Chapter 114: Successor

Chapter 114: Successor

No words needed to be exchanged. From that single instant when their gazes met, Klein understood that Colin Iliad had reached the same conclusion as he had.

Without hesitation, Klein reversed the black cane embedded with many different gemstones and pointed it at himself.

In the next second, Klein’s body became like a pencil sketch meeting an eraser. Inch by inch, it was wiped away, rapidly disappearing from where he stood.

This was the power of Concealment, also from Arianna, the leader of the Evernight Church’s ascetics.

Because the Concealment power reproduced through the Staff of the Stars was certainly much weaker than the original, and because the evil spirit opposite them possessed an extremely high status, Klein did not attempt to use it on the Dark Angel Sasrir. He chose himself as the target.

While he was being concealed, Colin Iliad, holding two straight swords of dawn, merged into the faint light that illuminated everything within the shadow palace.

Around the Dark Angel Sasrir, who wore the black robe threaded with silver, one silver edge after another lit up, slashing at the evil spirit from different places and different angles. They almost formed a tornado sweeping upward. Throughout this process, Colin Iliad, in his giant form, did not appear at all, and he effectively concealed his malice, making it impossible for the enemy to judge where his next attack would come from.

Derrick Berg recovered from his shock and hurriedly condensed one pure-white, blazing Spear of No Darkness after another, throwing them wildly.

Amid crackling sounds, those Spears of No Darkness were either blocked by black plates formed from the aura of degeneration, or canceled out by silver-white lightning spheres wrapped in layers. They failed to truly injure the Dark Angel Sasrir, but they effectively interfered with His movements.

While the two demigods of the City of Silver entangled that special evil spirit, Klein, still in a concealed state, approached the iron-black throne.

In a concealed state, everything he saw in reality was covered by a dark, hazy fog. He could only roughly tell where he was and what the objects around him were. He could not exert influence on the outside world. If not for that limitation, becoming concealed and secretly manipulating Sasrir’s Spirit Body Threads would have been a nearly unsolvable method.

After swiftly approaching the iron-black throne, Klein ended the maintenance of the concealed state, letting his figure instantly emerge to the right of the target.

Then he pointed the Staff of the Stars at that ancient grayish-white slate.

Without sparing a glance at the contents written on it, Klein swiftly sketched in his mind a Beyonder power with which he was extremely familiar.

Rumble!

Silver-white electric serpents leapt out one after another, carrying a strong aura of destruction as they densely struck the first Blasphemy Slate.

This was Lightning Storm from the Sea God Scepter!

Rumble!

Within the silver-white light that illuminated the nearby area, one illusory, nearly invisible “ray” after another appeared between the first Blasphemy Slate and the Dark Angel Sasrir. They were difficult to describe in color. Beneath the tearing force of the terrifying thunder, they evaporated one after another, snapping apart in succession.

Pure rays of light then erupted from Sasrir’s body, leaving not even the slightest trace of darkness in the entire shadow palace, leaving nowhere for anything to hide.

Domain of No Darkness.

Colin Iliad’s nearly six-meter-tall figure in silver armor appeared. Together with Klein, he was forcibly pushed into the distance by ring after ring of blazing light. Derrick’s attacks, whether Spears of No Darkness or Solar Flares, were likewise stopped by those solid rings of light.

Immediately afterward, both of the Dark Angel Sasrir’s eyes turned brass-colored, and within each appeared an illusory river flickering with rippling light. The river encircled the region between the first Blasphemy Slate and His own figure.

The “water” then flowed from downstream back upstream. The illusory “rays” that had evaporated and snapped reappeared, reconnecting one after another.

The damage Klein had so painstakingly created was quickly restored to its original state.

The cycle of fate. The reset of all things!

Sasrir raised His left hand and condensed a deep-black scepter. With eyes like cast brass, He swept His gaze over the demigods present and spoke in a low voice that carried a sense of magnificence.

“I am the Omniscient. I am also the Omnipotent.”

As His voice echoed, neither Klein nor Colin Iliad wavered. One blinked; the other moved at high speed, refusing to give that terrifying evil spirit a chance to lock on to them, while each attempted to begin a new round of attacks. However, Klein did not dare forcibly drag the Dark Angel into a dream again. If he suffered another impact from the aura and power of the Chaos Sea, there was a very real chance he would lose control outright. On the other side, Derrick allowed a layer of sacred armor condensed from pure light to cover his body.

At that moment, pitch-black flames ignited inside Sasrir’s brass-colored eyes.

His voice became strange and wicked, carrying an intense sense of degeneration.

“Blasphemer, die!”

Klein’s body, mind, and spirit abruptly sank. He felt as though he were rapidly dying. His consciousness blurred, his energy evaporated, and his flesh “withered” inch by inch.

Colin Iliad fared somewhat better. He merely felt his body become heavy and his life force flow away unstoppably. The madness inherent to his incomplete Mythical Creature form grew stronger and stronger.

Derrick, who was the farthest from the Dark Angel Sasrir, had rays of brilliant sunlight burst from within him, helping him quickly escape the dazed state. He opened his mouth and declared,

“God says: ineffective!”

The sensation of death immediately faded a little. Klein and Colin Iliad barely found themselves again.

Thud, thud, thud!

The giant-like Colin Iliad charged wildly toward the Dark Angel Sasrir, constantly shifting position along the way, avoiding one unstoppable dark edge after another.

In the blink of an eye, he had closed in on the target.

The Dark Angel Sasrir immediately pointed the pitch-black scepter forward, causing Colin Iliad’s body to drag a shadow through the Domain of No Darkness. That shadow came alive and began “devouring” its way up the Chief of the City of Silver’s legs.

Dong!

A faraway bell toll echoed, as though penetrating history itself.

The phantom of the mottled, ancient stone clock appeared in front of Klein once more, bringing with it a brief stagnation.

Seizing that instant, Klein used the Staff of the Stars to reproduce a Spear of No Darkness and threw it toward Colin Iliad’s shadow.

Scorching, resplendent light erupted at once, driving that shadow away like the sun.

The face hidden behind Colin Iliad’s visor distorted, but he did not hesitate in the slightest. He suddenly leapt, rising above the Dark Angel Sasrir, and savagely chopped downward with his two straight swords of dawn.

Clang!

Sasrir seemed to have seen through Colin Iliad’s intention. He raised the pitch-black staff horizontally and blocked the downward cleave.

Suddenly, Colin Iliad’s body melted.

He transformed into thick, heavy mercury, surging downward like a tide. In an instant, he drowned the Dark Angel Sasrir, making the other seem as though He had been clad in a silver suit of full-body armor—one that left not the slightest gap, a suit of silver armor that sought to suffocate its wearer.

Sasrir’s movements were immediately restrained.

Klein seized that chance. His figure instantly turned transparent and appeared beside the iron-black throne.

Teleportation!

Then he raised the Staff of the Stars in his hand and manifested a certain Beyonder power inside his mind.

It was one of the core powers of the Marauder pathway:

Theft!

As Klein had expected, this Theft proceeded unusually smoothly, almost as if the current Sequence 2 Pallez Zoroast himself had acted.

The “rays” connecting the Dark Angel and the first Blasphemy Slate detached from Sasrir one after another and transferred to Klein!

In that instant, Klein’s thoughts nearly exploded. Once again, before his eyes appeared that utterly illusory sea whose color and form defied description, a sea that seemed to hold every secret.

Just as he was about to lose control under the impact of the Chaos Sea’s aura and power, the portions of his body that had been eroded by the True Creator suddenly stirred. They seemed to be drawn by an intense attraction, rapidly gathering together and beginning to take over those nearly invisible, illusory “rays.” Klein’s step halted at the edge of the cliff.

As expected… Klein sighed inwardly while doing his utmost to gather his shaken mind. For a short while, he was unable to move.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

One dark crack after another appeared across the silver “armor” covering the Dark Angel Sasrir.

The radiance from the Blade of Flesh and Spirit pierced out, leaving that mass of mercury torn and riddled with holes before flinging it far away.

With a slap, the mercury landed on the ground and reformed as Colin Iliad.

The Chief of the City of Silver now had one hole after another across his body. Within each was frozen a black, degenerate, illusory aura.

At that moment, Sasrir’s figure, with layer upon layer of illusory black wings growing from His back, had become much dimmer. His eyes turned brass-colored once more, and within them faint illusory rivers flickering with light began to take shape.

When Colin Iliad saw this, he instinctively recalled what had happened before.

Almost at the same moment that thought flashed through his mind, he charged forward by intuition—firm, unwavering, without the slightest tremor.

Transparent flames leapt up across his body, giving off bright dawnlight.

Those rays came from his soul, from his flesh, from his Beyonder characteristics. They fused with the two straight swords he swung, transforming into a surging, savage, violent storm that swept forward.

At that moment, within Colin Iliad’s “eyes” there was only the dawn radiance he had created, and that towering figure in a splendid black robe with illusory black wings growing from his back.

He carried the light, faced the light, and “ran” toward Sasrir.

The terrifying Storm of Light enveloped the Dark Angel in an instant, tearing at His body and interrupting the Beyonder power He was about to use. Losing the power sustaining Him and with His status clearly reduced, the evil spirit rapidly faded amid fragment after fragment of light.

When the radiance dissipated, holes had appeared one after another across the surface of the Dark Angel Sasrir’s body. The layers of wings behind Him were partly unfurled, but no power was borrowed through them.

Colin Iliad then once more turned into thick mercury and covered most of the evil spirit’s body, firmly restricting His movements.

Then, just as the Chief of the City of Silver had done earlier when facing Lovia, he called to Derrick Berg in a deep voice:

“Attack!”