Chapter 799: Physique Initial Completion, Emperor of Death
[Gift: Power of the Heart (AT Field)]
[Type: Special Power Granting]
[Description: A special power extracted and separated by a great existence from a certain world. Can bestow a complete power system upon the recipient.]
[Usage Requirements: None]
[Effect: Upon use, gain the special power system: AT Field] (The strength of the AT Field is not linked to the four core attributes or energy intensity)
The AT Field is a very unique power system in the Evangelion world. From a physical perspective, this power system constructs a projection similar to a phase space, manifesting as a golden polygonal barrier.
This barrier can not only block attacks but can also be inverted to be used as a weapon, easily slicing through other objects.
In reality, the AT Field is the boundary of the self. It is the observation of the self by all individuals possessing independent consciousness, and it is also the power by which these independent individuals separate themselves from the world.
The thickness of the AT Field reflects the loneliness of humans who can never truly understand each other.
[Do you wish to use the Gift: Power of the Heart?]
[Yes]
[Using...]
[You have gained the power system: AT Field]
Kaito Shirogane raised his hand, and a golden, regular hexagonal barrier appeared in his personal space.
This power of a Gift could be considered the most convenient method of power granting in the Little Garden world, distinguishing it from any other world.
Those Gods and Buddhas and great existences saved individuals the time of cultivation, as if directly packaging and encapsulating a power system and bestowing it completely upon another individual.
[You have used the Scroll: Spear of Longinus (S)]
[Checking learning requirements]
[Check passed]
[You have mastered the Ability: Spear of Longinus]
[Spear of Longinus (S) Lv1 - Invert the AT Field, condensing it into the all-piercing Spear of Longinus to throw. Once this strike is thrown, it ignores spatial and temporal distance and ignores all defenses other than the Power of the Heart.]
The hexagonal golden barrier in front of Kaito Shirogane instantly collapsed and contracted, then transformed into a long spear seemingly constructed of lines.
This spear existed between the tangible and the intangible. The lines were entirely composed of the AT Field, flickering with faint light within the personal space.
Holding this object, Kaito Shirogane instinctively sensed the terror of this strike.
It wasn't a terror based purely on destructive power, but an unblockable piercing sensation.
As long as the target was locked on while within his attack range, everything would then be anchored. Once the attack was launched, even if the opponent crossed time and space, they would still be pierced by the Spear of Longinus.
The only flaw was probably that this spear didn't yet possess traits like instant death or existential damage.
However, in the state of the Martial God's Ultimate Intent, Kaito Shirogane could already grasp a sliver of the intention of the person who created this ability.
He knew that once this ability was leveled up, it would highly likely possess similar traits.
A spear of guaranteed hit and guaranteed kill.
The only thing that could affect the strength of this ability was the ethereal Power of the Heart.
Because this power lacked a good standard of measurement and couldn't be quantified, Kaito Shirogane couldn't accurately judge the thickness of his own AT Field either.
He just briefly tested it with things inside his personal space, and the thickness of his AT Field was unexpectedly quite astonishing.
At the same time, Kaito Shirogane also learned from this that there was still a considerable difference between the power of the AT Field and the power of the "Heart" revered by the Concussive Pulse of the Spiritual Light.
If he had to explain it, the AT Field was merely the isolating part of the Power of the Heart, while the Concussive Pulse of the Spiritual Light encompassed much more.
But precisely because of this, the Concussive Pulse of the Spiritual Light of most people during their imperfect stage was highly likely not as strong as a pure AT Field.
Kaito Shirogane had never thought about mutually understanding others. To some extent, the thickness of his AT Field was extremely astonishing.
After completing one enhancement, Kaito Shirogane selected a few more items to consider from the preliminary screening list provided by Black Butler and Yutsuki.
In terms of quality and rarity, the top three items were [Fragment of the Holy Demon Origin Womb (World's Rarity)], [Ember of Othinus's Crossbow (World's Rarity)], and [Mewtwo's Genome (World's Rarity)].
These three were all materials with quality as high as Red. Looking at the descriptions, they were highly likely counterfeits produced in secondary worlds with insufficient information density. Otherwise, given the quality of these items, it was highly likely that current Reincarnators wouldn't be able to come into contact with them.
Especially the first two. The Holy Demon Origin Womb should come from the Abandoned Heavenly Emperor in the worldview of Pili, and Othinus was an over-spec ceiling character in the worldview of A Certain Magical Index.
This was already beyond the scope of what Reincarnators could contact. Just like Kaito Shirogane and Sousuke in the Little Garden world, strictly speaking, they did not possess the qualifications to truly acquire materials from plot characters of this level.
The only explanation was that they were counterfeits produced in some sub-species timeline.
But even so, the value of these things was extremely high.
Kaito Shirogane's actual combat power had now been anchored by the Space as [Fierce: Exception]. He only needed to accept a mission and break through to the true [Disaster] tier through the mission "Their Flesh and Blood, My Nourishment."
And before that, the smelting of the [Fierce] tier needed to be fully completed. He still wished to witness the sight at the end of the unprecedented fourteen-step [Stairway of God] that the Knight Girl spoke of.
Therefore, the attraction of materials to Kaito Shirogane was far higher than other items, abilities, etc., that weren't very suitable for use.
These three materials had all been identified.
In [Material: Mewtwo's Genome], the World's Rarity option that appeared was [Hyper Regeneration Genome (World's Rarity)]. After smelting, one would acquire the trait of hyper regeneration, while the genome would become additionally adaptable to accommodating other various genomes.
This was a fairly powerful trait. Not only did it freely grant the hyper regeneration trait that Reincarnators desired most, but it also gave Reincarnators—who could come into contact with all sorts of bizarre bloodlines—the possibility of fusing various strange bloodlines.
None of the other genomes were as rare as this one.
And [Material: Ember of Othinus's Crossbow] granted a conceptual-level guaranteed hit trait, with quality as high as [World's Rarity: Extreme].
[B. Guaranteed Hit (World's Rarity: Extreme) - After smelting this trait, all projectile weapons will gain a conceptual-level guaranteed hit effect. Any ability or trait below the conceptual level or with an Authority below Tier 9 cannot be immune to this guaranteed hit effect. The guaranteed hit ignores destiny-type, causality-type, and space-time-type effects.]
This effect couldn't be said to be unpowerful, but it overlapped considerably with Kaito Shirogane's current abilities.
The other traits, whether in quality or effect, weren't attractive enough to Kaito Shirogane.
Only the final Fragment of the Holy Demon Origin Womb truly caught Kaito Shirogane's eye.
[Material: Fragment of the Holy Demon Origin Womb]
[Quality: World's Rarity]
[Effect: After smelting, acquire one of the following traits]
[A. Bipolar Sea of Ki (Unparalleled Rarity). The Sea of Ki is divided into two, capable of simultaneously containing energies of opposing natures, and mutually converting after one energy is depleted.]
[B. Reversed Demonic Source (World's Rarity: Extreme). When attacked, if the suffered attack is not enough to destroy oneself, half of the suffered attack can be absorbed and converted into life force and energy replenishment, or half of the attack can be reflected back onto the original target.]
Although this material only presented two options, each one was incredibly powerful.
The Reversed Demonic Source could be considered one of the most terrifying ability traits of the Holy Demon Origin Womb. Kaito Shirogane guessed that if it were the true Holy Demon Origin Womb of the Abandoned Heavenly Emperor, it would highly likely be able to absorb and reflect 100% of damage.
But even for this product with insufficient information density, the produced trait was already terrifying enough.
It was equivalent to a permanent 50% damage absorption or reflection mechanism.
Combined with Kaito Shirogane's Antinomy of Absolute Good and Evil, his damage absorption and immunity values when facing enemies belonging to good or evil factions would reach an incredibly terrifying number.
In fact, with the combination of these two traits, as long as the enemy wasn't essentially completely beyond the over-spec level...
Enemies of the same level or slightly higher in magnitude than Kaito Shirogane would highly likely be unable to actually harm him.
Coupled with other explosive abilities, Kaito Shirogane could already defeat most enemies slightly higher in magnitude than himself.
Although Kaito Shirogane's destructive power was extremely astonishing, in his own view, his most troublesome aspect right now was actually his survivability.
Not only did he have the [Ten Phoenixes Nirvanic Rebirth Art] as a safety net, but he also had the imitated [Twelve Labors], combined with a series of damage absorptions, immunities, and abnormal resistances to abilities in the destiny, elemental, and other domains.
Even if Kaito Shirogane didn't reveal this body that completely surpassed the level of being tough as nails, his survivability was terrifyingly high.
Moreover, the currently vastly improved [Physique of the Primordial Man] was already equal in toughness to a divine body of the same tier; it just wasn't enough to condense that special manifested form of a divine body.
A terrifying physical body acting as a vessel for numerous multiplicative explosive abilities was the true source of Kaito Shirogane's power.
After selecting the trade targets, Kaito Shirogane didn't handle it personally; instead, he arranged for Black Butler to discuss the specific trade details.
The Reincarnators possessing the [Fragment of the Holy Demon Origin Womb] material came from an East District Third Step assembly named [Tottering Edifice]. The assembly had two top-tier Reincarnators, and their strength was considered quite good.
One of them was said to be a special Reincarnator of the virtue faction. He had quite a reputation previously, codenamed [Acting on Behalf of Heaven].
The trade target expected by Tottering Edifice was Crimson Drop Cards. They didn't have high demands for quality, but they requested over 10 cards in quantity. Any shortfall could be replaced with other resources.
Both Black Butler and Yutsuki judged that it was likely their top-tier Reincarnator had obtained some special ability and needed to rapidly increase their attribute points.
For most ordinary Reincarnators, Crimson Drop Cards were still the fastest way to obtain attribute points. Even though after reaching the Second Step and Third Step, the importance of physical attributes gradually decreased due to the power of energy-releasing abilities and the terror of Authorities.
Most Reincarnators wouldn't obsess over spending massive resources to stack their physical attributes to even higher levels.
Because the enhancement brought by increasing one attribute point was far inferior to the enhancement brought by acquiring a powerful ability.
Only guys like Kaito Shirogane who acquired special abilities would be very obsessed with this kind of enhancement.
Yutsuki and Black Butler were very adept at using intelligence to gain profits in negotiations, and Kaito Shirogane didn't have that much time to wait for the results.
He simply ordered the two to successfully conclude this trade and then returned to the Goddess's residence once again.
Less than a day had passed since his last visit here to identify and equip the [Third Star Particle].
"Goddess, I want to initiate bloodline baptism and spirit awakening."
Kaito Shirogane's physique, the [Myriad Tribulations Yin Spirit Underworld Physique], had undergone baptism and spirit awakening multiple times. Even traits truly related to the physique itself had already appeared.
He knew that every physique had a so-called "initial completion" and "great completion."
As the physique fully formed, it would naturally acquire powerful effects in a certain domain.
The Goddess narrowed her eyes. The fragrance of the Singularity Points on Kaito Shirogane had long made her impatient.
[Do you wish to spend B-Rank Singularity Point * 1 to initiate bloodline baptism?]
[Yes]
A purple Singularity Point flew out. The Goddess's gaze fixed upon Kaito Shirogane. The next moment, something like a raging fire rose from within Kaito Shirogane's body.
Kaito Shirogane's blood instantly began to turn into mist and evaporate from the surface of his body.
But with Kaito Shirogane's feet planted on the white jade plaza, the Source of Life continuously poured in, actually forming a temporary stalemate.
Seeing this, the Goddess's eyes twitched slightly. The next moment, Kaito Shirogane felt his connection with the Source of Life severed.
The scenery around the white jade plaza changed, completely falling into the void. The Goddess seemed to have used this to sever his connection with the world.
A terrifying, agonizing pain struck. The blood within Kaito Shirogane's body vanished almost instantly, and his skin cracked completely.
Within his bloodline, the perpetual sound of the Underworld was incredibly distinct under these circumstances.
Amidst that dry, cracking, scorching heat, Kaito Shirogane's eyes were calm, even carrying a twisted sense of joy.
He listened as the sound in his ears grew more distinct and intense.
Like a raging tide crashing against a dam.
He could feel it—that thing, that power, was coming!
[Do you wish to spend B-Rank Singularity Point * 1 to initiate spirit awakening?]
[Yes]
Kaito Shirogane's eyes glinted. This was the first time that after a baptism, spirit awakening began directly without prompting the results. This unusual phenomenon practically confirmed that his physique was about to take form.
Sure enough, the next moment, accompanied by the injection of another power from the Goddess, Kaito Shirogane shuddered instantly. An unusually icy power drilled in from his bloodline and instantly broke through the boundary between the physical body and the spirit.
The Underworld fiercely poured back into his blood vessels.
Subsequently, the Third Star Particle, having lost the suppression of that scorching power, also began to surge thunderously.
[Archetype of Terminus and Genesis EX051, your physique: Myriad Tribulations Yin Spirit Underworld Physique has fully activated]
[A myriad of tribulations for the Yin Spirit to enter sagehood; the Underworld forges destiny to crown itself Emperor.]
[Myriad Tribulations Yin Spirit Underworld Physique: Return to Ruin (Initial Completion) has been activated]
[You have obtained the Origin Trait: All Things Return to Ruin (Mythic) - Actively release the Senra Intent of Death, accelerating the end of the lifespan of all things within a hundred-meter radius.]
[You have obtained the Origin Divinity: Underworld Emperor (Mythic) - Possess the status of the Underworld Emperor, governing Authorities such as death, the Underworld, and reincarnation. Activate the Underworld Emperor form after Tier 7.]
[You have obtained the Blessing: Enfeoffment of the Emperor of Death (Mythic) - Instant death checks cannot take effect on you; your instant death checks will be even harder to be immune to.]
Pitch-black patterns moved bit by bit across the surface of Kaito Shirogane's body. Finally, on his chest area, they formed the pattern of a pitch-black sun.