Chapter 516

A world where color has faded.

In this bizarrely slowed-down timeline, I watched the grotesque arm of a monster silently approaching, bursting black droplets scattered in the void.

Is this how a dragonfly feels when caught in a human hand? Even raindrops have forgotten to fall, crawling like snails, yet the monster’s arm maintains the speed of a child’s walk as it closes in on me.

Still, compared to earlier, it’s infinitely slower. I calmly responded, carefully observing the path of the five grasping hands.

Avoiding direct palm contact to escape the absorption, I threw myself between the gaps of the fingers, leaping onto the shattered fragments of the ground rising beneath me.

I kicked off the fragments, leaping toward the monster’s arm.

——!

As if waiting for my jump, another hand spread its fingers wide, aiming to slash at me.

Twisting my body mid-air, I swung Durandal. The sword of the Twelve Knights traced an arc, severing the monster’s fingers. The strange energy imbued in the blade tore through space, a vivid sight.

I dodged three arms, sliced through the fingers of the fourth, and landed by driving Durandal into the fifth arm.

And in the next moment, the world of Reversed Heaven, pushed to its limit, collapsed.

【 G҉̢̕r҈͜͡a҉̧҇a҈̧͞a҈̢͞a҈̧̕! 】

A roar that felt like it would tear my eardrums echoed through my bones. The ground rapidly receded as my body shot dozens of meters into the void.

The monster slammed its severed arm into the Lake of Magi, wildly flailing its other arms.

I clung tightly to its arm, feeling like a child on a broken amusement ride, gritting my teeth. If I slipped here, I might fly straight into the clouds.

[Suddenly speeding up again, you’re pulling another crazy stunt!]

Hersela scolded me urgently.

I thought she shared my vision, but her sudden remark about the speed suggested that only I could enter the monochrome world by activating Reversed Heaven.

Well, even I couldn’t fully understand the principle behind Hersela’s World of Mortality, despite it being my own technique.

‘Crazy? There’s no other way to target its neck!’

I gasped for breath, struggling to regain my balance on the monster’s wildly thrashing arm. It wasn’t easy to stabilize myself.

I thought I could use Durandal as a support, but due to the Spatial Severance, the sword just kept slicing through the arm, making it impossible to anchor myself.

So, I was holding on by embedding Ice Blades into the monster’s flesh. The curses imbued in the blades had no effect, but the sharp claws could still tear into the monster’s flesh.

‘Ha-shal-leur, use the Life Force Technique to stabilize me! I’ll handle the defense!’

As the monster’s convulsions subsided slightly, I pulled out the Ice Blades and sprinted along its arm.

It was the worst kind of path—slippery, rounded, and constantly shaking—but it was the only way to reach its head.

[You always pick the most reckless moves!]

Hersela complained but manifested two red tentacles to anchor me to the monster’s arm, acting like training wheels.

The neck was close. The monster’s eyes all turned toward me as it noticed my approach.

“Shoot if you dare!”

No black beam came. As I expected.

Of course, if it fired the Magi beam while I was on its arm, it would blow off its own limb.

Instead, it attacked me with its other hands, swatting at me like a mosquito. Its arm cast a massive shadow over my head.

“Seilon!”

“Astraea, hear me!”

Golden Chains wrapped around the arm, restraining it, and a horizontal beam of Light of Judgment shot toward the monster’s head.

Seilon’s power could only stop the monster for a moment, but it was enough time for me to react.

I swung Durandal at the momentarily frozen palm, deeply slicing through its massive lips, then leaped onto another arm.

The Chains of Divine Light snapped as the hand slammed into the spot where I had just been, but I was already sprinting along a new arm.

A dizzying aerial battle ensued.

—

I moved between arms in the void, trying to reach the monster’s head. A battle where even a moment’s lapse in focus meant instant death. A tactic I could never have attempted alone.

The monster… a creature born from the Arm of the Evil God, perhaps a demon. The demon flailed its arms relentlessly, trying to shake me off or crush me.

Streams of Magi surged like tidal waves, and when my body floated in the void, the demon’s maw tried to suck me in. Hersela’s Life Force tentacles held me steady.

“How dare you!”

Seilon, swinging his thorny sword at one arm, cast Light of Judgment at the hand trying to suck me in.

A golden rain of light poured into the demon’s maw, carving countless wounds. The demon spat blood, halting its absorption, and roared furiously.

“Elpinel, hear me!”

Lacey’s Pure White Light pierced through the black wave sweeping toward me. The dark spray scattered, consumed by the white light.

“Haaaah!”

Simultaneously, Nigel and Leonor slashed and stabbed at the Magi tentacles flying toward Lacey. A flawless combination.

Of course, their help didn’t make things safe. They could only block a couple of arms; the rest were my responsibility.

“Kyaaaah!”

My nerves were at their limit. My senses sharpened like blades. Even the blind spots behind me felt visible.

My veins boiled like lava. Survival instincts heightened my mind. My body, growing hotter, emitted black and red steam like fog.

In this life-and-death situation, everything I had learned and realized was slowly, step by step, evolving.

– Kwaoooooo!

The demon’s arm moved even faster. Five massive claws, like greatswords, slashed down at me. The wind pressure and killing intent pressed down on me.

【 Reversed Heaven 】

In the blink of an eye, the world turned monochrome, and with a single step, it returned to normal. A fleeting moment of Heroic Tale. My heightened senses perfectly grasped the enemy’s movements in that brief instant.

I pushed off the ground, spinning and perfectly dodging three fingers, while slicing through the remaining two with Durandal. Black blood once again drenched my body.

– Paaaah!

Without hesitation, the black beam shot toward me. I activated Reversed Heaven again, flipping through the air like an acrobat.

My floating body landed, and I immediately gathered my strength. Using Reversed Heaven at full power consumed a lot of energy, but activating it for such brief moments minimized the drain.

It felt like my body was growing accustomed to it, as the gaps between activations grew shorter.

– Kwaaaaaang!

The missed beam pierced through part of the city wall, collapsing it. The demon’s arm, caught in the beam, was deeply gouged.

I landed with the help of Hersela’s Life Force tentacles, driving Durandal into the massive arm beneath me and sprinting forward. The arm split vertically, gushing blood.

The demon violently shook its arm, trying to throw me off, but as long as Hersela’s power held, I wouldn’t be flung away.

My vision spun wildly, and my blood surged in one direction, then another.

My vision alternated between black and red, but the Power of Feats within me instinctively forced the blood flow back. It was a strange sensation.

I clenched my teeth, fighting silently, until my blade reached the demon’s neck.

Black rain poured from the void, drenching my body. The anti-demon blessing and the Holy Mark on my chest glowed, resisting the Magi’s invasion.

I moved like a lightning bolt in the void, swinging my sword in a trance.

I wasn’t thinking or seeing. My reflexes, honed to their limit, and the experience etched into my body moved me faster than my consciousness.

Spatial Severance slashed through the demon’s arm, and the Ice Blades, soaked in its blood, tore through the veins and nerves.

Massive fingers and grotesque wrists were severed by golden arcs, falling into the black lake.

At the cost of rapidly depleting stamina and armor shattering into pieces, I forgot the pain, dismantling the demon’s eight arms like rags as I charged toward its head.

Finally, Durandal’s blade embedded itself in the demon’s neck-

【 Ȩ̷̖͆͑͝ḽ̵͈̆͢͠f̶̡̰͋̏͠ǐ̴̢̱̖̿͞n̸̡̮͑͠ͅe̴̳̮͑͢͞e҉̧̥҇̄̾̌è̵̞̌̊͜͞ě̵̢͔̣͓͌͗̕e҉̨̛̙̋̊̽ͅl̶̨̤̂̓͝l̷̡͙̾̀͞! 】

The Lake of Magi erupted like a volcano.