Chapter 2641 – 2641. Dark Moon

Jonas Müller was coldly assessing the situation.

He, who had recently reached Level 6, was facing an opponent who had recently reached Level 7. There was an absurd difference between them. The only hopeful thing was that his opponent’s combat reputation was low. He had never heard of any significant achievements from Yuria.

‘She must be a case of reaching Level 7 through luck or support.’

Yuria was a maid aiming for Prime status. She would be able to fight to some extent.

‘If we fight, I’ll lose.’

Jonas had no reason to fight Yuria. He was planning to find an opportunity to escape this place and flee to the border region. There was no reason to engage in a losing battle.

‘A Level 7 with no achievements. That means she lacks combat experience and is unskilled. If an opportunity arises, I’ll run immediately.’

Jonas saw a phantom in his vision.

A shadow blade falling from the ceiling, aiming for his neck. It was so stealthy. In the future, he wouldn’t even react and would die. It wasn’t just because the shadow blade was silent. It was precisely piercing the blind spot that people couldn’t perceive, the gap in consciousness.

‘But if I can see it, I can avoid it.’

Jonas had an ability that allowed him to see a short future limited to himself. He could only see a future of less than 10 seconds, so it wasn’t very helpful except in combat.

‘However, in a life-or-death battle, it’s the best ability.’

He dodged the shadow attacks flying from all directions, stepping with his footwork. When he had dodged 15 shadow attacks, Yuria’s attacks stopped.

Jonas slightly twisted the corners of his mouth.

“Is that all? I was nervous because you’re a Level 7… but you’re not as impressive as I thought.”

Two options came to Jonas’s mind. One was to rush at Yuria and land a blow, and the other was to escape from here.

However, there was no right answer among the two options.

If he tried to rush at Yuria and attack, shadows would rush in from all directions. Attacks that were impossible to avoid even with his knowledge of the future.

Escape? The moment he did, he would be dismembered by a slash. What was absurd was that even though he saw the future, he couldn’t figure out where the slash was coming from.

Cold sweat ran down Jonas’s cheek.

“…Right now. Are you playing with me?”

“No. I’m just adjusting my senses. The way of using power in this world is a bit unfamiliar.”

Yuria flicked her finger. The shadows on the floor rippled. It wasn’t magic, but a power to manipulate shadows as an ability. The essence of shadows might be the same, but the way of wielding power was different.

“…So you’re seeing me as a sandbag. I understand the difference in power, but if you come at me like this, I can’t help but get heated.”

“Does anything change just because you get angry?”

“Yes. I’ll show you how it changes.”

Jonas, gritting his teeth, stepped forward. Shadows surged from the ceiling and floor.

Chains.

Jet-black shadow chains rushed towards Jonas. Jonas, who knew the trajectory of the chains in advance through future prediction, tried to twist his body to avoid them. However, the chains suddenly changed direction and grabbed Jonas’s wrist.

The chains pulled, and Jonas’s body collided with the ceiling. His body was sucked into the shadows of the ceiling.

Bang!

Immediately after, he was face-planting on the ground. Forced spatial movement through shadows. He, a Level 6, couldn’t even react properly.

Jonas’s nose bone was broken. He was in turmoil, not even realizing the nosebleed that was flowing down.

“How did she do that? There was nothing like this in the future I saw…!”

“The future is bound to be variable unless it has arrived. Is what you saw really the future?”

“Nonsense…! I’ve been using this ability for 20 years. There has never been a case where the future I’ve confirmed has changed! Did you cast an illusion on me?!”

Jonas tore off the shadow chains that had grabbed his wrist with mana-enhanced strength and stood up.

“You’re the type who only believes what you want to believe. It’s a common type, so it’s not surprising.”

Jonas’s future prediction activated again. Shadow chains rushing in from the left and right. This time, Jonas didn’t dodge. Instead, blood gushed from his body.

Alchemy was activated, and the alchemic blood became a giant blade, sweeping in all directions. Yuria jumped into the air to avoid the blade.

‘She can’t move in the air. I’ll shoot the alchemic blood with wind pressure from here…!’

Just as he was about to take a stance and swing his fist, his right ankle was already caught by a shadow chain.

‘The future prediction didn’t activate! Why…?!’

Alchemic blood gushed from his thigh, turning into a blade. The moment he tried to break the shadow chain that had grabbed his ankle. A new shadow chain appeared and wrapped around the blade. The blade made of alchemic blood stopped. It couldn’t be controlled.

As bewilderment took over his entire body, the shadow chains pulled his body.

Bang bang bang bang bang!

He was dragged around by the shadow chains, colliding everywhere. He was dragged to the ceiling, then slammed into the floor, and if he hit the wall, he was hit by the chains. The space changed rapidly, making it impossible to grasp. The future prediction hadn’t been activated since earlier.

‘Rather than being beaten to death like this… I’d rather…!’

He gave up on the alchemic blood.

He could make a lot of money if he sold it, but what was important now was not money but his life.

Jonas spewed blood from his entire body. The alchemic blood inside his body came out, becoming steel spikes that struck everywhere, and then the alchemy was released, causing a shockwave. One shockwave was not weak, and at least thousands of shockwaves were detonated simultaneously.

Eventually, the building collapsed due to the shockwave.

‘I’ll escape in this opportunity. It’s still daytime outside. There aren’t as many shadows as there were inside the building. Since she’s a woman who manipulates shadows, she’ll have to weaken. I’ll avoid the shadows as much as possible…’

Jonas, who was about to go outside the collapsed building, couldn’t move after seeing the outside.

Escape?

It was impossible.

The outside of the building was nothing but darkness. There was no light. The sky and the ground were buried in darkness. Even if he focused mana on his eyes, he couldn’t see through the darkness.

“……”

Jonas, who quickly regained his senses, clashed the knuckles he wore on both hands. Sparks flew. But the surroundings didn’t brighten at all. The light was unable to illuminate the darkness.

Jonas glared at the maid standing expressionlessly behind him and asked.

“Is this your unique skill?”

“Yes. I needed to use my unique skill in a real battle and adjust it. You happened to be a suitable opponent.”

“So that’s what you meant by adjusting your senses. You were really treating me like a sandbag. Is your unique skill a barrier type?”

As far as Jonas knew, there were several types of unique skills. Roughly three types. Single-use, continuous, and barrier.

Single-use was powerful but ended after one use. Like a bullet.

Continuous was when the effect continued. Most of them were buff types that enhanced oneself.

Barrier type was a type that created its own space by blocking the connection with the outside. It was a rare type among unique skills.

“Barrier type? Ah. Did it look like that? You can certainly feel that the space itself has been separated.”

“…Does that mean it’s not a barrier type?”

“Since the adjustment is over… I’ll show you as a final check.”

Yuria flicked her finger.

The darkness that covered the world disappeared. Jonas felt his mind becoming distant.

Thud.

Jonas snapped back to his senses at the sound of Yuria touching the table. He was inside the collapsed building. The dilapidated building was intact, and Yuria was sitting at the table. Around her, Alpha Tier company agents were standing or sitting dead.

‘…Was it an illusion? Or did she rewind time?’

Jonas checked his broken nose and the throbbing pain all over his body. He could feel the pain. At least it wasn’t an illusion. But what he couldn’t understand was that the alchemic blood he had discarded was back inside his body. Because of that, the collapsed building had returned to its original state.

His eyes quickly scanned the building. Parts of the building were broken. The aftermath of the previous battle remained intact.

“…It’s not that she rewound time. She eliminated the cause itself…! This is absurd! Interfering with causality is not easy even for transcendents! It’s not something a Level 7 can do!”

“What’s important is not the difference in power. What’s more important is recognizing and understanding the concept.”

“Do you think transcendents are called transcendents for nothing? They handle transcendent power because they have transcended not only power but also their minds! It’s impossible unless your mind has reached the level of a transcendent…!!”

“You’re trembling with fear. Let’s end this now.”

Yuria used her unique skill with emotionless eyes.

Unique Skill: Dark Horizon.

All light is reversed into darkness up to the boundary that her perception reaches. There was no inside or outside of the building. It was now nothing but darkness.

Jonas, flustered, clashed his knuckles, creating a light, but even though there was heat, no flame could be seen. It felt like the concept of light itself had disappeared.

“Within this boundary, I can manipulate all the laws as I please. The concept of light, the concept of time, and the concept of causality are no exceptions. However, the problem is that I cannot reject the laws that I have changed.”

That’s why Yuria couldn’t see through the darkness either. She also couldn’t see anything in this darkness. However, since she was perceiving the darkness through shadows, there was no problem with her actions. And shadows refer to the darkness where light doesn’t reach.

“I think a Level 7 like me can resist to some extent… but you’re not a Level 7.”

“…Is it because you changed the laws that my future prediction isn’t working?”

“Yes. Instead, I also cannot predict the future within this boundary.”

The laws are applied equally. It’s just that future prediction was impossible for Yuria from the start.

“Can you manipulate space as you please within the boundary?”

“It’s possible, but what I did to you was shadow manipulation, not the boundary.”

“…Haa. For a monster like this to come to kill me… It would have been easier to deal with the Iron Maid of the Maid Academy.”

Jonas took a fighting stance. Alchemic blood flowed from his entire body, becoming armor that covered his body.

It was a meaningless act.

Yuria established the laws within the boundary. Alchemy is prohibited. It was possible because she had a deep understanding of alchemy.

The alchemic blood became ordinary blood and flowed onto the floor.

Soon, the darkness became blades and slashed Jonas.

“Kuaaaaaaaak!”

With his last scream, Jonas’s body collapsed.

Yuria deactivated her unique skill. Yuria looked at his corpse and pondered for a moment.

‘Dark Horizon is a unique skill that I obtained intentionally… but it consumes more stamina than I thought.’

A unique skill to counter the unique skills of other superhumans.

The effect itself was quite satisfactory.