Chapter 486 - Phantasm Vs Lightning (II)

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After sensing Apollo's drastic increase in speed, Amduscias was tempted to outdo him by all means. Hence, he stopped holding back the effects of his dark lightning, allowing its properties to show thoroughly. His body movement became erratic as the dark lightning flowed in an unpredictable pattern.

Finally, Amduscias dashed towards Apollo, leaving nothing but a streak of dark lightning that sounded oddly similar to recurring lightning strikes as Amduscias bounced around the room. His initial movement was still within the realm of Apollo's perception, but Amduscias soon accelerated beyond what Apollo could handle.

Soon enough, even the sea of dark lightning couldn't hide the fact that Amduscias's movements created a visual distortion similar to a black net. Because of how fast he was moving, it seemed like he simultaneously created the lines since he moved fast enough to make a second one before the first lightning discharge could adequately form.

In fact, by the time the lightning discharge consolidated into a tangible outline, Amduscias was already three steps ahead of that creation! Apollo's frown deepened after noticing this issue. He understood that relying solely upon his sight to track Amduscias was impossible.

'Tch, I guess I'll to step this up a notch,' Apollo thought to himself as a mysterious aura enveloped his body with a soft presence. Eventually, the aura seeped into his eyes as ancient demon characters appeared in Apollo's pupils.

At the same time, the world continued to slow down from Apollo's point of view until it seemed like it was moving at a crawl. Of course, while the world seemed that way, Amduscias was still moving at an excessive speed despite Apollo's Languished Perception.

Since his Acedia wasn't the purest it could be in terms of evolution status, it didn't slowly Amduscias down by nearly enough to allow Apollo the time to track his movements precisely. Fortunately, that wasn't what Apollo was aiming for.

'Although there's no direct pattern to the places he is stepping, there is a definite pattern in the timing of his footsteps tapping the surface of where he lands and his usages of that bizarre acceleration. As long as I can mirror this activation, perhaps it's possible to strip him of his advantage,' Apollo thought.

Apollo acted on his observations in the next moment, dashing towards Amduscias but suddenly changing his direction as his eyes shifted around endlessly. Although his mental capacity was great, it took Apollo a moment to absorb everything happening before his eyes before he could change to the following location.

Despite the difficulty, Apollo continued to shift his travel point, and with each shift, he grew closer towards Amduscias's location. At least, that was Apollo's widened his eyes abruptly and momentarily fused with one of the phantasm shifts attached to his body, creating a brief burst of speed.

It wasn't supplied to support an attack, but rather Apollo performed this action to dodge an attack. After moving, a deep fissure caught his attention as he witnessed dark lightning crackle within the fissure until it dissipated.

A moment later, Amduscias appeared with a smile as he stopped moving just long enough from Apollo to get a grasp of his facial. However, instead of focusing on Amduscias's expression, he was more curious about this technique he was employing.

His rapid movements resembled lightning strikes themselves. Apollo was sure that if he were to recover to his former power, the movement would most likely be on par with lightning flashes themselves.

Then again, this thought also made Apollo wonder how strong or fast he could become after all of the powers in his arsenal matured. The exhilarating thought made Apollo smile, which made Amduscias misunderstand the expression.

He raised his eyebrow with slight signs of irritation present. "Are you mocking my technique with that smile of yours?"

"On the contrary," Apollo said, retaining the same smile. "I'm not mocking it; I find it very powerful. But I'm also curious how will fix this glaring weakness I've noticed?"

"What weakness?" Amduscias answered while blinking dumbfoundedly. He was at a loss over Apollo's words since he couldn't see that weakness that Apollo did. Or rather, he had never come across an individual who pointed it out.

After all, when he was at his full power, Amduscias employed this technique as he pleased, becoming one of the most difficult opponents to face, flashing around the battle. At his pace, aside from power on par with a Daemos, he was virtually untouchable.

Meanwhile, instead of announcing the flaw, Apollo simply smiled. The combined usage of his Unbound Eyes and Languished Perception gave Apollo all of the vital information he needed to formulate a solution to this issue, known as Amduscias's overwhelming speed.

The consumed phantasm reappeared approximately two seconds later as Apollo's body rippled, releasing a seemingly harmless wave. However, inside that ripple contained a mixture of different energies that were combined.

There was his Aura of Domination concealing the entire attack. There was Anima to fill in the gaps left by the lack of fusion. Finally, there were Acedia and Tenebrous Winds interspersed throughout ripple for a good reason.

Since he felt this attack was harmless, Amduscias merely thrust his arm, firing a collection of dark lightning at the ripple. However, just as the lightning was centimeters from making contact, the ripple split apart, providing an opening for the lightning blast to pass through.

Once it passed, the ripple condensed into an orb that disappeared into the void, impossible to trace.

"Since it's difficult to track your movements, why not introduce you to a technique that's impossible to trace. I mean, I'm sure you're strong but nowhere near strong to enter the void forcefully since that requires Tenebrous Energy to embrace, am I right~?" Apollo chuckled.

He didn't wait for a response, immediately following up with a Demonic Massacre Wave of insane proportions. After mastering this technique, Apollo moved on to unleashing stronger versions of the same attack within record time.

At first, it was a failure since he was limited to a predetermined size as per the system's support. Though instant casting had its absolute pros, there were blaring cons. One of which included the fact that it was cemented to mastered usage.

So, for Apollo to create a wave of this proportion, it required him to ignore the system's aid. First, he worked painstakingly to reach the same level of instant casting without the system's assistance. Once he accomplished that, he then moved on to operating with gross amounts of Anima and Ira.

As the purest Sin in his arsenal, it wasn't challenging to work with at all. All it required was the grit to withstand the pain of sparse amounts of Purgatory Blood gathering inside him as he performed his actions.

Ultimately, he arrived at his current state. A master of the Demonic Massacre Wave, who know sought to master the Nether Severance in the same way. Sadly, he didn't have enough time to focus on this matter as he also divvied up his time training to understand the Absolute Eradication technique.

Nevertheless, Amduscias could sense the blatant danger emanating from the incoming Demonic Massacre Wave. So unlike before, he intended to dodge this attack. However, just as he moved, Apollo grinned before snapping his finger.

The orb before Amduscias shattered, revealing another power hidden within. The Endless Devouring of Apollo's Gula! In this case, the Gula wasn't put there to devour; instead Apollo placed it there to have the attractive force counteract Amduscias's speed, even if for the smallest window.

Judging by the shock on Amduscias's face, Apollo knew that it worked. At least, for the most part. Though Amduscias stopped, the Demonic Massacre Wave didn't land a clean hit. Amduscias defended with his spear at the last second while being driven back from the power embedded inside the Demonic Massacre Wave.

While being driven back, Amduscias looked at Apollo oddly. 'Aside from Ira and Superbia, there's also Acedia and Gula. In other words, this boy has every Sin at his disposal? If that's so, then…'

Amduscias grinned all of a sudden as the lightning armor surrounding his body delivered a pulse of dark lightning that neutralized the Demonic Massacre Wave before him. Afterward, he released a chuckle.

"You are truly full of surprises. Not only was that orb meant to slow me down by manipulating my energies through Acedia, but you used Gula as an extra precaution to hold me in place for a moment," Amduscias said.

He paused for a moment until the look in his eyes changed. "Unfortunately, while my doubts towards you lessen, what can truly contain my lightning?!"

Whoosh! Crrrck! Crccck! Crccccklee!

The lightning surrounding Amduscias constantly snapped as they all converged on Apollo. Though Amduscias felt that Apollo was perhaps as genuine as he said, that didn't mean he'd give up and follow blindly.

While on his own, Amduscias developed a liking to being on his own, surrounded by his sole comfort. In his eyes, there was no one quite like himself or Aztraval. Aside from these two people, Amduscias didn't see himself lowering his standards in the slightest.

"What can contain lightning, you said?" Apollo smiled. As he did so, the rocks and even the shrine started to tremble. Apollo's body exuded an extraordinarily pure Aura of Domination, but that wasn't the most shocking part.

The phantasms surrounding him split apart into six images that were next to complete, and what's more, each of them unleashed an Aura of Domination as well. The events mystified everyone who witnessed the development.

'Since when can a technique unleash an Aura? I thought that was limited to the individual!?'

However, as Fuhrer said once before, Apollo's birthright and bloodline was one of a kind.. It was capable of all kind of shocking feats, Apollo simply needed to unearth them.