NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1001: Final Battle (12)
While Femradiel and the others were still fighting Ymir…
Ryan broke into a cold sweat, looking at all the suns. Destroying them probably wasn't impossible with copies of his Mithril Bow of the Dragon God of Time. However, that wouldn't solve the issue. Ryan summoned two hundred copies of Diamond Crossbow and then pointed at the stars before dashing toward Lucifer without any other choice.
"No, no, no," Lucifer said. "First, you will deal with those."
"Force me," Ryan said.
While still holding his bow, Ryan punched Lucifer with his right hand. However, the demon easily blocked the attack, who also grabbed his arm and threw him back toward the suns. While he was trying to gather mana from the suns as well as turning them into coins by using the Diamond Crossbow, Lucifer noticed his plans and began to steal those. While he couldn't still the same amount Ryan could store, it was more than enough to cause trouble.
"Well, if it is like that, then… I won't store mana," Ryan said as he held his bow tightly.
Congratulations! The class Draconic Hunter has leveled up.
Congratulations! The class Draconic Hunter has leveled up.
Congratulations! The class Draconic Hunter has leveled up.
…
Using the coins he had, Ryan leveled up his class, and using the mana, he attacked. Lucifer knew that, but he couldn't sense any danger to his life? Did Ryan use time magic to attack him in the future? It seemed plausible, but he was supposed to feel his instincts warning him even if that were the case.
"Oh, well, it doesn't matter," Lucifer thought. "No matter what he tries to do, it won't be enough. Not to mention, he will die here, soon enough."
For a few minutes, they just stayed right there, waiting for the inevitable end of the fight. While Ryan was sweating bullets, Lucifer was looking at him with his expression full of confidence. What was even more troublesome was that just by staying like that, Lucifer could get stronger. Such was the power of his pride. Still, it was better than attacking and making him grow stronger through the power of wrath as well.
"This is going to hurt, Ryan," Merlin said. "I am not the right person to say this, but this plan of yours is quite stupid."
"I didn't ask your opinion," Ryan said.
Eventually, the proximity of the suns made Ryan's skin melt, and soon enough, he was directly touched by one of them. Ryan didn't even manage to stay conscious when that happened. However, much to his surprise, Lucifer didn't feel his presence disappearing either.
Congratulations! The class Sun Lord has leveled up.
Congratulations! The class Sun Lord has leveled up.
Congratulations! The class Sun Lord has leveled up.
…
"Is it due to Apollo's power?" Lucifer asked, slightly surprised.
It was faint, but Lucifer could feel Chronus' power in action. It seemed that he was using that to stay alive through that hellish heat. When the next sun finally approached and hit the first, Lucifer teleported away because he didn't want to get caught in the cosmical explosion.
When the two suns collided, the entire region began to tremble. Naturally, the explosion created a supernova that quickly ate away the other approaching suns, which only boosted the phenomenon's power. Lucifer used Teleport several times to keep an eye on things, and even while that happened, he still didn't feel Ryan's presence disappearing.
"His body should have become cosmic dust by now… so how?" Lucifer frowned.
After using Teleport a few more times, he finally moved away from the range of the explosion. The supernova was eating away all the stars in the region, but it wouldn't expand more than that. At that distance, even Lucifer was having a hard time feeling Ryan's presence. Instead of that, he felt something else… danger.
Like an endless hurricane of arrows, Lucifer was pierced by the temporal projectiles shot by Ryan. It shouldn't be possible given that he was being damaged until now… and if that wasn't enough, the attacks weren't ending. Lucifer had become a porcupine of arrows. Each arrow destroyed a pierce of his body, and slowly he began to shrink.
"He used that mana to do this…" Lucifer said while his consciousness was fading.
That was right. Ryan used the energy he gathered while attacking the suns to attack Lucifer in the future. Using Foresight, he knew what would happen if he stayed still. Lucifer would move away to that point at that exact time, and that was why he didn't feel danger for his life… it was because he wasn't in the place the arrows were supposed to hit. Not to mention, to make sure that he wouldn't notice until the very last moment, Ryan didn't target him. He targeted the spot in itself.
Eventually, Lucifer got so destroyed that his body just became pieces of flesh floating in space. That took several minutes, and Ryan had to endure the same hellish pain because he also saw that happening in the future. He couldn't risk being counterattacked now.
While unconscious, Ryan escaped the Supernova. He used Temporal Healing to keep himself alive while being toasted down to anatomical level, and he escaped because just like he could make arrows hit an enemy in the future, he could send commands to his brain from the past, and he had sent the command to use Teleport when Lucifer's body was completely destroyed.
After a while, a shrive made Ryan wake up. He didn't know if it had been the memories of when he was being damaged by the suns or if it was due to something else he felt, but Ryan was itching to erase those memories by using Memory Manipulation.
"Look on the bright side," Merlin said. "You reached the max level in Pain Negation, and all the other skills that decrease damage from pain and fire attacks."
Ryan wished that he had time to smack Merlin, but he didn't. His instincts were warning him that the battle wasn't over yet. He didn't have time to see past that using Foresight. Unfortunately, he didn't have the chance to confirm if Lucifer's presence had disappeared either.