Chapter 14: History and Role
The man faded from Ray's view, making a sound similar to a distant gunshot.
"What the?!" Ray was scanning around for the dragon now turned man.
Ray sensed danger approaching and he quickly defends his abdomen with his right arm and leg to guard against the straight kick from the man.
The kick flew Ray far away, shattered his right arm, and fractured his femur.
With his right arm and right leg unusable for the time being, he summoned Excalibur on his left hand to guard the horizontal cut. Because of it, Ray immediately sent to the ground, creating a crater.
Ray's left hand started shaking because of how heavy the attack was.
"What's the matter? Can't handle this much power?" The man taunted Ray.
"Ugh, shut up!" Ray forced his functioning leg to kick away the man. Before the kick connects, the man already left the scene.
While Ray tries to stand up, Avalon was working non-stop healing him.
Ray hates to admit it, but the dragon- no, the man in front of him was much more powerful than Artoria.
It was a given that he thinks that way, Artoria never spared with him with her full strength after all.
"You know, I was expecting a much harder resistance from you. But looking at your measly state just from 2 blows of mine, it's not worth to teach you the foundation of magic, even though we are technically the same person."
Ray just stand in silence, thinking of ways to at least defend a little better.
"Well, if you can't at least give me a challenge, forget about me teaching you magic and even spells." The man looked at Ray for a second before, "Here I go!"
The man disappeared again and appeared behind Ray, doing a stab.
With Ray's [Instinct] once again, he moved his body to avoid the stab before counter-attack using a crescent kick.
The man, of course, managed to guard it using one of his hands.
From there, they started to trade blows using both their swords and bodies. They were so fast that many cracks started to form on the ground.
'He's really strong.' Ray was still thinking of how to damage the guy.
Unlike his fights with Artoria, which she intentionally opened herself to attacks, the man he was defending from was like an impenetrable fortress.
But, from the attacks alone, Ray's fighting style slowly shifting into the one that his body made while he fainted.
"I see you have improved a bit," the man said as he did a diagonal cut from below like he was drawing the sword from its sheath.
"..." Ray was focused on defending.
Ray can't exactly follow his movement, he was dodging and defending based on his [Instinct].
The man retreated to a distance before saying, "It's time to end this. If you can defend from this attack, then I will teach you magic."
The man started to gather mana around the tip of the blade. It reminded Ray of when Artoria wanted to do her signature attack.
Ray started doing the same.
From the outside, Ray was gathering mana on the blade of the sword itself because Excalibur's blade started to lighten up. It was not the case.
Excalibur directed the mana sent from Ray to its tip, heating space around the tip, making the space around it glows.
"DRAGON SLICE!" a red-like beam ripped through space, moving towards Ray.
"EXCALIBUR!" Ray fired a golden white beam.
As both beams collide, it was easy to know who is the winner of the bout.
Ray's attack was slowly being overpowered. The light slowly diminished and [Dragon Slice] finally won.
Seeing the imminent attack, he raised his right hand forward and screamed, "AVALON!"
The legendary sheathe appeared in front of Ray and with it a semi-invisible dome, defending him from the attack. Inside the dome, Ray was being healed.
Avalon essentially 'relocate' the user to another dimension, or in Ray's case, as well as Artoria if she activates it, Heaven.
Ray's mind was at peace. He felt like nothing mattered anymore and thinking of just staying inside. But he remembered Artoria was waiting 'outside'.
When the beam disappeared, the man was in front of the dome, trying to measure out the defensive power.
"This is insane. I can tell that this 'dome' is fragile yet sturdy at the same time." said the man while he started a full-powered punch with his hand creating shockwaves before hitting the dome, which didn't budge in the slightest
The reason for the man's impression of Avalon's defensive power was because he knew nothing can break through if an attack cannot affect both Earth and Heaven as well.
So, as long as there is no attack that capable of passing through space, time, 'shell', and affect Heaven, nothing can penetrate Avalon's defense.
Truly, God's creation is like none other.
"Well, you won. You can get out now." said the man.
The dome started to fade slowly. Ray sheathed Excalibur and it went back inside his body.
'Haah, I need to get used to things entering me.' Ray thought as he felt weird to see that an object can enter his body as a ghost went through a wall.
"Can you start teaching me magic now?"
"Before that, there's someone that wants to meet you."
"Who?" Ray raised his eyebrows.
"That would be me." an old man with a long white beard while holding a wooden staff suddenly appeared.
"Ah, God!"
As Ray wanted to bow down, God said, "It's okay. I don't need formalities so please don't bow down."
"Well, I wanted to thank you for the gifts that you have given me." Ray still bow down nonetheless, not as a formality, but as a form of gratitude.
Ray thought that he was really lucky. From Excalibur to meeting Artoria, he felt that a simple thank you won't be enough.
"If you make it that way, I accept your gratitude." God put his hand on Ray's shoulder. Although many mortals thank him and sometimes mock him on an everyday basis, for God, receiving it first hand made him happy.
Ray got up and said, "So, why are you here?"
"Well, I just want to inform you about something, since I don't know if we can meet again in the future or not..." God was silent for a while like he was pondering something.
God opened his eyes and said, "Before we begin, let's get out of here. We need Artoria to know as well since... hehe."
"Hmmm?" Ray raised his eyebrows. He thought that this meeting with God was weird already.
"Since you're going outside, we'll talk about magic when you came back." The man snapped his fingers and the colosseum changed back into a crystal cave.
But for Ray, he opened his eyes and his first sight was Artoria's face and her clothed underboobs.
"Ah!" Ray immediately got up and said, "Thank you..."
"Your welcome." Artoria's smile was like a Goddess, at least in the eyes of Ray. (A/N: and the author)
The atmosphere was an awkward silence until the sound of an old man was heard, "Ehem! I know you guys are close and all, but please look at your surroundings first."
"Ah, sorry," Ray replied while Artoria cheeks started to build an unnoticeable blush.
"...Hahaha, it's okay. Let me change the scene for a second." God 'knocked' the ground with his staff and the scene changed into a familiar white void. But this time, there are proper furniture such as 3 chairs and a table with beverages and snacks on it.
Artoria, looking at the snacks, made stars in her eyes. While Ray, looking at Artoria, his mouth twitched a little bit.
"Hahaha, let us sit down first." The three of them sat down the chairs.
Artoria, like an obedient puppy, was waiting for permission to eat the sweets. When God gave permission, she instantly ate the snacks with elegance. But her hand never stopped grabbing for more snacks
Both God and Ray looked at her can only sweatdrop.
"Now, I believe there's an introduction that I need to make. You already knew that I'm a God, but I have a name, and the name is !#%&#."
Artoria and Ray looked at God with their eyes closed a little.
"Hmmm, it seems that you need God's language to understand my name. Well, no matter. Now, Ray, you are aware of another world right?"
"Yes, I'm. Since... umm.. tea-" Artoria instantly looked at Ray with an intimidating face.
"I mean, Artoria is not of this world. So, of course, there should be another world."
"Ok, that's good if you understand that. So, what do you think about 'another world'?"
"Hmmm, I knew they are not in the same universe as Earth and they are created by you."
"You are half correct. I did create them, but they came from the imaginations of mortals from your world and the story remains the same... most of them anyway."
Ray was confused and Artoria stopped eating for an entirely different reason.
"Mortals imagination is what powered the other multiverse in the past, what anchored those multiverses in the first place. But now, I have created an item to anchor them because I fear that mortals on Earth won't live again this time."
"This time?"
"You see, Ray, your Earth has been destroyed by apocalyptic events for more than 1 million times. Normally, I just let it be and new Earth and mortals will born again from the ashes of the old. But because of the impending danger that will come in the future, I fear that there will be no more new Earth."
Ray was so shocked his mouth was turning into an 'O' shape while Artoria was still thinking about something that only God and she knows.
After that, Ray started to have doubts about himself. If this threat cannot be defeated by God, that has powers that Ray can't even sense...
"Don't worry, Ray. I'm sure that with Artoria's guidance, you can at least fight with that monster to a tie. If you truly wanted to get stronger, you will find the answer inside the dungeon."
Artoria snapped out from her thoughts. She wanted to say something but decided not to.
God held her hand and said, "Don't worry, child. Ray didn't think of you that way." God released her hand and continued, "Besides, I have a feeling that something incredible will happen to both of you soon."
"...Yes," Artoria answered.
Ray just stay silent, he elected to ask later when they get back.
"Now, Ray and Artoria. I know this is egotistical of me. But if I died, I want both of you to be my replacement."
"What?! Why?" Ray asked. Artoria also wanted to know so she just looked at God with confusion on her face.
"Because there are no other candidates besides both of you. I know this is very selfish, but I will compensate you two."
"With what?"
"With this." God touched both of their foreheads.
Unknown knowledge started surged to their brains, imprinting themselves on it.
Although [Force Knowledge Imprint] is a skill that supposed to hurt whoever the user imprints his knowledge to, Artoria and Ray felt comfortable for some reason.
Ray was one thing because his [Eidetic Memory] will at least numb the pain. But Artoria didn't have [Eidetic Memory].
The reason why they didn't feel pain was because of God's work. He also gave some of his holy energy to comfort them and what he did also affected both Excalibur that was still inside Ray and Artoria.
It was part of his plan, after all, to not only imprint knowledge to them, but also bathe both his creation with holy power so it can evolve faster.
God needed them to become more powerful faster. He was worried that the seal that was holding the monster at bay, break too early. He already prepared everything because God determined that the seal would crumble in 15 years of Earth time.
Although 15 years is nothing in God's perspective, it was not for Artoria and Ray. With [Training Ground], they can translate 15 years outside into 1000 years inside.
God hoped that 15 years are enough for Ray and Artoria to gain strength and finish the monster once and for all.
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Hello readers,
Just a heads up, I will add a harem in the next novel. For those who don't remember, the next novel will be Ray, Artoria, and harem members jumping through worlds, or multiverse in this case. Who's the lucky person? You gonna need to pray a lot for me to give you the list.
I'm kidding...
It's not that much, 10- ehem, 4 to 5 is the limit.
Anyway, on an unrelated note, I'm reading too much manga with "women dies and go to another world where they become some aristocrat's daughter" theme that I want to actually write one XD. But, I suck at writing in general and that kind of theme is romance bull crap which I can't even done it correctly in this novel.
Don't worry though, I don't plan to write one. But I did write it on my "idea list" so I can either use it or just let it gather dust like my other ideas.
I once again thank you for reading this novel of mine. I hope your brain cells are still existent because of how bad I'm at grammar.
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