She was a grown woman now. She was no longer the same naive nineteen-year-old girl. She was an adult woman who could think about what was best for herself and for her daughter. Even if it hurt her down to the core, she had to accept it.
'I was a broken man, that day.'
She had to accept that things would never be the same and that perhaps…
'Then what about our daughter?! She needs a father!'
…it was best if they went their separate ways and lead their own lives.
[I am sorry, Baraquiel. But we cannot continue.]
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|DxD|
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[The Kaioken, a divine technique that works by stimulating the user's divine strand to secrete demi-ki that will result in an overall qualitive boost to the user's body at the cost of their stamina. The appearance of the technique is signified by a dense maroon aura surrounding them. And then…]
"Let's go! Full power! HaaaaaAAAAAA!"
GRUUU!
[...the Demigod State, a transformation that can be achieved by reaching a threshold where the user's divine strand undergoes an evolution or a mutation. The appearance of the transformation is signified by the user's hair spiking up and turning blood red. Slightly different from the Kaioken, the aura colour is a more vibrant red. From my observations, there is also a Demigod Suppressed State where although the hair will still rise up, it will not turn red. However, there is one thing both the technique and the transformation have in common.]
Su Su Su Su Su Su Su Su Su Su
[They grant a massive increase in power.]
Deep in the confines of the time chamber, Igor…was not alone. Besides Aurelia, there was him on one side, and ten-thousand copies of himself on the other side.
Separated by a distance of half-a-kilometre, Igor stood alone with his fists clenched in excitement. His blood red eyes scanned the thousands of clones organised like a division, gradual anticipation building up within him as he got into a stance.
Like a well-ordered army, the clones stood in neat rows, each of them radiating the power of the supreme class. With all of them having spiky red hair and dense red aura surrounding them, it was like a sea of red when viewed from above where Aurelia currently was.
Even though she was over a kilometre above all of them, she could still clearly see all of them with her supernaturally enhanced vision. And also, she could see the two massive hour glasses slowly trickling sand into the lower cylinder.
"Something like this should been done a month prior, not a week before."
With a very small amount of remaining sand left on the upper cylinder, she could calculate that just a little over six days were left until the ten years were over.
[I hope he'll have recovered by then.]
It was plain obvious at first glance what was about to happen. With one red flame standing in opposition of thousands of red flames, Aurelia was still tempted to stop this madness, even if it meant not getting to catch another glimpse of his power.
Looking at the massive scroll lying at his side on the ground, a part of her regretted why she even created such a scroll.
[My Multi-Clone Division Scroll, a strategic innovation that has the potential to revolutionize warfare, reduced to a training tool.]
Lamenting the number of hours she'd have to put in to make another one, she confided in herself that at the very least, she would be able to analyse the debut performance of her creation and work on improving it.
Vwong Vwong Vwong Vwong
With around a dozen magic circles forming around her, she scribbled a few more things under her notebook where she had written about the Kaioken and Demigod State.
"An army of Igors truly would be frightening."
On the ground below, Igor was glaring at the army of clones with a serious expression. If this was a spar, he could let himself go wild. But these were clones whose only design was to kill. He knew that if he let himself get swayed by his jubilant emotions, he may as well die.
But, no matter how serious he tried to be, he couldn't stop his mouth from twitching before gradually stretching into a small smile. His body was trembling from excitement as he watched his dream manifest in front of him.
"An army of ten-thousand…I have waited so long for this."
Watching identical copies of himself stand as still as statues, he knew that if he made one single move, they would attack him immediately. And that is exactly what he counted on. With his aura steadily fluctuating due to his excitement, the blonde let out the excess aura.
GRUUU!
With his demi-ki bursting out like a giant pyre, the redhead reeled back his fist.
"Let's do this."
Su! …Su! Su! Su! Su! Su! Su!
As if the specified parameters were met, the clones also rushed towards Igor like a swarm as soon as he charged forward. The five-hundred metre gap between them was covered so qui-
CLASH!
Silence…
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
Diving right into the middle, Igor began fighting like his life depended on it. With every blow sounding like cannon fire, he was in a heavy disadvantage. Having been surrounded from all sides, including the skies, he was in a very overwhelming position.
But…
Su!...Su! Su!…Su!…Su! Su! Su! Su! Su!
With his eyes closed, Igor was perfectly dodging the majority of their attacks in the most unexpected of ways. Leaving afterimages as he dodged, he was definitely hard to catch even with over a dozen limbs coming after him.
Twisting his body, hovering in midair, and catching a few blows he couldn't dodge, Igor was perfectly exhibiting the benefits of his training these past few years. After that fight with those two clones he had while weighted, the blonde realised how beneficial perception and reaction speed would be in a fight against opponents that would be stronger than him.
Over time, he gradually mastered the art of fighting without the need to rely on his eyes. After all, in a fight with multiple opponents, eyes become one of the most useless senses to have. Despite the overwhelming number of foes targeting him, he had a slight advantage since only a few could target him at a time.
And while his clones were pressed for accuracy, it was optional for him.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
Quickly taking advantage of a small gap, Igor let a few well-times mouth blasts to a few clones in quick succession.
Zuu! Zuu! Zuu! Zuu!
With dozens of clones exploding into white motes of light, Igor was briefly surprised that all it took was a simple attack to dispel them. Fortunately, he didn't dwell for too long on the thought…
Druuuu!
…or else he would've been decimated by the massively condensed ki blast that rushed like a comet towards him.
Tswii!
Booom!
From her vantage point in the sky, all Aurelia could see with her normal eyes were flashes of red at best. The redheads were fighting at too high a speed for her brain to process the images. It was why she had these magic circles to help her observe the battle. With a dozen of them hovering next to her, they were like her eyes and ears.
As she processed the input he got from the circles, her hand continued to scribble in her notebook.
[Without a single day of rest, Lord Igor had trained himself to the point of near death. As I write this, I cannot help but be impressed by the audaciousness of his ideas. As he fights against ten thousand of his clones, he has yet to suffer a disadvantage. This is quite unbelievable, but this is all a result of his enhanced perception that he has trained extensively for the past three years.]
Swoosh! …Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh
Down below, the battle had taken a sudden turn as Igor flew away from the battle sight. Parts of his shirt had been torn, especially on the sleeves where it seemed the fabric had been burnt away. There were slight injuries on him, but his gaze remained focused.
As he flew away, the clones did not fail to swarm after him like wasps.
"Hmph."
Glancing behind him, Igor avoided the myriad of ki blasts and…
Tswii! Tswii! Tswii!
…the occasional clone or three who would use the Instant Transmission to appear in front of him. But with a combination of perception and his Instant Vanish, he was able to dodge and gradually build some distance.
Continuing to fly, he stretched his hands to his sides and began building up some ki.
Zuuuuuu…
Small orange spheres formed in his hands as he continued to dodge. Thousands of clones tried using Instant Transmission to lock him down, but it wasn't easy. When everyone had the same energy signature, locking onto one person out of thousands was incredibly hard. It was why that out of thousands that tried, only two or three could successfully manage to appear in front of Igor.
Tswii! Tswii! …Tswii!
Even then, the redhead was always able to successfully evade all of them. Having endured training with Sun Wukong, he had long since developed the ability to feel when someone was focusing on his energy. With the Instant Transmission, he could feel exactly how many people were locking on to him…
Su!
…and easily calculate how to dodge them. With only a few succeeding to teleport towards him, the other few thousand that failed would teleport in front of their fellow clone compatriots, forcing them to slow down.
With this phenomenon repeating a few times, the distance between Igor and the clones continued to widen.
Zuuuu…Zu! Zu! Zu! Zu! Zu! Zu! Zu!
Having completely charged his technique, he didn't immediately attack. His eyes were closed in focus as he spread his senses outwards. Despite his mind being occupied with other matters, he still had enough sense to dodge and still maintain the heavily condensed ki in his hands.
[...]
Calmly navigating through the thousands of energy signatures, Igor finally found the one he was looking for.
[I'll have to borrow you, sister.]
Finding Aurelia's energy signature trailing just a kilometre or so behind all of them, the redhead opened his eyes with a smile…
"Heh~."
…and vanished.
Tswii!
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|DxD|
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Aurelia was struggling to keep up. Despite using numerous magic spells to make herself fly faster, she was trailing behind. Previously, Igor had flown in her direction along with the clones chasing after him like hounds.
The massive pressure they released felt like suddenly developing a headache. Fortunately for her, she had developed countermeasures against this. Unfortunately, she still couldn't keep up with their massive speed. As she followed behind, the distance between him and herself only grew wider.
But, in a twisted turn of events, she slowly felt Igor's ki locking on to her like a rope around her waist.
[Is he?]
Her mind worked quickly to decipher why he would do such a thing. But it wasn't fast enough because not even halfway through her conjecture, he appeared with his hands clasped together.
Tswii!
Her eyes widened when she felt the insanely concentrated energy melding together as he brought his hands together in front of him.
zu zu zu zu Zu Zu Zu Zu ZU ZU ZU ZU ZU ZU
There were crackles of lightning as the concentrated energy shook violently due to a need for a release. And the redhead would give it.
"[Sunset Flash!]"
Ka..DRUUUUUUUUU!!!
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AN
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Apologies for the delay in updating. I had unfortunately caught a nasty sickness that thankfully didn't turn out to be anything too detrimental. Regardless, today is Friday and as much as I would like to write and edit another chapter, I barely have an hour before the Sabbath begins. I will come with two chapters on Sunday as compensation.
If you're interested in reading ahead, here's the link: patreon.com/HolyGambler