Chapter 378 - The Power of Critical

“Just what exactly is ‘The End’?”

“That is…”

What the God of Critical was capable of was difficult to phrase, especially since I hadn’t understood the extent of my ability until recently. Everyone had the right to know, but I struggled with a good way to explain it without making our fight seem impossible.

“Basically… it’s the ability to cut away the association of one thing from another… no matter how fused they are together conceptually.”

There was a moment of awkward silence in the room as people tried to digest what that meant. I could tell that the gears were turning in their heads, but no one was willing to be the first to question the bad vibe that enveloped the room.

“You recall how I had cut down the deity that had fused herself with Eryn’s core, right? At the time, I didn’t realize it. I was simply targeting a slightly different mana signature. But if I can picture any difference between what my targets are, my ability allows for me to separate them.”

“It is an attack that ignores what exists in reality, striking the concept of what Claude is aiming at and forcibly separating them based on the intent that he possesses,” Katalina added.

I stood up from my place at the table, drawing my knife and letting the purple mana engulf me. With a swing, the mana-imbued strike cut downward into the fancy, colored table. It had been painted a bright red, but after my attack, a line appeared where the paint was suddenly gone. I struck a few more times, more lines appearing where the paint simply disappeared.

Next, I turned toward one of Sistina’s guards standing next to me. With a horizontal slice going right through him, the man panicked before looking down to see a clean cut through his armor, his bare chest now exposed. He felt around, surprised to see that no harm had come to him. Only a section of his armor ceased to exist.

“The ability called ‘The End’ is a blade that destroys whatever my intention is, ignoring everything it comes into contact with. It will cut down anything in existence, no matter if it is material or energy. I have been using this ability all along without realizing it, cutting through objects along their ‘critical points’ and cancelling magic by cutting away the mana that fuels the spell. It can do much more than that, and only now do I understand the possibilities.”

The God of Critical, the Architect, essentially had a power of pure destruction. Whatever he touched could cease to exist if he wished for it. He could destroy everything in his path if that was his goal.

Just like when I was called the Grim Reaper… or that time when Claude was the Hero of Botticelli. The Architect and his incarnations had to be managed carefully. Otherwise, the entire plan to save Earth could crumble. His power was one that could literally end all existence.

“Thankfully, his goals are far from wanton chaos. The Architect does not want things to be destroyed. He took measures to prevent his own powers from ever getting out of hand for each of his incarnations. If it looked like they would, he would step in and control the outcome. He would cut down what needed to be cut down for the intended result to happen.”

I recalled the conversations I had with him. At the time, I thought it was some god looking out for my best interests. But really, he was just keeping me down a specific course. That became clear when he took over my body and killed the others. It had all been according to his plan.

“What kind of measures are you implying?” Cornelius asked, sensing that I was still holding something back.

“Have you ever wondered why the Architect’s companions followed in his footsteps to become gods? Why the Architect and Sistina have such human-like personalities while the other gods feel like a shadow of themselves?”

The other Electi looked between themselves. None of them had conversed directly with their gods as I had. They held memories of who they were in the past, but even those felt fuzzy and choppy.

“What if I told you that I could cut away those memories, so that you wouldn’t have to think about them again? Or if you had reservations about what we are about to do, that I could cut away those as well?”

Everyone turned to me in surprise. While they held faith that I would never do such a thing to them, the very possibility was still frightening. But exactly because we knew how wrong such a thing was, we held the conviction to stop the Architect by any means possible.

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“Damn, I guess he had to pull out the trick up his sleeve after all.”

We stared as the explosion from our last attack disappeared unnaturally. It was because the Architect had finally become serious. Before, he was only using the abilities from his companions. That was because part of him was occupied doing something else.

And that something else slowly grew dim in the distance.

During this fight, the Architect was still managing the city that he constructed. A part of him was tethered to the environment, splitting up attention to carefully manage the livelihood like a delicate simulation.

He couldn’t risk using ‘The End’ and severing that connection. Not if he didn’t find a need to waste precious months of work. But now, he finally saw us as a threat.

He had invoked ‘The End’ to cut away the Sun twins’ attack, and as a result, the city in the distance started going dark. A few months lost in the expanse of eternity was only a minor setback. He could recreate it all over again. But first, he had to get rid of those that would jeopardize his plan any further.

The wind blew against us, signaling this shift in atmosphere. At this point, we were unsure what he would cut away to take us down. But if that blade touched us directly, then it would be all over. He had been merciful last time, simply taking our lives. If he wished to, he could smash our souls as well, removing every trace of us from existence. That was the biggest fear going into this battle.

“Just like before, everyone! We keep him pinned! We wear him out! And then, I’ll take his powers!”

Far easier said than done.

Cornelius immediately cast her magic, creating an icy wonderland all around us to impede his advance. But then, a portal formed right above us, different in color than the ones we were used to.

“Incoming!” Lau shouted, sensing the difference first.

We scattered from where the portal opened, watching as the Architect casually dropped from the opening. Cornelius and Chrys fired off magic, but the spells disappeared as he struck them. I sent waves of slices toward him, hoping to add on the pressure, while Saki smashed the earth to send debris forward.

Koujiro and Lamps fired off attacks from their weapons, but even still, several members of our team were limited in their capabilities for long-range attacks. I checked around to make sure that everyone was doing okay.

The wind that was blowing against us before had reversed. For some reason, the wind was now at our backs, funneling inwards toward the Architect. I coughed as the air itself felt noticeably drier and harder to breath from before.

“Lemme have a go at him! I still have this trick up my sleeve! Crackling Dragon Ascendance!”

Lightning erupted around him as I looked over, but then, I realized something.

“Oh shit! Cancel that attack, Wen Zhi!”

It was too late. All of a sudden, an explosion erupted where he stood. The blast whipped around and engulfed the area in a circle as it continued like a chain reaction, sending all of us hurling away.

I cracked an eye open after a while, seeing that everyone was now sprawled on the ground. The Architect was still standing in the center, unharmed. Rather, he took a few more swipes at the air around him before sucking in a deep breath. He heaved and huffed like he had been holding it in for a while.

That had confirmed my suspicion. It was not a direct attack by the Architect, but he had done something to trigger it.

Even if the Architect was rooted to his spot from our attacks, he was doing much more than simply responding to our pressure. What if there was something invisible to the eye that he was cutting down?

The drier air that was harder to breathe. The rush of wind focusing inward. The fact that he had to hold his breath and the explosion stopped short of him.

The Architect had been cutting away the air around him. Or more specifically, he had removed the Nitrogen from the air, which made up 78%. That caused the surrounding air to rush inwards to fill in the void. But it also caused the relative oxygen content to increase around us, due to diffusion.

He had also cut away the moisture, likely cleaving water into hydrogen and oxygen.

What this resulted in was a perfect condition where a single spark – in this case, the lightning attack – would create an explosion.

At the same time, the oxygen around the Architect was so pure that it was above the flammability limit, stopping the explosion short from reaching him. He merely had to keep from breathing the toxic air, until he cut down the purity.

“Dammit, he got us bad…”

A single attack using an ‘accidental’ force of nature that none of us could block. That was all that he needed to stop us. That was the ingenuity of a man that had constructed his way to godhood.

He sprinted over to the nearest person with Speed and sliced downward. The power of one Electi was now gone. And then, he moved on to the next, and the next.

In the span of seconds where he had free movement, he had cut down everyone around me. And now, he stood before me with a smug grin of victory. Like he had once again taken away everything like before.

“It seems like everything has gone to plan. Thank you for acting like I thought you would. It saved me the trouble of needing to chase you down. Not so easy when you are trying to manage an entire planet.”

He had been waiting for me to bring him the final power on a silver platter.

“Then, what are you waiting for? Come take it,” I said. Even still, I wouldn’t give in.

With slow, measured steps, he approached. To me, it was like the final walk towards the execution chamber, but to him, he was walking up to accept a trophy for what he had anticipated.

He looked down, ready to deliver the final blow that would cleave the Essence of Life out of me, so that he could take it and reign eternal. But as he swung, I blipped away.

In an instant, I was behind him. Letting the power flow into my left arm, I swung my fist towards his back. My target moved away quickly, causing me to hammer into the ground.

With a loud boom, the ground cracked and sprayed up rock, catching the Architect with some debris as he escaped. His face held a look of utter surprise at how I disappeared and countered him from behind.

Like I had the powers of the other Electi.