"Hoh? You are saying that my family and kids will be sacrificed?" Billy asked while emitting a dark aura that made the others step away from him and pierce their skin. "Who will do that? They will have to kill me first to pull that off, and I don't intend to make things easier for them."
"Who knows?" Zenis asked. "Only those that obtained all of the innate skills managed to ascend and obtain all the intel necessary to talk with them. Still, do you think you can fight back against those who gave you those powers? You are weaker than me, and I am not sure I can pull it off."
"My strength isn't based on the system alone," Billy replied. "My knowledge isn't based on the system either. No matter what happens, my family won't be ended up sacrificing in any case. I will deal with anyone that threatens them."
"Oh, in that case…" Zenis said.
"Wait, wait!" Lucyna said. "You still have more to tell us, right? At least tell us what you know before we decide if fighting against each other is the only path available."
"As I said, only those that obtain all the powers have the chance to ascend, and only them obtain all the chances to obtain all the knowledge necessary," Zenis replied. "With the powers and sources that I obtained, I put the pieces together, and this is what I learned. Because of these things, my sense of self is weak, but I still don't want to die, and I know why you all are here for. This is good as it is inevitable… my best chance of breaking from the circle will be by obtaining your powers."
"You will only end up losing your sense of self even more…" Meryl said while holding her bow tightly.
"That is a risk that I will have to take," Zenis said. "I already saw some futures, and in all of them, we ended up fighting. Talking is pointless. Prepare yourselves."
Billy grabbed his glaive… fighting a single opponent when he had the numerical advantage wasn't his style when the opponent was a human. Still, it couldn't be helped right now. Still, the enemy's words annoyed him… he tried to level up his Limited Foresight. Still, when he used it in battle, he only got annoyed. Seeing the future was useful, but it felt wrong when he only saw victories ahead of him. He used it whenever he crossed one floor to the other in that dungeon, but only once because he hated the idea of a predetermined future, even if he followed the same actions that he did in his vision.
For a change, the first to act had been Icarus. Using his extreme speed, he tried to attack Zenis. Still, his armor got in the way… the armor moved by itself and blocked all his punches that caused thunderous shockwaves, but it didn't move the enemy from the spot. While they others could increase their speed to see what was going on, it would be a waste to use it without attacking.
"As expected of someone who was blessed with the power of time… you sure are reckless," Zenis said. "There are better ways to use your power. Let me show you."
That would usually be the time for Billy to help. Still, he decided to study what the enemy could do before doing anything. Besides… he still had that trick up his sleeve. Zenis suddenly appeared in front of Icarus, and his punch hit his stomach. Still, who suffered the pain had been Billy. He felt his torso being hit countless times… he couldn't tell how much different that had been from Icarus' attacks, but since that moron didn't move, he didn't have the chance to.
"Oh? He had a weird aura around his body, so it was the Guardian's Aura," Zenis said when Billy was pushed away by dozens of meters by the attacks and spat a mouthful of blood.
There was no time to study what the enemy could do indirectly, and Billy had to learn it by facing the enemy. Also, there wasn't time or reason to keep hiding his skills from the others when his life was on the line…
He increased his speed by one hundred times at the cost of ten thousand points of mana. In that single instance, Billy approached the enemy and then swung his spear toward Zenis' neck, but his armor got in the way. Billy finally saw it… the armor expanding like it had infinite mass and reacting to his attack.
Despite that, Billy felt the gaze of the enemy on him. It seemed that Zenis wouldn't be reckless and not keep his Acceleration Manipulation active when facing those three.
"Not even a dent…" Billy thought and then used a Light spear on the face of the enemy.
Zenis' armor moved again to block the attack, but Billy didn't end there. He kept using the skill at close range to see if that thing was really impossible to break. If anything, he had confidence in his spear, but on the tenth attempt, he gave up… He didn't even scratch the armor again.
After jumping backward, Billy used lightning on the face of the enemy. Still, the spell suddenly disappeared when it was almost one meter away from hitting Zenis. Physical and magical defense… They were absolutely solid. He used his time in the dungeon to develop those.
Billy used Flash and then swung his spear enhanced with lightning magic on the face of the enemy, and while the armor got in the way again, Billy saw a scratch there. One that quickly repaired itself.
"As expected, you have a lot of potential," Zenis said. "Perhaps even more than mine. No wonder you are suited to the order attribute."
"What are you talking about?" Billy asked.
"Our powers aren't based on the physical elements but on the conceptual ones," Zenis replied. "I can create things, but you can improve them, that is the power of order."
