No One POV
Back in the old times when Orion had joined the ranks of rankers.
He was able to impress the Unbreakable Hunter because of his skill in archery. Orion's strength was so impressive that even many can't compete against it.
Orion was just a talented hunter whose skills are called the best among the Greeks. One time, in his arrogance, he boasted that his skills are best among all the Adaptaes. The ranker Hunter wants to see how much Orion's words were true. Both compete against each other. At that moment, she realized that even though her archery and speed and even knowledge on beasts are better than Orion but his strength alone makes him defy this shit with his skills in archery.
Grey's POV
The whole Hagia Sophia is gone. The whole place itself collapsed. Orion's strength is beyond my understanding. If I think of my gamer skills then…my eyes will say, his strength is already good or one can say it is A rank.
Everywhere is dust. Orion just went all out against her. If this is his true strength, then I am just weakling, no, I am a lesser.
"He overdid it," Sophie said.
Dust was going down.
Orion is standing like he killed her, but something shocked us.
She is still standing. She was able to block his attack.
"No way!" I yell.
Kalki was just behind me with an open mouth.
Something is wrong. She didn't block the attack. She survived that blow.
Bones of her legs are snapped open from the flesh. Bones are showing. Her legs break open like cracks.
"I am not done yet," Gū Chén said.
She is trying to stand up, but her legs have given up on standing. She is now dead for sure.
"This is not the end!" She yells.
She is somehow able to stand up thanks to using her spear as a stick for balance.
"Did you notice something?" Kalki asked me.
"What thing?"
"Those red ropes which were binding her body…are snapping up"
I notice it right now when he points out towards the battle scene.
Those mysterious ropes are cutting off.
What do those red ropes even mean?
No One POV
"Gū Chén, you are the pride of our culture," an old man spoke up.
The time is back into the time when Gū Chén was living among the monks on the mountain.
An old man was sitting with Chén.
"What happened, dàshī(master)?"
She was the one who broke the silence.
"I just want to talk to you. I think this moment is perfect" her master told her.
"What moment are you talking about?"
Her eyes looked into her master's eyes to see what hidden secrets he held.
"As you know, we are Buddhist monks. We are spiritual people who believe in souls, and our lifestyle is simply based on martial arts and meditation" he told her in his weak voice.
She nodded.
"I want to give a forbidden knowledge that has been passed down from our old ancestors who once inhabited this world" he spoke.
"What is the knowledge you want to give me?"
"This knowledge about the true potential of the human soul. In the ancient texts of our ancestors, there are many times it has been stated that humans hold supernatural powers that you can find in the divine generals' tales. Even before the appearance of Adaptae like you, there were ancient humans who reached this level beyond those of you holds"
"I don't understand anything you are saying, dàshī(master)?" her face shows all confusion.
"I am saying that forbidden knowledge is that many of our Buddhist practices talk about how a normal human, by ascending into a higher level of the spiritual realm, can do supernatural level things like cultivators and martial artists of olden era" he said.
She was listening very carefully.
"You can say that in terms of your modern language. When a human is born is then only about 2% of their true potential they use. 5% of this true potential can only be exploited by those people who have a large impact on the world who changed the whole world. People like Sun Tzu and Qin Shin Huang are among them. There are many geniuses who were born throughout history. There is a limit even to those people. But people who break these limits can use 10% of their true potential. Those are people like us, spiritual monks. Even then, there is a limit. Only Fótuó(Buddha) has reached the limit beyond any of us. But after seeing the discovery of Adaptaes, I saw that you guys are what we call beyond 10%, but as usual, even Shùzhong(race) of yours can't reach it. That reach is beyond anything"
"Then how can I go beyond?" She asked her master.
"You will break through your limits. You will feel excited when you will face an opponent who is stronger than you. The moment when you got at your worst moment. The moment will arrive, the point when your brain and heart work together at that point. When you let yourself feel and your body will counterattack the damage that your soul has absorbed, then all of your experiences come at one point and you focus on one goal which triggers this phenomenon" Old man explains everything.
Grey's POV
She is standing. I don't know what is happening, but the whole thing is getting heated up.
She stood up on her legs. The red ropes that bind her body are now breaking free. Her eyes have gone beyond emotions.
"You know what my spear is about?" Chén said.
Orion looked at her with confusion.
Her whole body is emitting an aura that can be seen by us.
"What is happening?!" I ask Kalki.
"I don't know! I had never seen any sort of phenomenon before!" He told me.
She had gone all our berserk.
"This spear is created from an unknown material that is beyond this world. This spear's main specialty is that it can target the spirit of living beings" she told him.
She is now something beyond no one knows.
This power! This power is what I need!
"Guǐ yǐng xiǎnxiàn, tiāndì qīngxié,
hēi'àn jiànglín, wánghún guīlái.
Yōumíng hūhuàn, shēngsǐ jiāocuò,
xié líng zhìcǐ, xiàn shēn zuòsuì!"
She mutters some really weird shitty words. She is on drugs for sure.
When her chant is already complete.
The city starts to crack up.
Reality itself is distorted. The whole city is breaking up.
From the distorted reality of the city. Creatures. No—ghosts are appearing from the depth of cracked reality.