ALL NOVEL Chapter 57
Chapter 56: Death and Priestess
The black sphere, or rather the fusion of the fox girl Mavis and the Death Star, did not chase after Liliya.
The summoning of the Death Star was Mavis’s ultimate trump card, utilizing her unique talent to draw forth the formless presence that embodies death itself into the mortal realm.
This technique was something Mavis had never used before; even though she was a fortunate being favored by the Death Star, she still had to fall towards death to invoke the resonance of the spirit of death. One misstep could lead to her actual demise.
Even if she succeeded, containing pseudo-god level spiritual power would place a tremendous burden on her body, and she wouldn’t be able to use it again for at least a few years.
Although the little fox did not possess enough strength, causing the manifestation of the Death Star to only exhibit pseudo-god level power, it was still an unstoppable existence, especially now when mythical beings were nearly extinct.
However, even though she completed the summoning of the Death Star, which embodied death itself and possessed absolute annihilating power, this girl who looked like a priestess easily blocked it and even had the strength left to protect others from harm.
Unacceptable, incomprehensible.
This was a strike imbued with the laws of death; even a mythical being would surely be led to eternal death. Why, why was she…
The consciousness of the Death Star suddenly recalled “itself,” or rather the scene Mavis had seen before.
Princess Liliya had defied death; even the inevitable was blocked by this suddenly appearing girl.
In other words, Liliya’s fate was interfered with by her.
A god… not a pseudo-thing, but a true… god?
“Could you tell me your name?”
“Hm? Well, my name is Vilyric, the one who’s going to take you down. Remember it well.”
The black-haired priestess flashed her white teeth, and her smile and tone seemed slightly irritating.
“Vilyric… fine, if you are a god, then use your power to let me understand!”
“The End… Echo!!”
The large eye’s semi-gaseous form trembled violently, as if some invisible sound wave spread outwards. Wherever it went, the flora withered, the magic in the air was instantly extinguished, and the earth fell into absolute silence.
Then, this annihilation force swept over Vilyric’s body.
Five seconds, ten seconds.
Nothing happened; in this area of death spanning hundreds of meters, the unmoving black-haired girl appeared almost like an anomaly.
“Ah?”
The vigilant Vilyric was stunned.
The priestess slowly looked around, as if remembering something, then awkwardly apologized, “Oh, this… I have some passive defensive ability; if the damage is too low, it won’t have any effect. So I suggest you use single-target attacks instead…”
One of the passive abilities of Glarya’s Feather automatically nullifies any damage less than 99,999, along with its special effects, acting as an absolute, no cooldown immunity.
In other words, even if a thousand attacks below that value hit Vilyric simultaneously, as long as each individual damage did not exceed the limit, it would have no effect.
Clearly, the wide-area AOE just unleashed by the Death Star did not reach this threshold.
“Why…”
Strange, too strange; even if it was a god, even if she temporarily only possessed pseudo-god power, it shouldn’t be possible for her to unscathed endure The End Echo with her physical body.
It was precisely because of the suspicion that the opponent might also be a god that the Death Star opted for a direct psychic attack. Only in this way could it unleash the true power of the spirit of death and compete with the enemy.
Perhaps it was better to test the waters some more.
“Annihilation Death Ray!”
The closed eye reopened, and a pitch-black beam shot out. The scale this time was at least three times larger than when it attacked Liliya and the others before.
“Again with this move?”
Vilyric frowned, feeling the pressure a bit but chose not to conjure a magical shield like last time. Instead, she directly extended one fair hand, fingers together, blocking in front of herself.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The terrifying surge of death swept past, the fierce wind causing the girl’s black hair and white robe to flutter violently, yet not a single inch could intrude into her body’s immediate vicinity.
This scene looked more like a grand black beam being split in half by the slender girl’s bare hands, crushing and tearing it apart.
Yes, she used her hand to tear apart Death.
“So I told you to use single-target attacks. This scattered energy impact simply can’t breach my defense limit. Can you even understand simple words?”
The girl strolled leisurely in the death light, even having the leisure to speak.
She was not just bluffing?! She really was teaching herself how to deal damage???!
Humiliation! Even without the self-identity of the spirit of laws, the Death Star was utterly enraged by this contempt and confidence!
“Shut up! Forbidden: Annihilation Overlapping Seven Circles!”
The death light ceased. The large eye, like mist and also like a substantial form, suddenly disintegrated in the air, transforming into seven black ring-like objects, each independent yet smoothly connecting like spirals.
These rings became smaller as they moved forward, starting with a diameter nearly the same as the original large eye, but the last one was barely half a meter in diameter, embedding some incomprehensible significance intended for mortals.
Condensed black particles rapidly gathered in the final ring, shining like the main cannon hole in certain interstellar battles, the black light only deepening, surging forth with terrifying energy fluctuations.
Finally, it was released with a bang!
The black light traversed through the rings; each time it passed through a circle, new energy merged with it, causing its volume to shrink further, precisely matching the width of the next ring, and repeating the previous steps.
By the time it emerged from that half-meter tiny black ring, it was only the thickness of an adult’s arm.
But this thin beam was what brought Vilyric her first sign of danger since coming to this world.
The threshold was breached; it couldn’t be blocked.
If she continued to be reckless like before, relying solely on Glarya’s Feather passive defense and her physical abilities, she would definitely get hurt.
Moreover, because the damage exceeded the immunity limit, for the first time, Vilyric felt the power of death contained within the opponent’s attack.
Strangely enough, she had encountered something similar, and not just once.
This was an additional “special effect” attached to the attack.
What was before her should be Instant Death.
Instant Death was one of the special effects that could be attached to certain attacks aside from routine damage in the phantom world, similar to effects like burning, freezing, slowing, confusion, magic negation, forbidden recovery, and many more—at least dozens of types.
On the surface, it sounded powerful, but in practice… it was average at best, even inferior to some more common additional effects.
First, the triggering probability of Instant Death against enemies of the same level was very low, generally around 0.2-0.3 percent. While there’s a chance of enhancement against lower-level targets, triggering it on small monsters seems rather meaningless, right?
And it had a fatal flaw.
If the level was too high compared to oneself—about 20 levels or more, and to boss-type units, Instant Death would be entirely negated and revert to dealing a fixed amount of real damage.
Even lower-level players could weaken Instant Death with enchantments, passive skills, or equipment resistances, and of course, the other effects were the same.
While Vilyric wasn’t one to indulge in PK, many dungeon bosses and monsters also carried similar attack effects. Plus, in the game Phantom World, it didn’t mean that if she refrained from fighting, no one would attack her.
For abnormal state attacks, Vilyric had long prepared countermeasures, studying specialized resistance skills, so she was not overly afraid of such things.
But… fixed damage was unavoidable. She wasn’t clear how powerful this attack was, so it was wise to proceed with caution.
Shaking her head, Vilyric stopped the Giant Dragon lady who had been invisibly lurking at the side, now wanting to jump out to protect her. With a solemn expression, she raised the artifact Eternal Staff: Heart of the World and whispered.
With an ethereal, dreamlike tone that resonated with the world, she declared:
“I say, let there be light.”
And thus, light appeared.