D.I.O

Chapter 256

“This is… so absurd. In the physical or spiritual sense… does any of this make sense?”

“I’ve said it once before… but his power truly destroys the traditional understanding and established foundation of martial arts itself.”

“How… can a human, who is not even a transcendent being, output such destructive power with one blow…”

Thud!

While everyone was in a state of shock, the Gold Dragon fell to the ground with a loud thump.

The party members were unscathed as they had been forewarned by Merlin about his attack. However, the impact of the Gold Dragon, who weighed thousands of tons, crashing onto the ground was so disruptive that it caused a substantial change to the surrounding terrain. The space didn’t collapse or crumble since they were in the Tower of Truth, which was protected by strong power, but if it were any other normal building or outside space, the entire area would have instantly collapsed upon itself.

[Crazy… This is crazy… What the hell is going on? What did you do?]

After having fallen onto the ground, the Gold Dragon could no longer move its head properly. Nevertheless, it tilted its head slightly and looked at Merlin’s party. The blow it sustained on its body was so great that almost all of its sensing capabilities were blocked or malfunctioning.

“What do you mean what did I do? I subdued you with a single blow.”

[A palm attack? Are you saying you subdued me… using martial arts? Even if I’m struck with a strong qi attack… as long as I’m not struck on the head… Ugh. I should have been able to… should have been able to… to at least endure… ugh…]

The Gold Dragon’s spirit speech was stretched out as it made its last gasps, and its body shuddered and trembled.

Unbelievably, the Gold Dragon was rendered immobile and incapacitated after being struck by Merlin’s single blow. However, unlike the Gold Dragon, Merlin didn’t seem surprised at all by the result.

“Well… it’s not like I need to be a transcendent-level martial artist to incapacitate you. If I have enough strength and power, I can do to you whatever I wish. There’s always a way.”

Even a Gold Dragon would die if it were hit directly by a meteorite weighing millions of tons moving at dozens of times the speed of sound, let alone a normal being that didn’t possess any superpowers.

Likewise, even if Merlin executed a simple palm strike, he’d be able to inflict damage beyond what one could withstand if the internal energy contained in his palm strike was beyond a certain power level.

[You. Wait a moment. Just now… how many years of internal energy did you output with that one strike?]

“Oh, you’re pretty quick-witted for a being that doesn’t have any background in martial arts.”

[Answer me.]

“One thousand six hundred years.”

[What?]

An expression of disbelief appeared in the Gold Dragon’s eyes.

One thousand six hundred years… that’s a little over twenty-six cycles of internal energy…

The Gold Dragon thought… ‘Is it really possible to put such a ridiculous amount of internal force into a single [strike]? No, to begin with, how is a human user even able to possess that amount of internal energy in the first place? Just how?’ These were the thoughts circulating in the Gold Dragon’s mind.

The Gold Dragon was filled with doubt, unable to fathom or begin to make sense of what Merlin was telling it. Meanwhile, Merlin calmly took out from his chest pocket a jeweled sword that glowed in five colors. It was a cheat item that could run a cracking program on DIO and change DIO’s rules to his liking. This was Merlin’s Editor Blade.

“Don’t try to understand everything. You’re going to die anyway…”

[What? Hahaha. Such overconfident talk for a simple user… Even if I die like this, I will eventually respawn…]

“No, you won’t.”

[What?]

“It’s over for you… The end of the road. Goodbye.”

[What are you talking about…]

The Gold Dragon, who did not understand Merlin’s final words, expressed doubt and a sense of fear in its big eyes.

Regardless of what the dragon was feeling, Merlin swung his Editor Blade…

Boom!

His Editor Blade lightly penetrated the Gold Dragon’s scales, which were much harder than any legendary metal.

No, to be more precise, the Editor Blade didn’t pierce through the dragon’s scales; the Editor Blade [assimilated] with the dragon to access the Gold Dragon’s data.

“Operate Editor Blade.”

As soon as Merlin gave a command in a low voice, a faint light leaked from his Editor Blade.

“Data Drain.”

Whoosh!

Golden steam began to emanate from the Gold Dragon’s body, and that golden steam was soon sucked into the Editor Blade. The Gold Dragon’s physical body began to shrink as more smoke leaked out.

Creak!

Surprisingly, the Editor Blade’s blade, which was originally slightly longer than the palm of Merlin’s hand, began to grow and lengthen in size. It grew slowly like icicles elongating themselves during winter.

“What? Why did the Gold Dragon suddenly die?” Miho, who had only been in charge of liberating the spells Merlin had stored in her Hydra as her spell level had not developed enough to be of any use in high-level combat, looked at the Gold Dragon’s shriveling corpse with a puzzled expression.

“It sustained Merlin’s Killing Blow.”

“Eh? But doesn’t that only work on idiot opponents who can’t control their own power output and mana control ability?”

Miho had seen Merlin’s Killing Blow several times in the past, so she knew the effects of Merlin’s Killing Blow.

Merlin’s Killing Blow was a kind of spiritual virus infiltration attack that caused one to lose control over one’s mana control ability or, in some cases, caused one’s mana to run rampant and explode.

However, Arc made Miho understand her words with a simple reply.josei

“One thousand six hundred years.”

“… Ah!”

Merlin’s Killing Blow was a skill that was mainly used against [existences whose mana control ability was low compared to the amount of mana they possessed]. Merlin’s ultimate skill usually wouldn’t work on opponents who had a low reserve of mana or on opponents who had a high reserve of mana but had an equally well-developed mana control ability.

However, the situation was completely different when the internal energy that went into the Killing Blow was beyond a certain limit.

As an analogy, a skillful sailor could overcome high waves on the treacherous seas, but when faced with a tsunami, all efforts would be rendered useless against the overwhelming force of a tsunami no matter how skillfully a sailor could handle their boat.

The Gold Dragon hadn’t been at the full transcendent realm, but it still possessed exceptional mana control abilities; however, in the end, even the Gold Dragon wasn’t able to put up any resistance against Merlin’s overwhelming internal energy output.

“But I don’t understand. How… Just how was he able to output such a massive amount of internal energy and handle it physically? He released a little more than twenty-six cycles of internal energy so suddenly and in just one blow… If someone were to output such an absurd amount of internal energy, wouldn’t their body and the enemy’s both be smashed to bits?” Sungmuk asked his question aloud as he watched Merlin wait for his Editor Blade to finish growing.

Having already crossed the expert realm in martial arts in the distant past, Sungmuk knew that internal energy users desired to exert great amounts of internal energy in a single blow, but they couldn’t do so because of their physical restrictions.

Exerting such an enormous amount of internal energy puts a tremendous burden on the user’s dantian, blood vessels, and ultimately their entire body.

Moreover, the palm strike that Merlin used possessed so much internal energy within it that it wouldn’t have been strange if his body exploded and turned into a mist of blood from the aftershock of releasing such an enormous amount of internal energy.

“Right now, I have ‘In Case of Emergency - Number 1 Buff’ on myself. I’m also buffed with the Number 2 Buff, which is specially made for magic users.”

“‘In Case of Emergency – Number 1 Buff’?”

Sungmuk was currently buffed with [In Case of Emergency – Number 3 Buff], a buff that was specifically tailored for internal energy users.

Whereas, ‘In Case of Emergency – Number 2 Buff’ was a buff made especially for magic users.

‘Wait. The skill areas that most users learn in DIO are magic power and martial arts, but those correspond with In Case of Emergency – Number 2 and 3 Buffs… Then what is the ‘In Case of Emergency – Number 1 Buff’?’

Sungmuk was also a genius with extraordinary reasoning and comprehensive capabilities, so he understood what Merlin was trying to say at once.

“Survival… It’s a survival buff, right?” Sungmuk ventured a guess.

“Correct,” Merlin replied.

Smile. He smiled broadly before explaining, “The ‘In Case of Emergency – Number 1 Buff’ that’s currently being applied on me is a buff that gives me an additional 500 points in HP, stamina, regen, and magic resistance. In other words, it’s a buff that increases those stat areas by 500 points each. It’s a buff that allows me to survive an emergency situation, but in my case, I can utilize this buff for both offense and defense.”

Through his Golden Pill Immortal Technique, Merlin was already able to unleash one hundred years of internal energy in a single blow, which was his characteristic one-shot one-kill move. However, even that move was largely limited to the one hundred years of internal energy threshold limit, lest he received some recoil damage.

Moreover, Merlin couldn’t infinitely amplify his internal energy through the No Living World system. Amplification had its limits.

If a user’s internal energy were to be amplified beyond a certain limit, their body wouldn’t be able to withstand the tremendous and damaging flow of internal energy inside their body. This was why Merlin had deployed various defensive means to protect himself and limited his internal energy output to fifty years of internal energy instead of one hundred years of internal energy during his fight with Sungmuk.

However, with the ‘In Case of Emergency – Number 1’ survival buff, the calculation became drastically different.

A strong human male’s HP was about 30 points, and the higher a user’s HP was, the stronger the user’s body became. Once the user’s HP stat reached 100 points, it was almost impossible for them to be beaten by an ordinary attack strike. Then once the user’s HP reached 300 points, their body became supple to the touch yet as strong as bronze. At 400 HP points, their body became as hard as steel. Then at 500 HP points, their body had the strength of modern composite armor.

Moreover, no matter how strong and firm their body became, it would retain its flexibility, allowing the user to be as elastic as modern-day rubber.

With the ‘In Case of Emergency – Number 1 Buff’, Merlin’s HP was currently at 750 HP points. In addition, his stamina, regen, and magic resistance stat points were also around the 750-point mark, although slightly lower than his HP stat.

With such an overwhelming stat buff, Merlin was able to output a tremendous amount of internal energy—twenty-six cycles worth of internal energy, to be exact.

Ting!

“It’s done.”

Merlin put his Editor Blade, which had grown forty centimeters in length, back into his chest pocket.

Most of the Gold Dragon’s corpse had disappeared, and all that remained was a bunch of golden scales and a large marble that exuded a brilliant light.