Chapter 148 (Patreon)

Drip.

Blood trickled down the cracked pillar. Dhruv Lakdawalla hung impaled against it, his lifeless body completely still.

Ragnar Kagenou had expected more from an ancient sorcerer with such a reputation. In the end, Dhruv had been nothing but an empty name.

Kogane appeared beside him.

“Dhruv Lakdawalla has been eliminated. You have gained five points.”

Standing atop the ruins, Ryu Ishigori stared at Dhruv’s body and let out a low sigh.

“What an absurd cursed technique. So he was responsible for the attack that wiped out the city earlier... If I hadn’t been near the outskirts, I might’ve been buried beneath it all before finding the fight I’ve been craving.”

High above the ruins, Takako Uro looked down at Ragnar.

“What a waste. To think someone with power like that was born in the modern era.”

Swoosh!

A streak of gold flashed directly before Uro’s eyes.

“He noticed me?”

The answer came immediately.

Golden portals opened behind Ragnar, and hundreds of Noble Phantasms shot into the sky.

Uro seized the sky as though it were a sheet of cloth and dragged it downward, warping the space before her into a distorted plane that intercepted the incoming weapons.

“Hmph.”

Golden ripples spread across the heavens, surrounding Uro from every direction until the entire sky gleamed like an endless treasury.

Her eyes widened.

“What—?!”

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Sky Manipulation redirected part of the barrage, but Uro could only control so much space at once.

Squelch!

“AAAH!”

Several Noble Phantasms tore into her back.

Unable to remain airborne, Uro plummeted from the sky.

BOOM!

She crashed into the ruins, shattering the ground beneath her.

Ragnar looked down at her coldly.

“Crawl upon the ground where you belong, mongrel. What made you believe you were worthy of forcing this King to raise his gaze?”

“Cough... cough...”

Uro tore the Noble Phantasms from her back and spat out a mouthful of blood.

He’s strong...

“What are you waiting for?” Ragnar asked. “Use reverse cursed technique, repair that miserable body, and stand. Surely Kenjaku’s hound can manage that much.”

The golden portals behind him dwindled until only a hundred remained.

There was no deeper reason for it. Uro simply was not worthy of making Ragnar keep a thousand gates open.

“Tch... You arrogant bastard!”

Uro glared at him through bloodshot eyes.

“Kenjaku’s hound? Incarnation gave us a second life! If we had died without regrets, none of us would have accepted Kenjaku’s offer in the first place!”

“Be silent.”

Uro froze.

“What?”

“I have no interest in your regrets, nor do I care why you chose to reincarnate.”

Ragnar’s golden eyes regarded her without the slightest trace of sympathy.

“You chose to assist Kenjaku. That decision leaves only one possible ending for you.”

The portals behind him blazed.

“Death.”

“What could someone like you possibly understand?!”

BOOM!

Hundreds of Noble Phantasms descended at once.

Uro seized the sky beside her and wrenched it aside, bending the path of the incoming weapons and narrowly escaping the barrage.

“Enough,” Ragnar said. “If you are going to die, then do so quietly. I have no patience for your excuses.”

Uro twisted the sky around Ragnar and closed the distance in an instant. Cursed energy surged around her fist as she drove it toward his face.

“Naive.”

A golden shield emerged from the Gate of Babylon and stopped her fist cold.

BANG!

“Tch! Are cursed tools all you have?!”

Uro attacked again and again, approaching from every possible angle.

It made no difference.

Whenever she struck from the right, a Noble Phantasm intercepted her. Whenever she attacked from behind, another emerged to block her path.

Ragnar watched her struggle as though she were performing solely for his amusement.

“You cannot even force your way through my treasury, yet you expect this King to fight you with his own hands?”

His gaze sharpened.

“Know your place.”

Rage distorted Uro’s expression.

She seized the plane of the sky and shattered it with all her strength.

“Thin Ice Breaker!”

Rho Aias unfolded before Ragnar, its seven petals forming a radiant barrier.

CRACK!

Uro’s attack shattered two layers before losing all its force.

Ragnar did not move a single step.

“Too weak.”

Hundreds of Noble Phantasms immediately shot forward in streaks of golden light.

Uro grabbed the surrounding sky with both hands and folded it, twisting the plane until the entire barrage was redirected toward Ragnar.

“You can alter the trajectory of an attack,” Ragnar said calmly. “Did you truly believe such a simple trick would work against this King?”

Before the Noble Phantasms could reach him, they dissolved into golden particles and returned to the Gate of Babylon.

“The game is over.”

Ragnar reached into a golden portal and drew out the Inverted Spear of Heaven.

Uro’s entire body trembled the moment she saw it.

“What kind of cursed tool is that...?”

Every instinct in her body screamed the same warning.

She could not allow that weapon to touch her.

Even a single strike would mean death.

Damn it... Are modern sorcerers all this outrageous?

Swish!

Ragnar hurled the Inverted Spear of Heaven.

Uro pulled the sky in front of her, twisting it into a plane meant to redirect the weapon.

This time, however, the result was different.

The moment the spear touched the distorted space, Sky Manipulation came undone.

Squelch!

The Inverted Spear of Heaven passed straight through the plane and buried itself in Uro’s body.

“How...?”

Uro stared down at the weapon piercing her.

“Why did it pass straight through my sky?!”

She desperately tried to activate her cursed technique, but the cursed energy flowing into Sky Manipulation had fallen silent.

“My cursed technique... has been nullified.”

Is my second life going to end here?

Just like this?

Without accomplishing anything?

Then what was the point of the contract I made with Kenjaku?

No.

She refused to accept it.

“Urgh!”

Gathering every last fragment of her strength, Uro gripped the Inverted Spear of Heaven and slowly dragged it out of her body.

“Hoh?”

Ragnar watched with mild interest.

“Driven to the brink of death, you finally forced your body beyond its limits.”

“Even if I die...”

Uro tore the spear free.

“I refuse to let it end without meaning!”

Blood streamed from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. With trembling hands, she formed a series of hand seals.

“Domain Expansion: Ukū Tenkai!”

Pitch-black cursed energy erupted around them, swallowing Ragnar and Uro within an instant.

A faint light appeared within the darkness.

Then another.

One plane after another unfolded around Ragnar, each containing an isolated space of its own.

Uro stood above him, her feet resting upon countless overlapping planes.

Ragnar calmly surveyed the domain.

“Not bad. So this is your Domain Expansion.”

Uro wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.

“It no longer matters how powerful you are. The moment you entered my domain, my victory was decided.”

Golden portals opened around Ragnar, and countless Noble Phantasms shot toward her.

CRACK!

The instant they struck, Uro’s body shattered like glass and disappeared.

A moment later, she reappeared upon another plane without a single wound.

“I told you,” Uro said disdainfully. “No one can defeat me inside this domain. The woman you struck was merely a phantom from the past.”

The bombardment continued.

Ragnar killed her once.

Then again.

Ten times.

A hundred.

Each version of Uro shattered and vanished, only for another to appear completely unharmed.

The past...

Ragnar’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Sky Manipulation allowed Uro to treat space as a tangible surface. Inside her domain, however, each of those surfaces represented not only a separate space, but a different point in time.

From the moment the domain closed around him, Ragnar had already been sealed within the countless planes she had created.

Uro herself remained in the present, while Ragnar had been trapped among the layered fragments of the past.

“So that is how it works.”

Ragnar looked up at her.

“No matter how many times I kill you, I am only destroying versions of you that existed in the past.”

Uro sneered.

“Even if you understand it, what can you do? You are trapped in the past, buried beneath thousands of my planes.”

Her expression twisted into a triumphant smile.

“All you can do now is wait for your life to run out.”

Two antique flintlock firearms emerged from the Gate of Babylon and fell into Ragnar’s hands.

“That remains to be seen.”

He raised them as an enormous clock face materialized behind him.

“Come forth, Zafkiel.”

The hands of the clock began to move.

“The past?”

Ragnar aimed one of the firearms forward.

“Then I shall make the past devour itself.”

The sixth numeral upon Zafkiel blazed with black and crimson light.

“Sixth Bullet—Vav.”

Time recoiled.

Uro’s hands began forming the same seals once more.

“Domain Expansion—!”

Ragnar moved first.

Ribbons of black and crimson energy erupted around Uro, binding her body before she could complete the hand signs.

“Your domain is indeed formidable,” Ragnar said.

His golden eyes shone through the darkness.

“But can you resist the will of time itself?”