R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 76

R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 76 (Edit2: Fixed a few minor typos)

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Sophia Morgan was not a schemer.

Micheal might take to scheming like it was his second nature, crafting plans within plans over the course of mere seconds, but Sophia preferred to keep things simple.

She was a fighter, a warrior that had adapted to the 7 Layers like a fish into water.

Sophia respected Micheal, she considered him a true friend, but in a little corner of her heart, she had always considered the man’s constant plans and schemes as something Micheal was forced to do.

‘Schemes are meaningless in the face of absolute power.’

It was a belief that was firmly imprinted on her heart after her sister was taken from her in the First Wave.

And so, Sophia had spent almost every waking moment trying to grow strong… and grow she had.

Magnificently.

The Sophia Morgan of today was ludicrously more skilled and more powerful than her past self.

The wind answered her call, the power of the Storm rising in her heart. She was stronger, faster, with prowess in combat that would have unthinkable just a year ago. Sword Mastery, Fairy Eyes, Ki Cultivation, Wind Sweeper… the list of powers she had at her beck and call was ever-growing, with room for more.

It was because of this that Sophia had always thought she was closing the gap between herself and Micheal. She was growing, fast, at a rate that oustripped almost anyone else she knew.

She was catching up to him.

Or, at least, that was what she had thought.

As Sophia witnessed the reality before her, however, she only now realized how wrong she had been.

What she was watching now could barely be called human.

The moment Orion and Micheal collided, the two began what she could only describe as a dance.

A deadly, beautiful dance.

Micheal’s sword, Lightshorn, cut through the air, sending out rippling waves of white Sword Energy that sheared through everything in its path. Every slash he made tore apart the earth, gouging out massive cratered lines dozens of meters in scale.

He was like a God of Destruction, slicing through nearly everything in his path.

Nearly everything.

For, Micheal was currently fighting the closest thing to a God Sophia had ever witnessed, if what Micheal had told her was to be believed.

A Titled Deity.

Every cut Micheal made, Orion returned with a glancing strike, deflecting the attack. For every attack Orion made, Micheal returned with one of his own. The casual blows each fighter unleashed was enough to devastate the surrounding landscape, great searing blows that had enough power to level a building.

It was a duel of epic proportions… and one that she was barely able to track.

‘Fairy Eyes.’ Sophia thought as she activated her Ability, her eyes briefly glowing pink before returning to normal as her gaze pierced forward.

The two were fighting at such a speed that it was difficult for her to catch everything.

‘I can’t get any closer…’ She paused, remembering Micheal’s instructions.

Her body wasn’t yet strong enough to withstand the concussive shockwaves Orion, and now Micheal, seemed to almost casually create.

‘But that doesn’t mean I can’t help!’

Wind began to gather around Sophia as she watched on, her fists clenched tight.

‘Next time...’ She silently pledged, her gaze never leaving Micheal.

‘Next time that will be me.’

A Storm slowly began to build.

.. .. .. .. .. ..

Blood pounded in Micheal’s ears, his heart racing at what felt like a thousand beats per minute.

The stench of singed flesh soured the air, mixed with the harsh scent of burnt air caused by Orion’s Elemental Lightning.

Any sweat that formed on Micheal was instantly evaporated, the boiling energy surrounding Micheal and Orion wiping away nigh everything else.

‘It’s not enough.’

A loud explosion shook the air as Micheal separated from Orion, knocking the First Lord back several steps. There was a brief lull in the fight as a result, the two combatants eyeing each other from a distance.

‘My heart.’ Micheal resisted the urge to clutch at his chest, ignoring the burning pain.

The Crown of the Angel King had overloaded his body with enough raw power to match a Titled Deity… but it was that exact power that had nearly caused his heart to burst.

Micheal held Lightshorn out in front of him, every iota of focus zeroing in on the man before him. In the same movement, his right foot lightly tapped the ground, slightly shifting the stone debris he stood upon.

Orion Thunderfist, in turn, simply snorted.

“Power unearned is but poison… though I suppose that makes me a hypocrite.” As Orion spoke, a wall of gray fog formed behind him.

Not a moment later, a brilliant laser beam shot through the air and collided with that fog, fizzling out ineffectually instead of piercing through Orion’s head.

Micheal’s eyes narrowed as he saw that, his face revealing nothing.

A split second later, the lull ended, and their battle resumed.

Orion’s body transformed into a blur as he shot through the air, reaching Micheal in a near-instant. The powerful warrior landed on the ground with a loud ‘cracking’ noise, fracturing the hard, half melted stone beneath them.

Micheal, in turn, dipped backwards, a Temporal Bubble surrounding him and accelerating his movements as he retreated. A second Temporal Bubble appeared surrounding Orion, slowing the Deity’s time down.

That second Temporal Bubble was met with a crushing wave of lightning and Ki as Orion immediately resisted it, destabilizing the Time Bubble and rendering it inoperable.

As the First Lord burst through the Temporal Bubble, instead of giving chase to Micheal, however, the Dark Wraith abruptly lurched to the right, his body blurring as he moved sideways.

Orion’s retreat was strange, almost hasty... but the reasons for it were soon revealed.

Less than a second later, an immense explosion shook the air as a cluster of 40 Close Impact Bombs detonated, stashed away in the rubble, exactly where Micheal’s right foot had been.

‘If the Vile King can do it, why can’t I?’ Micheal shamelessly stole a move from Constantine’s playbook, learning from his duel with the man inside the Soul King’s Inheritance.

The resulting explosion was devastating at close range, but Micheal’s Temporal Bubble assisted retreat had proved enough to get him out of range. The huge shockwave jostled him all the same, but it was nothing compared to the massive, roughly 40 meters wide crater carved out of the already devastated ground.

As Micheal fought to regain his hearing, imbuing his ears with Ki to fight off a constant ringing echo, the Scythe of Chains reappeared in his left hand.

‘How annoying.’

“Activate!” Micheal yelled as he held the Scythe out in front of him.

Not a moment later, a rather singed, but otherwise unharmed Orion appeared just a few meters in front of Micheal, halted mid-charge. Bits of gray fog were gradually dissipating around the man, used to block the brunt of the explosion.

The duo stared at each other, Micheal and Orion, for what felt like the briefest moment.

And then…

Orion clapped his hands together.

Instinctively, Micheal imbued his eyes with his Crown-enhanced Ki.

Not a moment later, an energized shockwave flew past him and the world turned silent as both of Micheal’s eardrums ruptured.

‘Focus, Micheal.’ He thought to himself as he fought past the dizzying pain, his eyes never leaving Orion as he stored the Scythe of Chains back in his Spatial Ring.

“Gravton ul Hangor.”

A wave of Mana left Micheal’s Soul as he cast the 2nd Circle Spell ‘Earthbound.’

Blue Mana wrapped around Orion in an instant, forming a large circle that imprinted itself upon his body.

Orion grunted as he looked down at it, his Ki and Elemental Lightning fluctuating as he tried to throw it off to no avail.

As soon as Micheal saw this, a grim smile appeared on his face.

‘It works.’

As the Spell took effect, Orion’s body fell from mid air and slammed into the ground with a loud crash. It wasn’t a particularly powerful impact, nowhere near enough to injure the Dark Wraith, but what mattered to Micheal was that the Spell worked.

“Another rat that lays bombs. And now, Magic? This feels… familiar. How odd.” Orion muttered.

Despite losing his hearing, Micheal could still understand what Orion was saying, a function of the Shop’s automatic translation power.

Orion’s observation was spot on. The 2nd Circle Spell Earthbound was a Magic Spell that focused on manipulating both Space and Gravity. It was a clever Spell that Micheal had picked up from Kyrui’s Inheritance, simple in nature, but powerful in effect.

For every second a creature was airborne while under this Spell’s effect, the gravity they would experience doubled. As time went on, the gravity a creature underwent would continue to grow until the moment they touched the ground, which caused the Spell to cancel, hence the name ‘Earthbound.’

“Useless.” Orion’s eyes glowed gray as he held out his right hand.

From that hand emerged a spear of gray fog, pulsing through the air towards Micheal at breakneck speed.

Micheal twisted his body as he dodged, dropping another Temporal Bubble to accelerate his movements.

However, from that single spear of gray fog emerged several spikes of the dreaded mist that chased after Micheal, piercing through the air, the ground, and everything in-between.

All that the fog touched began to decay, fall apart, and die. Every bit of stone debris or rubble it contacted instantly was covered in a layer of gray cracks, dissipating and falling apart.

Micheal was forced to draw upon his Life Orbs, several appearing and pressing against his body to allow him to abruptly change his direction of movement mid-air, to dodge the wave of gray fog.

And it was here, just as he was preparing to dodge again, that an enormous gale of wind swept past him.

Lightning crackled and the air stirred as constant waves of wind smashed into the gray fog and carried it up and away from Micheal, to the sky above, where several dark clouds were rapidly forming.

‘Sophia! Nice!’ Micheal resisted the urge to look behind him, knowing that doing so would give away her position.

With Orion’s Fog of Ruin cast to the side, for a brief few moments, Micheal had a clear line of sight towards Orion.

The Titled Deity was a sore sight, covered in injuries, missing his right arm and a pair of fingers on his left hand. The lightning the Dark Wraith used to replace his right arm had grown unstable, unable to keep up with the inherent damage wrought by facing a Grandmaster bare-handed.

Micheal swiftly raised Lightshorn above him and…

He began to cut forward.

And cut again.

And again.

And again.

Again.

Slash after slash, strike after strike, Micheal unleashed a storm of his own, sending out blistering layers of Grandmaster Sword Energy that flew through the air, unrestrained and free.

After attaining Mastery, one was able to extend their Sword Energy, granting increased range and adaptability.

After attaining the stage of Grandmaster, however… one’s Sword Energy achieved a level of true freedom. No longer were one’s attacks restrained to the weapon they bore.

A Grandmaster could control their Sword Energy with complete impunity, capable of sending out enormous, slicing energy attacks that flew freely through the air.

Blood began to leak from Micheal’s nose as he continued slicing forward, imbuing everything he had into his blade.

The power of a Grandmaster was a sight to behold.

Huge, gaping gouges were wrought into the earth as Micheal’s attacks crashed down, slices more than 100 meters long.

With every slash he made, Micheal’s gaze remained on Orion.

At first, the Deity tried to gather up the energy in his attacks to deflect them. He promptly failed, earning several bloody gashes on his Toren body as the white Sword Energy bit into him.

In the next moment, however, the First Lord gave up on his stubborn pride and covered his body in a layer of defensive fog.

Unlike his fog spears, this layer of fog constantly reappeared, covering his body in a cocoon that Sophia’s stormy wind was unable to throw off.

Step by step, Orion gradually drew near.

Step by step, Micheal cut forward, his eyes twitching as he sensed a wall of fog appear behind him, cutting off all retreat.

“I already told you. Your attacks are useless, now.” Orion’s rumbling voice echoed out as he spoke, his face emerging from the fog enough to let Micheal understand what he was saying.

Every time Micheal’s slashes collided with the fog around Orion, they vanished as if they were nothing.

It was a true example of the power of a Titled Deity: the ability to nullify any attack, even from that of a Grandmaster.

“But I admire your effort, warrior.” Orion took another step forward, methodically powering through Micheal’s sea of attacks.

“You are strong. Among the strongest I have faced.”

Step. Step.

“Even Dragons have failed to push me this hard.”

Step. Step.

“But…” Orion’s voice dropped to a bare whisper.

Step.

“You cannot stop me.”

Step.

“No one can.”

Step.

Orion arrived in front of Micheal, just a couple meters away.

By this point, blood dripped down from Micheal’s nose in a torrent. His vision grew unstable as his breathing became ragged, his body overloaded far beyond recovery. Gradually, Micheal felt the massive energy that had pooled in his body begin to dissipate, his time using the Crown of the Angel King drawing to an end.

“You were a fine warrior.” Orion reached forward, ignoring a flurry of sword strikes that all failed to pierce the fog surrounding him.

His hand reached Micheal and…

The First Lord punched through Micheal’s chest and destroyed his heart.

Instantly killing him.

“A pity it had to end this way.”

A wave of gray cracks covered Micheal’s body in an instant, the light in his eyes dimming as the power of Ruin seeped into his corpse.

The First Lord sighed as he dropped the body to the ground, the fog around him dissipating.

“A pity.” He shook his head and-

Time seemed to stand still for the briefest moment.

Faintly, in the background, a cracking sound echoed… almost like the sound of an orb shattering…

Micheal’s body disappeared.

In that same moment…

A translucent Temporal Bubble spawned in mid-air, just behind Orion’s back.

And…

A human appeared, holding a blue sword roughly 0.3 millimeters above Orion’s left arm.

Micheal grinned, a dark rictus of a smile.

His body moved with the practice of a thousand hours.

A flash of light shot through the air, and…

Orion Thunderfist’s left arm fell to the ground.

.