Chapter 1576: Escape [2]

Searing pain attacked him first.

Grand Duke Maveth was a unique case where two abilities manifested in one person. On top of his regular abilities, which he had yet to reveal, he had the power to heighten the pain sensitivity of his victims.

Every time his attacks struck, the victim's pain would be squared.

With a single attack, Damien was caught in the cycle, already feeling pain at twice the normal rate.

Which was why he could feel it at all.

His arm had been taken off with that attack. It was already regrowing, and with Damien's tolerance, losing an arm for a moment didn't mean much at all.

However, he felt the sear as his nerves tried to send signals to an arm that wasn't there. He even felt the phantom pain after his arm healed.

'Dangerous.'

Damien made a mental note to watch for Maveth's attacks. If the pain amplification got too high, his perception would be limited by the nervous responses being shot through his body.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Damien continued his defensive strategy. He took control of the malakh around him, sent attacks back to those who attacked him, and used his own mana to create chaos in his vicinity so others couldn't easily approach him.

The entire time, Damien remained connected to his Existence, connected to reality, feeling the Existence barrier around him.

BOOOOOOOOM!

"Khhhh...!"

Damien gritted his teeth.

'I can't lose focus.'

He had to split his attention between the battlefield and the barrier.

With the Sanctuary locked away and separated from him, he couldn't summon Alexander or Damian to aid him. He was on his own, forced to take the entire burden with his singular main body.

Damien spun around, accurately gauging his situation.

'The main attackers are Klaus and Maveth.'

Grand Duke Lance had disappeared into the shadows. He was likely waiting for the perfect moment to land a fatal blow.

'Maveth has pain amplification and...'

BOOOOOOOOM!

'...force control.'

The power was similar to Damien's in that it manifested as a formless wave.

It was hard to sense and even harder to see, but when it struck, it could hit one with the force of a million suns.

Unlike Damien's power, Maveth's waves were consistent. The power contained within was always the same, and only the amount of force changed.

However, it was a powerful ability that also contained some aspects of spatial control.

Maveth could summon force from anywhere. He didn't just have to shoot it out of his body.

For instance, the attacks aimed at Damien right now...

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

...were spawning directly on him, giving him no more than a flash of a second to dodge.

Unfortunately, that amount of time wasn't enough when there were tens of force explosions taking place just inches away from each other all around Damien.

BANG!

He finally got struck. The pain he felt was amplified to four times the normal amount, and the attack wasn't as simple as a severed arm.

Damien's chest caved in. His heart was pierced by a loose rib. Gritting his teeth, he held his scream and willed the Authority of Immortality to heal him quickly.

WHOOSH!

That was when Klaus appeared behind him again.

A massive swirl of malakh covered the two of them, and as Damien was thrown into a world of darkness, a single speck of light illuminated his vision.

'Dodge. I have to-'

VOOOOOOOM!

Klaus grabbed Damien in a bear hug and squeezed as tight as he could.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Damien immediately threw several needles of mana out of his back, but Klaus didn't let go.

The dot of light became brighter and bigger as it approached closer. Soon enough, the form of a spear flying faster than the speed of light became clear to Damien's eyes.

And it was aimed straight for his heart.

'Damn.'

Damien summoned spatial mana and attempted to teleport.

His body began to fade into the spatial layers, but exactly at that moment...

CRASH!

The spatial layers themselves shattered, leaving Damien stuck in the open.

'Force control!'

Maveth's power wasn't just useful in attacking other people. Its effects on the atmosphere could be just as devastating.

With Klaus holding him in place and Maveth blocking his escape, the massive spear that Lance threw was able to strike him without an inch of inaccuracy.

SHIK!

The spear stabbed through his chest.

Klaus immediately backed off.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

An explosion of dark light swallowed Damien whole.

His skin burned off and his flesh was seared. His bones began to melt, and as if that wasn't bad enough, Maveth saw this as the perfect opportunity.

BANG!

Another wave of force struck Damien.

BANG!

Then another.

BANG!

Then another again.

Suddenly, his pain had been amplified from four times the normal amount to sixty-five thousand times what any human should've ever been forced to feel.

Damien couldn't hold it back anymore.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He screamed in agony. He couldn't even explain the absolute atrocity that was being committed on his body right now.

His mind went blank. He couldn't think about anything but the pain.

His body froze. His muscles locked up as they were bombarded with enough nervous stimulation to shatter any normal person's mental world into a million tiny pieces.

Damien held on by a string, forcing himself through the pain.

But that was not something his enemies would allow.

BOOM!

Klaus struck him from the back. He was a simpler battle type who had extreme speed and physical strength, but when his power was combined with his peers, he became a monster beyond monsters.

Lance's power was nuanced. He could "throw" anything at speeds incalculable to the human mind. As long as an object was flung by his arm, it could become a weapon stronger than any Godly artifact.

Those two were the main damage dealers.

And Maveth...he just watched from the back, constantly heightening Damien's pain and assuring that he would never find an opening to escape his torment.

Famas laid out a solid groundwork, but he was too emotional for his own good.

When someone who was cold and calculating like Maveth took charge, those preparations could be fully exploited, leading to a situation where even someone as great as Damien couldn't fight back.

Why was he so confident?

Despite knowing that it would end up like this, Damien was still more concerned with his mother and Aunt's situation than his own.

How was he able to approach the battle when he knew he'd experience so much suffering?

The answer was quite simple, actually.

He didn't consider it at all.

He didn't even think about losing, nor did he have a thought about any sort of pain he'd have to face.

Now, he was in it. He couldn't back out anymore, and the pain was already upon him.

However, he refused to fold.

With every passing second, as he felt the constant impacts tearing his body to shreds, Damien regained a tiny bit of rationality.

And with that rationality, he was able to seize control over the Existence in his possession.

All things were trivial in front of him.

All concepts were his to dominate and rule.

As long as he remembered that singular, extremely important fact...

Damien could do anything.

Even if that meant destroying a piece of Existence itself.