Ch.516One Step Further

A world devoid of color.

In this alien world with bizarrely slowed time, I watched the monster’s arm approaching silently as it burst through black droplets scattered in the void.

Is this how a dragonfly feels when caught in human hands? Even raindrops had forgotten how to fall, sluggishly crawling like snails, yet the creature’s arm approached me at the pace of a walking child.

Disgustingly fast.

Still, compared to moments ago, it had slowed immeasurably. I calmly responded, carefully tracking the paths of the five approaching claws.

To avoid being caught in its suction, I avoided facing its palms head-on, threw myself between the gaps between its fingers, leapt onto fragments of ground that shattered and rose in my place…

And using those fragments as a springboard, I launched myself toward the monster’s arm.

—!

As if waiting for me to jump, another hand spread its fingers wide, trying to slash at me.

Twisting my body in midair, I swung Durandal. The blade of one of the Great’s Twelve Knights carved an arc, slicing through the monster’s fingers. The strange energy imbued in the blade tore through space with striking clarity.

I evaded three arms, sliced the fingers off the fourth, and landed by driving Durandal into the fifth forearm.

Then, in the next moment, the world of Defying Fate collapsed as it reached its limit.

【 GRAAAAAAAH!!! 】

A roar that threatened to tear my eardrums reverberated to my bones. The ground rapidly receded. My body shot upward into the air, dozens of meters high.

The monster violently plunged its fingerless arm into the dark lake and thrashed wildly, swinging its other arms ferociously.

I gritted my teeth and clung tightly to the monster’s arm, feeling like a child on a malfunctioning amusement ride. If I was thrown off now, I might fly all the way up to the clouds.

[ I thought things suddenly sped up—you’re doing something insane again! ]

Hersella scolded me urgently, sounding exasperated.

I thought she was sharing my vision and seeing the same scene, but her comment about things “suddenly speeding up” suggested that I alone could enter the colorless world by using Defying Fate.

Well, I had directly witnessed Hersella’s Field of Mortality, but even though it was a technique I deployed with my own body, I couldn’t understand its principles at all.

‘It’s not insane—how else could I target its neck?’

I rose unsteadily on the monster’s arm, breathing heavily with exhaustion. The violent movement made it difficult to maintain balance.

I had thought I could use Durandal as support since I’d embedded it, but due to its space-cutting power, gripping Durandal only sliced through the monster’s arm rather than providing stability.

So instead, I was driving Frosting into the monster’s arm, clutching its flesh to hold on. Though the curse imbued in Frosting had no effect on this opponent, the sharp claws could still tear and dig into the monster’s flesh.

‘Haschal, help me balance with the power of Karma of Murder! I’ll handle the defense!’

As the monster’s convulsions subsided slightly, I pulled Frosting from where I’d embedded it and ran along the monster’s arm. It was the worst possible path—slippery, rounded, and shaking—but it was the only way to approach the creature’s head.

[ Always choosing the most reckless approach! ]

Despite her complaints, Hersella manifested two red tentacles that dug into the monster’s arm, supporting me like training wheels on a bicycle.

The nape of its neck grew closer. The monster’s eyes all turned toward me, noticing my approach.

“Go ahead and shoot if you dare!”

No black beam came flying. Just as I expected.

Of course—if it fired a dark mana beam while I was on its arm, it would be blasting off its own limb.

Instead, it attacked me with its other hands, swatting as if I were a mosquito on its arm. The monster’s arm cast a massive shadow over my head.

“Ceylon!”

“Astraea—!”

Golden chains wrapped around the monster’s arm, restraining it, while a horizontal beam of judgment shot toward the monster’s head.

Ceylon’s power could stop the monster’s movement for only an instant, but it was enough time for me to respond to its attack.

I swung Durandal at the momentarily frozen palm, deeply slicing through the massive lips vertically, then leaped to land on another arm.

The chains of holy light snapped immediately as the monster’s hand struck where I had just been standing, but I was already running along a new arm.

A dizzying aerial battle continued.

—-

I tried to approach the monster’s head by leaping from arm to arm in midair. This was combat at the extreme edge of survival—one moment of lost focus meant instant death. It was a tactic I couldn’t have attempted alone.

The monster—a demonic being born from the arm of an evil god, so I’ll call it a demon—constantly swung its arms, trying to knock me off or crush me.

Surging dark mana flew at me like a tsunami, and when my body was suspended in midair, the demon’s maw tried to suck me in. Hersella’s extended Karma tentacles kept me from being pulled away.

“How dare you!”

Ceylon, who had been swinging her thorn sword at one of the arms, cast a beam of judgment at the hand trying to suck me in.

Golden rain poured into the demon’s mouth, carving countless wounds. The demon’s mouth spat blood and stopped its suction. It roared ferociously.

“Elpinel!”

A pillar of pure white light manifested by Lacy pierced through the black wave sweeping toward me. The jet-black spray scattered in all directions, dissipating in the white light.

“Haaah!”

Simultaneously, Nigel and Leonore slashed and stabbed the dark mana tentacles flying toward Lacy. It was a flawlessly coordinated attack.

Of course, even with their help, I wasn’t safe. They could only block a couple of arms at most. Dealing with the rest was entirely my responsibility.

“Kyaaaah!”

My nerves heated to their limit. My senses sharpened like blades. Even my blind spots felt visible with clarity.

My blood vessels bubbled like lava. Survival instinct elevated my mind. My increasingly hot body emitted black and red vapor like mist.

In this extreme situation, closer to death than ever before, everything I had learned and realized was slowly evolving, step by step.

– KWAOOOOO!

The demon’s arms moved even faster. Five claw-like fingers descended toward me, twisting and striking. The air pressure and killing intent pressed down on me.

【 Defying Fate 】

The world turned black and white in the blink of an eye, then returned to normal after a single step. A Tale of Heros lasting only an instant. My heightened senses perfectly grasped the enemy’s movements in that brief time.

I touched the ground, kicked off while spinning, perfectly evading three fingers, and sliced through the remaining two with Durandal. Black blood covered me once again.

– PAAAH!

As if no longer hesitating, a black beam shot toward me. I activated Defying Fate again, throwing my body into a somersault.

I withdrew the power before my floating body could land. Using Defying Fate at full power consumed tremendous Karma, but activating it for just a moment minimized the drain.

With each activation, my body seemed to grow more accustomed, and the gaps between uses of Defying Fate grew shorter.

– KWAAAANG!

The misdirected beam cut across the city, penetrating and collapsing part of the wall. The demon’s arm was also deeply gouged, apparently caught in its own beam.

I landed with the support of Hersella’s Karma tentacles, drove Durandal into the massive forearm beneath my feet, and ran along it. The monster’s arm split vertically, spraying a fountain of blood.

The demon shook its arm violently to throw me off, but as long as Hersella’s power held, I wouldn’t be flung away.

My vision spun wildly, and the blood in my body rushed in one direction, then another.

My vision alternated between darkening and reddening with the flow of blood, but the power of Karma I had spread throughout my body moved instinctively, forcibly redirecting my blood flow. It was a strange sensation.

Feeling like something might spill out if I opened my mouth, I kept my lips tightly sealed, gritted my teeth, and fought on silently. Until the monster’s head came within reach of my blade.

Black rain poured from holes in the void, soaking my entire body. The anti-mana blessing in my body and the stigmata of scales embedded in my chest glowed with heat, blocking the invasion of dark mana.

I moved like lightning thrashing in the sky, swinging my sword in a trance-like state.

I wasn’t thinking about my swings. I wasn’t even seeing them. My reflexes, sharpened to the extreme, and the experience etched into my body were moving my flesh ahead of my conscious mind.

Space-cutting sword strikes carved through the demon’s arms, and Frosting, soaked in the monster’s blood, dug into and tore out the blood vessels and nerves tangled in its forearms.

Massive fingers and hideous wrists were severed by golden arcs and fell into the black lake.

At the cost of rapidly depleting stamina and armor shattering to pieces, I forgot even the pain as I dismantled the demon’s eight arms like rags while charging toward its head.

Finally, Durandal’s blade drove into the demon’s nape—

【 Elfineeeeell! 】

The entire lake of dark mana erupted like a volcano.