Chapter 272: One Strike (Patreon)

Krysta

What happened next was so quick Krysta could barely follow.

One instant Isaiah was about to be killed by Daevic Stormborn, Krysta unable to do anything to help, but the next he was gone, teleported into the compound where the contestants from Earth and the Heavenly Soul Universe were watching. One instant Daevic was launching forward, wearing a peak Empyrean grade armor and wielding a peak Empyrean grade sword, but the next a large purple blade, emanating both an aura of absolute holiness and an aura of absolute evil, appeared in Isaiah’s place and moved almost at the speed of one of Krysta’s spatial slices, slashing through Daevic’s sword from point to handle, straight through Daevic’s outstretched arm—completely unaffected by his gauntlets, vambrace, and pauldron—and then right through his torso, cutting in half his lungs and heart before coming out the other side. One instant only Daevic and Isaiah were in the battlefield at the center of the halo-shaped space station, but the next a man was behind Daevic, the bastard sword landing gently in his outstretched right hand, his features transforming from plain-looking to universe level good looks, beautiful dark-blue semi-translucent hair down to his wide shoulders and orange mystical eyes flashing with anger.

“I believe I told you not to attack.”

Aalam then reached out his left hand, on which was what looked to be an upgraded version of his old azure fingerless glove—the scales it was made from now somehow smaller, more numerous, and semi-translucent—and grabbed Daevic’s head. Then there was a surge of mana and, through her magical senses, Krysta watched as Aalam ripped out his half-brother’s soul, Daevic’s body disappearing into the Left Hand of the Runescribe’s subspace as his soul quickly flowed into Aalam’s specialized soul structure.

Through her spatial sensing skill, Krysta then watched as the Master of the Eternal Forge, the Lord of Twilight Flame, and the Lady of Hellwater all looked excited, seemingly not at all caring about how their nephew had been brutally murdered. The Law Master looked interested, appearing to be studying Aalam closely. And Krysta’s own father and uncle looked intrigued, like they were watching a good show, their emotions obviously very different from Krysta’s own overwhelming fear.

Fear which resulted because the gods were not who Krysta was paying attention to.

Throughout the audience, there were mostly shocked expressions, and shock was the main emotion which could be seen on the faces and felt from the auras of most of the contestants in the compound where the forces of the United Federation of Planets were staying, at least from those not directly part of the United Federation of Planets. But Vanar Tedros looked worried, his aura matching. Li Evelyn looked even more so, her aura shaking. And the same worried look and disturbed auras could be seen and felt from Irena Krol’s disguise as well as from the United Federation of Planet’s other leaders. Most important of all, however, Starflower, the disguise of Li Mila, looked just as worried as the rest of the United Federation of Planet’s main members, while her true level of power leaked through, for a split second Krysta able to tell the woman had six high grade Law Scarabs even if she couldn’t tell what they were.

For most in the audience, it hadn’t fully dawned on them yet what was about to happen, but, as Krysta took a look at her mother’s aura, she could tell her mother had already noticed the same thing she had.

Aalam showing up to kill his half brother was almost certainly not a part of the Heavenly Soul Universe’s plan and, with Aalam himself having arrived in front of his family, something bad was about to happen.

“How dare you kill my son!”

And there it was.

While all the gods and most of the A ranks on the station managed to maintain their cool, Thunderstrike Taravan, Daevic’s father, lost it, the power of his mana vibrations killing all the F and E ranks within 50,000 kilometers as he turned into lightning and rushed at Aalam, appearing in front of Krysta’s friend in an instant, a wrathful expression on his face and his aura radiating anger.

Wearing an Empyrean grade armor and wielding an Empyrean grade sword which looked a lot like the ones his son had been using—only two ranks higher and thus far more powerful—his blade aimed at Aalam to slash the C rank in half, and, with all six of his Laws already at the Law Dragon level, the Law energy infused into his strike was powerful enough to kill Krysta’s mother with ease.

Thunderstrike Taravan was a true combat focused A rank, and his power was on another level.

A and C ranks were fundamentally different. First there were the effects of B rank. C ranks could at most have one oath, and this was extremely rare. Meanwhile, every A rank had gone through all 216 levels of B rank, creating between 3 and 6 oaths, and each generally had more effects on combat potential than a class. More important, however, anyone who’d gone through all levels of B rank would have had their souls transformed, altering their energy and connection to the universe.

With the exact same stats, stat effectiveness, cultivation technique, and Laws, a B rank would destroy a C rank. It wasn’t even a question. And the difference between A and B ranks was even greater, A ranks having much greater control over Laws.

Up through B rank, Laws were mostly supplementary. Sure, they made a huge difference, but, in the case of two cultivators following the same path where one had 50% higher stats and the other had Laws a grade higher along with a higher level cultivation technique to match, the cultivator with higher stats would almost always win. But, at A rank, this would reverse.

A ranks had transformed their Laws into a special type of metaphysical Law energy which represented their path, and they then began the process of merging that Law energy into all of their skills, increasing their power by an incredibly large amount.

This, on top of the increase in the quality of energy from B rank to A rank, made B ranks who could win against A ranks much rarer than C ranks who could win against B ranks, to the point that, in the entire universe, as far as Krysta knew, there were no B ranks who could win against an average A rank, let alone an elite like Thunderstrike Taravan, even if he was still relatively young.

Thunderstrike Taravan singlehandedly ruled the third most powerful human empire in the universe for a reason, despite there being a lot of human empires.

First, the cultivation technique he practiced was Stormlord Rebirth, one of the six recognized best cultivation techniques in the universe, only behind Aalam’s previously thought untrainable Twelve Element Primal Code, so his Law energy made him practically unkillable while also giving him extreme control over the destructive power of lightning. Even though he was still relatively low in level, and, as a result, couldn’t hold a candle against the truly powerful A ranks raised by many divine level forces, he absolutely excelled in speed, offensive might, and regeneration.

From what Krysta knew, the man had made five oaths, one more than the average, and all six of his Laws were at the early grade Law Dragon level, only four grades away from becoming divine.

Sure, this was the same level as Krysta’s own Law of Spatial Shift, but Krysta had no Law energy, and Thunderstrike Taravan had six Laws at the level. The difference was like a normal space-focused A rank compared to her father, a divine god of the space element.

No one watching thought Aalam could survive one strike from Thunderstrike Taravan, yet alone multiple.

But, just before Taravan’s sword reached Aalam’s heart, Krysta noticed something.

While everyone else looked worried, Aalam was smiling, and Starflower, who’d appeared worried, had a slight smirk on her lips.