Chapter 222
His face, shrouded in distortion, showed no tension, both of his arms still extended straight at his sides in a perfect measuring pose.
He was the very image of absolute indifference, a mountain unmoved as fierce winds attempted to batter it.
The distance of two hundred meters shrank to one hundred and fifty, then to one hundred meters.
The preliminary energy waves from the chain began to seep into the space around Aldraya, shaking the particles in the air and making the ground tremble subtly.
Yet there was no change in his demeanor.
He allowed the horror to draw closer, allowed the silent screams of the rampaging elements to fill the space, as if he were fully gauging the potential and scale of the challenge launched by his former disciple.
When the distance separating them shrank to around eighty meters, a subtle yet monumental change finally occurred.
Aldraya's head, which had previously been fixed facing forward, rotated slowly and with extreme precision.
The movement was unhurried, not driven by panic or even curiosity, but more akin to the rotation of a satellite locking onto a specific coordinate.
His eyes, bottomless pools reflecting the checkered grid of the cosmos, now shifted from their vacant stare and fixed precisely, targeting and locking onto the five-element chain hurtling forward.
This shift in focus was so sudden and so complete.
All previous indifference evaporated, replaced by a concentrated, freezing attention.
Not the attention of one who was afraid, but that of an expert who had decided to closely examine an intriguing specimen.
Within that gaze radiated a process of high-speed analysis, mapping every coil of the chain, every fluctuation of energy from the five elements, and every shimmer of the yellow light enveloping it.
"Reduce and Add!!"
Aldraya's locked gaze upon the chain was not observation in the conventional sense of time.
It was not a linear process that consumed duration, nor a fleeting reaction measurable in seconds or even nanoseconds.
That stare was a direct intervention into reality itself.
The moment those eyes containing the cosmic grid focused, the span known as "per second" became irrelevant.
The act of "observing" itself transcended the flow of time, operating on a plane where cause and effect merged.
Within that non-linear space, Aldraya's attention was not a passive receiver of information, but a command executed instantly.
The result was absolute and immediate.
The living chain roaring with five elements and cloaked in yellow light suddenly froze completely in midair, precisely eighty meters from his figure.
Its supple writhing motion, the blazing red pulsar flare, the living vibration of obsidian, even the whispers of the golden wind, all halted in a single, perfectly sculpted pose.
More terrifying still, the golden hue that radiated authority and bound the elements together began to fade, progressively and undeniably replaced by a youthful blue.
That blue was identical to the faint light on Aldraya's body, the light that marked his divine fingerprint.
This color transformation was not merely a change of pigment, but a replacement of authority.
The essence of the chain was being rewritten, aligned to Aldraya's reality grid, by the sheer power of a single gaze.
In the air, Ilux witnessed his most agile and adaptive manifestation of power turn into an essential statue suspended mid-flight.
The failure was not merely technical, but existential.
The boiling rage in his chest was no ordinary anger, but an eruption of deep frustration, a mixture of disbelief and humiliation at how effortlessly his attack had been neutralized.
His blood surged violently, pumped by adrenaline now mixed with pure hatred.
Without hesitation, his body reacted.
Both hands, which had previously controlled the attack from afar, were now thrust forward with decisive motion, raised to chest level.
His palms faced the frozen chain and Aldraya beyond it, as if he were forcing his will once more into a battlefield already dominated by the Overseer's laws.
From lungs driven by uncontrollable emotional turmoil, a shout exploded forth.
"Reduce, Add!!"
His voice echoed thunderously, shattering the silence of the domain that had moments before been filled only with the hiss of frozen energy.
That shout was not mere words.
It was an enforced command, a decree uttered with the tone of an enraged prince seeing his servant fail miserably.
The tone brimmed with claims of authority and explosive disappointment, as though this special domain created by Aldraya, along with all its laws, were nothing more than a servant that must immediately obey his will.
"Is this what you call an answer?"
After Ilux's rage-filled shout shook the domain, a brief but tension-laden silence followed.
Then, the response to his paradoxical command came not from the air or the ground, but from reality itself.
Around the battlefield, from cracks in the fractured earth and the trembling surfaces of the illusion, a bright green light burst forth.
Not the gentle green of life's element, but the green of wild grass brimming with vigor, an intense and aggressive green.
This light rapidly gathered, focused, and crystallized directly before Ilux, forming a complex geometric structure spinning at high speed.
The structure transformed into a cannon of pure energy, its long barrel composed of compressed green light, its muzzle glowing with terrifying intensity.
Without another pause, from the heart of that cannon, a dense dark-green laser beam shot forth.
The beam moved at a speed beyond normal perception, like a final verdict etched upon the canvas of reality.
Its primary target was not Aldraya directly, but his own chain, frozen and turned blue, still hanging in the air as a symbol of his defeat.
The dark-green laser struck directly into the center of the helpless chain's body.
Aldraya, from his position below, watched the destruction with an attitude that could almost be called indifferent.
He made no attempt whatsoever to defend or protect the chain he had just seized with his gaze.
The chain, which moments earlier had become his, was simply left to face the counterattack of its own creator.
As though the takeover had been nothing more than a brief demonstration of his capability, and the object itself held no further value to him.
Ilux's dark-green laser met slight resistance as it struck the youthful blue essence enveloping the chain.
In an instant, the complex structure containing the five primordial elements shattered completely.
White ice burst into vapor, black fire scattered into dark stains, golden wind dissolved into fading whispers, volcanic obsidian crumbled into dust, and the red pulsar flare extinguished without a sound.
The blue hue faded as well, until the entire chain vanished from existence, erased by the power of its own creator.
Ilux's small victory over his own object felt hollow, for Aldraya showed not the slightest regret or change in expression.
However, the destruction of the chain was merely a stepping stone.
The deadly dark-green laser did not dissipate.
After tearing through and annihilating its first target, it continued onward without losing even the slightest momentum.
Indeed, as if the energy from the destroyed chain had been absorbed to strengthen it, the laser beam grew larger and moved even faster.
The two-kilometer distance that had separated the tip of the laser from Aldraya was rapidly erased.
The air along the laser's path boiled and ionized, leaving behind a straight, perfect trail of smoke.
To be continued…