Chapter 975 - Standing

While Ryan was using the dark arrows as if that was the only thing he could do. Chronus managed to understand what kind of existence Merlin was. While the nature of their powers was similar, Merlin wasn't like Lucifer.

"These experiments you call, is nothing but me giving the chance to see if these species can show me their true potential if they can obtain the power to change the future," Chronus explained. "As I told you before, the universe is doomed, not even I can prevent that. So, I was expecting to see if other creatures can prevent that."

"That I already understand," Merlin said. "Still, you sure made a mistake now…"

After Merlin said that, Chronus felt the use of time magic coming from Ryan. Instinctively, he probably assumed that time magic would be enough to pierce the barrier, but things weren't that simple. However, it didn't seem like Ryan was using time magic that way…

Ryan stopped firing the dark arrows, and then his body began to grow. No… only the corruption was growing… once enough energy had been gathered using the corruption, Ryan made it all be absorbed by his body, and then a thin barrier appeared around his body.

"What? That is…" Chronus said. 

Before Chronus could finish his sentence, Ryan dashed and punched him… for the first time. His punch passed through the barrier and hit Chronus in the face. Although he was caught off-guard. The attack only made his move backward a couple of meters.

"I told you…" Merlin said. "This guy has pretty good instincts and now, he is only a mass of desire and instincts."

Putting aside how much excited Merlin sounded, the punch didn't even scratch Chronus. Even without time magic, he still was the being who probably had maxed out his status and had the battle experience of thousands of lives. Ryan made some progress, but nothing really changed.

"HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ryan roared while moving his arms downward and upward making the air vibrate and creating powerful shockwaves that made even those who were kilometers away tremble.

It seemed like that punch had been a message. 'Did you like that?' That was what Ryan asked with his punch. Still, the power of his greed didn't impulsion him to reach only that level.

"I see… he used time magic to take the power of his future self…" Chronus said. "Still, you are only shortening your life."

Chronus didn't know from which point in life Ryan drew that power from, but it was obvious that was within some point of his fight against Chronus. Sooner or later, he will reach a point where he will have no energy left and will be completely defenseless. In any case, Chronus was a bit surprised since he had met many people who could use time magic, but Ryan was the first aside from him who managed to draw power from the future. Usually, it was impossible to communicate with future selves unless… the mind of the end and of the past were deeply connected, and they were. Ryan's present and future were connected thanks to the corruption. From that point on until a certain point in the future, Ryan had an only one goal... kill Chronus.

Just staying on the defense wouldn't make Chronus achieve what he wanted, so he finally decided to make a move. When Ryan tried to attack him again, Chronus moved his hand and made a portal appear and engulf Ryan's arm. Another portal appeared on the side, and Ryan's arm left the portal and punched him. The surprise attack caught Ryan off-guard and paralyzed him. When Ryan tried again, he punched himself yet again. For quite a while, Chronus made a fool of Ryan like that.

"Did you say something about good instincts?" Chronus asked.

"I forgot to add the words: most of the time," Merlin said.

Enveloping himself in a barrier of time that envelops and absorbs all kinds of attacks wouldn't help Ryan. Considering that Chronus didn't undo the spell just because he got hit once, it seemed that he still had a long way to go… deep down. Ryan knew that, and that was why he used Time Skip and used Ice Breath. However, nothing happened… even if Time Skip could work alongside other spells, the Chronus barrier was still there and still absorbed the attack.

"What is wrong? It is too hard for you to draw the power from the future?" Chronus asked.

As if he had understood those words, Ryan grunted while he bit his lips. Instead of using time magic, Ryan lets the corrupt energy around his body grow stronger. Once again, Chronus frowned since it seemed that Ryan was drawing energy from somewhere, but he wasn't using time magic. Since his dark aura was increasing, Chronus assumed that he was using the power of greed to strengthen himself. Still, it was different if compared to the way Lucifer does that…

Instead of enveloping his body with that energy, Ryan made it leave his body, and then those took shape of dark bows. Weirdly enough, Ryan allocated them behind himself and then fired. Chronus almost let out a sigh… in the end. He had become just a mindless beast. He thought that such a human who made other people try to change their future could have some potential, but he wasn't wrong. However, very suddenly, those arrows passed through his body and then flew toward Chronus. Much to his surprise, those passed through his barrier, and Chronus was forced to grab them… Chronus' hands began to emit heat… how could those corrupt arrows pass his barrier like that?

"What madness… he let those hit you so that they could absorb a part of your barrier," Chronus said. "You can't cover them with time magic by yourself, so you forced them this way."

Since it had come down to that, there was no point in keeping his barrier. Ryan could attack with long-ranged attacks using the same tactic. It was rough, but Ryan indeed was reaching the apex of time manipulation.. Regardless, Chronus left his lotus position and then stood up.