Chapter 404: To The Hero In Black
There was no light within the Endless Dark. The only sources of illumination came from the crimson glow radiating from Dark Nova’s eyes and the purple light emanating from Ethan’s own.
And even under two hundred times normal gravity, Norman was still fighting back.
His fist slammed repeatedly into Ethan’s face. Each blow struck with tremendous force, causing blood to continuously spill from Ethan’s mouth and nose as his head snapped backwards with every impact.
But Ethan refused to let go of his arms that locked firmly around Dark Nova’s body while gravity continued accelerating their descent.
Then Dark Nova changed his approach and drove his fingers into Ethan’s eye.
"ARGHHH!" Ethan screamed as Norman’s fingers sank further, effectively blinding that eye.
Ethan’s grip instinctively loosened slightly as Norman drew his right fist back, preparing to strike Ethan again.
Before he could, a hand caught his arm.
Nina had suddenly appeared within the darkness, locking both hands around Norman’s right arm and pulling it away from Ethan.
Dark Nova immediately extended his left arm to attack her, but King Arthur appeared from the darkness, seizing Norman’s left arm with both hands.
Under normal circumstances, neither summon should have been capable of locating them anymore.
Ethan and Dark Nova had already descended so deeply into the Endless Dark that even if Nina and Arthur had immediately followed their Summoner inside, there was no realistic way for them to determine his location within the endless expanse.
But this realm belonged to Dark Bella. She could sense everything moving through her darkness, and more importantly, she could determine where those entering it emerged.
So, rather than allowing Nina and Arthur to blindly pursue Ethan through the Endless Dark, she had directly inserted both summons at his current location.
And now, with Ethan still locked around Dark Nova’s body, Nina restraining his right arm and Arthur holding firmly onto his left, all four continued sinking deeper into the darkness.
Norman’s situation became more dire as he screamed.
Red lightning erupted throughout his body, immediately coursing into everyone holding onto him. Nina and Arthur gritted their teeth in pain as the electricity tore through them, but none of them released his arms. Ethan suffered considerably less from the attack due to his own affinity towards lightning, allowing him to maintain his hold around Norman’s body.
However, Dark Nova wasn’t merely generating lightning.
The Wrath of Anos was continuously gathering around him, the increasing concentration of red lightning building towards the omnidirectional shockwave he had used several times throughout their battle.
At this distance, the attack was certain to disperse all three of them.
The red lightning grew increasingly strong and violent around his body until it suddenly went out.
Dark Nova’s eyes widened as the lightning disappeared completely. Even the crimson glow that had persisted within his eyes throughout the battle had faded away.
"No..." Norman whispered.
This was the first sign that Isabella’s plan was beginning to work.
They had plunged so deeply into the Endless Dark that Norman’s existence had begun to obscure from the outside world. The Absolute Concealment was gradually hiding him from the very deities whose blessings had been empowering him.
And the first connection to disappear was the one linked to the God Of Wrath, Anos.
Norman suddenly heard Atia’s voice within his thoughts.
[Norman...]
But even that whisper gradually faded until he could no longer hear her as they continued sinking.
Ethan noticed another change in that moment that Norman’s body was weakening.
The bulging muscles that had expanded considerably under the effects of his Complete State of Resonance gradually contracted, and the tremendous physical strength Ethan had been struggling against was disappearing along with them.
In a matter of moments, Norman had fallen from possessing strength comparable to an Extraordinary-ranked Grand Class to somewhere only slightly above the SS-Rank.
The difference became even more apparent under the two-hundredfold gravity surrounding them.
Norman’s weakened body was now struggling heavily against the pressure, and the resistance Ethan felt within his grip had reduced tremendously.
Ethan then loosened from around Norman, but it wasn’t to let him go.
He simply needed to adjust his body properly as he drew his right arm backwards, generating purple lightning gathered around his hand.
Then he thrust it forward, plunged directly through Norman’s chest.
Norman’s body jolted from the impact as Ethan’s fingers closed around his heart. And with one violent pull, Ethan ripped it out.
Norman’s body went lifeless as his arms fell limp. Nina and Arthur immediately released their grips, letting the corpse fall continually into the Endless Dark.
Ethan let go as well.
He hovered there, staring down as Norman’s body became smaller within the darkness before eventually disappearing completely from sight.
Only one of Ethan’s eyes still carried its purple glow. The other was an empty, bloodied socket.
He was breathing heavily, trying to catch his breath from everything that had happened.
This was definitely the most difficult battle he had fought so far.
Compared to his battle against Audrey a few months ago, this had been significantly harder.
Audrey had been overwhelmingly powerful, but there had been limits to the effective range of her abilities. Additionally, she had practically done herself in when she used the very skill that temporarily aged Ethan into the most powerful state he had ever attained.
In the end, the aftereffects of her own abilities had eventually killed her.
Norman’s case was different.
The bastard was nearly indestructible. They had thrown practically everything they could at him and still failed to inflict enough damage to actually put him down.
Frankly, if it hadn’t been for Isabella, Ethan wasn’t even certain they would have succeeded.
Even entering a Full Dragon Transformation would not have made enough of a difference.
His current Full Transformation was nowhere near as powerful as the version Audrey’s aging ability had temporarily allowed him to attain months ago.
At the present state of his physiology, the primary advantage of transforming fully was the enormous increase it provided to the scale of his abilities.
The range of his power would increase significantly.
But the actual strength behind that power remained at the same level he currently possessed.
And right now, the last thing Ethan needed was more scale.
The battle had already spread far beyond the Stark Estate, with the destruction reaching dangerously close to city parts of Grayforte.
—
Above...
Dark Bella watched over the vast darkness spread across the ground, having a satisfied smile on her face.
Carson stared at her before glancing towards the darkness. "Is it done?"
She nodded. "It’s done."
——
A/N:
For those who may have forgotten, Reference back Chapter 132 and Chapter 175 to understand the backstory to how Bettie became a Dark One.
Special Thanks To Mr GreenArrow For that Castle Gift. God bless you🥺
I’ll be making an update to the bonus Chapters accrued in the next set of uploads.
Ah yes, Rate The Arc guys!