Chapter 1293: Time Is Up

'Where do I start?'

Stefan looked around him, searching for the most optimal option.

It didn't take him very long to find one.

He left his height and glided through space and touched the bulky Hugo 2.0.

In an instant, the entire thing turned to dust, leaving its two pilots intact.

Once he was done, Stefan returned to his initial position.

And then time resumed.

"... I could destroy you the same way I destroyed that Golem."

It took a while for everyone to process what just happened, but the moment they did, their senses shot up in danger.

It was too slow for Stefan's tastes, but he saw them react to Hugo's disappearance and the defenseless states of Freya and Maro.

It proved his point perfectly well.

"I could easily—"

"Then why don't you do it? Why don't you kill us all off that easily" Ivan defiantly responded.

"..."

In response to his challenge, Stefan said nothing.

"Come on! Do it!" Ivan raised both hands, stretching them out as if he was expecting his end.

"You have all the power in the world now. We get it! You see us as mere insects now, right? We're so pathetically weak that it's no challenge for you, isn't that so? Then why don't you make your job easier? Kill us all with that awesome power of yours!"

It might have seemed like Ivan was crazy due to his rant, but he was driving at a point.

A point he had been trying to make since the try of the battle.

"See? You can't do it, can you, Stefan? Or rather... you don't want to."

And for Ivan, he already knew the reason why.

"You don't want us to die."

"..."

Stefan said nothing still. He watched with his apathetic gaze as Ivan made his claim.

"You say Legris told you to end us, and that it's your purpose or whatever, but I'm sure you understand how wrong this is! You recognize what you're doing is evil, and you don't want to eliminate us!" At this point, Ivan was already shouting violently.

"That's why you're going easy on us! That's why you keep telling us to back off! That's why you—!"

"Be silent."

Stefan's gentle voice suddenly echoed, and for some reason it contained more volume and depth than Ivan's tantrums.

"I won't! You know I'm right that—!"

~PEW!~

A beam of immensely concentrated light—much faster than any of them could even see—instantly tore through the air at that moment and sliced off Ivans two hands.

All in a moment, the two hands that he had raised in defiance were utterly eviscerated.

"G-garrghhhhhh!!!"

Ivan's blood curdling scream echoed out, his voice carrying pain and horrors as he let it all out.

Kazen and Elrich swiftly reacted by erecting Magic Barriers, but Stefan only scoffed at their efforts.

"That's useless to me, you know?"

That didn't stop them from reinforcing the barrier with even more Magic.

"Suit yourselves, I gue—"

"Y-you... you didn't kill... urgh... me..." Ivan's voice interrupted Stefan's low whisper.

"I knew... you wouldn't... kugh... do it..."

Ivan's daring glare at Stefan felt so intentional—like he could see through the young man.

"You're not like Legris, Stefan. You're not a bad g—!"

"Time is up."

Once Stefan said this, everywhere fell into a hushed silence.

Tension seemed to take over.

"Huh? Are you still on about that? Stefan, just admit it already! You won't—!"

~PEW!~

This time, the light traveled straight towards Ivan's head and it disintegrated in an instant.

"I told you to be quiet." Stefan sighed, a bit of steam rising from the finger which he used to send the light blast.

The Magic Barrier that both Kazen and Elrich erected were nowhere near enough to defend the now deceased Ivan from Stefan's attack.

"I only spared your lives because I didn't want to waste energy unnecessarily. There was a chance that backup could arrive, and I had to prepare." Stefan said, suddenly ascending further and further away from the group.

"But now that time is up, I don't have to hold back any longer. I'll just destroy this entire planet at once."

He rose even further upward, his unfeeling gaze reflecting the figures of those who were too powerless to stop him.

Gawain tried to fly towards him, but Stefan swiftly spoke before it could think of doing anything.

The same applied to everyone else.

"Take a single move and I'll cut you down where you stand. It's that simple."

That wasn't much of a choice, considering how they were all going to die in a few seconds anyway.

Still, the pressure he exerted and the threatening presence he possessed prevented any of the people from making a single action.

Fortunately for Gawain, he wasn't a person.

~WHOOOOOOOOO—!~

The moment energy within him surged and he made to leap from his position...

~BOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!~

Light so quick that no one could perceive until it was too late pierced through Gawain's Core, and a second volley bathed its mechanical body in sheer light.

The inevitable result was an explosion that destroyed every fiber of its body.

"Now where was I...?" Stefan mumbled to himself as he ascended even further upward.

"Ah, yes. The elimination of this world."

The lull in his tone displayed just how he felt about the tragedy that was about to happen—the tragedy he would initiate.

He felt nothing.

"Let us begi... hm? What's that?" He stopped, just as he was about to expand his energy to cover the entire world and destroy it.

There was something he sensed in that split moment.

"What is that? What did I just—?"

~WHOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!~

Before he could complete his statement, a blur much faster than any light he had generated suddenly rushed towards him.

It even caught him off guard.

The blur pushed him out of the planet's stratosphere, instantly disconnecting him from the planet in the fraction of an instant.

None of the powerless ones below knew what had just happened... or what was to come.

*

*

*

Thanks for reading, everyone!

What is the blur? Has the moment of salvation arrived?

I wonder...