Chapter 116: Spatial Gate versus Spatial Displacement

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Kant felt the weight behind him suddenly lift. The high-frequency vibrating sword had been snatched away by a hand reaching out from the black hole.

The Blade Demon, which had paused briefly after being wounded, sensed a vicious gust sweeping in from the left. It instantly flashed fifty meters away, yet two slashes still struck its chest. The sturdy breastplate, so different from its slender appearance, was effortlessly split by two cracks.

Provence held two identical high-frequency vibrating swords, one in each hand. He raised them before him in a cross-shaped opening stance, one blade horizontal to the left and the other vertical to the right, and declared solemnly, “Feel honored, monster. You will be sent to your grave by Provence Toa, the fifty-seventh heir of the Toa family!”

Already enraged by its wounds, the Blade Demon let out a sinister growl. Then, with great difficulty, it spoke: “Hack apart… gnaw… tear!”

The Blade Demon vanished in an instant. Provence, too, entered a state of absolute focus. His mind echoed with every perfectly refined datum transmitted through Kant’s tactical simulation system by their mental link, allowing him to make the correct response in the shortest possible time.

Even the slightest error would leave Provence—the miniature-garden overlord who stood at the summit of the Third District of the City of Mourning—severed from head to toe.

Provence caught up with the Blade Demon, whose form had nearly become a wisp of blue smoke, and swung his sword.

The Blade Demon, despite having lost an arm, showed no sign of diminished combat ability. Sharp protrusions covered its limbs, torso, and even its head, allowing it to attack Provence from every conceivable angle.

Yet Provence was actually able to keep pace with the Blade Demon’s speed and reactions, relying on a superhuman body reinforced dozens of times within the miniature garden.

For several hundred meters in every direction, the battlefield was filled with the fleeting images of the two combatants and the sparks produced whenever the high-frequency vibrating swords collided with the demon’s blades.

Provence’s spatial gates took slightly longer to open, but their range was considerable. Besides, no matter what, their battle had to be fought at close quarters. Mere speed was meaningless; the speed of each attack had to be equally great.

At such speeds, ranged attacks were even less useful. Bullets might not travel faster than either fighter could turn. Only a barrage would pose any real threat.

In less than ten seconds, the two had exchanged more than five hundred blows. The high-frequency vibrating swords had long since lost their oscillating function and could only rely on the strength of their depleted-uranium metal to block again and again, like a pair of futile fire pokers. Meanwhile, the blades covering the Blade Demon’s body had changed from streamlined edges into serrated ones. Its fallen, ragged appearance now possessed an even more vicious beauty.

A searing pain spread through Provence’s hands. The sword hilts were so hot that he could almost smell his palms burning. Under their ceaseless collisions, both sides’ blades had generated an astonishing amount of heat.

Provence concentrated even more deeply. He was about to take a dangerous gamble and bring this short, perilous, exhilarating battle to an end.

Yes, he was enjoying it. It had been a long time since he had encountered an opponent whose style matched his own so perfectly—someone who allowed him to unleash his speed and strength completely. This was neither a crushing victory nor a crushing defeat, but a perfectly matched, exhilarating battle.

Unfortunately, the situation around him no longer allowed him to keep playing.

Provence threw both swords away, hurling the battered weapons directly at the Blade Demon. As the demon rounded a corner, Provence flicked both hands and used a spatial gate to produce two heavy guns. Three barrels were arranged in a triangular formation atop a gauntlet-like grip. It was less a gun than some kind of handheld container.

Just as the Blade Demon excitedly raised its blades, preparing to hack Provence into mince, Provence opened fire. Sheets of electromagnetic shot poured forth, covering every possible direction of the demon’s advance.

Traveling at five times the speed of sound, the electromagnetic pellets were more than capable of gravely wounding the Blade Demon, leaving it no chance to die together with him.

Though the Blade Demon was ignorant, its beastly instincts could still sense the lethal danger. It had no choice but to suppress its bloodthirsty urge to kill. Guided by powerful intuition, it veered sharply at a right angle in advance, avoiding the barrage by the narrowest margin before charging at Provence once more.

But Provence was clearly too late to fire a second shot.

At that very moment, the Blade Demon suddenly felt a pain so intense that sensation itself seemed to vanish. Its entire body lost control, and it was hurled away by several enormous forces.

The Blade Demon did not fall. Relying on its formidable vitality, it endured every attack by force and still attempted to turn back and strike at Provence.

Provence remained composed and fired again.

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The Blade Demon kept leaping through space and dodging, yet it was always struck by bullets it had already evaded.

This was the true strength of Provence’s ability. He could open a spatial gate, and it could be used not only on himself but also to move other people or objects. He had filled the surrounding area with pairs of opposing miniature gates. Each was only large enough to let a few bullets pass through, yet that was sufficient for one or two blasts from an electromagnetic scattergun to transform everything within a ten-meter radius into an absolute storm of projectiles.

The electromagnetic pellets originally possessed an explosive function powerful enough to kill the Blade Demon in a single strike. However, Provence hoped to capture such a rare monster with spatial abilities alive and domesticate it, so he had disabled the pellets’ explosive function.

The Blade Demon decided to retreat—not because it was afraid, but because it intended to withdraw, regroup, and launch another ambush after exploiting its superior speed. A single hit-and-run attack would still be enough to inflict tremendous damage on the Prism Squad.

But with the spatial gates fully deployed, how could Provence leave any opening? Hundreds of gates forcibly linked the surrounding space together. Except for belowground, every direction was densely covered with spatial gates. No matter where the Blade Demon went, it was destined to return to its original position.

Provence no longer even bothered to aim. He fired several shots at will until the magazine was empty, and the entire space had been filled with shrieking bullets.

The tiny pellets, traveling at five times the speed of sound, displayed terrifying power. Under the precisely controlled entry and exit angles of the spatial gates, they formed a seamless barrage. Blocked by the gates, the Blade Demon could not even touch Provence’s figure before concentrated electromagnetic fire riddled it like a sieve.

The once-arrogant Blade Demon finally collapsed helplessly. Weak, hissing roars escaped through its shattered mouth.

Only after carefully confirming that the gravely wounded Blade Demon was dying and had completely lost the ability to resist did Provence feel safe bringing it back to camp for treatment and control. Blood bombs had always proved effective against such unruly monsters.

At last, the forbidden spell being prepared by Eva and the others was complete.

Though the spell was not large in scale, it could not be underestimated in the slightest. It was fully worthy of being called a forbidden spell.

Brilliant motes of light drifted down onto the dazed demons. On their flesh, still lacking an outer layer of skin, stubborn multicolored crystal formations immediately began to grow, resembling crystals precipitating from a saturated salt solution and possessing an inorganic beauty.

The savage demons paid no attention to the motes filling the sky. Yet the crystals growing larger and more numerous across their bodies caused an unbearable itch.

The demons modified by Adongsa transformed every emotion into an intense desire to destroy. Whether pain or itching, everything only increased their ferocity.

However, few of these monsters, despite possessing immense strength, noticed that the power within them was continuously draining away like water released from a dam. The strange crystals absorbed it and converted it into nourishment for their own growth.

The crystals grew larger and larger, gradually taking the shape of flowers and becoming clusters of multicolored crystal blooms.

At the same time, the surrounding temperature dropped rapidly. The dry air contained little moisture, so no frost formed, and there was nothing unusual on the surface. The thick-skinned demons paid even less attention to the slight chill.

The groups of dragon riders had still not recovered from the psychic shockwave. Some had already landed in confusion, while most were swaying precariously in the air. The demons, however, had long since passed beyond mere watchful hostility and had begun attacking the dragon riders outright.

Several enormous demons displayed astonishing jumping ability, leaping through the air and dragging down numerous dragon riders. Four or five thick arms tore the riders apart, reveling in the sensation of blood spraying across their bodies while ignoring the slight sluggishness that had overtaken them.

Yet the demons that relied on various elemental powers for their attacks soon discovered in astonishment that their attacks had been reduced by more than half. Whenever they launched an attack, the crystal clusters on their bodies grew even faster.

Even so, the dragon riders suffered heavy casualties in a matter of moments.

Then the gradually maturing crystal flowers finally unfolded from buds into blossoms and opened completely.

The powerful spell belonging to their own side had finally been completed, yet Siroya’s heart filled with an ominous premonition. It almost burst from her throat as a cry of “No!”

Violent explosions bloomed like summer flowers. Azure arcane energy transformed into the most beautiful—and most terrifying—form of contamination, sweeping across most of the demons. Like magnificent fireworks, dazzling snowflakes spread through every inch of space.

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Arcane energy was a unique force of the magical planes, originating in the void. It was violent and powerful. Countless planes had seen magical empires rise through the power of arcane energy, yet just as many had been transformed into eternal wastelands—restricted zones devoid of life—when that energy ran wild.

Now, a small-scale arcane contamination had occurred here.

Arcane Sunflower. That was the name of this terrifying spell.

The madness of mages was in no way inferior to that of scientists on the technological side. They had coveted arcane energy’s power to annihilate all things and confidently reshaped it into this contamination spell, born solely for slaughter and destruction.

The effect of the Arcane Sunflower was to scatter a field of arcane seeds resembling motes of light. The seeds rapidly absorbed energy from their surroundings—not merely supernatural energy, but heat, kinetic force, and every other form of energy as well. Once they had absorbed enough, the arcane seeds would bloom into beautiful Arcane Sunflowers—or perhaps Arcane Bombs would be a more appropriate name.

The death brought by arcane contamination was beautiful, filthy, withered, and fragile.

The barren gray-white earth was covered in magnificent azure radiance, as though a river of stars had fallen into the mortal world.

The demons were coated in beautiful blue snowflakes that shimmered with a hazy light. Even half of the dragon riders had been touched by the scattered blue flakes.

The beautiful blue snowflakes seemed like flowing light, yet they emitted terrifying radiation that transformed every sign of active life into lifeless silence.

Staring at the dragon riders as they fell to the ground like statues, Siroya trembled and cried, “What happened? What happened?! Provence, come out!”

Covered in snowflakes, both demons and dragons froze like statues.

The deadly radiation destroyed all their proteins and genetic helices. It even forcibly evaporated and solidified their moisture, turning them into mummies capable of remaining preserved for ten million years.

Provence switched off the roars coming through his communicator, tossed a still-unopened Arcane Bomb into the air, and smiled at Eva and the others. “Well done. I managed to save a few Arcane Bombs, too. We’ll have several more minor forbidden spells to use later.”

At that moment, Kant’s grave voice came through. “Boss, sorry to interrupt your enjoyment, but Adongsa has appeared!”

A small, snow-white figure stepped onto the beautiful land, bent down, and pinched up a star-like snowflake. An innocent smile spread across her face.

“New formaldehyde? It will be perfect for soaking your empty brains.”

A groan arose nearby. A demon that had not yet fully died was covered from head to toe in snow formed from arcane contamination. Its entire body was dry and gray, yet it struggled toward Adongsa. Perhaps the instinct to survive, combined with the destruction caused by the radiation, had freed it from Adongsa’s control. It bared its ferocious mouth at its creator, seemingly begging Adongsa to save it.

Adongsa expressionlessly crushed its ugly head beneath her foot. She did not even have enough interest to offer a farewell.

The purpose of these powerful demons had merely been to test whether Adongsa’s mastery of this planet’s biological genes was accurate. The results had proven that flaws still remained and further refinement was necessary.

As for the demons themselves, they had lost all value to Adongsa.

Now, she was more interested in the flying dragons and the active Prism Squad.