R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 74

R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 74 (In editing-v1)

-

The air gradually grew still as Orion and the Nirvana Saint faced off. The storm of wind kicked up by Yvvtal lost its power, while any noise in the background slowly faded away.

All was quiet, for a few fragile moments, like the calm before the storm.

Those moments ended…

And the storm began.

In a blur, Orion shot across the ground, arriving in front of the Nirvana Saint in a split second. His body glowed with lightning, while his muscles bulged with power, the very picture of a man-made-God.

And, just as the First Lord was about to crush the Nirvana Saint’s throat with his bare hands…

The Nirvana Saint vanished.

“Oh?” Orion spun around, his keen senses instantly tracking down the man’s presence.

Standing around 25 meters to his left, atop one of the larger piles of rubble, was none other than the Leader of the Purgatory Church, completely unharmed.

“Teleportation?” The First Lord’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the man.

“A powerful ability. A shame you didn’t use it earlier. Your men suffered greatly defending you.” Orion’s eyes were cold, but the passion in his voice made it clear he truly believed what he was saying.

While the First Lord was not a particularly kind man, he was nevertheless not one to abuse others or cause unnecessary harm.

“Indeed. If only I had.” The Nirvana Saint responded with a sigh, a genuine hint of emotion slipping past his cheerful mask.

“I-” The Nirvana Saint cut himself off mid-reply as he activated his Ability, Solomon’s Book, once again, drawing on its power to teleport.

Not a heartbeat later, the pile of rubble where the Nirvana Saint had been standing exploded, lightning crackling in the air as Orion blew the heap of stone debris apart. The impact scattered a cloud of stone dust into the air, a cloud that quickly flew away from the Sanctum, carried by the wind Orion’s blow formed.

“Woah, there, big guy.” The Nirvana Saint murmured as he re-appeared 2 dozen meters to the north, carefully adjusting the golden book he held.

“You almost got me.”

Orion grunted, ignoring a twinge of pain coming from his left shoulder.

“You don’t seem-” Orion’s words cut off sharply as he stepped backwards, a wall of gray fog appearing in front of him almost instantly.

A quarter of a second later, a loud ‘boom’ shook the air as a bright explosion of light detonated at Orion’s feet. This brilliant explosion of light shined a brilliant yellow for the briefest moment, before fading to a dull gray under the influence of Orion’s title.

“How drab. To rob the world of its color. Is this the future you envision, Lord Thunderfist?” The Nirvana Saint asked.

The gray fog wall gradually dispersed, revealing Orion, now with a frown on his face.

“You lay bombs, now, Saint?” Orion criticized, staring at the remnants of the explosion with a disapproving expression.

“I’m surprised your people have a word for that.” The Nirvana Saint returned.

Orion chuckled.

“Funny. You have a way with words, Saint.” The First Lord’s smile failed to reach his eyes.

“I’m honored you think so highly of me.” The Nirvana Saint responded with a polite bow, his eyes glowing with light as he focused on Orion.

The First Lord rolled his shoulders and shrugged.

“It’s a pity.” A man like you is far too dangerous to be kept alive.

Orion didn’t say the rest of that thought out loud, but the Nirvana Saint’s eyes narrowed nevertheless.

“As I was saying… you don’t seem like the type of man that would waste his subordinates' lives.” The First Lord began, nodding at the Nirvana Saint.

“I like to-” For the second time, the Nirvana Saint was forced to cut himself off and instantly teleport.

For, mid-reply, the First Lord had once again launched an attack, dashing through the air like a rocket as he appeared where the Nirvana Saint had been standing.

“-think-”

The Nirvana Saint teleported yet again, narrowly missing Orion’s hand as it grasped for his throat.

“-I’m-”

For the fourth time, the Nirvana Saint was forced to teleport, this time from a chunk of energized rock that Orion had thrown at the spot he had appeared at.

“-not.”

It was only after 5 successful teleports that the Nirvana Saint finally managed to finish his sentence, his face calm and collected, not at all looking as if he had just dodged several extremely intense assassination attempts.

In the original spot where the Nirvana Saint had been standing, another explosion of light shook the air. This time, however, it missed its target completely, Orion’s rushed series of attacks causing the Nirvana Saint’s own attack to fail.

“You’re good at running, Saint.” Orion’s voice rumbled through the air as he finally stopped trying to kill the Nirvana Saint, at least temporarily, and turned to gauge him.

“That power to teleport… it has to do with that book in your hand.” The First Lord said rather then asked, motioning at the golden book.

The Nirvana Saint’s face was unflappable, his eyes giving away nothing as he shrugged.

“Maybe, maybe not.”

Orion grinned.

“Deny it or not, it matters little. You see…” The First Lord began,

“I notice things. In fact, I’m quite attentive to detail.” As he spoke, Orion’s eyes flickered to the right and left, encompassing the world around him.

“It’s a skill you pick up after you live long enough.” He continued,

“The ones who don’t tend to die early.”

The Nirvana Saint snorted.

“I must say, while I appreciate this fascinating episode of life advice, I fail to see your point.” He lied.

In the middle of the Nirvana Saint’s reply, the First Lord abruptly turned his face to the left, his gaze piercing forward for a few brief moments, scanning the area. After a split second, he returned his gaze back to the Nirvana Saint, raising an eyebrow at the human.

“My point is… ever since you began teleporting…” Orion’s eyes gleamed as began to walk towards the Nirvana Saint,

“You haven’t once used your most powerful attack.” The Titled Deity smiled.

‘Smart bugger.’ The Leader of the Purgatory Church resisted the urge to frown as he watched the massive warrior stalk towards him.

The First Lord’s guess was spot on.

He was unable to use both his Judgement Rays and the ability to Teleport at the same time.

Solomon’s Book.

That was the name of the unique Limited Ability that only the Nirvana Saint possessed.

It was an incredibly versatile Ability built around one singular concept.

The power to ‘Copy.’

Whether it be in the form of copying down spy reports from his network of informants to ‘Copying’ Abilities held by other beings, Solomon’s Book granted the Nirvana Saint an incredibly diverse set of tools to work with.

His powers, however, had a limit.

Each page in his book could hold a single Ability he managed to ‘Copy’ down, by scanning another being at close range.

To use those Abilities, however, Solomon’s Book had to be held in his hands, opened to the relevant page, and, at most, Solomon’s Book could only ever be open to 2 pages at once.

Furthermore, for safety's sake, one of those pages was also almost always reserved, limiting him to only 1 page.

Abruptly, Orion held out his right hand, pointed towards the Nirvana Saint.

He didn’t take any direct action, nor did he gather any energy about him, or any power towards his hands.

All he did was stand there, with his hand held outright… pointed towards the Nirvana Saint.

It was an odd action that seemingly accomplished nothing, though the Nirvana Saint wasn’t so foolish as to lower his guard. Instead, the Leader of the Purgatory Church focused on Orion’s actions, observing him, preparing himself to teleport at a moment’s notice-

In the midst of that thought, Orion’s hand slightly turned, barely more than a centimeter.

‘DangerDangerDang-’

The Nirvana Saint teleported as soon as he heard the warning screech into his brain, vanishing almost instantly.

Not a moment later, the space where the Nirvana Saint had been standing began to change.

The air froze, and then gradually began to turn black, all color, life, and light within it fading to utter, black nothingness.

A void, of existence itself, ripped from the air and left to stand, a bleeding sore in the fabric of reality. Black cracks in the fabric of space spread out from the black void, fading away after they traveled more than a meter away.

“Ah, I see. You must have some sort of precognitive power.” The First Lord lowered his hand as he admired his handiwork.

“It’s not a pretty power, but I can see its uses. The power to Ruin Space itself.” Orion muttered, quietly to himself.

The Nirvana Saint’s heart pounded as he stared at the oozing void of darkness, forcing himself to remain calm.

‘...I won’t last much longer.’ He assessed the situation from an objective standpoint.

The First Lord’s ability to infer, his inhuman intuition, was a fearsome thing.

Like the man said, he did indeed possess a form of precognition.

Solomon’s Book allowed him to use 2 Abilities he had ‘Copied.’ The first page was filled with the ‘Warping Phaser Type Ability’ while the second page was filled with an Ability that granted him limited precognition, an Ability he always kept active.

Specifically: the ‘Bound Celestial Owl Type Ability,’ a Type Ability that could only be obtained through the Mystic Variant Transformation Type lottery.

The fact that he was using 2 different Type Abilities at once was a power made possible by Solomon’s Book, something no other Human was capable of, at least to the best of his knowledge.

Even worse, however, was the First Lord’s ability to adapt. Over the course of their brief battle, the Titled Deity was visibly learning how to best use his powers.

‘I’ll have to hope this is enough.’

The Nirvana Saint teleported, appearing at a new spot, several dozen meters away. He was standing atop one of the smaller piles of stone rubble, Solomon’s Book held out in front of him at the ready.

Orion’s head turned to follow him, lightning crackling around his legs as he prepared to attack.

“You can’t run forever, Saint.” His voice rumbled out in the air as he vanished.

“I’ll-”

And then it hit him.

A surprise attack.

Orion’s intuition screamed at him, his instincts flaring as he felt an incredibly powerful energy source appear next to him out of seemingly nowhere, a source of raw power that gave off an oddly holy, almost… Angelic… feeling, followed by a much lesser energy source next to the first.

He wasn’t surprised, of course.

He had been expecting it.

Only a fool wouldn’t.

It was obvious, so incredibly obvious that the humans and their allies were conspiring to ambush him.

He didn’t fault them for it. After all, if he was in their place, he would have done the same. It was no easy task to face the World's Strongest.

However…

‘How in the 56 Hells..?’

They did manage to surprise him.

For, they didn’t attack him while he was standing still, nor when he was recovering from a failed attack. Not even the many times he left himself ‘open’ and ‘distracted’ by his surroundings.

No, instead, they sprang their surprise attack when, of all things, he was using his ‘instant movement’ technique, Chasing Thunder.

An intercepting surprise ambush on a being that was moving more than 650 mph.

The mere fact that they intercepted him mid-movement was already an incredible achievement, but it mattered naught.

Layers of Lord-Tier Ki had melded with Elemental Lightning, pulsating through his core to his arms and legs, granting him incredible power. In his current state, his body was like a mountain, energized to a solid state that was extraordinarily tough.

He was confident, in this state, that there existed nothing in the Ancient World that could harm him. They might think themself clever for catching him off guard, but to attack him here was a mistake.

And it was that same confident thought that occupied his mind…

Up to the moment his right arm landed on the ground with a loud thump.

Sheared clean through, from flesh to bone.

“...”

And it was on this day, for the first time in his life...

Orion Thunderfist came face to face with a Grandmaster in his prime.

.