Chapter 216
'This is not a power that operates like a weapon.
This is the decision.
And that decision declares: what I am doing was never worthy of existing.'
Fiiiih!
'Did she slip in here?'
Amid the ocean of chaos born from Ilux's multidimensional waves of attack, a single word was spoken.
Not a shout, not a lengthy incantation, but one dense and profound syllable.
Faith.
Aldraya's voice flowed with a calm, clear tone filled with absolute conviction—a terrifying contrast to her distorted form.
The word did not echo.
It did not vibrate.
It simply existed, and by its very existence, it changed everything.
The consequence was instant and absolute.
Hundreds of missiles streaking forward under artificial intelligence evaporated in midair, leaving behind a silent vacuum.
Billions of artillery projectiles forming rivers of brass and light vanished in an instant, like shadows under a blazing sun.
One hundred thousand multicolored lasers emitting full-spectrum threat were extinguished without a trace, without even a final hiss.
Even the ten conceptual slashing lines that had carved into reality itself faded, like chalk marks wiped from a blackboard.
All the destructive power Ilux had gathered throughout his entire life—every training session, every battle, every technological and elemental transformation—was erased from existence.
There was no counter-explosion.
No clash of energies canceling one another out.
They were simply gone.
Even the cosmic record, the archive of reality that should have documented every event, appeared blank in that moment—signifying that Ilux's attack had never occurred at all.
The silence that followed was more oppressive than all the thunder before it.
Ilux froze, his body rigid atop his elemental platform.
The shock ran so deep it pierced his marrow, beyond fear or confusion.
This was existential shock.
Everything he believed to be the pinnacle of his strength, everything he thought could change the outcome, proved terrifyingly fragile before a single statement of belief.
A cold emptiness filled him, replacing the resolve that had burned moments earlier.
And within that emptiness, reality twisted.
Without the sound of air displacement, without distortion of light, a silhouette appeared.
Aldraya manifested not through visible motion, but like a fact that had suddenly always been there.
She stood slightly behind Ilux's left shoulder, so close that he could feel a chill not born of ice, and the stench of decay that had lost its physical quality, now resembling the scent of a rotting conviction.
'This is not defense. This is disregard.'
Tsraaak!!
"Ah—!!"
Ilux's survival instinct erupted in a violent internal revolt.
The paralysis of shock shattered under the surge of pure instinct to resist.
He could not accept erasure so easily.
He could not submit to the lethal silence behind him.
With painful concentration, he forcibly recalled the flow of the five elemental powers that had been radiating from his feet.
Ice, black fire, golden wind, obsidian, and red pulsar energy were violently redirected, channeled through his bleeding body, compressed into his left arm gripping the hybrid katana-sword blade.
The blade ignited instantly with a wild, five-layered light, pulsing with compressed primordial force.
Without turning, relying solely on senses honed on the battlefield, Ilux unleashed three consecutive slashes in a single breath.
His movement formed a triangulation of destruction.
The first slash struck downward from above, intended to split Aldraya from shoulder to waist.
The second swept upward from below toward the left, aiming to sever her body from a different angle.
The third cut horizontally from left to right, meant to decapitate or at least pierce her torso.
Each slash left behind a trail of multicolored, lethal elemental energy, tearing through the air and even the domain's distortions themselves.
All three attacks struck their target.
They passed through Aldraya's silhouette standing so close before him.
The element-wreathed blade made contact, even pierced the writhing layer of rotting flesh, sensing its cold, lifeless organic texture.
Yet there was no effect.
No pain radiated from Aldraya.
No scream.
No physical reaction at all.
Her body absorbed the penetration like water absorbing a thrown stone—without ripples, without change.
Her face, hidden behind darkness and thick hair, remained calm, as though the three deadly slashes were nothing more than illusions or passing wind.
That calm was more horrifying than any rage.
Then, in a response utterly disproportionate, reality around Ilux's body changed.
From the writhing mass of flesh on Aldraya's form, without process or warning, three sharp points manifested.
They were not forged weapons, but the concepts of "sharpness" and "piercing" suddenly materialized into shapes resembling the prongs of a gigantic fork—dull, cold metal radiating pure intent to harm.
They appeared not by movement, but by simply "having always been there."
Impaled.
One prong pierced Ilux's left shoulder, directly through the joint connecting his weapon arm to his body.
The second drove into his abdomen, narrowly missing vital organs but delivering crippling pain.
The third penetrated his left thigh, locking the movement of his elemental leg.
"This is not your way. This is not who you are.
If you continue, the consequences will not fall on me alone.
You know that. You have always known."
Hooooh!
"Stop… before it is too late."
Tsuuuf!
"I am not fighting you. I never fought you.
I am here because I believe in you, because I still see my teacher behind all of this.
If there is a voice whispering to you to do this, then that voice is lying."
Huaaaaah!
"Open your eyes.
Remember who you once were, and all the guidance you have given until now.
Do not sacrifice me for a belief that never demanded a sacrifice of this magnitude."
Hhhh!
"I beg you… stop now."
The impact with the cold, hostile ground felt like the world's final blow after it had turned into an enemy.
Ilux's body slammed down violently, following the fall of the three illusory fork-like prongs still embedded in him, before those weapons born of suffering vanished like a dissipating nightmare.
What remained was searing pain in his shoulder, abdomen, and thigh, along with exhaustion that cut down to the bone.
He lay sprawled weakly atop the ever-shifting surface of the domain, his breath ragged, expelling white vapor into the biting cold air.
From above, Aldraya merely gazed down at him with an empty stare more painful than any hatred.
Then, the transformed teacher extended both of her palms forward.
Her posture carried ritualistic intent, no longer human.
From the space between her palms—or perhaps from the core of the darkness she embodied—something extended that was not a thread in the physical sense.
It was a conceptual bond, a principle of pulling and plunder manifested as a dimly pulsing line of light.
The line shot forth with terrifying precision, attaching itself directly to Ilux's chest—not to his skin, but as if linking straight to the core of his existence, to the reservoir of the five elemental powers that formed the foundation of his strength.
The purpose of that bond was immediately felt, like a parasitic bite.
Aldraya did not intend to kill him—at least, not yet.
She meant to drain him, to absorb and take every spark of white ice, every breath of black fire, every whisper of golden wind, every vibration of obsidian, and every flare of red pulsar energy her student possessed.
Ilux, still lying helpless, felt the pull—a sensation of being emptied from within far more terrifying than the loss of blood.
To be continued…