‘So this is his signature martial art, [Untraceable Spear]...’ The Ageless Despot, Balam, had countless time-path bloodline abilities.
Being a demon mage does not limit him to merely casting spells. Instead, he had ‘engraved’ the majority of his demonic spells into his bloodline. In essence, he had combined both of his bloodline abilities and spells, erasing the difference between the two. Among these is the [Sensations of Future Past]. It grants him the ability to attune his senses to his future and or his past. This means that both precognition and psychometry are something as natural as breathing for him since he can consult his senses of touch as long as he has touched them in the past or will touch them in the near future.
On the other hand, the [Untraceable Spear] is Seven Spear’s bread and butter.
In essence, the martial arts cloaks his spear, blurring the line between defense and offense. When one anticipates a direct thrust, only to face an elusive illusion; his true strike materializes as a horizontal spear sweep from the left. Similarly, what appears as a downward spear smash is merely a facade concealing his genuine intent—an upward thrust aimed precisely at the eye. One will suffer difficulties defending an unseen blade, and Seven Spear’s [Untraceable Spear], which possesses infinite variations, is the epitome of that ideal.
Due to this signature martial art and a few other circumstances, he was crowned under the title of ‘Seven Spear’.
Under normal circumstances, the [Untraceable Spear] rendered any attempt at fighting Seven Spear at melee range into an uphill battle, but unfortunately for the spearmaster, he had the worst compatibility with Balam Past Self.
The Ageless Despot is immune to any attack that relies on ambush, trickery, or illusion as the vector of damage since he could change the outcome from the possible future where he was hit. The time demon’s Past Self does not need to rely on his eyes, he slaps the invisible spear attacks with his demonic rune-enveloped arm, ignoring the multiple colorful faux spears trying to drill their way onto his 8-meter body. As expected, most of the spear attacks are fakes, with the real ones being deflected with ease.
Nevertheless, having immunity against Seven Spear’s signature moves does not make fighting against the trio any easier. The most threatening one after Seven Spear is Undying Juggernaut.
In traditional role separation, Seven Spear would be the Vanguard, while Darkblade Shadow is the DPS, however, the only reason why Undying Juggernaut’s threat level as the Defender of the team is higher than the DPS is because of his sheer competency.
To ‘protect’ the other members of his team, he needs to be threatening to his foe. Since he is the epitome of the ‘Defender’ of his era, he had some dependable cards under his sleeves.
“Rank 5 compound killer move, [Distracted Purple Radiance]!”
Undying Juggernaut dual-cultivates wisdom-path and strength-path. He had successfully created a combat style that was extremely powerful and hard to counter. In simple terms, [Distracted Purple Radiance] infuses his strength-path radiation with a tinge of purple hue, whose real identities are telepathic distracted thoughts.
Undying Juggernaut’s telepathic distracted thoughts, if accumulated sufficiently within one’s Sea of Consciousness, will hinder the thinking process. It functions exactly like its name, the affected would slowly have distracted thoughts, not allowing them to perform their best during an intense battle.
Imagine during complex activation of a spell that requires the utmost focus, or engaging in a melee with Seven Spear, only to suddenly think of what’s for the next dinner or why a blue ring octopus’ neurotoxin is so poisonous in the first place. Thinking about the most random thoughts in certain situations has extremely fatal consequences.
With this move alone, Undying Juggernaut has gathered the ‘agro’ from Balam's Past Self, forcing the demon to focus on him. If the [Distracted Purple Radiance] killer move isn’t canceled, it’ll slowly put him into a difficult spot. The Demon was quite literally a frog being boiled in low heat.
Activating a [Subjective Time Acceleration] killer move to extend a microsecond into a second, Balam Past Self followed up with a kick from his 8-meter tall body. The Undying Juggernaut who radiated a purplish radiance had his time-path countermeasure. It activated automatically at the very last moment, allowing him to ‘react’ at the same time flow with Balam Past Self, and thus, managed to block the gigantic figure’s kick with his two greatswords. Fortunately, the greatswords weren’t designed for their sharpness, but durability, so it didn’t break but he got thrown away. The sheer force managed to embed Undying Juggernaut into the walls of Avalon, which immediately coughed blood.
Killing the Undying Juggernaut in one hit is impossible since he has countless survival methods, so the smarter solution isn’t to get forcefully drawn into his pace, but to get out of [Distracted Purple Radiance]’s range, by yeeting the man away.
As if predicting this very decision, Darkblade Shadow’s black dagger tried to gouge Balam Past Self’s knee pit almost at the same moment when Undying Juggernaut made contact with Avalon’s wall. However, the 8-meter tall time demon’s figure gleamed in gold once more, evidence of another activation of [Subjective Time Acceleration]. Unlike Undying Juggernaut, Darkblade Shadow lacked time-path countermeasures that allowed him to survive an attack of this caliber, so the antimage’s dagger sliced empty air, with an axe kick counterattack rushed towards his head.
Momentum is weight multiplied by speed.
During [Subjective Time Acceleration], Balam Past Self’s speed, relative to realspace, is nearing the speed of light. This meant that his simple axe kick had almost the same firepower as a rank 6 attack.
Splat! Not only Darkblade Shadow’s brain, but even his bones which are harder than adamantium alloys are disintegrated into bloody mist, falling onto the golden River of Time. He was instantly killed in this uneventful round.
Despite being overpowered and outnumbered, time-path methods still reigned supreme in the River of Time. Not only does it have a reduced ‘mana cost’, but its performance across all metrics is also augmented greatly. Yet, the expression of Balam's Past Self did not turn for the better. The frowns are getting deeper.
He glanced at Seven Spear who took on a defensive position, not allowing him to perform a follow-up attack to finish Undying Juggernaut. Then, just as he had expected, Darkblade Shadow reappeared once more from Seven Spear’s shadow, ready to fight. The antimage’s cloning methods are both real and illusory. Being able to see the future does not grant Balam an overwhelming advantage since every single one of his clones could deal true damage.
“We need to aim for the Time Demon’s main body…” Darkblade Shadow whispered, referring to the human-like avatar of Balam.
“I know, but we can’t. This is the River of Time. We need to delay until more of us are here.” Seven Spear replied.
In both of their senses, Undying Juggernaut has dislodged himself from Avalon’s epic metal walls.
“Cook us a plan of attack.” Another ‘Darkblade Shadow’, identical to the one on Seven Spear’s back, whispered from behind Undying Juggernaut’s shadow.
“I… can’t. Seven Spear is right, every other path is suppressed in the River of Time. A single time-path Epic is equivalent to three to five Epics of the same quality in this environment. And even then, he’s far more powerful than us, because he’s been using his rank 6 Bloodline Abilities.”
Balam is a Demon King who has a heavy emphasis on developing bloodline abilities. As a consequence, every single one of his clones could harness some level of his rank 6 bloodline abilities, like a warlock asking for their patron’s (bloodline origin) assistance. In his case, however, it was between his True Body and his clones instead of patrons, so Balam Past Self can freely ‘ask’ from his Demon King True Body who’s currently confined within the depths of Lemegeton. The only factor limiting him is the inefficiencies of channeling his powers over different dimensions.
“Ask for the Archbishop’s support?” Seven Spear inquired as he began the activation sequence of [Seven Dragon Destruction].
Undying Juggernaut uses his investigative method to ‘glance’ at the Archbishop above Avalon walls. “She got her hands full in prioritizing to summon… heh, will you look at that? She’s already here.”
As if hearing Undying Juggernaut’s plea for help, the first female of the party arrived.
“Beast Sniper, reporting for duty!” The elven huntress donned a rather revealing combat dress. There's a bow on her back, and a whip on her thigh that radiates a suppressive aura, but those pale in comparison in terms of worth to the iridescent green gem embedded on her necklace.
Balam Past Self didn’t go for the offense during all this exchange. All along, his goal was to give time to his rank 5 main body, which was to give time to Heinrich. Engaging in an intense battle would exhaust the amount of demonic blood essence, the very limited resource that he has. And so, he let Beast Sniper join up with the team and discuss strategies.
Seven Spear, however, didn’t join in with the other three. He had already begun the activation sequence of Seven Dragon Destruction, and there was no way he was going to throw it away into the golden river.
Rushing towards Balam Past Self, he held the explosive multicolored ball on the edge of his spear. Instead of using it as a projectile and allowing Balam Past Self to inflict collateral damage on the environment, he used the ball as if it were a flail. By connecting the edge of his spear and the ball with an energy thread, he could simply ‘smash’ the multicolored ball into Balam Past Self.
“You’re no martial artist, you’re just a brute.” Balam Past Self taunted as he slapped the real Seven Dragon Destruction with a small, concentrated defensive barrier. The multicolored ball was being combined with Untraceable Spear, so any spectator can see a man wildly waving seven ‘flails’ of colorful balls towards a giant.
Seven Spear scoffed at Balam Past Self’s taunt, he increased the pace of his assault after sensing the demon’s stance shifting to search for the optimal state to defend against his attack with the minimum amount of energy.
Although the 8-meter tall demon has an advantage in physical strength, he’s originally a spell caster, one without his staff to support his spells. Each time he defended against Seven Spear’s balls with a small defensive shield, the very limited demonic blood essence that he had was rapidly declining since Seven Spear’s damage potential was off the charts.
Suddenly, Darkblade Shadow appeared behind Seven Spear, unfurling his dagger towards Balam Past Self. The demon was surprised as Darkblade Shadow did not appear in his precognition, because the antimage’s aim was never his body, but his defensive barrier.
As an antimage, Darkblade Shadow’s dagger is the bane of all magic-based defensive barriers. It was immediately showing signs of breaking like papier mache.
“Die, demon!” Utilizing the opening given by the antimage assassin, Seven Spear escalated his onslaught.
Crack! The shield broke, allowing the ball to hit the demon. The demon’s flesh was quickly evaporating into golden motes, as it wasn’t a true fleshy body in the first place, but a summoned manifestation of his Past Self.
Balam Past Self activates [Subjective Time Acceleration], using the very last demonic blood essence that he has before the ball of energy obliterates his ‘core’ located where the demonic heart should be.
In this accelerated state, he wanted to deal a lethal counterattack towards Seven Spear, but unfortunately, the spearmaster had a time-path countermeasure quite similar to Undying Juggernaut. The Juggernaut was able to match the time flow of any time-augmented existence within a certain distance, but Seven Spear was a league above that in terms of range.
The moment Balam Past Self gleamed in gold, Seven Spear’s body followed suit, matching the rate of time.
“You are… Pendragon’s descendant?” Balam Past Self was shocked, “No wonder His Majesty desired to destroy Avalon… Hahah~”
Splatter! Balam Past Self’s body completely disintegrates into motes of golden particles, unable to activate his last move. Seven Spear, however, acted as if killing the time demon’s projection of his past self left a bad aftertaste in his mouth.
“Damn it…” Seven Spear clicked his tongue. “Bloodline curse…”
“You okay there?” Undying Juggernaut led his teammates to check up on Seven Spear.
“You should be careful in the future. He just cursed me.” He glanced at Darkblade Shadow’s clone that assisted him in killing Balam Past Self. The clone was getting old at a visible rate, before turning into a shriveled corpse and eventually into dust.
“He took a chunk out of my lifespan…” Darkblade Shadow, the one who’s been with Undying Juggernaut and Beast Sniper, reported.
Due to his bloodline, Seven Spear had some resistance against time-path methods, so Balam Past Self’s bloodline curse doesn’t inflict meaningful damage on him. “You’re done?” He glanced at the trio who were ready for battle.
“Yes. Let’s proceed. I’ll take out the Theta Legion.” The elven huntress, Beast Sniper, whispered.
Although they seem to converse, all of their voices are transferred telepathically when talking to team members. To the outside world, the trio went to Seven Spear’s side and Beast Sniper suddenly took out… No, she summoned beasts from her dimensional life storage artifact, which was the amulet on her necklace.
Large dimensional gates opened, allowing tall, ferocious beasts of various shapes and sizes to emerge.
Beast Sniper’s Theta Legion consists of the most dangerous aerial beasts that she had gathered and nurtured throughout her life, starting from wyverns, great eagles, winged serpents, and even a turtle. All of them naturally have the capacity of flight, even without wings or magic since they were all trained, and nurtured, and because each is rank 5 Ancient Desolate beasts.
Naturally, Balam was fully aware of what was happening in the field. He needed some more time before his summoning was complete, but the enemies wouldn’t be so kind to wait. With Beast Sniper’s presence, the pressure that he endured rose significantly because the elven huntress had copious amounts of cannon fodder to overwhelm his shield.
Sighing, he coughed golden ichor towards the summoning circle, accelerating the activation sequence manifold. “Rank 5 time-path killer move, [Fateful Emissary of the Future]!” At that moment, Balam’s summoning circle flickered, revealing two figures of black and white.
“Hmm…” The white figure had pure white hair and donned a white lab suit as if he’d been summoned during an experiment. His facial features had a deep intellectual charm in them, his pupils appeared as if countless sea of stars, nay, perhaps galaxies swimming freely in them. “The flow of time had just accelerated more than tenfold…. Intriguing,” he whispered as he inspected the approaching beasts.
On the other hand, the black figure barely looks like a human. Yes, it has four limbs connected to a torso, but its hands could reach its own shin. It had a hunched back, and most importantly, this humanoid creature was a lump of blackness, with countless trillion black pixels distorting its true body. It was more fitting to refer to this creature as a distorted shadow, instead.
Seeing the two figures that he had just summoned, Balam reveals a genuinely perplexed expression. “Who the fuck are you two?” As someone who can see the future, it is rare for him to not recognize someone that he had summoned, but it was natural, since [Fateful Emissary of the Future] used karma as the vector of summoning.
The reasoning behind Balam’s summon was to protect Heinrich, so the avatars of those who are summoned from the future are those who had a heavy karmic relationship with 'Heinrich'.
“Limitless Heaven of Holy Terra.” The white-haired man smiled while his finger drew pure white runes in the air. His voice was calm, it carried a strange weight that seemed to be able to move heaven and earth.
“Distorted Shadow of Holy Terra.” The distorted shadow's voice was on the opposite spectrum of Limitless Heaven’s. It sounded as if a distant whisper, but at the same time, a scream to the ear. Distorted Shadow’s voice sounded like a broken recorder, it was heavy and chaotic, and it wasn’t easy on the ears. One will need to pay more attention than usual to understand what he said.
“What’s our victory condition?” Limitless Heaven is a man of a few words. That, or he simply wanted to know the reason why he was here.
“Protect Heinrich until he completes his ritual.” Balam replied, “I’ll be supporting the two of you.”
“Understood.” By the time Limitless Heaven replied, the enemy’s Ancient Desolate beast slaves had already lunged towards them. The Braves were smart, as they were wary of Balam's retaliation, so they sent the beast slaves to test the waters first.
Just as Balam was about to erect an emergency barrier, Limitless Heaven stopped him with a wave of his hand. The Intricate runes he etched onto the air radiated a brilliant white glow, unleashing an enchanting cascade of luminous runic letters. “Be at ease. They need to pierce my [Void-Heaven Horizon] before any attack could reach us.”
Balam was puzzled at first, but when he perked up his senses, he found out that the beast approaching them was slowing down.
“Time?” Balam’s first thought was how could someone manipulate the flow of time without him being aware of it. The next moment, however, he realized that it wasn’t the case. The flow of time didn’t change, but the distance has grown exponentially.
After Balam used an investigative killer move to satiate his curiosity, he found out that space was being stretched out. The closer it is to Limitless Heaven, the more stretched out space has become. He wanted to examine deeply, but Distorted Shadow tilted his head, seemingly staring at him.
This minor exchange didn’t bother Limitless Heaven. He simply observed the incoming beasts whose movement speed reduced as they got closer. Thirty seconds had already passed, but the beast’s advances became a crawling halt, to the point of almost stopping, while in reality, their speed had never stopped rising even after hitting Mach 100.
Utilizing the opening he created, Limitless Heaven calmly conjured his next set of runes, “Rank 5 compound killer move, [Heaven Constellation Chessboard]!”
