Chapter 500: Armory's Major Tech Upgrade, Nelom's Path of Justice

In other words.

This was profound combat experience that could only be mastered by someone who had danced with death time and time again!

Out of the corner of his eye, Nelom saw Reinhardt release the handle of his War Axe. The iron chain connecting it to his wrist rattled as it went slack. Simultaneously, Reinhardt clenched his left hand into a fist and launched a fierce attack.

‘So the swing of the War Axe was just a feint?’

After transforming into his Super Speed Form, not only did his physical speed increase, but his neural reflexes also accelerated several-fold, allowing his dynamic vision to keep pace.

Before the sheer speed of Nelom’s thoughts in his Super Speed Form, time itself seemed to grind to a halt.

His gaze shifted constantly between Reinhardt and the released War Axe. In just an instant, he had analyzed his opponent’s tactics and intentions.

‘As a fellow Body Technique Knight, the Lord of Vengeful obviously knows his speed is no match for my own. That’s why he feinted with the War Axe at close range—to divide my attention.’

‘The real attack would come from the left, after he let go of his weapon.’

Even if Reinhardt’s Knight Power was now at least twice as strong as before—so terrifyingly powerful that a single punch could likely shatter his skull—such a direct assault still posed no real threat to him.

After all, in the face of a true advantage in speed, an attack that can’t connect is meaningless, no matter how powerful.

But seeing through Reinhardt’s tactics didn’t bring him the calm assurance of someone in control of the battle’s rhythm.

Instead, the chilling sensation from his hard-won combat instincts was like an icy wind seeping through his clothes. The immense danger made every hair on his body stand on end!

Even though his mind in Super Speed Form was far faster than an ordinary Earth Knight’s, he couldn’t truly stop time to give himself ample opportunity to devise a countermeasure.

In that split second, Reinhardt’s fist grew larger and larger in Nelom’s vision.

Unable to fully analyze Reinhardt’s intentions in time, Nelom gritted his teeth and decided to meet the attack head-on. He would leverage his superior speed during the momentary opening left by Reinhardt’s feint to force some distance between them.

However, the very instant his left leg pushed off the ground to create that distance…

…he was horrified to discover that creating distance from Reinhardt felt like an impossible reality. In his perception, no matter how his Domain Power propelled his body, the space between them seemed to shrink infinitely, making it impossible to escape Reinhardt’s attack range.

While his Overlord Form transformation could grant a tenfold boost to a single ability, it came at the cost of severely weakening his others.

It was true that his Ashen Battle Armor possessed a certain degree of Self-Healing Ability. But Nelom was certain that if one of Knight Reinhardt’s Cannon Fists—a blow with Knight Power so condensed it could distort space—were to land on him…

…his Self-Healing Ability would be completely unable to cope with that level of damage.

In other words.

He could die—!

But Nelom hadn’t reached his current level of power by being anything less than a top-tier talent in combat.

In an instant, his mind flashed back to Reinhardt’s battle with Sipia. He realized this had to be some kind of Earth Ring that interfered with the flow of time.

‘Unfortunately, I’m not like Sipia—a guy who’s pure mechanics with no stats.’

Even though Nelom now understood the tactic Reinhardt was using, he still couldn’t escape the control of the Earth Ring·Time Sand Reverse Flow.

Reinhardt’s Iron Fist was now inches away.

‘Damn it,’ Nelom cursed internally. With a single thought, his Domain Power instantly transformed—Overlord Transformation·Undying Form.

Instantly, the wave of superheated air enveloping him collapsed inward into his body. Even the dark red glow of heat in the cracks of his skin silently faded.

Vast amounts of hot ash traced the lines of his skeleton, forming a suit of bony armor across the surface of his body.

The next moment.

Reinhardt’s Iron Fist, wreathed in the power of his Combat Skill·Humiliate People’s Power, came whistling through the air!

BOOM—!!!

The Cannon Fist, its power so immense it could only be described as brutally simple, slammed into Nelom, erupting with a cataclysmic, thunderous roar!

It exploded into a wave of pure force. With Nelom’s body as the epicenter, a terrifyingly powerful shockwave tore through the swirling sandstorm, ripping open a fan-shaped vacuum zone a kilometer long!

Matthias and the others, witnesses to this battle, lifted their heads in silence, watching the shockwave sweep over them and gazing at the vacuum zone that resembled a wonder of nature.

One of Stearns’s Personal Guards, a man named Alrum who had only recently been promoted to Earth Knight, turned pale. He couldn’t stop his hands from trembling.

He and the Lord of Vengeful were both Earth Knights, but this level of strength… it had already stepped into the realm of a Demigod! This was a Knight Power far beyond his current comprehension!

Even Morphis, the ever-composed Holy Fire Guard, found his expression darkening at the sight. His right hand unconsciously tightened its grip on the hilt of his sword.

A voice echoed in his mind.

‘If I were the one in that battle… if I were the one facing the power of the Lord of Vengeful…’

「At that moment, in Surt’s Stereoscopic City.」

It wasn’t just Koller. Every Transcendent at the Earth Knight Level had, to some extent, sensed the battle taking place a thousand kilometers away.

They sensed it even though the aftershocks, diminished by the vast distance, had become all but imperceptible.