Chapter 84: Becoming a disciple in the death bed
Chapter 84: Becoming a disciple in the death bed
The sphere of absolute blackness exploded outward, abandoning its compact form as it transformed into an apocalyptic ray of pure erasure that raced toward the cockpit with catastrophic speed.
It did not shine with ordinary brilliance. Instead, it radiated a terrifying void that swallowed every trace of light, mana, and atmosphere in its path, leaving behind a trail of silent annihilation that seemed capable of erasing reality itself.
Victor reacted without hesitation. He used teleportation to shift coordinates and materialize behind the enemy formation, intending to escape the fatal attack in a single instant.
But nothing happened. Every spyet the surrounding fabric of space remained perfectly rigid, refusing to bend no matter how much energy was poured into it. The air itself felt unnaturally heavy, as though countless invisible threads had woven together into an indestructible cage.
"They have activated a space stabilizing machine.", Nova said.
Victor’s eyes grew colder than ice as the realization settled into his mind. He had always believed that his teleportation guaranteed survival against any opponent. No battlefield could imprison him, and no ambush could trap him.
The Sages had shattered that belief in a single moment. They had predicted his greatest advantage instantly and had used a machine to neutralize that advantage.
The apocalyptic beam was already closing the final distance.
With no remaining option, Victor thought of using his ultimate trump card again.
"Time Stop."
A cold mechanical voice immediately echoed through his consciousness.
[Ding! You have utilized a forbidden technique more than once today. The maximum safe duration is three seconds. Exceeding this limit will result in permanent and irreversible physical and soul damage.]
The warning carried an oppressive weight that seemed to vibrate through every bone in his body, but Victor ignored it completely.
The world instantly lost every trace of color.
Everything within a one kilometer radius became frozen inside a surreal landscape of gray silence. The apocalyptic plasma beam stopped less than a millimeter away from the cockpit armor, its swirling currents locked in complete stillness. Crimson sparks floated motionless through the air like countless fragments of suspended crystal.
Only Victor remained capable of movement.
The gigantic war machine surged forward. Despite its overwhelming weight, it crossed the frozen battlefield with impossible speed, driven entirely by Victor’s desperate willpower. Every step forced the machine against the laws of existence, causing its massive joints to groan and tremble under unimaginable stress.
The crimson blade descended.
It sliced effortlessly through the golden and obsidian robed Sage standing at the center of the formation. The ancient leader remained frozen with absolute confidence still visible on his face, never realizing that death had already claimed him. His head separated cleanly from his shoulders, yet gravity itself had stopped, leaving the severed body suspended in perfect silence.
Victor immediately pivoted toward the remaining sages.
The colossal sword carved through one target after another with ruthless precision. Every strike carried enough force to split enchanted armor and ancient protective barriers as though they were paper. Twenty sages stood frozen in an elegant geometric formation, completely helpless before a predator moving beyond the flow of time.
Three seconds suddenly felt impossibly short.
"Damn it."
Victor cursed inwardly while pushing both himself and the machine beyond every safe operating limit.
The passive sensory arrays barely continued functioning at the edge of the frozen domain, but they still transmitted enough information to reveal something terrifying. Ten additional presences hovered just outside the one kilometer boundary.
More Sages.
A secondary formation had remained hidden as a reserve force, patiently waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Even if Victor managed to eliminate every sages trapped inside the time stop zone, there would be no route of escape.
The instant time resumed, ten fresh masters of the arcane would surround him from every direction.
Pain exploded through his body.
Countless capillaries ruptured beneath his skin as the backlash from violating temporal law tore through his flesh and soul simultaneously. His nerves burned like rivers of molten metal, and his vision slowly turned crimson as blood pooled beneath his eyelids.
Every breath felt like swallowing broken glass.
Even so, Victor refused to slow down. He continued driving the massive crimson blade through one frozen target after another with relentless efficiency. At that moment he was no longer fighting like a man. He had become nothing more than a force of absolute determination, endlessly cutting apart silent statues that could neither defend themselves nor even comprehend their own deaths.
Outside the frozen boundary, the arriving Sages could understand nothing.
The central plaza appeared completely motionless, like an enormous grayscale painting suspended in reality. Their grand spell had seemingly stopped at the exact instant of impact. They could neither perceive Victor’s movements nor detect any fluctuations within the sealed zone.
For three agonizing seconds they watched a world that had become perfectly still.
Then everything shattered.
Time resumed with a deafening shockwave that blasted dust and shattered stone outward in a perfect expanding circle. The silent battlefield suddenly erupted back into motion.
To the horror of every observer, twenty one heads separated from their bodies at exactly the same instant.
Blood erupted into the air as the severed heads crashed across the fractured plaza, while lifeless bodies collapsed one after another. The absolute blackness of the unfinished grand spell instantly dissolved, its creators having died before the destructive magic could ever reach completion.
The towering war machine released a deep metallic groan.
Its crimson optics flickered repeatedly before fading into darkness as the internal reactor shut itself down under catastrophic temporal feedback. Emergency systems activated throughout the machine, and the cockpit hatch burst open with a violent hiss that released clouds of superheated steam.
Victor was thrown onto the ruined cobblestones by the emergency ejection mechanism.
His body struck the ground and immediately curled in unbearable agony. Blood streamed continuously from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, staining the pale dust beneath him. His mana reservoir had been exhausted completely, his muscles refused every command, and his damaged nerves felt as though they had become liquid fire flowing beneath his skin.
He could not even lift a finger.
"No!"
The ten arriving Sages roared together, their voices carrying overwhelming disbelief and limitless fury. The combined force of their rage shook the surrounding avenues as they stared at the decapitated guardians who had protected Atlantis for centuries.
Their eyes slowly shifted toward the broken human lying helplessly inside the crater.
Each Sage raised glowing hands as countless lethal spells gathered around them. Brilliant circles of ancient magic formed beneath their feet while overwhelming killing intent flooded the battlefield.
Victor looked upward through blurred crimson vision.
The last fragments of hope disappeared from his exhausted mind. He could not move, could not fight, and could not escape. A warrior who had just slaughtered twenty one mythical protectors had been reduced to a dying man waiting for execution.
Then a calm voice interrupted the ringing inside his ears.
"Victor."
Nova sounded completely composed despite the approaching disaster.
"I intended to reveal this after everything was finished, but circumstances have changed. Will you become the disciple of my master? There is something hidden within the inheritance that can save you."
Victor coughed violently, sending another wave of blood across his chest.
"Damn it, Nova. You should have told me sooner. I accept. Do whatever is necessary."
The instant his agreement was recognized, a powerful spatial ripple erupted from his storage ring.
Unlike ordinary teleportation, this disturbance operated upon an entirely different dimensional frequency. It ignored the surrounding space stabilization field as though the ancient device did not even exist.
Deep inside Nova’s concealed spaceship, a single preserved drop of Victor’s blood had already completed an ancient ritual upon a forgotten altar. The covenant instantly reached completion.
A thick and vibrant purple vine burst from the dimensional pocket.
It moved with fluid predatory grace, twisting through the air with impossible speed before wrapping itself completely around Victor’s broken body. Mana pulsed through every strand as the living plant rapidly expanded, weaving together into an elegant yet formidable suit of full body cosmic armor.
The moment the transformation finished, the unbearable pain faded.
An immense flood of alien vitality poured into Victor’s empty veins, replacing exhaustion with overwhelming strength. The armor felt alive, breathing in perfect rhythm with him while its iridescent purple surface shimmered beneath the dim light of Atlantis.
Nova’s voice returned through the restored neural connection.
"This is a Sage rank Cosmic Vine. It accepted your bloodline through the disciple covenant and now recognizes you as its absolute master. Give it a command, Victor, and it will fight for you."
Victor slowly rose to his feet.
The living cosmic armor released a deep resonant hum that echoed across the devastated plaza. Purple energy flowed across its surface like rivers of starlight, and the ten descending Sages instinctively halted in midair.
They couldn’t understand what that thing was and how did it transform into an armor.
But the pressure now the man was realeasing was now superior to them.