Chapter 83: Unraveling Reality 2
Arthur’s body exploded in lightning as the tips of his hair turned blue and rose like they were charged by electricity, and his eyes gained a blue hue.
Before, only the very tips of his hair changed color and the outer parts of his irises, but now the blue reached halfway to his roots, and the blue in his eyes now dyed half of his red irises.
During his and Valerian’s travel to the orphanage, he had greatly increased his mastery over his [Skill]. And while he couldn’t keep it active for too long, staying in the transformation for 30 seconds without backlash was possible.
The blue lightning thrashed out at the stadium around him, destroying more of the stone floor. The tendrils of darkness were destroyed by the release of the large amount of lightning, and now Arthur was free and ready to engage once more.
Seraphine, on the other hand, had now fully healed herself with her Life affinity and her [Unique Skill] supporting her.
The glow in her eyes disappeared and her expression showed the strain from using [Reality Weaver], but she didn’t have the luxury to catch her breath as Arthur dashed towards her, now augmented by [Lightning God’s Descent].
She didn’t waste any time and covered her body in a thin layer of wind to eliminate the air resistance. She poured her mana into her legs and pushed off the ground backwards to create distance between them.
But Arthur was faster, and he was closing the distance faster than she could build it. But Seraphine didn’t give up, and while she tried to create distance, she sent out elemental attacks.
Missiles made from orange fire, blades forged from darkness, and invisible blades made from compressed wind all bombarded Arthur in an attempt to make him stop chasing her.
But Arthur’s speed was just too great, and he effortlessly weaved between all the attacks without losing his speed.
An earth wall rose from the ground right in front of him, but instead of dodging it, he just coated himself in a layer of lightning and burst through the wall like a battering ram.
But Seraphine never intended to use the wall to stop him; it only had one job, and it did it flawlessly. Because as the wall broke down, in that small moment, Arthur lost vision of her.
An entire maze was erected in the span of a second. The walls reached several meters high and looked even sturdier than the one from before. And it didn’t stop there, an earth layer began to close off the ceiling, drowning the maze in darkness.
’As if I would allow that!’
Blue lightning crackled in his hand, and he raised it high in the air, ready to destroy the ceiling and fly out of the maze.
But as he was about to release the lightning, his senses screamed at him to dodge. And if his time in the Voidwoods taught him anything, then it was to trust his senses.
Arthur dodged to the side, and the place where he was standing before was now pierced by darkness spikes.
As Arthur found his footing again, he channeled his mana into his hands, and an orange flame appeared. At the same time, the blue in his hair disappeared and was replaced by orange as embers fell from his hair.
[Fire God’s Descent]
Switching to his other [Elemental Ascension] form, Arthur released the fire in his hands in an inferno of orange fire.
The darkness around him disappeared, and the stone walls of the maze broke down as they got consumed by the fire.
Seraphine stood outside the maze and clicked her tongue.
’Tsk, whatever ability this guy is using, it’s powerful. Lightning seems to be speed, and fire is explosive force. It will be bad if he has more elements to use. But he still hasn’t noticed...’
The fire consumed the maze whole and blasted away all the stone walls, creating sharp shrapnel that flew through the air.
When he finally stood in the daylight again, the whole arena was covered in heavy smoke and dust, reducing his vision. He whipped his head in the direction where he felt Seraphine’s mana signature.
He readied his twin daggers as he felt her approaching fast, and soon her form broke through the wall of smoke with both her longswords covered in a layer of light that acted as both a searing source of heat and a flashing light that blinded Arthur’s eyes.
But this time Arthur was ready for the light and created a slab of stone in front of his eyes to block it out.
The weapons met, and Arthur released a large amount of fire mana through his daggers. A small shield made from stone and reinforced by her water appeared in front of her, but it only managed to reduce the fire by a little as her body got burned once more.
She was blasted back a few meters. Her eyes lit up again as she weaved her [Unique Skill] into her Life affinity to heal her wounds.
But Arthur didn’t let her and closed the distance. Soon, it became an exchange of dozens, then hundreds of blows with their weapons.
Arthur’s rank was higher, as well as all his physical stats, and Seraphine was still injured as the burn wounds hadn’t yet healed.
But still, she kept up with Arthur. Her status as [Loved by Mana] and [Pride of Eldoria], which declared her as the greatest talent of Eldoria, gave her an unreal amount of mana control.
Paired with her high intellect and obsession with magic, she had long perfected body enhancement with mana, creating a 0% mana waste on the enhancement. Instead of the normally small amount of enhancement the technique gives to normal people, her body enhancement let her compete with Arthur, who by all means should be stronger and faster than her.
But that wasn’t all. During every exchange, her eyes lit up as she momentarily activated her [Unique Skill] to alter reality and give her an edge.
Arthur was getting frustrated by now. He should have won long ago; he was stronger, he was faster, and he had more battle experience. But for whatever attack he let loose, Seraphine always had an answer, while also plotting for the next three of his attacks.
Every time he attacked with one of his elements, she always countered with her own, nullifying his attempts to overpower her with magic.
But there was still one thing he hadn’t used yet, one affinity he hadn’t used in the tournament. The affinity he got after finishing his system quest.
Void.
Void was a conceptual affinity like time, space, or fate. And as such, it was extremely rare, to a point that the known Void users could be counted on two hands. Needless to say, the information about the Void affinity was very scarce.
During their time in the Voidwoods, Arthur used it a few times, but every one of those times it ended with Valerian having to knock him out, as he couldn’t control the affinity.
’But she can’t die, right? So it should be fine.’
With the barrier cast by the strongest being on the planet protecting the students and preventing them from dying, he could surely let loose this dangerous affinity without being afraid to accidentally kill someone.
Dodging Seraphine’s longsword, Arthur pivoted his body backwards. In the same motion, he backflipped and created distance between them.
After retreating a few meters, Arthur and Seraphine stood across from each other. Their appearances couldn’t be more different.
Arthur was without a single injury as he dodged every single attack Seraphine let loose on him. He stood tall with his daggers hanging at his side.
Seraphine, on the other hand, was exhausted. The strain from using her [Unique Skill] was catching up to her as her eyes went in and out of focus. Her body was riddled with smaller cuts, and the parts of her light armor that were burned by Arthur’s fire laid her perfect, pale ivory skin bare.
The cuts began to heal as a soft green glow covered her injuries, but healing them only further emptied her already low mana after having to enhance herself for the entire fight, as well as casting large-scale elemental spells.
But she didn’t falter. She didn’t collapse or even let her head fall down for a centimeter, as her pride kept her standing. Her eyes burned not with her [Unique Skill], but with a fire and determination to win.
Arthur closed his eyes for a moment and let out his breath. When his mind calmed, he reached out to the Void affinity.
When he extended his arm to it, it immediately rushed out of him, not caring about what he wanted or how much mana he wanted to use.
From his body, a wave of pitch-black came gushing out. It didn’t flow like water or burn like fire. It consumed everything around him like a drop of ink in water.
Everything the Void touched, that object disappeared into the void. The stone underneath him, the dust in the air, and even the space around him all got consumed by the Void.
Seraphine backed away from the spreading nothingness.
’Now!’
Unbeknownst to Arthur, who was still too immersed in trying to restrain the Void, a rune on his calf lit up in a purple light.
As the rune activated, it rapidly sucked in all the mana in the surroundings. Even the Void that was trying to spread got sucked into the rune that was hidden on Arthur’s leg.
’Wh- what?!’
The Void that had been previously devouring the space around him was suddenly sucked into his calf. Even the atmospheric mana wasn’t spared as the rune began to glow brighter and brighter.
Seraphine didn’t miss her chance as she ran towards Arthur with all her body could muster up. She didn’t use her mana enhancement, as she knew what would happen if she did.
But Arthur didn’t, and so when he heard steps approaching him fast, he opened his core to enhance his body. But that was when the rune lit up even more and began to suck out the mana from his core directly.
’Wha-’
He had no time to think as Seraphine was already on him and had her longswords aimed for his neck.
Ignoring the sucking on his core, Arthur raised both his daggers and matched Seraphine’s attack head-on.
The weapons collided, and before either blade could cut, the barrier activated.