D.I.O

Chapter 190

/Warning! The top-level Slayers, Numbered, are slaughtering users!/

/Numbered 27. Sirius!/

/Gathering users! Seven seconds before forced movement commences!/

As soon as the text message popped up, a magic circle appeared next to Merlin. Undoubtedly, this warp magic circle was meant to transfer Merlin somewhere else.

‘I see….’

Other users or mages may have thought that the magic circle only teleported someone, but Merlin could read and interpret magic. He understood how the magic circle operated and what special properties it contained. This allowed Merlin to garner some information about the goals of DIO’s developers and operators.

‘The reason they’re using players… I think I have a rough idea now.’

However, that wasn’t important right now. The surrounding space was starting to bend and warp.

***

A completely dark space. The building, made of an unknown metal, was black and had no decorations.

“The signal from Madness has been cut off.”

“Quite… fast. What happened?”

The giant had been stationary like a colossal stone statue when he opened his eyes. Caesar, called the Lord of the Abyss, was the sixth child of the Empress. With powers comparable to a transcendent, Caesar was one of the Union’s most wanted terrorists, and he was also the key figure who expanded the Grotesque’s influence.

“We lost contact, so we don’t know exactly, but it seems the Noblesse have revived the system that produced human gods in the past. Based on the data collected, we suspect that one of those humans killed Madness.”

Of course, this conclusion was wrong. The reason why the top-level Slayers, the Numbered, went missing was that Merlin blew up the dimension destination point that the Slayer was warping to. However, the universe was massive and expansive, so it was impossible to know everything in perfect detail, even for a transcendent being. They had no way of knowing that Madness hadn’t even seen his opponent’s face, as it became something like a lost child within the dimensional rift space.

Merlin thought, ‘Why did DIO’s operators nurture users rather than stepping forward themselves? With their strength, they wouldn’t need players, right?’

Yet, due to how immense the universe was, most Grand Masters or archmages wouldn’t leave their local galaxy for their entire life. Even the ancient dragons and divine beings who possessed powerful magic powers could only completely exhibit control over their local environment.

Although Earth’s current galaxy was only 100,000 light-years wide, the largest galaxies were over ten million light-years wide, and there were hundreds of billions of these in the universe.

Humans believed that divine beings could cover the entire universe, but in fact, the universe was too immense for divine beings as well. Considering that there were the lower and upper dimensions, as well as the five major dimensions, the breadth of the universe was unbearably vast. Even the Union found it impossible to completely manage a collection of numerous species led by mighty transcendents.

“That’s a substantial loss. Numbered take a long time to develop.”

“Yet, we can’t exactly quit right now. This is a matter of our stature and reputation, so we should at least send a warning.”

As his subordinate spoke, the air around Caesar rumbled and shook. The intense power of his emotions influenced the physical world.

“This is really… annoying. It makes me want to jump in.”

“This happened in the Halon Galaxy, though. We have to travel 46 million light-years to get there, so even we can’t easily travel there. I mean, it is possible for us, but it can’t happen in an acceptable timeframe.”

“Hmm.”josei

This was the main problem. Transcendents were all-powerful existences to those under them, but in the end, they only had one body. Anyone could use warp, but the greater the distance to the target destination, the higher the risk and difficulty.

In addition, there was the problem of spiritual capacity.

If one were told to bring a ballpoint pen from the USA to Korea, it wouldn’t take too long since they could simply get on a plane and bring the pen. However, no one could carry the Statue of Liberty, and it also couldn’t be transported on a plane. So, something as huge as the Statue of Liberty required considerable construction work, transport operations, and a prolonged period.

Likewise, the more spiritual capacity something had, the most difficult it was to warp them. At short distances, it was possible to do so without much issue, but if the destination was light years away, warping was dangerous, but more importantly, it took a lot of time to prepare beforehand.

“What would you like to do?”

“It can’t be helped. Who’s left?”

“Sirius.”

“Good. Grant Sirius authorization to use Armageddon.”

“Yes, my lord.”

As soon as the order was executed, a black wave was launched from the black planet. It was the beginning of a variable that the Union never expected.

***

“Yo~! Nice to see such human trash.”

What emerged from the door was a creature with a human-like appearance. The only difference was that the monster had two one-meter-long horns on its forehead, and it was three meters tall.

“Uh, this… doesn’t feel like it’ll end well.”

Bruce gulped hard as he tightened his grip on his sword. Since Bruce practiced both magic and swordsmanship but didn’t specialize in either, he was a bit insensitive in terms of feeling aura and qi. However, he still sensed the enormous pressure that emanated throughout the surrounding area. It was not a matter of simply being strong or weak; it was a sense of intimidation that made one’s hands and feet tremble.

“Come out! Solomon’s Key!”

As a sense of crisis washed over him, Jeros summoned his Master Weapon. Contrary to its name, Solomon’s Key was a thick book. Once it appeared, Jeros activated his Master Skill.

“Pentagram! Summon Glasya Labolas! Appear before me and fight this-”

“So annoying.”

The powerful magic conjuring spell was scattered in a single blow. The attack happened so fast that Jeros couldn’t even track it. Lancelot reflexively grabbed his spear and groaned.

“Damn….”

Jeros’ upper body had disappeared. Blood had splattered momentarily, but soon, even that spray of blood scattered into golden smoke.

“Oh my god, Jeros died in one blow.”

“This is dangerous. The Slayer’s level is too high.”

Lancelot quickly joined Bruce and Ilyia, and Ilyia started raising her chakra. Their fighting power was incomparable to the Slayer’s. They had to somehow endure a defensive battle.

“Hmm? You guys are much weaker than I anticipated. Did I really have to come here to take care of these insignificant things?”

Sirius grunted and kicked the ground. In an instant, his body blurred and disappeared.

Boom!

However, a barrier appeared around the party, and Sirius’ body bounced off of it. At the same time, darkness emanated from Bruce’s sword.

“Bind!”

Known as one of Merlin’s best masterpieces, the +10 Dark Magic Sword was a magic weapon that, like other reinforced weapons, could stack a single spell ten times and exert a huge effect.

The effect of the Dark Magic Sword was to bind the enemy through darkness qi!

Crack!

Sirius’ shadow jumped up and began to suppress its master with terrifying power. Originally, the binding spell activated quickly and blocked an enemy’s movement, but the pressure exerted by the stacked spell was truly terrifying. It was enough to compress a 25-ton dump truck into a hunk of metal the size of an average adult man.

Zing!

Yet, before Bruce could even think about attacking again, the bind was shattered, and a tremendous aftershock struck Bruce. He flew like a baseball hit by a bat and shot through the air with a whistling gust; Bruce destroyed two nearby buildings before finally stopping.

“Oh. You’ve got some pretty good weapons. Have humans already developed their magic skills to this extent?”

Sirius took the Dark Magic Sword that was in Bruce’s hand and inspected it. The powerful magic and magic system contained in the sword surprised even him.

“Return!”

However, the sword in Sirius’ hand disappeared after Bruce yelled. After using the weapon’s recall function, Bruce walked out from under the collapsed building.

“Wow, he’s fine even after that attack. That Spirit Armor is truly robust.”

“Is this really the time to say something like that?”

With a buzzing noise still sounding in his head, Bruce activated the Magic Earrings he had previously purchased from Arthur, and his physical condition began to visibly improve.

Woong!

Suddenly, a dimensional rift opened, and a door appeared, from which, Ohje, Scorpion, Adol, and Hanma stepped out. They were the closest to Bruce and the others, so they had arrived first.

“Ah, I guess more of you will be appearing like this. Then, I should try and finish this as soon as possible.”

“Damn it! Be careful, everyone!”

“Huh? What-”

Boom!

In an instant, Ohje’s body was flung back. Sirius had been standing a fair distance away, but now, he rushed in and smashed into Ohje’s body. The movement itself was simple, but the speed was too fast to register, and Ohje couldn’t put up a proper defense.

Pss.

“What the hell! Ohje?!”

Scorpion screamed, having been standing next to Ohje when the latter was attacked. Ohje suffered a similar level of attack as the one Bruce had sustained, but unfortunately for Ohje, he didn’t have Bruce’s Spirit Armor, so Ohje died instantly.

Bam!

“Gather together and get into formation! This bastard is at least Level 18!”

“When is Arthur coming?!”

Adol ran forward. He changed his gear and swapped his shield from the Tower Shield to a Small Shield. Since their opponent wasn’t a ranged attacker but an agility-based one who attacked directly, Adol changed his gear so that he could quickly respond.