I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 421 Inevitable Defeat

After Aurus asked him if they wanted their fight to continue, Wilhelm could not help but let out a light chuckle, having a better impression of the being in front of him. Nevertheless, as the being in front of him was a crucial part of something the king of the Seraph Kingdom wanted to, that did not mean that he would slack off in his duty.

With that in mind, he distanced himself from Aurus, allowing him to tap into copious amounts of energy that existed in the surroundings as his body started to faintly glow a silver light. At this moment, he had discarded the thought of using his domain. Well, to be more exact, he had discarded the thought of using his domain externally. After all, the moment when a domain was at its strongest was when… it was used on the person itself.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

In just a few seconds, the aura Wilhelm was exuding had returned to what it was from before Aurus had unleashed his devastatingly strong first move. Soon after, it exceeded that, prompting Aurus to let out a light chuckle, as if he had no worries in his mind right now. In any case, that did not mean that he would just take the opponent's attack as is. Unlike his opponent, which was strong in offense and defense, he was more or less the essence of a glass cannon. A single hit at his current state was more than enough to kill him.

'Fortunately, my FP has fully recovered,' he inwardly thought, instantly activating [Spirit World] as a domain manifested around him, condensing the energy in the surroundings. Seeing this domain, a great portion of the bystanders could not help but have the urge to barge into the barrier and train there, getting the feeling that they would easily get stronger once they were in it.

However, they were barred from entering thanks to the barrier Dalton had quickly conjured after Aurus's first attack. Speaking of Dalton, a magic circle was currently in front of his right hand, sending a thin strand of green energy that was being absorbed by Wilhelm's body. Seeing how the magic circle was connected to his grandfather, Zeldrion could not help but look at Dalton and ask, "Are you healing him?"

"But of course," Dalton replied, sporting a solemn expression as he continued, "After the first attack by that Verdante guy, I instantly thought that the only chance we would have against a monster like that was if our participant was at their peak condition."

"Now that I think about it, why are they allowing a third party to interfere with their battle?" he muttered soon after, not knowing that the two of them did not care as to whether a third party interfered or not. In fact, it would be to Aurus's advantage if a third party appeared to interfere their battle. However, that did not happen at all, allowing Wilhelm to continue building up strength as his body was now the color of light metal.

As for Aurus, he was preparing for the oncoming attack. After all, he was still an X-

grade Inanimate. If not for the fact that he had a skill like [Pseudo-Animate Ascension], he would have already been killed multiple times over just from the sheer difference of stats alone.

"[Grand Aegis]."

"[Supreme Deification]."

"[Sole Entity]."

"[Impenetrable Shield of Nil]."

"[Soul Transcendence]."

Whoosh!

With these five skills activated in quick succession, he was as prepared as he could be for the attack that was about to come. At this moment, he could not help but wonder why he did not invest more time in learning and enhancing defense techniques. In fact, he could not help but recall the time he had discarded that invincibility skill he had before he waged war against Chonk. Right now, he could not help but think of his past self as an utter fool.

'Then again, that doesn't change the outcome of this battle,' he muttered inwardly, taking a quick glance at Argentum and his companions, situated slightly far away from the barrier. From what he could see from his perspective, Argentum was bawling his eyes out due to great sadness. On the other hand, Herellia and Horell were there to console him, wondering what was wrong with him. There were also two more people that accompanied the three of them, but Aurus only barely knew them, so he didn't think of them that much.

'Please don't forget the thing that I want you to fulfill, Argentum,' he thought, letting out an inward sigh as he recalled the string of thoughts he had sent Argentum a while ago. Now that he had time to think about it as Wilhelm was preparing for his attack, he could not help but find it a bit silly, useless even.

'In any case, doing something like that would probably be for the better good.'

Fwoosh!

Just as Aurus was about to continue mulling over the various things he had done so far in his life, the aura emanating from Wilhelm's body had reached great heights, only paling to the aura Aurus emanated while he was at his peak. In any case, Aurus was certain that the next move Wilhelm would unleash had the potential to flatten a great part of the continent, just like his move beforehand.

Standing up, Aurus looked at Wilhelm, who had silver-gray flames covering his entire body, save for his two eyes. Letting out a light sigh, he asked him, "Is it possible for me to know the name of the move you're going to use against me?"

"I don't see a problem with that," Wilhelm chuckled as he responded. Clenching his right fist as the silver-gray flames surrounding his body congregated towards it, he then told Aurus, "Although it's still an incomplete technique that has many problems in terms of usage, it's still the strongest technique in my arsenal that could probably be equal to the attack you used before. Speaking of which, what's the name of the technique you used earlier?"

"Zephyrus Tribulation," Aurus succinctly replied.

"An overbearing name, but a well-deserved one." Wilhelm nodded after hearing Aurus's answer. Taking in a deep breath, the silver-gray flames around his right fist soon condensed into a small ball, mimicking the sun above their heads. Slightly grinning, he then told Aurus, "While making this technique of mine, I thought about having it head towards one extreme, an extreme that would make someone change their mind about fighting me once they get a taste of it."

"Sure, the reasoning might sound like something a teenager would dream up of, but the intent in this technique is as real as it could be," he continued, cocking his fist backward before punching it out towards Aurus. In less than an instant, the small silver-gray sun at the end of his right fist quickly transformed into a ray, similar to the ray of green light that had attacked Wilhelm sometime ago.

"[Ephemeral Metanoia]!"

"[Pseudo-Animate Ascension]!"

Whoosh!

Just as the ray of light had collided with the barrier conjured around Aurus thanks to [Grand Aegis], the barrier instantly hardened by a thousandfold as Aurus's existence level was temporarily brought out to the Pseudo-Animate level. Nevertheless, even with the buffs he had activated increasing his stats even further, the ray of light was still able to pierce through the barrier, quickly making its way to Aurus's body.

Bang!

As the ray of light was powered by the strength of a Rank 3 Transcendent, Aurus's body stood no chance at all. Fighting against a Rank 9 Animate was still feasible through certain means, like having multiple buffs activated while the other party was being debilitated. However, even if he had crippled a Transcendent's strength even slightly, there was still no point.

The gulf between an Inanimate and a Transcendent was just that big.

"[Heavenly Rejuvenation]!"

Of course, Aurus wouldn't let his body be destroyed just like that, hastily spamming his healing skill as his body reformed every once in a while. Surprisingly, while that was happening, he also redirected a small part of the energy from the ray towards his mind, using it to eradicate the primal instinct that had created this mess in the first place.

Unsurprisingly, the primal instinct went away with a poof, briefly celebrating his freedom from the primal instinct as he thanked himself that he had the [Hexatasking] skill. With that now gone, he had returned all of his attention towards the ray of light, spamming [Heavenly Rejuvenation] after [Heavenly Rejuvenation] just so he didn't die.

At this point, it had turned into a war of attrition, making those watching wonder whether it would be the ray of light that would first run out of energy, or Aurus. Unfortunately for Aurus, just as he thought that he had found a sort of equilibrium while resisting against the ray of light, he had sapped every bit of SP in his body, basically rendering all of his buffs obsolete.

However, he did not die.

"[Lesser Fate Manipulation]!"

Poof!

As if it was magic, the ray of light, which seemed intent on making sure that Aurus's existence from the face of this world was completely wiped out, dissipated into thin air. To others, it looked like the attack Wilhelm threw at Aurus was a lie all this time.

However, for those who had keen senses or those that were of high rank, they knew that something greater was at play here. Seeing what had just happened, Zeldrion could not help but put on a solemn expression, while Dalton could not help but lightly frown, muttering, "The laws of fate… have been moved."

Even Felix and Charisa, who did not seem that strong in the grand scheme of things, could not help but become silent as they looked at Argentum, wondering how his original body had touched upon the laws of fate. In fact, Argentum, who had been crying all this time, decided to stop as he watched it in silence. Although there was a hint of expectation in his mind when he saw this, when he remembered the string of thoughts that were sent to him a while ago by Aurus, he could not help but become sad once more.

And last but not the least, Wilhelm could not help but react as well, looking at Aurus for a short bit with surprise before letting out a loud cackle. "Who knew I'd face against someone who had control over fate?"

In response, Aurus let out an awkward chuckle, saying in response, "To be honest, I never expected this technique of mine to have such great effect. I've never tried it on something like this before."

Indeed, Aurus had never tried dispelling an attack using [Lesser Fate Manipulation] before. Of course, he knew that the skill would allow him to bend the rules of fate in order for it to proceed as he wished. However, he did not know the extent of what 'Lesser' was. Though, from what he had just seen, 'Lesser' seemed to encompass a wider range than he had initially expected.

After staring at each other for a while in silence, Wilhelm decided to take the initiative and ask Aurus, "So, are we going to continue onto our second move? Or…?"

"There's no need for the remaining moves," Aurus replied, letting out a light sigh as he sat down on the ground, looking at Wilhelm before saying, "I concede. You win."

Woooooo!!!!

After hearing those words come out of Aurus's mouth, almost all of the bystanders could not help but cheer for the person that had fought against him, the guardian of their kingdom, Wilhelm Seraph. Naturally, there were those that reacted differently, such as Argentum and his group. At this moment, they were looking at the sight in front of them in great silence, not expecting such an outcome at all.

As for Dalton and Zeldrion, they looked at the outcome of the battle with slight surprise in their expressions, wondering why Aurus decided to concede. Then again, the current results favored them, especially Zeldrion as he could not help but recall the idea he had once Dalton made him realize that he was fighting against an Inanimate.

14:03

However, before they even had the chance to react, an aura that did not pale to Wilhelm's soon covered the entire kingdom, instantly making everyone there feel like they were being pushed down to the ground. In fact, some of them had even succumbed to it, kneeling or either unconscious.

Wondering where the source of this aura came from, Wilhelm looked at his surroundings, only to notice a being with gray skin nonchalantly hovering above the barrier covering both him and Aurus. With a serious expression on his face, he looked at the being and asked, "And what brings someone like you here to this kingdom?"

"Erudis?"