[Third-Person POV]
"What... what exactly has happened...?"
Apophis could not wrap his mind around the reality unfolding before him.
Cao Cao's torso and limbs had been skewered; his wounds were so severe that even standing should have been an impossibility. By all rights, he should have succumbed to gravity, falling into the abyss to be consumed by the darkness Apophis had unleashed as a finishing blow. Even if he had a shred of strength left, it should have been a negligible spark.
A counterattack in that position was supposed to be impossible.
Yes—it should have been impossible.
Apophis looked down at his severed arm, a deluge of questions flooding his mind.
How did he stand back up?
How did he strike back with those injuries?
Why is my arm lying on the ground?
And most of all—how did Cao Cao's power spike so violently?
Before the dragon stood Cao Cao. A halo of light radiated behind him, and he was shrouded in a divine, tranquil pressure. His physical appearance hadn't changed, yet the puncture wounds that had been spraying blood moments ago were now sealed tight.
Has he obtained the power of healing? That was Apophis's first thought.
He had heard that the current possessor of the True Longinus had developed a variety of abilities to contend with the various supernatural threats of this age. Perhaps Cao Cao had manifested a healing factor. But that didn't explain the rest.
It didn't explain this logic-defying surge in power.
The darkness shrouding Apophis had easily repelled Cao Cao's attacks when the human was at full strength. Yet just now, Cao Cao had torn through that defensive shroud as if it were nothing to claim the dragon's arm.
Was I careless? Apophis couldn't deny it. He had assumed the match was over and let his guard drop. In a battle of this caliber, a moment's lapse is a death sentence. If caught off guard, even Apophis's god-slaying shadows could be breached.
And yet, there was still one thing he couldn't comprehend.
Apophis hadn't seen the strike coming. Neither the movement nor the trajectory of the blade.
If there had been even a hint of a telegraph, he would have blocked it. But he hadn't been able to react at all.
Apophis glared at Cao Cao as if looking at something alien.
Cao Cao's eyes were hidden behind his bangs, masking his expression. His aura remained eerie in its stillness—so quiet, in fact, that it began to unnerve even the Great Evil Dragon.
As he stared at the silent man, Apophis finally felt it: a resonance emanating from Cao Cao that bordered on the divine.
"...!"
By the time he realized it, the phenomenon had already begun. Cao Cao, who should have been at a distance, had ghosted through the darkness and was already inside Apophis's guard.
The dragon instinctively lashed out with his shadows, but Cao Cao vanished before the darkness could touch him. When Apophis caught sight of him again, the man was standing calmly several yards to his right.
"Absurd... I cannot track him...?"
Cao Cao looked completely relaxed, his body devoid of tension. Total relaxation is a prerequisite for achieving ultimate explosive speed. Had he released all tension to achieve a maximum initial velocity the moment the darkness reached him, allowing him to reposition? Even that didn't fully explain the sheer speed of the maneuver.
Apophis decided to stop holding back.
He gathered the sea of shadows at his feet and the darkness drifting in the air, unleashing it all at once. A tsunami of gloom, a hurricane of void. An all-consuming storm of black surged toward Cao Cao.
No matter how fast the human had become, an area-of-effect attack on this scale was unavoidable. That was the logic.
Darkness swirled in from every conceivable direction—above, below, left, and right—swallowing Cao Cao whole. And yet, the man simply drifted through the gaps as if he were intangible.
Apophis caught his breath.
"This evasion is beyond reason... What is happening? What have you become...?"
"..."
Cao Cao did not answer.
He leaned forward slightly, and in the next heartbeat, he was in Apophis's face again.
With a twist of his hips, he unleashed a fluid, piercing thrust. The blade, wreathed in a golden radiance, tore through the darkness and buried itself in Apophis's chest!
"Gugh...!? Such speed...!"
Marveling at the movement even as he suffered, Apophis swung his shadows, but they found only empty air. Simultaneously, a slash opened across his back. Then his right side, then his left, then from above—the Holy Spear carved one wound after another, the holy energy beginning to corrode the dragon's physical form.
Sensing a true crisis, Apophis coiled his strength and detonated it. A pulse of darkness erupted in all directions from his center.
The shockwave tore through the barrier, a violent upheaval of energy. Yet Cao Cao read the flow of every single ripple, dancing through the chaos.
Suddenly, Cao Cao's eyes met the dragon's through his bangs.
Those eyes... they looked as though they were staring into a different dimension, a different flow of time entirely.
The "Zone"—that state of ultimate concentration—is the peak of human capability. But Cao Cao was looking at something beyond even that. He was seeing something that even Apophis could not perceive.
A divine state beyond the Zone... perhaps it could be called a "Sanctuary."
Then, Apophis noticed one more thing.
"I see... this power. I feel the same resonance as that light from before. The Will of the God of the Bible, is it...?"
The divine aura radiating from Cao Cao was similar to the "Truth Idea."
The Truth Idea drew upon the Will of the deceased God of the Bible. That divine will absorbed the ambitions of the spear's wielder and created miracles or diverse effects based on the magnitude of the opponent. It could manifest as overwhelming destructive power to crush a foe, or a blessing to win over their heart.
This phenomenon was likely the Holy Spear granting Cao Cao's deepest desire. That would explain the closed wounds and the abnormal awakening.
But Apophis felt there was more to it than just that.
Looking up at the wielder of the Holy Spear, who stood cloaked in that quiet ripple of power, Apophis allowed a smirk to cross his face.
"Is this what they call 'human potential'? It is because you desired it so fiercely that you were able to reach this height."
Human potential. Humans were the weakest of races. Compared to the supernatural, their bodies were fragile and their lives fleeting. But that was exactly why they could manifest powers others could not. They honed their wits, polished their techniques, and searched for ways to topple the strong. Eventually, they would slay the gods and monsters that stood above them.
That was how the heroes of old grew strong and overcame the impossible.
Apophis looked up at Cao Cao and made a declaration.
"Chosen of the Holy Spear, scion of heroes! Come! Let us have a struggle to the death with everything on the line!"
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