CIATB Chapter 111: PAUSE
Chapter 111: PAUSE
Silas landed, Amelia in one hand, a vial of now depleted transcension potion in his other hand.
He dropped Amelia to the floor, not even pausing to look at her before he focused on Lilura.
Lilura looked at Silas, a smile forming on her lips as she gazed at him.
"Did you miss me so much that you couldn’t stay unconscious without me?" She asked, flashing a cold grin at him.
Silas did not reply.
[Master Silas, the weapon is only a prototype and it might be unable to work fully.]
Rion reminded Silas.
"Just give it to me," Silas replied with a thought.
The same weapon whose blueprint had gotten him to tier 3 Researcher rank.
A weapon created after countless tries.
Void gauntlets.
Silas created this weapon after burning through thousands of void cores.
It had only one effect. Nullifying the regeneration of void beasts.
The gauntlets wrapped around his arms, thick black, with an appearance that seemed too sleek for something designed to kill.
He looked at Lilura with a smile.
Lilura glared back, her gaze flickering for a fraction of a second as she set her eyes on the gauntlets.
"You always come up with surprises," she said, a light chuckle escaping her lips.
"Just wait till you get surprised."
That was Silas’s response.
The words lingered through the air, long enough to witness Silas’s burst.
His fist tore forward, the air detonating in a burst of flames as he punched toward Lilura’s head.
Lilura sidestepped, catching him by the wrist.
The flames exploded, enveloping Lilura’s arm whole.
The arm burnt to cinders on contact, but it regenerated almost immediately.
Silas had already pulled back.
Lilura sidestepped, avoiding another punch to her wrist.
She did not try to catch it this time.
Her leg whipped forward into Silas’s chest.
Silas skidded backward, then before he could find his footing, Lilura’s second leg had crashed into his chest.
He flew back, stopping only as his feet dug into the earth beneath him.
He looked toward Lilura.
She was gone.
Silas’s neck whipped backward.
Lilura’s fist punched through the space his head had occupied just moments ago.
Flames erupted from Silas’s back, launching him into the sky.
Before he could fly far, he twisted mid air, locking onto Lilura.
Flames burst from his feet, propelling him toward her.
His fist curled, flames surging through the arm as he lashed out.
Lilura’s palm flared with dark flames.
She caught Silas’s punch in her hand.
Silence.
It reigned over the space like a sovereign.
But it did not last long, torn apart before it could even settle.
A violent explosion erupted from that spot, sending ripples traveling through the earth.
Then the earth shook.
It caved in.
Then ravines.
Everything happened in a blink.
Both fighters had already left that spot.
They shot through the sky, their bodies like constellations as they clashed.
Space warped and folded under their combined might.
Dark flames and orange ones mixed ferociously, bursting outward.
Clouds ruptured as the ripples spread out.
They had left before it could land fully.
Lilura punched toward his torso.
Silas caught the arm and lifted her with the momentum.
Before she could complete the rotation, his other fist whipped forward.
Inches from her head, she disappeared, reappearing behind Silas in a flicker of darkness.
As if expecting it, Silas bent, Lilura’s leg tearing through the space above.
His body twisted, delivering an uppercut from there.
Lilura caught the arm with her fist.
The air above her roared violently, the heat rising as clouds evaporated with each passing second.
They stopped, eyes locked in a fierce staring contest.
They remained in that position for what felt like an eternity.
Then they moved again.
Like a blur, Lilura pushed the fist down, countering with a kick to his head.
Silas caught it with his free hand, his body dipping slightly before he pushed back.
Silas backflipped, avoiding another hook to his head.
He lunged almost instantly, not even giving the wind time to rest.
Lilura’s head tilted to the side, just enough to avoid the attack.
The punch passed her side, flames spiraling through its path.
Lilura wasted no time.
A dagger formed in her palm as she lashed out.
A sharp arc of darkness cut through the air as the dagger whistled toward Silas’s neck.
Flames roared outward from Silas’s frame, enveloping him in a dense layer.
The dagger was burnt before it could even get close.
Silas shot backward, creating space between them.
He gave her a cold look.
The flames still clung to him, a dense layer of orange that radiated an undisputed aura of power.
But Silas could not care less at that moment.
’No clean hit since we started,’ he thought.
Lilura did not give him time to think.
The distance between them closed in the blink of an eye as though it had never existed.
The wind groaned as her fist ripped through it.
Silas’s body moved like an inferno, his step creating a burst of flames that shot into the sky, brightening the already darkening planet.
The punch slid across his skin but did nothing to hurt him.
Silas retaliated, punching toward her chest.
Flames roared along the fist, creating a vacuum as it closed in.
Lilura was unperturbed.
She moved with relative ease, slapping the fist to the side.
Silas’s other fist snapped out instantly, moving the moment the first was slapped away.
Lilura stepped to the side, letting the punch pass.
But she was not unscathed.
Blood gushed out as Silas’s fist punched a hole through her shoulder.
Bone and flesh fell to the earth below.
Silas stared at the wound, at the mangled flesh remaining in Lilura’s shoulder.
A few seconds passed.
There was no change.
Lilura’s gaze shrank.
Her regeneration did not work.
A smirk spread across Silas’s face.
The weapon had worked, even as only a prototype.
Lilura looked away from her wound, her stance clearly broken.
But she masked it well.
A patch of dark flames formed over the shoulder, creating a pad of pure darkness.
"As I thought, you are dangerous," Lilura said, her body shaking as it received an influx of dark flames.
The dark flames spread from her shoulder outward, coating her entire frame in a layer of darkness that pulsed with searing heat.
She could no longer regenerate. She could only compensate with the flames to prevent the wound from worsening.
Silas moved without hesitation, driving his fist into the same shoulder.
Lilura ducked beneath the attack, then drove her fist toward Silas’s jaw.
Silas shot backward, his body beating against a cloud before he tore forward again.
As he moved, flames swirled behind him, twisting into sharp blades that tore forward like a wheel.
Lilura spun, kicking one to the side.
Another had already closed in, the force from the blade grazing her face.
She ducked beneath it on instinct.
As if her movements had been calculated beforehand, another was already at that point, tearing toward her face.
Lilura backflipped.
Time seemed to slow as the blade passed over her face.
Everything snapped back into motion.
Silas was already in her face, his fist bursting forward toward her head mid air.
She had been baited, and she took it.
Lilura’s body tilted at the last moment, the fist grazing her arm.
Lilura landed softly on a mist of dark flames.
She stared at Silas with a calm gaze.
She furrowed her brows.
Why was he smiling even though his attack had failed?
She did not wonder for long.
The cloak of flames covering Silas melted, dispersing into thin aether.
Lilura blinked.
Her body moved before her mind could follow, tilting to the side.
Although timely, it was not enough to escape the full blow.
Silas punched through her shoulder fully this time.
The arm burnt to cinders before it could detach fully.
Blood pooled from the wound, pouring to the earth beneath.
Her gaze shifted to the arm.
She had not felt it earlier.
But now, after seeing it, the pain finally caught up.
Her body dipped slightly as her concentration wavered.
Silas pressed the advantage.
He lunged, his fist already clenched, flames roaring through it.
Boom.
Sparks flew through the air.
A vacuum spread from that point and something plummeted from the sky to the earth.
Then blood.
It sprayed, dyeing the air crimson before being incinerated by the flames.
Silas fell into the earth, a crater spreading from that point through the entire floor.
In the sky above, the remains of Lilura’s head disintegrated into ash.
[Master Silas,]
Rion called in Silas’s mind as he tried to wake him.
[Heart failure, attempting first aid.]
A current passed through Silas’s body, pulsing visibly over his frame.
But no change.
He did not lift a finger.
Amelia appeared before him in a flicker, but stopped before she could do anything.
A crack spread through the sky above.
Then several streaks spread through the atmosphere.
Then a pause.
The entire planet stopped.
Birds, people, even dust drifting through the air were suspended under the overwhelming power that had descended.