Chapter 146

Chapter 146
## Chapter: 146
Chapter Title: Facing the Elites

Specifically that degenerate, the individual who sneered at him alongside the person in the gold mask—how could that look ever fade from his memory?

To stay alive, to find a way out, the Master had been forced to embrace degradation.

‘I am the Master. I shall sit upon the world’s throne.’

Cr-r-runch!

He mashed his teeth together.

The fragile weakling of the past was gone.

Master.

True to his title, he was the governor of all existence, the entity destined to stand above all else.

Those who dared to mock him?

He had slaughtered every last one.

This degenerate would meet the same end.

“M-My limbs won’t obey me!”

“What? My frame is moving against my will?”

A wide-range technique.

One that triggers ‘disorientation,’ at that.

The stretching shadows.

Those caught within it lost all physical autonomy.

Appropriate for a follower of the Reaper Church—utterly devious.

‘Then my only task is to obliterate the zone itself.’

The Master lifted his right hand.

This ‘shadow’ took hold starting from the feet.

The sinister pupils carved into the chests of the people—once every eye blinked open, it achieved total command over them.

The feeble were seized in a heartbeat, but the transcendents were a different matter.

Provided that not every eye had manifested, they maintained some capacity for movement.

If that were the case.

Shatter!

As the Master drove his fist forward, the air fractured like a pane of glass.

The spatial tear grew wider, carving gashes into the ‘shadow’ zone.

Star-devouring inherited spatial destruction technique.

It functioned as the natural predator for those using area-of-effect abilities.

“W-We can move again!”

“No! The ‘shadow’ is…!”

The warriors surrounding the Master recovered their bodily control.

Yet in a flash, fresh shadows cascaded down like liquid over the ruined zone.

‘The impact of my demolition should be lasting.’

The Master scowled.

Typically, once he liquidated an area skill, it never manifested again.

However, this ‘shadow’ was stubbornly knitting itself back together.

There existed only a single exception to that rule.

‘So it isn’t a simple ability.’

If it wasn’t a basic skill but a strength passed down from consuming a star, similar to his own.

Star-based powers could only be neutralized by other star-based powers.

This shadow zone was undeniably the stellar power held by that degenerate.

Ha.

What an incredible anomaly.

A strength that could dominate a territory exceeding a 1 km radius.

Did a star of that magnitude even exist?

‘Excellent for managing a mob, but…’

That was fine.

He had grasped the situation.

He would discard the plan of smothering the freak with sheer numbers.

Instead, he would employ a compact elite squad.

2-stars.

Or rather, four of the mightiest level 12 combatants were already present.

The ones who had conquered level 12 zones at lightning-fast velocities, no less.

‘Earthbound collision.’

The Master dropped his center of gravity and hammered the soil.

Thrum!

The ground split and raced outward in every direction.

Heading straight toward the level 12 titans.

“Ngh!”

Gaining back their physical agency, they immediately locked onto ‘him’ from the front.

They knew by instinct that they had to purge this shadow as fast as humanly possible.

“Apotheosis Blessing!”

The holy warrior gripping a hammer activated his divine favor.

Simultaneously, dark patches resembling clouds manifested above the heads of the Master and the three others.

“Infect them! Brainmelt Worms!”

From the sleeves of the man draped in long robes, thousands of sparks-spitting insects surged out.

The insects swarmed toward the dark patches, quickly coalescing into miniature storm clouds.

Crack-boom! Crack-boom!

Bolts of lightning discharging from the storm clouds relentlessly battered the four.

That was the tactic that permitted them to finish the level 12 zone in record-breaking time.

The reason they even moved faster than the Black King’s elite guard.

《‘Apotheosis Thunder’ 1 stack achieved.》

《All attributes increased by 2.》

《Overload 10%》

《‘Apotheosis Thunder’ 2 stacks achieved.》

《All attributes increased by 4.》

《Overload 20%》

An undying blessing that stacked enhancements without end.

It inflicted massive pressure on the physical form, but provided transcendent strength in a short window.

The two abilities worked in perfect, terrifying harmony.

Boom!

《‘Apotheosis Thunder’ 5 stacks achieved.》

《All attributes increased by 10.》

《Overload 50%》

Every stat jumped by 10 in a heart’s beat.

Layered with gear and secondary enhancements, their potency swelled even further.

No beast, regardless of its status, could survive such a barrage.

‘Perish, you Reaper Church freak.’

The Master initiated spatial destruction once more.

The Toin tribe combatant brought down a heavy stomp, the lightning insect summoner coiled around him, and the ‘dark patch’ holy warrior swung to shatter ‘his’ skull.

But.

“……Wait?”

“It passed right through…!”

Every one of their strikes simultaneously ghosted through ‘his’ form.

THOOM!

The strikes that missed their mark collided with one another, generating a bone-shaking sonic boom.

They barely managed to check their momentum at the final second, retreating several paces—had they failed, they would have annihilated each other.

‘No way, a period of invulnerability?’

The Master grimaced.

The holy warrior and the lightning specialist spoke up.

“It isn’t invulnerability.”

“Exactly. A dodging technique. And it carries a fixed duration after activation.”

As expected, they had keen perceptions.

Keen enough to make one wonder about their origins.

“You yellow-bellied bastard. How long do you intend to hide?”

The Toin tribe combatant, seething, swung out violently at ‘him.’

《‘Apotheosis Thunder’ 7 stacks achieved.》

《All attributes increased by 14.》

《Overload 70%》

The complication was Apotheosis Thunder.

It too was a buff that stacked by force.

Prolonging the fight would only put them in a losing position.

“Dodging skills like that always possess a flaw.”

“It is certainly vulnerable to ‘radiance’ elements. The insects are whispering it to me.”

“Is that the case? Radiance!”

Blaze!

Light erupted from the holy warrior’s entire frame.

He appeared to be a shadow paladin utilizing dark patches.

To think he could channel the contradictory ‘radiance’ element as well.

As the light-bathed holy warrior swung his massive mallet at ‘him.’

Grind!

……Their limbs ceased to function once again.

“……The zone wasn’t shattered?”

“This isn’t a ‘zone’—it’s an affliction placed by that shadow-like bastard himself.”

“Tch, so it isn’t just for dodging.”

“But I have decoded the mechanism. ‘Eyes of Dire Omen,’ a top-tier affliction. You require a higher total attribute sum than him to withstand it.”

“So you’re claiming his total attributes are greater than mine? Even with Apotheosis Thunder at 7 stacks?”

“But it’s diluted by tethering several people at once. A small push should suffice.”

What on earth were these people?

Even in this crisis, they were talking so casually.

Particularly that insect mage.

His capacity to dissect and understand techniques was legitimately startling.

“Then we’ll have to exert ourselves further.”

Schloop.

The holy warrior bit down on his tongue.

Crimson fluid spilled out, turned to mist, and soaked into the ‘Apotheosis Thunder.’

Boom! Boom! Thrum!

“Apotheosis One! I sacrifice my sacred blood!”

《‘Apotheosis Thunder’ 12 stacks achieved.》

《All attributes increased by 24.》

《Overload 120%》

《Physical form in overload past safe parameters.》

《Sustaining this state will result in permanent attribute decay.》

These lunatics forced the Apotheosis Thunder stacks to 12.

But because of that choice…

‘The Eyes of Dire Omen stopped blinking open.’

Instead, the pupils were shutting.

Command over their bodies returned, and power surged through them.

‘Must conclude this with maximum speed.’

Right then, ‘his’ form was slowly shifting back to reality.

It meant the dodging skill’s time was running out.

Gulp! Gulp!

The Master snatched a vial from his bag and drained it.

In that instant.

《Utilized Alchemist Special ‘Giant’s Potion.’》

《Merging with Hidden Trait ‘Giant’s Magic Resistance.’》

《Changing into ‘Legendary Giant’!》

His final card, kept and protected for this moment.

The Master’s frame expanded immediately, becoming a colossus.

To obliterate the entire region and crush that bastard in a single motion.

As the duration fully ran out.

“……More difficult to crack than I anticipated.”

‘He’ spoke for the first time.

Heh!

As if the entire scene was purely entertaining, he wore a smirk.

What kind of people were they?

That holy warrior and the insect mage were especially notable.

‘Hidden Trait possessors. At least two or more each.’

The holy warrior undoubtedly held ‘Void,’ which permitted clashing elements.

The insect mage had ‘Great Sage’ along with his own scouting ability.

Their steady evaluation of the field, understanding of the foe, and shattering of the affliction were quite remarkable.

‘Stacking enhancements like that must put them under immense pressure.’

Buffs didn’t come without a price.

Especially that specific ‘forced stacking enhancement’—it provided incredible strength in a brief window but carried heavy consequences.

To utilize it without a second thought to defy the ‘Eyes of Dire Omen.’

Accepting the risk of permanent attribute loss.

‘Where did they come from?’

Total strangers.

The Toin tribe combatant was impressive too, but not quite at their standard.

Furthermore, the holy warrior’s techniques were incredibly intricate.

It was impossible to identify which sect they originated from.

‘Strengths from different sects blended together. Is that even feasible?’

Every sect had its unique mark.

For instance, those dark patches. The holy warrior’s shadow-cloud patches were the signature of the dark holy knights’ ‘Balrog Order.’

Then that burst of light.

That radiating light explosion was the Goddess Church’s hallmark.

Opposing, adversarial sect signatures within a single body.

It was unheard of.

‘And that isn’t everything. There was a blood-based secondary enhancement.’

Not just shadow and light.

Sacred blood given to the Apotheosis One.

‘First time I’ve ever heard that title.’

Apotheosis One.

No such name existed in my recollections.

Not even within Wilhelm’s.

A fresh faith, with marks from both the Balrog Order and Goddess Church merged in a single holy warrior.

‘Curious.’

This was quite captivating.

It looked like there would be enjoyment in peeling back the truth.

I assumed this level of effort would be enough, but the more I discovered, the more layers fell away like an onion, exposing new gambits without end.

‘Darkness Igniter’ alone wouldn’t be enough to finish this.

Naturally, Darkness Igniter was still in its development phase, so there was no cause for disappointment.

‘Time to confront them for real.’

Exiting Darkness Igniter.

Shifting back to my human shape, I unsheathed ‘Winter.’

Vroom!

Strikes rained down from every angle at once.

I couldn’t just stand idle either.

《Executing Wilhelm’s Swordsmanship ‘Heaven-Earth Revolution’—‘Open.’》

Wilhelm’s third form, a move I couldn’t perform with this physical body until this moment.

The blade that unseals the world!

It erupted through my frame.

Operator

‘The Eyes of Dire Omen have vanished.’

The Master gave a silent nod.

The dodging skill’s time had lapsed, and the change had faded.

Just like that, the shadow chaining the warriors, the Eyes of Dire Omen, dissolved as if they were never there.

‘Even the most potent strength has its boundaries.’

Nearly a hundred combatants.

Let alone four who could rightfully be deemed ‘the mightiest’—no technique or strength could hold their feet in place forever.