Chapter 650: Cero Oscuras
This was highly likely the absolute first time Solomon had ever executed a close-range, direct observation of Mercenary Tao. This monster-tier Reincarnator's incandescent silver hair flared outward behind his shoulders, rows of raw spiritual static slithering continuously across the strands.
A wave of concentrated Ki so immense it verged on pure physical pain completely enveloped every single micro-inch of local space; with every breath Solomon pulled, his respiratory pathways felt as if they were being systematically scorched clean.
And transcending even this structural agony was a suffocating, monolithic wave of pure compression. The world itself looked entirely black and white, leaving him in a state where merely anchoring his stance required the absolute entirety of his cognitive processing.
Solomon was professionally, flawlessly aware of the underlying mechanic: at this exact microsecond, Mercenary Tao's Reiatsu had successfully scaled to an absolute, structurally unfathomable tier. His mere presence on the grid inflicted an instantaneous, catastrophic duress directly against the soul.
Within those top-tier heterochromatic pupils—the [Mystic Eyes of Time and Rainbow]—Mercenary Tao's terrifying morphology was cleanly and sharply tracked. Solomon instinctively attempted to force his precognitive Future Sight to accelerate, trying to analyze his rival's chronological movements across the immediate future.
But in the very next fraction of a second, his eyes watched Mercenary Tao unhinge his jaw, a dense cluster of stygian, dark green spirit particles rapidly condensing before his lips as an apocalyptic volume of pure destructiveness completed its compilation in a heartbeat.
Solomon dared not cede another micro-gram of hesitation. Pinned under the continuous, crushing weight of the active [Anti-Life Equation], his frame aggressively buckled to depress his posture, his instinctual Title capability The King's Reality preparing to launch a priority countermeasure.
But in the next microsecond...
Pfft!
A column of dark green Cero cleanly and flawlessly punched straight through the space separating Solomon's eyebrows. Over half of his skull was instantaneously vaporized down to the atom. His physical vessel swayed unsteadily for several frames before his cells frantically initiated biological reconstruction.
The residual magic reserves of the Darkhold were strained to their absolute limits, forcefully converting the output into Holy Power to anchor the self-healing cycle, but the entity materializing right before his face remained entirely, unshakeably Mercenary Tao.
And casting his focus toward his internal panel, a wall of system notifications finalized across his sight:
[Reincarnator LL70015666, you have encountered the direct influence of the active Characteristic: Dominator of the Realm.]
[Executing structural immunity check...]
[Check failed. You have sustained the complete restrictive parameters of Dominator of the Realm. Throughout the active duration of this territory, your system is permanently disqualified from executing or channeling any capabilities outside the classification of the Soul Plane.]
Disqualified from executing any capabilities outside the classification of the Soul Plane?!
Mercenary Tao... is actually an elite practitioner rooted in the Soul developmental system?!
And furthermore...
Solomon felt a profound wave of pure, farcical absurdity ripple through his consciousness. Why on earth had the strategic database across the Space failed to retain a single scrap of tactical intelligence mapping a trait of this classification? This was an overriding, structural authority designed to systematically and flawlessly brick the vast majority of active Reincarnators across the multiverse.
In its mechanical utility, it completely and flawlessly eclipsed the priority parameters of his own [The King's Reality].
Staring up at the colossal, pitch-black spectral phantom hovering over Mercenary Tao's head like some primeval, high-tier aberration, his analytical matrix found it entirely impossible to align the morphology with a single documented setting within his database.
Subsequently, Mercenary Tao lowered his eyelids, driving his index finger straight into the center of Solomon's brow. Solomon registered a sharp, agonizing sting as his reinforced cranial armor caved to the kinetic pressure, punctured as effortlessly as soft curd beneath the fingertip.
The localized compression of a Cero completing its compilation directly behind his skull, paired with a wave of raw Reiatsu that was actively boiling his brain tissue, caused Solomon's face to violently twist into a mask of pure agony. His cold, unyielding detachment and logic completely entered a state of structural breakdown at this microsecond.
Terminal Death was materializing right before his eyes with an absolute, concrete certainty.
He was going to die... he was on the verge of being permanently erased from the logs!
Solomon's heart delivered a succession of rapid, frantic thuds, his blood pressure, pulse, and collective vital metrics completely entering a runaway state of systemic failure.
Kaito Shirogane tilted his head back slightly, his vacant eyes looking down through his lower eyelids to evaluate this elite Reincarnator who, a few world cycles ago, had seemingly possessed the capital to stand on an equal footing against his agency.
As expected, when pinned against the absolute, overriding weight of your own terminal execution, you fail to maintain your composure any better than the rest of the cattle... Solomon...
"Direct your focus forward," Kaito noted, his voice flat. "Weaponize those eyes of yours one final time, and watch."
Solomon rigidly froze on the asphalt, the passage of chronological time slowing to an absolute, processing-wise crawl within his perception. Superman and the Goddess Rhongomyniad appeared to be biding their time for a specific operational marker, refraining from immediately executing a lethal grapple against Mercenary Tao's coordinates.
A torrent of boiling magical energy skyrocketed out from the ocean basin, and the colossal golden Holy Spear looked as if it were a single wisp of friction away from completing its total anchor release.
And the entity holding absolute gravitational dominance over the entire grid—the Black King · Clark Kent—merely contentedly anchored his coordinates after systematically tracking down and hoisting the remaining surviving Reincarnators back into the sector.
At a coordinate completely hidden from Solomon's restricted field of vision, Artoria Pendragon stood rigidly on the ruins, her hands tightly clamped around the hilt of her pitch-black Holy Sword as her narrow eyes forced themselves skyward to lock onto that pair of vacant, emerald-like pupils.
Evaluating this individual who possessed a baseline morphology that was practically an unblemished, identical reflection of her own archetype, the cold, tyrannical King of Knights actually registered a rare, passing wave of cognitive hesitation.
This was an exceptionally anomalous occurrence since she had fully integrated the absolute parameters of her tyrannical dictatorial kingship.
Because within that stranger's frame lay a threshold of isolation and absolute detachment that completely eclipsed her own parameters.
High in the sky, the Goddess Rhongomyniad similarly lowered her gaze to evaluate Artoria. Directly before her chest, the Holy Spear binding heaven and earth had achieved total materialization, its energetic engine fully primed to execute an absolute, unyielding anchor release strike at a moment's notice.
Yet, she meticulously directed her focus toward the version of herself clutching the black Holy Sword below—or rather... a localized derivation of her own archetype—her emerald eyes revealing a blatantly distinct, anomalous wisp of curiosity.
Throughout her existence navigating across the multi-faction corridors of the Infinite Dimension Space, Rhongomyniad had scanned an unmapped number of Artoria variations who had sustained severely broken, tragic fates. It appeared that the collective swarm of locusts calling themselves Reincarnators harbored a highly specialized, sentimental fascination with the archetypes anchoring the Type-Moon multiverse.
Those interlopers were consistently deploying an infinite variety of psychological triggers and structural pressures specifically designed to provoke "herself," aggressively forcing those variations of Artoria to execute an internal mutation.
What manner of structural re-engineering and narrative pressure had the version standing below broken through to forge her current state?
Solomon inhaled a series of sharp, ragged breaths, the sub-zero compression of the Cero anchored against his brow primed to violently liquefy his cerebral matrix at any microsecond. The complex, spiral-like pinpricks crystallized within his retinas vibrated with immense velocity before his motor systems suddenly ground to a total, absolute halt.
The residual dread swirling within his eyes remained entirely unshakeable.
"What did you see?"
Even as Kaito launched the question, his predatory focus remained flawlessly engaged as his eyes methodically scanned across the parameters of the local grid, cataloging every single high-tier asset and target currently trapped within the sector.
Thanos was wedged within the subterranean geology over two thousand meters beneath his coordinates; Hela had established her position further down the slope, sitting roughly seven to eight thousand meters away;
Captain Marvel was anchoring her mass at a distance of five thousand meters; Ikaris...
Kaito Shirogane silently compiled the exact spatial parameters and distance metrics governing every single organism on the board. He held a crystal-clean tactical understanding of the underlying variable: the silent, non-verbal compliance established between him and Superman was explicitly and solely engineered to systematically deny the interlopers the capacity to weaponize this window to trigger a system regression.
A Black King inherently retained the fundamental database and traits of a Reincarnator; they were by no means simple, primitive native characters. They possessed an exhaustive understanding of a Reincarnator's methodology and survival contingencies.
Consequently, during the initial sequence of the engagement, the exact millisecond both of their engines registered a structural shift in the operational parameters of Solomon's squad, these two monster-tier entities had simultaneously aborted their lethal duel, turning their absolute dominance outward to forcefully smash every single line of escape available to the interlopers.
But an anomaly of that classification would not manifest a second time.
Kaito monitored the monumental torrent of raw, unmitigated power actively overflowing from his cells. Behind his back, both Superman and the Goddess Rhongomyniad were currently operating under the structural limitations of his active Dominator of the Realm.
Highly, statistically likely, his engine possessed the capital to...
"You've already lost the board, Mercenary Tao. You are fated to execute a total failure!"
Sensing the words clearing Solomon's teeth, the corners of Kaito's mouth split into a wide grin. Solomon was by no means fabricating a lie; he forcefully reiterated:
"You possess absolutely zero capacity to win this exchange. This Superman... his metrics are too monumentally, structurally powerful..."
"The group of us must immediately—"
Pfft!
An absolute column of dark green Cero violently tore through local space, carrying a spray of brain tissue and blood as it skyrocketed beyond the exosphere, vanishing into the cosmic vacuum.
Kaito Shirogane smoothly shifted his hand, the hyper-concentrated output of his [Cero Oscuras] sweeping across the perimeter like a scythe.
High in the sky, Rhongomyniad's detached focus was violently interrupted by the beam. She raised her right hand, her fingers drawing the Holy Spear upward by a single wisp of an inch.
Infinite rings of blinding golden luminescence radiated outward across the stratosphere, the absolute signature that [The Thirteen Restraints] were systematically initiating an extraction.
Yet, Kaito Shirogane completely disregarded her activation parameters. Turning his frame around, his jaw unhinged once more to drive another maximum-output Cero Oscuras straight toward the stratosphere.
Simultaneously, a massive Spear of Lightning materialized within his obsidian left hand, launched with monstrous velocity to impale Superman's coordinates.
Superman snapped a lone hand forward, his fingers flawlessly clamping around the shaft to anchor the projectile instantly, but Kaito let out a furious, sky-tearing roar, forcing the Spear of Lightning to violently detonate into a scattered blast wave at the microsecond of contact.
Amidst the non-discriminatory sweep of a devastating, soul-crushing Reiatsu expansion, Kaito Shirogane's silhouette instantaneously vanished from the sky. As a succession of concussive sonic booms violently exploded across local space, a Solomon who had only just completed his absolute biological reconstruction registered a sharp, blinding wave of pain across his face before his senses indicated his frame was being launched spinning across the clouds.
The exact microsecond his cognitive functions re-anchored his orientation, his narrow scanning arrays sharply captured the silhouette of the purple Titan materializing within his immediate field of vision.
Thanos's twin arms had fully completed their structural regeneration. He kept his head rigidly raised to evaluate the form of Solomon plummeting toward his crater, before his narrow eyes sharply shifted vectors. Turning his frame around, he registered that a cascade of incandescent silver hair was already whipping wildly behind his shoulders.
Kaito Shirogane threw both of his hands wide, one positioned high, one drawn low, as the boundless depths of the Underworld began to violently and flawlessly pour out from his core.
Amidst the frantic, sky-tearing roars of his active Mural of Mortal Death, Solomon completely caved to absolute despair, closing his eyes to accept his termination.
(End of Chapter)
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