Crossover: The Problematic Human of Arcadia — Shaper of Anime Worlds Chapter 439: Demonic Blue Flames

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A purple glow flared to life. And Ares retreated at once.

But Hers, who had clearly planned for this, made his move instantly and stole the "position" of Ares.

Their places in midair flipped in an instant, directions swapped as if soone had casually turned the world upside down.

Hers had never trusted a single word Ares said. In fact, he usually assud the opposite of whatever ca out of Ares's mouth.

Ares claid Ryo's attack was a wide-area saturation bombardnt. Hers imdiately concluded the next move would be the exact opposite: a single-target, personal, guaranteed-kill strike.

That was why Ares's sudden retreat set off every alarm bell in his head.

For example, Ares using him, Hers, as a human shield. Block Ryo's attack, then sneak in a counterstrike while Hers took the hit.

That kind of thing was classic Ares.

His so-called Authority of War claid to "share damage," but whenever a truly lethal attack showed up, Ares always shoved one of his war legion mbers into the line of fire instead.

Hers had zero interest in becoming Ares's shield. If anything, he wanted Ares standing in front of him.

So the mont the danger appeared, he stole the distance between himself and Ares and completely swapped their positions.

No matter whether Ryo went for a single-target kill or a massive AOE, with Ares taking point, Hers would have ti to react.

What he didn't know was that Ryo's opening move was neither of the two he'd guessed.

...

Praesepe Underworld Waves—Sekishiki ikai Ha—the signature technique of Gold Saint Cancer Deathmask.

Purple light flickered.

Ares and Hers both froze at the sa ti, as if they'd been petrified. Their thoughts stalled, cognition slowing to a crawl.

At that mont, Asura's figure vanished without warning. In her place appeared an enormous greatsword, so massive it looked like it could split space itself apart.

The blade trembled, as though held by an invisible giant, then ca crashing straight down toward Ares.

Perhaps because of the lingering resentnt from being interrupted earlier, Asura, having transford into the sword, attacked "Ares" without hesitation.

The greatsword fell, and the gray, muted world seed to welco its first ray of light since creation.

By then, Hers had carried out his plan, and he and Ares had already switched places.

And in that instant—

The mont Hers felt that absolute concept of "severing," his mind nearly went blank.

He never imagined Asura would target Ares. Or rather, he hadn't paid Asura any attention at all.

Just so oni-type hybrid with white horns, standing next to Ryo. One look and you could tell she wasn't anything special.

That had been Hers's judgnt. He'd written Asura off entirely, tagged her as weak.

But now…

Holy shit. This woman is a four-digit freak?!

Hers was almost stunned stupid.

He moved at lightning speed, using the Authority of Theft to steal his own fate of being struck, then dumped it straight onto Ares.

At the sa ti, Ares, who knew perfectly well his "dear brother" would absolutely screw him over, activated his Authority of War without hesitation. Through the connection of the Twelve Olympians, he forcibly linked Hers into the battlefield of war.

The greatsword ca down.

The severing force was diverted, and Asura noticed imdiately.

She tried to re-lock onto her target, only to realize in shock that Hers and Ares were now linked. Attacking Hers ant attacking Ares as well.

For a mont, even the Queen of the Asura Race was dumbfounded.

Hit one person, and both feel it?

There's a deal like this?

At that point, Asura couldn't even be bothered to retarget. The karmic fire blade that severed all things and incinerated sin slashed straight down at Hers.

"Holy shit!"

With a scream, Hers was split cleanly in two on the spot.

Not just his body. His divinity, his spirit rank, even his Authority were all briefly severed.

On the other side, Ares shared the damage, but what he took was an attack from the karmic flas of condemnation.

As a god with a cruel divinity and spirit rank to begin with, colliding with Asura Fire caused the sins of war to backfire violently.

They split the damage evenly, yet both took critical hits right where it hurt the most.

If you tried to explain it with math, it was like saying 2 ÷ 2 = 4. A completely broken equation.

As the karmic flas burned him, Ares suddenly rembered sothing.

The current Queen of the Asura Race also possessed the Authority of "Good Luck." She could stockpile failures in ordinary tis, then release them all at once at a critical mont to achieve success far beyond the norm.

Combined with the Asura race's Authority of Severance, this chain of effects made anyone who fought her suffer horribly, often taking devastating damage right at the start.

And just now, if he hadn't tried to be clever and link Hers through war, he might not have been hurt at all. After all, Hers's move to redirect the attack would have failed.

Realizing this, even soone with the patience of a saint would lose it. And Ares had never been patient.

He cut the link instantly and roared in rage, "Damn you! Hers, you turtle bastard! Am I your father or sothing? You got nothing better to do than stab in the back?!"

But Hers didn't have ti to yell back.

At that mont, he realized he'd already fallen into Ryo Yagami's trap.

One half of the spirit rank that had been severed by Asura was now in Ryo's hands.

Hers grit his teeth, forcibly enduring the agony of his shattered spirit rank, and looked at Ryo with naked panic.

"Hey, hey, let's talk this out. Don't do anything crazy!"

Ryo's gaze was cold. In his right hand, gripping the spirit rank, pale blue flas ignited.

Praesepe Demonic Blue Flas (Sekishiki Kisōen)

An ultimate art that used the soul as fuel to unleash explosive power, the signature move of Gold Saint Cancer Manigoldo.

In Little Garden, souls were basically housed within one's spirit rank. The soul Ryo had drawn out with the Underworld Waves naturally existed in the form of a spirit rank.

Spirit Rank, as a ranking of life, was practically the origin of both soul and flesh in Little Garden. It was fundantal power.

Facing Hers, who had screwed him over before, Ryo didn't hesitate in the slightest. He burned the spirit rank in his hand and let the Demonic Blue Flas bloom.

Whoom—whoom—whoom!

Clusters of pale blue ghostfire ignited across the ga field. Fueled by Hers's spirit rank, the flas spread like starfire across the sky in an instant.

Ryo's eyes sharpened.

The ghostly flas imdiately shifted shape, transforming into enormous, spectral blue wolves.

Their essence was Hers's spirit rank, burned by Ryo's cosmos into ghostfire that incinerated both matter and soul.

Inspired by the wolf pack of Coyote Starrk, the Prira Espada, Ryo hastily modified the technique, manifesting the flas as a pack of wolves and granting them autonomous pursuit.

And because of that—

In the blink of an eye, Hers and Ares were surrounded by millions of blue wolves.

Every single one was born from the burning of Hers's spirit rank. Each carried the force of one of Ryo's strikes.

"AAAAAGH—!"

As his spirit rank burned, Hers clutched his head and scread.

The pain of having his very essence consud crushed his thoughts. His eyes bulged, bloodshot, hands clawing at his skull as he shrieked nonstop, utterly unable to think straight.

That shrill, duck-like wail made Ares's scalp crawl. His whole body trembled uncontrollably, and he nearly lost control of himself on the spot.

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