The Absent Being (2)
An explosion erupted centered on Rian. Its force could have leveled the whole vicinity, but Rian's companions who had been behind him were unharmed.
As everyone looked forward in confusion, Shirone had already arrived and was casting Hand of God.
Beyond the palm of light that stopped the blast, Imir was seen leaning back from the waist.
"Fuuuuu!"
While the area turned to black ash, only Imir emitted a pulse of vitality.
'Did it miss?'
Just as everyone thought that, Imir's chest split open and blood spurted out.
"Hmm."
Even as his own blood gushed before his eyes, Imir showed no change in expression.
'Imir… was cut by the blade.'
It was Rian's party who was shocked; if heaven's armies had been present, they would have been stunned.
"Amazing, Rian."
Shirone, checking Imir's condition, had to admit Rian's feat sincerely.
'In Omega's history, the only one to wound Imir's true body was Ozent.'
Rian's single sword had reached that far.
"Ughhh!"
Smoke rose where had stood, and Rian's body began to coalesce.
Watching briefly, Imir tightened his chest muscles forcefully and stopped the bleeding.
"This is the baseline."
Shirone retracted Hand of God and said, "Remember the power you just felt. Nothing less than that will stagger Imir."
Even saying that…
'I couldn't even see what he swung. Not a force a human could produce.'
Rian's body regenerated slowly, but at the state of sword-spirit unification the shell didn't matter.
"I waited beneath the frozen sea. It was boring. I'm not particularly patient, and coming out didn't give me any joy."
He had spent years endlessly turning Ozent's strike over in his mind and enduring it.
"You said you'd return. You told me that."
Watching Rian fully regain his form, Imir nodded.
"Then consider your promise kept, Ozent."
Pride in being the originator of the Ozent line, and the one who carried his predecessor's will, set Rian's chest ablaze.
'But… my head feels colder than before.'
'I dodged it. A strike with everything behind it.'
What about Imir?
Had he also dodged with everything he had?
Rian concentrated every nerve but still could not sense Imir's presence.
Shirone said, "Rian, over here."
He drew Rian back toward the group and put Hand of God up front.
"You've already experienced it, but Imir's attacks produce two kinds of shockwaves. The first is a shock to the photon field"—i.e., physical force—"and the second comes from his body moving itself. It's a peculiar wavelength; if you get caught in that shockwave your mind will be paralyzed. Prepare yourselves."
They had already experienced it, but honestly it felt excessive.
'Does he have no natural enemy?'
One blow could shatter physics, magic, the Law—even things beyond classification.
"You know it well," Imir said, splitting his mouth into a grin. "It's a familiar feeling. It's been passed down far longer than Ozent."
Hand of God reacted nimbly to Imir's motion and Shirone's fingers twitched.
"Good."
Imir raised both hands and wiggled his fingers toward Shirone, Blitz, Eitra, Rian, Tess, Amy, Naid, Miro, Julu, Gangnan, Sein, Enochs, Garcia—and the allied forces beyond them.
"Come at me."
For the first time they felt it.
'Until now he hadn't had intent.'
They had never truly seen the killing intent that appears when Imir sincerely decides to kill someone.
"Ughhhh!"
Just as Tess clenched her jaw to hold back a scream, Imir's body snapped and recoiled.
Close-range vibration.
The shockwave emitted by his body itself paralyzed minds, and hallucinations shimmered before their eyes.
"For now…"
While no one could move, Imir lunged toward Miro.
"Shall I start with you?"
Miro's steady gaze shifted and caught a fist at her side.
Imir smiled with interest. "Oho?" Even from his unshaken eyes they could tell how deep her mastery was.
Time compressed to the extreme.
'All-Directions Projection.'
With both arms covering his face, Thousand-Hand Guanyin struck frantically left and right around Imir.
'Huh—can he withstand this too?' Miro, preparing a finishing blow, saw Imir flash his eyes between her arms.
'There's no shock.'
Before the chill of that realization reached them, Imir stepped forward and thrust his fist.
When they couldn't even react, Hand of God clamped around Imir's body.
"Hngh!"
Shirone's nose wrinkled.
'I can't stop this.'
Even with full quantum signaling, Hand of God couldn't perfectly suppress Imir's muscular force.
"Graaah!"
While held by Hand of God, Imir's punch shot out and Miro's head snapped back.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The blast of his fist toppled buildings behind her like dominoes.
"Hah. Hah."
Miro exhaled raggedly.
'I almost died.'
If Hand of God hadn't restrained Imir, her head would already have been gone.
Shirone frowned. "This is the limit."
Hand of God unspooled into a mist of light and wrapped Imir's body. It clearly had some effect, but how much—no one could guess.
"Go!"
As Rian drove his foot into the ground, the mages behind him readied their spells.
Rian's body couldn't withstand the sword-spirit unification and burst with a pop.
In a state fixated on existence, his soul swinging at the speed of thought, Rian detonated the air.
Within the thick haze, the mages relied on the Spirit Zone to assault Imir.
Fire and lightning, wind and cold all detonated together, reducing the walls around Vashka to rubble.
"Phew."
Even those fighting were surprised by their own power, but to Imir it was merely a tickle.
"Kuhahaha!"
Garcia, pushing his mental strength to the limit, cast Hellfire from the sky.
Imir, who had briefly braced to break Hand of God, bent at the hips and charged his fist.
"Amy!" someone shouted.
Before the word finished, Imir's fist cleaved the sky and the Hellfire vanished with a whoosh.
"Master!"
Garcia, beyond the strike, plummeted to the ground with his upper body gone.
He was literally dead on the spot.
"Arrggh!"
Rage surged from Amy and a giant of flame shot from her body at Imir.
"Danger!"
Shirone followed, and Sein cast the Moonlight Wheel of Sun to maximize Hand of God's constrictive force.
"Kukuku. Kukukuku."
Feeling damage accumulate in his body, Imir shook his shoulder and laughed.
"Kuhahahaha!" Then he pushed off the ground and swung a fist at Sein's face.
Thousand-Hand Guanyin shoved Sein away with its right hand and planted the left to strike Imir down.
Imir bent at the waist and split his mouth. "Did you think you would win?"
Because he was a supreme lineage, because he was omniscient and omnipotent, because he inherited Ozent's blood, because he belonged to the fire realm, because he was the world's strongest mage—
"Did you really think you could beat us?"
Having avoided the continued strikes of Thousand-Hand Guanyin, Imir twisted his waist and drew his fist back.
hurtled in at terrifying speed, but Imir's fist came first.
'Force Metery.'
Julu, who had dismissed the lich summon, and Miro called a spacetime bird and shot upward in a flash.
Kraaaaaang!
A shockwave swept the front, and 's blade reached Imir's neck.
'What?'
As time stretched thin, Rian's mind saw Imir spinning impossibly fast.
How fast could he be?
Before that thought finished, Imir's fist pierced Rian's mind.
'Guh!'
Rian's mind drifted away hazily, and clanged as it fell to the ground.
They couldn't see it, but Rian's mental projection had clearly lost its bearings.
"Rian!"
As Tess shouted and sprang forward, Shirone stepped between her and the field.
"No, Tess."
Even Shirone—who had seen Omega's entire history—couldn't make sense of what had just happened.
'He struck the mental body.'
Imir brushed dust from his knees and straightened his torso. "It's nothing."
Then, as he clenched his fist, brilliant golden energy surged and pierced the sky.
"Link."
Shirone realized that the historical records about Imir were painfully insufficient.
Imir laughed as if incredulous. "What, you thought I couldn't? No—there was no need to show you before." Shirone's gaze dropped, but still lay motionless.
He might be dead.
"Julu! Julu!"
When Miro called and turned, Julu lay collapsed, coughing up blood.
"…Don't make a fuss."
Just as he had struck Rian's mental body, Imir's fist had chased down across space-time.
"Blitz. Eitra."
Shirone turned back to the front. "Block him."
At the command, the two apostles pushed off and leapt.
They didn't shift into dragons because Imir could also grow enormous.
"Strike first."
Blitz's body was wrapped in electricity and slammed into Imir, while Eitra circled behind.
'I'm no master of fist techniques…'
Imir's waist buckled from Eitra's elbow and bent sideways.
"Kuk."
Apart from the sudden mutation described as the combined power of ten billion Gaia, dragons are among the most powerful lifeforms in the universe.
'Impossible.'
Eitra gave a bitter smile.
What chilled her most facing Imir was that his ability ceilings were unknown.
'He keeps getting stronger.'
Perhaps he wasn't even using a tenth of his true strength.
'No—has he ever even known what a limit is?'
Now receiving a pincer attack from dragons, Imir shifted gears again.
"Kuhahahaha!"
At the moment Blitz's body flew out of sight, Shirone drew a dagger from his breast.
"."
A weapon that rewrites the Law to commit murder—the most dangerous weapon in the world.
As Yahweh's wrath filled it, radiated a crimson aura and shrieked.
'Please! Please!'
Shirone took a large step forward, fixed Imir in his sights, and adjusted the feeling in his arm.
'Disappear from the universe!'
As Blitz and Eitra were sent flying, a black radiance converged on Imir.
Imir turned quickly and grabbed the blade of in his huge hand.
There was a snap as the blade broke.
"What is this toy…?"
The next instant Imir's eyes snapped wide and the hand holding trembled violently.
"Aaagh—"
Shirone clenched his fist.
Aside from beings outside the Law's jurisdiction, nothing can be free from .
'It hit properly.'
You couldn't kill Imir with accidents like being run over by a carriage or a stone falling from the sky.
Space itself around Imir warped as dimensions began to collapse.
At the same time, a Law approaching infinity—the kind that could kill him—began to take effect across space-time.
"You play a cute game."
Imir's words to Shirone were light, but his expression was graver than ever.
'This is… certainly dangerous.'
Space, blackening as if the whole universe were pressing in, was devouring Imir.