Interesting. So this was what the mages of this world were like.
And were the people of this world all so arrogant and conceited?
The one she had encountered earlier could at most be considered an elite monster. But the person before her was completely drenched in darkness. Even snowflakes that touched her black clothes instantly turned to ash and scattered in the cold wind. Her entire body radiated a gloomy chill and the aura of death. She truly had the feel of a mage—unfathomable, untouchable, incomprehensible.
She had not even made a casting gesture. Was this really a bizarre situation where she could kill someone just by glaring at them?
The malice of all things was like nerve endings seeping into viscous air, gradually penetrating the skin of its prey, which had been solidified by the air. This was practically a cheat-like ability: first using solidified air to restrain the opponent, then silently controlling them with this follow-up move.
Not bad.
But she wondered whether the mages of this world were weak in close combat.
All sound vanished, and everything sank into deathly silence.
Yet the girl operated the scant oxygen within her body and suddenly threw a punch with her right fist!
The Valkyrie's body, strengthened to its absolute limit, made a simple straight punch nearly surpass the speed of sound in an instant.
The surrounding solidifying spell was actually blown away by the force of the punch!!!
Inch Punch: Chaotic Thunder—its essence lay in inch power and inch control, striking hard and breaking through head-on.
"What!"
Those golden pupils, molten iron in color, snapped open! The hem of her clothes whipped loudly in the gale.
Yet in that split second, the silver-haired girl was already like an arrow loosed from its string. She stamped one foot into the snow, sending up a wall of snow behind her like thunder exploding across level ground, and her figure vanished from sight in an instant!!!
So fast!
Yet the Emperor's Royal Guard was no pushover. If simple spell attacks were all she had, she could never have become a Royal Guard.
Several layers of crushing pressure locked onto Chlorine Sodium, who was skimming over the snow as though flying.
It seemed that this spell did not need to locate its target, but was instead an area-wide suppression technique. It could almost immobilize several squads on the spot, or crush them outright.
The Emperor's Royal Guard suddenly retreated, and a black barrier instantly unfolded before her.
This was the ultimate defense, practically the pinnacle of Originium Arts.
An ordinary mage could at most create obstacles—for example, controlling earth and rock strata to build a simple wall, or creating a wall of fire. They used Originium Arts to create things that "existed" in reality, thereby creating an opportunity for victory.
However, Originium spells themselves possessed a mental aspect. They were manifestations of the caster's inner heart.
And the strongest thing was the manifestation of the mind's will in the real world.
A barrier without thickness—a wall of impregnable thought, the very law that could not be crossed.
The casting medium was nowhere to be seen, yet she could release several such ultimate defenses instantly. Only someone at the level of an Emperor's Royal Guard could accomplish this with ease.
After all, an Emperor's Royal Guard was capable of slaughtering several squads alone in an instant.
There were other spell traps on both sides of the barrier as well. This was the Royal Guard's tactic: use the barrier to create an impassable wall, then force the opponent to charge into the line of traps or abandon the attack.
The exchange between offense and defense took place in the blink of an eye.
However, the girl did not act as the Royal Guard expected. She did not turn aside at all, instead charging straight toward the wall.
A foolish idea. She actually intended to break through an invisible wall with her flesh. How could that be possible?
She was simply seeking death.
The Royal Guard had already prepared a new spell, waiting to counterattack once the opponent stopped attacking from beyond the wall.
In the end, she was merely a brute. The strange and unpredictable nature of mages was precisely what countered thoughtless brutes like her.
Yet with one foot stamping into the snow and her right fist half-clenched, the girl seemed completely unconcerned by the crushing pressure weighing on her or the wall before her.
Purple patterns slowly lit up across the girl's entire body. This was the sign that Honkai Energy had begun to be consumed in small amounts.
As force was exerted through every joint in her body, power traveled upward step by step. The drive from her feet began to crack the ground, while the strength from her waist propelled her bent arm, making it rub against the air at high speed.
The twist of her body transformed the punch into a cannonball fired from its shell!
"Inch Punch..."
The use of force even distorted the arrangement of her bones for a brief moment. The sounds produced by compression and slight displacement were like war drums loudly proclaiming victory.
Her thrown right fist even dragged up a cone of white mist—the thunderous sonic boom.
"Heaven Splitter!"
The right fist, having surpassed the speed of sound and left its voice far behind, silently sped toward the black barrier.
There was a soundless collision, followed by a heavy peal of thunder and a howling gale!
The black barrier shattered on impact.
But it was not just one layer!
The barriers, which should have been stacked with a certain amount of space between them, layered over one another under the shock waves created by the force's impact, like a massive stone dropped into a tranquil lake.
The splashing waves were black fragments flying in every direction. One punch had actually pierced through the entire barrier and the spells surrounding it!!!
The white walls of snow were sent surging into the air one after another!
How was that possible?!
Yet even this failed to halt the punch's aftershock.
The howling storm drove the punch's kinetic force solidly into the Emperor's Royal Guard, who stood in line with the black barrier.
Before the Royal Guard, sent flying backward, could use a spell in midair to regain her footing, her opponent had already closed in!!
Inch power was, by nature, a technique for close-quarters combat.
With the support of Honkai Energy, the strength that had long surpassed that of humans turned Chlorine Sodium herself into a cannonball.
"Boom!!!"
The technique originally involved stacking one's entire weight onto the shoulder and using speed and weight to break through an opponent's move. Here, however, Chlorine Sodium used it to deliver a killing blow.
This was Iron Mountain Lean!
"Thud!!!"
There was a muffled impact, accompanied by the sound of something shattering into pulp. Everything seemed to fall silent.
Because red had become the only color besides white.
It bloomed brilliantly across the snow, like a red spider lily in flower.
Blood mist mixed with countless chunks of viscera, interspersed with mechanical fragments, spraying across the ground behind her and dyeing almost all of it red.
Red snow, red low walls, and the stench of blood spreading through the air.
Yet by chance, Chlorine Sodium saw a red signal flare in the sky, slowly descending from above after being launched at some unknown time.
"Tsk. She actually had another trick up her sleeve."
She had originally thought there would only be one super-elite monster like this, but she had not expected her to have companions.
She had wanted to conserve some Honkai Energy, so she had not even activated her Herrscher form.
What a nuisance.
So you're forcing me to stop holding back, huh?
Fortunately, Yelena had passed out. Otherwise, killing them one by one would take half the day, even if they were only pigs.
············
Outside the village, three Emperor's Royal Guards dressed entirely in black appeared at the entrance.
It was a special signal—one that no one had truly seen in a hundred years.
But today, they had encountered it.
One of their companions had launched the red signal flare representing a state of emergency into the sky.
It seemed he had run into trouble.
The Emperor's Royal Guard had gone far too long without encountering an opponent like this.
"It is time to act. Our companion needs our help."
PS: I applied for a contract. It went unexpectedly fast this time. Maybe updating twice a day really is too much? scratches head
It snowed, and it is so cold outside. I almost slipped and fell while walking. And tomorrow I still have to go out and buy food by myself. Boo-hoo-hoo, I am so pitiful aaaaaah!
Section 14: Chapter Fourteen—God's Covenant
When the three entered the village, what they saw was enough to make their jaws drop.
The companion who had released the signal had already become chunks of flesh scattered across the ground.
And the killer had appeared there after a burst of lightning and light.
She had not moved a single step and still stood high above them as before, yet the Emperor's Royal Guard who had fired the signal flare had actually fallen!
How was that possible?!
How had this happened?!
Who was she?!
To this day, no one had ever killed an Emperor's Royal Guard without a numerical advantage!
How could this be?!
Everything had happened far too quickly, and the opponent's answer had been far too simple. It seemed that with nothing more than a single punch, that person had been instantly dismembered in midair by this force of energy.
"What exactly are you...?"
"What am I? You cannot even perceive my existence, yet you dare challenge a god?"
The Herrscher had already lost interest in the insects before her. Fighting them one by one was rather troublesome, so she decided to unleash her ultimate move and sweep away the pests.
"You were fortunate enough to see me, yet you do not know my majesty. You even dare use those lowly eyes of yours to gaze directly upon a god. You no longer have any need to live, boring insect."
Amid the opponent's disbelief, the Herrscher merely raised her hand lightly, and countless purple Gates of Reason unfolded around her.
The girl's aura had also changed completely.
She was like a newly born sun, her blazing radiance dazzling beyond measure.
The energy fluctuation that suddenly erupted had not been sensed by anyone at all. The opponent's concealment method had clearly surpassed the level of the Emperor's Royal Guards!
Impossible! The powerful figures of all the various factions were practically all known by name. If someone like this had come to Ursus, it was impossible for the intelligence networks not to have received even the slightest hint.
Moreover, the Emperor's Royal Guard had a clear understanding and knowledge of those powerful figures. But the person before them was utterly unfamiliar, whether in energy fluctuation or aura.
Who exactly was she?!
Yet the opponent's methods had already given a perfect demonstration of arrogance and power.
Countless weapons gleaming with dazzling light extended from the opened gates. Their unmistakable energy fluctuations emerged clearly!
They were obviously no ordinary weapons. Every one of them gleamed with preciousness and power. They were weapons that could only appear in the hands of emperors, or in the hands of heroes from legends. Yet at this moment, no words could describe the scene before them.
"Retreat!"
One of the Royal Guards threw out an order, then stepped forward, his entire body transforming into a shadow that soared into the air!
Just by assuming an attacking stance, he had already made the Emperor's Royal Guards resolve to retreat.
It was a life-risking attack. He intended to use everything he had to stop the attack the opponent was about to unleash. Although he had never seen these portal-like things and did not know what was happening, he understood that such an energy fluctuation had killed his companion. The opponent must have expended a great deal as well. Time was not on their side, but as long as they could interrupt her, someone could escape alive and report this extraordinarily valuable information.
The Ursus Empire needed to know everything that had happened here, as well as prepare sufficient plans to investigate and deal with the "monster" before them.
However, more than one person launched an attack. The second of the three even opened some kind of valve on his body, poured a certain gas into his mask, and launched an attack more ferocious than the previous one!
As for the third, he decisively abandoned everything and intended to withdraw as quickly as possible.
It had to be said that this perfect coordination, so close that no words were needed, was probably the best these ants could accomplish.
Precise tactics, close coordination, and powerful combat prowess—one had to admit, they were quite impressive.
It was not merely the strange and unfathomable individual attacks. The cooperation between the three was also quite formidable.
But it was meaningless.
Before you continue