The Author's POV Chapter 855 The Last Battle – What Is An End Is Also A Beginning [2]



BOOOM—!

My memory blanks out after the surroundings shattered and a thunderous explosion echoed.

Something slammed into my frame, hurling me far from my original spot in an instant.

Events unfolded at breakneck speed, leaving me no chance to react. 

Despite that, no agony struck me. Pain was absent, and detecting a presence to my right, I whipped my head around and slashed my finger through the void. 

Crack! 

A rift split the space beside me, exposing a pale hand lurking behind it.

Yet right as it threatened to widen, the void warped, shoving the rift meters ahead.

The hand emerged indeed, but grasped only empty air. 

Gripping my sword, the area near the hand warped, birthing a sword image that sliced the atmosphere toward the vulnerable hand. 

Regrettably, I was a fraction too slow, for the hand retreated before my strike connected. 

Swoosh—! A faint gust whispered through the air, prompting me to glance rightward. A vague sensation tugged there, though its nature eluded me. 

'Ah, I see.' 

Harnessing the laws surging in my veins and flicking my hand, the space ahead crumpled like folded parchment, letting a ray traverse both extremities of the crease. 

The spectacle was utterly strange, yet growing attuned to the laws revealed their boundless potential… 

Control over all seemed within grasp. 

"You're quite good at handling the laws. I've never seen him use them before, so how did you manage to pick up on them so fast?" 

A soft voice brushed my ear, jerking my head back sharply.

Jezebeth's head peeked from the fissure, his scarlet eyes sparkling with intense glow. Moments later, my form locked rigid, and Jezebeth fully emerged. 

Stepping from the rift, over a thousand holographic duplicates of him flooded my sight. 

'The chip is useless…'

Attempting to predict his next move via muscle analysis and gaze tracking aided by my implanted chip proved futile against this foe, as its limitations swiftly revealed themselves. 

This held true for nearly every other ability I possessed. 

[Monarch Indifference], [The One], [Memory Manipulation], [Dark Servant], [Eyes of Chronos]…  None functioned any longer. 

Only my raw powers and grasp of the laws remained viable now. 

"Don't struggle… Let this be the end of my torment." 

A digit glided through the ether toward my brow's center. Its pace appeared languid, yet I recognized its unfathomable velocity. 

"I'm sorry, but I'll have to disappoint." 

Shattering the binds on my form proved simple. 

Clank. Clank. Clank. 

Scales sprouted across my skin, sheathing half my visage, while wings unfurled from my back, and demonic energy exploded outward from my core.

Since the force pinning and ravaging me was demonic energy itself, unleashing my own demonic reserves countered it effectively, breaking free and dodging his probing finger by a hair.

"Hm?" 

The explosive demonic surge caught Jezebeth off guard, rendering him speechless momentarily. 

"Did you…" 

His gaze scanned me thoroughly, lips twitching upward as he processed the revelation. 

"To go this far… I don't know whether to call you stupid, or be impressed with your actions." 

Jezebeth's crimson gaze flared vividly, igniting my blood's fury. Crushing weight assailed every fiber, blackening my vision's periphery. 

"Uakh." 

Unbearable torment wracked me, drawing a pained grunt as I fought to withstand it. 

Swoosh—! 

He materialized directly before me. 

"I couldn't sense it before since 'he' managed to hide it well, but now that I see you in front of me, I'm starting to wonder what exactly went through your head when you decided to ingest demonic blood into your body… are you not aware of the fact that I can suppress just about any bloodline that exists?" 

Words came with effort, yet I replied to him. 

"I, I know…," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. 

His implication was clear, but necessity and thirst for unadulterated might drove my choice—a perilous gamble I held no remorse for. 

Jezebeth arched a brow in astonishment while fixing his stare on me. 

"You see…," I said, as I lifted my head up and looked him straight in the eye.

"Not just the fragments did I seize from the Seven heads after slaying them."

Their blood was taken by me too. Without that precaution, I foresaw an outcome exactly like this unfolding. 

Bringing my hands together, I caused the space over and under Jezebeth to warp and shake. Out of nowhere, two massive palm projections materialized, poised to crush Jezebeth right then. 

WAAAAANG—! Caught off guard by the abrupt assault, Jezebeth clenched his fist, erecting a protective barrier around himself. 

Opening my palms wide, the projections mirrored the motion precisely, copying my every move. 

Concentrating on his enclosing barrier, I slowly twisted my hands and performed a compressing gesture. The projections reacted accordingly, bearing down on his shield from above and below.

Cr— Crack!

Under the projections' relentless force, fissures began emerging on Jezebeth's surrounding barrier. 

"Akhhh…"

Grinding my teeth, I stifled my groan with all my might. 

Agonizing torment coursed through me as I channeled all my strength into the projections clamping onto his orbiting barrier. 

Mana, Demonic energy… Everything got infused into them, and briefly, it seemed effective, yet the fissures on the barrier soon began mending, prompting me to bite down harder. 

"…Still not enough?" 

Fine… 

All at once, intricate golden runes surfaced on the projections' fingers, sending unprecedented agony rippling through my body. Enduring it, I unleashed all I possessed into the projections. Fissure upon fissure spiderwebbed across the barrier, growing relentlessly. 

"Uaaaakh!!!"

Crack. Crack. Crack.

At last, the fissures around the barrier widened dramatically, revealing Jezebeth's shifting expression inside. 

Yet it proved too late. 

Cra— Crash—! The barrier exploded into countless shards scattering through the heavens, while the projections slammed into Jezebeth's form. Moments later, a swirling nebula of leftover energy billowed outward, surging toward me rapidly. 

"Haaa… haaa…" 

Breathing grew labored for me, with vast amounts of energy draining from my body right then, but gazing at Jezebeth's former spot, hope stirred within... hope that maybe I'd finally achieved a breakthrough.

That hope faded swiftly, though. 

As the lingering energy dispersed and the skies cleared, despair gripped my heart.

Suspended in the air stood Jezebeth himself, appearing utterly unchanged from before.

His gaze remained serene, his skin tone identical, his attire and armor pristine. His pristine state suggested nothing had transpired, tightening my throat as my heart plummeted. 

'W… what? How?'

Denial overwhelmed me. Nearly all my reserves had been expended in that strike, yet despite my utmost efforts, he stood utterly unscathed? 

H… how could I come to terms with it? 

"Uh?" 

Right before utter hopelessness consumed me, a faint stream caught my eye trailing down his mouth's edge. 

Black like blood, it appeared. 

...The instant it flowed, Jezebeth's face drained of color sharply, his hand flying to his lips.

"Pftt."

Hide it he tried, but failed miserably, and there I saw dark blood seeping through his fingers' crevices.

A thrill raced through my heart then, erasing prior doubts. Evidently, my strike had indeed impacted him. 

"Good." 

Clenching my fist, I summoned every ounce of power inside me. 

With success confirmed, pressing on was essential. Body be damned.