Chapter 179: Speed is Power
Whoosh!
The air itself seemed to scream as the atmospheric pressure plummeted. From Ren's position, a wave of obsidian darkness expanded outward at breakneck speed, swallowing light, sound, and matter. It was not a physical barrier, but a metaphysical imposition of a separate reality.
In the blink of an eye, the [Domain Expansion: Unlimited Void] had enveloped the entirety of the enemy forces surrounding them.
From the outside, to anyone watching from a distance within the Worth Woodsea, it looked as though a gigantic, perfect sphere of ink-black void had suddenly materialized, eating a chunk of the endless forest.
"What... is that?!"
Racer, who had been darting through the trees searching for the sealed location of Nirvana, skidded to a halt. His goggles reflected the ominous black dome that loomed over the canopy. He felt a shiver of instinctive dread crawl up his spine. Without a second thought, he adjusted his stance and blurred into motion, sprinting toward the anomaly.
Inside the Domain, the world had shifted into a kaleidoscope of cosmic horror.
Zade, the leader of the Dark Guild forces, along with his dozens of subordinates, stood frozen. Their eyes were wide open, staring into the abyss of the universe, yet seeing nothing. Drool leaked from the corners of their mouths. They were catatonic, trapped in a state of living death.
"What's wrong...?" Zade's mind screamed, though his lips could not move. "I can't see anything... No, that's not it. I can see everything! I can feel everything! The information... it's never-ending!"
It was the ultimate sensory overload. Every synapse in their brains was firing simultaneously, forcing them to process the concept of infinity. They perceived the birth of stars, the flow of microscopic atoms, the entirety of existence—all in a fraction of a second.
"I know everything... and because I know everything, I can do nothing."
While the enemies were locked in their mental prisons, Wendy and Carla stood untouched at the center of the chaos. They looked around, bewildered. To them, the terrifying cosmic landscape was visible, but the paralyzing effect had been selectively nullified by Ren.
"What's happening to them?" Carla asked, her voice trembling as she looked at the statuesque dark mages. "Why are they just standing there? And where... where exactly are we?"
Ren stood tall, his blindfold secure over his eyes, his hands in his pockets. He exuded an aura of untouchable godhood.
"This is the inside of the Limitless," Ren explained casually, as if giving a weather report. "We are within my Domain. I've flooded their brains with approximately a year's worth of sensory information in less than a second. Their brains are currently trying to process it all, effectively paralyzing them. They're alive, but they're not here anymore."
Whoosh!
Ren snapped his fingers, and the starry void shattered like glass. The black sphere dissipated, returning them to the green, sun-dappled forest.
Ren sighed, rolling his shoulders. "Expanding a Domain consumes a ridiculous amount of Magic Power. For mere cannon fodder like this, holding it for even an instant is more than enough. Any longer would be a waste."
He turned to the little Dragon Slayer, his expression softening.
"Wendy, Carla," Ren said gently. "The next scene might be a bit... messy. It's not something a child should see. Close your eyes, cover your ears, and count to ten. Once you reach ten, you can open them."
Wendy blinked, her large brown eyes filled with trust. She didn't question him. "Okay! Shall I start now, Ren-nii?"
"Start."
Wendy obediently squatted down, pressing her small hands over her ears, and squeezed her eyes shut. "One... Two..."
The moment the count began, the atmosphere around Ren shifted from gentle protector to cold-blooded executioner.
Boom!
Ren vanished.
He didn't teleport; he simply moved with such explosive acceleration that the ground beneath his feet cracked. He charged into the crowd of paralyzed dark mages like a wolf among sheep.
Crack! Snap! Thud!
It was a symphony of violence. Ren's movements were efficient, brutal, and precise. He wove through the ranks, his hands and feet moving so fast they left afterimages. He wasn't using magic; he was using pure, cursed-energy-reinforced martial arts.
A sweeping kick shattered ribs. A palm strike caved in a chest. He grabbed two mages by their collars and slammed their heads together with a sickening crunch. Bodies were launched through the air, crashing into trees and vanishing into the undergrowth.
"...Eight... Nine... Ten!"
Wendy removed her hands from her ears and opened her eyes, blinking against the sunlight.
Standing before her was Ren, back in his relaxed posture, dusting off his hands. His Gojo Satoru form—tall, white-haired, and impeccably cool—offered her a gentle, reassuring smile.
The clearing, which had been packed with threatening enemies just moments ago, was now empty.
"Huh?" Wendy looked around, confused. "Where did all those people go?"
Ren pointed a thumb over his shoulder toward the distant horizon. "Those guys? I beat them all away. They decided to go home."
Wendy's face lit up, and she clapped her hands happily. "Wow! Ren-nii is so amazing! You actually scared away so many people just like that! Isn't that right, Carla?"
Carla stood frozen, her face pale. She forced the corners of her mouth up into a stiff, terrified smile. "Y-Yes! Amazing..."
Unlike the innocent Wendy, Carla hadn't fully closed her eyes. She had peeked.
She had witnessed a massacre. In those ten seconds, Ren hadn't "scared them away." He had dismantled them. She had seen limbs bent at unnatural angles and bodies flying like ragdolls. Even if they weren't dead—which was unlikely given the sounds she had heard—they were definitely broken beyond repair.
He's a monster, Carla thought, shivering. A protector, yes... but a monster nonetheless.
"Well, look who finally decided to show up," Ren said, his gaze shifting upward.
Standing perched on a thick tree branch above them was a tall, lanky man. He wore a red and black racing suit, sunglasses, and a distinctive yellow Mohawk.
"It's him!" Carla gasped, stepping in front of Wendy protectively.
"Oración Seis!!" Wendy cried out.
They recognized him immediately. It was Racer. During the initial skirmish with the Allied Forces, this man alone had blitzed through their ranks, taking down several mages before Ren had swatted him away.
"It's you!"
Racer's expression tightened behind his sunglasses as he locked eyes with Ren. He remembered the humiliation of being thrown like a baseball. Gemini's intelligence report had warned them that this white-haired mage was an anomaly—a terrifyingly powerful variable.
But fear was secondary to Racer's ego. The more terrifying the monster, the greater the glory in outpacing it. He wanted revenge.
"My name is 'Racer'," the dark mage declared, striking a pose. "A name that signifies I run faster than anyone. Faster than anything in this world."
Ren picked at his ear with his pinky finger, looking utterly bored. "Sorry, I have a policy. I have no interest in remembering the names of men."
Racer's brow twitched. "You arrogant... I'm going to make sure you know exactly who killed you!"
Whoosh!
As Racer spoke, his figure blurred. He began to sprint in a wide circle around Ren, his speed increasing with every step.
"Did you see that?! Can you keep up with my speed?!" Racer's voice echoed from all directions, creating a disorienting doppler effect. "Speed is power! And I am the fastest!"
Wendy and Carla clutched each other, their heads spinning as they tried to track him.
"I-I can't see him!" Wendy cried out. "He's too fast! He's here one second, and there the next! It's like he's teleporting!"
"Be careful, Ren!" Carla warned. "We can't track his movements!"
Ren, however, stood perfectly still, his head tilting slightly as he watched the blur.
To Wendy and Carla, Racer was a phantom. But through the [Six Eyes], Ren saw a completely different reality.
The [Six Eyes] granted him atomic-level perception and immense processing power. Ren could see the flow of magic, the twitch of muscles, and the distortion of space.
In Ren's vision, Racer wasn't moving at light speed. He was just... running. Fast, sure, but not impressively so. What Ren did see was Racer's magic—Slowing Magic—radiating out, altering the perception of time for everyone nearby. Racer wasn't speeding himself up; he was slowing everyone else's brains down.
But the [Six Eyes] processed information infinitely faster than Racer's magic could slow it.
So, to Ren, the scene was almost pathetic. He watched as Racer ran a few laps, then stopped, crossed his arms to pose, shouted a taunt, and then started running again. It was all theatrical acting to maintain the illusion of speed.
Ren's eyebrow twitched. The second-hand embarrassment was strong.
"Are you..." Ren sighed, "Are you a clown?"
Racer froze mid-stride, his face twisting with rage. "What did you say?! DIE!!"
Abandoning his circling, Racer turned and rocketed straight toward Ren's blind spot, aiming a devastating punch at the back of Ren's skull.
"Go to hell!!"
Bam?
No impact sound came.
Racer's fist stopped abruptly, hovering inches from Ren's white hair. It didn't hit a wall; it just... ceased to advance. Racer pushed, his veins bulging, but the space between his fist and Ren felt infinite.
Ren didn't even turn his head. He simply lifted his leg backward like a mule and drove his heel into Racer's gut.
Thwack!
"Gwahhh!!"
Racer eyes bulged as the air was forcibly ejected from his lungs. He flew backward, crashing through a bush and tumbling across the dirt.
"Seriously," Ren muttered, turning around slowly. "He learned absolutely no lesson from the previous battle. Wendy, Carla, stay there and don't move. I'll take care of this pest."
Ren walked toward the fallen dark mage, his hands buried deep in his pockets, his gait relaxed.
Racer scrambled to his feet, wiping blood from his lip. His legs shook. "Impossible... How could you react to that?! How could you see my attack?!"
"Hmm?" Ren stopped, tilting his head mockingly. "It seems you still don't understand the gap between us. My eyes are called the [Six Eyes]. They possess a 360-degree field of vision and visual acuity that transcends standard biology."
Ren tapped the space in front of him.
"And my Cursed Technique is called the [Limitless]. You can simply understand it as a continuous defensive force field that brings the concept of 'infinity' into reality. It slows down anything that approaches me until it stops completely. It blocks any attack, physical or magical, 24 hours a day, automatically."
"What...?!"
Racer stepped back, horror dawning on him. "How can there be such a monstrous magic?! That means... aren't you invincible?!"
"Not entirely," Ren admitted with a shrug. "If the magic's intensity is high enough, or if the domain is complex enough, it is theoretically possible to breakthrough my defense. But..."
Ren grinned, a predatory expression. "That person won't be you."
"Don't... DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME!!"
Racer roared, his humiliation boiling over into a berserker rage. He was one of the Oración Seis! He was a demon of speed! He had never been looked down upon like this!
"I'll crush you with velocity you can't even comprehend! [Dead Grand Prix]!! OPEN!!"
Racer slammed his hands together. Magic circles flared violently around him. The roar of engines filled the forest.
Vroom! Vroom! Vroooom!
Dozens of magical motorcycles materialized from thin air. They were sleek, heavy, and screaming with kinetic energy. With a wave of Racer's hand, the mechanical stampede surged forward, tearing up the earth as they charged toward Ren like a steel tsunami.
Ren looked at the oncoming traffic with mild interest. He slowly raised his left hand, pointing his index finger at the swarm.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."
Hummmm—
A sphere of darkness, glowing with an unstable azure light, materialized at the tip of his finger. It was a singularity—a point of amplified attraction created by negative distance.
Ren flicked his finger.
The [Blue] sphere shot forward into the center of the motorcycle herd.
CRACK! CRUNCH!
Gravity collapsed. The motorcycles weren't just stopped; they were devoured. The implosive force of the [Blue] sucked them in, crushing steel, rubber, and magic into a condensed ball of scrap metal in milliseconds.
The trees nearby weren't spared either; their trunks twisted and snapped, drawn into the vortex, leaving a perfectly spherical gouge in the forest.
"Damn it!"
Racer screamed as the gravitational pull tugged at his own body. He dug his heels into the ground, using his speed to break the traction, frantically dodging to the side.
"This monster! He's not just invincible in defense... his attack power is catastrophic!"
Racer's heart pounded against his ribs. He had to move. He had to be faster.
But as he side-stepped, a shadow fell over him.
"Too slow."
Racer looked up. Ren was already there, hovering directly in his face, effectively teleporting via high-speed movement.
"Oh no—"
Ren's leg was already in motion.
BANG!
"WAAAHHH!!"
The kick connected squarely with Racer's blocking arms. The sound was like a cannon firing. Racer felt his radius and ulna fracture under the weight of the blow. His body was launched like a missile, smashing through three consecutive trees before plowing into a boulder.
Dust settled around the broken form of the speedster.
Ren didn't pursue immediately. Instead, he raised his right hand, palm facing the wreckage.
Dark, ominous red sparks began to dance around his fingertips, crackling with unstable, positive energy. The air began to vibrate with a terrifying hum.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!"
[Akarin Note:
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