Chapter 18: Exile of the Soul.
Nader's footsteps echoed as he walked toward the roaring hydra.
Cracks appeared in the smooth stone with each step Nader took. The pressure in the atmosphere gradually increased to the point where the air howled and became chaotic.
The hydra that was looking for him in front of the huge double doors sensed the booming presence and turned around.
The hydra's huge eyes only reflected the silhouette that appeared in front of its face while at the same time, a thunderous sonic boom echoed through the room that pulverized everything in its path.
Nader's right leg impacted against the yellow head, and with a bang, the imposing head armored by the hydra's skills exploded like a watermelon being hit by a stick. Cerebral fluids along with yellowish blood painted the wall and nearby rocky pillars.
The other intact heads roared in pain in unison as the white head pulsed large amounts of mana to try to restore the yellow head.
Meanwhile, the red hydra-head turned towards Nader as it opened its huge mouth wide revealing a massive fireball compressed inside.
However, before it had a chance to spit out its powerful attack, it was interrupted by Nader's vertical kick that impacted against its jaw.
The jaws containing the attack closed and the fireball was swallowed. Followed by the loud burst of the explosion, the head along with the neck of the hydra was pulverized by its powers.
Even though the nearby blue head was disoriented by the explosion, it opened its huge mouth as it spat torrents of ice balls towards Nader.
With agility, Nader stepped on the ice balls and propelled himself through them as he dodged and closed in on the blue head. However, Nader again felt something scratching at the barrier of his mental defense.
He turned his head and his piercing gaze landed on the blackhead.
"Since you like mental attacks so much, I also have something prepared for you," he said casually.
Instantly, Nader's aura changed completely, it was as if a colossal beast that was fast asleep was awakened from its long slumber. Or at least, that was how it felt to the blackhead of the hydra.
In front of its eyes that were contracting like a needle from fear, it caught a glimpse of something that made it despair: a jet black dragon standing arrogantly in the sky while the large, sharp golden eyes looked at the hydra as if it were a mere lizard. With a deep fear that rooted itself to its soul, the hydra's eyes were lost in the void, leaving behind nothing but a lifeless, lifeless gaze devoid of light.
Although Nader's mental attack was not directed at the minds of the other heads, they were also slightly affected because they shared the same soul.
Wasting no time, Nader arrived in front of the blue head of the hydra that had stopped throwing the ice balls and leaned over the last giant ice debris before kicking the blue head's jaw.
Nader's kick, even though he hadn't used his full strength, was strong enough to knock the hydra's head off its neck before the head crashed through the ceiling.
While the white head was still furiously trying to heal its comrades who were destroyed a few seconds earlier, Nader flew over the white head and slammed his fists downward.
With a popping sound, the head exploded like a balloon being pricked by a needle.
Losing the main source of regeneration, the colorful necks that were headless began to writhe back and forth as the blood of different colors bathed the surroundings.
Nader dodged backward at the foul blood and with his Spatial Law, condensed a spatial thread that twisted back and forth before ripping the green head off the hydra's neck.
"Graaaaaaaaaaaah!"
The black-headed hydra came out of the panic and mental fear that Nader had induced in it and began to writhe like a snake whose tail, or in this case, head, had been cut off. The pain felt by the blackhead was multiplied by several margins because the regeneration provided by the white head had disappeared.
Nader waited a few seconds standing in mid-air as he watched the black snake writhe in agony and pain.
Nader sighed and materialized a wind spear imbued with Space Law.
Using two or more skills, laws or elements cost Nader almost nothing, except that it consumed a bit more energy than normal. However, the energy drain is something Nader was less concerned about at this point. I mean, he has a regeneration rate of 10% energy per second, which meant, if once the source of his energy was completely depleted, he would only need 10 seconds to restore his energy to its maximum splendor, why would he care.
Under the hydra's grunt of pain, Nader gently waved his hand forward.
In the next instant, the space around the spear vibrated and howled furiously before the space twisted and the spear suddenly disappeared from its position.
It was not known when, but the next thing seen was that the hydra's blackhead had disappeared along with its neck.
Surprisingly, the mighty spear had not only claimed the hydra's head but had also left a bottomless tunnel of a few round meters that was located behind the hydra's body.
Yue's eyes shone as she saw that the battle was over, so without hesitation and longing for Nader's touch, Yue ran to Nader along with the bunny that was letting out quiet squeals in her arms.
However...
"Nader!"
Although Yue's scream did not contain any hint of panic because she knew Nader was extremely powerful, it did not take away the fact that she was deeply worried about him.
As soon as Nader heard Yue's cry, he turned around again.
A little surprised, he noticed that the body of the hydra that he had once thought was dead was currently standing there as if nothing had happened, except that at this moment, instead of having six heads, it only had one.
'Oh, so it wasn't dead yet...' thought Nader.
The hydra's new head was silver in color, a runic pattern of the same color, though darker was carved into the forehead of the giant head.
Knowing it could not win against Nader, the snake ignored its existence even though it was furious with him and turned its neck towards where Yue and the bunny were.
And without warning, the hydra opened its mouth and spat out a destructive attack containing different colors, almost as if it were the color of the rainbow. The attack, in less than a second, was already in front of them.
For the first time in his two lives, the sudden turn of events made Nader's heart boil with intense fury. Even though he knew they could protect themselves from such an attack, it didn't change the fact that their enemy was trying to hurt them.
'How dare you, you bastard!'
Nader's heterochromatic eyes sharpened like the edge of a sword and glowed brightly in the darkroom.
"Stop."
The time that no one believed was capable of being controlled by a being was stalled with a simple but powerful murmur from Nader. It was as if he was the supreme lord of time.
As a result, the entire interior of the cave was so silent that it would make one feel anxious. The small drops of water dripping from the ceiling, the stones tumbling from the damage caused by the fight, even the rainbow-colored ability that was only a meter away from Yue and the bunny, were stagnant.
Just at this moment, Nader used the
However, Nader still had a long way to go because he had barely scratched the layer of understanding of the Law of Time.
A clear example was that he could not completely stagnate the thought process of existence, the visions perceived by the eyes, or he could not stop time in a specific place around like the heart.
For that very reason, even though the bodies of Yue, the bunny, and the hydra were stagnant, they could see everything.
Both Yue and the bunny looked with bewilderment at the different colored energy that was about to crash into them. They had been about to dodge the attack when suddenly, their bodies were stuck in place as if suddenly, thousands of chains were holding them in place.
Yue's initial surprise was instantly erased as a single thought flashed through her mind, flooding her with pride: 'Mmm... he is Nader after all'.
The hydra who was stuck with his mouth wide open with his eyes filled with fury and hatred could see Nader's figure walking towards him with slow but sure steps. Nader's bright, cold eyes were fixed on him as if with his gaze alone, he was trying to crush him into a thousand pieces.
Feeling the furious wave of murderous intent wash over him, the hatred and anger the hydra felt vanished and was replaced by terror and despair.
'Well, let's try something new.' Nader thought.
Until now, there was one Law that Nader had never used to attack before: the Law of Death.
This was mainly because Nader had thought that it would be useless for attacking because unlike the Law of Time and Space when he had understood them, he instantly knew how to exercise their respective abilities, instead, the Law of Death, it was as simple as learning without any extra knowledge of how to use it.
Nader raised his hand and pointed it at the hydra.
He closed his eyes and concentrated while using the skill [Energy Manipulation] which even allowed him to shape the Law as he pleased. He was only limited by his thoughts of creation.
Not a second passed before the space around the monster rippled and, like a crystal that had been shattered, the space shattered into thousands of tiny fragments revealing a dark and terrifying abyss that seemed to have no bottom.
That was not all as dark and ominous chains loomed up and out from within the abyss as the scent of death permeated the room. This caused everyone present, except Nader, to shudder in deep fear. It was as if death itself was brushing the scythe of death against their necks, ready for their lives to be reaped.
The chains twisted like the tentacles of an octopus before the chains, which instead of chaining the hydra's physical body, mysteriously went deep inside its body without leaving any wounds on the surface.
Although Nader was shocked by this, he controlled the chains of death with ease and made them go deeper inside the hydra.
Instantly, a surge of unimaginable pain assaulted the hydra's soul, yet no matter how much it tried to roar in pain, it was stuck in time itself.
Nader waved his arms in the direction of Yue and the bunny. Instantly, space rippled near Nader, and his two irreplaceable companions materialized next to him.
Although only five seconds had passed since Nader had used the Law of Time, he decided to unfreeze time.
Slowly but fluidly, the once stagnant time began to move again.
The multicolored energy was untied from its binding and moved again before it crashed to the ground. As a result, massive destruction sent out waves of violent wind that pulverized the stone pillars next to the walls.
Having resumed time, the hydra's huge gaping muzzle closed with a choked roar. The pain he felt was so terrifying that he couldn't even howl skyward. The hydra's giant body began to writhe back and forth like a worm as bloody, pulsating veins bulged and scored the hydra's large eyes.
At the same time...
"Nader!" Yue jumped up and buried her face in Nader's chest as a cute pink heart popped out of her head before floating above her.
At such a sight, Nader couldn't help but ask, "Yue, are you all right?"
Yue raised her head and nodded, "Mmm, I'm fine...".
"I see."
Nader smiled and rubbed her head before another ten hearts floated up and surrounded Yue's head.
Nader, not understanding this mysterious but extremely cute phenomenon, decided to leave this matter for another time and paid attention to the hydra that was slowly losing its life.
"Grrrhhhh-!". As the last movement, the hydra stretched its neck towards the sky and began to roar in pain.
Soon after, however, the hydra's body stiffened and collapsed towards the ground, completely stiff. The long neck and heavy head impacted against the ground leaving its head to sink into a deep crevice.
Before Nader thought he was done, the black chains were revealed along with a black soul on top of the lifeless body of the hydra.
The soul had the same shape as the hydra, except at this time it was black with a grayish aura giving off its soul.
There were very few times when the soul of existence could be damaged, however, when a soul was damaged, the pain one felt was the most painful sensation one could experience. It was a pain that even physical or mental pain could not compare.
With all this, one can imagine how painful was the situation the hydra's soul was in that was forcibly banished from its body and, as if that was not enough, the hydra's soul was being held down by the chains made by the Law of Death, which increased the pain exponentially.
Along with the roar of the hydra's pain, the room began to shudder and collapse.
Nader put felt Yue's soft body tremble slightly, but as always, there was nothing better than to calm her down with a pat on the head.
On the other hand, the bunny's long ears were pressed firmly against her head, fearing that her eardrums would be damaged.
Nader looked at the black gouge above the hydra's soul.
'I wonder what would happen if I stick the hydra's soul in that crack...' he thought.
Curious, he wielded the black chains to levitate the hydra's soul in the direction of the abyss.
Under the watchful eyes of the three beings, the hydra's noisy soul was swallowed by the dark abyss along with the chains before the space rift began to restore itself to its former state.
"It's finally over" sighed Nader and the lifeless body of the hydra disappeared from its place directly entering his storage, "Come on Yue, little white, let's see what's behind this door-."
[You have unlocked the [Exile] skill of the Law of Death].