272 Reaper 3

Alidor's feet bloomed with a defensive array, causing its golden light to tear through the surrounding gravity.

Leaping backwards and continuously dodging, Alidor avoided the pillars of celestial will that threatened to remove all of his defenses from him.

Dyon's eyes sharped. 'He's not just adding wills to his arrays after the fact… He's quite literally using characteristics of the will within his arrays.'

This was a technique Dyon had yet to master. It required not only a fundamental understanding of the array itself, but, also the will. It was a rudimentary version of actually inscribing a will from scratch.

Using an array to create a will had a level of difficulty neither Dyon or Alidor could imagine… But, Alidor had grasped how to perfectly fuse his wills with his arrays much like how Dyon learned to fuse his wills themselves.

This was completely different from how Dyon usually used his wills in conjunction with his arrays. Whenever he used weapon's hell, he would form the spears first, before then coating them with wills… But, Alidor was etching his wills into the arrays themselves. The result was magnificent!

The dark gold defensive array seemed to tear through everything. Dyon's gravity was completely useless as long as it remained beneath Alidor's feet. The vibrational energy shook every technique it met to its core… shattering it from the inside out.

In the end, Dyon had no choice but to retract his space and time wills. 'So, this is a supreme law… huh…'

What Dyon didn't know was that his gravity will shouldn't have lost so easily… Space and time were already high-level wills. If you then considered the fact that gravity was their fusion, how could it lose out to ethereal permeation so easily?

The problem lied in the fact Dyon's gravity will was only at the first level since it was the fusion of space and time of the first level. Dyon simply couldn't control it at a higher output.

"Alright then." Dyon's hand flashed as a long sword appeared in it. Although he was disappointed that his demonic umbrella had no effect, he needed to get serious. Ri likely needed him right now.

"I learned something quite interesting from those spatial tears." Dyon said faintly – his sword twinkling with a silver light. "Watch carefully, or else you won't know how you died…"

Dyon suddenly vanished. With his increase in cultivation, his celestial movement technique, which had been stalled, had finally broken through to the peak of the first act. His speed was quite simply nothing like it had been before.

And then… Dyon swung.

A tear that could only be described as the crumbling of space tore toward Alidor. It sparkled the air as though it was a harmless breeze catching the rays of delicate sunlight, and yet, the killing intent Alidor felt from it was like nothing he had ever experienced…

'This… He fused sword and space will… I can't hold back anymore!'

Alidor threw his umbrella into the air, causing it to unravel and bob gently. His hands clapped together, a blinding light radiating from them.

Rings of gold spread outward from Alidor as the sword and space qi fusion bared down on him. "Gautama Legacy's Reign: Buddha's Rage!"

Arrays began etching themselves into Alidor's back.

BOOM!

Arms of gold jetted out from them, hundreds reaching Dyon's sword slash to tear it apart.

Alidor's eye being golden was just not enough to describe it… It was as though his entire being had become encased in gold, leaving even the balls of his eyes to look like the precious metal.

The arms battled against the wave of sword and space qi as Dyon watched. Although it seemed like he was winning, it was very much clear to him that the arms coming from Alidor's back seemed endless. And… It didn't look like that was the end of it.

"Gautama Legacy's Reign: Buddha's Ethereal Permeation!"

The bright gold of Alidor's body suddenly became a dark gold… His robes blasted from him, revealing his scarred and muscled torso.

At this moment, Alidor really did seem like a buddha. Sitting on an array, his hand suddenly reached up toward his floating umbrella. "Ethereal Rain. Buddha's Tears."

The umbrella spun viciously in the air, a dark gold jetting out from it and seeking to blanket everything.

Dyon's eyes sharpened. 'Not good.'

Buddha's rage sent arm after arm after Dyon, not allowing him time to rest as the umbrella continued to spin in the air.

It was as though Alidor's projections wanted to slap Dyon down from his pedestal and end all chance of victory. But, Dyon kept dodging, his celestial movement technique working in overdrive as ripples of space tore through his every step.

But then… There was no more room…

Dyon's sword slashed outward, sending spatial tear after spatial tear into the sea of dark gold arms, but the ethereal permeation seemed to end all thoughts of Dyon cutting through. 'Dammit.'

There was no space left to run… Dyon found himself in a corner, his sword in his hand as he tried to defend to no avail.

Dyon and Alidor had been fighting for more than an hour… And yet, neither had sustained a single injury… Until now…

The hands slammed into Dyon, sending him blasting against the wall. They shattered through all of his attempts at forming defensive arrays and the Tree of Life and Death simply couldn't keep up…

"Ugh…" Blood dripped from Dyon's mouth as endless hands slammed into him, burying him further and further into the wall.

And then… Buddha's tears finally hit.

It was silent and almost comfortable at first, and yet, even as the Alidor's own Buddha's rage technique crumbled under them, Dyon was crumbling too…

'Huh… Still doesn't hurt as much as the past two months…'

Needles of supreme law shot into Dyon as the umbrella furiously raged in the air, seemingly intent of tearing Dyon from the inside out.

And yet, all Dyon did was stay still… Almost as though he was dead…

Minutes later, Alidor's stamina finally ran out. The umbrella touched down to the ground.

Staring at what looked like Dyon's corpse, Alidor landed. He didn't seem happy or content with his victory… All he could think about was his little sister and what must have happened to her.

He wanted to get up and mutilate Dyon's corpse, but… How would that fix anything?

Alidor could only turn toward the key at the center of the room. So, he slowly dragged himself toward it.

But, just as he was about to reach it, a golden light suddenly caught his attention. "What?..."

Alidor couldn't believe his eyes as he watched Dyon leisurely walk out of the hole in the wall, stretching his limbs as dried blood flaked off of him.

"That's quite some technique… Unfortunately, I don't know if I can ever feel pain the same way anymore… And maybe just as unfortunately, you didn't output enough for it to be useful to me…"

If Alidor knew that Dyon meant that he was trying to use the Florence family technique to absorb the onslaught of attacks as a catalyst to form an ethereal permeation humanoid… Who knows how he would have reacted.

To think someone would allow themselves to get mutilated just for that. And yet, Dyon's wounds were healing at a visible speed… The combination of his aurora and energy cultivation was just too much.

'How is this kind of healing possible…' Alidor didn't know what to think anymore. He could only prepare himself for the next round.

"Since you're no longer of any use, I think its time we end this."

Dyon's humanoid manifestation slowly bloomed under the eyes of Alidor. But… Something was different.

Tattoos of grey and black started to crawl over Dyon as the stench of bloody roses filled the room.

Dyon's hand reached for a dense black light that flew from his weapon's pagoda, grasping it firmly.

His eyes darkened into black and lifeless holes, staring emotionlessly at the trembling Alidor.

'This… This is death…'

There, Dyon stood, matted with tattoos that looked like ancient inscription patterns. And yet, his most striking feature was the ten foot tall staff that he held in his hand… Well, that was until that 'staff' materialized a blade of fogging darkness… A blade that curved menacingly in the air… The blade of the reaper himself… The blade of a scythe.