Ch 95 – YOU FOOL! I HAVE BEEN ONLY SHOWING 10% OF MY POWER!!!
"You okay, Honda-san?" Silvy asked, causing the others to notice Honda's strange, jittery movements.
"Did you just loop?" Lute asked as Honda nodded his head and took a deep breath to calm himself down.
Nearing Honda, Lute raises his staff with the blue gem on the tip of the metallic staff glowed a blue light and a link was made between all the five of them shown by a light blue thread connected between their foreheads. Instantly, the memories of the previous loop entered their minds as their eyes widened after the memories stopped playing.
"What was that red stone on Yami's chest?!" Bella shouted as her mouth was wide open, shocked by Yami's increased in strength and how incomparably desperate the situation was. Now the gap between them has only increased further, and they would have to think of a way to deal with Yami, somehow.
As the five chatted with each other, Honda secretly took glances toward Kira silently standing opposite to him. The plans they made were instantly rebutted by Lute, showing how it would fail and how they would just all die. No matter what they gave, there seems to be no way to deal with Yami with their current strength.
Sighing, each walked away to take a short breather to try and find a solution for defeating Yami. Walking away, Honda leaned back on a tree while glancing at the night sky above them with the fake moon floating high above them. No stars could be seen, nor any clouds. The soft rustling of the leaves of trees, the shrubs, and the grass all around him gave a peaceful feeling inside this decrepit dungeon they found themselves stuck in.
"Hey, Honda-chan," Lute's voice suddenly appeared out of nowhere, spooking Honda as his head recoiled back in shock, accidentally bumping it to the tree he was leaning on as Lute chuckled.
Grinning wryly, Honda patted the back of his head and said, "You need something?"
"Nothing really. But you seem hurt there. I'm just gonna cast a spell on you real quick," Lute said, waving his staff forward and tapping the blue gem on the staff's tip to his chest as it glowed blue light.
'I wonder what spell it would be.' Honda thought as he looks at Lute's soft, pink lips similar to cherry blossoms open slightly.
"[Loop]"
"Nothing really. But you seem hurt there. I'm just gonna cast a spell on you real quick," Lute said, waving his staff forward and tapping the blue gem on the staff's tip to his chest as it glowed blue light.
'I wonder what spell it would be.' Honda thought as he looks at Lute's soft, pink lips similar to cherry blossoms open slightly.
"[Stealth]," Lute casted as Honda's body got enveloped by a blue light for a split moment and he felt his presence lowering to a level barely recognizable.
"Oh, isn't this your self-made spell?" Honda muttered as he experimented around, trying to see how his stealth-enveloped body would react with the environment around him.
Chuckling, Lute nods his head and retracts the blue glow on his staff's blue gem, and said, "Yeah, just wanted to test the spell's effectiveness one last time."
Walking away, Honda pointed his head back to the sky once more and observe the night sky. It was so eerie, lacking any stars and the "moon" of this dungeon just being a ball of white lunar light beaming down on the whole island. But what he was more afraid of was the notion that a being could have created this dungeon.
'Well, Kilt can create dungeons with his cheat, but not like this.' Honda thought as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, resuming his usual antics as time passed and the five could now be seen standing in front of the cave entrance once more.
Lute's staff was also glowing a bright white light, no traces of mana could be seen escaping into the environment meaning Lute was expending zero mana to keep up the light, a beneficial skill he developed.
"Let's hope this is finally the last loop," Lute muttered as the other four nodded. And so, they took their first step into the cave entrance for a grand fight is in store for them. Five adventurers against one Shadow of absurd might.
As they walked further down into the cave, the five couldn't help but feel their hearts palpitating in fear. They had already died three other times to the Shadows, so they have gained a small amount of psychological fear towards them, especially towards Yami.
"Strange, why are there no Shadows appearing yet?" Lute muttered as they kept walking down further and further through the lightly illuminated cave made of jagged rocks and rough surfaces they have to walk on.
"Kira, can you sense any Shadows nearby?" Lute asked while making the light emitted by his staff's blue gem glow stronger. Responding to Lute's question, Kira shakes his head as the five tightened their grip over their weapons. Danger just lurks around the corner and they knew it.
But strangely enough, the further they walked down and the larger the cave became, no Shadows appeared even though it was an optimal place for an ambush to be committed. By the time more than ten minutes have passed, they would have already encountered some Shadows, but this time, not even a whiff of a Shadow was seen nor sensed by either Kira, and secretly Honda who kept his new ability a secret.
'Why are there no Shadows appearing yet?' Honda thought as he felt sweat slowly forming on his forehead and his palms as a sense of undetectable danger pressured his mind. Not only for him, but for the others as well. Being seasoned adventurers, they knew the value of being cautious no matter the situation, and considering death's door was potentially anywhere within this cave, the lack of Shadows gave off an invisible pressure to their fragile, tired minds burdened with past loops' memories.
As they continued to walk down, both Kira's eyes and Honda's eyes widened in shock as they felt a strong aura appearing within their ranges. A strong pressure that made their will waver from sensing it alone. An amalgamation of Impurities gathered into a singular humanoid entity just a few hundred meters away from the place they were standing.
"Yami has fused with all the other Shadows on the island," Kira reported out of nowhere, causing the others to gasp in shock as they can't help but feel a trace of fear.
But in this hopeless situation, Lute only sighed and continued walking forward until they finally arrived at the cavern and they saw it. There he was, Yami standing all alone in an empty cavern with his glaring scarlet eyes and the bloody red stone on his chest that gave off a ginormous amount of power, it was akin to facing one's greatest fears trapped into a single bloody red stone.
"You five have finally arrived, I had been waiting for your arrival quite patiently," Yami chuckled, his body standing still over his stone pedestal as a large shadow ran along the walls behind him.
"How do we deal with him?" Bella asked, slowly losing her hope at the low chance of winning against that thing.
Sighing, Lute clapped his hands, catching all of their attention including Yami.
"Sigh, I really didn't want to use this trump card of mine so soon inside this dungeon, but it seems like we'll have to finally go serious, isn't that right, Kira?" Lute groaned as the other three, especially Honda looked at Lute strangely.
Nodding his head, Kira started to walk forward while Lute followed behind him.
"Wait!" Silvy shouted, planning to follow the two of them to fight against Yami.
"Shush, you three just sit quiet back there, alright? You have no chances of damaging Yami as of now, so just watch us three fight," Lute looked back at them with a serious gaze, Lute has never once been this serious so they instinctively knew he was not joking. Gulping, SIlvy stepped back as they looked at the two's silhouette walking towards the scarlet-eyed Yami.
"Ohoho, quite confident are we?" Yami cackled, crouching down, he jumped high into the air and landed on the ground a few tens of meters away from the two.
"You forced my hand, Yami. [Lifespan Sacrifice], [Mana Cloak]," Instantly, a burst of power erupted from Lute's body as a dark purple glow covered his whole body like shadowy flames. The mana pressure he emitted from standing there silently made the trio that stood far away have trails of sweat form on their foreheads.
"Come out, Divine Light," Not only that, as Kira waved his hands in the air, a piercing golden light erupted from his open right palm and instantly covered his whole body in golden light.
Two opposite beings of monstrous aura appeared rivaling that of Yami, in fact, the two seemed to even surpass Yami. One was a being of dark purple flames with glaring violet eyes, the other was a humanoid figure of golden light with shining white eyes.
"W-what is that?!" the trio shouted in shock, unable to believe the sudden change the duo has done.
'They had been hiding their trump cards this whole time?!' Honda thought, his fists tightening at the apparent shock he felt. Not only that, even Yami's eyes widened from the sudden twist.
"Let's go!" Lute shouted, crouching down to the ground as his metallic staff became a dark purple sword seemingly made of flames. With a boom, the duo arrives right in front of Yami in a split second as Yami hastily created a black scythe to block the swords of the two.
Grunting, Yami was flung back to the wall as he felt a flash of danger in front of him. Quickly moving his shadow away, he appeared far away and saw the wall his shadow was previously on razed to the ground while Lute and Kira looked at him ferociously.
Chuckling, Lute goes into a sword stance and muttered, "Where's the arrogance now, Yami-chan!"
*Boom*
Arriving right in front of Yami, he swings his dark purple sword toward Yami's scythe, and sparks formed in the air as the clang of metal was heard. Grunting, Yami's eyes widened when he felt Kira appear directly behind him and materialized a pair of arms behind his back to materialize a new scythe and blocked Kira's sword of golden light from touching his shadow.
But unexpectedly, Yami watches as Kira's sword of golden light change shape and form into countless needles of golden light to form countless holes in his true shadow.
'Crap!' Yami thought as his projected body melted into the ground and appeared far away from the duo, now bleeding black blood while huffing profusely. But Lute didn't let him rest, appearing directly in front of him and slashing his head off instantly to cut off his vision for a split second as Yami grunted upon more cuts got inflicted on his true shadow.
Whizzing away after melting into his shadow, Yami's body got reformed once more while glaring at the duo who stared at him nonchalantly.
"What's wrong, Yami? You're overbearing advantage now gone?" Lute chuckled, dangling his dark purple sword while the trio looked at both Kira and Lute in shock.
'I-is this their true power?' Honda thought, unable to believe the scene he was watching right now.
"You know what, this has been going on long enough, it's time to end this!" Lute shouted as his sword glowed a bright purple light, illuminating the whole cavern as he shouted two certain words that caused all spectators watching to gasp in shock.
"[TIME STOP!]" Upon shouting, a flicker appeared before they suddenly heard whooshing sounds and Yami stood there, unmoving and not twitching even a single muscle. On the middle of his chest, a gaping hole could be seen as Lute can be seen standing behind Yami holding a bloody red stone on his right arm. The dark purple armor covering his whole body wisped away into the air while Yami's body slowly crumbled from the ground up.
'So this is the end for Eric the Reincarnated Alchemist, huh?' Lute thought, his eyes flashing a trace of admiration as the bloody red stone on his hand dimmed a little.
AN: This is 2073 words, you're welcome.
It's a fuckfest of blasts to the past. Like Divine Light? You probably think I just pulled that one out of my ass. But do you remember the reward Braun gained after the MGS Esper Volume? Yeah, Divine Light is fucking Light Piercer just modified. And I'll explain how he stopped time later but just look at Rolo's Geass Ability from Code Geass, that's basically how it works.
Writing is hard; send me your power stones.
(July 20, 2022 – 238th day of writing)