Chapter 209 VS Silver Moon 2
As the words "Go to hell" were uttered, a strange and bizarre force surged towards me.
I don't understand why Silvermoon is fighting me.
Judging from her tone earlier, it seemed that she was determined to kill me because I was Chang'an's best friend. But what kind of cause and effect relationship existed between them?
Or perhaps there aren't so many hidden stories; it's just that because she's a demon, she has an innate malice and murderous intent towards humans, and "I'm Chang'an's best friend" is merely a reason she picked up randomly? Considering that even Chang'an harbors a strong urge to kill, it doesn't seem unacceptable that Yin Yue, as a fully-fledged demon, would suddenly exhibit such a brutal style.
Even without this reason, there were already irreconcilable conflicts between me and Yinyue. She was an evil spirit possessing Chang'an, and I couldn't just sit idly by. Her murderous intent towards me was, in a sense, justifiable.
The moves she's using now are very simple.
As a monster capable of altering reality at will, what is the most efficient way for her to kill an enemy? Is it to conjure up a weapon out of thin air and wield it to slaughter them, or to summon heavenly lightning and earthly fire, or even a meteorite to obliterate the enemy? None of the above.
The most efficient way is to summon nothing at all and simply result in "target death".
The power of the Silver Moon disregarded spatial distance and acted directly on me. In that instant, I felt my heart stop beating, all the blood in my body vanish, my bones crumbled like wafers, my muscle tissue was shredded as if by a thousand invisible scissors, and my brain tissue was suddenly turned to shreds as if being churned by chopsticks…
Countless gruesome and terrifying ways to die manifested themselves on me; in just a fraction of a second, over a hundred horrific fatal consequences appeared upon me. My fire elemental body crumbled under the onslaught of these fatal outcomes, becoming like a slime formed of fire.
Needless to say, the damaged body structures were all simulated; even if you added ten thousand more physical ways to die, you couldn't truly kill me, a fire elemental being. But that's not the problem—I can clearly feel that the strange power acting on me, while constantly increasing the lethal consequences, also seems to possess intelligence, relentlessly searching for a suitable "cause of death" for me.
Of course, I couldn't just sit and wait to die. While enduring countless fatal consequences, I immediately teleported myself in front of Silver Moon and launched another close-range fire attack. But then, I found myself transported back to where I started—she had once again used her reality-altering power to cancel my attack.
Almost simultaneously, I felt my entire body become completely immobile. It wasn't that she had used some other technique to bind me; rather, my body was frozen. Yes, although I am fire, I had somehow turned into ice. To be precise, I had crystallized. Now I was like a flame-shaped crystal suspended high in the sky.
The reason seems to be that the "death law" acting on me finally found a "method of death" that was effective against me. After I crystallized, it was as if countless invisible files were frantically rubbing against me, and the crystal was decomposed at an extremely fast speed from the edges. This phenomenon was not just about decomposing me on a material level; my soul seemed to have synchronized with the crystal, erupting in an unprecedentedly intense pain, as if my flesh was being scraped by files.
I am being killed!
The shadow of death descended upon my consciousness.
Although they are all at the Great Completion level, Silver Moon, Dragon, and Divine Spear are completely different.
When facing the latter two, although I believed myself to be stronger, I never took the battle lightly. They were either people I couldn't kill or people who could kill me, so I would fight them with all my might. I even considered "that was combat," believing I was truly fighting to the death.
The current situation has made me realize my past misunderstanding—"I will go all out"? This mindset only holds true if you have the option to choose. I could give it my all, or I could not; I simply chose the former. Now it's different. I don't have the right to choose whether to go all out or not. This is the real life-or-death struggle.
Chenlong and Shenqiang merely taught me about pain, while Yinyue brought me death.
Without hesitation, I unleashed all my power. In truth, I had been fighting Silver Moon with all my might from the very beginning, but now I was pushing myself to my limits. My power transformed into a massive sea of fire, engulfing the surrounding land and extending to the farthest reaches.
Silvermoon and I are currently in the forest outside the old Humanitarian Division outpost, and the sea of fire I summoned has engulfed a woodland with a radius of more than two and a half kilometers in one go.
It is said that the horizon visible to humans on plains is about four to five kilometers. That means if someone were standing at one end of my inferno and looking at the other end, they would see that my inferno has spread beyond the horizon. This is the maximum scale of destruction I can currently unleash. The forest is burning fiercely in the flames, and even the old Humanitarian Division stronghold in the distance is engulfed in flames.
Of course, my flames had no intention of harming the personnel inside the old Humanitarian Division stronghold, and the massive sea of fire I summoned was not merely for show. Under my control, the flames swept towards me at high speed from all directions, rapidly replacing the crystallized parts of my body with flames, while simultaneously repairing my soul's wounds.
This place has been transformed into my "home ground," the perfect place for me to operate. The former Chenlong resisted my destruction with the support of the power of restart in an independent reality space, while I have now accomplished the same thing with my home ground of fire.
I immediately regained my ability to move freely and charged towards Silver Moon.
Her "death decree" has not yet expired; my body is crystallizing again, and my soul is suffering new damage. However, flames are rapidly rising from below, offsetting the progress of crystallization and damage.
"You can do something like that?" Silver Moon exclaimed in surprise.
She teleported to a distance in an instant and then made a new move.
"Since that's the case—"
A surge of magical energy emanated from her body like a shockwave. Wherever it passed, large swathes of fire vanished as if they had never existed. Seeing this, I summoned back the vanished portions of the sea of fire. If her power was an eraser, then I was a brush that splashed ink.
I noticed that when she focused her power on extinguishing the sea of fire, the crystallization and soul trauma occurring on me immediately slowed down. It seems that even she has limited power and cannot ensure the efficiency of inflicting damage on me while simultaneously diverting her energy. At this rate of injury, I could even heal myself simply by summoning flames from within.
Faintly, I felt, just like when I fought the Shadow Man, that my consciousness was gradually rising to a metaphysical level. Clearly, what Silver Moon was doing now involved the realms of causality, concepts, and imagination. I sensed that my own "existence" was shrouded in dark smoke, gradually being blackened.
Perhaps the level I'm experiencing now is also the level through which curses and mental spells pass when they are activated. Faced with this fictional realm that seems to exist only in my mind, I imagined myself summoning flames to protect myself. The smoke was immediately dispelled by the flames. However, the tendency for my condition to worsen has not disappeared.
It seems there are still some intangible things that I can't perceive right now that are eroding me. That's normal. Silvermoon is definitely a master specializing in this metaphysical realm. It's impossible for a novice like me, who's just starting out, to easily gain an advantage in this field.
At the same time, my power is rising rapidly. Just as in the past, when the soul pain caused by Chenlong made my consciousness active and my power rise, I am now being pushed to the limit, becoming more aware of the shadow of death than ever before, and my power is being unleashed with unprecedented efficiency.
To be honest, what I lack right now is not strength, but the right winning strategy.
Although they were mentally prepared to "burn Chang'an half to death," they could tell from Yin Yue's performance that if they couldn't kill her in one blow, she would recover on the spot; and if they did kill her, they might also kill Chang'an.
So, is there a way for me to destroy only the "Soul of Silvermoon"? To be honest, that's difficult. Although I can destroy other people's souls now, that's just a technique based on my own impression of the pain in my own soul. I've never actually had a direct understanding of what a soul is. Objects I haven't seen naturally can't be added to the flame's whitelist.
On a physical level, I can't even tell whether Silver Moon simply put its own shell on top of Chang'an's body, or whether it used its reality-altering abilities to modify Chang'an's body into its own shape. If I can't even tell that, then it's even less likely that it's just destroying "the part that belongs to Silver Moon".
Considering that I didn't know Lu Chan's true form was a National First-Class Demon Hunter, there's something to be said about why my flames didn't incinerate her along with Chen Long. However, I believe that's part of the ambiguity that sometimes exists with my superpowers as supernatural abilities. I can simply consider it a naturally occurring, passive phenomenon; I don't believe I can actively unleash it through human will.
The worst-case scenario for me now is that Yin Yue has not only possessed Chang'an's body, but has also completely killed and replaced him with her powers. Given the strength she's displaying, she's perfectly capable of doing so. I can't even fathom why she wouldn't—is she hoping this demon, who practically never raised Chang'an, will harbor any maternal love for him?
I can only temporarily control myself from thinking in that direction.
I manipulated flames to launch repeated attacks on her, and seized opportunities to use flame teleportation to get close enough to unleash a burst of fire. She would sometimes dodge, and sometimes use her powers to cancel my actions. Dodges aside, this "cancellation" was truly unpredictable. Several times, when I finally managed to hit her, she would simply turn it into "nothing happened," instantly reverting to her original form.
However, I also have my own thoughts.
Since I can't defeat it in terms of the specificity of its power, I'll overwhelm it with sheer sheer numbers. This sea of fire isn't just for show. After these few exchanges, I can conclude that, purely from a power standpoint, Silver Moon isn't stronger than me. And my power is still rising.
"...You're getting stronger." Silver Moon's tone wavered. "No, this isn't getting stronger...it's awakening. I see. It seems you possess an extraordinary talent."
"But... do you think I'll let you continue to increase your power?"
As she spoke, she stopped dodging and instead charged at me.
What was she planning to do? I immediately became extremely wary. In a direct confrontation, I was clearly stronger. Even if she could cancel my actions or reset her damaged state at any time, recklessly engaging in close combat was still unwise. This looked like she was about to unleash some kind of deadly move.
And my judgment was correct. In the palm of her right hand, I saw a ball of intense white light that gave me an extremely ominous feeling.
Perhaps it's due to the nature of my superpower, but other witchers here might not be able to identify what this thing is at first glance. On the contrary, I can immediately determine its nature. The basic operating principle of this thing is the same as that majestic celestial body that hangs in the sky during the day.
I've seen many people online talking about how they developed their awakened superpowers, and how combining them with scientific theories could lead to amazing results. For example, could someone with the superpower to manipulate electricity master the fundamental forces of electromagnetism? Could someone with the superpower to telekinesis manipulate atoms to produce nuclear fission in the microscopic realm?
However, in the world of Witcher, this kind of thing doesn't seem to be so common. It's understandable; even if humans can move matter with their hands, it doesn't mean they can break down and recombine the chemical structure of matter. Supernatural abilities can be expanded and explained however one likes in the realm of imagination, but in practice, it's a different story.
However, Silvermoon seems to have broken that conventional wisdom.
I once used the phrase "miniature star" to describe my own super-compressed fireball, but compared to the white sphere of light that Silver Moon is holding in the palm of her hand, it pales in comparison. This thing is the true miniature sun, a colossal energy generated based on the principle of nuclear fusion.
Silver Moon struck the blazing white orb in her palm toward my chest.
A nuclear explosion occurred.
(End of this chapter)
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