Chapter 1538: Weakened
"... I see. You used the spirit aspect to move his spirit to the other body and avoid your death at the last moment. Still, why are you telling me this? Now I know what I have to do in order to avoid making another mistake."
"Well, the first reason is because I want to annoy you and the second reason is because I don’t need another countermeasure," Rain said. "This place wasn’t only made using the aspect of information and void. You can thank Arel for this."
Mechanical statues materialized in the corners of the dimension, and Lonos’ senses sharpened with a sudden sense of danger. Something was amiss in the very fabric of reality around him. The presence emanating from the statues sent shivers down his spine, a familiar yet unsettling sensation that he couldn’t ignore.
In disbelief, Lonos recognized the unmistakable aura of the machine gods: Loks, Hilo, Rais, and Arel. But they were supposed to be gone, destroyed in the battles of the past. Their return defied all logic and reason...
Even more alarming was the gradual erosion of his control over time, a phenomenon he had never experienced before. The once-steady flow of temporal energy faltered, wavering like a flickering flame in the wind. Lonos’s grip on the fabric of reality slipped, leaving him vulnerable and exposed to the machinations of unseen forces.
"You relinquished their power... in order to just weaken me?"
"Incorrect," Rain said while he was cracking his knuckles. "I just transferred their knowledge to some relics that would have their knowledge but not their will. With the aspect of information, the relic will analyze your techniques further. With the aspect of the void, the relic will weaken your own aspect little by little. With the aspect of space, you will be locked here, and with the aspect of energy, all of those effects will remain active for as long as necessary."
Lonos could understand now why Rain looked confident... while the minor aspects alone couldn’t compare to the high ones, together, they could do that much. To make matters worse, there was no way out of that situation without killing Rain since the red star was relatively nearby, and he should have used his doppelgangers to gather as much energy as possible from it. The perfect plan is to counter Lonos and force him to reveal his tricks as soon as possible or force him to get weaker a little bit at a time.
"Do you really think that this put us on the same level? Even without the time aspect, I still can..."
"By the way, this is only the first level of my trap. Let’s see if you are good enough to force me to use the next levels."
Lonos’s anger boiled like a tempest within him, fueled by Rain’s audacity to challenge his authority. The words echoed in his mind, a mocking reminder of their first encounter when Rain had dared to defy him. It was infuriating to see Rain adopt the same defiant stance once again as if he held the upper hand in their conflict.