Chapter 24: Weakness

??? - 5th Dimension

"Overload..."

Philip disappeared from his place only to suddenly appear in front Trail. Trail was blown away with a simple right uppercut to the stomach from Philip.

Philip activated his exclusive skill, <Overload>, when he learned the true nature of the meteor. The breaker essence posed a potential threat to his companions that are protecting Earth as they possess certain forms of power and energy that defies the laws of reality.

He momentarily pictured the state of his comrades especially Eduardo, Ysabelle, and Kurt. What he saw are dead, lifeless bodies as soon as he returned. This caused him to snap as he stopped holding back.

The 3rd Gate of Wrath has been opened and it was powered further by <Overload>. This cause Philip's eyes to glow golden as brighter than before. His ivory armor shifted to lessen the spikes and horns and formed a smooth-surfaced body. A circular ivory plate also formed on the center of his chest and a glowing gold omega symbol formed on the circular plate.

The circular plate contained the golden omega symbol that accompanied by six smaller gold circles surrounding the omega symbol symmetrically.

His pillar wings propped up and two energy orbs formed for each pillar wings totalling ten energy orbs. The <Chrono Brachile> glowed blue on his wrists and <Shi-Kama Tamashī-Kiru> suddenly materialized around Philip without him pulling it. The scythe then floated at the back left side of him.

"This is incredible!!! I didn't know you had a lot of cards up your sleeve! Now show me what you got!! <Limit Sacrifice>!!"

Trail bellowed out while blood trickled on his mouth as he recovered from the sudden assault of Philip. He also used the secret ability of the bionic arm that makes him stronger in exchange with a portion of his life.

Philip just observed Trail as red lightning and black miasma surged around Trail. He waited for Trail to finish his transformation before attacking because that's how clichè usually works. In the meantime, he used <Scan> on the ability that Trail used.

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Limit Sacrifice

Sacrifices life force in exchange for power. The ability can make the user stronger than the opponent without condition. The more the magnitude of power that is being unbalanced, the more life force is being sacrificed until death.

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"This is troublesome..."

Philip murmured as the space around him trembled from his voice when he saw the description of the ability. He decided to stop Trail's transformation as he doesn't know how much Trail will become more powerful than him as he also don't know how much is Trail's life force.

He then raied his right arm above his head as if he is imitating a sword with his arm. But then, the ivory armor maneuvered around his right arm as if it's crawling around his arm with clanging and cracking sounds that sounded like mechanical gears or brealing bones.

The ivory armor then formed a long flat pointed ivory blade along his right arm. His arm became a milky white sword that looked like a katana with a golden sheen on it. Then, a couple of displays showed up.

[You have unlocked the sub-ability of <Regenerative Ivory>, <Shapeshift>]

[You can now transform your Ivory Armor in any shape or form that you will]

[<Omega Sword> has been unlocked]

[You can now form a sword from your arm. You can only used it once in your lifetime. (Uses left: 0)]

[<Personal Sword Technique>, <Personal Sword Arts>, <Swordless Technique, <Sword Concept Manifest> has been removed and combined.]

[<Sword Concept> has been obtained]

[You can now cast sword skills and abilities from <Sword Concept>]

[You have succesfully met a conditon: Combine two or more skills intentionally or unintentionally]

[<Combine> has leveled up]

[<Merge> has been unlocked]

[You can now combine weaker skills or abilities together to create a stronger skill or ability]

[Ranking system of skills and abilities has been created. Check by using <Scan> on any skill or ability]

[You have successfully met a condition: Create an object that possesses the three primary states of matter]

[You have obtaine the variable of matter]

[You can now identify all matter that you see]

Philip's eyes bulged out wide as he saw the string of displays, nonetheless, he is not distracted at what he should be doing right now. He focused his strength on the materialized <Omega Sword> that is his right arm.

The <Shi-Kama Tamashī-Kiru> floated behind the sword and aimed its blade towards the trajectory of the sword slash. The Shard of Imagination the floated in front of to where the righr palm is supposed to be. The shard then flashed.

As the shard flashed, Philip's mind was englufed, as he closed his eyes, with an infinite amount of scenes as Imagination entered his mind. Philip, along with the transforming Trail, was then engulfed by the Imagination Realm. Then the Imagination realm calmed down and focused on the <Omega Sword> on Philip's right arm and on Trail.

Philip then suddenly opened his eyes as he finished imagining at what will happen with his sword and Trail.

A wave of energy burst forth from Philip as it pushed away stray and foreign energies from the 5th Dimension. The <Omega Sword> then released a reddish black fire with golden flares as it will be thrusted forward into a slash.

"Sword Concept: Swordless Technique: Omega Sword: 0th Form: Imagine Death"

Philip slowly slashed his arm from above his head to his lower body as <Shi-Kama Tamashī-Kiru> followed along while emanating the usual death aura. The Imagination Realm was then rapidly absorbed by the shard transferred the collected energy towards the sword.

An invisible line surged towards Trail as he was still transforming. Strangely enough, the line seemed to bend space as it went towards Trail. The line seemed to be calm as it reached Trail, there was no surging of energy or a tear in space, only the mild distortion of space.

But in reality, it was the calm before the storm.

Trail, while transforming, seemed to sense the predicament that he is in. He can't dodge because of the transformation. His transformation also hasn't ended yet as the opponent in front of him was way more powerful than he expected. It will take time before the bionic arm completes the transformation as it calculates the power of Philip.

Trail seemed to notice the invisible line as it quietly approached him. At first, he ignored the abnormal energy he felt from the Shard of Imagination, but when he saw Philip thrust his odd looking sword along the scythe he couldn't help but move the bionic arm in front of the trajectory of the line in order to somehow stop it.

As soon as the line and the bionic hand camr in contact, a tear in space was suddenly heard. The 5th Dimension was suddenly cut into half as it hit Trail. Trail on the other hand, particularly the bionic arm, struggles as it tried to stop the line. Bloody red miasma and black lightning covered Trail as if to shield him and then, a massive explosion occured while both of Philip's and Trail's perspective was shattered like broken glass.

The sword skill that Philip released managed to cut half of the 5th Dimension. Because of that, they returned to the 3rd Dimension from exactly where they came from, the Asteroid Belt.

Philip's sword arm returned to normal as the scythe returned to back where it was floating and the shard returned to his left hand while floating. He didn't want to say the magic words as it will raise a flag and therefore, he said the opposite of the magic words. He thought of this because of the variable of reality.

"It's not over?"

But then, he felt his non-existent hair standing on his skin as he turned around to be met by a reddish bionic fist. The floating scythe managed to react faster as if it had a mind of its own and blocked the fist with its blade. But as soon as the fist was blocked, the fist then went around the scythe and hit Philip straight in the face.

The punch almost made Philip faint as the fist seemed to have a deeper strength from the strike. He then resisted to faint as he lookes towards the source of the fist.

It seemed that chanting the opposite of the magic words didn't do it.

Nonetheless, he cannot believe that the fist managed to almost make him faint as the 3rd Gate of Wrath is still open and <Overload> is still activated. He also didn't manage to react even though <Bullet Time> activated in the last second.

Philip saw Trail standing in the distance as Trail intimidated Philip by raising his right reddish bionic arm into a fist. Trail's body is covered by black lightning and half of his body is covered with red miasma. Seemed that the lightning and miasma switched colors. The white metallic sheen on his armor also became black with a metallic sheen on it.

But what's eye catching on his appearance is the bluish-white line that stretched along from his right shoulder to his left waist, but there was a gap on his chest. The rest of the line that was supposed to be in Trail's chest was apparent on the reddish bionic arm and his left arm. It was obvious that both arms blocked the trajectory of the line towards his chest.

"I was panicking a little bit from there but man! You kept on making surprised time and time again! You even managed to put a permanent scar on me and cut that dimension into half!"

The line was an ugly look from Trail as it was highly contrasting on his dark red and black motif. The line was emanating a bluish-white aura while the wound itself is white and no blood is dripping out from it.

Everything that just happened was within Philip's expectation, except for the sudden punch of Trail and his body being intact. He imagined everything that happened before he made the attack, from slicing the dimension into half and cutting Trail into half from his shoulder to waist with the bluish-white scar for effects. But it seemed that his imagination deviated from what supposed to happen as Trail wasn't cut into half.

Even the Shard of Imagination seemed agitated as it kept on spinning and rotating with intense speed while it floated on his left hand.

"But your power is now nothing to me as I already passed you with this!"

Trail instantly appeared behind Philip as the space from Trail's track was torn.

<Bullet Time> immediately activated and Philip managed to ducked as the reddish bionic fist swooped above his head. He also immediately jump forwards as the bionic fist came down came from above.

'He's fast!! How is he keeping up with Overload?!'

Philip couldn't help but mutter to himself as another fist came flying towards him.

"Eraser Punch!!"

Philip exploded a portion of the energy orbs on his pillar wings to propel himself sidewards to dodge the incoming fist. The Eraser Punch then literally erase the remaining chunk of Ceres in the Asteroid Belt. A portion of the space was also erased as it left a white patch, black matter then swarmed towards the white patch to fill it in.

'He's very dangerous now! I can't seem to match him! I need a sword to counter him but I can't use the <Omega Sword> anymore and <Swordless Technique> will not do anything against him!'

Then, Philip realized something!

'LIFE'S SWORD!! It's on Earth!'

But then, Philip immediately dismissed the idea as he knew that Trail will catch up to him if he went towarss Earth. Who knows if Trail will also destroy the world at the same time.

He then had an idea.

As he kept dodging Trail's attack by a hair's width, he kept on collecting energy that was released by the reddish bionic arm. He also secretly used the Shard of Imagination and activated Imagination Realm.

Trail on the other hand, oblivious to Philip's plan, kept on attacking Philip faster and faster with punches, black lightning, and red miasma.

Some time later, Philip has managed to dodge every single attack of Trail. It was odd, but he didn't know the reason, was it plot armor? The variable of reality than vibrated deep withing Philip.

He also managed to collect as much energy as he can and to his surprise, the amouny that he collected was almost the same as the energy of a super massive black hole that was condensed in a tiny speck of dust in front of his chest.

Then, Philip used the Imagination Realm and pushed himself to the utmost limit even though Overload is still activated. He moved behind Trail only for Trail to appear behind his back and he appeared behind Trail once again. This exchanged happened for who know how many times.

As Philip's speed kept incresing exponentially, he managed to create a large distance from Trail. He then condensed the Imagination Realm into the shard and tranferred the energy on the speck of energy. He then released the collected energy in front of his chest. He did this in a fraction of a second when he manually activated <Bullet Time>, he was afraid that Trail might catch up to him.

"OMEGA LAZER: WORLD!!!"

As soon as Philip said his attack to achieve resonance, Trail pushed himself to reach Philip before he can activate the ability. Alas, he was late.

A condensed massive wave of energy beam engulfed Trail entirely. The diameter of the beam is almost 15,000 kilometers in diameter and reach towards the edge of the Solar System.

Trail however was suspended in the space as he thrust forwarss with the reddish bionic arm aiming for Philip's chest. His body was disintegrating from the beam and the fist is only a few inches away from Philip's chest.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

[9 Gates of Wrath unlocked!]

[9 Gates of Wrath (4/9)]

[Gate 4: Rage]

[Boosts all skills and abilities by 50 times. Decreases life force and humanity by 5%]

Philip shouted out loud as he couldn't understand why Trail is going to such lengths just to capture me, even sacrificing his life. He was mad that he can't understand. He didn't know that he has already unlocked the 4th Gate of Wrath and the beam only intensified.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"

Trail also shouted out loud as the strain from the bionic arm detected the sudden surge in power from the 4th Gate of Wrath. Trail's life force couldn't handle the sacrifice anymore as his own life is waning. But that little increase in power was enough to achieve his goal.

His reddish bionic fist managed to strike the origin of the beam, Philip's chest. The weakness of every individual from the Big Family.

Philip felt a sudden weakening of his energy and as if time has slowed down, he slowly bent into a "<" shape as Trail's reddish bionic fist touched his unguarded chest.

*BOOM*

A sudden explosion happened as Philip was propelled and blown away towards the surface of Mars. Since Philip was hit in his weakness, the critical hit and damage was astronomical. He didn't stopped at the surface of the Mars... He drilled through it across the other side of Mars and he kept on being propelled by the critical hit towards Earth.

As the body if Philip hit the core of Mars, the Mars went into critical point and exploded into million debris and asteroid. The Mars ceased to exist.

On the other hand, Trail let the shockwave from the explosion of Mars deliver his body anywhere. His life has ended anyway.

"With this, my brother, my purpose that fate had given me was completed. I expect you to eliminate the so called Treath. Farewell, my brother."

Trail's body crumbled as his life force was completely extinguished from the final attack. The bionic arm and the rest of his body turned into dust as he disappeared from the universe.

"⊙ɧ 𝓷ᴏ, 𝐲ᴏப 𝗪ᴏ𝓷᾿ţᵎ"

A terrifying angry voice echoed from where Trail disappeared. He extended out his hand and black shining particles engulfed the space around where Trail disappeared, and then...

Trail returned back into existence with the exception of the bionic arm.

"Huh?!! Wha?!!"

Trail was extremely flabbergasted and confused as he knows that he should have disappeared into nothingness, then he slowly turned his head towards the suffocating power.

"Kurt?!"