บท 1898: A Demonstration of True Power
Extricating himself from a pile of debris that buried him beneath hundreds of meters of earth, Hell Joe couldn't help feeling a little shaken as he viewed the hemispherical crater formed from Vahn's release of energy. It had completely erased a series of small mountains, and, more surprisingly, an area nearly 80km across had been completely glassed.
At the very center of this devastation, reminiscent of an azure star, a figure with luminescent green hair, golden horns, emerald green scales, and a monkey-like tail could be seen standing with their arms crossed. Joe recognized this to be the same posture he had adopted previously, his expression darkening considerably as he took to the sky like a crimson meteor, ascending to shout, "It doesn't matter what you do! So long as you are on the Floor of Death, your defeat is inevitable! Come-"
Followed by the sound of a thunderclap, Vahn appeared right in front of Hell Joe, hands clasped around the man's insectoid horns. Then, before the light from the azure lightning could even begin to fade, his forehead impacted Hell Joe's with enough force to break off both horns before sending the man smashing into the glassy pit with catastrophic force. It was like the ground for hundreds of meters had simply collapsed, descending much like a sinkhole to form an abyssal impression in the ground below.
Tossing aside Joe's horns, Vahn took a deep breath to steady himself before bringing his palms near each other and adopting a slouched stance with both arms facing backward. He imagined himself hold a ball formed from pure energy, and, in response to the image, a vibrant sphere of azure light collected between his palms. To make things even more problematic for Joe, he used the Shinsu Black Hole Sphere to amplify the ability, completely bypassing the limitations he had placed on the Shinsu Density.
With the center of the sphere gaining a perturbing black luster, Vahn waited until Joe erupted from the massive sinkhole to teleport beneath the enraged tyrant. This left the latter at a complete loss, as, due to the power he had been bestowed, his mastery over the innumerable Laws, Space included, was negligible at best. His use of Severing Laws seemed to be an inherent component of the Red Thryssa, so, while he was able to sense the spatial fluctuations, there was little he could do against an opponent who could instantaneously teleport.
Gambling on the man's immortality, Vahn couldn't help but crack a smile as he finished the final syllable of the chant spoken within his head, shouting, "Ha...!" as he brought his hands forward and released a catastrophic energy beam that instantly pierced through the ceiling of the Floor of Death. This was only the beginning, however, as, rather than be mitigated by the extremely dense corpse of the Floor Guardian, the Shinsu within served to empower the beam further. As a result, it cut through the entirety of the Floor Guardian's corpse before continuing onward and impacting the ceiling of the 43rd Floor in less than three seconds.
Surprised by the output of his own attack, Vahn held his hand before him, azure eyes reflecting the vibrant bands of electricity that still danced across his palms. This was the first time he had used an attack like this outside the Little Garden, and, due to the variations in the Laws and the stability of the surrounding space, its power was far beyond expectation.
Shaking his head, Vahn allowed his hands to fall as he spread his senses through the area in search of Hell Joe. He knew it would take more than atomization to put the immortal man down, but, due to the inclusion of the Black Hole Sphere, it was hard to be certain. Fortunately, he had the Law of Identity at his side to confirm the man was both alive and hiding.
Infusing the Law of Authority into his voice, allowing it to effectively reach every inhabitant of the Floor of Death, Vahn adopted a stern and slightly mocking tone as he mused, "I'm still waiting for you to show me the futility of confronting a God. Don't tell me...are you the God of Cowards? That would explain a lot..."
Sensing the attack long before the flash of light reached him, Vahn held up his hand to intercept Joe's claws with his open palm. Then, using the motion of the man's attack against him, he twisted the former's arm at a painful angle before kicking him in the side with enough force to sever his upper and bottom halves.
Despite the loss of his lower body, Hell Joe maintained a surprisingly resolute expression on his face as his insectoid maw opened to reveal a vibrant beam of light. At the same time, his mane-like collar seemed to ignite in a manner similar to Karna's mantle, intense heat radiating from his body as a destructive and highly penetrative beam emanated from his many-toothed mouth.
With Joe's clawed hand still in his grasp, Vahn simply jerked the man to the side while twisting his head to evade the lightspeed attack. This was one of the limitations of energy-based attacks, as, despite their incredible power, those with quick enough reaction times could easily evade them. After all, while the attack itself might be lightspeed, the motions and build-up of the energy were, at best, around 30% the speed of light.
Using the same motion as his evasive maneuver, Vahn released Joe's quickly regenerating body, twisting around with enough force to create a vacuum to prevent the man's escape before giving him another sharp blow to the bottom jaw. This caused Joe's maw to slam shut, teeth shattering from the force of the blow before the bottom half of his face exploded due to the energy from his own attack.
Realizing the man wasn't going to tire out any time soon, irrespective of the number of times he was injured, a resolute sheen flashed across Vahn's eyes as he bent forward, left arm pointing at Joe's chest while his right hand pointed back. Immediately thereafter, an incredibly complex eight trigrams formation appeared beneath him, seemingly embedding itself within the air to create a translucent platform as he began a precision assault on the energy network within both Joe's and the Red Thyrssa's bodies.
Feeling his connection with the surrounding Shinsu being severed, Joe's eyes widened as he tried to evade backward. To his surprise, a network of golden chains had appeared to block his retreat, and, for reasons he couldn't understand, simply contacting them was enough to send a numbing sensation throughout his entire body. It was like being electrocuted, and, as a result, he couldn't even raise his arms as Vahn continued to press various pressure points on his body.
Wrapping things up, quite literally, Vahn used Enkidu to bind the paralyzed Joe before asking, "Is this the limit of the power you were provided? You thought this was enough to proclaim yourself a God? From my perspective, you are just a frog trapped within a well. Tell me, have you ever trained a day in your life? What have you done to try and master this power that was provided to you...?"
With his arms splayed out to the side, almost as if he had been crucified, Joe raised his head to reveal unbridled hatred in his ghostly eyes as he shouted, "You don't know anything! I tried my best to bring positive change to the Floor of Death, but those bastards in the Grand family kept undermining all of my efforts! They even installed a fucking child to be the leader when I tried to handle things diplomatically via a vote! Tell me, what else was I supposed to do when everyone in power did everything possible to fuck me over!?"
Though he had been tempted to interrupt the moment Joe mentioned him not knowing anything, Vahn waited until the man was gasping for air before snorting through his nose and giving him a crisp smack across the face. Then, with an uncharacteristically contemptuous look in his eyes, he firmly stated, "You were supposed to keep trying. If you truly believed in your ideals, you wouldn't have abandoned your sincerity in the pursuit of even greater power. You also wouldn't have locked yourself away in a fortress, holing yourself up like a hikikomori who only reads comics and watches the news day in and day out. Most importantly, you would never have resorted to torturing people who were wholly unrelated to your ambitions. You can accuse others all you like, but, the moment you stopped caring about the means to complete your objective, you became nothing more than a self-serving tyrant. Pathetic..."
Spitting out a broken tooth, Hell Joe maintained his indignant look even as his mind raced due to the realization that he wasn't healing properly. This earned him a disapproving head shake from Vahn, but, more importantly, a familiar sigh could be heard emanating from beyond the periphery of his vision. This caused an instinctual shudder to pass through his body, followed by a sinking feeling as he averted his eyes from Vahn to find an athletic-looking woman with golden hair and crimson eyes staring at him with a disappointed frown. There was also a striking beauty with pale-blue hair and a winter parka standing next to her, but, compared to the former, she didn't stand out all that much.
Preempting any excuses Joe might try and give, Ureko plainly stated, "I lack the words to express how disappointed I am in you. I gave you the Red Thryssa because I believed in your dream and ambitions. How did you go from an idealistic pipe cleaner to a tyrant in just a few short decades? There are people climbing the Tower who dedicate hundreds of years to improve their strength so they can achieve their dreams. What the hell happened to you, Joe?"
With Joe unable to utter so much a single syllable in his defense, Vahn made things a little easier for him, explaining, "He got duped by FUG. They lied and told him that he would be able to leave the Floor of Death if he managed to provide them with the final fragment of the Thorn. The most pitiable thing about the situation is that FUG already knew where the final fragment was located. The only reason they associated with Joe was to bide time until they could develop a method to extract and use the Red Thryssa for themselves. Unfortunately, they quickly realized that its power was useless beyond the 43rd Floor, but, rather than informing Joe of the futility of his actions, they allowed him to play God in order to maintain control over the Floor of Death."
Hearing Vahn's explanation, Joe's expression resembled the face of an ambitious youth who had just learned of their terminal illness. As for Ureko, her eyes released a subtle glow that sent shivers through everyone present, Vahn included, as she darkly uttered, "I see...once we're finished here, I'll have you reveal the names of everyone involved in this scheme. It seems FUG has forgotten my previous warning about sticking their noses into my business..."
Though his power had increased exponentially since their last meeting, Vahn got the impression that Ureko was still far beyond him. Considering she was also a Tier 5 being, however, this wasn't all that surprising. She was likely the most powerful being in the entire Tower, and, were it not for the restrictions she had placed upon herself, the Empire might have already been destroyed.
Nodding his head in response to Ureko's words, Vahn was about to say something when a rather dangerous smile spread across the former's face. Then, like a glutton who had just happened upon an expansive buffet, her crimson tongue briefly parted her lips, moisturizing her vermillion border as she remarked, "You've gotten significantly stronger since our last meeting. I never expected you to actually defeat Joe. Handily at that..."
Feeling as though Ureko had suddenly become a giant predator gazing down upon him, a natural frown developed across Vahn's face as his draconic aura began to surge in response. This caused the glowing of her eyes to become even more vibrant, but, before things could escalate further, a hammer-like fist smacked into the back of her head, followed by the beauty at her side remarking, "If you don't hurry up and introduce me, don't blame me if I continue ignoring you."
Rubbing the back of her head, Ureko adopted a slightly apologetic look that better resembled a mischievous grin as she said, "No need to resort to violence. Besides, didn't I tell you before? Vahn knows everything he wants to know. Based on his reaction when we first arrived, he already knew we were coming. Much less your name, I bet he can accurately tell you all three of your sizes and the age you were when you stopped wetting the bed."
Raising her hand, Garam attempted to give Ureko another punch. This time, however, the latter easily evaded her fist, snickering playfully as she instantaneously appeared behind Vahn. This left Garam with an annoyed frown on her face, but, compared to the hatred that had appeared in Joe's eyes the moment he saw Ureko shielding herself behind Vahn, it was a relatively tame response...
(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Where all the shouting at?','*Casually evades lasers*','No secrets are safe from Loi-chan (O w O)...!')
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