Chapter 403: The Plan In Effect
Everyone immediately got into position.
Dark Nova had just entered the range of Ethan’s electromagnetic field as his body rapidly ascended while disturbing the iron-bearing minerals spread throughout the surrounding earth, allowing Ethan to track his movement through their reactions.
Ethan then extended his right arm towards the tunneled ground and used his Aspect of Charge to bend the shape of the Iron-bearing materials within Norman’s path, forming countless metallic needles beneath the earth that pierced his sides from every direction as he ascended.
But Dark Nova’s near-indestructible body simply tore through the needle-like drills one after another as the crimson streak continued upwards, barely losing any speed.
Suddenly, a nearby section of the battlefield exploded as Dark Nova burst through the ground rather than returning through the tunnel Ethan had previously created, sending enormous chunks of rock and debris flying high into the air.
He had those glowing eyes, with red lightning coursing around his body as he floated a few meters above the crater.
This time, there was visible damage from Ethan’s earlier attack.
Blood streamed down one side of Norman’s head, several portions of his uniform had been burned and charred away, while dirt and blackened smudges covered parts of his face. His body still carried the effects of being struck with enough force to send him more than twenty-five kilometres beneath the earth.
Beilong and Titania hovered at separate positions high above, their enormous bodies circling the devastated landscape. Arael was airborne at another corner, while Ishtar, Nina and King Arthur had gathered closer to the others on the ground.
Carson stood several metres ahead with his sword raised towards the Hero in Black.
And behind him were Ethan and Isabella.
The King stared furiously at Norman. He didn’t bother demanding an explanation for what the Hero had just done to his daughter. And Norman equally made no attempt to address the King’s presence or explain his actions.
Things had already gone beyond that point. Moreover, Norman hardly seemed interested in Carson at all.
His glowing red eyes stared directly upon Isabella as the rage in his expression intensified.
He felt like he was failing in the duty currently dominating his thoughts; the duty to eliminate the Evil Goddess standing before him.
Isabella stared back at him for a moment, then her lips slowly curved into a devious grin.
Somehow, that single expression was enough to push Dark Nova into action. Red lightning erupted around his body as he shot forward at top speed, heading directly towards Dark Bella.
Her figure immediately dissolved into a mass of shadows that swept away from his approaching grasp, slipping across the ground and through the different structures scattered throughout the ruined landscape.
Dark Nova pursued her relentlessly as everyone else attacked almost immediately.
Titania and Beilong released their dragon breaths from the skies, forcing Norman to weave between the descending torrents as he continued his pursuit. Arael’s projectiles came from another direction, crossing through his path one after another, while Ishtar released several blasts of greenish energy towards him.
Ethan, Carson and the remaining summons joined the assault as well.
Attacks came from virtually every direction. However, Dark Nova continued moving through them.
Some were avoided entirely, others were deflected away, while the few that threatened to directly interrupt his pursuit were outrightly countered before he continued after Isabella.
But despite how relentless the assault appeared, there was a deliberate lack of backbone behind it. Some attacks even created cleaner openings for Norman to continue his pursuit.
It was intentional as they needed Dark Nova to believe they were still seriously trying to fight him. Every blast, projectile and attempted interception existed to maintain that appearance while Isabella continued moving through the shadows ahead of him.
Because the entire plan depended upon Norman continuing to chase her. More specifically, they also needed him close to the ground.
Dark Bella swept between the shadows as a writhing black mass, continuously drawing Norman lower as he pursued her across the devastated landscape.
Then Dark Bella’s upper body rose from the shadows while the darkness making up the rest of her form spread extensively across the ground beneath her.
Norman saw his opportunity and accelerated even further, stretching his hand towards Isabella as the distance disappeared almost instantly.
But just before his fingers could reach her, a burst of smoke appeared directly above him as Ethan materialized with his arms already spread wide and immediately wrapped them around Dark Nova from above.
Norman barely had the opportunity to react. And in that same instant, Ethan dragged the both of them straight into it the darkness that had opened beneath them.
Isabella’s darkness had so far mostly demonstrated its ability to swallow and consume anything that entered it.
However, there was another property to that darkness which was its power of concealment almost anything.
Depending on how deeply something became submerged within the Endless Dark, the darkness could gradually obscure more than just physical and magical presence. At sufficient depths, it could begin obscuring the very existence of whatever had been swallowed.
If Dark-Bella possessed anything close to her full power, she could have directly concealed the connection between Norman and the gods granting him their blessings.
But she was nowhere near that level of power.
Directly interfering with those connections meant contesting the influence of the deities themselves, something her current strength could not accomplish.
What she could potentially do, however, was conceal Norman.
If they could force him deep enough into the Endless Dark, its Absolute Concealment would gradually obscure his existence until even the gods on the other end of those connections could no longer properly reach him.
Rather than severing the connection itself, they intended to make Norman disappear from the other end of it.
However, whether Isabella’s current power could actually conceal him deeply enough for that to happen was another matter entirely.
This was a gamble.
But considering everything they had thrown at Dark Nova so far had failed to bring him down, it was the best gamble they had.
Ethan had continuously implemented gravity throughout their descent, causing both himself and Dark Nova to sink much faster into the Endless Dark.
Using the Aspect of Dominion, he had created a localized gravitational field that encompassed only himself and Norman, increasing the gravity around them to the maximum amount he could currently produce.
Two hundred times normal gravity.
By localizing the field specifically around the both of them, Dark Bella herself remained unaffected by the tremendous gravitational force dragging them deeper.