Book 7, 86: Swallow
Clang!
With a clear, metallic ring, the God of Assassination’s dagger was forcefully parried by Frost’s sword.
Frost had actually defended himself?
A trace of surprise flickered through Yormak’s eyes, but that didn’t stop him from reversing his grip and swinging his dagger at Frost again from a different direction.
As the God of Assassination, it was only natural that Yormak’s attacks were extremely difficult to deal with. Even though this was just a projection, his attacks were quite powerful.
Furthermore, the dagger that he was wielding was a projection of the Divine Tool, Abyss Dagger. If the dagger even grazed across its target’s skin, death was inevitable.
The dagger glowed with a black aura of death as it pierced towards Frost. A divine technique had also been applied to the dagger, which sealed off all of the space behind and around Frost, preventing him from dodging.
Just as the dagger was about to pierce Frost, however, a brilliant glow burst forth from his body. A towering image of Su Chen appeared behind him. As soon as the image appeared, it jabbed its finger in Yormak’s direction.
God-Killing Jab!
A powerful explosion of energy burst forth from the finger. Even Yormak felt threatened by this attack.
He let out a strange yelp as he leapt to the side, staring intently at the Aspect behind Frost. “Su Chen!?”
Frost tilted his head innocently. “You recognize him?”
“Hiss!” Yormak spat out his tongue like a snake.
Even though he was a god in name, he was a very instinctual being. As soon as Yormak saw Su Chen’s Aspect appear behind Frost, he was able to get a good grasp on what had happened.
“Damn intruder!” Yormak cried out as he stabbed at Frost with the dagger once more.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
Alternating streaks of flames and lightning crashed into Yormak.
Yormak, however, did not attempt to dodge them at all. He casually swung his dagger through the air, easily dispelling the flames and lightning.
He then swung the Abyss Dagger again, creating dark ripples in the sky. As the ripples spread through the air, the surrounding space began to constrict around them.
This was one of the God of Assassination’s unique spatial restriction techniques. Every time he attacked, the space around his opponent would slowly become more and more restricted regardless of whether he was able to land a blow or not. If the main body was the one attacking, then he could even cause the surrounding space itself to become a deadly weapon.
Unfortunately, he was facing off against a projection of Su Chen, who was equally well-versed in spatial techniques.
The spatial ripples quickly disappeared after reaching a certain distance from Frost, and they didn’t affect his movements by much.
Yormak was not too surprised by this.
There was no distinction between the strength of Method Power. All that mattered was the depth of one’s comprehension.
The gods had an innate advantage over the humans in that they were born with mastery over Method Power. It came as easily to them as breathing, but this also meant that it was nearly impossible for them to improve their comprehension. They could only increase their divine power and not their Method Power because Method Power was not something that could grow.
As such, if a commoner were to grasp Method Power as well, then that god would not be able to kill them using Method Power alone as long as their comprehension was roughly on the same level.
In this world, strength truly trumped all.
Circles of divine light appeared around Yormak as he applied additional divine techniques to himself.
These divine techniques were strong enough to boost a commoner’s strength to the level of a high-layer cultivator’s. Unsurprisingly, Yormak’s strength quickly surged as a result. He suddenly faded from view as he silently floated past Frost. The Abyss Dagger once again aimed straight at Frost’s back.
Even though they were engaged in an fully-fledged fight, every one of Yormak’s attacks felt like an ambush. He was always appearing and attacking from totally unpredictable angles.
Unexpectedly, however, Frost appeared to be completely unperturbed by Yormak’s tricky battle style. No matter how strange Yormak’s attacks were, Frost was always able to easily deflect or negate his blows.
The Seven Desolate Bloodline Microcosm soon unfolded behind Su Chen, sweeping the battlefield into Frost’s Aspect. Frost was the ruler of this world, and there was no way that Yormak would be able to deceive him here.
Without an innate advantage in terms of Method Power, Yormak could rely on nothing other than brute strength.
Divine power!
He had no choice but to attack head-on.
“Puny insect, taste the wrath of the gods!” Yormak was beginning to grow irritated by his failure to hit Frost.
As a god, taking this long to finish off a simple commoner was extremely humiliating.
The Abyss Dagger began to radiate with dark light once more. As it pierced downwards, spatial techniques expanded along its edge until it covered the entire battleground.
Yormak had finally given up on surprise attacks and was attacking from the front.
“That’s more like it,” Frost said with a chuckle.
It was much more fitting for a god to use their overwhelming might to steamroll an opponent instead of tricking an opponent with sophisticated techniques.
This powerful wave of divine power swiftly enveloped Frost.
At the same time that Yormak struck, however, Frost also made his move.
His body began to glow with a faint white light. The divine power unleashed by Yormak shockingly seemed to be absorbed by this white light before it disappeared without a trace.
“That......” Suspicion flashed across Yormak’s eyes. For just a moment, he appeared to be confused. An instant later, however, all of his suspicion turned into fear, and Yormak pointed at Frost as he cried out in a frenzy, “That power! You can actually use that power!? Die! You must die! YOU MUST DIE!!!”
He began to howl furiously as he gathered all of the divine power in his body and unleashed it at Frost in one go.
This ultimate attack slammed into Frost like a tidal wave, ripping open countless wounds on his body and sending blood flying everywhere.
Even so, Frost grit his teeth and forced himself to continue absorbing as much of Yormak’s divine power as he could.
Yes, the reason why he wanted to fight Yormak in a frontal confrontation was because he wanted to see if he could use immortal energy to withstand divine power in battle.
He already knew that immortal energy could consume divine power, but he had no idea whether or not that principle would hold up in the heat of battle. Furthermore, Frost knew that there was no way he could consume a whole god with his current capabilities. But what about a god’s projection?
When the Human Ancestor had informed him that Yormak’s projection was pursuing him, Frost realized that the opportunity he had been waiting for had finally arrived.
This was why he had chosen to stay. He needed to confirm whether it was possible for him to absorb a divine projection’s divine energy even while locked in battle. This would be a pivotal moment that decided how Su Chen would fight against the gods in the future.
And reality clearly demonstrated that it was possible!
Even though it was extremely draining, Frost was successfully absorbing Yormak’s divine power.
No matter how hard Yormak tried to dredge up the remaining divine power in his body, he was unable to topple Frost. The sea of divine power was gradually being absorbed by Frost. Of course, because they were battling, it was impossible for him to convert all of it into immortal energy. Most of the divine power simply dissipated into thin air. Even so, the fact that Frost had survived that attack demonstrated the validity of this approach. Using immortal energy as a defensive barrier had allowed him to withstand Yormak’s attack.
Frost was even able to smile coldly at Yormak afterwards, even as he was enveloped in a golden light.
Yormak’s shock only grew further when he saw this. “That’s taboo! Blasphemy! How dare you make contact with that forbidden energy!? I will kill you no matter what it costs!!!”
As he roared, he lifted his hands up into the sky. Obviously, he was trying to establish a connection with his main body.
Unfortunately for him, his efforts were doomed to fail.
“Did you really think that I would let you do that in the middle of our fight?” Frost gazed at him sympathetically.
“You bastard! And that traitor!!!” Yormak howled angrily.
He didn’t even need to ask to know who was responsible. It was definitely that traitor operating behind the scenes.
Yormak glared fiercely at Frost. “You might be able to interfere with my connection to the main body, but can you handle this?”
Yormak raised his dagger and slashed at the sky, creating a spatial rift.
Two figures charged out through the rift — Yormak’s two other projections.
While the Human Ancestor could help and interfere with the vertical connection to the main body, he could not interfere with the horizontal connections between each projection. Thus, Yormak had called for the only reinforcements that were available. The skill that he had just used was a specialty of his known as the Unbroken Cycle. Each projection could travel to another projection regardless of the distance or location.
Even though Frost’s immortal energy was strong, Yormak was very experienced. He could tell that Frost could only handle one projection at most. With the other two projections, Frost’s defeat was all but guaranteed.
“Die!”
Three Abyss Daggers pierced towards Frost from three different directions.
Frost, however, laughed at them as he said, “I was expecting this as well.”
Not far from where the four of them were fighting, a puppet that had been lying in wait to ambush the Assassination Cavalry suddenly rushed backwards to assist Frost.
“Out of my way!” One of Yormak’s projections dismissively gestured in the puppet’s general direction.
But then, the puppet began to glow with an intense light.
“Legendary-tier?” Yormak stared at the puppet, surprised.
As the God of Assassination, Yormak’s specialty lay in concealment and sudden bursts of high-intensity attacks. He also possessed an innate comprehension of shadow and spatial Method Power, but his detection abilities were only average. And since the puppet was also a nonliving object, his ability to detect its strength was even more limited.
If this puppet had tried to conceal itself among an empty field, then Yormak would have easily discovered it. But because it was hidden amongst a large group of similar puppets, even Yormak hadn’t noticed it.
It wasn’t until now that Yormak began to realize just how much of a problem this puppet posed.
Even so, he still had not fully grasped just how much of a problem it was.
Even though he knew that this puppet would be no ordinary opponent, Yormak’s projection did not attempt to withdraw any of its divine power. In fact, he didn’t even try to protect himself with a barrier.
All he did was unleash a hammer of divine light in an attempt to force the puppet back.
A moment later, however, he realized that he had made a mistake.
A huge one at that.
A long blade suddenly appeared in the puppet’s hand, thrumming with energy.
The energy signature caused Yormak’s heart to seize.
Divine Tool!
That puppet was actually holding a Divine Tool!
What the hell!?
The owner wielded no weapon, but his puppet wielded a Divine Tool!?
How despicable! How shameless!
Yormak cursed in rage.
Unfortunately for him, he had no time to do anything else.
The blade directly shattered the space right above the projection’s head.
The projection wanted to run, but discovered to his shock that he had been frozen in place.
A spatial Divine Tool. A spatial Divine Tool!?
The blade sliced through the projection from head to toe.
He had been cut in half!