"The power to stop something from being realized with just your will. You can't get it from merging with just any soul shard. It's a divine power. You… You must be a divine-rank soul herder!"
Voss realized who he had been messing with and felt scared, cursing his luck. Never in his wildest dreams could he have thought that chasing after Roy, the Female Siren, and the spirit who has betrayed him would lead him to have an encounter with a Divine Soul Herder.
If he had known about this, he would have never bothered chasing after them or leaving the Ashen Land.
But spilled milk couldn't be recovered, and crying over this wasn't going to help him.
'It's my bad luck that I escaped the Ashen Land, only to fall into a trap.'
Voss clicked his tongue before he heard Arlo's voice.
"No..." Arlo's lips pressed against each other, and their edges lifted up as he smirked, disdainful of Voss, his opponent. "I'm not."
Not only was Voss stupid, but his knowledge about this world was also too narrow. Arlo wondered how this undying bastard founded Asil and how it remained afloat under his rule for hundreds of years.
'Considering how weak and unintelligent he is, the five kingdoms acting together should have been enough to destroy his kingdom and eradicate his army. But they failed to. They were forced back when they entered the uncharted land to attack him. Maybe someone was backing him. Well, the undead does like dark mages. It wouldn't be a surprise if Agony were found out to be his biggest supporter. But that big bastard is already dead, and this small bastard needs to be butchered.'
Arlo thought while flying out of the way of his beams, moving so fast that he left behind overlapping afterimages.
The beams traveled through the air at the speed of thunder, and since Arlo was able to dodge them, it could only mean that he was faster than the speed of thunder!
"That can't be. The source of my curses is my soul herding ability, which I obtained from a first-rank soul shard. Its strength is unparalleled. I have fought countless strong foes, but none was able to survive after getting struck by them. They all fell to my curses, but you… only you were able to overcome it." While speaking, Voss didn't forget to attack Arlo. He wasn't planning to go down without a fight. It's common knowledge that divine-rank shards can suppress first-rank shards. Only a divine soul herder can put the efforts of a rank-1 soul herder to shame!"
While dodging his signature moves, Arlo scoffed, "Your knowledge is outdated."
Arlo wasn't a fool.
He wasn't going to fill the gap in his enemy's knowledge.
Thus, he didn't bother explaining to Voss that it wasn't just the divine soul herders who were greater than first-class/rank soul herders.
Ex-rank soul herders were also greater than one.
Their starting point was low, lower than rank-3 or rank-5 soul herders, but they were growth-type and could awaken the soul shards they have merged with again and again.
Arlo had only awakened his ex-rank soul shard a few times and gained three powers, one of which was Power Defy.
Like its name, it could defy someone's power from being materialized or realized. In simpler words, it was an ability blocker, and it was just the first of the three powers of his Ex-rank Soul Shard, Defy.
He had two more soul-herding abilities, and they were equally if not more terrifying than Power Defy.
"You… what could you possibly be if you are not a divine soul herder?!" Voss questioned.
"He is an ex-rank soul herder." Damien mentally communicated to Roy.
Roy blinked his eyes, saying to him, "I know."
Meanwhile, in the sky, Arlo gave a fitting reply to Voss. "What I am, what does it have to do with a soon-to-be corpse?!"
"Me, a corpse?" Voss snorted. "You are forgetting who I am!"
"Who are you kidding?!" Arlo smiled and pointed at him. Roy saw his signature smile and realized he was going to piss Voss off to death. "I definitely know who you are. You are a stupid bastard with shits for brains! Even the dog I raise back home is more intelligent than you!"
Hearing his words, Voss felt an intense desire to kill Arlo. He never knew he could feel such hatred for someone. Clearly, he was an Eternal Being; not even Ninam, who killed Agony, could kill him. He was just that immortal. But now he was being compared to a lowly being. How could he not hate the bastard who was comparing him to a dog?
"Let's see how many curses of mine you can defy!"
Voss's anger erupted like a volcano, literally as, out of thin air, countless specks of white appeared around him. They gathered in one spot, fusing together to grow into an unstable 100 meters blast of steaming hot energy.
The villagers were woken up by the commotion and came out of their houses, only to feel the temperature rapidly rising up.
"What the… hell is that?!"
They raised their head and saw a miniature white sun and a gigantic monster above their heads. It was too bright. The shine coming out of it stung their eyes, forcing them to lower their heads.
They felt like ants before a giant, and confronting one all of a sudden sent them into panic mode.
"Run for your lives!"
Just like how monkeys jump off a falling tree, they too scattered left and right in a panic.
"It is capable of instantly disintegrating a Grandmaster, and even if, let's say, you somehow survived the Ball of disintegration, you will be stunned for 2 seconds."
Voss said, blackmailing Arlo.
"I know you know that's enough for me to kill a thousand times."
Arlo's brows drew together. He frowned, hearing what Voss said. It was planning to use others to bait him into taking his ultimate head-on. 'What an insidious bastard.'
