The lightning of divine punishment would not cease for the thoughts of mortals, nor would time stop flowing forward for the anger of mortals—at least not yet.
And Xia De, in the rolling torrent of time, at the moment the lightning struck, clearly felt the speed of light and perceived the strange changes in space under the divine punishment lightning.
His raging soul allowed his already keen perception to probe deeper secrets of the world; the tendrils of his soul embraced the world. His instantaneous perception of space made Xia De feel as if he had broken some strange shackles. The Knowledge gained from shallow discussions about the secrets of space with Miss Sylvia flowed through his heart like water. In that miraculous state of rage, he took a step, embraced Mia by the lake, and then used his back to shield her from the falling lightning.
【Outsider, you have gained insight into “space,” and you have received inspiration regarding space. Miracle - Raglai's Leap: The maximum movement distance in Divine Radiance state has expanded from 33 feet (approximately 10 meters) to 66 feet (approximately 20 meters).】
Boom!
The lightning struck, and the thunder from the dark clouds above only rumbled a little belatedly after the flash. In the rumbling thunder, the black clouds quickly dispersed, revealing the starry sky behind them. And that first ray of starlight was now shining on Schluch Lake, illuminating the Outsider who faced the sky with his back.
The clothes on his back were almost completely destroyed, leaving the skin on his back charred. Under the increasingly clear starry sky, Xia De struggled to straighten up, supporting himself with his hands on the ground, and carefully placed the cat he had just protected so tightly onto his shoulder.
“Woof!”
The divine punishment lightning was completely blocked by Xia De's body. The illusionary runestone made by Tifa was not damaged. Mia “dog” cried pitifully, as if worried about Xia De's health. It seemed to have been frightened, but appeared completely unharmed, not even a single cat hair changed.
While the last direct exposure to lightning had caused almost all of Xia De's organs to fail, this time only the skin and internal organs on his back were damaged.
The last youth everlasting leaf was swallowed by Xia De, and his injuries were rapidly recovering. Black arcs of electricity still danced on him. He looked at his right hand, where streaks of Lightning Spear were gathering in his palm.
As Xia De took a deep breath, gray airflow entered his nostrils from all over his body, and his lightning-damaged clothes slowly restored as if time were flowing backward.
Patting the pitiful cat, Xia De looked up at Karl Liebesich, who stood trembling on the lake. As 【raging storm】 was closed again, the white mist brought by the relic's arrival surged back, but this did not prevent the two men by the lake and on the lake from staring at each other.
The Cultists' Destiny Ring behind him was covered in electric light, but under the moon, clear cracks appeared on the surface of the Destiny Ring—this was the price of using the relic.
Xia De watched him under the moonlight, his gaze gradually blurred by the white mist, causing Karl Liebesich to feel a terror that almost suffocated him. The rage contained within that calm gaze was a power he knew all too well.
He vaguely realized that he had just made the wrong choice:
“You—”
Xia De stepped back onto the lake surface, but this time, what surged behind him was not just the white mist of the lake, but also scorching steam mist. Bells and whistles sounded together, and a huge black shadow, carrying enough heat to boil the lake, appeared deep within the steam mist, slowly approaching and revealing its full form.
Ling Runes shimmering with gold, silver, bronze, and iron spiritual light, as the terrifying and enormous Destiny Ring rotated, drew streaks of light, carrying the white mist as if to devour all power.
Although Xia De had not yet obtained divinity, two lightning strikes caused by divine power, coupled with months of deciphering the raging storm Book》, had already allowed him to understand the power of the Old God 【raging storm】.
He did not speak. The Lightning Spear in his palm crackled and shot towards the Destiny Ring like an electric snake. As the dazzling electric light coiled around the brass ring, an extreme silver blasphemy spiritual light, along with the white mist, gathered towards the Destiny Ring from all directions. Streaks of silver light emerged in the air, but only Karl Liebesich, opposite Xia De, could see this unusual scene.
In the mist, “she” whispered:
【When the first lightning bolt tore through the starry sea of the material world, it was not originally meant to conceal the rage of fear. The Old God stirred up waves in the Storm Sea; lightning was her powerful weapon to protect herself.】
【You have listened to the story of the Old God “raging storm,” and you have learned the blasphemy of the Old God “raging storm.”】
【Outsider, you have inscribed the silver blasphemy Ling Rune - Lightning.】
The rapidly rotating Destiny Ring gradually slowed down. The second Ling Rune of the Four Ring, 【Lightning】, was clearly engraved amidst the blasphemy spiritual light, appearing on the Destiny Ring, shimmering with spiritual light.
Karl Liebesich swallowed, instinctively retreating on the lake surface:
“So you are only a Four Ring as well.”
He didn't know why he cared about this point at the moment.
But looking at the fiery red figure covered in cracks, seeing his clothes restore as if time were flowing backward, he knew that this time he had probably chosen the wrong opponent. Perhaps, choosing that ugly Hexacle woman earlier would have been the right choice:
“Miss Pa Wo, the Vice President of the Truth Society, knew the probability long ago. She deliberately left this opponent for me—”
The Three Ring Destiny Ring, set against Xia De's strangely enormous Destiny Ring, looked as ridiculous as a key chain. But Karl Liebesich still tried his best to activate his Destiny Ring, so that he could defend against the coming angry blow, now that he had temporarily lost the qualification to open 【raging storm】 again.
“Storm Barrier!”
The blasphemy Ling Rune 【Storm】 shimmered with spiritual light. The finger bones of a sailor he had personally killed on a stormy night were thrown out, allowing the Miracle to exert its extreme effect.
“Bone Armor!”
The core Ling Rune 【Bone】 shimmered with spiritual light. After presiding over a living sacrifice to a god, bone powder ground from a skull tainted with divine power, retrieved from a corpse pit, was poured at his feet, and a visible exoskeleton rapidly grew along his body.
“Vincent's Mirror Reflection!”
The whisper Ling Rune 【Mirror】 shimmered with spiritual light. A chip obtained from an employer after completing an assassination mission was sprinkled into the air, constructing a completely transparent reflective mirror in front of him.
“Water Curtain's—”
He no longer had the chance to use a fourth Miracle. The Great Sin Chains, like a bullet, pierced through the dense fog and arrived before him. While coiling around 【raging storm】, the lightning that erupted from the relic's automatic counterattack could not harm Xia De.
The chains retracted, bringing the brass metal box back to Xia De's side. Xia De held the box in his left hand, looking at the panicked Karl Liebesich on the lake surface. The latter had not expected this relic to be taken so easily. He said in a trembling voice:
“You are not a believer of my Lord, you cannot use this—”
The lid of the box was opened, and Xia De's right hand directly entered the box, as if the box had “bitten” his hand. In this state, the relic did not even come close to losing control; instead, it seemed to have completely quieted down.
As the brilliant golden light permeated from the box's opening, extending along the fiery red embers on Xia De's arm and spreading inch by inch as cracks, climbing over Xia De's entire body, a fear that Karl Liebesich could not describe, a fear that almost made him want to prostrate himself and kneel, made him vaguely understand what he had encountered:
“You!”
“I am you—”
The glow of the Original Fire's embers was being completely suppressed by the Divine Radiance. Xia De heard her chuckle, as if she had long anticipated this situation.
A warm airflow brushed his ears, and it seemed as if two gentle arms, one on each side, embraced him from both sides of Xia De's neck, but when he looked down, there was clearly nothing there.
【You are me.】
The brass box covered with water plants fell to the ground, then disintegrated into several pieces of rusty black metal. Xia De held up his right hand; although his palm was empty, the golden Divine Radiance that had been spreading inch by inch now completely covered the fiery red embers, flowing over his entire body like water.
As his raised right hand clenched, by Schluch Lake, the golden Divine Radiance completely permeated every inch of crack on his skin and the surface of his clothes. That familiar sense of power once again swept through Xia De's soul, and an instinctive joy made him sigh softly at this moment:
“This is power!”
The power of divinity swept through his body, then was stably contained by his soul. Acquiring another drop of divinity, an indescribable joy and satisfaction throughout his body, made the usually composed Xia De unable to help but smile at this moment.
【Outsider, you have absorbed the divinity of the Old God “raging storm.”】
【You have gained insight into “raging storm power.”】
【Outsider, you have entered a temporary state of “Divine Overflow.” Note: Excessive use of this state's power will lead to temporary unconsciousness.】
This time he did not obtain a Ling Rune because Xia De had already understood the power of “Lightning” from the attack of divine power. And now, completely containing the power from the Old God 【raging storm】, with his whole body seemingly in a joyous optimal state, Xia De knew what he should do.
The Destiny Ring disappeared behind him, and the Divine Radiance gradually extinguished on his body, but when Xia De opened his eyes, Karl Liebesich clearly saw two golden Lightning Spears flash in his eyes.
“You—”
An incredible truth seemed to be right before his eyes, but due to fear, the eyebrowless Karl Liebesich was completely unable to think. Xia De was on the shore, and he was on the surface of Schluch Lake, prepared to resist any kind of attack, but the feeling that he would die in the next second grew stronger and stronger.
“Are you okay?”
Xia De stroked the cat on his shoulder. He had used “Raglai's Leap” beyond its limit to block the divine punishment lightning for Mia. At this moment, Mia was behaving very normally, except for her fur standing on end due to static electricity, and she even clutched Xia De's clothes tightly with her small paws, seemingly a little scared.
Knowing that it was temporarily fine, Xia De also relaxed. Although he did not obtain the 【Rage】 Ling Rune, the anger in his heart at this moment was absolutely not false.
He still had to continue attending the unfinished banquet later, so he could not wantonly abuse the power of “Divine Overflow.” But at this time, he was different from when he first came to Lakeview Manor and encountered divinity; if it was just one or two casual strikes, he could still bear it.
“Lightning is part of sunlight.”
He said softly, recalling how he had used Yiluna's brooch several times, recalling the feeling of a golden long spear, composed of the Chosen One's power, being projected from his own hand.
Xia De lightly leaped into the air. Karl Liebesich watched dumbfounded as Xia De raised his right hand, watching the crackling Lightning Spear accumulate in his hand. The Cultists, who had lost their holy relic, knew in their hearts that they needed to escape at this moment, but their body completely refused to obey.
Behind Xia De, a corner of the Destiny Ring was revealed, and the 【Lightning】 Ling Rune shimmered with powerful silver spiritual light.
The dense fog in the lake seemed to deliberately avoid Xia De. Karl Liebesich's eyes reflected everything. A silver and white interwoven Lightning Spear, in Xia De's hand in the air, extended forward and backward from the center of his gripping palm. Intricate patterns appeared on the dazzling long spear, and as the thunder cracked, the silver moon was right behind Xia De at that moment.
The devout believer knelt on the lake surface, looking up with closed eyes, his arms spread towards Xia De above:
“God, why do you—”
The silver-white Lightning Spear was thrown. Karl Liebesich was bathed in electric light, and under the moon, he already knew his fate.
“Lightning Spear!”
------Side Note------
PS: The first Ling Rune of the Four Ring is the currently sealed blasphemy - Red Butterfly, so blasphemy - Lightning is the second one. By the way, the Red Butterfly Ling Rune was obtained during the Sicar Mountain battle, by absorbing the God of Vampires' divinity with the help of The Innocent Creator's power. The seal was due to the price paid by the sleeping princess Mystic Lock to save the twin Red Butterfly.
Also, this volume probably won't be finished in 200 chapters (covers face).
I don't know if the chapter comments are restored now, it's so lonely not seeing your comments. Please vote.
