Just like Arthur, Evan was on high alert. In fact, all four of them were. Even while they spoke, their senses were heightened, every muscle tensed for the inevitable.
Arthur’s expanded spatial perception was proof enough of his vigilance.
Normally, he wouldn’t stretch it to cover an area exceeding 10 million square kilotres. But in this situation, with an opponent who could strike from any direction and at ridiculous speed, he had no choice.
The instant the enemy entered his range, Arthur intended to accelerate his ti to respond without delay.
Evan, too, remained cautious, his inventory trick a subtle but telling move. Beatrix and Artemisia were no less vigilant, had had already activated the SOS beacons their parents had given them—signals to alert their families in case of extre danger.
But these beacons didn’t deliver their signals instantaneously. The signals took ti to reach their destinations.
And Arthur had already considered another grim possibility: if their enemy had brought them to this world specifically to harvest their powers, it was likely they had taken asures to prevent external interference.
This could an suppressing the world’s presence from detection by other Deity Realm Existences—or even blocking the SOS signals from escaping entirely.
But they didn’t have the luxury of choice.
Arthur was relying on Jamie to pick up the signal he’d left behind on Aramis and co to their aid. Artemisia and Beatrix were placing their faith in their parents’ ability to track their distress signals and intervene.
In unspoken agreent, all of them had the sa goal.
Defeating the enemy wasn’t the plan.
Leaving aside the impossibility of that, their objective was simple: stall for ti. As long as they could.
To help them endure longer, Artemisia began casting buffs on the group using her Unique Skill.
As she worked, Evan posed an important question.
"You said he has multiple bodies, right? And Arthur’s already destroyed two. Wouldn’t destroying more just make things worse?"
Arthur turned to him, eyes narrowing.
"What do you an?"
"If his power is spread across multiple bodies, then reducing the number might let him concentrate more power into the ones that are left."
Arthur’s expression darkened at the suggestion. Artemisia froze as well, realizing the validity of Evan’s point.
Evan’s observation wasn’t unfounded. Both he and Arthur had sensed it—when they first arrived on this planet, their opponent’s destructive power had surged in intensity.
And when the second body attacked, Arthur noticed it held more destruction energy than the first.
Evan’s theory made sense: defeating the bodies might allow their opponent to consolidate his power.
But there was another, more unsettling possibility. The longer they remained in this empty, desolate world—a place clearly prepared for their adversary’s plans—the stronger their enemy seed to grow.
"What are our options, then?"
The response to Arthur’s question was NONE.
Attempting to seal their opponent’s bodies was one possibility, and Arthur knew techniques like the Eternal Prison he’d used on Ger.
But could he use it on a stronger opponent? What if he was interrupted mid-seal? Worse, what if multiple bodies attacked at once? They’d still have to eliminate one just to level the field.
And if the main body—assuming there was one—decided to join the fray? None of them wanted to imagine how that would play out.
Arthur tightened his grip on Lostvayne and spoke.
"If you’ve got any trump cards hidden, now’s the ti to use them."
Arthur’s warning wasn’t necessary—they all knew what was at stake.
Using the Divine Spark fragnts Arthur had given her for her experint as fuel for her Queen of Evolution skill activation, Artemisia activated an ability she reserved for dire situations like this.
Its effect was akin to Evan’s Limit Break which drew energy from the environnt to his base stat paraters.
Of course, it ca with a cost.
"This is going to hurt later. A lot."
Artemisia warned them as she used her ’Evolve Ally: Overdrive’ on the group.
—If we survive this, was the part of that statent she was unwilling to say aloud.
Just as Artemisia finished casting her buff, Arthur was about to suggest forming a defensive formation to cover all angles.
But the mont he opened his mouth, sothing entered his spatial perception range.
His gaze snapped instantly to the source, but before he could utter a word, a cascade of system notifications flooded his vision.
|You are in the presence of an Aspect of the Concept of Destruction. Your Pseudo-Authority of Destruction has temporarily been neutralized.|
|You are in the presence of an Aspect of the Concept of Ti. Your Pseudo-Authority of Ti has temporarily been neutralized.|
Shock coursed through him.
Arthur could feel ambient cosmic energy invading his body, surging into his soul, and wrapping itself around the Pseudo-Origin cores within him.
The energy constricted their power, preventing them from coming out and manifesting in the physical world.
His Pseudo-Authorities had been forcibly sealed!
Evan saw similar notifications appear before him.
|You are in the presence of an Aspect of the Concept of Destruction. Unique Skill: Blessing of Destruction has been Neutral̷̨͋̕i̶̖͇͋̈́̋ẓ̵̳͜͝ȅ̷͕͔̚d̸͖͚́̓̆!̸͇͇̗͆̀?̷̞̇#̵̬̜͔̂͐#̵̡͉̠͑͝|
|Error#504|
|The Authority within Unique Skill: Blessing of Destruction resists neutralization force.|
|Due to your Mortal Existence Realm, this force cannot be completely resisted.|
|Unique Skill: Blessing of Destruction: 2nd Activation has been neutralized.|
Evan’s Unique Skill had been bestowed upon him by a Higher-Dinsional Entity from the future, and whoever they were, their power was potent enough to resist the mysterious force neutralizing their abilities.
However, as a Mortal, Evan couldn’t escape its effects entirely. While the First Activation of his Skill—boosting his power by 300%—remained intact, the Second Activation, which allowed him to generate a Destructive Resonance field, was nullified.
For Beatrix, it was even worse. Her ti powers simply ceased to function.
There was no resistance, no delay—they just stopped working.
If Arthur, with his Pseudo-Authority, had been overpowered, then Beatrix, who wasn’t yet capable of comprehending laws or wielding Pseudo-Authorities, had no chance.
Arthur’s Ti Acceleration, powered by his Pseudo-Authority, had been shattered. His movents slowed, and the world around him seed to crawl.
When was the last ti Arthur had been utterly powerless against ti manipulation? He couldn’t recall.
The boy staggered, reeling from the agony of cosmic energy surging violently into his soul, and then a shadow materialized on the ground before him.
Just a mont ago, it had been at the very edge of his perception. Now, it was directly in front of him.
Arthur reacted purely on instinct.
Perhaps it was because Lostvayne was immune to the temporal force slowing his movents, but he managed to raise his right arm in ti, angling the sword diagonally to shield his chest and face.
And just as he did—
BAMM!!!
’Sothing’ struck him with overwhelming force.
Arthur couldn’t even register how he’d been attacked. All he knew was that in the next mont, his body was sent hurtling through the air.
Destructive flas scorched his skin, and pain flared in his upper arm as fractures cracked through his bones.
His body crashed into the ground, tumbling violently. But before he could even co to a stop, a hand seized him by the neck, hoisting him up only to slam him back into the ground with crushing force.
The impact cratered the earth, sending deep fissures rippling out for miles. Shockwaves from the attack blasted outward, flinging the other teenagers into the air. As they reeled, the one responsible for this carnage turned his gaze toward them and froze them in ti with a glance.
Then, without sparing them another thought, he turned back to Arthur.
Without hesitation, he stomped down on Arthur’s chest with his left foot, cracking his ribs and sending broken pieces of bone piercing into his lungs.
His right foot followed, slamming down on Arthur’s wrist, the sickening sound of bone breaking as he tried to force the boy to release Lostvayne.
Even now, Arthur held onto the sword with a death grip, refusing to let go.
’I can’t let him use that sword’s power. Not like what he did on Toverus.’
From the thoughts crossing the man’s mind as he crushed Arthur’s wrist, it was clear the man knew of Arthur’s exploits on Toverus, where he had partially ’Released’ Lostvayne’s power against the Angels.
That mory was enough to fuel his intent—he wasn’t about to let Arthur repeat such a feat against him.
But despite having destroyed every bone and muscle in Arthur’s wrist, Lostvayne didn’t leave Arthur’s hand.
It was as if the sword itself refused to be parted from its wielder.
’It matters not if he’s dead, anyway.’
Once again, there was zero hesitation in his movents as he ford his left hand into a blade, channelling cosmic destruction energy into it and driving it towards Arthur’s forehead.
On the back of his palm, a crimson sigil of cosmic energy ford, but just before his hand could pierce Arthur’s skull, Evan’s voice rang out.
"Spell Number 4: ABSOLUTE DEFENCE!"
In an instant, a dense shield of magic energy materialized, forming a barrier between Arthur and the incoming attack.
The man’s knifehand pierced into the barrier, but as his strike connected, his eyes widened in shock.
He leapt back a split second before the power of his own attack was hurled back at him, the counterforce erupting violently in his wake.
He wiped the blood dripping from his face and turned toward Evan, his eyes widening as they locked onto the book in the boy’s hands.
"What the?! He has a cosmic artifact too?!"
Clearly, the man believed Arthur was the only one in their group who possessed such a treasure. He couldn’t have known that Evan also had one.
It wasn’t his fault, really.
Since arriving in the past, Evan had only brought the artifact out of his inventory three tis. Even Arthur still had no idea Evan possessed it.
Having never witnessed any of those rare instances, the man was caught completely off guard.
Evan seized the mont of shock to act.
"Spell Number 13: Judgnt of the gods: Convergence!
Spell Number 9: Einherjar!"
In a flash, Evan’s Einherjar manifested, appearing at the sa ti that a colossal beam of destructive light descended from the skies.
The beam, moving at the speed of light, reached its target almost instantly.
But even at that speed, the man reacted. He raised his left hand and conjured a shield of cosmic energy in ti to block it.
The Einherjar charged forward, sword in hand, and swung its blade at him. But the man, unfazed, reached out with his free hand, caught the blade effortlessly, and released a pulse of destructive energy.
The power of his cosmic destruction blasted the Einherjar to pieces in an instant.
As the fragnts of the Einherjar dissipated, the man’s brow furrowed. Sothing felt off.
’These are spells, aren’t they?’
Indeed, from the Absolute Defence Evan had used to protect Arthur—despite shattering under the man’s overwhelming strength—to the Judgnt of the gods and the Einherjar, every single one of Evan’s attacks had been spells.
What puzzled the man was the lack of backlash on Evan’s part.
Normally, when a spell is broken, the caster suffers repercussions. But Evan was completely unscathed, already preparing to cast another spell.
A new magic circle ford in front of Evan—a Nuclear Magic circle, drawing in all the ambient magic power in the area.
But before it could activate, the man exerted his ti powers, halting the beam from above mid-descent.
In less than an instant, he closed the distance between them.
His left hand tore through the Nuclear Magic circle, shattering it like fragile glass.
Simultaneously, his right hand grabbed Evan’s left arm and twisted it sharply at the elbow. A sickening crack echoed through the air, and a storm of cosmic energy erupted behind the man.
Simultaneously, his left hand reached toward Evan’s neck, intent on seizing and crushing it without hesitation.
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