Chapter 59: Spatial Reconstruction |
Secret Sword Art: Thousand Raven Feathers!
Nemus swung his Blade Edge. In that instant, the sword seemed to splinter into countless fragments.
The dense swarm of approaching golden threads was severed in an instant.
Even though they descended like inescapable fate, meant to completely envelop their target, they rapidly snapped beneath Nemus''s blade.
"Is this the newly emerged, supreme Sword Art?" Lao Mushi watched the scene unfold, a trace of astonishment flashing through his eyes.
From Isabella''s short-term memory, he knew this particular Sword Art was created by a highly renowned genius Holy Knight over the past decade.
''Yet Nels has never left Finback Village in these past seven or eight years. His contact with the outside world has always been under my control. Where did he learn this Sword Art?'' Lao Mushi was thoroughly puzzled.
Despite the myriad of speculations flashing through his mind, Lao Mushi did not halt his attacks.
He reached out to grasp at the heavens. As his Mental Power surged outward, the distant clouds in the sky began to churn rapidly.
Shaping Spells: Falling Thunder
The ferocious lightning resembled a divine punishment meted out to the irreverent, carrying an overwhelming Mighty Aura.
Nemus seemed to sense the impending strike. His Blade Edge moved in perfect synchronization with the lightning.
He twisted the blade in his grip, pushing its speed to the absolute limit—
Secret Sword Art: Sparrow Cleaving the Void.
Just like a sword slicing through calm water, leaving a fractured wake of white foam across the previously tranquil surface, the blade struck out.
Suspended in mid-air, the Blade Edge deflected and severed the very air itself, creating a visible rift.
The descending bolt of lightning was cleaved apart the exact moment it fell.
"There is no need to play these petty tricks of mixing truth with falsehood. I have severed real lightning before, and the speed is wrong," Nemus declared. He flicked his longsword, and from the seemingly empty Blade Edge, a massive shower of crimson flames was suddenly hurled outward.
The previously altered clouds concurrently reverted to their normal state.
The magic Lao Mushi had just cast was not a Shaping Spell at all, but a Holy Spell: Sin-Burning Lightning Fire.
It was a high-speed flame that used Sin as its fuel.
Even if it failed to directly strike its target, it would cling to nearby objects and rapidly spread.
It was capable of inflicting dual damage upon the target''s physical body and spirit.
However, compared to genuine lightning, this spell was ultimately a fraction slower.
It was precisely this slight discrepancy in tactile feedback that allowed Nemus to instantly identify the flaw in the illusion.
Lao Mushi narrowed his eyes. "It seems I need to re-evaluate you, Nels."
"Is there any point?" Nemus swept his Blade Edge across the air. The resulting gust of wind extinguished the spreading Sin-Burning Lightning Fire before him as he stepped toward Lao Mushi.
"Even if you re-evaluate me a hundred times, or ten thousand times, would it change anything?"
"You are trapped in the past, mourning only for what has already been lost."
"Whenever anything new appears, you only instinctively judge whether it is useful for your experiments."
"Your decay is not merely physical, but also spiritual."
Nemus''s words thrust toward Lao Mushi like a sharpened knife.
This technique could also be called—Heart Secret Sword Art: Death-Announcing Bird.
By combining sharp words with a deep Cognition of the human heart, it launched a piercing attack directly against the target''s spirit and mind.
Nemus''s words caused Lao Mushi to freeze for a moment. Right then, Downs and Purr surged forward from the flank.
The thirteen-foot-tall Giant was now running even faster than Downs.
His massive body showed no signs of clumsiness; instead, he was exceptionally agile.
Completely ignoring the fine golden threads, he closed the distance to Lao Mushi in an instant. The moment his foot struck the ground, his previously shallow footprints became incredibly deep and heavy.
Purr''s oppressive aura amplified to its absolute peak.
Trait: Bone Fin!
By reducing his body weight, he increased his speed, and by amplifying his weight, he bolstered his attack power. During the swift transition between sprinting and punching, Purr''s body stretched forward, almost resembling a slanted line.
The muscles all over his body bulged, pushing his strength to the absolute limit before he unleashed a devastating punch.
The sheer force of the blow compressed the air, forming a visible white ring of vapor around his fist.
A deafening boom echoed as the fist struck its target.
Downs felt a sudden burst of agony wrack his body. Even though he had been standing on the other side, he had somehow materialized directly in front of Purr.
That power-packed punch had not landed on Lao Mushi; instead, Downs had been forced to endure the full brunt of it.
Sent flying backward, Downs instantly vanished into the illusion.
Lao Mushi had experienced countless battles of all sizes throughout his life. Although his emotions were turbulent, he did not allow it to disrupt his combat rhythm.
He understood one thing very clearly: only the victor possessed the right to discuss right and wrong.
If you lost, no matter how justified your reasoning was, you would never get the chance to speak.
''Has the spatial structure been altered by the illusion?'' Nemus narrowed his eyes, a clear understanding dawning in his mind.
The current situation was not a true alteration of space; such a feat was still far beyond what an Iron Rank could achieve.
Lao Mushi was merely using his illusory domain to overwrite and rewrite Physical Reality. It acted much like an optical illusion, manipulating vision to distort one''s spatial perception.
It was akin to an optical illusion where patterns that appeared bent were, in fact, perfectly straight.
All of this occurred in the minutest details. With just a moment of inattention, one''s physical position in space would be completely thrown off by this sensory misalignment.
Although the surrounding space looked like a completely ordinary stretch of flat ground, the actual Physical Reality might be incredibly twisted and uneven.
Or perhaps certain spots were slightly curved; the eyes saw it, the brain accepted the curvature, and then the body reflexively adjusted its angle.
Yet, in reality, that spot was entirely straight.
This continuous accumulation of misalignments resulted in this so-called ''Spatial Reconstruction''.
"You think you understand everything, but can you perceive the genuine truth?"
"Nels?"
Lao Mushi did not directly respond to Nemus''s accusations; he merely countered with this question.
Then, he began to cast another spell.
However, before his magic could take shape, Opper''s Spells arrived first.
Summoning System Spell: One-Way Passage!
The purpose of this spell was to lock onto a specific area and open a one-way portal, allowing the matter from that region to flow through the passage and arrive here.
The moment the portal opened, massive torrents of seawater began flooding into the area.
Splashing and churning, it crashed down like an ocean wave.
The previously flawless illusory world instantly experienced a series of ripples, becoming noticeably less convincing.
"The movement of water is chaotic, yet it possesses its own order!"
"Old man, can your calculations still account for all these variables?" Opper issued his challenge.
The rushing water flowed outward, rebounded against obstacles, and formed churning ''tides''. Splashes erupted, and various debris swirled within the currents.
A colossal amount of information was jumbled within it, making everything incredibly erratic.
As the caster of the illusion, he was forced to account for the ever-shifting flow of the water.
However, amidst this chaos, it was much easier for an observer to glean a pattern from the mess.
The moment Lao Mushi failed to track the dynamic shifts in the water''s flow, the domain he had constructed through illusions would reveal glaring flaws caused by the liquid''s movement.
Just like Purr, who managed to pinpoint Lao Mushi''s true location the very instant the water began to flow.
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