255. Cliffhanger

“[All Virtues Shall Sloth!]” Rakna yelled and this time, he didn’t pass out from the activation of this skill. He felt like his body had become a thousand times heavier as a pair of curved horns grew on his head. His aura turned into a miasma and his bone mask became entirely black.

Ramsa couldn’t ignore it anymore. It had only needed a glance and her limbs had refused to obey her. The magic circle she had conjured flickered several times but she didn’t let go of it. She could tell that the Sentinel was struggling with the… malevolence he had taken in himself.

He was holding his head with his claws digging into his skull. He was doing everything he had to resist the call of Sloth.

“Give up, Sentinel!” She shouted with a strained voice, the oppression of The Mask of Phobos was currently compelling enough to even make her falter. “You never stood a chance. The spell you’re using to make yourself near-unkillable will most definitely end soon. And even if not; if you are hit by my attack, it will take you too much time to reform and I will be able to lock you in an infinite regenerative loop.”

Rakna heard her but didn’t bother answering. Under the influence of Founding Intuition, all that mattered to him was efficiency. Sounds, colors, field of view; they were useless. He threw them all away and focused on his target.

He had two to three seconds before she launched her spell. He needed something strong enough to pierce through the attack and incapacitate her long enough for him to recover. His mind rifled through possible solutions and his Intuition locked onto a particular one.

He inhaled, commanding Eye of Symphony to simulate stronger pain to keep him from falling to the urge of his Sin Magic, and released the dams of his mana pool. “[Holy Is Your Name. Destiny Is Your Wielder. The Grail Is Your Trophy,]” he began to chant and Star Hearth manifested behind him as an actual spectral hammer striking against a chunk of mana.

The Sun Goddess scowled at the odd spell and with every strike of the hammer, making a metallic sound, the oppression of The Mask of Phobos increased by a notch. The inner circles of her magic circles started spinning and aligning runes together whilst Rakna continued his lexis.

“[Let The Stars Shape Your Blade,]” he uttered and the chunk of mana shone. The hammer, holding neither the characteristics of the Volcanic or Hoarfrost elements, swung down, the black material it was composed of glowing like a starry night sky.

It landed loudly on the shining mana and transformed it into a giant lance. The shaft pulsed with red light and the transition with the blade was made by a white ornamental crucifix. The weapon’s steel wings expanded to the sides, preceding the head of the spear that was shaped like a hundred red thorns twisting around one another.

‘That’s…’ Ramsa’s expression finally collapsed. ‘How is that possible?! Holy magic?! No, it’s a spell imbued with the devilish energy he’s exuding. Holiness and impiety manifesting into a weapon…’

What she didn’t know was that this spear was forged with a legend at its core. It was a story that her world didn’t possess. A lance forged by man, spilled the life of God the Son, received the name of Holy, blessed by divinity, and blemished by the blood. A weapon bathed in the concepts of death and immortality; the God-Slaying Lance.

“[You Tasted the Blood of Christ,]” Rakna intoned and the spear grew an aura of its own, birthed by malevolence and sanctity. The crucifix duplicated and formed a floating crown around the shaft of the lance. It began to spin faster and faster as if to imitate Ramsa’s magic formation.

The Sun Goddess gritted her teeth and clenched her hand. The runes were promptly aligned and the circle began to retract its layers like a spring; charging a sphere of divinity and mana. On the other hand, the crown of crucifixes was condensing large amounts of mana, lunar energy, and fake divinity.

When the two spells reached their zenith, it was as if the world came to a stop. The atmosphere that was so packed with energy suddenly lost all consistency. For that split second, a part of the moon’s surface had turned into a pit of energy that separated itself from space-time.

Ramsa waved her arm and broke the silence inflicted on them by the world, “[Brahmyasta!]” The magic circle overturned itself and shot a massive stream of destruction toward the ground.

Rakna replied in kind and growled out one word, “[Longinus!]” The Holy Lance answered his call and erupted into an equally large pillar of white and red light.

The two attacks collided within less than a millisecond and the world was torn apart. Immediate and silent; a sea of shimmering flashes swallowed half of the moon and erased it from existence to leave the place to a clash between the tides of silver and orange-white energies.

On the other side of the moon, the Lunar Capital was assailed by the worst natural catastrophe it had ever gone through. The citizens cried out in terror as the ground quaked. The wind suddenly became chaotic; the atmosphere literally breached.

As that occurred, somewhere in the city, the butler sent by the Demon King came out of hiding and observed the disaster. “I suppose it is inevitable,” he muttered and leaped into the sky. He grabbed the ominous necklace he was wearing and threw it above his head.

A pentagram whirled into existence around the object and he fed it his energy. “Come, Tarasque! Protect this city!” He shouted and a low-pitched cry made the city shake even more before a giant shadow emerged from the circle.

A moment later, a titanic figure with a spiked carapace and a pair of wings was looming over the city. It opened its mouth and spat out a stream of raw mana that encased the whole capital, making it isolated from the destruction and the quakes.

At the same time, the lunar army was busy reducing the public unrest and they could only look at the dragon-like monster above them. Amidst the chaos, a minute after it started, a pair of silver eyes opened for the first time in more than a thousand years.

* * *

The battle of dominance between Rakna and Ramsa ended in less than a minute only. But at the same time, it could be said to have lasted an eternity for them. At their realms of strength, where a thousand moves could be exchanged within a second, the same timespan would be equivalent to hours for a normal human.

The one who eventually won over the other was Ramsa. Her spell fully overwrote Longinus’ light and caused the both of them to detonate; shoving the remaining half of the moon away. She let out a sigh; her breath ragged and weary.

She gazed at the energy dust left behind by their clash and examined her trembling hand. She bit her lip and then clutched the wound across her shoulder. She couldn’t afford to relax now.

There was no doubt that she had exterminated the werewolf’s body but from what she had seen of his ability to regenerate, while it would be slow, he would definitely return. She looked around with a sharp look, expanding her senses to try and locate the location of his ‘rebirth’.

Then, through the dust, she saw a flash. It was instantaneous. From one instant to the next, the tip of a giant thorny lance had embedded itself in her stomach. She gasped and coughed blood, her hands reflexively trying to push away the object. The thorns pierced her palms but all she could focus on was the Holy Lance obstructing most of her vision.

The red light that pulsed through its shaft was spreading throughout her body. The God-Slaying Lance was directly attacking her divinity and she couldn’t move. She would not die from it, but it would take a very long time to recover from this injury.

“That attack... was never… meant to hit me…” She muttered shakily and noted the absence of the crown of crucifixes around the lance. “I see… it was just… its way of opening the path…” She said and after a while, the lance started splintering until it crumbled into white dust.

Ramsa fell backward, her limbs and wings devoid of strength, and let herself drift in the vacuum of space. Then, she felt a disturbance in her surroundings and struggled to move her neck. From the corner of her eyes, she saw the Sentinel’s half-reconstructed body.

It started with his lower body until the head sprouted from the neck. Rakna opened his eyes right after and immediately was forced to dispel his Star Manifestation. His demonization was long gone as well, obliterated together with his body.

Rakna groaned and his fur shed the red color and reverted to a soft blue. He had no mana left and even his outlandish stamina had been exhausted. In fact, the System was telling him that it was in the negative.

“So…” He spoke up, his voice hoarse. “How is it… to be stabbed by the Lance of Longinus?”

“Is that the name of that weapon…?” She replied without looking at him. “It was… terrifying. Just as much as you. You have grown… powerful…”

Rakna snorted. “Thanks, I guess,” he uttered and extended his hand toward the broken half of the moon in the distance. On cue, an azure light glimmered and then flew to him. Soon enough, a familiar scarf landed in his grasp. But it was full of holes that were stitching themselves. Sonata seemed to have been pushed to the limit because of the spell before it could start fixing itself.

“Good thing that the Skulking Angel blood makes it near unbreakable when being looked at. Or else it might have been reduced to nothing…” Rakna commented to himself and wore Sonata again.

The truth was that he had been forced to keep an eye on Sonata during the clash. Otherwise, when he was ultimately swallowed, the weapon would have been significantly more damaged without the quantum lock put on it. He had been fast enough to throw it away toward the distant shattered moon before his body was obliterated. Though, it hadn’t completely escaped in the end.

“What… are you going to do… now?” Ramsa asked with half-lidded eyes.

“What?” He smiled lightly as he took his mind off his weapon. “Do you think I’m going to finish you off? What’s the point? The cause of our fight is no more already,” he said as he looked at the cleaved moon with golden eyes.

The goddess’ eyes widened. “Don’t tell me--?”

“Ramsa, Rakna,” a voice suddenly sounded and the werewolf trembled, hearing his actual name being spoken for the first time in this Scenario. He turned to the source, who had gently lifted the Sun Goddess into a bridal carry. She had a look of longing and pain on her expression as she beheld the one who carried her before she fell unconscious. 

The newcomer was a handsome man with long silver hair. He was wearing silk silver robes with broad sleeves that reminded Rakna of eastern clothing. 

He was absurdly beautiful; not in a way that one could admire, but one that made you feel like it was too abnormal to be real. The man’s long and almost feminine eyelashes fluttered as one of his silver eyes fell on the werewolf.

“My child… there is much to be discussed.”

As soon as those words left the Moon God’s mouth, time stopped. Rakna blinked in surprise at the frozen figure of the man and was abruptly pulled into a place full of darkness.

❮ ◈ ❯

You have reached a Scenario Frontier! The following events of the Scene are not conformed to the Path Quest assigned to you. The world will be paused and resumed when the Host returns for your next Main Path Quest.

---

The Simulation has ended!

Congratulations! You have completed your Main Path Quest!

Grade: Z – Perfection

Rewards: 10 000 Exp, 5 Volatile Points, Lunar Key.

Path Skills Gained:

- Lunae Cosmos

- Valkal of the Reverse Side

---

You have unlocked the Path Skills section of your status. 

Scanning skills for Path Compatibility…

Moon Shine of the Nine Moons has been moved to Path Skills!

---

Your STR, SPD, and INT will now increase by 0.2 at every level up.

---

You have leveled up! 9x

+1.8 STR, SPD, & INT!

+ 10 Free Points!

❮ ◈ ❯

After reading the System window, the next thing Rakna knew, he was sitting in his home’s office once again. He blinked at the room with a dumbfounded look and Higure greeted him.

“Hey, Devourer,” she said with a small smirk. “How was it? You were gone for six minutes. Did you stay there for half a year? That’s generally the ratio of a simulation.”

Rakna looked at her with a weird look before fishing out a cigarette from his storage. He put it to his mouth and switched to volcanic for only a split second to light it. He inhaled and let out a cloud of smoke. “This feels like coming back home after a vacation trip,” he mumbled to himself. 

“To answer your question, Higure, I’m mad.”

“Eh? What happened?”

“The System put me in a cliffhanger.”

“…”

“…”

“…that’s sad.”

“I know.”

AhraManyu

As I said, I have mastered it. You don't get this quality of cliffception any often.

Also, yesterday, I got heavily distracted by something else. Like, I spent six hours straight doing something else, so, I mean, what can I say? I looked at the time and it said 10 pm. I said whoops and then went to sleep. Sorry, not sorry.

*sigh* Who knows though. I might actually get super busy with irl work soon, don't know exactly when at the moment, but then I'll cry because I can't be as lazy anymore and you'll probably cry as well. Though I'll definitely cry more than you.