Magical Soul Parade

Chapter 357: Order vs Unlimited (I)

The demon charged at Althea, and despite herself, she couldn’t help the instinctive contraction of her pupil, though she remained as calm as still water regardless.

She swung the Errant sword fluidly, the coated contrast of order and error from before still fully active. The effect was instant. The convergence of both contrasting concepts created an immediate destabilising effect on the surroundings before the demon even moved.

By the time it reached Althea, its momentum was killed off yet again and it staggered over its feet into a roll.

Its head was sliced clean off before it even got the chance to do anything. Despite its evolution, it still wasn’t enough to pose any real threat to Althea. As its headless body fell to the ground, she pointedly watched for what would happen next, trying to understand the mechanism behind this "unlimited" ability.

Right before her eyes, the corpse on the ground abruptly blipped out of existence. In one moment, its blue blood poured out of its headless body onto the blackened charred earth, and then the next, it was just suddenly gone.

This has to be some kind of time ability... Althea thought as she readied herself for the attack she knew was coming.

The demon reappeared just as Althea had anticipated, but the sight of it still caused a ripple of unease to disturb her focused mind.

It manifested a few dozen feet away with a blip of displacement, and again it was no longer the same creature she had beheaded moments ago. The part of its neck where her blade had sliced through so cleanly was now covered in a thick, overlapping layer of obsidian colored carapace, specifically designed to withstand the exact type of cutting force she had just applied.

This confirmed her suspicions with a terrifying finality. The creature was iterating. It was going through a forced, accelerated evolution with every death it suffered.

Althea narrowed her eyes as she watched the thing flex its new armor. She thought about what the blond man had called himself earlier: Unlimited...

Was she facing a creature of unlimited evolution?

The prospect was enough to make even her stoic heart skip a beat. If this kept going, the creature would eventually reach a point where it was practically invincible. It was learning her patterns and it was building counters in real time. If she allowed it to keep evolving, things would reach a breaking point where the situation would become unmanageable.

She decided to change her approach immediately. There was no point in pruning the branches if the root was still healthy.

She shifted her focus away from the demon and turned her attention toward the blond man standing on his pedestal. He was the source. He was the one channelling the effect. However, the demon was not about to let her bypass it so easily.

The moment she shifted her weight to dash toward the Holy Son, the beast blurred into motion, crossing the distance with a speed that exceeded its previous iteration. It placed itself directly in her path, its claws clicking together with a sound like sharpening knives.

Althea realized then that she couldn’t play around anymore. At first, she had intended to see how the fight would play out naturally before she committed her most powerful abilities, but the current situation had forced her hand.

She closed her eyes for a split second and reached deep into the core of her existence, calling upon the fundamental concept she carried within her.

"Somatic Transmutation..." This was the first time she was performing this particular feat with her current body, yet the transformation was instantaneous.

Her body did not grow in size, but the quality of her presence changed entirely. Her Order concept kicked into full gear, and a soft, white light began to bleed out from her skin, a steady and calm radiance that her body entirely.

She felt her physical form being enhanced at the molecular level. It was an embodiment of balance itself. Her muscles, her bones, and her very breath were now aligned with the fundamental laws of order.

In this form, she reckoned the demon could do nothing to harm her directly because any chaotic force it threw at her would simply be neutralized upon contact with her skin.

She turned her gaze back to the blond man and ignored the demon entirely. She took a step forward, dashing toward the Holy Son with a speed that left a trail of white light in the air.

The demon charged at her again, its claws outstretched to tear into her side. But Althea didn’t even raise the Errant sword to parry. The moment the creature’s claws struck her shoulder, there was no sound of tearing flesh, or even the slightest give whatsoever.

The force was simply killed off entirely, creating a terrible contrast of stillness and momentum between the creature at the point of contact, and the rest of its arm that moved with a terrifying speed and force. The resulting effect was a total dismantling of the creature’s arm from its body despite its new body reinforcement.

It’s blue blood scattered like mist as Althea charged past it toward the Holy Son like an unstoppable force.

This time, the Holy Son actually had to move. He had been watching with a look of amused detachment, but as Althea closed the distance, his smile vanished.

He spread his arms wide and his eyes began to glow with a terrifying, golden intensity.

"Enough of that," he yelled, and immediately, an immense surge of energy, raw and unadulterated, poured out of his body like an unending wave.

What is this?! Althea’s charge came to an abrupt halt as the energy slammed into her, bombarding her senses with pure noise and silence. It felt like the end of the world was manifesting right in front of her. As if the Holy Son was the origin of energy itself, a sun that had decided to go supernova while still held in a human shape.

She had never felt anything like it before. The energy wasn’t particularly mana, and neither was it particularly soul energy either.

Divine energy? Althea couldn’t help the absurd thought even though she knew this was definitely no divine energy. It simply went to show how overwhelming a force it was for her to consider such an impossible thought.