floating around him at the start, now already have their own missions to deal with stunning Tenmei.
*Clash* – Yet all got negated by a unique technique of his. Manifesting a zone continuously cutting everything inside into atoms, Tenmei can even cut the concept of space and time in a specific level. Honestly, it feels like the World had to remove his Ability to balance this creature in general. Even Rudolf can't reach this far without Holy Aura.
So this is the Semi-Calamity threat level? Har rapidly recovers himself.
"Do you have a domain?" – Har asks.
"I have no Ability, also no domain." – In spite of the fact that the Taiyou Clan always cares about the quality of Ability to rank clan members, Tenmei doesn't take it as a disadvantage. It's like he doesn't need it rather than he doesn't have it. A true swordsman into his core.
"This sword accompanied me when I was at the lowest, now it's still here and even further into the future. At the peak of myself, I can swear that I'll always grab it along before anything else. I don't rely on special powers, I can make them based on this sword. How can you make your own?" – Tenmei unsheaths that uchigatana again, he paints over that blade a flow of bloody mist.
Third Curse: Bleeding
*Splash* – A horizontal slash, Tenmei carves a deep wound on Har while speed blitzing him absolutely.
Forged by the raw heart of Tenmei when he's born. That Grandmaster sacrificed a big price just to forge an uchigatana dark as night, vast as the sky and mysterious as the origin of those curses. Maga-en is the name of that blade, Maga in Magatsuhi the Calamity and En for the resentment. Standing for the fate that was bound to him. Wandering, even it is finding his own demand among this world.
*Trembling* – Are you calling, Maga-en?
The price is that he can no longer cut through the targets, yet the wounds the sword leaves there won't be able to heal up – slowly draining their life force. This isn't the contract of equilibrium that he made on his own, it's a resource attached to the Third Curse at the start. If there must be someone who really knows about the rest of this story, it has to be the old patriarch of Taiyou Clan and Supreme Elders. Yet, they are all gone for years.
"Did you just ask about my invention?" – Among the torn flesh sounds, Har again transforms. If that uchigatana can cut the flow of energy, Har needs a better form to land massive strikes at high pace.
*Squelch* – The red dragon head arm is already gone, now a brand new hammer arm instead. It's not a true hammer but the massive size and difference in structure literally allows it to slam the heaviest move itself.
Then he slowly switches that hammer arm into the right side, he forgot that the left gauntlet is about shield piercing. And mentioning about shield piercing, that new left arm is of course a blade itself. Don't worry, the gauntlets are just the auto-fit status of those two items when Har used them on his two arms before. Now the arms change, those gauntlets must change too. The tail and floating bone blades are also kept the same, yet the two halos are instead set at the hammer arm as two sigils boosting the output insanely.
"This body is my invention." – Har leaps toward Tenmei, throwing that hammer arm forth.
*Bang* – When the fist hit the ground, the entire terrain was shaken and crumbled into fragments and blocks just by the first impact wave. Divergent Technique, instead of strengthening a strike once and launching or continuously maintaining it, this technique was invented to split the strike into many phases that crash into targets in a short time. And with this unique structure of body, Har can shift the rest of impact waves into another strike if needed.
*Smash* – The tail cracking into the right arm of Tenmei, totally breaking his protection of Guard. This is the power of accumulating and stacking the impact waves in a short time. Of course, it can't be unlimited, possibly around twice stronger than usual.
"Hey, does your power system work like Dao in cultivation stories?" – Har clashes his blade into the uchigatana, directly crashing into the country-shaking level of force. And that's hurt.
"I call it Path." – The light reflects from that blade. Yet when Har sees it, the attack has landed already.
*Splash* – Sheathing it, Tenmei kicks him away, "Whenever your perception about sword has a quantum leap in quality, you'll see what I see."
"Is that power system popular?" – Approaching with another strike, Har lands a heavy punch onto Tenmei. Because of the nature of the strike, Tenmei can't abuse his uchigatana to weaken it as a beam. Parrying or blocking, only two options left.
*Splash* – However, it's only for the case they have the same speed. There's also the third option, countering.
*Clash!* – Despite that effort, Tenmei only needs one more action to negate that left blade cutting him. Right after that, he performs a somersault, also a leap to escape the grab from that hammer arm.
At this point, Har is also aware of the gap between him and that swordsman. Close combat isn't his advantage at all, he needs hax, he needs special power.
"In that case…" – He sighs and the hammer arm starts trembling with the two halos.
Third Function – Imaginary Machine:Aberration
The first white halo is the projection of [Gate of Lights] carved on Har's body, the black-violet one is [Shadow Gates] of course. He sacrificed the utility in controlling these two powers, exchanging for the separated system to run them.
In case that you may ask for the reason. Har is using the Ultimate Move of Shadow Gates to keep this fusion form available. He instantly got an upscale from A+ tier to SS+ tier with the only cost being Aura and body endurance. Aura doesn't matter that much and draining his endurance isn't fair enough to boost him that strong. Instead of a "human-made" product as a contract of equilibrium for balance, Har naturally built himself directly on equal trades in transformation.
As same as before, Har coercively creates an impossible phenomenon in the world by setting both light and dark into a point. Burning as much Aura as possible to amplify the crushing power when this bomb explodes. Har also limits the range to raise the density of destruction effect inside the explosion, it might be powerful enough.
Now, the last issue is–
How am I going to hit him with this one? Har closes his hammer hand to hide away the orb, Tenmei also catches it as a sign for an up-coming surprise.
"Do you think what I think?" – Har starts moving. That leap is fast enough to speed blitz Yone at his best condition. At the speed in between high SS tier and low SSS tier, thousandfold sound speed in a leap.
And at the same time, that sword is also sheathed again. Tenmei also approaches with the maximum speed under sub-relativistic level, which is exactly at Mach 7000. In case that he didn't use Aura to split the air away but only protect himself, that millisecond could bring up a one hundred and sixty-eight billion Newton of force concentrated under his feet – an absolute destruction to the entire forest in many kilometers.
*Splash* – That slash has decided the end of this match. With the half upper self of Har was split into scraps, it must've been the wind.
Domain? Tenmei also looks at the hand sign of Har. Analyzing his strategy, Tenmei also has his own solution.
By trading for the private system for running both Gates of Light and Shadow Gates, Har can both expand his domain while detonating the third function at the same time.
*Vrm* – Domain Expansion: Abyssal Gluttony
*Vroom* – Third Function: Gates of Anomaly – Aberration
This move can destroy everything inside by twisting the space in many ways, simply crushing the targets into cells and mist. Honestly, if the opponent has durability exceeding normal attack potency of twisted space or SSS tier regeneration, this move is obviously useless.
However, Tenmei doesn't even need to use those two powers to flex how strong he is. Do you still remember the technique that allowed him to draw a zone non-stop cutting into atomic scale by invisible blades? I also mentioned that he could also cut space and time at a specific level.
*Schwing* – When that uchigatana was taken out for another time, the blades no one could see were about to cut through the distortion already. Technically that hax just gives Tenmei an absolute protection against the ultimate move of Har. If the damage comes from the distortion of space, Tenmei just cuts that distortion into separated particles of space to negate all the damage while isolating him inside a private spacetime structure.
*Crack* – He swings his fist into space, breaking a massive trace with branches interweaving into the structure of space. When that fist is pushed with more force, that crackle starts breaking into fragments sparkling beautifully among the darkness valley.
Space Breaker!
*Bang* – The entire barrier of Har's domain has collapsed. So you guys have the answer about how to counter domain expansion inside out already. Of course the impact can't break the domain instantly and absolutely, which means the domain casters can pay a price to repair. Yet, Har wasn't taught about that extra lesson.
"Are we serious?"
*Splash* – Tenmei upgrades his slash to another level, cutting the fusion form into the original materials. He also recalled all the curses after splitting the strongest form of Har into four shadow beasts, one chimera and himself – falling onto the ground.
"You passed."
And let me take that wind to flow us to the others.
Among the forest, to the east of Zone One, The White Tern is on his way to challenge the line between death and life. Crossing the terrains, he swiftly crushed the dinosaur with his fists just by a touch.
"Are you sure about that plan?" – Honest reaction of his after being told that he's on the way to fight a Leviathan.
You won't die. Murmuring inside his mind, it seems like Raigan has already harmonized himself into Ian's spiritual field. As a guest lives inside one's home nonchalantly. Of course, Aurorize won't be able to delete this kind of a symbiosis life form like this, unless they mess up. Yet, it's not their issue currently.
Raising his fist again, Ian swiftly dodges the tail slash from a Keraunodirus. This kind of monster looks like a small and thin dinosaur with a tail that's even longer than its body. Theoretically, at the end of that tail, it can swing itself up to the massively hypersonic level of speed. And this is just a Neonatal Phase thunderous dinosaur, the maximum speed it can reach in rushing is about 110 times Mach and almost two hundredfold sound speed for the tail swipe.
In combat, letting opponents read your movement is nothing but the best blade born to cut your head down. Monster and Beasts have better attack potency and durability, perhaps speed also, but their fighting style is purely simple. Which means Ian can even dodge before the attack is thrown. Within a step, he approached with another fist crumbling down the space.
Go wild.
A sigh, here's a fine woman who's in trouble. Her outfit is quite… uhm… special, I mean? She again uses the chest wrap, putting a jacket of black and white outside that's half closed, covering her neck with a red ribbon. Her lower body? What do you think about a black short accompanying a pair of black thigh highs? She really put two more white ribbons at the right thigh exactly an inch far from each other.
She's Aetheria, or in the most correct way to say, she is who inherited the identity of "Aetheria" after that guy's gone. Yet, the fact that no matter in which identity, she's still a member of Grantey Clan, that's why she can be the Hermit of the third book. Aetheria and other members of the squad are now having an issue with Luker – who offered to leave as what Ian did.
"It's not a big deal to let you leave, but at least let us know where you'd go." – As a leader, Aetheria still keeps that character no matter who's currently under that name.
Luker's turn, "I can't tell. I have my own path to walk through."
"I know, but do you know how strong the possible threats you may face? In Aegista, except the singularities and Big Forces you can do whatever you want. But you won't stay in this cage, will you?" – Aetheria was also in this situation when she's pondering about Ian's safety days ago.
"Oh my god…" – Stroking her hair, it seems like she has no option.
"Fine, but at least keep contact. You won't be able to survive outside Aegista." – She throws a legendary item looking like an orb toward Luker.
Catching that thing, he nods, "That's why I'll go to the very northern lands, I'll see you all whenever I'm ready."
It's not a sudden action, Luker has something he needs to do too. Do you still remember the moment he's boosted by Lady Blood to kill a Crimson Crescent assassin? It's all back to his old life, when he made a deadly contract with that entity called herself a "Star" yet a Heterodox God.
For the core curse, whatever Luker gets may be taken away for his stronger power. It's not a choice for him, it's a harvestation that he has no authority to refuse. Ma'am Alphabet, she died due to the Curse of Agony and it's been over two months already. According to his experience, the next one would be the Curse of Unfortune and that's terrible.
"Sometimes, leaving to far lands isn't a bad choice."
Latimas hangs his sword on the back, with Luker, he also travels to the north, "For whatever it may come, just don't forget our hope."
"Probably." – The highest land of Arezal, he points.
"We will hunt."
"I'm ready."
Who may leave now leave, what may change must be changed. When the Holy Council was intentionally taken down, the Nuns Council was made to hold this authority. Yet, the Knight Round Tables seem like they don't want to help them. The Tower of Mages and The Hunter Council are forcing The Great Merchant of Alchemists to enter the new balance. In the old version, alchemists can play indifferent and throw that issue away, yet now it's broken. In order not to let the Kingdom of Crimes expand, a new balance is required.
That serious negotiations started five days ago and it's still here to torture the representative of the Alchemists Organization. The Nuns Council is demanding long-term help from other Forces to stabilize their power first, then they should be good to go on their own missions. The Tower of Mages said that they could help yet it couldn't exceed 40 billion ACs each year. They also required The Hunters Council to pay around ten to twelve billion ACs each year with the extra missions of clearing more dungeons and rifts whenever The Nuns Council reported. Alchemists Merchant also guarantees a support of thirty billion ACs each year and unlimited potions, yet only for three years. After three years, they have no duty to keep this contract.
The rest is the problem, in calculation, there would be five more billion ACs each year that no one wants to hold. The Cala Empire of course must take charge of it, but with the tax they need to send to the Great Forces, five billion ACs is too much. There's a suggestion of taking money from dependent kingdoms and countries, this is the issue of the entire continent. On the contrary, there are also representatives of the mentioned dependent kingdoms and countries. They refuse the idea since the tax is too diabolical as a bonus.
The Cala Empire is trying to negotiate about the process of freeing tax. They tried to do three-year-term yet got denied and required to expand to five years in total. With the guarantee terms that no one will use their resources for free, the negotiation is currently good. The only thing left is the full-hand-sign contract between these Great Forces and the Cala Empire about this support. Which should be done tomorrow when the true rulers of those kingdoms, countries and the King of the Cala Empire are here.
In the private meeting of Aetheria and Luker before the rest of the team came to see him last time, Aetheria also said what she should.
"I don't know where you found that potion Althyst potion level 3. But whoever gave you that item, the network isn't simple." – She knew that Luker carried a hatred to The Eclipsed Moon and she wouldn't stand aside to let him drown into that endless sink.
And when the sunlight changes from yellow to orange, with the sparkles of red since the Sun almost cuts the horizontal line, Luker strokes his hair. He doesn't know how serious the secret that he's hidden from, he still knows it's important enough to figure it out himself. Consequently, to the northern lands he started the journey, where the bloody blade of his may be sharpened again since that day.