R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 53

R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 53

(Next chapter tomorrow)

‘What a terrible feeling.’ Micheal thought, resisting the urge to gag.

Living through the memories of someone controlling Space was an incredibly unpleasant thing to do. The sensation of Spatial Manipulation felt unnatural, each and every time Kyrui activated his abilities sent a sickening wave through Micheal’s head.

It was something he had never felt before, something he shouldn’t have been able to feel.

However, as the fight went on, Micheal gradually adapted to the sensation.

What had once sent his stomach into a queasy fit now began to feel recognizable, though the odd sense of ‘wrongness’ remained.

The eerie strangeness that Micheal was experiencing was, in fact, the norm as far as these things were concerned. The vast majority of beings, when exposed to a Memory Crystal of someone interacting with Concepts they themselves had no experience with, would feel the same way.

In the 7 Layers, Humanity stood as the odd ones out thanks to their Shop and its ability to adapt powers they came into contact with into Humanity’s 7 Ability slots.

Micheal’s ‘Temporal Bubble’ Ability that he had obtained through Yvvtal’s Inheritance was an example of that. In the first place, Yvvtal was a Toren. Any powers he possessed were designed by a being with the genes, bloodline, and consciousness of a Toren, for beings similar to himself.

Humanity’s Status Screen, Shop, and Ability slots were what allowed Micheal to become perfectly compatible with the Brand of Janus, and gain the Temporal Bubble Ability.

As Micheal focused on memorizing everything he could about Kyrui’s Spatial powers, the fight between Sion and the Four Dark Wraith Masters unfolded.

The battle went exactly how Tallanoran had described it.

Bilt and Leia, the Master’s of Strength and Storm respectively, died within the first 5 minutes, unable to cope with Sion’s Air Erasure.

Tallanoran lasted longer, making the most of his Time warping powers. Torens were naturally resistant to any power that would affect their flow of Time, but the Soul King was the strongest Dark Wraith to live.

He fought bravely for around 12 minutes before finally being cut down, his body crippled after most of his cells exploded.

Micheal wasn’t able to perceive Tallanoran splitting his Soul apart to hide a remnant Soul. From what he could see, the Master of Time simply looked as if he was unconscious on the ground, in the process of gradually dying. However, given what Tallanoran had told inside his Inheritance, he knew this had to be the time Tallanoran formed his remnant Soul, after the Dark Wraith realized his death was inevitable.

The Soul King’s ability when it came to matters of the Soul eclipsed Kyrui’s or Sion’s ability to detect.

The fight raged on in the background as Micheal focused on Kyrui's connection with Space.

Eventually, however, the battle drew to a pause, interrupting Micheal’s concentration.

Micheal mentally narrowed his eyes as he turned his attention back to the battle, trying to make sense of Kyrui’s vision.

Sion’s repeated use of his Air Erasure technique had damaged Kyrui’s eyes to the point where everything Micheal saw through the Master of Space’s vision was blurred.

However, inside this Memory Crystal, Micheal was able to sense everything Kyrui sensed. Kyrui’s knowledge of his surroundings was incredibly detailed and his spatial awareness was at a supernatural level.

Thanks to that, despite being effectively blind, Micheal could still sense the damage the surroundings had incurred from this battle.

The buildings and the rubble within them, the mountains that had stood behind Kyrui… even the ground itself…

All of it was gone.

‘Another of Sion’s favorite ways to attack.’ Micheal thought, recognizing the aftermath from Dark Void’s records,

‘Ground Erasure.’

Just like he possessed the ability to ‘kill’ air, Sion also was capable of ‘killing’ the ground.

A massive, roughly 2-miles-wide gaping hole had formed in the earth, a mile-deep into the ground. All of the earth, stone, rock, and dirt that had once sat in place had been erased from existence after Sion ‘killed’ it, destroyed in an instant.

What was left was a large, freshly formed lake as groundwater rushed into the enormous hole, merging with collapsing lines of rock and stone as the edges of the hole caved in on itself.

“Why?!” Kyrui’s voice was ragged and husky, his throat heavily damaged.

“Why?” The Dark Wraith repeated himself as he stumbled down to one knee.

Kyrui was standing on a platform of solidified Space, just a couple of feet above the new lake beneath him.

“I don’t like repeating myself, mortal.” Sion’s voice echoed out loud as he responded, a hint of amusement in his tone.

Sion stood on the surface of the water, the lake around him within a radius of around 200 meters resting completely still and unmoving.

“Because I can.”

The air shuddered as Sion jumped forward, appearing next to Kyrui in a split second. Despite his abrupt movement, the lake Sion jumped off of remained perfectly still.

By this point, Kyrui was exhausted. Black energy was bleeding out from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, while the rest of his body was covered in bruises and cuts.

He had fought against Sion for nearly half an hour now, a record no one on the planet could match.

Kyrui twisted Space, instinctively, to dodge Sion’s attack, but his reaction was half a hair too slow.

A sharp slice of white Sword Energy shot out, rippling through the air.

And, a moment later, Kyrui’s right arm fell to the ground, severed.

“Ah, is that all?” Sion muttered, a hint of displeasure staining his voice.

‘...disgusting.’ Micheal’s gaze hardened, anger boiling inside him.

In Kyrui’s final moments, Sion was toying with him.

Sion had the ability to ‘kill’ anything he cut.

The only reason Kyrui wasn’t yet dead was because the Titled Deity wasn’t done with him.

Kyrui’s body froze stiff before the Dark Wraith overcame his shock and turned to face Sion.

“...you…” Kyrui muttered in response, his voice dropping to become incomprehensible.

Sion tilted his head down to listen, an amused expression on his face.

“...can go to Hell.”

Kyrui’s left arm exploded.

Micheal couldn’t think of a better way to describe it as he felt all of the energy within Kyrui’s body, every last drop of power the Dark Wraith possessed, condense, build up, and blast out of his left arm in an instant.

The sheer, raw concentration of energy warped Space, focused entirely on Kyrui’s left hand. This attack contained everything the Master of Space had left, using his own body as a medium to form one final shard of distorted Space.

The attack was launched from point blank range, aimed directly at Sion Swordsoul’s head.

Time seemed to slow down as Micheal watched everything that happened next.

Despite the fact that the attack came without any warning, Sion still managed to tilt his head backwards in a split second, a cocky grin appearing on his face as he removed himself from the path of the attack.

A grin that vanished just a moment later.

“Arrogant bastard.”

Kyrui had fought Sion for only 30 minutes, but that was all he needed to recognize a core fact about the Toren: Sion was incredibly proud, convinced of his own victory and blinded by his own power.

Sion made a perfect, last second dodge to avoid Kyrui’s attack. There was no way it could reach him.

But so what?

Kyrui was the Master of Space.

The Dark Wraith felt his heart burst as he warped Space for the second and final time, the action causing his body to fail.

The shard of frozen space suddenly veered down as Space twisted, sending it hurtling back on course towards Sion’s face.

It was the perfect ambush. Sion was unable to raise his blade in time to cut the attack, or move his body in time to dodge it, as a result of his arrogance and Kyrui’s planning.

However… just when it appeared that there was no possible way Sion could respond, the Titled Deity did something Micheal never would have expected.

He shut his right eye.

The eyelid went from wide open… to swinging down shut in an instant…

A motion that qualified as a ‘swing.’

A motion that sent out a small line of white Sword Energy.

‘That’s absurd.’

The unorthodox technique, no matter how absurd it appeared, worked nevertheless. The small slice of Sword Energy slammed into the shard of space… and…

It killed it.

Kyrui’s final attack instantly vanished, but not before one final small piece had broken off from the main shard, breaking free as a result of Kyrui’s final twist of Space.

Time seemed to rush back to normal.

The small piece of the shard of space shot forward and then quickly dissipated, dissapearing into the air just a few meters behind Sion.

Kryui’s body collapsed, the frozen platform of Space vanishing as he lost control of it. His senses rapidly began to shut down as he started to die, a dizzying sensation overtaking his mind.

In that brief window of time before he died, however, Micheal managed to observe the final result of Kyrui’s last blow.

On Sion Swordsoul’s perfect face, a narrow, 3 inch long red gash had formed, ripping upward to his ear from his right cheek.

The first injury Sion had suffered this entire fight.

Micheal couldn’t make out Sion’s exact expression, but he could sense a wave of palpable rage washing over the Titled Deity.

‘Huh. Would you look at that.’

Micheal thought as he felt himself reach the end of this Memory Crystal.

‘Even Gods can bleed.’

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