(AN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHe_i98krmo&ab_channel=SamuelKimMusic )
<<Divine Weapon: Eye of Akasha>>
<<Zone: Deus Ex Machina>>
<<Dimensional Encroachment: Inverse World>>
Alone, each of those abilities was enough for one to reach the apex of the universe. Together? They gave him the power to transcend everything in existence. In his current state, Sol could say that he was at his strongest ever.
When he finally opened the Eye of Akasha, from his perspective, everything stopped in its tracks.
The world itself became completely still as if time itself became a meaningless notion. All that remained was a world filled with threads connected to each and every thing in existence. It felt as if a great puppeteer was moving strings to control reality.
As if…Someone was writing a story and everyone here and the universe itself were simply characters that could do nothing but follow a fixed path— chosen by the whims of the storyteller.
Of course, he knew that this was just a misconception. His brain was simply working and perceiving everything at a speed so fast that everything became still in his eyes. Fate was not a sentient creature but simply a force of the universe.
The world…was weaved by threads of different colors. This was at least how he perceived and identified the strings of fate that he was granted the opportunity of witnessing thanks to the amalgam of all his powers.
Looking down, observing himself, he could see a great number of pink-colored threads covering him, connected to his soul. He could also see one bright golden thread, clearly representing Luxuria, and two dimmer ones, representing Castitas and Superbia, standing out among them.
He could instinctively feel…that, if he willed so, he could easily sever those threads that bound him, that controlled him like everything else. Which, in a way, meant that he could erase the blessing of the Blessed People. This alone showed how scary the power he wielded was.
'Will I even be able to use it correctly when I go back to the Duke level?'
He sighed in dejection, but soon gathered himself. The silver lining here was that…even though he couldn't keep this power level for long, getting back to it would be a breeze. After all, once he reached the King level there will be no barrier for him towards the Demigod level thanks to him being a Dimensional Mage.
'My thoughts are wandering.'
His mind was filled with so much information that staying focused was becoming harder.
'I need to end this fast.'
He was currently like a luxurious hybrid car burning down fuel. The fuel itself was extremely limited. But it wasn't like he had to use it all in one go.
He knew that he might reach the demigod level in just a few years but his enemies might and will not give him that time.
In such a situation, having an ace in the hole would be necessary.
'Focus!'
His mind once again wandered towards the future against his will.
'Let's lower the output first.'
He was slowly getting a hang of this power of his. The more he wished to see, the more computing power he had to use. It was necessary to lower the amount of information first.
He focused on the interior of his mind, following the image of a computer program that needed to be closed.
Like this, one after another, different features closed down and the number of threads he could see went from nearly infinite to a barely discernible few.
'Let's keep only the causality and death perception.'
In Sol's opinion, causality was a superior version of future sight.
If future sight gave one the answer to a question without explaining how to reach it. Then causality allowed one to understand how to reach the desired result.
In fact, it went way above that. But there was a limit to what he could do now as he still didn’t have full control over this power.
…Even then…
‘This is more than enough.’
Sol wished to win and…the path towards victory was drawn in front of his eyes like the perfect blueprint.
It was as though he was playing a game while holding the full walkthrough guide towards every possible ending.
A maniacal grin formed as he twisted his lips in a lopsided smirk. The feeling of being almighty and all-seeing was something mortals could never understand.
A part of him wished for nothing more than to stay in this state for all eternity. But he knew that, as he was now, this was a luxury he could not afford.
'First things first.'
He moved his hand gently toward Nihil. There were also many threads of different colors entangling her.
Red, Black, Gold, and White were the main colors. Furthermore, he could see a Purple thread connecting the two of them.
The black threads represented her life and death. The black threads were so thin that it was almost imperceptible. Sol moved his hand towards that thread but could feel some resistance to it.
It was too bad that he could not directly cause her death but he was not disappointed. After all, not even a god could kill a demigod with just a mere thought.
'Let's tweak it a little.'
He changed directions and looked at the purple thread that connected her to Anubis and laughed mischievously.
Once he was done with his adjustments, he took a look at the golden and crimson threads, realizing that those threads linked her to the goddesses. He hesitated slightly before deciding to not touch them.
He wished to cut those red and gold threads. Only by doing so could he lower the power of destiny around her and bring her assured death without having the world intervene in the process. But doing so would immediately alert the goddesses of his power.
He didn't know why, but something was telling him that he shouldn't let the damn goddesses know of this ability yet. He needed to bide his time.
'Well, this should be enough.'
Once Sol was satisfied with his work, his mind finally stopped running at high speed and the world went back to its normal state before his eyes.
——
From the perspective of everyone else, everything happened in an instant.
Both Nihil and Surtr were finally close to reaching Sol as Nihil had managed to offset most of the effects of Sol's dimension.
The two of them could already feel victory in their hands.
But that victory was destined to never come.
"Argh!!"
The <<Fallen Paradise>> — trademark dimension of Nihil's, flickered and vanished while she held her head in pain and roared in absolute agony.
'Impossible. I was sure I had nearly completely healed.'
Her body was racked as the old wounds she sustained while imprisoned by Anubis re-opened.
Those wounds were the reasons she had not attacked at full power when she appeared in Lustburg back then. But after so long she was basically 90% healed. How could those wounds open again in this situation?
It was truly a coincidence that this happened just as she was about to capture Sol… or was it?
"Heh…"
Surtr could feel the precarious state Nihil was currently in. While he was confused, he knew that they had to deal with the boy first.
"Die!"
Surtr swung his sword with all his might, intent on erasing the little monster from the face of this world. The heat of his sword was so high that Sol felt his skin sting already. Taking that attack head-on would surely bring him to near-death.
‘False gods are truly no joke.’
Thankfully, he already knew what to do, a smirk formed on his face at the very last moment when the sword was about to hit him.
"Switch."
To the utter astonishment of Surtr, Sol vanished from where he stood and the one to replace him— was none other than Nihil.
It was so sudden that Surtr nearly screamed in surprise and fright. His years of experience and his godlike reflex allowed him to diffuse most of the momentum and power behind his attack at the price of hurting himself, but the initial power was already too great. He did his best in trying to stop his attack but the momentum was simply too much for him to nullify.
If Nihil had been in perfect condition then this would have been nothing— Sadly for her, she was not.
As a result, all Nihil could do was cover her body with her large crimson wings as she bathed in the sunfire of her own ally.
"Hello!"
Of course, Sol was not one to miss such a good opportunity.
Standing where Nihil previously was, Sol gave an amicable wave to Surtr. As if they were long-standing good friends passing by each other on the road. The mockery in his voice was all too evident.
Of course, he didn’t stop at simply taunting him. Emotional damage was good but Sol liked giving physical damage too. Of course, perfection was when the two were given simultaneously.
Golden blood flowed out from his hand before transforming into a huge hammer with a one-meter-long handle. This was another ability he had obtained after fusing with the divine weapon.
At the very least, he would never have to worry about lacking appropriate weapons in the future.
"Goodbye!"
Surtr immediately focused when he felt the hammer about to hit him. While the power behind it was astonishing, it was still far from being able to hurt him in any meaningful way.
He was ready to counter-attack and capture the boy in one go but he was startled to realize that the pressure of the incoming hit had vanished.
‘Don’t tell me.’
He immediately realized what was happening.
BOOM!
The one who received the full brunt of Sol's attack was none other than the defenseless Nihil whose place was switched with Surtr.
*Crack*
“Heh! I guess this should be a home run. What do you think, big guy?”
“Bastard!”
The shout full of anger brought an untold amount of joy to Sol. Fighting a hard fight was surely exciting, but utterly crushing the opposition was without a doubt the best feeling ever. Few things felt better than humiliating someone who once looked down on you.
It was sad that his current power level was only temporary otherwise he would have played around some more. But it was time to end this shitty war, once and for all.
(AN: I generally try to avoid long fights because with my release rate it can become pretty boring fast for readers. Still, I think I did a pretty good job here. Even though it’s a little longer than usual. What do you think? I was mostly inspired by Law in One Piece and Aoi Todo in Jujutsu Kaisen. CH 279 will be the last chapter of this fight and as such the last cliff lol. Still man, I transformed Nihil into a true punching bag during this chapter.)
