Chapter 144: Fruit of Metamorphosis - III

Aventine’s figure reappeared, mere inches away from Tanchi’s eyes. His face, alight with the azure glow of mana, wore a small smile and an amused, narrowed gaze.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light, a simple sword unsheathed, and the world around Tanchi spun.

...Not.

"So that’s the application you’ve chosen..."

—Crack!

A fist slammed against Aventine’s shoulder with the force of a cannon. However...

"Heh,"

All Tanchi heard was a chuckle.

In her spinning vision, she saw her headless body had well and truly made contact with the human’s body. That strike of hers should have shattered bone and torn through his chest and pierced straight into his heart.

After all... the human was supposedly a Space Mage.

However, all she saw was the young man—who had shrugged off one of her haymakers as if it was nothing—grinning as if amused by her measly attempt.

In the next moment, she caught a glimpse of the moment the human spun and kicked her body out like a useless pile of trash.

It had happened so fast that it left her shocked. Even at the cost of letting him behead her, she’d done nothing at all.

Tanchi’s heart ran cold. The mana left in her brain boiled, maintaining a rapid exchange of energy between her head and her body despite the decapitation.

’I need to heal, and quickly!’

To those with keen eyes, they would see Tanchi’s <Mana Circuit> working overtime as if to replace the effect of blood and serve as a wireless connection for her nerves. This scenario should have brought her a clear victory.

Who would have expected this Space Mage’s body to be even stronger than hers?

It didn’t make sense!

’It’s probably some trick with the surrounding space.’ Tanchi analyzed in her heart.

Having been a pure Martial Artist for so long, sometimes the people who knew her would forget she was an Elf. Her knowledge and intuition with regard to magic were still formidable—her only problem had been a sheer lack of talent.

At least, that was what Tanchi and the rest of her Elven family thought.

To Aventine, however, it was a different sight.

The moment Tanchi struck his shoulder, he felt his mana freeze ever so slightly. As if the force transmitted from the Elf’s fist had shocked the mana and turned it solid for half a second.

There was a dissonance between Tanchi’s understanding of herself and Aventine’s scanning of her uniqueness.

His eyes gleamed with intrigue.

[Absolute Awareness]!

Blanketing Tanchi’s entire existence, Aventine gazed upon her memories of the past, her current tumultuous emotions, her desire for Evolution, the number of cells composing her body, and even the intricacies of the <Mana Circuit> embedded in her body.

There was something more deeply buried, hidden within the <Mana Circuit> itself, and the true reason why Tanchi’s talent for magic was so abysmal.

’It’s one of those clichés,’ Aventine almost laughed. ’She’s an anti-mage who hasn’t awakened!’

Perhaps through Evolution, Tanchi would have been able to nullify any flow of mana that was not her own, slicing through walls of flames and bolts of lightning with just her fingernails.

<Anti-Magic Body>

An SS-Rank <Trait> that allowed one to disrupt all stable forms of magic, from Magic Spells to Enchantments, and most especially those complex magic formations.

Tanchi could waltz straight through a mage tower and find herself completely unbothered by its bombardment.

It was almost a pity she had to die now.

Aventine’s will spread across the room as a simple yet brutally shaped magic circle appeared in his hand. Mana surged into the purple symbols, and a 6th-Circle Magic Spell was brought to life.

[Lightning Beam].

—CLACK.

—BOOM!

Tanchi was blinded by the deep blue flash, while the rumbling thunder announced her end.

That beam of pure, incandescent blue had ionized the air and created an atmosphere of ozone throughout the room. It had devoured Tanchi’s head before it even touched the ground.

"How sad,"

Aventine chuckled wryly, seeing how anticlimactic this fight had been. There was a trace of brilliance in Tanchi’s bet, but alas... the quantitative suppression of attributes had simply erased all difficulties he would face from now on.

’No, that’s not true.’

The only difficulties he would no longer face would be those born from direct combat with those below S-Rank.

Aventine’s eyes flashed as he suddenly felt a disturbance occur simultaneously in the three rooms where his Fruits of Metamorphosis were supposed to be harvesting.

[Absolute Awareness: Divination] was instinctively triggered, and he traced the disturbances back to their source, travelling through thousands of <Fate’s> threads.

"Heh, so this is the backlash from <Fate> since I haven’t completed my <Act of Blasphemy>? Has <Fate> made it easier for others to plot against me?"

His eyes narrowed, containing the azure gleam of his swirling mana.

"Indeed, I’ve been noticed by Arvishue’rre... as well as someone else—" Aventine paused, retrieving the memory of an old High Elf woman he’d seen from his earlier divinations. "So these are the two players of the Game of Walvaskaz I am facing?"

According to his current comprehension of the <Law of Fate>, Aventine was certain:

"This is the predetermined path of a survivor of Arvishue’rre’s pursuit, as well as the most direct result of having slain Ellea first and this Tanchi right after. That High Elf should be nearby... But she’s a whole rank weaker than the minimum requirement to join the game."

Beneath Aventine’s feet, another purple magic circle appeared, bending space and time to deliver him elsewhere.

[Warp]!

His gaze no longer viewed the tangible world, instead looking through the vast grey web of <Fate>.

"Is that High Elf after something related to her Star Magic and myself?"

Thinking of this, Aventine turned his attention back to the Spatial Magic he was using.

"...Hm?"

Suddenly, a tearing pain nearly tore him in half. Blood vessels burst across his abdomen as his entire upper torso was subjected to a twisting force from the warping space.

As for everything from his waist and below... they were being twisted in the opposite direction.

Aventine’s eyes widened in shock.

He was being wrung like a cloth!