CHAPTER 121: THE INDOMITABLE LADY

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  "..."

  The memories that weren't even hers began to play in her mind, like an orchestra that nobles from across the time enjoyed greatly in their leisure.

  These memories replaying in her mind weren't exactly hers, but they were the memories of her master when she was less than a decade old.

  Her feature at this time wasn't like her usual aloof self that took the appearance of the emperor of the night, it was the appearance of an ordinary merfolk with its childlike innocence.

  Her gills could be seen in the open, her elongated ears were curved beautifully with a mole accentuating her beauty.

  Her amber eyes glowed with childlike excitement, while her resplendent hazel hair flowed gently in the open air as... something that resembled a... constellation that brimmed with light shining radiantly in the currentless space that was called air.

  "..."

  This unknown world that unfolded in her eyes was truly mesmerizing for her, a person who hadn't experienced what the surface was like, or what the sun looked like.

  Nor did she know the cool breeze of the wind, since all she could feel in these abyssal depths was the emptiness of the world.

  While it was beautiful, still, she preferred the radiant light of the sun that soothed her skin rather than this empty darkness of the abyss.

  In these memories did she truly find the beauty of the world above them.

  The books that she had read about the quest of thousands of adventurers, rearing to be the first to discover the world above this endless depth of the abyss, ended in failure.

  They couldn't reach the surface before their bodies would undergo a transformation that was dangerous to those who live in the abyss.

  This illness was called the Curse of the Abyss, since beings born in the depth of the abyss wouldn't be able to last in the surface world, since that very world lacks the pressure that the abyss had.

  In the past, the notion of reaching the surface where the unknown lay was a notion that she didn't entertain, since it was basically an impossible feat to achieve.

  But now that she discovered that her master had reached this place that most life in the abyss deemed impossible, ambition filled her existence.

  She knew that it was foolish, but she herself couldn't stop herself but be curious.

  Would she herself, a creature of the abyss, be embraced by the warm constellation hanging in the sky in its every waking hour?

  It was a dream that she longed for.

  "I... I-I want to experience the life of those who live in the surface... To be embraced by the blazing constellation hanging in the sky would be the greatest honor that I, a life in the deepest part of the abyss, would receive."

  Her voice was extremely soft, just like the whispers of the wind.

  It was melodic to listen to, the quality of her voice was angelic, to the point where I would gladly give up everything just to listen to her whispering sweet nothings in my ear.

  It was wonderful.

  But sadly, I could hear the slight tremor in her vocals as I felt it, her intent, longing for something unattainable.

  I smiled at this discovery, then took a step, then another, as the construct where my core lay vanished without any trace, along with Tellus who was fused with me.

  Fwoosh!

  I smiled like I always did.

  A relic that looked like a hammer, shaped from dirt, formed with the earth all around and materialized in my grip.

  Then, with a forceful swing, the hammer vanished from sight as it violently hammered one hundred thousand tons of force on the cloudy armor of Cecilia, creating a powerful shockwave exploding on her back.

  I could feel it in my sandy grip, her insides, residing inside that tough cloudy armor of hers, tremored violently from that single exchange.

  I looked around, then noticed the sediments slowly rising from the ground, just like what I had intended to do since the beginning.

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  I'd noticed her presence.

  It wasn't my intent to fight her in an open field, since this fragile sandy construct of mine would be destroyed in a single punch of hers, and creating a bigger and tougher construct would only unnecessarily waste my mana.

  So I did what was more logical in my situation, limit her into only defending from my attacks inside of this smokescreen that I created.

  I did it without using a single point of mana, since creating it and maintaining it along with my sandy construct would increase my chance of defeat against her.

  I want this battle to be a battle of attrition, where I will use the stinger tactic, stinging her like a bee until this brilliant beetle crumbles from the poison of my stinger.

  Fwoosh... Fwoosh...

  I knew that she had already gotten some clues about my strategy to defeat her when I had decisively hit her with a hammer to generate a force impressive enough to create a smokescreen.

  Cecilia was smirking underneath her turtle shell as she took a defensive stance to entertain this, my brilliant plan.

  In response to her provocation, I merely smirked, then gripped the hammer harder as I rammed it into her cloudy armor with a consistent force of a hundred thousand tons in every strike that I unleashed.

  In response to my attacks, Cecilia merely shrugged her neck, then stamped her feet on the ground with the force equivalent to a zen, or a million tons, sending the smokescreen all around us dispersing.

  She then shouted.

  "Is this all you amount to?! Even that damned lizard would strike harder than this!"

  Her voice, laced with arrogance, echoed sharply.

  And I, hearing her words, stopped all of my activities and coldly glanced at her, straight in the eye.

  "..."

  I wasn't angered that she was telling me that my strikes were not enough... but to dare and compare me to a mere lizard...

  That was unacceptable.

  It was infuriating that I was being compared to a mere lizard just because I was making this battle into a battle of attrition.

  "I see... then pardon me for not going all out earlier..."

  The atmosphere around us began to dampen with coldness as I slowly took a step forward, then another toward her.

  I cracked my sandy neck, then muttered coldly.

  "Fallen Lord Descension..."

  Creaaak...

  Time itself seemed to stop as an insurmountable pressure descended into the mortal realm.

  It was an extremely twisted pressure, one that was far worse than what an emperor could let out.

  Cecilia clenched her fist, feeling disgusted at this twisted presence that screamed that it didn't belong in this place.

  Then her eyelids twitched as she saw the folds of reality, which were without any tremor, twist slightly.

  She was spooked at this scene.

  But before she could recompose herself, those very folds of reality warped in a more violent manner, like something astral had pinched the folds... and forcefully twisted them into its liking.

  It was a bizarre sight to behold, even more so to her who didn't know that something like this was even possible.

  But before she could even catch her breath, the sound of glass shattering on impact screeched through the surroundings.

  What she saw was beyond what she could comprehend.

  She saw it, that fever-inducing scene where reality was shattered into pieces, bleeding.

  It was bizarre that reality itself would bleed.

  But what's more bizarre was that a pair of gauntlets materialized from the tear in reality.

  Then they hovered before her opponent, who glanced at her coldly... then took a step as he vanished into nothingness.

  Her mind went completely blank from the incomprehensible things that she had seen today.

  It was unbelievable that reality itself could be broken into pieces like glass shattering when pressured.

  Then, what's more confusing was the appearance of a gauntlet.

  She could understand it if it was something constructed from mana, but to her surprise, she couldn't feel any mana in these gauntlets.

  Nor could she see the intents that wove these gauntlets into existence.

  It was weird, as if these very gauntlets were some living entity that was separated from the one that summoned them...

  "..."

  Then something filthy and otherworldly, foreign, invaded her essence.

  She could feel it her memories were being tweaked and... something was being removed from them...

  "Huh? What was I thinking again...? Oh, I was just thinking of how to deal with that guy! Oh, where is he?!"

  I smiled at the symptoms that were starting to appear in her intents, since it was something that I am quite familiar with.

  I had experienced it a couple of times from the 'Fallen' that brought me into the space of nothingness.

  It was the 'Fallen' method to defend their existence, by forcefully tweaking the memories of those who know of their existence, forcefully extracting their memories, and forging a new one that will fill that gap.

  It was this meticulous nature of theirs that allowed them to stay hidden in the grand picture of the multiverse, where the 'Mother of All' and the 'Supreme Heavenly Dao' monitor this reality without sparing any resources.

  Escaping their watchful eyes is impossible... if you weren't the 'Fallen,' who not only escaped their surveillance but also planted an unknown number of seeds into the vast multiverse to put their grand plan into motion.

  And that is, to let the Apogee descend into the folds of reality.

  I glanced at the gauntlets that had slithered down onto my arms, encasing them with their nearly invincible durability while also increasing the strength of the flesh.

  But it was useless right now, since I am nothing but a mere construct of sand.

  But maybe... if I played my cards right, just maybe I could increase the power of my strike by half a zen.

  That is equivalent to five hundred thousand tons of force.

  It was a theory worth trying out because it would be a game changer if it succeeded.

  And if it doesn't, then that's that, just a mere theory worth pondering about.

  I shook my hands, then took another step, then another step, with each of my steps increasing my speed by a leap.

  Then, slowly, I infused my arms with more sand and shifted Tellus, which had turned into an armor, toward my arm to further increase the weight of my strike.

  I could guess how silent he is right now, he was still bitter that I let Solia suffer like that a few months ago.

  He was only observing me without speaking a single word, and I see no need for his loudmouth babbling about the fool he is, since he wouldn't understand my intent right now.

  'Now, let's stop babbling like a little girl and unleash my strongest strike that I could muster right now.'

  I smirked, then took another step forward, then leaped into the empty air like a mighty jaguar jumping for its prey.

  I gripped my hammer with all of my strength as I calmed myself.

  Then I leaped again from the platform that I made using the sediment I had generated from all of the running earlier, as I flew toward her like a meteor hitting the world.

  "THE SECOND ZEN OF DISTORTION: FALLEN AUTHORITY: HAMMER OF OBLIVION."

  SCREEEEEECH!