Chapter 223
In an exceedingly brief span, the remaining distance was only eight hundred meters.
The final eight hundred meters before the annihilating beam containing the commands "Reduce" and "Add" reached the motionless body of the Overseer.
Its speed was so extreme that such a distance would be crossed in the blink of an eye.
"Do not place too much trust in what moves."
Aldraya's gaze, which had long been calm, empty, and seemingly indifferent to all threats, suddenly underwent a metamorphosis that shook the soul.
The change was not born of fear or anxiety, but of a judgment that had reached the limit of its patience.
The casual look devoid of hostility, as if viewing the dark-green laser as nothing more than an interesting natural phenomenon, now fell away like a discarded mask.
In an instant immeasurable by time, that gaze transformed into something piercing and laden with reproach.
A deep, cutting sneer radiated from the checkered pools of his eyes.
It was the perspective of a far higher entity looking upon an embarrassment of a joke, a childish experiment that was not only futile, but repulsive.
Within that gaze lay profound disgust, a sense of defilement at even having to acknowledge or comprehend the existence of such a vulgar and inelegant threat.
That gaze itself was a judgment, declaring that all the effort, rage, and power unleashed by Ilux were nothing more than a farcical performance before Aldraya's true authority.
This transformation of the gaze occurred at the precise critical moment, when the deadly dark-green laser had only four hundred meters left before striking Aldraya's body.
Four hundred meters at laser speed was a distance of almost no significance, a margin of time smaller than a fraction of a blink.
Yet at that brink of seemingly inevitable destruction, the law of cause and effect was once again overturned by the will of the Overseer.
The instant that scornful gaze flared forth, the laser racing forward at unstoppable speed suddenly froze completely in place.
There was no gradual deceleration, no collision with any visible barrier.
The laser simply stopped, as if every concept of momentum, kinetic energy, and purpose attached to it had been stripped from reality itself.
The dense dark-green beam, radiating paradoxical destructive power, became nothing more than a strange ornament suspended in the air, motionless and helpless, like an insect pinned inside a display case.
"Changing the point of view."
From high within the illusory ceiling of the domain, Ilux felt a cold panic creep in, replacing the fury that had previously burned within him.
The inability to move the laser, a pure extension of his own will and concept, was a violation of every law of power he understood.
With stubborn resolve, and even with desperation beginning to surface, he focused his entire consciousness.
His mind, usually sharp and disciplined, now spun at a pitiful speed, running through every protocol and every variation of his core ability.
Alteration of Perception.
He attempted to impose a new reality in which the laser was free, in which it was still under his control, in which the obstruction was nothing but an illusion.
He directed his entire conceptual weight not directly at Aldraya anymore, but at the frozen laser itself.
He tried to perceive it as an inseparable part of himself, as a projection of his will that must obey.
He attempted to twist the perception of space around it, to make the four hundred meters vanish, or to make the laser already reach its target.
Yet every attempt slammed into an invisible wall harder than the core of a dead star.
Reality around the laser had been hardened, locked by something more fundamental than perception.
It was a decision issued by an authority whose existence refused to have its perception altered.
Every conceptual command launched by Ilux rebounded, dispersed, or vanished before ever reaching its object, as though they struck a domain of power that did not recognize him as its master.
Alteration of Perception, the ultimate weapon that allowed him to dictate reality, for the first time felt like a baseless scream inside a soundproof chamber.
He found no opening, no boundary he could comprehend, let alone alter.
What he faced was an absolute refusal by the miniature universe itself to acknowledge his will.
His physical actions mirrored the chaos within.
His hands, once raised with full confidence to control the attack, now trembled and moved erratically.
He waved them through the air as though trying to catch a lost signal, searching for the correct position, the magical gesture that could restore his control.
His fingers danced without pattern, groping for a conceptual connection that had already been severed.
Yet all of it was futile.
His body, floating in the sky of the domain, no longer appeared mighty, but vulnerable and isolated.
Those purposeless movements were the dance of desperation of a creator who had lost control over his own creation, trapped within an artificial cosmic cage that obeyed another master.
"Frozen process."
At the peak of that despair, Ilux's fighting instinct flared with the last remnants of his pride.
Failure was not an end for him, but a trigger for even greater, more unhinged escalation.
With burning fury, his trained mind devised one final, radical strategy.
He would not surrender to helplessness.
Rather than trying to move the laser or the separated chain, he would merge them, creating a hybrid weapon that had never existed before.
The concept was called the Integrated Elemental Chain.
This was not merely a physical combination, but a deep conceptual fusion.
The frozen dark-green laser would not fire upon the chain, but would project the entire command system of Alteration of Perception into the framework of the five elements that were meant to be alive.
By analogy, the laser would become the Operating System and pure Command, while the chain's blueprint would serve as the Hardware with extraordinary specifications, ready to be filled with his will.
Through this, every link would become a point of application for enforced reality, and every element a medium for his conceptual decrees.
His will to "Reduce" and "Add" would flow through currents of fire, ice, wind, earth, and stars.
With blazing resolve, Ilux forced his will forward.
And for a brief, exhilarating moment, the concept began to take form.
A faint vibration stirred in the air, a pull between the motionless laser and the conceptual chain blueprint within his mind.
A virtual structure began to form, the green laser light spreading into intricate chain patterns, while flashes of the five elements ignited along its lines.
The process of creation had begun.
However, the progress was minuscule and exceedingly fragile.
It reached only around two percent, or perhaps no more than one point nine nine percent, of its intended fusion.
Then, without warning, everything stopped completely.
Not merely stopped, but utterly canceled.
As if an absolute "undo" button had been pressed at the level of reality itself.
The vibration that had just emerged vanished.
The forming light patterns shattered like glass before they could crystallize.
All efforts, all concentration, all energy Ilux had expended to bring forth his new weapon were erased from existence.
The failure was not gradual, but instant and total.
Like a computer program crashing mid-boot before its main interface could even appear.
Yet the consequences were far more terrifying than a simple error on a screen.
The effect rebounded directly upon the user.
To be continued…