Chapter 150

R-a Chapter 150 (This chapter took me 3 days to write! Enjoy :))

After Prime finished speaking, Micheal had roughly 3 seconds of time to recover before Prime moved again. The man’s nature was to be extremely cautious, something Micheal took full advantage of as he steadied himself. 

Prime, of course, noticed Micheal’s actions, and moved because of them. A long, white sword appeared in Prime’s hand, one that glowed with bright red Advanced Tier Sword Energy as he took a single step forward. He raised his long sword up in one hand, pointing it at Micheal. 

‘He’s probably going for my Spatial Ring.’ Prime didn’t show any indication of where he was attacking, but that alone helped Micheal predict what Prime was gunning for. 

The biggest uncertainty in this fight was Micheal’s actions using his Spatial Ring, and the tools he had inside. Uncontrollable variables were things Prime hated, and the first thing he would seek to get rid of, something Micheal knew for a fact. The historical records of the First Layer had detailed, to a rather extreme level, some of Prime’s fanatic exploits. 

With that thought in mind, Micheal’s actions were brutally direct as he raised his Ashari Blade…

And stabbed it through his own heart, killing himself. 

‘One down, two left.’ The thought fluttered through Micheal’s consciousness as life left his body. The world around him became rather hazy as his spirit rose free from his collapsing corpse, leaving the lifeless body to flop down toward the floor. His Ashari Blade flew free from his grasp, flung across the theatre till it landed with a loud clang on the main stage. 

Prime, to his credit, didn’t hesitate or break step at all in his attack. The man’s blade reached Micheal just a scant moment after, faster than Micheal had anticipated. 

In a smooth, almost mechanical motion, Prime severed both of Micheal’s arms, cutting through Micheal’s leather armor easily. In the same movement, his free hand struck forward and pulled off the Spatial Ring Micheal used, securing it. 

Spatial Rings were extremely durable. There was a time in the Second Layer where, before they grew scarce, someone created a set of extremely tough armor by linking together several hundred unbound and empty Spatial Rings. That armor never really panned out due to its many openings, but it was a well-known fact that Spatial Rings were extremely hard to destroy. 

Even if Prime wanted to, he wouldn’t be able to destroy Micheal’s Spatial Ring. Thus, Prime’s best course of action was to steal it and prevent Micheal from being able to use it. 

In his spirit-like form, Micheal could see all of this and think clearly, forcefully pushing past the brutal shock of dying. He could also sense three small, glowing orbs, floating within his consciousness, his Life Orbs. 

One of those Orbs was covered in cracks and just moments away from shattering. Micheal ignored this as he forcefully moved his consciousness, putting all his attention on coming back to life as far away from Prime as possible. 

In the meantime, Prime jumped backwards and looped a chain around Micheal’s Spatial Ring, locking it into place on his waist. Micheal noticed this out of the corner of his mind, a small, internal smile forming. 

‘He really isn’t all-knowing, huh?’ Prime’s actions, for the first time, made Micheal feel a sliver of relief. 

Fighting against Prime was stressful mostly because it felt like the man simply knew everything. The man’s reactions to Micheal’s actions were perfect, he was able to recover from things near-instantly, hitting Micheal in the worst possible ways. 

But, as with before… Prime couldn’t know what he couldn’t know. 

Micheal’s Life Orb finished shattering, leaving only two gleaming Life Orbs behind. 

An instant later, Micheal’s body blurred into existence, still wearing the damaged remnants of his white leather armor. His eyes were clear, though that clearness quickly faded as he was poisoned, for the second time, by the Mire Wicker Poison that had covered the theatre. 

At the same time that he reappeared… 

Micheal’s old body dissipated into dust… and the Spatial Ring in Prime’s hand blurred and then vanished as it reappeared on Micheal’s left hand. 

Prime froze when he noticed this, his eyes widening slightly. 

The powers of a Life Orb Master were incredibly mysterious. 

It allowed a person to reform their body after death, free from all injuries, but still sustaining the same exhausted state as before. It wasn’t a simple resurrection or anything of that nature, but something more abstruse and complex. 

Micheal had a few theories on how exactly it worked. One of them hypothesized that the Ability rewound time, in a manner. It might be better to describe it as rewinding ‘Fate’ to bring one’s body back to a condition of being ‘healthy.’ 

And with that in mind, he had devised a rather complex plan that revolved around his Spatial Ring.

For… Spatial Rings were not like regular Artifacts. 

A Spatial Ring was bound to a person’s Soul, making it extremely difficult for someone else to open. One could bind multiple rings, but if they carried more than a single Spatial Ring on their person, the rings might react negatively and explode. 

It was almost as if to say… the natural state of a being’s body is where they wield a single Spatial Ring. When they carried that ring, it would be viewed as part of them. If that ring was brought away, just like if one lost a limb, one would slowly adapt to that, but that adaption would take more than just a few seconds. 

And thus, if a Spatial Ring is viewed as part of one’s body… 

And if Micheal’s Life Orbs bring his body back through ‘Fate’ or ‘Time’ to its ‘healthy’ condition… 

Then shouldn’t his Spatial Ring be brought back to him when he respawned? 

And so it did. 

Micheal grinned viciously as he broke out into a mad sprint, rushing for the Monster Class Nest, and the central stage where it floated. He strained his body to the maximum as he jumped over more than a dozen seats, depending on his memory to help him pierce through the dark haze around him. 

Unfortunately, his Signal Seer Bracelet had fallen to the ground where his body had lain. It was a regular Artifact, and a rather crude one at that, adept at picking up and transmitting energy signals, but not too much else. Lacking that, he could no longer directly sense Prime’s presence.

His Cloud Stepping Shoes and Ivory Skin Leather Armor both returned to him, however, as both were Artifacts that could be bound to one’s Soul. 

“Clever. To warp your Spatial Ring out of my Omen Sealing Chain, your Life Orb Mastery Ability is far more unique than I thought.” Prime’s voice cut through the mire of darkness, full of a hint of surprise and ostensibly genuine respect. 

Micheal didn’t react to Prime’s words and instead continued to shoot towards the stage. He used his Cloud Stepping Shoes to up his pace, feeling slightly dizzy from the weakening poison in the air. 

Even he, himself, wasn’t fully aware of his own powers. He had only discovered this part of his power by chance, back when he was working with the Godfather to lure several Monster Class Morenkai. 

In that adventure, he had made a mad rush for the Godfather while taking on multiple serious injuries. In the end, he had ended up dying just as he reached Head Cameron, causing a Life Orb to shatter. 

However, when he reformed… his Ivory Skin Leather Armor, an Artifact that had been in tattered remnants not long before, had been restored back to its original condition. His regular clothes were still a mess and only this Artifact had been restored. 

This was the first major clue that made this entire plan possible. He had pondered long and hard about this phenomena, eventually extrapolating and reaching various conclusions that led him here. 

Artifacts that were both ‘bound’ to him and were consistently ‘carried’ by his body were seen as ‘part’ of him. And when he died, those Artifacts would return to their ‘carried’ state so as to restore his ‘parts’ back to full. 

He didn’t know what the limits of this were. How long could he remain apart from one of his ‘bound’ Artifacts before it wouldn’t return to him? How badly damaged or destroyed could an Artifact become? What about the contents of his Spatial Ring? What if he quickly withdrew some of them and then tried to restore everything? His clothes came back to him too, but they remained in their tattered, destroyed state. Why?

He had many questions, but few answers. He saved those for more peaceful days, however, and had instead turned his focus into planning for the future. A future he was experiencing right now, here in the present. 

As Micheal flew through the air towards the stage, he started a mental count in his head. For every meter he crossed, he counted off a single number. Relying heavily on his perfect memory, and the fact that he’d jumped from the stands and knew exactly where he had been, he was able to reconstruct roughly how close to the stage he was. 

A total of 4 seconds passed as he hurtled through the air, accelerating forward. 

He couldn’t see Prime, but he could still vaguely sense the man’s presence using his sixth sense. He knew for a fact that Prime was about to attack him, and that the time he had left was extremely scant. 

The moment he landed down on the stage, Micheal acted. 

From his Spatial Ring, Micheal withdrew 4 armed ‘Tazer String Guns.’ 

Each gun was roughly the size of a normal handgun. They were colored a sleek silver and had a metal prong attached to the end, where a bullet would normally fire from. The prongs were connected to a long, thin metal wire that would conduct a heavy electrical charge imbued with Elemental Lightning.

Micheal grabbed two guns in each hand, pointing them vaguely in Prime’s direction. Each gun began to light up with energy as they were activated and readied, armed to fire at any second. His eyes gazed out searchingly, as if seeking something out. 

And then, as he was about to fire the four guns… 

He hesitated, unable to find where Prime was. 

It was only for a split second. Right after that, he pulled down on the triggers and activated the Tazer String Guns, firing them in a determined manner. 

However, because of that split second of hesitation…

Before he managed to shoot, six knives pierced through his chest, ripping through the Ivory Skin Leather Armor like it was paper. A wave of pain swept across Micheal’s mind as his arms jerked wide at the abrupt attack. His four carefully aimed Tazer String Guns all shot off in random directions, completely missing Director Prime. 

The hum of electricity simmered in the air as the guns fell from Micheal’s grasp, setting the Mire Wicker Poison to cascading about energetically, but completely failing to injure Prime. 

“Alas. You are lacking, young Micheal, even if you have had visions of the future. Losing the Artifact that allowed you to sense my presence was a fatal mistake.” Prime’s voice was cold as he landed on the stage with a light tap, appearing just a few meters from Micheal. He had somehow managed to figure out exactly what the Signal Seer Bracelet did, reverse engineering its properties. 

In that time, Micheal had fallen backwards. Miraculously, of the six daggers that had pierced his torso, only two of them pierced into one of his lungs, directly collapsing it. One had stabbed into one of his kidneys, while the other three had pierced non-vital flesh. 

The injuries were horrifying, but not enough to kill him.

But Micheal wasn’t surprised by this. After all… 

He knew Prime wasn’t trying to kill him again. Not yet. 

Micheal spat out a mouthful of blood and looked back up at the Director, his eyes gleaming viciously as he showed a hint of his true self. His hands trembled as his body tried to go into shock, a reaction he shoved away forcefully as he tapped on his Spatial Ring. 

Two small, metal daggers appeared in his hands as he got to his knees. 

‘A little longer…’ He thought as he began to speak, 

“I have never claimed to be an all-knowing expert, Director. But I will not just sit down and let you kill me.” Speaking with multiple daggers inside of you was difficult, to say the least, but he managed to speak clearly, ignoring the dribbles of blood that fell from his mouth. 

The black haze in the air shook energetically behind Prime as the man sighed. 

“I don’t enjoy this, Heron. But I hope that isn’t all you have.” Prime’s voice was supremely unconcerned, as if everything was in the palm of his hand. 

Micheal took a slow, ragged breath as his hands trembled from blood loss. He slowly raised the two daggers he’d pulled out in front of him, taking a defensive stance. 

“Oh… it’s not.” Micheal grinned, the blood on his lips transforming his smile into a rather horrifying rictus of pain. His motions were jerky and unsteady, haphazard at best as he readied himself. 

Prime’s gaze was cautious as he watched all of this, dropping his unconcerned pretense. The man’s eyes glowed as he stopped time several times, apparently trying to determine if Micheal actually was still a threat. 

In the midst of that, by seemingly random chance, Micheal’s two daggers lightly tapped on each other. 

Upon impact, a couple of sparks appeared. A rather normal sight for two metal weapons making contact, especially strong weapons bought from the Shop. These two daggers, in particular, were commonly seen ones imbued with Elemental Fire, making the reaction expected. 

Those sparks fluttered in the air, sizzling slightly as they made contact with the Mire Wicker Poison that had spread across the entire room, a dense poison gas that only managed to cover everything by accident due to Prime intercepting Micheal’s attempted redirection of a gas-filled grenade. 

A gas that, just a few moments ago, received a huge amount of Elemental Lightning-based energy from four misfired Tazer String Guns, guns that had only been fired off-target because of Prime’s lightning-fast attack and Micheal’s split-second hesitation, resulting in them covering different areas of the large theatre.

As a result of that energy, the poison gas, as a whole, fluttered energetically. In the current darkness, however, it was almost impossible to notice. 

Impossible unless you were constantly studying the surrounding gas and watching its movements, knowing how it normally operated from experience. 

Gas that weakened Prime’s senses such that, even when time was frozen, it made it more difficult for him to notice things and focus. Even more so when his full attention was centered on Micheal, trying to understand the mystery behind Micheal’s words and trying to figure out what his next attack would be, or what Micheal was doing. 

A series of apparently random coincidences, many of which Prime himself had created by his own actions. Things that, individually, would not even be worth a moment’s notice. 

The gas spread. Some guns were jerked from a man's hands and misfired. A large amount of energy was near-invisibly absorbed into the gas. Several sparks imbued with Elemental Fire made contact with the large room full of dense, energized gas imbued with Elemental Lightning. 

For a single, frozen moment, nothing happened. 

A microsecond later...

The entire theatre exploded. 

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