Chapter 311

Chapter 311
## Chapter 311

World’s Enemy (3)

An intense radiance burst forth from Heinrich’s upper back.

Flash—

Resembling a lepidopteran breaking free from its cocoon, a set of luminous wings gradually materialized, their outlines wavering and translucent.

Subsequently, as these fresh appendages spread wide, vibrating softly within the swirling ring of illumination,

The surrounding ambient forces rushed toward his position, pulled by the sheer magnetism of the glow, causing the density of sanctified energy within his physical vessel to skyrocket.

‘Could this be… ’

Heinrich’s gaze widened just a fraction in astonishment.

However, he could not permit himself to lose focus.

A specific task demanded his attention.

Gripping the hilt of his blade with renewed intensity,

Wooong—

…he directed the flow of his sanctified energy straight down the reflective steel.

The power surged outward, akin to a destructive toxin, penetrating the foe’s physical form and systematically dismantling everything it touched.

“Cough…!”

The display was fierce and unyielding, presenting a sharp divergence from the typically soothing and benevolent essence of sanctified energy.

Yet the force, conforming entirely to the desires of its master, offered no clemency, slicing into the opposing celestial essence with predatory ferocity.

Ultimately, conflicts erupting over differing doctrines were a common historical occurrence.

And the triumphant party in this particular clash had already been determined.

“Khehehe… This is… absurd.”

The Master of Heaven’s Turn Society offered a low laugh, crimson fluid dripping from his lips while the sanctified blade remained embedded in his torso.

In contrast to the pale fluid seeping from the stump of his severed appendage, the fluid escaping his remaining gashes retained its deep red hue.

“How long have you been plotting this outcome? I never anticipated concluding my path in this manner.”

Had he surrendered to his fate?

His features, which had previously been contorted with fury, had settled into an indifferent stillness, his gaze entirely hollow as he locked eyes with Heinrich.

‘What sort of scheme is he concocting?’

Heinrich offered no verbal reply,

Instead, he twisted the embedded blade, forcing an even greater volume of sanctified energy into the wound.

He detected the fading pulse of the Master’s vitality, which was rapidly plumbing its lowest depths.

‘I must guarantee his end.’

Simultaneously, the offensives of the remaining avatars and the holy incantations of the Church rained down in rapid succession.

“Khaha! Stripping a single wing is insufficient! Yield the remaining one to me, companion!”

“Hmm, the flavor profile of this is… peculiar. Yet not entirely unpalatable.”

Harley, his visage stained with pale fluid and stray plumage, alongside Heinz the Second, moving with the stealth of a specter, pounced forward.

Furthermore, Harris’s distant projectile, a silent shaft, tore straight through the curtain of holy illumination, finding its mark flawlessly.

It was an unceasing barrage, a tempest of strikes calculated to completely crush him.

“…There is no alternative choice.”

A muttered phrase, barely a whisper, slipped past the Master’s lips, perceptible only to Heinrich due to his immediate proximity.

“………!”

Right then,

Whirr—

…the entire environment ground to a halt.

The cascading torrents of power froze mid-trajectory, the avatars and the assembling multitude ceased all movement, and their countenances remained locked in place.

Resembling a snapshot freezing a single, chaotic instant, every element became motionless, extending even to the suspension of active energy particles.

‘A Temporal Freeze?’

Heinrich, temporarily bewildered by the grand and otherworldly phenomenon, rapidly gathered his faculties as his internal cognitive processing accelerated.

No, this was not a macro-level alteration of universal time.

[“Highly commendable. To think your consciousness could trail me into this domain.”]

This represented merely a fleeting pause, a minor pocket of stillness carved out within a hyper-accelerated state of mind.

[“Hmm, does the fault lie with the sanctified energy linking us through this blade? This circumstance is… without precedent. Regardless, it changes nothing.”]

Though the remaining avatars were present in the physical space, only Heinrich, bound intimately to the Master via the holy blade, possessed the capacity to witness this brief interlude.

Precisely as the Master deduced, the connection was maintained courtesy of the holy blade wedged deep within his torso.

[“This represents… an immense setback. A failure this premature has not occurred to me in quite some time.”]

The Master’s internal reflections, unprompted, trickled directly into Heinrich’s consciousness.

They remained positioned face-to-face, their stares locked, their physical forms entirely paralyzed.

Heinrich experienced an urge to strike back with words, to highlight the ridiculous nature of the foe’s grievances, but his own internal voice failed to project outward. It was highly probable he simply lacked familiarity with this state of being.

[“…It appears my window has closed. Let us conclude our business here.”]

Evidently, the foe had not squandered those brief moments.

The instant his concluding thought registered within Heinrich, a transformation commenced across the paralyzed landscape.

‘What is transpirng here…?’

The Master of Heaven’s Turn Society, his physical frame shattered and his chest impaled by the sanctified steel,

…commenced a process of literal regression.

Swish—

The vital essence that had been hemorrhaging via the holy edge began to flow backward, his lacerations mending themselves until they disappeared entirely.

Subsequently, mirroring a reversal of chronological events, he extracted himself cleanly from the piercing weapon, and a pair of unblemished wings, entirely reconstituted, unfurled from his spine.

‘He possesses the power to regress time…? I was under the impression his distinct capability was localized spatial distortion?’

A chronological regression, a complete restoration of state.

However, Heinrich swiftly discerned that this rewinding process suffered from limitations.

‘He lacks the capacity to regenerate the wing Harley severed, nor can he reclaim the fluid Heinz consumed. His influence fails to reach components detached from his central form.’

That realization brought a measure of comfort.

The foe had forfeited a massive portion of his combat capability alongside that lost wing, given the immense store of power it originally housed.

[“I shall retain memory of this event, Champion of Auterica. My submission will not be secured so easily during our next encounter.”]

Following that statement, the Master, entirely mended to his baseline condition, broadcasted his parting thought.

He had already transitioned to a significant distance, past the boundaries of Heinrich’s restricted visual range within this suspended moment, yet his essence remained palpable.

‘…This is deeply aggravating.’

The moment the Master’s lingering essence dissolved entirely,

And physical mobility returned to Heinrich’s limbs,

The Master had successfully evacuated the sanctified territory.

An isolated, partially consumed wing and a modest quantity of fluid secured by Heinz were the sole remnants left behind.

“The blasphemer has broken containment! Maintain maximum alertness…”

“Platoons 3 and 4, deploy the localized scouting wards! The remaining forces, adopt a protective alignment…!”

Heinrich, completely disregarding the ecclesiastical authorities who were frantically combing the area for the escaped quarry, shifted his gaze.

Indeed, the target had departed.

He was no longer present.

—

The immediate environment turned into a streak of colors as his physical vessel regressed through the chronological stream.

The Master shut his eyelids, centering his cognitive focus.

‘Utilizing my chronological regression was against my preferences.’

He had drastically overtaxed this specific function in his past history, driving it far past its safe thresholds, and even now, having attained a state bordering on godhood, prudence was mandatory whenever he invoked it.

Its operational efficiency had degenerated, whereas the physical toll exacted upon his vessel had grown weightier…

‘Yet alternative paths were non-existent.’

He lacked any other viable escape route.

Had his demise occurred within that sanctuary, not only would his celestial essence have sustained catastrophic harm, but he would have likewise triggered severe penalties for defaulting on his pact with the entity of the abyss.

‘This complicates matters. I question the wisdom of maintaining investments within this specific realm.’

Though he had informed the emissary of the Principal Deity regarding his inevitable return… dedicating further hours to this sector appeared highly inefficient.

He had committed a tactical blunder by initiating a direct confrontation prior to integrating completely with the environmental variables of this plane.

It might prove far more advantageous to dissolve the pact entirely and redirect his ambitions toward an alternate reality.

Naturally, penalties would manifest as a consequence of terminating an agreement unilaterally… yet weighing the presence of a seer against the general hostility index of this plane, it stood as a rational path forward.

‘Abandoning this venture is distasteful… I shall monitor the shifting variables and finalize my stance at a later interval.’

Provided ultimate victory was secured, temporary deficits remained manageable.

Right as he was evaluating his subsequent course,

The chronological regression finally concluded.

He had manifested back at the precise coordinates where his arrival in this realm had first transpired.

The moment he parted his eyelids—.

[“Kkuk kuk— An extraordinary chance encounter. Extensive time has rolled past since our last meeting.”]

…He found himself staring directly into a pair of smoldering optical orbits, set deep within a grinning ivory cranium.

The freezing vocalization was one he recognized from innumerable past friction points.

“…Confound it…”

He spat an internal imprecation.

Directly following that.

Thud—!

An icy extremity tore straight through his sternum, wrapping its fingers securely around his cardiac organ.

His limbs had already been immobilized by dark brambles and binding irons that manifested from the immediate vicinity, rendering him incapable of physical resistance.

‘He anticipated even this precise coordinate?’

His thoughts churned frantically, scrambling to interpret the mechanics behind this ambush.

Nevertheless, it was of no consequence.

A necrotic force, flooding his compromised vessel through the hand restricting his cardiac organ, migrated with extreme velocity, polluting his celestial essence.

‘This trajectory is fatal.’

A psychological warning signal resonated through his consciousness.

This scenario diverged completely from his prior predicament.

This specific assault threatened to compromise the very core of his immortal status…

‘My temporal window is non-existent.’

An isolated course of action remained available to him.

Cut the deficit short and execute a departure.

“…I hereby dissolve the pact.”

Clenching his teeth while his cardiac organ compressed agonizingly beneath the unrelenting pressure, he uttered the declaration.

Right after.

Koooo—

A monumental detonation, a blinding eruption of brilliance, shattered the peace of the mountain range situated to the northeast.

—

Once the atmospheric turbulence dissipated,

[“Kuh— That display was… remarkably hostile. And what precisely is this object…?”]

Hans, releasing a wave of his internal sorcery, cleared away the hovering sediment and fractured stone.

He mended his fractured skeleton, a direct outcome of the blast radius, and scrutinized the dark power swirling across his palm, tilting his skull slightly to the side.

His fingers had been locked around the Master’s cardiac organ… yet his current grasp held only a pulsating globule of energy that actively fought against his dominance.

Furthermore, its resonance felt… remarkably familiar.

‘No secondary traces survive? He executes his exits with absolute precision, doesn’t he?’

His crossing with the Master had materialized as a matter of pure fortuity.

He had journeyed to these coordinates to inspect the structural integrity of the abyssal fracture following his rotation with Heinrich and the secondary group, only for the Master to materialize without warning.

‘My objective was to analyze the residual traits of the fracture to deduce his method of crossing the planar boundary… ’

The development had evoked minor astonishment, yet he lacked the foolishness required to squander an opportunity of that magnitude.

Additionally, he had been caught somewhat unawares by the Master’s abrupt decision to trigger a self-destructive detonation.

‘It appears Hans claims the final blow.’

He observed Heinrich managing the residual complications back at the holy ground, then redirected his concentration toward the active energy contained in his palm.

He had been holding it via sheer physical coercion, meaning he could no longer postpone a permanent solution.

‘This substance is… ’

An intuitive realization dawned regarding its true nature.

‘It maintains a direct link to the deity chained within the deep abyss.’

Its signature felt… strikingly parallel to his personal 「Immortal Heart」, indicating they shared an identical point of origin.

The Master must have obtained it through some transactional means.

Moreover, it appeared to harbor a massive portion of the Master’s personal reserve, likely due to a portion of his essence becoming trapped during the sudden self-destruction.

The loss must have dealt a crippling blow to his celestial framework.

‘An incredibly charitable offering.’

He had anticipated zero compensation for his intervention in this particular crisis.

‘Moving forward… ’

Retaining a physical grip on it indefinitely was unfeasible. The potential for unforeseen complications was far too high.

Immediate processing was mandatory.

The methodology presented itself to his instincts naturally.

Hans slipped the pulsating mass of energy directly into the spatial pocket connected to his internal cardiac organ, concealed beneath his shredded garment.

Given their shared ancestral origin…

Thump—

His cardiac organ, which had previously lingered in a dormant state, struck against his ribs with violent intensity.

The foreign energy mounted a resistance, acting as though it possessed an independent consciousness, yet the intertwined abyssal properties refused to separate.

It developed into a localized conflict for total authority.

And the resolution materialized swiftly.

Ultimately, it stood no chance when measured against unadulterated, highly concentrated necrosis.

[“Kkuk kuk— The deep abyss stirs.”]

Though immediate structural modifications failed to register superficially, he possessed an innate certainty.

He had effectively bridged the separation between himself and the Master.

‘Correction, the foe has realistically suffered a demotion, making it more akin to a two-step advancement.’

Simultaneously at that exact juncture.

『Divine Fragment of the XXed XXX (20,600,000)』

…The required valuation of a specific commodity within the Karma Shop shifted once more.