Chapter 26: Absolute Power

"Oh! He's finally stepping up!" Erika excitedly exclaimed as her eyes widened in expectation.

"Let's see…how powerful {Fate Threader} really is."

|Hollow Cavern|

As Anastasia backs down from the fight, she is instructed by Zephyr to go beside Alice and watch over her.

'This is strange. I don't feel scared at all, I mean I didn't even think of just going home like how my usual self thinks. Right now–'

He takes out the once again, resulting in his pupils to change into the shape of a diamond. His expression is calm, yet his gazes are cold.

'–I won't be able to sleep well knowing that this thing is still running wild after what it's done.'

After a while, the Moonlight Chimera regenerates its armor and assumes a lunging stance. As both of their eyes narrow down, the two prepare for their first attack. The Chimera hops around Zephyr, only leaving blurs due to how fast it is despite the armor it is wearing.

'This monster is unbelievable, smart, agile, adaptive…what more could it have.'

"Restrain him." The words that came out of his mouth are incomprehensible in human understanding. It's as if it's a language foreign from this world, however, Zephyr knows that he's been speaking normally when giving commands to the Crystal Orb.

The spectators outside the dungeon are flabbergasted about Zephyr's chanting.

"What kind of chant is that…!?"

"I don't know…but look, something's coming!"

Numerous transparent hands then come out of Zephyr's shadow, extending itself limitlessly to chase the rampant Chimera. Noticing that it will get caught, the monster clenches its mouth as if forming something inside.

'What the hell, don't tell me–'

A violent, spiralling gust of wind was let out by the Chimera as it opened its mouth, bending and destroying every hand that was chasing it. The Chimera then turns to Zephyr and slams the ground, creating a pile of dust by which the monster blows towards Zephyr to limit his field of vision.

"Ah! Now I can't see what's happening there."

The spectators became upset.

'It wouldn't know for sure but…despite the dust, I can still see the monster clearly. Might be because of this crystal ball.'

The monster then briskly dashes towards Zephyr whilst consecutively changing positions, making it unpredictable to tell where it will make its attack.

As Zephyr narrows his eyes, the movement of the Chimera seems to slow down from his perspective. He then puts his hand forward as if already predicting the position where he can land a hit on the monster.

"Blast!"

A mass of spherical colorless energy was then released in front of Zephyr, hitting the Chimera in the process as it was hopping around.

The Chimera groaned loudly as it was struck by Zephyr's attack. The armor where the part of the Chimera was hit was broken instantly upon impact. As a result, the monster was blasted away as it rolled around in midair.

"Okay, one more should do it."

Once again, Zephyr generates the same attack and without hesitation, fires it towards the position of the monster. But then–

"ROAAAAR!!!"

A thunderous roar was let out by the Chimera which shook the whole dungeon. After a while several pillars were raised once again as if the monster was generating it by itself. One of the pillars was erected right in front of the spherical energy which somehow slows the momentum of it. Noticing that Zephyr's attack was not successfully blocked by the pillar, the Chimera wobbly raised itself and jumped towards the top of a pillar.

'Eh? This monster…it can now fully control the ecosystem of the dungeon it was guarding? What more could it even do!?'

Zephyr scratches the back of his head as he thinks that he still has many more surprises to see thereafter.

Crack-

"...!?" An alert from the Crystal Orb made Zephyr notice an attack incoming from the ground. A spike was then erected from his position by which Zephyr evades by jumping backwards. It did not end there however, as it continues to assault Zephyr whenever he lands his foot on the ground.

'Gah! This is becoming more and more difficult! Only monster I know which has the power to control the dungeon is that from the |Never-Ending Labyrinth|! I swear, I hate these types!'

"{Fate Threader}" A voice from the Crystal Orb then reached out to him.

"Close in on that monster. Or make eye contact."

'Huh, what do you intend to do?'

"Heh. I'm gonna show that fool–" Zephyr's eyes then suddenly glowed "–our absolute power."

"Look, {Fate Threader} is gonna do something again!"

The Chimera's eyes widened. It sharpened all of its senses after realizing that Zephyr has already planned out a way to retract. Its eyes were glued to him, studying all of his movements so that the spikes would keep up to him, that is until his eyes glowed. Foreign words were let out by Zephyr which made him ethereal.

"....!?"

The spikes that are trying to pierce him seem to not touch Zephyr at all after entering the ethereal realm.

Knowing that he's now extremely vulnerable to magic due to this, the Chimera then decides to unleash a noxious acid, however, as it was about to release the attack, it notices an intimidating presence behind it.

"Surprise."

As the Chimera turned around, the physical body of Zephyr was already too close to it. As an all or nothing response, the Chimera generates a whole thick armor within its body.

"Too late. I'm not even trying to damage you physically anyway." Zephyr raises the Crystal Orb and makes the Chimera look into it.

"....."

After staring at it for just a very few seconds, the Chimera finds itself falling into a bottomless void. Inside of the said void, the monster's head is being filled with an unidentified voice, yet…the reaction of the monster looks like it recognized something. The voice from the Crystal Orb then started to sound somewhat contemptuous.

"Oh. That's why you're strong. Too bad, you're up against someone out of your league…m.o.n.s.t.e.r."

The monster? gritted its teeth, but then after a few moments, all the emotions it had…disappeared instantly. Mainly due to the fact that—

–Back to reality–

The Chimera who is slowly disappearing into ashes, returns into being a sealed ring which is now currently resting atop the palm of Zephyr. With each second passing by, the glow from Zephyr's eyes slowly vanishes as if he's returning to his usual self.

"....."

"It's over."