Is this really a Game?!

Chapter 978: Ethereal Truth: Unveiling the Core

The drill pierced through the monster's exterior, burrowing deep into its body. The monster let out a deafening roar of pain and fury, thrashing about in a desperate attempt to dislodge the intruding drill.

The two clones would not let that happen, however, and used more and more mana in order to continue burrowing inside the monster's body as Reign stared at the monster with a smile on his face.

"I can see it clearly, it really is moving around, but not as quickly as I expected."

"Just a bit more, c'mon you two, just a bit more, get through that bastard." Reign said as he readied his sword as an ethereal light shone around him.

He had used it, the one skill he still couldn't understand.

Had it not been for the class he had, he would have never been able to use such a skill.

In fact, most people who chose the swordsman class couldn't use it, and those that could, well, needed a lot more time compared to Reign to complete the skill and actually activate it.

[ Ethereal Truth ]

It was a skill that was called the best and worst.

Most swordsmen would gain it, but for almost all, it was useless.

It didn't cost a lot of mana.

It didn't ask the user to practice it and learn how it worked.

It didn't even need a person to properly learn any steps before doing it, one just needed to activate it and that was it.

And yet, for most people, it was useless.

Some could not even activate it, no matter what they did, it would just not work.

Others would need to wait in place for too long, sometimes for over 10 minutes in order to finally use it.

Because of that, the skill was one that only an extremely small percentage of people that had it actually used.

Nobody was completely sure why the system had placed the skill there, nor what it used from the user to work.

Some said it was talent that was needed for the skill, those with enough latent talent could use it better than others.

Some said it was the swordsmanship that was used.

Some said it was the talent for the sword.

But none could be certain, there were only a few in the universe that had grasped the truth of the skill, and they stayed silent about it, none telling the rest of the universe what it truly was.

Reign was one of the rare people who could use it, and he could use it quite well.

As the drill started severing the monster in two, Reign was fully focused on striking one part of the monster, his sword ready to be swung at a moment's notice, but first, he needed the clones to do their job properly.

Even with the skill active, he couldn't just cut through the entire monster at once, that was simply not possible.

He only had a short window before the skill's effect would be gone, which meant that he had to act quickly, he couldn't wait for too long.

"Where should I hit?!"

"Yeah, me too!"

Suddenly, Wolf and the others jumped from the side, all of them exploding with mana as they were ready to attack with everything they had.

"Wolf, left side, right next to the middle leg, cut there!"

"Aelrinder, you stab it forward, about 3 cm to the right of you."

"Shadow, cut from below, do your best to inflict the deepest wounds you can!"

"Greenie, go forward and strike the bastard's head from the side!"

"Tank, use the strongest attack you can and cut from above right there!"

"Mia …"

Reign quickly yelled out his orders, telling the others where they should attack and how as quickly as he could.

He had hoped that the clones would be able to do enough by themselves, but alas, the inside of the monster was much tougher than the goo that covered the outside.

Even with them using the most powerful attack they could muster and combining the two attacks which brought forth a qualitative change, making a much more powerful attack, they were still not close to being able to split open the monster.

The attacks of the others landed, and this time, since the monster was preoccupied with what was going on at the front with the two clones, it was unable to respond or to heal itself in an instant as it was placing most of the effort into healing the wound given to it by the two clones and stopping them from dealing any more damage.

Its body was cut apart quickly by Wolf and the others who arrived and attacked it like a pack of starving piranhas.

They quickly did as Reign told them to do before he suddenly moved.

The outside of the monster's body had been injured plenty, and he knew where the core was.

In fact, he wanted to wait a bit longer, but the skill was about to end, and then, he would no longer be able to sense the core, nor would he be able to deliver a powerful attack as the one he was going to deliver now.

This was the entire reason the creature had gone so berserk and attacked Reign as it had, it had sensed that he was, in a way, scanning it, learning everything there was about it, and it could not stand such a thing.

[ Ethereal Truth ]

Reign arrived above the monster before dropping down and slashing downwards. His slash was a simple one, one that seemingly had no power or weight behind it, and yet, the instant his sword made contact with the creature's body, it easily cut through it, not just the outside, but also through the tough interior.

At this moment, Reign was no longer capable of sensing the core that was inside the monster, but that was fine.

He already knew how it was moving and where, and he had already uncovered the path it would take and where it would be the moment his sword went inside the body.

He was currently near the middle of the monster, and with one strike, he almost cut the monster in half.

Everybody could now sense the core, but seeing it was difficult.

The inside of the monster's body was dark purple, just like the exterior, and so was the core.

It looked like the rest of the body and it was very difficult for one to spot it without sensing the energy coming from it.

It was cut cleanly in half by Reign's attack, and yet, the monster still lived, and the core was still not destroyed.

To destroy it, one had to not just cut it, but to ground it to dust, to completely annihilate it, and Reign had not done it with his attack.

The core was even trying to heal itself, to reattach itself, but luckily, the wound made by the [ Ethereal Truth ] was not one that was easily healed.

Just like how the demon had found out in the past, the creature was now learning the same thing.

With its core still split in half, it couldn't muster the same power or regeneration as before. It was no longer that dangerous to Reign and the others.

Reign, however, was not finished.

Since the wound was one that was difficult to heal, the monster's body was still cut open, and the core was still visible.

Even though the creature tried to quickly move, to cover up the large cut with its goo and tentacles, Reign didn't care and charged forward, his swords glimmering with light and darkness.

He stabbed forward, and what seemed like two vipers that coiled around each other were launched at the monster.

[ Severing, Twin Vipers ]

A skill that was one of the most powerful Reign currently had, one that was actually much weaker when used without his transformed state.

In fact, it took Reign quite a bit to learn how to even use it without his transformation, it needed that much control over both the light and darkness.

The twin vipers surged forward, easily passing through the goo and the tentacles the monster tried to use as a shield to protect the core before striking true and smashing the two halves of the core apart.

Each viper grabbed a core in its mouth before crushing the core and gulping it down, allowing the light and darkness inside of them to devour the core and the immense power inside of it, annihilating it.

The monster roared in pain, anger, and anguish as it tried to attack Reign, but was easily blocked by Tank who quickly slashed it.

It was not dead, even with the core gone, the monster was still alive, but it was dying.

It could no longer heal itself as before, and its body was shrinking, the goo moving slower, some of it even falling off the monster.

It was clear that it only had a short while left to live before dying, and it was determined to use that time to kill at least one of them.