Chapter 441: The Temple (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 441: The Temple (4)
The Frozen Ground, unleashed with the inexhaustible mana provided by the Art of Defying Heaven, began to freeze everything in the vicinity.
It was a world where everything had stopped, as if time itself had frozen.
However.
[Your ability to learn doesn't seem particularly impressive.]
As it had happened several times before, Alon’s magic failed to withstand the Law.
Cr-crack!
The frozen meteors immediately found a new point of attraction and swarmed together in an instant.
Simultaneously, time began to move again, and the frozen world shattered with pathetic ease.
Alon’s magic was being neutralized with absurd simplicity.
Watching from a distance, Penia and Evan let out gasps of dismay.
Basiliora, who had been desperately dodging the meteors, let out a low groan.
The situation was that desperate.
Alon’s magic worked on nothing.
He was merely being toyed with, kept alive only by the mercy of the Divine Blood.
Yet, despite the hopelessness of the situation, Alon’s lips were curled into a look of pure ecstasy.
It was because he had found it.
From the twelve possibilities derived from all the information he had gathered so far, he had finally reached the single correct answer.
“Whew—”
His mind raced even faster.
Information on ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ was etched into his brain like a disk being read.
With it, he attempted to find the single best move.
He searched.
He searched.
Again and again, without end.
Amidst the meteors now laced with frost, he used every ounce of his strength to construct the perfect plan within his mind.
[This is—the limit—!]
And when the final moment arrived.
Hearing Basiliora’s voice, which sounded as if he were about to draw his last breath, Alon spoke.
“This is enough.”
Alon calmly unsummoned Basiliora.
Suddenly floating in the empty air, Alon looked at ‘The All-Ensnaring Night,’ who still seemed to be enjoying himself, and reached into his pocket.
“Whew—”
Once again, he formed a seal.
* * *
‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ was quite enjoying this situation.
There were two reasons.
One was that, just as That Person had predicted, the ‘Star Eater’ had come to him directly, saving him the trouble of a search.
The other was the simple pleasure of playing with the Star Eater himself.
Of course, until recently, ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ hadn't known the Star Eater’s identity.
He didn’t know if he was human, what he did, and they had no particular grudge.
Nevertheless, he felt immense satisfaction in overwhelming him like this.
It was all because of That Person, who cared so much about this being.
Strangely, That Person was incredibly concerned with that existence.
No, beyond concern, it was a bizarre obsession.
It was different from himself.
He, who had been granted a mere fragment of the many powers That Person had discarded to manifest quickly, had never received such attention.
That was why he was enjoying this.
The sight of the Star Eater—the one That Person was so obsessed with—withering away so helplessly by his hand.
He felt a surging thrill.
In this moment, where he could toy with him to his heart's content.
It was a grotesque and base emotion.
[Heh—]
‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ let out a vivid sneer as he looked down at the ground.
It was a total mess.
The desolate plain was filled with hundreds of craters and dust rising from his power; nothing else remained.
And in the center of it all stood the Star Eater.
The coat he wore was torn to shreds, fluttering pitifully.
Likewise, his body was covered in severe wounds.
Blood dripped from his fingertips, soaking the barren earth.
Blood flowing from the tips of his hair stained the coat that had rolled on the ground several times.
Truly a satisfying sight. ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ stopped his attack and spoke.
[You’re a wreck.]
Alon lifted his gaze.
Seeing that characteristically expressionless, dry face devoid of emotion, ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ narrowed his eyes.
‘The situation is at its worst, yet you can still remain calm?’
It was exactly as it seemed.
Not a single one of his spells had broken his Law.
Of course, the Frozen Ground that froze everything had been annoying, but it, too, had failed to break the Law.
And yet, his opponent remained expressionless.
……He didn’t like that.
[……Do you still believe you can win?]
Alon did not answer the cold question.
He simply stared at the Divine Blood with indifference.
Suddenly, ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ wanted to see that expressionless face contort.
More accurately, he wanted him to make a face that suited the situation.
Distorted, collapsing, breaking—
[Heh—]
Then, a pleasant thought occurred to him, and he let out a chuckle.
[I see. You still think you can win? Because if you keep dodging my attacks, an opening might eventually appear?]
“…….”
Alon’s expressionless face twitched.
Found it.
‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ grinned, delighted to have found the answer.
He immediately waved his hand.
Half of the meteors that had been floating above Alon’s head fell to the ground as if they had lost their commander.
And then.
Crunch!
A point of attraction manifested right in front of Alon.
Cr-cr-crunch!
That point of attraction instantly sucked in everything around it.
However, the peculiarity was that its range was significantly smaller than before.
And.
Crunch! Cr-cr-crunch!
Everything within that range was being compressed beyond the form of a meteor, shrinking infinitely.
Compressed.
Compressed.
And compressed further.
In the end—
It became nothing more than a tiny sphere.
With a soft thud, the small sphere fell and vanished into dust.
[A pity. I can do more than just create meteors.]
Expectation filled the heart of ‘The All-Ensnaring Night.’
Soon, the Star Eater’s expression would change to match this situation.
Strong conviction fueled his pleasure.
However.
[……?]
Even after witnessing that, Alon’s expression did not change.
He continued to stare at ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ with that same blank face.
Finally.
“A pity, indeed.”
The moment his eyes widened.
“I already knew that.”
Alon continued.
“That you were going easy on me.”
“That you were toying with me like a plaything.”
“That you weren't using all your strength. I knew all of it.”
He recited the truth.
In that instant.
‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ realized.
That Alon had used the time he had wasted satisfying his base thrills to finish his ‘preparations.’
Of course, he didn't know what those preparations were.
But that calm attitude signaled danger. ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ reached out his hand to kill him then and there, but—
“!”
Unfortunately, his hand would not move.
He couldn't move it.
Alon, who had pulled his hand out of his coat at some point, parted his lips.
“Illusion of All-Encompassing.”
The next thing he saw.
Were dozens, hundreds of Alons, floating in the sky and standing on the ground.
* * *
The shock of Alon splitting into hundreds of figures lasted only a moment. ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ soon grasped the principle without much difficulty.
‘……They’re all illusions. The magic used—ice and light.’
Having been an outstanding mage before becoming Divine Blood, his mind began to deconstruct the principles of the magic Alon had deployed.
‘But he didn't create them simply by using the refraction of ice and light. There’s something else.’
The moment he realized there was more to the magic.
The hundreds of Alons formed a seal simultaneously.
With that, hundreds of crackling magic orbs were created.
Each one possessed overwhelming power.
The moment those orbs, which filled his entire field of vision—
[!?]
—were fired all at once.
‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ reflexively gave up control over some of the meteors and deployed points of attraction.
He had no choice.
‘They’re not—illusions!?’
Because the spells fired from the hundreds of Star Eaters were not illusions.
He couldn't just stand there in horror.
Since he had deployed points of attraction to block hundreds of spells, he had no room left to attack.
More precisely, the Star Eater wasn't giving him an opening to attack.
He was firing spells continuously with subtle time intervals, ensuring the points of attraction couldn't be deactivated for even a split second.
But the panic was brief.
After blocking the attacks for a long while, ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ finally located the original.
‘There he is—!’
Among the hundreds of spells, he saw one that contained a minutely larger amount of mana.
Looking at the Alon positioned in the center firing that spell, he made a cold judgment.
‘I must kill the original.’
The spells being fired weren't particularly strong.
However, they were lethal enough that he couldn't just take them with his body; defense was mandatory.
But the hundreds of sequential spells gave him no opportunity to counterattack.
No, in truth, ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ was already counterattacking with his remaining strength.
The Star Eater’s attacks weren't so immense that he had to focus entirely on defense.
The problem was.
Every time he identified the original and attacked, the man dodged the falling meteors with uncanny precision, and the clones caught in the crossfire constantly regenerated.
In other words, to end this situation, he had to kill the Star Eater in one blow.
And if he used his compression, he could certainly achieve that goal.
The issue was that he currently didn't have that much strength to spare.
If he were to use compression, he would have to remove one of the points of attraction he had spread out to block the attacks.
As he agonized over the decision.
“!”
He suddenly had a realization.
The fact that there were no Alon clones on the ground.
‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ immediately looked at Alon and made his decision.
He released the point of attraction that was positioned below.
And without hesitation, he ‘compressed’ Alon’s original body.
Snap—!
The attacks stopped instantly.
‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ smirked, but.
At the same time, he felt a strange sense of doubt.
The hundreds of Alons did not disappear.
Even the Alon who should have been compressed and vanished without a trace did not disappear.
And in that moment.
“As I thought, stepping on the ground was the answer.”
The Star Eater’s voice reached him.
“……What?”
The eyes of ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ went wide.
“At first, I thought it was a coincidence.”
“But the third time, when I froze space itself and saw the meteors momentarily lose control, I felt a sense of doubt.”
“The fourth time, when I alternated spells and saw you move your body specifically when I froze the entire space, I found the path.”
“First, I froze the space including you. But that wasn't it.”
“Next, I froze the ground where you were.”
But—that wasn't it either.
“Around then, it occurred to me. The fact that you remain floating in the air, both in the temple and at this very moment, even though there's no need for it.”
“Immediately after realizing that, when I froze the space once more and created a floor beneath your feet, you moved as if you had been waiting for it.”
Alon’s murmurs continued quietly, as if he were standing above all things.
‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ was shocked, but.
[Ha—]
He soon wore a chilling smile and opened his—
[So, what of it? Even if you found out my penalty—that I cannot use my power if I step on the ground—can you actually make me step on it? No! It’s absolutely imposs—]
—mouth, only to be struck by a bizarre sense of incongruity.
The hundreds of Alons were still looking at him.
the Alon who should have been compressed was still speaking to him calmly.
“All-Ensnaring Night.”
This was clearly wrong.
Unless his ability had vanished, then—
“Since when—”
—it meant the penalty was being applied.
“—did you think you weren't standing on the ground?”
‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ lowered his gaze.
Beneath his feet, where there had been nothing just a moment ago.
A small piece of earth had appeared.
Hidden by illusion magic.
A small piece of ground pulled up using gravity magic.
And.
The spells already manifested by the hundreds of Alons were fired at ‘The All-Ensnaring Night’ as if they had been waiting—
─────The world was dyed in light.