From the first week of the tutorial to this day, the eye of annihilation had improved a lot. At first he could at most see the enemy’s weak spots and mana flow. Now, he could ‘see’ the threads of laws with his bare eyes.
This wouldn’t have been possible if not for his experience during blood fusion. He had seen these white threads for the first time when he was eating the burrow rat king’s soul. Thanks to the right direction it gave, he was now able to see the scene in front of him–albeit temporarily.
Zyrus had guessed long ago that these threads were maintained by the system. He had to sever them in order to capture Pugalo while maintaining his source of existence.
‘But that…is impossible.’
He knew that he wouldn’t have such power unless he worked hard for another thousand years. And even if he succeeded, who’s to say that Pugalo wouldn’t go out of control? In the end the flag’s authority was also maintained by the system.
So instead of severing these threads, he had to manipulate them by using his 13 curses of void and Numen’s ability.
‘Instead of fighting, it’s more like performing a surgery…’
He had to accomplish this task in just 10 seconds–otherwise he could only appoint a husk of Pugalo as the watcher.
[Curse of Collapse]
Zyrus couldn’t affect the threads with his power, but what about the space around them? he used the curse of collapse to contract all of the threads near the center of Pugalo.
‘This was the easy part,’
[Curse of Nothingness]
[Curse of Uncertainty]
Next up, he used the following two curses simultaneously. In the slow-motion vision of his eyes, he saw dozens of chains pop out and bind the area where the threads connected with Pugalo.
Curse of nothingness had a two-pronged ability. First, to erase the part bound by shackles, and second, to erase one’s mental strength or willpower.
At the same time, the curse of uncertainty allowed him to bypass the threads' domain and directly attack the parts they were connected to.
If we take a puppet as an analogy– then this process was similar to binding the strings that were controlling the puppet and then destroying the puppet’s parts which were connected to the strings.
Of course, the difficulty was much greater. Pugalo was after all a mighty being and not a mere puppet. Not to mention that the system’s power influenced its very source of existence.
‘Phew…3 seconds left,’
Zyrus took a deep breath and focused with all his willpower. The last and final step was the most crucial.
To put it bluntly, whatever he had done so far hadn’t affected the threads at all. He was simply nudging them here and there to place them in the desired location. Now, he had to sever the puppet and at the same time, bind it with new threads and attach those threads to the old ones.
There were three tasks to be done in the final step. Destroying Pugalo’s source of existence would mean its total annihilation. The threads would detach from it on their own when that happened.
[Curse of Oblivion]
This was the first time Zyrus was extending the quantum field outside of his body. Rather than any offensive ability, what he needed was something that could ‘deceive’ the system into thinking that Pugalo was dead.
‘Here goes nothing,’
He extended the field upon every point where the threads were connected. The curse of uncertainty paved the road for the other two curses.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Curse of Oblivion used a concept similar to wave interference. Just like how waves could erase one another at certain frequency, he created virtual particles to erase the energy field created by the threads.
At the same instant when there was a momentary boundary between the threads and Pugalo, he used the curse of nothingness to erase those parts.
[Congratulations! You have defeated the Guardian of the Farmlands: Pugalo]
[Congratulations! You have earned the achievement: He who slays the Fallen (A)]
[…]
‘Eureka!’
Zyrus barely held in the impulse to cheer out loud. Pugalo had still over 25% of his health left, and yet, it was deemed dead by the system. He knew that this was just temporary as the field created by him could at most fool the system for a brief moment.
‘And that brief moment is all I need…’
He ignored the surge of exp and reward messages and used the last bits of his mana to activate the flag’s authority–Numen.
<-< Detected a special lifeform! Would you like to use the authority ‘Numen’? >->
-Yes/No
Zyrus didn’t hesitate and clicked Yes. In the next instance, Pugalo’s ‘corpse’ crumbled into dark particles.
*ROOOOOOAAR*
‘Ugh- sure enough, I knew it’d come to this,’
Zyrus held his throbbing head and looked at the black whirlwind that was forming at the center of the farm. Unlike when he used the authority on Camazotz, there were two big differences this time. First, there was no medium to appoint the watcher– and second, Pugalo’s willpower was intact along with 30% of his life energy!
But Zyrus was already prepared for this. To solve the first issue, he was always working on using his summons as totems since the start of the flag march. Now was the perfect time to put the theories he came up with into practice.
And as for the second, it was even easier.
‘I just have to disperse its remaining energy and subdue its will,’
Create Dusk. ATK +100, Agility +5 for all allies and summons. You can use the skills [Vesper’s Blessing], [Nocturne], and [Erebus] at Dusk.
Vesper’s Blessing (Passive): Activates if Shadows are visible behind your enemy. You can link your attacks with the enemy’s shadows at 80% power.
Nocturne: Veil the ground in shadows for one minute. Ignore defense by 50%, increase weakness damage by 20%.
Erebus (Passive): Create halo spears for every enemy you have attacked. The spears will attack at random with 1-5% of your power. They are invulnerable as long as the skill is active.
Duration: 30 minutes
CD: 1 day
Zyrus activated Nocturne and Rage of the Jotunn at the same time. The entire farm was engulfed in dark grey shadows that bound the howling whirlwind. At the same time, his gauntlets glowed with starry radiance as he channeled his recovered mana.
Pugalo didn’t have a specific physical form at the moment, so its entire body was skin to its weakness. Rage of the Jotunn that built stacks after hitting weak spots and increased critical damage was perfect at a time like this.
Zyrus didn’t use any skills and just relied on the basic combo of Slash, Thrust, and Sweep to deal with the miniature whirlwind.
*Roooooar*
There weren’t any damage numbers or flashy effects of his skills, but he knew that he was dealing damage in five digits with every move. Pugalo’s energy became more and more hazy, and at the same time, a foreign will started to invade his consciousness.
‘I have a lot of good abilities already….I'd better focus on building a proper combat system to utilize all of them…’
*Scatter*
The whirlwind burst apart like a firecracker and spread across the entire 100 km radius. Be it the players who were busy defending their ships or the monsters who were attacking in droves, everyone was forced to stop after seeing this sight.
The dark particles were in a stark contrast against the evening sky. It was akin to looking at the night sky filled with dead stars.
“Go back.” Zyrus sent off Elsid and Zirnitra and beckoned the scattered amargs to the center.
This was the last thing he could do before both his consciousness and his source of origin were invaded by Pugalo.
…
“Lost your temper after dying huh.”
Wills of Zyrus and Pugalo stood face to face in his consciousness. Even though both of them were incredibly strong in their past, this was an unfamiliar yet fascinating experience for them.
“What now? Will you submit or are you trying to take over my will?”
Indeed, once his powers of void went out of control, both he and everything connected to him would be erased from existence.
“Submit then.”
Zyrus was once again surprised as he looked into Pugalo’s eyes. Compared to the blazing fireballs he saw before, the ones in front of him were nothing but dying embers.
“Don’t you think what I accomplished just before was amazing? I dare say I might be the one and only being who could use such unorthodox methods.”
He wasn’t just tooting his own horn. His achievement had a great impact on not only his but the entire sanctuary’s future. For the first time since the sanctuary was created, someone had figured out a method to subdue the field bosses.
Even if he died in the middle of his journey, Zyrus would leave the deepest marks in the sanctuary.
“I know.”
Pugalo stepped forward and pointed his straw finger at Zyrus’s forehead. No further words were needed in the realm of consciousness.
“A test huh, bring it on then,” Zyrus chuckled and bent his head forward.