Chapter 485 - 311: Next
"All Things... Return to Ruins..." Isabel murmured the name of this Secret Technique, her eyes filled with curiosity and a hint... of excitement.
She could feel the profound essence of the Law it contained.
...
「On the field.」
Inside the sphere of shadows, Naraku’s crimson pupils suddenly contracted to the size of a pinprick.
The moment the giant, dark-gold finger appeared—a finger that seemed capable of annihilating all existence—an endless fear washed over him like a torrent of ice water.
All his arrogance, all his disdain, was utterly crushed!
"NO—!!" Naraku let out a crazed roar, like a dying beast. "How could I lose to a crawler like you! Shadow Devour: Origin Burst!! BREAK!!"
Spurred on by extreme humiliation and indignation, Naraku dredged up every last ounce of his power.
The pierced sphere of shadows contracted violently as all its shadow energy frantically converged.
He attempted to coalesce it into a massive, pitch-black shield covered in spikes before the finger could reach him.
Runes of Law flashed erratically across the shield’s surface, emitting the tragic aura of mutual destruction.
It was the strongest defense he could muster, its power even a notch greater than his earlier attack.
However, before the All Things Return to Ruins Finger, it was all in vain.
The dark-gold finger carried with it the will to return all things to ruin.
It silently pressed against the newly formed, pitch-black shield.
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Only a heart-stopping dissolution and annihilation.
HISS... SZZZZZ...
Like a red-hot branding iron pressed into snow.
The giant shield—the culmination of all Naraku’s power, infused with the potent Law of shadow—
began to disintegrate at a visible rate. From the point of contact, it rapidly crumbled, shattered, dissolved into a stream of primordial particles, and then vanished completely.
The entire process was breathtakingly fast; the massive shield failed to hold for even an instant.
"NO—!!!" Naraku’s scream came to an abrupt halt.
Unstoppable, the dark-gold finger annihilated the shield and pressed, unimpeded, against Naraku’s body.
PFFT!
There was no room for resistance.
Naraku’s body, along with his Dark Cloak,
crumbled and disintegrated like a sandcastle before the will that returns all to ruin.
It dissolved into countless specks of light, vanishing from the Star Sea arena.
Not a single speck of dust remained.
Silence.
A deathly silence.
The entire Star Sea arena, along with the spectator area outside, fell into a moment of absolute stillness.
Everyone stared wide-eyed, watching in disbelief as the giant, dark-gold finger slowly faded away over the spot where Naraku had vanished completely.
...
With a flash of light, the system declared Li Wen victorious and teleported him from the arena back to his personal space.
He left behind a sea of incredulous stares.
Inside his personal space, Li Wen’s expression remained placid, as if the world-shaking finger attack had been nothing more than a casual gesture.
He immediately pulled up his status panel:
[You have completed one battle. Martial Artist EXP +10]
[Class: Martial Artist Lv. 7 (1120 → 1130 / 12800)]
’Not bad. Ten experience points for one fight. That’s much faster than training on my own.’ A hint of satisfaction flashed in Li Wen’s eyes as he watched the numbers on the panel tick up.
’Defeating an opponent of Naraku’s caliber really does yield a lot of experience.’
Without hesitation, he once again opened the interface for the Virtual Cosmos’s Extreme Martial Arena.
The long list of flashing challenge invitations appeared once more.
’Next.’ Li Wen’s gaze swept over the IDs, finally settling on a name that radiated a frenzied aura. ’King 2-Star... you’re up.’
With a light tap of his finger, he accepted the challenge.