Negary’s figure flickered in and out of sight, constantly weaving between Alkman and Seven as he attacked.
Alkman who had entered his stimulated state was frighteningly strong, capable of exerting the full extent of his ridiculous combat prowess.
His axe was practically flying around his body, freeing up his hands and feet for the close combat skills that he had honed for over a hundred years, while it was heavily individualistic, it wasn’t too far from what Negary was capable of.
Even when facing Negary’s inhuman techniques, he could quickly adapt and come up with his own countermeasures.
For example, Negary’s ice fragment attack. By the second time he used it, Alkman had already prepared a countermeasure: when circulating his Disasforce to take in air, there was an extra step to rub against itself to cause friction, using the heat from that friction to warm up the air.
Later on, Negary took advantage of this extra step by silently mixing a bit of dried plant dust into the air. As the circulated air contained this dust, the heat generated by the friction ignited it and caused a small dust explosion.
However, Alkman managed to react in time and blocked over half of the explosion damage with his Disasforce.
With Alkman as the main attacker and Seven as his support, the two of them were evenly matched against Negary.
…
On the other side, Fang Ze had stood up, showing an unprecedented light in his eyes. The Disasforce that Negary infused into his body earlier had flowed out together with his blood, but this mass of Disasforce didn’t dissipate nor did it return to Negary’s control.
Instead, as Fang Ze’s hand continued to move, a sense of understanding suddenly appeared in Fang Ze’s mind.
So that’s how it is.
Fang Ze let go of Negary’s Disasforce that he grasped in his hand, suddenly manifesting both He Qiao’s plant abilities and Zhang Wei’s [Worsening] Authority.
These two abilities had manifested at once on Fang Ze’s body. Following the control of Fang Ze’s own ability, they started to fuse, the vitality of plants combined with the [Worsening] Authority’s understanding of wounds allowed the injury on his chest to quickly heal.
Before this, Fang Ze could only use a single ability at a time, having to change it constantly. Although this allowed him to be extremely flexible, it didn’t actually increase his power by much, the limit of what he was able to do remained basically the same.
However, when he rescued He Qiao, he managed to achieve the second stage of release. In his rush to fight, he didn’t manage to explore his abilities after releasing his [Origin] for the second time, only after borrowing Negary’s Disasforce did he understand the sensation of having two kinds of Disasforce in his body at once.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and since he now understood how to balance the existence of two abilities at once, his strength once again skyrocketed.
Observing Negary who was fighting in the middle of the battlefield, his expression was cold. The Disasforce on his body started to change, fusing Liu Shi’s Authority and his own [Asteroid Impact] Authority.
Combining the ‘impact’ property of asteroids with the ‘sharpness’ and ‘control’ properties of Liu Shi’s Authority, Fang Ze caused the countless small pieces of rubble around to hover and orbit around himself.
Steadily moving towards the battlefield, some of the rocks orbiting around him exploded, the countless tiny fragments scattered into his surroundings. Borrowing the feedback from them, Fang Ze quickly discovered the concealed Negary.
“I caught you!” Fang Ze lightly muttered, shooting the remaining rocks around his body forward like tiny asteroids. Each rock was enveloped in blazing flames, the Disasforce imbued on them had clearly changed.
At the same time, a bright red asteroid appeared in the sky above. During its descent, the asteroid’s shape changed to look like a downward arrow, causing it to accelerate even more.
Negary’s body twisted and swung both arms forward, the bone blades on his arms cut the flaming projectiles heading towards him apart, then were used to block Alkman’s thrown axe head-on.
Cracks appeared on both bone blades, and his body barely moved in time to evade Seven’s dagger from behind.
Observing the three Disaster Kings who were approaching him, the ecstatic expression on Negary’s face became more pronounced.
After using his cheats again, Fang Ze who had grown explosively stronger. The long-term Disaster King Alkman who wouldn’t lose too badly even if he fought against Negary alone. And lastly, Seven who had quickly adjusted herself to the fighting style of a Disaster King during their battle. The combination of these three spelt out a clearly terrible situation for Negary.
“Wang Yuan, accept your defeat and face your retribution. End this calamity, that is your only choice now” more rubble continued to hover and orbit around Fang Ze, the bright red arrow in the sky was also locking on to him.
Looking up at the red dot in the sky, Negary smirked:〖 So you’ve regained your confidence by being self-assured that you’d win? 〗
“This isn’t self-assured, but simple truth. You, who became the enemy of all people by creating the great calamity will never be able to win!” Fang Ze’s tone was indifferent, seemingly unfazed by his total defeat earlier.
Having grasped his [Origin] ability in full, Fang Ze could now utilize many abilities at once, exponentially boosting his strength. Even without Alkman and Seven’s help, he was confident that he alone would be able to defeat Negary.
The only thing I need to pay attention to now is Wang Yuan’s soul transfer ability.
Fang Ze thought in his mind. However, he had already come up with a solution to this issue.
Transferring the soul would require a path, and the transfer could be considered a type of ‘traffic’.
[Traffic Jam] by itself might not be able to completely cut off Negary’s ‘soul traffic’, but when combined with [Bone Fracture], I would be able to completely ‘break’ all transfer routes.
Even if the break doesn’t last for too long, all he needed was a small bit of time to rally the interference force from the people in his connection and use his earlier ability to destroy Negary’s soul. On the other hand, Alkman was also the same, his axe combined with Disasforce could directly harm Negary’s soul if it connected.
Facing the team of three Disaster Kings Fang Ze, Alkman, and Seven, Negary seemed like he couldn’t possibly win, but on the contrary, it was at this exact moment that his chances of winning were actually the greatest.
〖 The nature of the so-called [Protagonist Aura], can actually be seen somewhat from Fang Ze’s title on the Apocalypse Stone Tablet 〗
Negary recalled the words written on the Apocalypse Stone Tablet:
…
[The King’s laurel crown shines brighter and brighter. Under the eyes of all living beings, he would eventually become the king of all, the crimson seal in the sky]
…
The ‘laurel crown’ was referring to the [Protagonist Aura]; a king, held the expectation of all his people, responding to that expectation, and that very expectation made up the laurel crown for the ‘King of People’.
Earlier on, Fang Ze was able to borrow the interference force of the Omniscient Eye to build a connection with the numerous survivors, further confirming Negary’s conjecture.
Every individual in this world was a part of the [Protagonist Aura], and the [Protagonist Aura] was the collective manifestation of every individual’s expectations; at least, that was the case for this world.
The Protagonist shoulders the expectation of everyone, thus becoming their representative, becoming bound by them. He was the one with the most freedom, but also the one with fetters attached the deepest.
The fact that Fang Ze’s personality model constantly changed actually represented his change to fit the expectations placed on him. He was changed by the [Protagonist Aura] that carried the expectations of all humans: from a young teenager with a bit of selfishness and a scheming mind, to the so-called ‘King of People’ with nothing but the good of humanity as his interest.
