CH 318

Yamato had not expected me to be able to use ‘Mana Absorption.’

Of course, that was not the case.

If you’re fighting someone powerful, it is only natural for you to have a trick or two up your sleeve.

After all, I had fought so many opponents of that sort.

And one of the tricks had already succeeded. I was able to surprise Yamato.

It felt quite good.

After that, we just took each other’s mana.

It worked because we both prefered close-quarters combat.

It was I who started this mana struggle.

Even though continuing it would mean my own defeat. I knew that all too well.

Yamato was likely thinking that I had made a big mistake.

However, that wasn’t true.

As long as I had the second trick up my sleeve.

“How does it feel to have your mana absorbed like this?”

After the second time, my practically empty reserve was filled up again.

As for Yamato… It didn’t seem to have any effect on him. He looked normal.

If it wasn’t a bluff, then he might have plenty of mana left.

“What a surprise. I didn’t even realize what you had done.”

“Of course not.”

It was my second trump card after mana absorption.

What were the special abilities of Susanoo no Mikoto?

Normally, special abilities were carved into your very soul. And so people just left it to their instincts.

However, for a long time, I had not been able to use my special abilities.

I didn’t know why.

Perhaps it was because I wasn’t accustomed to my body yet. But I wasn’t sure.

And so I trained.

As Demon King Tralzard had informed me that Yamato was good at absorbing mana, I tried training in that direction.

Ultimately, I was able to use mana absorption, but that was all.

And so I changed my way of thinking.

There was an unknown special ability that was dormant inside of me.

While my soul knew of it, I didn’t know how to use it.

With this in mind, I tested numerous possibilities.

But it wasn’t until much later that I saw the light.

“Here I go!”

My vision narrowed. This always happened when I activated it.

My body moved slowly like a current.

Yamato also moved as if in slow motion. Everything around me did.

Perhaps this was what it would be like to walk on water.

I stretched out my arm—so very slowly, and touched Yamato.

“Take this!”

I sent the Ki that I had been nurturing in my body.

This was my special ability, ‘Moment in Time.’

A brief moment. Like a slow blink of the eye. But during that time, I was the ruler of time.

It was only enough time to take half a step at the most.

Too short it would seem. But I could do what I pleased.

There wasn’t much that I could do while it was activated.

However, if my opponent was also someone who fought at close-quarters, then that opened other possibilities.

This is how it worked.

I prepared to absorb mana, and moved close to Yamato.

And then I activated ‘Moment in Time.’ During this time that was mine alone, I put my hand on Yamato’s chest.

That was all I could do at this point. But it was enough.

And just as the special ability deactivated, I started to absorb his mana.

Yamato would realize that he had been robbed of time.

Normally, no matter how fast someone moved, it was still happening at the same time base.

If you could see the beginning and the end, then you could deal with it.

However, it was not the case with ‘Moment in Time.’

“Well, I’m not going to explain it to you.”

It would be my most secret ability.

And so I boasted to him as if I’d won.

My first trump card was ‘Mana Absorb.’

And ‘Moment in Time’ was my second one.

And my third trump card.

It was something that Yamato would not be able to understand.

One of the techniques I had polished during my time as a human—Fa Jin.

It was a permeation type technique where you sent Ki into your opponent.

“A little more!”

I used ‘Moment in Time’ to get close, put my hand on the side of Yamato’s stomach, and sent out the Ki.

I could feel it working. I had sent so much that it felt like it was scrambling his insides.

“…I see. So it’s a technique involving human power.”

“You know what it is?”

“What you just unleashed is a power that only humans have. Something that we should not be able to do. But perhaps you are an exception, as you have the soul of a human.”

I had sent quite a lot of Ki into him, but he didn’t seem to feel it at all.

Yamato really was a monster with no visible limit.

“Human power, huh? I call it Fa Jin.”

“Human emotion—feelings. If gathered together, it has the power to affect humans. And human power is the source. It is elevated through faith and rises to the Celestial World. Becoming food for holy power. If there was no human power, then holy power would also cease to exist.”

“Huh…then what happens to the human power that is blocked by the barrier?”

I had heard that the holy power in the Celestial World was drying up.

“The human power swells up like a great wave and is dragged by the strongest emotion. Either to destruction or rebirth.”

The human power that cannot go through the barrier will advance in a single direction in the Human World.

Perhaps they affected the flow of history.

And the Fa Jin that I used…apparently, it was something that didn’t exist in the Demon World.

A technique that residents of the Demon World couldn’t use.

Up until this point, I had been able to deal quite a lot of damage to Yamato…or so I thought. But he looked undisturbed.

After my evolution, my attack power should have been high enough for me to go up against a Demon King.

And so I had not expected there to be this much of a gap.

This was bad.

I didn’t have any other tricks to fall back on.

What could I do now?

There was nothing, aside from trying to continue to absorb mana in order to bridge the gap.

But he would be able to stop me easily if I resorted to such a predictable attack pattern.

It didn’t matter what special abilities you had. If you used them, you would eventually run out.

And then the horrifying truth.

—Yamato had yet to go all out.

I was completely out of options, and yet he had not even gotten started.

(This…really is a bad situation)

A horrible sweat began to drip down my back.