Kai slammed the enormous swords' tips into the drawers, creating hundreds of meters-long crevices filled with dead Boggarts among wooden debris before coming to a dead stop.
…
[
Congratulations Contestant Kai D. Stormborn
You have achieved a Milestone
…
Milestone: Vanquish 100 Boggarts
Milestone Rewards:
— Boggarts will fear you
]
…
In response to the ridiculous Notification, Kai coughed up even more blood, red saliva dripping and melting into the pool where his knees rested.
Kai wasn't unfamiliar with this sensation.
Herpo the Foul had made him feel like this when the unique Storyline Character had used Soul Anchorage on him during their first clash.
"Hiding your Intents behind a veil of an Elite Ability wouldn't work, Red," Mang Jian said, walking toward him with light steps. The blade of Null in his left hand was humming, killing not one Boggart as they whirled past it. "All Intents can be traced back to Source."
Kai wiped the blood off his face as Biokinesis worked its charm and stood up.
Mang Jian was turning out to be the hardest nut he had bitten his teeth into.
First, being a Contestant of no particular importance, Nothing Is Impossible wouldn't work against him. That, in itself, made the job hard for Kai, as the Skill had already become one of his greatest trump cards.
In the Fate Bubble, he had spammed the Skill so much that its lack of use felt… odd.
And that oddness would come around to bite his ass, Kai knew, especially if he didn't stop depending on it too much.
Then there was Fate Borrower, another useless Skill against Mang Jian.
Fate Borrower was a nigh irresistible phenomenon. However, it was the greatest double-edged sword and had already killed Kai once. If it weren't for him outsmarting fate using Medea's Rule Breaker, then Nothing Is Impossible and Fate Borrower had together come the closest to ending his tale.
If Kai were to tell someone that his own Skills held the greatest chance of killing him, then he would become the greatest joke in the Primordial Tower.
As if this wasn't enough, Mang Jian also restricted Ad Infinitum and Lucky Intuitions.
The more Kai used these two, the more Intents he would generate, letting the Blind Executioner see more Paths to attack.
I always hated being a one-tricked pony, Kai thought, letting out a breath. Today I will know if that was the right decision…
Severance Style: Third Technique —
"Can you regenerate infinitely?" Mang Jian asked, raising Sento high. "There must be a limit… Let's test it out…"
Hundreds of translucent, spiritual blades manifested around the blade.
Then, as he hacked, all the spiritual blades disappeared.
— Spectral Sword Halo!
The hair on the back of Kai's neck stood up.
As if time had stagnated, at a speed that surpassed many Machs, his knees bent, a blade tracing a path where his neck had been.
Simultaneously, more blades appeared, attacking him from a multitude of directions.
Kai's body was reacting so fast that it was impossible to comprehend.
And yet… just as he dodged the first hundred blades, one of them landed on his waist, slicing clean through blood and organs.
That was only the beginning.
SQUELCHES rang across the Cursed Vault of Fear as Kai kept regenerating instantly, receiving fatal strikes in the very next moment.
[Something's wrong.] Ad Infinitum screamed out a beep, donning the veil of Calm. [The blades that are making contact shouldn't…]
Through dodging and regenerating, Kai's bloody eyes landed on Mang Jian.
The guy was standing perfectly still, but the AI still picked up the tiniest wrist movements in the hand in which he wielded Sento.
Mang Jian's lips arched up slightly.
"Severance Style: fourth and seventh techniques…" he said. "Thought Mutilation and Ancestral Sword Resonance…"
"Bastard…" Kai cursed before another spiritual blade sliced through his face, cleaving it in two perfect halves.
"Haha…" Mang Jian chuckled, shaking his head. "As I said, hiding Intents doesn't work. Why? Because I know they are still there. If I cannot target a particular Intent, then I can still target them at random. That's exactly what Thought Mutilation does.
"Also, the blades of Spectral Sword Halo can learn from each other, see through each other, and trace their own future Paths with Ancestral Sword Resonance… Even if you can see the future, Red, would that matter if the attacks themselves can also see the future?"
It seemed it didn't matter after all.
In only moments, despite Kai's insane ability to see all the attacks and dodge them, he still got utterly butchered.
Pieces of flesh were cut apart, leaving behind nothing but a pile of mush over the pool of blood.
Mang Jian's closed eyelids suddenly stirred.
A beam of yellowness shot out of the pool of blood even before the two huge swords could fall.
"Corruption…" the Blind Executioner hissed, sensing the foulness in the air.
There was no sky in the Cursed Vault of Fear, but, as a yellow star took shape overhead, it drowned everything in its background in darkness, creating a false impression of deep space.
From the yellow star, another beam of light fell, taking the shape of a cursed existence.
It was a small, gray, fairy-like Pokémon with two gray tails that were each encrusted with a red gem. Its face was partially yellow with another red gem encrusted into its forehead, and its head faintly resembled that of a yellow helmet.
Its eyes were tightly shut.
And around the three red gems on its body, which should be purer than any color, there was a corrupt blackness.
Slowly, a black-red glow began suffusing out of the corrupt gems and engulfed the entire Vault of Fear in a fraction of a second.
Mang Jian's jaw dropped as all Intents vanished from the Vault… even the random ones. "How did you…"
Unfortunately, the Blind Executioner couldn't finish his question.
The pile of flesh over the blood pool stirred.
In the blink of an eye, almost reaching Path Severance's teleportation-like speed, Kai regenerated and appeared in front of Mang Jian.
Supreme Kanshou and Limitless Bakuya bit into the Blind Executioner's body and opened him from shoulder to waist before sending him flying with a BOOM.
Standing at Mang Jian's place, Kai cracked his neck, smiling ear to ear…
…Uxie's Amnesia drowning the entire Vault overhead.
****************
AN: Original Image of Uxie's arrival is available
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