Chapter 1271 (2/2)

The Grey Lich’s skull turned to look at Tim. Derek raised the rifle and pushed all of his remaining Mana into the chamber rather than relying on the battery. He might not have much Mana remaining after the bombs, but he sure as hell could condense his Mana to a denser form than the standard-issue battery packs could manage.

And for his son...

“Hey fucker, take this!” Derek roared. A bolt of cobalt energy shot forward out of the barrel. The Grey Lich didn’t even turn; it simply reached up and flicked at the bullet and dissipated it instantly. The lich’s eyes were on Tim. Yet as Derek frantically considered charging toward the Grey Lich in order to keep its attention away from his son, another party intervened.

“Labyrinth of Mirrors!”

Strange, folding panels of glass shot down from above, surrounding the Grey Lich and Tim. Suddenly, Tim’s worried face splintered and fractured into dozens of duplicates as it was reflected by the panels. Space bent and warped around the Grey Lich, as though the user of the Skill was trying to bind the Nemesai.

The Grey Lich shook its head in disgust. “A Domain with barely any image weight? Did you truly think this could stop me? Let me show you the unending horror of eternal life. Fall to your knees, worm.”

And as the Grey Lich spoke, Derek felt it. Its image blossomed like a pale lotus. He felt what it would be like to live without meaning or hope of an end. Eternity was a heavy weight. It was a dark expanse of misery that pressed against his forehead with enough weight that he could feel his skull creaking. Shivering, Derek struggled to stay conscious underneath the weight of the image produced by the Grey Lich. But for Tim…

The reflections warped, but they somehow withstood the pressure. The reproduced sight of Tim’s face became somehow horrifying, warped by rage, despair, and an alien hatred. Yet it was clear that the Labyrinth of Mirrors had managed to contain the spread of the opposing side’s image. The Grey Lich frowned. “How… resilient. But your desire to protect this child only means I will try that much harder to-”

Crack.

This time the stadium didn’t rumble, but the strange noise carried clearly even through the sound of fighting. Once more, the entire populace looked upward to the sky. There was no bright beam of energy this time, just a silhouette. Despite the distance, increased Perception gave most anyone who turned their head toward the sound a perfect view of a dark figure who had impacted the dome.

Cracks silently shuddered and spread from the spot where the shadowy figure had driven his right arm, which was just a long spear of bone, directly through the protective dome around the area. The coloration of the figure’s skin was strange; it seemed to be corroded at the exterior of his body to a black-grey but skin lightened along his arms to a pale white on his torso. A tail flicked both at his waist and at the base of his head. He was currently raising his heavy left hand, his long talons stretching out awkwardly from his balled fist.

Derek felt extremely strange as he looked up at the figure. Because almost everyone would recognize the face. No one could live in New Earth without hearing legends about Randidly Ghosthound. Whether it was being as the leader of the Order Ducis, the creator of Kharon the wandering city, or as the individual that every powerful fighter said was the strongest on Earth, Randidly Ghosthound had left a trail for others to follow and admire.

He was, in Derek’s opinion, also a visionary by encouraging the widespread adoption of images as part of combat training. No matter how today’s terrorist attack ended up, one thing Derek was sure of is that even Zone 1 wouldn’t dare slacken its pursuit of images any longer. Their power had been laid bare to the world.

This man probably never feared condensing a Fate...

The form of his body was monstrous, but everyone recognized the only person who could show up now and immediately change the situation. The people of Donnyton smiled. The Nemesai glared. Straud frowned upward. While everyone watched, Randidly brought down his fist and smashed it against the barrier.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

The stadium buzzed for several seconds from the force of the blow. The cracks doubled in size in an instant as Randidly Ghosthound struck the barrier. Then, as everyone below watched, the Ghosthound reached down and ripped several large chunks of the barrier that had completely stopped Mjolnir out of his way. A path had opened for him to enter into the stadium.

Even though Derek knew nothing of images, he felt the change in the air almost immediately. It happened in his chest and it happened to the people above him in the stands who had managed to escape from the bloodbeasts for the moment. The people of Earth saw Randidly Ghosthound and felt hope. It filled the air with power that lessened the furious oppression of blood that Straud had maintained thus far.

Yet as Derek looked upward, he frowned. Yes, that giant wheel is definitely pulling all the spilled blood over to it...

Straud licked his teeth and then began to laugh as he looked up at the Ghosthound. “You? Do you think you can still interfere here? You are banished from this place, Randidly Ghosthound! Wait quietly for the portal to be opened. My God has requested your body for experiments!”

Instantly, energy flooded upward and created a vortex around the flaw in the barrier. Straud unleashed another beam of energy that shot up toward the Ghosthound. However, this one was such a dark shade of maroon that it was almost black. Derek stared upward. He could feel the hope of the people here flickering like electric lights in a ghost movie as Straud’s confidence hadn’t been shaken at all.

Yet he watched as Randidly Ghosthound’s figure abruptly… intensified. Every line of his being seemed to become impossibly saturated with its color and shade. His eyes burned emerald even from the almost fifty-meter distance between them. Every shadow on his face seemed vast and mysterious. Strange black motes of energy wafted outward from his silhouette.

Randidly Ghosthound floated downward and seemed to melt the barrier. And when Straud’s attack neared him, he simply reached out with his huge claw and ripped it to shreds. Then the Ghosthound laughed and it was a cold noise. “A Coin of Territory doesn’t make you all-powerful… it simply gives you a home-field advantage with your image. And that is not enough for you to tell me what I can and can’t do.

“Congratulations, Straud. You have surprised me with your fucking idiocy. And for that… you have an undivided third of my attention. I hope you appreciate how much of an honor this is.”