Chapter 1138: A Scholar's Warfare [Pt 2]

"Haa..."

There were a lot of Spells in my arsenal that I could utilize to my advantage, but after considering for a moment, there was one I could utilize which would ensure the swift demise of my opponent without taking up any energy from me.

[The Sun]

It had the ability to destroy anything, whether it be energy or concepts.

And right now, I had to eliminate this thing before it wreaked any further havoc or learned anything more than it was supposed to.

"[S Bomb: Level 5]" Opening up my palm, a crimson-orange orb manifested above it.

It hovered gently above my palm, but even I could sense just how much energy it had within it. This was an 'S Bomb', after all.

[S Bomb] was classified into Levels ranging 1-9, depending on the amount of energy output I wanted to release.

The destruction of the entire Demon Continent could be labeled as a Level 7 explosion. Compared to that, Level 5 was considerably weaker, but that didn't make it a joke either.

'If I reduce the range and concentrate it on the target, it should be able to completely destroy it.' However, if I was to do that, how would I obtain the energy sample I desired?

[The Sun] wasn't going to leave any trace for me once it was done.

'Perhaps this isn't a good idea after all... hmm?' My eyes narrowed, and then widened as I stared down at the enemy I was deliberating against.

'What in the world?'

Hovering on his palm was exactly the same stuff I had on mind.

'An S Bomb?!'

How could it have replicated my Spell if I didn't sense either an Arcana, nor the capacity for it to have done something like that earlier?

'Don't tell me...!' My eyes widened in surprise as the intense radiation from the orb was enough to offset the restricting Spell I had surrounding him.

In essence, it was now free!

'It's not just learning from me... it's downright copying me!'

It probably copied my teleportation, just the same way it now used my S Bomb. The more I thought of how and why this was possible, the more it dawned on me...

'This enemy is dangerous!'

All this time I thought I was the one observing it, but it was the other way around. It was slowly learning from me and developing itself to counter my abilities.

'I can't afford to use my Original Magic or anything more powerful since it'll get even more difficult to defeat it in the long run.'

Fortunately, I was still in my base state, so this thing hadn't gotten the opportunity to learn any of my powerful forms—that is, if it could.

I still didn't know how its abilities functioned, and while my overly curious mind wanted to know more, I had to find a way to eliminate it copletely, while also obtaining its essence for future study.

~WHOOOOOOOOSSSHHHH!~

As I was still deep in thought, it threw the S Bomb towards me.

'This guy...' Using Spellcraft unconsciously, I instantly used my energy to destabilize the energy reaction within the S Bomb, instantly rendering it null.

Before long, the whole orb faded into nothingness before it even reached me.

'Ah, I used Spellcraft. It can't copy that, can it?' Narrowing my eyes on the blue creature who simply proceeded to create two new S Bombs, I reached my conclusion.

It couldn't replicate Spellcraft.

'Just the same way it didn't copy my [Absolute Suspension] and use the Spell to free itself, it also can't use Spellcraft.'

Perhaps its ability was only effective on Spells it could directly observe and analyze, something akin to my own Original Magic. It couldn't indiscriminately know and use any Spell I utilized.

'That's why it split itself into numerous particles instead of just cancelling out the Spell.'

The way I saw it, this creature's abilities were divided into two-fold.

'One is its ability to replicate a Spell it has observed, and the other is to adapt to situations where replication is impossible.'

So far, all of that checked out. None of my observations from earlier contradicted—whether directly or indirectly—with the model I created.

Thus, the best way to kill this thing would be to use a sure-fire attack that it couldn't directly observe. If I added my desire to preserve its energy to the mix, I would have to take a different route to achieve that objective.

With all of these conditions in place, I could see a clear path to victory.

My opponent was now combining both S Bombs, generating a fusion reaction that would birth a new Bomb—obviously one more powerful.

By my estimate, it would lead to an S Bomb: Level 6.

"Let's end this already." I declared, stretching my hands in the entity's direction, a smile witten all over my face.

"Agreed." It responded, a swirling mass of energy now hovering on the palm of its hand.

Whether or not I decided to defuse the blast. The creature would take a further step in its evolution, and most of my abilities either consumed too much Energy to utilize, or were visible to the naked eye.

Well... unless I added a little thing called [Unknowable].

"You've already lost." I smiled at my opponent who, for some reason, couldn't leave its position.

All I needed was a few more seconds, and the results would become evident.

3.

2.

1.

"A-ahhh... ahhh..."

The S Bomb in the palm of its hands suddenly burst, like a baloon, turning into several particles of light, which in turn burst and turn into more particles of light.

The process repeated itself almost inefinitely until the particles of light were invisible to the naked eye.

'[Degradation]' My thoughts as I smiled at the powerless creature before me.

Simply put, it was the breaking down of energy into smaller units, and causing them to further dissipate with the flow of time. This reaction would cause energy to be released in smaller increments.

As such, this Spell was the natural enemy of my opponent who was made of pure energy.

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[A/N]

Thanks for reading, all of you!

Much appreciation.