Chapter 440: The Temple (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 440: The Temple (3)
Alon gazed up at the colossal meteor, large enough to shroud the very heavens, summoned by 'The All-Ensnaring Night.'
After a brief moment of contemplation, he spoke, his thoughts seemingly in order.
"…It certainly is on a different level."
"Isn't it? Now, be grateful as you di—"
"However, it wasn't unexpected. It’s just—"
The man—no, The All-Ensnaring Night—wore a look of bewilderment at Alon's words.
Alon knew, of course.
The entity before him possessed power far superior to any other Divine Blood he had encountered. Even though it maintained a near-human appearance, the aura it radiated was enough to make every cell in his body recoil in tension, breaking him out in a cold sweat just by facing it.
Yet, there was only one reason he continued the conversation and gathered information he already knew.
"—I just needed time."
As Alon muttered those words, the puzzled All-Ensnaring Night suddenly looked up at a speck that had appeared in the sky.
It was a tiny dot, but it was clearly visible.
The moment he perceived that dot—
"!"
The All-Ensnaring Night realized.
It wasn't a dot.
It was—
"…A spear?"
It was a spear. A terrifyingly massive one, growing larger by the second as it mindlessly devoured mana.
And beneath that spear—
[Kyu—!]
There was Blackie, transformed into the Poison Eater. His eyes gleamed as he glared down at The All-Ensnaring Night.
…It was a good thing I activated Defying Heaven and prepared in advance. It would have been a disaster if I hadn't been able to summon Basiliora.
A giant spear had appeared, piercing through the ashen sky.
Seeing a flicker of panic color The All-Ensnaring Night's face, Alon spoke.
"I'll take the first move."
He withdrew his right hand, which had been hidden in his pocket, maintaining a seal.
Then, as Alon completed the seal—
The Snipe of Remembrance.
The massive spear plummeted toward the red sphere suspended in the air, defying gravity.
The strike Alon had been preparing since the very moment he arrived at the temple was launched at The All-Ensnaring Night.
In an instant, the ashen sky turned into a blinding white light that stole one's vision. The red-tinted landscape was painted over in pure white.
It was a strike that made the word 'sure-kill' feel entirely appropriate.
* * *
The blow struck the Divine Blood.
A ringing sound filled Alon's ears, as if to strip away his very sense of hearing.
…However.
Despite that bone-chilling tinnitus, what Alon saw was something else entirely.
The massive strike, which had ruthlessly shattered the red meteor to reach The All-Ensnaring Night, had come to a dead stop before him as if it were all a lie.
It was utterly strange and surreal.
The spear, which should have been propelled forward, was held in place, stationary before the man.
Like a bullet frozen in mid-air.
Boom— Craaaack—!
The meteor he had created above his head began to crumble slowly, but the strike remained frozen.
And then.
Bit by bit.
Slowly—
The spear, imbued with a near-infinite amount of mana from Defying Heaven, began to vanish before him.
So easily.
So pointlessly.
As if nothing had been there from the start.
And then.
[How disappointing.]
The All-Ensnaring Night regained his smile. Around him, the massive meteor that had been crumbling just moments ago began to take shape once more.
As if it had never been attacked in the first place.
Perfectly intact.
[…This is insane.]
Basiliora muttered in despair at the sight.
Conversely, The All-Ensnaring Night’s jubilant smile deepened.
[…Wouldn't it be better to run away now?]
Basiliora, who had never once shown weakness before the Divine Blood, spoke. At his words, Alon stared blankly at the sky.
"…."
Certainly, the situation unfolding before them was overwhelming enough to daunt even Basiliora.
The All-Ensnaring Night floated above them, looking down with arrogance. Above him hung a meteor so vast it shrouded the entire sky, making even Basiliora look like a mere garden snake.
It was overwhelming enough to make anyone lose their will to fight.
Yes. It was so overwhelming that—
"…I don't think that will be necessary."
Alon saw a chance for victory.
* * *
[What…?]
Basiliora asked back in confusion.
Alon didn't answer and simply looked at the sky.
What floated in the air was unchanging, overwhelming violence and intimidation. If he had encountered this without any information, Alon surely would have lost his will to fight or fled.
But Alon could remain calm.
It was because of the information he possessed regarding 'Rhythm.'
‘Great power comes with a great price.’
The Creation of Heavenly Law is fundamentally the process of creating laws. The laws created through Rhythm reach toward providence and omnipotence as they progress through stages.
However, that is only the case once the stages have been cleared.
If this law belonged to a Divine Blood who had only just reached the level of Rhythm—and yet, it was so immense that it could make one lose their fighting spirit just by looking at it—then the constraint would be equally powerful, if not more so.
[You did well for a human. If you were some commoner, you would have died from that strike.]
Alon looked at The All-Ensnaring Night.
The entity was clearly intoxicated by its own power, rambling on.
And above its head—
The meteor, which had maintained its shape until just now, began to crack with a bone-chilling screech.
No, it was 'splitting.'
Soon, what appeared were hundreds of fragmented meteors and a massive floating island, like a garden in the sky.
"…Gravity—?"
Alon muttered for a moment.
But he soon shook his head.
To call it gravity, the law The All-Ensnaring Night deployed functioned in too many directions regardless of it. Furthermore, the Snipe of Remembrance hadn't fallen due to gravity; it had simply stopped and vanished on the spot.
"No, it's Attraction."
Alon reached a conclusion as he observed the massive aerial garden, the hundreds of small meteor fragments, and everything that had happened so far.
[Ho—?]
The All-Ensnaring Night curled his lips into an amused smile.
[Impressive. To reach a conclusion so quickly.]
Intoxicated by confidence, The All-Ensnaring Night confirmed the answer.
[But—just because you've figured it out doesn't mean you can do anything about it, does it?]
His carelessness was not misplaced. This overwhelming difference in power provided him with more than enough probability to be overconfident.
[Hm?]
As dozens of meteors began to slowly fall toward Alon, that confidence was bolstered into certainty.
However, it was precisely because of that.
‘I’ve fitted the first puzzle piece to reach the answer.’
Alon had gained an opportunity.
* * *
The battle began.
No, it could hardly be called a battle; it was entirely one-sided.
The Divine Blood dropped meteors as if playing a game, and Alon was merely doing his best to dodge them.
Of course, it wasn't as if Alon didn't attempt to counterattack.
He launched another Snipe of Remembrance.
He tried to freeze the entire space where the meteors were falling.
He even used lightning to repeatedly turn the meteors into ash.
But—unfortunately, not a single one of Alon's attacks dealt any meaningful damage to the Divine Blood.
Consequently, the battle dragged on—
────────—!!!!!
—and he was falling further into a disadvantage.
Kwaaaa—!
A meteor shower rained down toward the ground. Each meteor was threatening enough to bring instant death upon impact.
Yet, even in the midst of this, Alon kept his head cool and calculated.
‘The opponent's law is Attraction.’
Attraction. A force that pulls toward a specific point.
[Dammit—!]
Basiliora shrieked in horror, twisting his body frantically to dodge the falling meteors. Listening to his voice, Alon constantly processed information in his mind.
And then.
‘I’ve grasped the general information.’
Though it had been a short time, Alon had understood the entity's abilities to some extent.
‘The number of attraction points he can create at once is confirmed to be 84 so far, but I should assume he can create more.’
‘The range for creating attraction points is also vast. It’s wide enough that he could form one right next to me if he wished. In other words, escaping is impossible.’
‘Furthermore, his movement speed using attraction points is absurdly fast. So even if an attack could land, it’s practically impossible to hit him.’
‘He feels no burden whatsoever from using Attraction.’
As the information accumulated, Alon realized two more things.
First, his ability was composed of a terrifying level of absurdity.
Second, The All-Ensnaring Night was blatantly going easy on him.
If that Divine Blood were to get serious, there was no way Alon could respond like this.
In other words, Alon was currently surviving as an experimental subject due to The All-Ensnaring Night's carelessness.
In conclusion, the situation was desperate. He was merely surviving on the mercy born of the Divine Blood's arrogance.
However, in this disastrous situation, Alon's mind was working harder than ever, finding clues for victory one by one.
‘His mastery of the law is still lacking. The distribution of attraction points is inconsistent, and their sizes vary. If he increases the number of points beyond a few dozen, his control wavers significantly.’
‘He can increase the number of attraction points infinitely, but there is a clear limit to the power he can use. As the number increases, both the meteors and the floating islands acting as supports become unstable.’
‘When a specific attraction point exceeds its power limit, other points vanish to add their strength to the one at its limit.’
‘And considering all these points, there are twelve possible types of penalties.’
—He was already reaching the answer.
[Alon—! This is the limit!]
Basiliora’s scream-like shout struck Alon's ears.
Indeed, Basiliora seemed to have reached his breaking point. It was only natural. By dodging the prolonged, one-sided assault until now, Basiliora had already done more than his part.
But.
"Hold on just a little longer."
[What—!?]
"Just a little, just a little more."
Alon still needed time.
Just a tiny bit, truly just a little more.
Time to cross-reference the penalty he suspected was the price for that perfect law with the information he had gathered so far.
[Dammit—!]
As Basiliora moved to dodge a meteor, Alon fired another spell, but it pointlessly stopped in mid-air and vanished.
The first hypothesis was wrong.
Kwaaaa—!!
Tearing through the pouring meteors with a spear of lightning, the magic that fell to the ground shattered the earth.
The second hypothesis was wrong.
The third was wrong.
The fourth was wrong.
The fifth was wrong.
And then—when he reached the sixth.
The moment Alon’s Frozen Ground turned the entire space where the meteors were surging into ice.
Drip—!
Seeing a fragment of a meteor fall downward for a split second.
"—Found it."
A look of pure joy filled Alon's previously expressionless face.