Against the World II: Transgression
Chapter 44: Emperor's Dream, part 2
Nueva spontaneously twisted his body and swung his mana concentration spear, with full intelligence attacking the commander. He didn't know how he could move that fast, but it wasn't a big deal. She was the strongest among them; Nueva could overcome whatever tricks the commander had. The spear of his mana concentration swung in blinding speed.
However, to Nueva's surprise until her eyes widened, her concentration spear turned into a sprig of green-colored twigs overgrown with tiny flowers along its length.
“Oh, thank you for this flowering twig.” Xavier caught the twig and pulled it out of the emperor's hand. “Do you believe that this twig is harder than adamantite and even lonsdaleite?” without turning around, the eyes focus on the twigs.
Nueva spontaneously flapped her wings and flew away. He realized something was different from Xavier. First, he could not sense the level of his strength. Second, his aura is different from the previous – him like everyone else. And thirdly, what he had just done was not something he could comprehend. Even if it was [Plant Magic], how could he possibly use magic with his mana? It doesn't make sense.
“Ah, you don't want to escape, do you?”
The body of Nueva— which is more than two thousand meters above where Xavier is at—. He could hear the commander's voice even though the difference in height was quite far away. Even with his sharp hearing, this distance was already beyond his reach, let alone Xavier not shouting at all.
“Can I conclude you're done talking? Then it's my turn to attack. My advice: don't let your guard down.”
Nueva created two spears of water and froze them as hard as diamonds. “You have a big head,” his murmur is serious. “This time I will no longer show you twelve ka—”
Jrasssha! Nueva's back was hit by a slash of twigs that Xavier laid—he was already a few steps behind the emperor, and at the same time he was still down there!
Blood flowed from the Emperor's back. Nueva spontaneously moved away and faced the perpetrator. “Frozen World,” whispered, at the same time he accelerated the regeneration of the wound on his back.
“Kan told you, don't let your guard down.”
Nueva's eyes widened. But he reacted too late. A flowering twig had pierced through his back until it came out right in the middle of his chest. And exactly two milliseconds later, the part of the twig that was in his body branched pierced the inner cavity of the emperor. The pain Nueva felt was intense.
“Ba-How can? There should be nothing to move in my Frozen World but Phoenix and myself.”
“Frozen World? What are you talking about?”
“A—” Nueva did not even have time to take the first word out of the sentence he wanted to say. His eyes widened in disbelief. Snow fell normally, which in fact is impossible in the Emperor's Frozen World. “Ba-How is it possible? [Eternal Zero] is superior to [Reverse Law]. You shouldn't be able to normalize things!”
“[Reverse Law]? Since when do I use [Reverse Law]?”
“What mak—”
—plaque!
Xavier's right-hand back had slammed into Nueva's left cheek before the emperor said the reverse slap was followed by a severe crack in the cheekbones.
“That was for the reply earlier.”—is what he heard before his body hit the mountain hard to form a hole as deep as a dozen meters. Nueva's backbone is completely fractured.
The emperor let his body regenerate—the special abilities he gained after becoming a dragonoid. At the same time, his mind analyzed what had happened so far.
How could?
Nueva did not understand. Even if Luciel was controlling the commander's body (assuming Xavier lied about the archangel's disappearance), it would still be absurd. He was already stronger than Thevetat, but he treated him like a toy. There's no way it's Luciel; Luciel isn't that strong.
Has Xavier hidden his power so far? But that doesn't explain why his character changed.
“Is there any other creature— that is beyond my understanding and Edward— that controls Xavier?”
Nueva snorted and threw himself out of the hole where he fell. It did not shoot into the air, but landed on the edge of the hole. It would be dangerous if he shot upwards without first confirming the location of the comma—
“Drinking tea in the middle of a snowflake like this is very relaxing, huh? The coldness of the air is neutralized by the warmth of the tea. Oh, this cake is also delicious.”
—Nueva. He felt his body tremble, even more so as he turned his back to look at the owner of the voice.
Nope. His body did not tremble with fear. Not at all. His body trembled all the way to the crown due to intense anger. Nueva's eyes glared incomparably at Xavier who was sitting casually on a chair while sipping tea—and in front of him was a round table on which was a pastry. And without puzzling where the commander got all that, Nueva darted to attack with anger.
They were in the middle of a fight, and the commander was enjoying tea as if he was being creative? This is the greatest humiliation of Nueva's second life. And with his dragonoid self, his multiplied self-esteem had now been torn apart.
“I'll crush you with everything I have!” shouted Nueva as she raised her sharp-clawed right hand. “Dead perish, and know you are still under me!”
Xavier tilted his body backwards, the emperor's sharp claws failing to hit him. However, the table following everything on it shattered into pieces. Not stopping there, Nueva's sharp claw attack carried so much energy that it left a deep scratch mark on the side of the mountain.
Nueva made no room for Xavier to leave. He has raised his other claw. Xavier this time dodged. But the Nueva attack did not slacken. He continued to lift his sharp claws even though the commander was constantly able to avoid. Even when Nueva took his leg in the attack and managed to destroy the chair, Xavier still failed to touch.
“Tak means arrogant,” said Xavier when landing a few meters behind the emperor, “but all your attacks can be read easily. If you continue this way, even if you are strong, you will not be able to make the Phoenix battered. Try to attack more calmly and do not show lust kill you.”
The sound of tea being shaved ended the commander's arrogant speech, and it brought Nueva's anger to a higher level. He turned around quickly in a puffed-up chest: “Frozen Dragon Breath!”
Immediately, an overflow of cold energy gushed out from the emperor's mouth. It freezes and destroys anything that is subjected to it. Let alone that, all the particles that are nearby are also eroded and destroyed.
However, exactly an inch before the energy touched Xavier, it suddenly swooped up and then turned and then slid straight at the emperor.
Nueva's eyes widened. He did not expect what happened. He could not possibly stop the super-high-speed burst of energy, not with his mouth still spewing energy. All Nueva could do was turn her head and make the energy hit each other. And that's what he did.
However, before the impact of those same two energies occurred, Xavier flicked the finger of his left hand.
“My ability is something that even surpasses [True Reality]. Not only can I manifest anything, I can also change logic, perception, and all the laws of nature itself. In short, I can do anything. [Reality Warping]. All your magic becomes meaningless before him. Do you want to be a woman permanently? I can do it for you.”