Chapter 592 - Gwyn siblings

Half of the group splits and starts heading directly at us. Around five stay behind to use ranged attacks while the remaining ones move around to flank us from behind.

Just before the front attackers come close, gray mana bursts on the roof where the ranged attackers stayed. It seems that the twins used the [Disintegration] orb stored in the box, they follow with attacks of their own. Min-Jae joins them too in cutting off the sniping.

Led by Derick and Klara, the frontal attackers get close. While Group 4 continues exchanging messages, Blackie, now in a spider golem body made of glass, concrete, and metal, jumps off the roof and crashes into an unfortunate woman. As they fall, his eight legs tear her apart.

Pieces of him explode and a few legs break, but the golem spider rolls upon falling onto the ground, crashing into another building which it breaks, collecting more material and repairing itself. Then the huge monstrosity pierces its legs through the glass and into the skyscraper to start climbing up at an impressive speed.

Maya surrounds herself with mana and huge armor grows around her. Its color darkens as she uses her [Boost] and a shield grows on one of the huge arms she uses to block attacks. Even a few arrows made of primordial lightning, Noelle shoots.

Lily, with [Disintegration Mantle] floating around her, jumps off the roof to another one, and her huge bone axe smashes against the woman who tries to block it with her shield. Gray mana swirls around the blade of the axe and it pierces through easily, and then through the woman.

A barrage of attacks shoot at her, but her mantle swirls around, disintegrating them all. Lily disappears with a movement reminiscent of Wraith Dance, and Klara dodges an attack from her. There are tears on Lily's body from the impact, but they visibly heal. And she isn't even using healing; that is just her regeneration.

Lily disappears again and swings her axe, while Klara ducks under and, with impressive speed, stabs her short spear through Lily with that red, liquid, smoke-like substance blazing around. Lily increases her speed and ignores the wound, continuing to attack.

Some vines pierce through the roof, trying to slow her down, but she tears them apart with the strength of her body. Flames surround her, burning her, but her body nearly immediately restores.

I notice Derick cursing as he changes his direction and heads to help Klara, but as he is jumping from a roof, Noodle explodes from underneath—now as thick as a car would be an impressively long. Noodle bites at Derick, who twists in the air and avoids the bite, only to continue running across the scaly body. Green, purple, and blue flames, fragments of eternal fire, surround Noodle, and Derick's shins glow in that disruptive magic, only for the flames to ignore it entirely and burn the man.

More Beyonders join in attacking Noodle, and even Derick's wife Noelle forms a huge arrow of primordial lightning to shoot at him. But at the last moment, she moves from where she is, and an explosion of flames the same color as Noodle's melts a huge part of the building where she had been standing, causing it to begin tilting and falling.

Izzy stands there with flames blazing around her. She holds a bow made of the same flames, as well as arrows floating around her. She grabs them from the air before firing them at the woman.

A constant barrage of attacks hits our building, but Sophie and Maya redirect the most dangerous ones, destroying them before they can land. Sophie even finds time to get into the mind of another Beyonder whose projectile made of light pierces the roof where Lily, Derick, and Klara are fighting. Sophie redirects the attack there without any hesitation, and after the explosion Derick and Klara step out with their skin burned and facing the direction from which the greatest force of the attack came.

Lily steps out with her body wounded and burned, but it regenerates incredibly quickly. Her hair shortens and she disappears again, smashing her axe where her two opponents stood, and the entirety of the building's windows explode from the resulting shockwave.

Noodle coils around it, the flames surrounding him turning the falling glass into liquid. At times, he consumes the mana-based attacks that hit him while continuing to fight off those who come at him.

I hear a message exchanged between Min-Jae and Lily, and she nods. Her body cracks further as she slams into Klara. Even at the cost of having her neck pierced by the gladius, the redheaded woman holds. Lily grabs her, and blood bursts from her mouth as Derick dodges her mantle and hits her side, likely turning her insides into liquid.

Lily moves her arm in a way that shouldn't be possible. It twists, elongates, and gains more joints as it grabs Derick and holds him still. Her mantle flickers around, forcing both to do their best to avoid it.

Some attacks come out of nowhere, likely from a free Beyonder, and slash through the air, cutting off Lily's head. A third arm grows from her back, grabs the head, and shoves it back onto her neck, allowing it to quickly reattach.

Then the air starts shaking and everyone looks up. An entire building is floating there, with pieces of debris raining down. That building then implodes, compresses into itself, forming a dense ball that starts falling down right at where Lily and the two others are.

Their attempts to free themselves escalate, as do Lily's attempts to kill them. But neither side is able to do so quickly enough.

Klara's red liquid smoke surrounds all of them and Derick shouts in pain as the redheaded woman goes all out in the attempt. But Lily holds on and the huge ball crashes against them.

It doesn’t stop at the roof. The impact rips through it, obliterating the top floors in seconds. Concrete, steel, and glass are torn apart as it drives downward. Floor after floor gives way, collapsing under the pressure. The sound is deafening, a deep, grinding roar that rolls across the city.

The compressed sphere punches through the base of the building and crashes into the street below, carving a straight path through everything in its way. The road cracks and caves in. Cars flip. Pavement peels back. Water and steam burst from broken pipes, filling the air with hiss and heat. The shockwave spreads out from the point of impact, shaking the nearby buildings.

Multiple Beyonders on the roofs look down, only to lift their heads and see Lily standing up there with her axe and a gray mantle surrounding her. They curse immediately and begin to reposition, but the twins step out from behind the chimney and strike. Both attack the same man at once, moving fast, stabbing him multiple times before cutting off his head. Without pausing, they shift their focus to the next target.

When attacks reach them, they disappear, exchanging places with another of their illusions, and the illusion of Lily they created disappears. Izzy's flames hit the buildings and Maya herself jumps through as they don’t cause her damage.

Maya lands with a crash, her armor snapping into place as dark blue mana armor forms around her body. Her weapon shifts in her hand, cycling from glaive to dagger to heavy blade in moments. Flames from Izzy swirl around her caught and redirected by her movement.

A barrage of radiant spikes shoots toward her from the left. She raises her arm, and the armor thickens, absorbing the impact with a burst of heat. A chain of metal flies from above, trying to bind her limbs, but she slices through it mid-spin, her weapon stretching into a spear.

The spear is made of three colors of mana: dark blue, blue, and wisps of purple circling inside. It cuts easily through another barrier. It extends to three times its length and stabs a woman nearby.

It then shifts into a shield. A concentrated flame crashes against it, dark blue with a white core, roaring as it tears through the air but failing to pierce the tricolored shield.

Gravity shifts beneath her feet, mana pressing down to hold her in place. She surges forward instead, slamming her shield into the nearest attacker and crushing them into the wall. Another steps in, black mist coiling around their blade. Maya pivots deflects the strike and drives her shield, now turned into a sword, through his chest.

A whip of molten steel snaps at her neck. She ducks, parries, and counters in one motion. Her expression stays focused. Calm. The same one I’ve seen in the mirror. And the enemies trying to surround her start stepping back.

Then she dies, her head separating from her body, and Tacita stands over it. The same fragile-looking and thin figure with messy brown hair.

Izzy's flames burn around, but the air itself seems to flicker around Tacita because of her field, and no damage is caused to her. She moves again and one of the twins' illusions disappears, and Min-Jae sends a barrage of attacks at the spot where she stood, only for her to reappear next to him.

His own [Telekinesis] yoinks him high into the air and then even higher as he attempts to escape her reach, but Tacita's hand turns into a blur, and a dagger lodges itself into his chest. Right after, Tacita ducks under Dennis's attack, only for him to disappear as he exchanges places with his illusion.

The ground shakes and from between the buildings, a huge mana armor walks. It is much taller than Maya can make, but its owner does not seem to have trouble with it. Each step damages the road, and its movement carves damage into the buildings it passes by.

Baek then looks in our direction and toward Tacita. A sword made of metallic, shining blue mana grows in his hands and the speed of his armor increases as he swings it at the roof where Tacita is. Half of the buildings explode as they are cleanly cut apart and start collapsing.

A huge fireball hits him, shot from a distance by some random hell difficulty attendee, and a flash of light and heat expands into the area, but when it is gone the armor remains undamaged and he moves again.

Kang Jiwon, that 12-year-old girl with a concentration skill, crashes onto a different building against Tacita. As before, there is no mana around her, but she moves calmly with incredible speed, destroying the buildings she jumps from while barely avoiding Tacita's attacks, which seem to be toying with her.

Down on the ground, Min-Jae's projectile that killed two kings finally cracks, and Lily climbs out. She is missing one of her arms and her entire body is mangled and damaged. The third arm she formed from her back disappears in sacrifice and she regenerates nearly immediately. Lily retrieves the axe from the debris and jumps up onto the roofs.

Tacita locates her and kicks Kang Jiwon away before shamelessly jumping onto Baek's huge armor, running across the surface, and charging at Lily, who throws her axe with incredible force. Tacita dodges and the axe lodges itself into Baek's armor and makes the huge armor stumble and crash against the building.

Then a single bone dagger forms in Lily´s hand, and she charges Tacita.

It’s complete chaos, with people fighting all over the place while I just sit there and do my thing. But I keep at it without a hint of shame. I can guess what Vic probably told them, even if they’re too embarrassed to say it to me. It works out well for them too, since I’m sure Victoria is watching from somewhere.

Group 4 goes all in, every single one of them, only falling to a monster like Tacita.

At some point, constant explosions shake the arena in the distance, and that familiar orange light spreads across a smaller part of the city. It looks like Savant and Jean are clashing too, judging by the number of buildings turned to dust, the falling skyscrapers, and the surge of intense mana radiation.

Tacita disappears and heads in that direction, with Lily and the twins following close behind. Only Izzy, Sophie, and Noodle stay back, handling the people drawn in by the heat I’m generating.

By now, it’s hot enough to melt through Sophie’s web. The top of the skyscraper turns to lava, spilling down from the room. I use kinetic energy to stay afloat, since there’s nothing left to stand on, and the heat around me continues to spread.

With each beat of my partially unsealed Ignition Heart, more of it spreads into the area. It feels like a ticking bomb, a countdown leading toward something and the barrier around the arena is already shrunk at half.

A constant combustion heals the burns inside my body, fueled by the heart, only so I can be burned again in a twisted loop. The first seal on the heart is temporarily but completely lifted, and I begin to open the second one.

Just a little.

Even that small part is on a completely different level than the first. The difference can't be compared. The amount of thermal energy now seeping out is like nothing before, collecting further into the huge amount I have already gathered.

The golden, blazing, massive halo-like circle above me expands even further. Constructs made of specially modified, heat-resistant Ley Lines are barely holding together as I keep reinforcing them and replacing the damaged sections. Only [Focus] allows my mind to endure the pain of flames combusting beneath my skin.

Sophie and the others have already moved away, and even the few powerful attacks thrown at me melt and vanish before they can reach me, consumed by the sheer heat.

More golden flames continue to flow into the spinning halo above. I fight to keep them there, spinning, burning, to stop them from expanding further and estimating how much I need.

I ease the second seal open just a little more, and for a moment, everything goes dark. Control nearly slips through my fingers, but I manage to hold it together, just barely.

Then everything is prepared.

(Done.) I send.

(Well, good luck), Sophie says and then, (I forfeit.)

(Good luck, Nat! I forfeit!) Izzy says as well.

(I will be watching! I forfeit!) Lily shouts in the middle of her fight and disappears after forfeiting.

The surviving Aaron and Noodle both also disappear.

Tacita reappears on the roof, looking at me with confusion. Savant is still locked in battle with Jean.

The city is being torn apart, piece by piece, as the attendees continue to fight. Entire buildings are sliced in half by wide arcs of mana, the upper sections crashing down and flattening the streets below. Others are vaporized outright, turned into clouds of dust and fire as piercing beams punch through them and keep going, carving deep scars through the skyline.

Massive impacts shatter rooftops as fighters slam into each other in mid-air, sending shockwaves that break windows in buildings several blocks away. One skyscraper detonates from within, its core ruptured by a delayed explosion, sending burning debris into surrounding structures and igniting them instantly.

Chunks of pavement are ripped from the ground as shockwaves slam into the streets, tossing cars like toys. A swirling mass of elemental energy collides with a defensive barrier and obliterates an entire intersection, cratering the area and snapping support beams of nearby towers.

High above, unstable magic detonates in waves, turning rooftops into craters. Flames race along the sides of buildings and burst from broken windows.

The arena is collapsing under the pressure. Too much force, too many skills, too many people fighting without restraint. In a short amount of time, the level of destruction is unreal. Everyone is still far from a Champion, yet the buildings are coming apart like they're made of paper.

I glance at Tacita, challenging her, and she looks like she’s actually considering it. The field around her rises, and the air begins to vibrate, almost glitching with unstable pressure.

But in the end, she does not do so and disappears again in the direction where Savant and Jean fight.

Something hits my chest and I grab it before it falls down: just a tiny piece of finger bone left after passing through the heat around me.

I smile. Damn it, Vic. Fine.

Then I release all the heat I’ve stored, and the spinning halo shatters with a sharp crack. Flames erupt like a golden tornado, tearing through the rooftop and surging outward in waves. Buildings in the path evaporate instantly, turning to glowing dust before it disperses.

The fire spreads fast, rushing between structures and down streets. Concrete melts, glass vaporizes, and mana barriers crack and fail. The flames slam into the orange light, held back for a second. They melt through, crash against that orange light only to extinguish it. For a moment, they are blown back by a shockwave sent by Jean. Then again. It almost looks like he might endure. But the amount keeps increasing and after multiple more setbacks, they wash even over him. The golden fire rolls over the battlefield, devouring everything.

Entire blocks vanish. Skyscrapers fall, their frames glowing red before disintegrating. The air becomes impossible to breathe, thick with heat.

The few remaining presences try to resist, but each one is overwhelmed, disappearing in violent bursts of force. The ground cracks open. What’s left of the city collapses inward, twisted steel and stone breaking apart as the last of the fire passes through.

It doesn’t slow. It doesn’t stop.

Amid the destruction, a figure takes shape high above the ruins.

Lissandra descends from the sky into the burning chaos, untouched by the heat, her silver hair drifting weightlessly around her face.

I toss the fingerbone to the ground, and in the blink of an eye, Victoria rises from it. She wears those same somewhat formal yet comfortable clothes, carrying the same steady, reliable presence.

My feet hit the burning rooftop, and she moves to stand beside me as we face Lissandra.

The crown over my head turns entirely black, and I pull Fracture from its scabbard, knowing the weapon will break this time. It immediately attacks my flesh, starting to disintegrate and devour it as the unstable forces within it fight to kill me. The effect is even stronger than before, with all my gained knowledge from the Logic core used to make it more deadly rather than stable.

Lissandra glances between me and Victoria, nodding. "I shall allow it."

A loud thud sounds from her, like an implosion, and her pressure diminishes incredibly as she limits herself.

"Come then, Gwyn siblings."

***

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