The torrent of light pierced the golden radiance at the Dharma Image's chest, punched through his true body's chest and head, and blasted a hole the size of a small town straight through Benjamin's upper body before disappearing into the depths of the Endless Chaotic Void.
Viola hovered at a safe distance, quietly watching Benjamin's true body as it was blasted away, its head shattered.
She raised a hand to cover the corner of her mouth and laughed without the slightest attempt to hide it.
Her laughter was clear and bright, with a hint of malice, and rang clearly through their encrypted channel.
"Well?"
Only after she had laughed her fill did she speak languidly, her voice still carrying the lingering amusement of someone who had just enjoyed a show.
"Did you figure out what kind of attack that was?"
Benjamin's mangled true body steadied itself in the void.
Less than half his head remained. The forehead around the vertical eye between his brows was intact, but most of his face was gone, leaving only dark golden tissue writhing rapidly within.
Below his neck, a massive hole had been blasted clean through his chest.
The flesh around its edges grew and reshaped itself at a speed visible to the naked eye.
New muscle fibers wove themselves together layer by layer like cloth, while shattered bones re-formed from their broken ends with faint, low scraping sounds. Almost in the blink of an eye, most of Benjamin's injuries had healed.
Grimacing as he repaired his true body, he rapidly analyzed the data from that attack in his Spirit Sea.
"I figured it out. They're using pure, highly compressed energy attacks."
Benjamin spoke slowly, with a trace of appreciation for the attack in his voice.
"No special properties. They simply compress a star's