abcnovels
Chapter 260: Btog 260 Arrogant Monsters
Chapter 260: Btog 260 Arrogant Monsters
Chapter 260: Btog 260 Arrogant Monsters
Tl note:
Alexa, play [one winged angel] from ff7.
This image will be relevant in the middle of this chapter, this game called block breaker.
Sorry if I seems late. This is a hard and beautiful chapter.
Author note:
In the last chapter!
Three hundred icicles were racing toward Sukuna as she began to awaken in the hope of becoming stronger!
===*
For Sukuna who can see bullets without any difficulty, the speed of WLO’s magic is so slow that it makes her laugh.
And just until yesterday, she was in the bullet-riddled world of Zero Wars. Unless it was magic like the super-fast spear of light used by Apocalypse, she would have no trouble dealing with the magic itself.
And even more so now that she had released her vision beyond its limits.
Currently, three hundred ice lances are coming down from diagonally above.
Representing their name perfectly, they came down from directly above. Sukuna was alarmed immediately after hearing Melty’s voice but was reassured by the relatively easy-to-deal-with form of magic.
(It’s a guided projectile? If I had dodged it normally, I could see several places where I would have been hit.)
Sukuna’s eyes caught the movement pattern of all the ice spears immediately after the magic was activated.
Starting in the center, she examined the size of each spear, the distance between them, and the speed with which they moved.
based on this information, countless evasive routes instantly floated in Sukuna’s brain as if she were tracing a goal of a maze.
The most effective way to avoid an object flying at an angle is to fall forward or jump backward, but this time it is not as easy as it looks.
There are 84 routes that will seem that it will allow you to complete a breakthrough, but among them, 76 were vicious traps that will catch you in checkmate should you fall into it.
There are a few routes that look safe, but they are designed to lead you to a dead end.
It looks random, but the evasion route is properly blocked. And with that said, directly intercepting such magic was also an extremely difficult feat.
However, Sukuna’s eyes certainly saw an alternative path as well.
“This kind of magic with numbers is easy to deal with, …take this!”
Sukuna started Running, jumping, and flying. And so, without even the need for an exaggerated dodge, Sukuna advances toward an ice spear.
After one, two, or three steps, she threw her disposable kanabou which had no particular name, at her target. And the ice spear, which was located two meters to the right behind the outermost ice spear, hit the object called [Nameless Kanabou], sending them flying away.
After that, due to the kanabou being sent at an angle that slightly shifted the trajectory of the ice spear, the next ice spear itself also changed its trajectory and collided with the following ice spear.
The misalignment led to more misalignment, and the spears canceled each other out. The ones that escaped the destruction turned into an ice spears with irregular trajectories, flying in an odd path.
Yes, a similar phenomenon, like when a bullet in a block breaker game goes into the blocks gaps, the magic itself is being crushed from the inside out.
Even without Sukuna’s further intervention, the magic collapses on its own, like a never-ending pile-up cards.
While watching the magic crumbles, she took four or five more steps to dodge each unquenchable ice spear. And finally, after taking twelve steps, she broke three hundred pieces of icicle from [Ranbai-Frozen Pillar of Ice].
“I wonder what kind of eyes you have to have to be able to do such a trick. I didn’t think you would break it without even using one of your skills.”
This result is unexpected even for Melty. That’s why she whispered those words with a puzzled expression while looking at her palm that just cast the magic.
Because it shouldn’t be something that can be calculated.
However, the result remained. It was the result of the sheer absurdity only possible for someone who truly understands their capability.
“Okay, that’s great. I don’t know what you’re going to get out of this battle, but it’s a good opportunity for me to gauge the potential you travelers have. Well, to thank you for showing me something interesting, I will show you a little special technique in magic combat.”
Melty said and lightly clasped her hands together.
A single flash of lightning flashed across the space, and Melty’s hands were covered in red lightning.
No, it is easy to see that both hands are charged with red lightning, but if you look closely, you can see lightning gushing out from her whole body. It is certain that she is wearing the attribute for some reason, but the effect remains unknown.
“What is that? That’s so cool!”
“Right? This is a technique called [magic suit]. As the name implies, it is an advanced technique for mages to [wear] magic, giving different buffs depending on the magic’s attribute. For example, right now I was clad in lightning….”
The sound of a small electric discharge could be heard from Melty.
Sukuna lost sight of Melty in an instant, and Melty had already positioned herself behind Sukuna.
Or so it appeared from the surroundings, but the current Sukuna’s eyes saw right through Melty’s movements.
(Is that the effect of the lightning? She’s twice as fast as she was earlier…. but I can still see her).
Just before Melty started to move, Sukuna focused her defense in the direction where the attack would come beforehand, and sure enough, a tremendously powerful spinning kick landed there.
It may seem like a light kick from Melty’s point of view, but it is powerful enough to easily kill Sukuna.
The moment Sukuna received the blow through the metal she wield, she was not blown away, but the earth at her feet was cracked open like a spider’s web.
Melty did not give a follow-up attack to Sukuna, who had caught the attack without being blown away but moved away silently.
“Not only you caught my attack, but you also let my power flow to the earth. I didn’t know you had such a delicate control of the martial arts.”
“I don’t like martial arts. The martial arts is a technique for the weak to defeat the strong, right? There are few martial arts that can be used against monsters.”
“Arrogant. For someone who says she doesn’t like martial arts, you seem to have mastered them.”
“Even Melty doesn’t use martial arts, does she? Besides, there is a difference between not liking it and not being able to use it. I don’t need to practice because I can learn it as soon as I see it. Because it is the heart of the technique that counts, not the style.”
Sukuna’s assertion, which would make any martial artist angry, left Melty dumbfounded.
The arrogance of claiming that she would be able to copy and embody what she sees. But perhaps it was true that her talent allows her to perfect art by eliminating the waste of movement by simply looking at it.
One could call it unrequited, but Sukuna is loved by the martial arts even if Sukuna does not love them back.
“She extracts only the principles from many martial arts to form her own incorporeal martial arts system. I wonder if she understands how unreasonable that is. If the God of war were to hear this, he would be furious.”
“I am well aware that it is unreasonable. But that’s the way I turned out to be.”
“The way you turned out to be, huh….”
Sukuna talks in a vague way, implying that it was not an innate talent but a gift acquired in the process of growing up.
But how much of it is talent, and how much is the result of hard work?
Whatever the answer is, the fact that such a being is standing in front of Melty makes her wonder what Sukuna is capable of.
The only regret is that this is a world dominated by levels, no matter how talented one is.
“But that’s okay. There’s no point in digging any deeper. Besides, given the difference in status between you and me, it’s natural that I have to be able to do at least that much.”
Saying this, Melty removed her [Magic Suit].
And Sukuna, even while conversing with Melty, there’s not a moment where she drops her guard even for a second. She is always watching her opponent’s every move.
When she saw Melty’s behavior, which seemed to have suddenly relaxed her battle stance, Sukuna raised her eyebrows, wondering if Melty had lost her motivation for a moment.
However, her groundless fear turned out to be wrong.
Melty’s reserve smile disappeared, and she bundled up her shadows and deployed her black wings.
“Use your [Closing ceremony].”
“You will allow it?”
“If you don’t use it, there won’t even be a fight from here on.”
“…..got it.”
[Closing Ceremony] takes some time to be activated due to the five dances required in between.
In fact, Sukuna did some simulation on how and when to use it, but she had lost the timing to use it in front of the unexpected power of Melty.
But now, she was urged to use it.
It was another obvious handicap, but Sukuna accepted it without hesitation. And it was clear that it was not a lie to exploit an opening.
As the Absolute, Melty has no need for such dirty tricks.
[Rasetsu]
[Moroha]
[Mikagami]
[Kikoku]
[Douji]
Five colored the dance fluttered, and the final dedicated kagura unlocked a piece of Shuten Douji’s power into her body.
Her transformation was instantaneous.
A golden Houzuki was carved on the backs of her hands. The haori on her back is also engraved with a Houzuki pattern, signaling the arrival of a piece of Kishin power.
And almost like she was trying to mimic the color of Shuten Douji’s eyes, her eyes turned golden.
“So it was the truth. You can really draw the power of Kishin.”
That was the only thing that Melty said as she looked deeply moved.
Is she chewing on a memory from long ago? Or was she simply expressing her feelings?
Sukuna, who had never seen the true form of Shuten Douji, did not know which it was.
“Come on, let’s dance. Let us dance as in the days of God.”
While flapping her jet-black wings, Melty announcement could be heard from the sky.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
The world of shadows was filled with the sound of never-ending explosions.
“…… I am at a loss for words. This is simply amazing.”
Kohaku said admiringly as she watched the battle between Sukuna and Melty, which was still so intense despite the fact that nearly five minutes had passed.
Melty spread her shadow wings and repeatedly carpet-bombed the sky with magic, while in contrast, Sukuna was running around on the ground and fending off all the magic.
The minimum power of any Melty’s magic was comparable to the highest level of magic that an average mage’s master rank and the power jumped exponentially with each increase in magic grade.
A magic ball of perhaps 10 meters in diameter rained down on Sukuna with every second, despite the fact that the current Melty is unarmed, and judging by the performance of that barrage of hits, this is probably just a level of [ball-type] magic.
As far as one could see, a total of 18 attributes are mixed together, and the sight of the giant seven-colored magic balls dancing wildly is, in a sense, simply [amazing].
Melty’s magic is so powerful that even the weakest fire class magic can turn into a flame that scorches the earth.
And her middle level [lance] magic’s has evolved into a force of sacred weapon aura, or at least its comparable to the [blaster] class magic with extreme thickness.
“How is it that you are able to fight without dying, Sukuna?”
What kind of vision does she have, and what exactly does she see?
With a vision so exquisite that Kohaku could never comprehend it, Sukuna’s “eye” opens up a path that could not be there, a path that only Sukuna’s “eye” can see.
There is no waste whatsoever. Sukuna maximized her potential by controlling her full maximum output with microscopic precision of action.
All while under the effect of [Sukuna no Mai], the most powerful buff that she possesses. And this was proof that she was able to fully grasp the enormous range of its enhancement.
Furthermore, evasion was not the only thing she did.
She attacks at long range by throwing her weapons, and on the rare occasion when she sees an opening, she closes the distance at once and attacks Melty up close.
However, Sukuna’s attacks do not reach Melty. She has not even been able to directly hit Melty.
Her attacks were stopped a few meters before Melty.
The main reason why she couldn’t break through was the extremely vicious magical barrier that Melty was wearing.
“That is one of the highest magic technique there is, the [Multi-Layered Magic Circles], which is also considered the pinnacle combat magic, and one of it was the [Citadel of Time]….”
[Multi-layered Magic Circles], is a multi-layered structured magic.
This was tactical class magic that Melty had devised when she defeated the fourth seven-star king, and it was designed to make the strongest use of ordinary magic.
This technique is mainly based on the fusion of two magical theories.
The first is [multi-magic].
The other is [layered magic].
The former is a phenomenon that Sukuna has seen before.
The skill called [Rensei Jutsu] that Rinne showed in the battle against Ars Nova was exactly the skill that falls into the [multi-magic] category.
Simply put, [multi magic] is a technique that compresses magic by allocating a large amount of magic power and more chanting time, dramatically increasing the power of a single blow.
Even magic that can do only 1 damage with a single shot can do 100 damage with the 10-time magic power cost.
As a result, the magic can inflict damage 10 times more efficiently than a single shot of magic.
On the other hand, [Layered Magic] is a technique to increase magic’s continuous fire.
Some special arts, like [Ravenous Wolf], have what we call a ‘cooldown’, but in terms of magic, it doesn’t have to be special, almost all magic will likely have a cooldown.
It exists as a measure to limit the continuous activation of powerful skills.
For example, Fireball has a cooldown time of 2 seconds, and Firelance has a cooldown time of 5 seconds.
Magic cooldowns are not per skill but exist independently for each type of magic. For example, Fireball can only fire one shot in 2 seconds, but another magic, Iceball, can be fired right after Fireball.
This is the reason why Melty uses and releases different ball-based magic with many attributes, it was to avoid getting caught in the cooldown time for each magic.
If the cooldown is as low as ten seconds then she didn’t need to do this complicated technique, however, the cooldown time of some magic may last 100 seconds, 1,000 seconds, or even several days.
The purpose of [Multi-layered Magic] is to activate such powerful magic in advance by [storing] it.
In principle, its application is probably the closest to [Talisman]. A specific item is used as a material to embed a formula, and magic or sorcery is put into it to make it into an item that can be used at any time. Using this theory, [Multi-layered Magic Circle] also requires a catalyst to hold the magic in place.
However, because it is an item, the [Talisman] can be used by anyone other than the caster, whereas the [Multi-layered Magic Circle] cannot.
On the other hand, the advantage of [Multi-layered Magic Circle] is that the magic can be charged by the caster and using their [body] as a catalyst, so the process of creating a [Talisman] can be ignored.
There are some other disadvantages, but the essence of [Layered Magic] remains the same. It enables a series of magic to be fired without regard to the cooldown time.
And as the name suggests, [Multi-layered Magic Circles] is the ultimate technical skill that enables the ultimate in an outrageous way by [compressing magic to increase its effectiveness] and [firing it in rapid succession without regard to its cooldown time].
Of course, it is not such a convenient power.
It consumes a huge amount of MP by activating [multi magic], which takes time to activate, and the cost of holding magic in one’s body by [layered magic] is the continuous HP consumption.
And the limitation that only one type of magic can be cast in the [multi-layered magic circle].
It is a sophisticated tactic only possible with Melty, who has the parameters, equipment, and skill structure to overcome these three limitations.
And although it has devastating firepower when used as an attack, Melty often uses it only for her own defense.
This is because Melty already has the strongest contradiction. It’s because her magic is [too strong].
(I can easily break that, but it will be tough for the current Sukuna.)
There are two ways to break through Melty’s [Citadel of Time].
One is to launch a high-powered attack that penetrates the four-layered [honeycomb shield] at once or to keep crushing the 12 consecutive [shields] that are deployed while preventing Melty’s offensive.
Of course, if you take too long to break through, the [layers] will be replenished again, so either way, a short-term battle is inevitable.
With Kohaku’s firepower, it would be easy to break it even without using offensive arts. However, it was clear that Sukuna’s current firepower was not enough.
(Offensive arts are practically blocked. The reason is that Melty’s magical onslaught does not allow for a slight pause after you unleash a skill. Even a 0.1-second lag is fatal in the current fight between the two of them. If Sukuna could withstand even a single magic shot, she might gamble it by trading blow, but sadly that is not the case, the only way is to somehow exploit the gap between her attack.)
Their level difference is more than 10 times, even considering that one could imagine how far the status difference between them is, and to top it off, Melty is an [Bloodsucker], one of the strongest species that was once called the most powerful.
In terms of physical status, the Oni are superior, but they do not have the same total numerical value as the vampire species. Melty also has a status correction as a result of her profession, passive skills, and the effects of her equipment.
Even with Sukuna increasing all physical stats by more than 10 times with her all-out buffs, she is still completely defeated in terms of stats.
That is why she should be praised because even in such a disadvantage, her calmness and speed of judgment in finding the smallest gap in the dozens and hundreds of magic spells flying around were admirable.
It is an exquisite technique equivalent to dodging countless thunderbolts raining down from the heavens.
A single mistake could end everything, and yet she has already survived Melty’s onslaught for more than five minutes, and even though her shield has been repelled, she has attacked repeatedly.
“The strength of mind that can laugh at this situation is what she is all about.”
Yes, Sukuna was laughing in front of the rain of magic that was pouring down. She looks so happy from the bottom of her heart. As if there was not the slightest hint of despair.
Melty and Kohaku cannot help themselves not to laugh along with Sukuna.
In contrast to the hopeless scenery, they were laughing like children. Kohaku was watching from the outside, a strange atmosphere that should have been harsh but was calm.
Then, all of a sudden.
Kohaku’s eyes met those of Melty, who was laughing in the air.
“……Melty. If you’re going to use THAT, you shouldn’t let me sit on the sidelines and watch.”
No, that is precisely the reason why she let Kohaku accompany them.
Understanding Melty’s intention, Kohaku sighed.
?
“Fascinating, really fascinating! Every glance, every movement of the fingertips, every emotion, even the slightest flinch, is a part of your future!”
[I had never felt so amused at not being right. Sukuna. I had never felt so amused at not getting you.]
She always avoids carpet bombing from the air with a paper-thin margin.
Perhaps because she made a blunder when she avoided the first “Fire” attack, she is always looking ahead to her [next action].
As far as Melty can see, Sukuna has already taken action before she has invoked any magic.
The slight exhalation before vocalization tells her the name of the magic to be invoked.
Even if there is no chanting, the gaze, the shape of fingertips, and the direction of the palm of the hand will indicate the aim and intent of Melty.
Once that is known, all that is left is to measure the scale after the invocation.
It’s easy to put it into words, but how much of a load do you put on your own body to carry it out?
Sukuna must be under such an enormous information load that it would not be surprising if alerts were constantly sounding.
And no matter how powerful the buffs are, Melty’s status is still far superior.
Melty couldn’t help but scoff at her overwhelming fighting instincts, which allowed her to get so far without using her powerful skills in the face of magic that would have crushed an ordinary person.
(More than anything else, the counterattacks that occasionally flew in were fantastic. As if to declare her intention to win this fight.)
Projectiles flew in from time to time with a control that was like threading a needle.
Even though it did not completely destroy the [Citadel of Time], it did manage to destroy two of the four layers of the quadruple honeycomb shields.
Above all, it flies from troublesome angles outside of Melty’s sight as if to reduce her awareness.
And furthermore, Sukuna has the nerve to throw melee at Melty when Sukuna sees the gap she has created in this way. If she makes a mistake, she could be shot out by the intercepting magic, but she knows that, and that’s why she only aims at Melty at a time when Melty can never intercept her.
“I’m not going to let you get away with this. As a reward for your endurance up to this point, I’ll show you the extremity of magic!”
Melty slammed all of her magic into the earth and soared high into the sky after declaring that, and one could see something concentrated in her right hand so clearly that anyone could tell this was where Melty became serious.
Sukuna, who had judged that large-scale magic would come after witnessing Melty’s action for the first time, decided not to run, but instead took an intercepting posture.
“Fall, O star, and lull my foe into an eternal sleep!”
The chant was only three verses long, and it had a sad tone to it as if begging for a rare wish. This chant produces a synonym for Melty, who specializes in extermination.
The [Heavenly Eye], the [Witch of Forgotten Time], and the [Falling Star].
It is said that Melty of the Heavenly Eye once destroyed one of the Seven Star Kings, and this is an extremely powerful magic that is quasi-analogous to the Melty of the Heavenly Eyes.
It is a rock elemental magic derived from ancient magic.
“Meteor.”
At that moment, the incarnation of despair descended.
“Now, let me see you try to prevent the collision of the stars.”
Melty smiled wickedly as he hauled a meteorite at least 200 meters in diameter.
Tl note:
I was delaying ch 249, thinking one chapter would be enough to make no cliff transition, but…