Chapter 27: Elements of nature (VI)

  Aether, an element which was recognized by the ancient people, though has been rejected by modern science and sociologies, it holds somewhat an interesting mystery for being related with the discovery of the ancient people. It was stated to associate with gods and holiness as I once randomly searched on the [__] in my old world.

  The space where my sword displayed was distorted as it was due to Jastine’s sixth element, which is Aether. The katana wasn’t bent of its physical form, but the space was bent to not reach Jastine’s body.

  Thus, the katana still remained unharmed. The space, the tip of the sword nearly reach to Jastine’s back, was warped still. Then, the remark disappeared as Jastine disabled his manipulating ability to that specific coordinate. The authority of Jastine which gives him the ability to convert mere shading elements into real objects wasn’t trifling. However, the reveal of the sixth element had elevated more danger and anxiety to the witnesses than his authority.

  No sooner in the next upcoming moments than he shall create something from aether; I guess its ability would twist the space where it goes or beyond my imaginations depending on what Jastine pulled next.

  Jastine: “I don’t want to use this but you’ve pushed me to this point, Kinter. I can’t imagine a day where I have to use it again.”

  He couldn’t use any elements to avoid himself from the katana from reaching him owing to I’ve enhanced the katana with magic particle energy to counter his magic particle energy. How did I do that? It was because I was in sync with him. Magic particle energy could nullify each other as well as could synchronize with each other. Instead of trying to nullify his magic particle energy, I tried to synchronize with his energy.

  When unleash something that uses magic particle energy, some of the particle would pervade into the environment. Because of that, I had collected and absorbed them via atomic manipulation. There’s an inevitable concept in most magic-related stories when trying to synchronize with others who have different vibrations, it would consequently make the person claim side effects that are usually battling and negative to their well-being. However, atomic manipulation allows me to break through the limiting barrier. As long as it’s something related to atoms, I won’t have any problems in trying to synchronize with others and side effects via magic particle energy because magic particle energy consists of atoms itself.

  So that was how I guaranteed my attacks could inflict damage on him.

  “As you should.”

  Jastine: “Maybe I’ve underestimated your intuition and your fighting capabilities. I should be more serious right now. If I lose to you…I no longer have the right to meet my sister.”

  “No! I guarantee that your sister doesn’t want you to do this! She certainly just wants you to cut down the bond between you and the five gods you say. Generally, she just wants you to know that you and her were betrayed and that the gods you’re obeying aren’t well-mannered and good as you think!”

  With the assertion exclaimed, a gleam of astonishment was displayed on his face. Then, his face shifted back to the usual with his eyes furrowing down and his face showed no emotions other than frustration.

  Jastine: “Bloody bastard! At this rate, you still try to deceive me with such unreasonable evidence?”

  Seemingly, there was no way to convince the unbearable Jastine with his contemplations and obedience towards the five gods he served so long. His trust and expectations of the five gods from him were unshakeable, the only way could sullen his trust was to show him the time when Julia was disappearing in her dimension. But, that idea was left behind because there was no archive. The only one who witnessed it was me who just wanted to know where my sister was.

  Just as I asserted before, the only way to negotiate with someone who’s absolutely obedient to their boss is to use brute force.

  Hence, I’ll force him to the corner.

  “If I push you to the corner, you would have to agree with what I said.”

  Simple and plain, no need to be roundabout. Was it what you want, Jastine?

  Jastine: “...”

  “Answer me! This is the type of thing you desire, right? Fighting like a man, and then, shall give up yourself if you lose. Is what I said correct? Fighting to see who may assert dominance on another, are you that type of person? Savage and wild?”

  Because of his behaviors, I guessed the type of person he is based on real life and shows that were from the old world. The type of person I’m referring to was the type of the person whom likes to assert dominance on others by showing they’re more superior. That was why Jastine was the one I thought was similar in attributes.

  And to make him bow, I shall beat him and make him admit his defeat. So there won’t be any more suffering for him if I lose. Besides, my win may make him open and consider what I said.

  All was for the good of him. If he could read my mind, he would understand what I said earlier wasn’t false. However, it remained a wish that didn’t come true.

  Jastine: “What are you saying just now?”

  “Did you not hear me? Are you deaf all of a sudden?”

  A casual look once again was displayed on his face.

  Jastine: “I don’t have to bring myself up to answer those queries for a blasphemer like you, you cunning bastard.”

  “Yeah, no expectations either.”

  No responses for the queries nor hesitation, the malicious Jastine rushed to me with an incredible speed just like the first time. Instead of claws, he held a katana just like me on his right hand. It was a katana, he swung the enchanted katana toward my face, a trail of white fire appeared from the motion.

  Dodged

  I somersaulted back and evaded the swing, I bursted the ground and leapt toward him with the swing in motion to strike down. The motionless Jastine held his sword up horizontally, my katana clashed with Jastine's katana. Hence, the clashing sound echoed and reverberated, the force pushed Jastine down to the ground hard and created fissures. Jastine pushed out my katana, and he ran to me and swung down. I parried, then he gave a round punch with his left, I leaped back and performed a round kick.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Jastine dodged to the side, then he turned his body around and his katana was also in motion with the momentum. The katana swung at my face, when it nearly reached my right ear, I crouched down and avoided the strike. Then, my leg swung and my body turned three hundred and sixty degrees along with it. The purpose was to make him fall.

  However, Jastine saw that and did a hippy jump avoiding the swing. Along with the motion, he did a front flip, the katana was also in motion for slashing down. He slashed down, I immediately somersaulted back. As he was thinking what to pull next, a sudden shake in the environment occurred. I disappeared in front of him, and instead, teleported behind him. The tip of the katana was going to thrust him, suddenly, a distortion of space occurred.

  Jastine: “Think that you could shake my emotions for your own goods? You cunning human.”

  The role was exchanged, he stood behind my back. The katana in his right hand thrust at my exposing back. As the tip of the sword nearly accomplished its purpose, I quickly tilted my body to the side, I turned back and countered by thrusting at his abdomen at a sonic speed.

  Jastine: “!.”

  Jastine hastily leaped back afar, his trunk was bent due to the muscle contraction and that evaded the vicious thrust.

  The medieval knight’s sonic reaction was taken in place.

  “Don’t you dare to think I was as before after that first ‘death’, Jastine.”

  The mechanism of Jastine’s teleportation earlier was the bent of space that allowed him to displace from the original position to the targeted destination. The space he manipulated was compacting to the extent that it was like you only took two or three steps to go there whilst it took more than that in reality. To be more specific, the phenomenon was similar to alpha jump.

  Jastine: “I see, there must be something that happened when you concealed your death, and you also have time reversing ability. I wonder why you didn't use it earlier on me?”

  Because I just wanted to take a rest, accidentally and coincidentally, I went to the domain without knowing anything. And because of that, I was stronger than before.

  “Why would I answer your questions? Go find the answers by yourself, even though they could be incorrect.”

  Jastine: “Then, I won’t need to.”

  Jastine stumped his right palm down to the ground, many spikes made of the same materials with the ground popped up in turn. He was manipulating earth to perform the attack, the spikes popped up in turn and spread further and further. Of course, the spikes were also reaching for me, meanwhile I concentrated strength into the swing to cut all of them at once.

  When it was enough, I struck down. Three of the yellow crescent arc radiations traveled in a different direction as one traveled in the middle, one traveled left and vice versa at high speed and fluttered rocks and debrises on its way. The spikes popping up were washed away, the middle one was aiming at Jastine.

  Jastine: “Three way strikes huh. That’s impressive. But they all travel in a straight line. The space you left were still myriad for spikes to pop up.”

  Like what Jastine said, there were still a myriad of spikes popping up from the space that wasn’t in the radiation range. The sharp spikes tumultuously approached in turn, if one would stay motionless, a subterranean spike will stab the individual from below. Just imagining that could already make me feel irritated and nauseated.

  The middle radiation nearly reached Jastine, he distorted the space in front him. The effect caused the radiation to go diagonally but I was aiming further than that. Subsequently, the middle radiation went back to its track that was going straight to Jastine initially. The radiation from the left shifted itself to go right and vice versa for the radiation from the right. There was a point in which I set so three radiations would go there. Comprehensively, the spikes popping up were in the domain of the radiation as all three radiations met.

  A yellowish light glowed up the domain, the space that hadn't been covered was filled with yellow hue. As for the next moment, a yellowish fluctuating beam from the domain shot up to the sky, everything in it was evaporating and annihilated. Consequently, the spikes were washed. As for Jastine, it was unknown if he was being the same.

  But, with his space manipulating ability, Jastine remained unharmed as the distortion around him had covered him from blowing up. The incorporeal dimension had Jastine in it, a blurred defensive shield was what had rescued him from being washed away with the explosive magical attack.

  Jastine: “You know the reason why I’m a lone wolf myself? It was because of this holy ability that had put me among the holy figures. You won’t be able to kill me as long as I still have Aether.”

  “...”

  Jastine: “Kinter, do you know about Zeno’s paradox? When you want to reach someone or something, you have to go half of the distance. But when reaching the point, you have to go half of that half distance you had just reached. That repeats infinitely and you would never reach the object. It sounds dumb, isn’t it?”

  “So what do you want to emphasize?”

  Jastine: “Nothing, it’s just that I remembered the ancient times of the world when everything was still primitive. But as time goes on, new valid theories come up and knowledge broadens. Atoms and space were what had been discovered in recent centuries. I find them interesting and have a tendency to mix between ancient and modern. I heard Aether in ancient times but I don’t have a good look about it because it was too vague, there can’t be an element besides five elements of nature that are fire, water, earth, wind and lightning. But when atoms and space were explained briefly by the recent centuries, I discovered this power within me. It was a coincidence when I put a lot of weight in trying to punch a powerful opponent that I had fought in the past.”

  When putting a lot of weight into something, the space would bend. That was what Jastine was trying to convey, I guess.

  Jastine: “That’s all I want to say. Now bring it on!”

  “...”

  The flying prayer appeared left to Jastine afar, he concentrated energy into his left palm and shot out a purple beam toward Jastine. Simultaneously, the non-existent dragon rushed to Jastine from the right with its katana. The non-existent dragon raised its sword up high and slashed down when it nearly reached Jastine. When two malicious attacks were aiming and going at him, Jastine stood still and watched as everything was in slow motion.

  Space distortion occurred, the purple beam was going roundabout and went up to the purple skylines. The beam shot out from the prayer was fused with Jastine’s magic particle energy, so it could synchronize with his magic and go through his automatic defensive magic barrier. The non-existent dragon’s sword was done the same so the weapon could pierce through Jastine’s magical barrier. But still, everything was stopped as he had brought out his trump card, Aether, to neutralize attacks going at him.

  Jastine: “It’s my turn now.”

  The space where the non-existent dragon struck down was warped, the non-existent dragon’s intention wasn’t going that way but the warp made it strike down the ground next to Jastine and due to the momentum, it couldn’t stop its action earlier. Ultimately, Jastine put tremendous strength into his right hand that grasped the non-existent dragon’s neck. Then, with the katana in his left hand, Jastine performed a slash, aiming at the neck, in an instant.

  The sweet cut decapitated the non-existent dragon and made it headless. Additionally, the fierce white fire characteristic burned the dragon until there’s nothing left of it. Thus, one comrade had been slaughtered.

  Jastine: “One down.”

  I rushed to him with a dagger just created, Jastine remained silent as he watched me approaching him closer and closer, closer and closer…

  Jastine: “...”

  I and the prayer switched position, the prayer took the role rushing to him whilst I took his position floating in the air. Then, we both commenced to launch attacks that were already in our head.

  The prayer: “Aura’s second technique: Burst of radiation.”

  The prayer’s voice echoed as it was like there was a background voice carrying the same sound in it. As a summoning, he had lost his voice and his body owing to the defeat in the past leading to his demise. His existence at that period of time was his soul from being summoned.

  The radiation from the prayer bursted out like a shockwave as smoke was also traveling on its way. The purple radiation traveled to Jastine with smoke that contained dirt, rocks and debrises in it. Consequently, it concealed vision to look what was behind the smoke like a mist coming to him. The radiation shook the dimension, even I who stood afar also felt the quake.

  Simultaneously, while floating in the air, I threw the dagger from my right hand toward where Jastine was standing. I installed lightning characteristics into the dagger and enhanced the dagger with my magic particle energy, the dagger flew at the speed that reached the speed of the flash toward him. A yellow trail appeared on the way it was traveling. But not only that…

  When the dagger was launched, there appeared countless daggers emerging from the original one. With these countless clones of the dagger, the attack was definitely a range type. And with both attacks from different directions launching at him, Jastine distorted the space around him.

  The daggers coming down like a stream toward where he stood as some was bounced off its direction due to the space distortion. Nevertheless, some of the daggers were going straight down to the ground. Because of its force, the dirt fluttered up, and with many of these, it created a large smoke covering up Jastine’s surroundings and concealed his vision.

  Jastine: “No such thing could go against Aether.”

  “Yes, some could.”

  Jastine: “!?”

  A shadowy trail traveling in a zig zag way approached Jastine as its existence was just to pierce through him.

  Jastine: “Foolish! You think that it could…”

  Nonetheless, the dark trails went through the distortion of space. Albeit it was being blocked initially, but then, the dark trail pushed through and went against Jastine.

  Jastine: “Impossible! There’s no such thing that could go through Aether!”

  Jastine dodged by tilting his body to the side in revelation. However, the blind spot was his back, there lay a surprise that Jastine didn’t take into account. It was Luisana, a Korean-like girl. Luisana launched her attack that was a purely dark trail traveling in a zig zag way toward Jastine. Didn’t even notice or couldn’t react in time, the dark trail went through the barrier, then it pierced through Jastine’s heart. Jastine was coughing crimson blood, the crimson blood from the wound rushing down like lines then decelerated dyed the white outfit with its crimson red color.

  Jastine knelt down as he was suffering in agony.

  * * *