Hell Difficulty Tutorial Chapter 896 - A beautiful day

Now, instead of normal blue mana, a white and golden glow begins to crackle inside the vessel. It begins to run, making the ground under it shake with each step.

Nyssa ignores it entirely, even as it passes by her and almost steps on her. Her black hair moves in the gust of wind caused by the vessel’s passage, and each beat of her heart sends out another pulse of kinetic energy that raises her hair even further.

The drake roars and moves, crashing into my vessel, and at the exact same time, Nyssa and I charge each other.

My sword breaks under a single sweep of hers, so I turn the pieces into projectiles and shoot them at her. She dodges them by boosting herself with kinetic energy, but the projectiles turn in the air and follow after her. After just one swing, she changes direction and charges directly at me once again.

I duck and avoid her sword multiple times as she swings it through the air. I don't even bother trying to block it, focusing only on matching my speed to hers.

Once I gather enough mana, I imagine a rain of paper sheets, acting as placeholders for my mana. As they slide by each other, the air screams and sends a dozen slashes across the horizon at Nyssa.

The albino demon parries every single one of them with the back of her left hand, her arm fading into a blur. The attacks rain down to the sides and back of her, carving canyons into the mountains, even sending a few of them slamming into my vessel as it fights the drake.

Nyssa is currently faster than Tacita, and so am I, though neither of us possesses her incredible grace or fine control over our body movements. We move in sudden bursts of speed, clashing violently against each other with each pass.

I hold my body together through the careful usage of both kinetic energy and mana, knowing that even a single mistake will tear me apart. Nyssa binds her body together, which is the only thing allowing her to unleash the full output of her kinetic heart.

Everything works in sync: her blood strengthens her body and kinetic energy, while binding energy holds her together so she can push her strength even further and repeat the cycle.

The whole time, I keep feeling the extremely rich ambient mana, but I don't try to pull at it. Most of my focus and the constructs prepared through my new passive are continuing to deal with my Ignition Heart, which continues to beat with full force.

As my body breaks and takes damage, it restores itself just as quickly. I hold my blood inside the broken pieces, and due to my weak constitution, my body snaps back into place almost instantly. Leaving me to deal with my circuits and pathways, which always take longer to mend, but I can always reroute them just as quickly.

Where losing an arm would’ve previously caused an imbalance from the missing chunk of circuits, now it’s barely even a bother.

I grab my severed arm from the air. Golden flames burst from my skin as I put it back, and it reattaches itself. I release a burst of mana at Nyssa, but she parries and deflects it away.

I move in a blur under the drake’s legs. My vessel snaps around, punching at Nyssa as she pursues me. The demon avoids the attack, and the drake charges, pushing my vessel away.

Reaching me with a massive output of kinetic energy, Nyssa throws her sword at me. Threads of black mana weave over my arm, forming a sleeve that I use to catch the weapon and slash back at Nyssa, who doesn't even bother to dodge.

The sword hits her neck and stops dead, as if I had hit an iron wall. There is not so much as a single droplet of blood, nor a single sign of damage.

I dissolve the sleeve of black mana and let it boost my body, which breaks, heals, and avoids her attacks in a continuous cycle. I add kinetic energy to my movement, boosting myself lower to dodge under her high kick, then apply another burst to move to the side. I absorb my momentum so she can't predict my path, and then use one more boost to empower my next attack.

As my fist slams against her bound-together body, she returns the blow with her own punch. It explodes through my side, but before the droplets of blood can even scatter, my body heals, and I reroute the mana pathways in response.

In quick succession, I throw a burst of mana at her that evaporates everything around us. The rain of paper slashes begins again as the air screams, but walking through it all, Nyssa deflects the assault with ease.

High in the air, the web holding the sword twitches and stretches, but it holds.

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[Weave - lvl 49 > Weave - lvl 50]

The sword in the sky begins to bleed. Red blood flows down its white surface and drops to the ground, where it sizzles and pools like mercury.

Nyssa moves in a blur and grabs the blade of my empyrean mana sword as I move to stab it into her chest. Her fingers squeeze it, cracking the blade as a ridiculous amount of kinetic energy floods forth from her body.

Her heart, which had slowed to a single beat per minute, now begins to ramp up in speed, and each beat rattles everything in the area. Yet, as the beats increase their tempo, the gargantuan output of each heartbeat remains the same.

With bright red pupils, Nyssa looks at me, breaks the sword, and swings her arm. Seeing the strike coming, I don't even try to block it, choosing instead to teleport to the side.

Nyssa begins to walk forward, completely unbothered, and I look back at where I stood before. The area has been erased from the surface of the world without leaving so much as a shockwave, rubble, or dust. It is simply and quietly gone.

Each of her steps sends a portion of the kinetic energy she’s generated rippling through the ground like individual earthquakes. She begins to bleed from the corner of her lips as she reaches the blood pooled on the dirt. It rises into the air, forming a long, slim blade with a wide crossguard.

The halo over my head stops spinning and cracks. All the mana I’ve gathered explodes into the area in a torrential wave, only to immediately be pulled back toward me. It rests on my skin, sinks under it, and blinks once before turning black.

[Redistribution - lvl 82 > Redistribution - lvl 83]

The entirety of my mana disappears, turning black, as I continue to redistribute the generated thermal energy of my fully unleashed heart to feed it even more.

Then, I use all of it to power my movements while sliding as deep into thought acceleration as my new passive and abilities will allow me.

[Selective Adaptation - lvl 39 > Selective Adaptation - lvl 40]

[Selective Adaptation - lvl 40 > Selective Adaptation - lvl 41]

[Selective Adaptation - lvl 41 > Selective Adaptation - lvl 42]

My vessel teleports, appearing right behind my back while missing pieces, and with part of its mana exhausted. It shrinks in size, and as it does, it places its hands on my shoulders. I absorb all of that crackling mana, further feeding the black mana inside of me.

The built-up thermal energy that I find myself unable to quickly redistribute or hold inside explodes out of my back and shoulders through my exhaust nodes. It sets the area behind me on fire, even as I pull the golden flames back in close to me, keeping them gathered and ready to be used. It keeps pouring out and resting over me like a mantle of golden fire.

A sword made of black mana manifests in my hand. I concentrate further, strengthening it by remembering what Lissandra did to the mana I generated for her.

[Manifestation - lvl 64 > Manifestation - lvl 65]

[Manifestation - lvl 65 > Manifestation - lvl 66]

[Eclipse - lvl 77 > Eclipse - lvl 78]

The purity of your Empyrean Ichor has been increased!

26% > 28%

[Empyrean Lance - lvl 68 > Empyrean Lance - lvl 69]

Nyssa shoots ahead like a rocket, moving in a straight line, far too fast and with too much power for even her to control. She breaks through my attacks and barriers, passing by me as I dodge.

Almost before I can even turn around, she boosts herself toward me with the same immense strength and speed, entirely ignoring the G-forces that should be tearing her to pieces.

This time, I stand my ground. My body breaks and heals as I strengthen it with kinetic energy and mana, and our swords meet at the exact moment I absorb and channel all the kinetic force of her impact.

Even then, Nyssa continues to generate more and more, pushing me along as my legs slide over the ground.

Where her sword and mine collide, light flashes continuously in every conceivable hue. As her Primordial Blood reacts to my black mana, my sword seems to melt, parts of it heating to a blinding shade of white. Meanwhile, her white sword cracks, and her red blood creates flashes of crimson light that mix with the golden bursts from my blade.

The excess thermal energy shooting from my back increases as I stop converting the heat generated by my Ignition Heart into mana. Instead, I allow more thermal energy to vent directly from the exhaust nodes on my back. Like two jet engines firing from my spine, the flames narrow and concentrate, unleashing a high-pitched scream as I stop being pushed back, bringing us to a complete standstill.

My eyes feel like they’re going to melt in my skull as I watch my sword break in almost slow motion.

Nyssa moves to stab her sword through me, and for the first time, her binding energy reaches into the surrounding area, binding me to this space to stop me from teleporting away. It is much less elegant than Morwag’s use of binding energy, but it packs much more punch. I feel it clinging to me, even through my defensive layers, binding all my movements.

I watch her sword pierce into my chest, heading straight toward my heart, and in a final surge, I force my way through, leaving my bound flesh behind as I teleport away.

I reappear as far as I’m able to, reduced to a mere skeleton with only my hearts, eyes, and brain remaining in place. After a single heartbeat, just before I start to fall, my nerves, veins, tendons, flesh, and skin form over me once more. I modify my mana cycling, adapting to the missing parts of myself as they continue to regenerate. My mind feels sluggish from the way my blood regenerates so much more slowly.

As I take my second step, I use a portion of my mana to weave a pair of pants. By the time I take my third step, Nyssa crashes into the ground nearby like a meteor, having bulldozed through multiple mountains along the way.

Standing there and watching her fly through the air within my accelerated thoughts, I begin moving to face her attack, but at the same time, I feel a smile tugging at my lips.

Her black hair, red eyes, pale skin, and the sword she holds. The gray landscape, the gray sky, and that bright golden light framing her figure. All the heat I feel spreading through my chest and the tingling at the tips of my fingers. My ragged breaths, even though I don't need to breathe all that often. The cold thrill of fear spreading through my skin and the moments when I almost begin to shake with each near brush with death.

What a beautiful day.

Before Nyssa reaches me, my kinetic energy shoots downward, breaking deep into the ground and opening up the cavern I’ve located below. I boost myself toward it to avoid her attack, even as she spins around with the power of a supersonic engine strapped to her back.

Through the falling debris, I watch her follow me into the deep. One of my strongest stored arrays activates as I hit my triggers and supply it with all my mana.

Nyssa halts mid-air along with all the debris, while I fall and land on what appears to be a metallic bridge spanning over an enormous lake of lava.

Another array activates, draining all the heat from my heart and the surrounding area. And I concentrate it into a screaming golden flame that shoots directly toward Nyssa, turning everything around her to ash.