Y/N POV
One step is all it takes.
That will be a lot of people trying to motivate you to do something, and I daresay that around 45% of the time that they're absolutely right.
The current situation falls into the 15% where they're absolutely wrong.
Because defeating the Sword Saint, who has transcended human limits, is definitely taking a hell lot more steps than one.
But getting in front of him, does indeed take only one.
Boosted with Al Akra and mana potions I bought in Priestella before, I took one step forward and dashed straight in front of Reid, and slammed all five of my swords down onto his chopsticks, sending him back. I didn't even issue a challenge condition yet, since we were both caught up in the heat of the moment, which means that my only means to victory was to beat the monster.
And oh boy is it going to be difficult.
"Pweh!" Reid stabilized his footing and sent a wave of wind at me using the chopsticks, but I sliced it apart with ease using my swords. "Do you think having 5 swords makes ya look cool? Let me tell ya, you can' do shit swinin' around with those, not on my level."
"Who says I have to get on your level to defeat you?" I dashed forward again, and Bayanga has already activated the Al Vita spell on him to keep in in place while Alchemis set my swords on fire, and Cahya blinded his eyes with bright light.
With one jump, I flew into the air using Murak, and twisted my body as I gathered rotational momentum and slammed all five swords into his face.
"Gotoryu - A Côte de Puissance."
The Al Vita spell was lifted as its effects vanished, but Reid managed to remember this trick since he had been caught by it a few times before already, and maintained his weight on the ground, resulting in him only being pushed away by a few dozen meters.
"Inen- Kurayami no Hyakutotachi"
I gave the Shadow Sword to one of my Extensions, which twisted and turned the blade as it slashed at Reid, sending corrosive shadow blades at the Sword Saint as he ran towards me. Reid dodged them and slashed at them with ease using the chopsticks, and when he was just a few meters away, I pointed Ryōkyō at him like a laser cannon, and unleashed its own spell.
"Gathered Spirits, Prismatic Overload."
The spiritual energy I've accumulated throughout my journey by absorbing mana from the atmosphere unleashed itself, and a rainbow beam emerged from the sword's tip, cutting the edge of Reid's face before he dodged and slashed at me with the chopsticks, to which I defended by activating Amorum's passive, Dome of Unending Love. The ability allows accumulation of affection and positive feelings towards the user and form it into an energy shield of sorts when needed.
After absorbing the initial impact of his attack, I slashed on retaliation, forcing Reid to jump back in response. His martial prowess is amazing indeed, and he's strengthening his chopsticks with a constant supply of his mana and Od. Adding onto that, any physical burden and kinetic energy that I hit him with using physical attacks gets transferred out of his feet. So despite being sent flying or crashed into walls, Reid showed no sign of fatigue or injury.
So magic attacks it is?
Go wild, my spirits.
"AL-IL-OL GOA!"
"AL-IL-OL JIWALD!"
"AL-IL-OL MINYA!"
The triple spell soared towards Reid and hit him temporarily before he slashed them apart using his sword skills, only to be met by my own swords. Meanwhile, Zeam was sneaked behind Reid, and shot at him. Reid barely avoided the high-velocity slash, and it nicked him by just a tiny bit, but he suddenly winced in pain.
"You like it? Zeam reaps the souls of those it touches. With your soul being so full of energy, it'll devour everything if it gets the chance."
"You really like resorting to various underhanded tricks, don't ya? Now shut yer trap, weirdass!"
Our swords exchanged blows, and he found his chopsticks suddenly looking bendy.
"What the f-"
"Curse of Elasticity." I smiled as Aionia Katara gave a hum while it stayed nestled between by teeth, as proof of doing its job. At this, I allowed my extensions to take over, and they started creating a sphere using all the elements available to me now.
"Deca, Vigin, Trigin, Quadragin-" The sphere got larger and larger. My maximum right now was mercury, which meant all the lanthanides, including some radioactive ones, were being included in the mix.
"Octogingenso Rupture!"
The first eighty elements fused into the heavy ball of mass, and exploded with such force it blew me back 20 meters. When I stabilized myself, I saw hundreds of tendrils and pieces rushing towards Reid, each with unique properties that cannot be simply defined by the laws of physics and chemistry.
Reid rushed to block the first obstacle, but it was beyond understanding to the human brain, so it was not deflected, only with its direction slightly changed to the side, narrowly missing him. Frustrated, he started forcefully slamming the tendrils aside, but I was already on the move, leaping into the sky and rushing down, accelerated using Vita while I toughened my body using mana spread.
"Gotoryu- Dies Irae - Tidal Waves!"
I stopped right in front of Reid and used my gathered kinetic energy to start rotating, gaining fire, light, and shadow infusion on my blades before I crashed down on him and his chopsticks akin to a raging tsunami. He was transferring most of the physical kinetic out from his feet into the floor, but he's clearly struggling against the magical attacks that are infused into my sword, which were eating away at his chopsticks, despite being strengthened by his mana and Od.
In a last ditch attempt, he moved his body to the side and let me fly through, sending me skidding across the floor before I halted myself by stabbing all five swords into the ground. Standing up to face the sword saint again, I faced him only to realize my swords are slightly damaged. And with the usual way of fixing them (using spirit magic to repair them over time, the only viable method currently), it will take too long. So I shoved all five of my prized blades into my Dimensional Storage and took out an invention of mine: Hypermana Gauntlets.
Equipping the flashy weapons onto my hands, I decided to finally activate the true power of the Authorities. Their current final stages, my utmost limit of utilizing the abilities of the sins.
Holding my fingers together, a thin topaz coloured film covered the entirety of Electra, putting everything in this realm under its influence. I smiled.
"Dominator's Domain Third Gear - Gibbs 0."
The change in Gibbs Free Energy, determining if a reaction is thermodynamically favourable or not, and basically if it requires extra energy to react or if it's instantaneous. With the ΔG now set to 0, every reaction, be it mana related or chemistry, is now instantly available for fusion, and their own chain reactions will only continue as long as the space holds.
My gauntlets were lit on fire while a blade of light and a blade of shadow formed into my Extensions, and they gave them a twirl as the cackling of lightning followed my steps.
A smirk plastered across my face, not because of confidence, but because of sheer excitement resulting from anxiety.
"This is gonna be fun."
Normally, humans would die under this level of strain I'm putting on my body.
But not me.
I've trained for the past year to surpass the limits of a regular hikikomori nerd, and although I'm nowhere near transcendence like Reid, I can definitely hold my own under conditions which were impossible and unimaginable.
"Ul Kilat."
Electricity flowed through my veins and coursed through my nerves, speeding up my brain and enhancing my perception of reality. Now, my reaction time is diminished from 0.15 seconds to 0.05 seconds, allowing me to quickly intercept any attacks that Reid might launch at me.
Readying my gauntlets while my extensions started rotating the blades of light and shadow to gain rotational momentum, I set the centre of the Dominator's Domain to my centre of mass, and rushed towards Reid with all the speed I could muster. The effects of the First and Second Gears of Dominator's Domain are both still in effect: First, which induces fear into the opponent (though towards Reid, it at most makes him think I'm not a weakling), and Second, which increases the force of gravity on the opponent, making Reid's movements slightly more sluggish.
Throwing some molotov cocktails in the air, I sent them towards Reid using Negative Vita Inverse, causing them to light the ground around him on fire. Reid only gave a 'tch' before slicing apart the flames, but what he didn't realize was that in the bottles were cans of propane gas, and they exploded immediately as soon as he cut them apart, causing him to cough in frustration.
It seems that even chemical reactions can damage him just fine. Poison will probably not work, but combustion seems to be my best bet here. In that case...
I threw a propane gas tube to the area behind Reid, and calculated my timing just right before throwing a punch, but it was blocked by his chopsticks.
"Wha'? You seriously think this trash attack will damage me? I thought you already knew I can transfer attacks out of my body like your worthless punches."
"Yeah, but this is only the first part."
"Huh-?"
"Incendiary Burst, activate."
Following my voice command, the gloves activated, and the flamethrowers on the knuckles shot out fire powered by a fire mana crystal, shooting a jet of flame that passed straight through Reid, unable for him to block. Although he quickly reacted and severed my jet of fire in half, the purpose was fulfilled.
"Kaboom."
A loud explosion rang out and blasted Reid to the side, incinerating a tiny part of his eyepatch before he tched in annoyance. "Is tricks all you got? Because I'm tired of seeing them!"
He went on the offensive this time, slicing through all the magic spells that my three spirits bombarded him with, and when he reached within 3 meters of me, I sent out an extension to slice him with the blade of light, but he sliced it apart again. At least, that's what he thought. Before he sliced the light apart, I covered the parts of contact the chopstick will make with the blade of light with Yin mana, creating a temporary shadow blade. His absolute severance went through the shadow and sliced the light, but the shadow remained intact as that was not his target and 'glued' the two pieces of light together, and the blade slashed through Reid before he suddenly coughed in shock.
"How was that, Sword Saint? Betcha never really used your brain that much, have ya?"
I taunted him. This was probably not the right move to do, but it allowed me to force him to use another skill.
"You brat. I don't care what your skills are, but your sword is clearly lacking!"
Light gathered atop Reid's sword, similar to Reinhard unleashing his 'swordplay of the Astrea family', and he casted down a torrential wave of light that passed through the domain and straight towards me. Clenching my teeth in frustration, I crossed my fingers and held them in a defensive position as I summoned my Authority of Greed.
"Prudence's Barrier - Third Shift, Dome."
The wave of light dispersed upon hitting my barrier, and Reid was beyond surprised as he stared at me in utter disbelief. "Absolute Severance and Absolute Defense... they cancel each other out, destroying both because their existence against each other results in a universal paradox, unable to allow both to exist."
"You... you think this is some sort of game, boy?" Reid stomped the ground and threw his two chopsticks at me, which I hastily dodged before he rushed behind into the domain and picked up his fallen weapons and leaped towards me.
"Pyro Sphere." Waves of fire surrounded Reid, ensnaring him before Cahya and Bayanga used Yang and Yin magic to seal Reid off in a temporary domain while I materialized all kinds of fuel inside the space. And whenever water and carbon dioxide are made from the organic combustions, I will immediately replace them with more fuel and oxygen, allowing explosions and combustions to continue happening alongside the help of my Dominator's Domain, which allows all reactions to continuously react without care.
"Spontaneous Combustion - Endless Dynamite."
Thousands, no, millions of explosions occurred within an instant, faster than the human brain could comprehend or process. Reid emerged from the sphere eventually, having slashed it to nothing but wisps of flame, but he was not unscathed either. Burn marks were scattered all across his skin and body, but his aura never diminished once.
"You! I've had enough of you! I hate to say this, but despite your dirty way of fighting, you are stronger than most, you weirdass kid." Reid scoffed before he suddenly took out a sword out of nowhere, and wielded it against me.
"I'll set the conditions. I don't care how you do it, but since you're so annoying when it comes to fighting, I'll let you pass IF, and only if you manage to knock my weapon out of my hands once. How about it?"
"I'll gladly oblige." I smiled, and I rushed him once again with a barrage of flamethrower enhanced punches, but his sword slash dispersed them all and he sent me flying back. I would've crashed into the wall and maybe broken a rib or two if not for my Extensions.
"Now... let's get rid of those annoying things."
Huh?
Before I realized it, the topaz coloured field covering me was gone, and all the explosions ceased immediately. Did he just-
-cut my Authority of Pride?!
"Don' stand there all wide-eyed, you. Ain't you gonna come and fight?"
Dammit. This means that I can only-
I zoomed forwards as fast as I could, hitting my max speed and swung both arms towards Reid, punching him square in the jaw, and sending a flamewave straight through his skull. Although it penetrated successfully, the sword bent and slashed faster than I could process, shattering my flaming gauntlets to pieces.
"Imperceptible Extensions Phase IV - Dark Snipe!"
A bullet of shadow soared through the air and hit his sword dead on, but with a simple flick, it was deflected to the side and exploded.
"That's also quite annoying, hah."
Another single slash, and my Extensions were severed. I tried to tug on my Witch Factors for them to activate, but they just won't. And it felt like they were in... pain?!
"So this is what it means to sever the Authorities... it doesn't destroy the Witch Factors, but prevents them from taking effect on modifying this world to their 'will'."
"Well, I still have Wrath and Greed!" Furious, I fiercely dove towards Reid from a high point, and formed a thunderbolt in my hand.
"AL KILAT!" Throwing the spear of thunder down at the swordsman, who parried it with ease, I then activated my Authority of Deceit and sent a wave of alloys at Reid to ensnare him, keeping him busy for just a moment as I unleashed my Rage Pulse.
"Stage Four - Pinpoint Fury!"
The thread of anger struck him square in the chest just like last time, but he seems to have somewhat gained an immunity to it. I tried to pull the thread back, but he already severed it, and the pyramid of wrath also stopped pulsing.
Only Greed Left.
My swords are repairing, my mana's exhausted, my spirits are tired, and most of my Witch Factors are depleted. How do I...
"Wait... I have Deceit's... No... no, no, no.."
Now that I look at it, against the sheer, absolute power that Reid represented, most of my Deceit's powers don't really come into play, despite how overpowered they might seem. Vacuum Trigger only awakens me when necessary. Element Creation drains my stamina, and he cuts through everything. Critical Overload is already used since the Elemental Rupture earlier had already depleted its score. Pure Truth doesn't do anything useful right now, Scindo has no effect nor benefits, and he doesn't have a Divine Protection, so Kago Shometsu is also down. Dimensional Storage isn't even offensive, and my partial immunity to authorities is just...
They're all neat tricks.
Just like Reid said, most of my battles were won by neat tricks. And I've ran out of neat tricks to use against him.
A slash of light soared towards me, causing me to hastily block it using Prudence's Barrier, canceling it out. I have to use everything at my disposal, everything-
Reid was already at my neck when I thought this, and he decapitated me. My head reattached without a problem after I sprinted a good distance away thanks to Cappy's Dragon Blood and my Element Manipulation, but I'm going to run out of stamina if I keep on doing this...
Reid was preparing to dash towards me once again when he was suddenly bit by a... hydra?
"Valgren!"
Valgren, now enlarged in size, swallowed Reid into his throat with his middle head. But Reid swiftly slashed through the neck and severed it before jumping out. Valgren, however, was utterly unfazed as his head regenerated before a black skin peeled off.
"Cappy gave you her Dragon's Blood?" I asked him, and he nodded. Reid, however, was very amused by Valgren's appearance.
"A hydra, huh? And a Dark Dragon at that. I can' believe one of ya survived. I thought I killed all of ya back then." Reid slashed the air, toppling all three heads. "The thing with hydras... you gotta behead them all at once!"
But Valgren didn't fall even after he was completely beheaded. The heads grew back like normal, and Reid stood there, confused as Valgren spewed out black flames that incinerated the area. Reid leapt into the sky and prepared to slice Valgren's wings this time, but was blown to the side by a gust of wind I recognized all too well.
"Zarestia!" I said in surprise. She sauntered over to me before giving me a whack on the head. "Oi! What was that for?!"
"For leaving your battalion unattended and worried. Do you know that Sphinx-chan and the girls were so scared? Fighting this man has almost gotten them killed when everyone worked together, and now you're going to fight him, not to mention you're not just knocking him out of a circle like that mutt!"
"I... I had to come up. Or else, Julius would've-"
"I know, I know. I haven't been in your merry band for a long time, but I can tell they mean a lot to you and you mean a lot to them. So don't just leave without next time, okay? Do it for their sake."
"I will."
"I mean win the battle for their sake, you goofball!" Another whack to my head. "I have an idea against this man. He was immune to all blunt physical attacks, was he not?"
"Yes..."
"Then do that Spirit Dive thing you mentioned before."
"HEH? THAT? But Alchemis, Cahya, and Bayanga are-" I pointed to my spirits, but they are completely fine.
"Ha! We tricked you on purpose because we wanted to do this together with Tia." Bayanga gave me a smirk as Zarestia nodded.
"By the way, your swords are repaired, so you can you them now." Cahya said as she opened my Dimensional Storage and dumped out the weapons.
"Here's an orb of essence from the Green Room on Alcyone." Alchemis said as he shoved the ball of healing into my core, and I felt the fatigue rush away and my stamina back instantly.
"Now, it's time for the final showdown." Zarestia declared just as Reid emerged from the dust.
"Hohoho, that strong spirit is here." Reid chuckled. "Are you giving up? Because you can't do anything now anyways."
"No, you're wrong. Just because you think my cards are depleted does not mean that they're done." I said as my spirits landed on my left shoulder, and Valgren perched on my right after he adjusted his size. "Ready, y'all?"
Everyone nodded in confirmation, and I smiled in contempt at Reid. "Then let's begin."
"Time for the final card that I haven't used since my training battle with Reinhard a year ago."
A sword slash was unleashed at me while we got ready, but Critical Overload activated and deployed Haywire Warp, sucking the attack to another dimension.
"Thanks for aiding me on this one, Zarestia."
"My pleasure."
The spirits fused into my body as Valgren fused onto my back, its dragon might and wings imprinted onto my very being as my body began to convert from matter into pure mana. Bright green light bursted through the room, blinding even Reid.
My arms turned into wind, and my legs into shadow. My torso was set ablaze, and my skull was illuminated.
E = mc^2
The famous law of energy - matter conversion is taking effect. A paper clip, when converted into pure energy, can yield the explosion of 18 kilotons of TNT. So what about my entire body mass, added on with Valgren's?
The answer? Something beyond human understanding, just like Reid's vertical sword slash, one of the techniques that shows the true power of the first sword saint.
Full Spirit Dive, Obruuntur:
Version: Quartile - Ventignis Umbralux.
My five swords of power were infused with the four types of magic, also coated in a thick layer of mana due to their own mass-energy conversion.
The ground shook. The skies trembled. The tower felt my presence.
This is the time, where I truly break, surpass, and release my limits.
It isn't because I don't want to die or anything.
It's because I want to win.
For these moments, I'm stepping into transcendence, to infinity and beyond.
And that's exactly why... This is Critical Surchargem Overload.
Let it be known to the world...
...that Y/N L/N IS GOING TO DEFEAT REID ASTREA,
RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!