Chapter 218: The Monk’s Transformation.
Kael met the monk’s confused gaze and let a cold smile creep across his face.
"This is the Way of the Buddha, buddy."
The moment the words left his mouth, the monk’s serene mask cracked.
For a long moment, nothing happened. The monk simply stood there, his closed eyes seemingly fixed upon Kael. Then, for the first time since he had arrived on the floor, those eyes opened.
They were golden.
Brilliant golden irises burned beneath his brows, carrying a radiance that could have made them appear almost divine under different circumstances.
But there was nothing calm about them now. They blazed fervent, alight with the zeal of a man whose entire world had just been insulted.
"You dare!"
The monk’s voice dropped into a furious roar, the warmth that had always accompanied his words completely gone.
"You, who wades through blood and butchery, dare speak the Buddha’s name in mockery?"
Kael stared at him.
He was genuinely surprised.
He hadn’t expected the monk to become this angry. Earlier, Kael had literally told him to fuck the Buddha, and the man hadn’t reacted nearly this violently.
Kael couldn’t help shaking his head.
What do you expect from people who shave their heads bald all the time?
Probably cooked away half their brain cells with all that sunlight.
It explained a lot, actually.
The monk seemed to interpret Kael’s silence as another form of provocation.
His lips thinned.
Without another word, his hands reached for the front of his robes.
RRRIP!
He tore them apart.
The charcoal and saffron fabric fell open, revealing what had been hidden beneath.
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
There wasn’t much skin visible.
The monk’s entire body was covered in talismans.
Hundreds of them.
They were attached directly to his flesh, layered across his chest, abdomen, shoulders, arms, and even parts of his neck. Each talisman was covered in swirling, ink-black scripture, the strange characters twisting across the paper like living things.
A faint, malevolent light pulsed from every single one.
The peaceful monk from earlier had disappeared.
What stood before Kael now looked like a walking ritual.
"You dare speak so lowly of the Way of the Buddha?"
The monk’s golden eyes burned.
"Then witness its might."
Kael’s brows immediately furrowed.
The atmosphere had changed.
He could feel it.
The fight was about to become serious.
He wasn’t wrong.
The monk’s hands suddenly moved.
His fingers formed one hand seal after another, moving so quickly that Kael could barely follow them. Each gesture was precise, almost ritualistic, and the talismans covering his body began to glow brighter as energy flowed through the strange scriptures.
The monk’s hands finally stopped.
He slapped his own chest.
"Strength Talisman: Mount Meru."
BOOM!
The monk’s body changed.
His muscles suddenly expanded beneath the talismans, bunching together like cords of steel. His frame grew heavier, denser, and more imposing as an overwhelming physical pressure erupted from his body.
CRACK!
The earth beneath his feet fractured. Kael’s eyes sharpened.
The monk didn’t stop. His fingers moved through another rapid sequence of hand signs before his palms slammed against his legs.
"Speed Talisman: Wind-Treader."
WHOOOM!
The air around the monk’s legs exploded.
Wind spiraled around his ankles, rapidly forming miniature cyclones that howled across the battlefield. His robes whipped violently behind him as the pressure around his body increased once again.
Kael’s expression became increasingly serious.
Then the monk formed another set of hand seals.
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
Again?
The monk’s hands finally moved behind him.
He slapped his back.
"Wing Talisman: Garuda’s Ascent."
The response was immediate.
Golden light erupted from the monk’s shoulder blades.
Two massive wings materialized behind him, spreading outward with a brilliant radiance. Each feather looked like a razor-sharp blade forged from condensed golden light, hundreds of them extending from the enormous wings as they slowly unfurled.
The monk’s feet left the ground as he began to rise, and Kael stared upward, waiting.
Then a sound echoed through the battlefield, a deep gong that didn’t merely travel through the air but shook Kael’s body from within. His organs trembled, his bones vibrated, and the entire battlefield seemed to resonate as another deep toll followed the first.
Kael’s face twitched as he looked up at the floating monk.
"Well, now I’m fucked."
Perhaps he should have kept his mouth shut earlier.
The thought barely finished forming before the monk moved, his arm extending, his hand opening, as a massive golden Buddha materialized behind him.
The apparition was enormous, its body filling the sky above the battlefield as golden light poured across the ruined landscape. Its expression was solemn and immovable, while one colossal hand rose behind the monk.
The monk’s palm began to descend.
The Buddha’s palm followed.
Kael’s pupils contracted.
The pressure hit him before the attack even arrived.
CRACK!
The ground beneath his feet fractured.
The earth began sinking inward, cracks spreading outward in the shape of a gigantic palm. The pressure pressing down on Kael’s body was immense. His bones screamed beneath it, his muscles tightening as though an invisible mountain had been dropped onto his shoulders.
His armor creaked.
Kael didn’t hesitate. He activated Shadow Between Steps, and in the next moment, his body slipped into the void.
Reality folded around him.
For an instant, Kael disappeared from the battlefield entirely.
Then he emerged fifteen meters to the side.
The enormous golden palm came down.
BOOOOOOM!
The earth exploded.
A crater roughly a hundred feet wide erupted where Kael had been standing, the shockwave blasting chunks of earth and pulverized bone outward. Everything within the palm’s impact zone was crushed into nothingness, leaving behind a massive imprint that resembled the hand of some colossal deity.
Kael didn’t stay to admire it.
His body was already moving.
At the same time, his Aura of Destruction expanded.
The invisible erosion that had previously been compressed into a ten-meter radius suddenly erupted outward.
Ten meters became twenty.
Twenty became thirty.
The aura spread across the battlefield like an invisible tide, silently consuming everything caught within its range.
The monk, who had previously escaped the aura by remaining airborne, suddenly found himself within its reach once again.
His expression darkened.
He glanced toward his wounded side.
The deterioration had resumed.
"How annoying."
The monk folded his golden wings.
Then he dove.
His body dropped from the sky like a meteor.
The Speed Talisman blazed.
The golden wings folded tightly against his back, streamlining his descent as the air screamed around him.
Kael’s eyes sharpened. His fingers extended immediately as he activated Meteor Bullet.
Compressed earth energy erupted from his fingertips, one shot after another tore through the air toward the descending monk with enough force to pierce through steel.
The monk twisted.
His body shifted through the gaps between the projectiles with impossible precision.
One bullet passed beside his shoulder.
Another tore through empty space beneath his arm.
A third grazed his robe while the rest missed entirely.
Kael’s expression hardened as the monk kept falling, gaining speed with every passing second.
His golden wings remained folded behind him as the Speed Talisman drove his body downward like a falling star.
He extended his arm, opening his hand and aiming his palm directly at Kael’s chest.