CHAPTER 797: BEYOND SAFETY

Ria vanished from sight. An arc of lightning ripping through the darkness, illuminating the surroundings in a flash of blue.

The shadows lunged, a smear of black within the moment of light that Ria created.

*CLANG!!!

Claw met blade, sparks flew but Ria was already gone.

Arcs of lightning dancing across Terminus, trying to find the most optimal angle of attack.

Raikiri!

Lunging forward with a stab of absolute speed, Ria clicked her tongue seeing the beast flee. Flicking her fingers, she quickly adjusted the grip of her sword and parried a strike from behind.

Blood coiled like serpents around her blade, aiming for her jugular.

To end this farce with one attack.

*RUMBLE!!!

Lightning crashed down on Ria, burning away the blood.

’They’re getting desperate.’ Ria could tell.

After fighting these two beasts over and over, she could now sense the desperation in their attacks.

Their hunger.

To train her, Astrelya had kept these two beasts from running and even dying.

She fed them if they could ’kill’ Ria.

Starved them if they couldn’t.

This cycle that constantly drained their sanity, forcing them to repeat the process over and over for another day of food.

Ria had gotten stronger after training with these beasts... But so have they!

"Food!" The shadow beast screamed, transforming into a black mist that tried to envelop Ria.

Clicking her tongue, Ria sheathed her blade as lightning coiled around her arm.

Shinsei Raikiri!

Unleashing a net of slashes around her, Ria cut away the darkness only to reveal an armoury of blood ready to descend on her location!

Just as she wanted to adjust her footwork, hands erupted from her shadows, locking her in place.

"Tch!"

Stabbing her sword into the ground, Ria created a cage of lightning.

Each of the bars started to split, after images upon after images, shattered into countless fragments.

It was a little premature.

Just an idea in her mind.

A vision of possibilities.

But she wanted to accomplish it.

No.

She had to accomplish it.

In order for her to keep walking down this path, in order for her to take down Enris.

She had to!

Two turned into four, four turned into eight.

Eight into sixteen.

The fragments continuously multiplied as energy converged around Ria.

For a moment, it looked as though her own body began to fracture, transforming into afterimages of herself. Fragments, splitting apart and gathering energy!

A spiral of energy slowly began to transform into a false Eclipse that hung in the sky, blocking out the darkened canvas of Terminus.

*BANG!!!

The blood armoury shot towards Ria as shadows coiled up.

Two attacks both aimed at killing her!

In that moment, the world slowed down.

Ria could see a shadow of herself.

Her ideal self.

The speed that could be achieved.

The formation of her counter.

". . ." Ria saw her own body breaking apart.

Her silhouette shattering into countless pieces as she unleashed that attack.

Something was still missing.

Something crucial. Without it, she wouldn’t survive using this attack.

Gritting her teeth, she reigned in her power, concentrating it onto her right arm.

Three Fold Lightning!

*RUMBLE!!!

###

Looking at the smouldering ash of the two beasts that she had been training with, Ria couldn’t make herself smile.

She wasn’t satisfied.

This wasn’t enough, far from it.

"My my, shouldn’t you be happier that I don’t have to ’save’ you again today?" Astrelya asked with a set of lazy eyes and a nonchalant smile.

"There’s nothing to be happy about. You saw it as well." Ria furrowed her brows.

"Oh that I did. I saw your lack of resolve."

"!!!" Turning to glare at Astrelya, Ria paused seeing the grin on her face.

"Safety. Such a curious word don’t you think?" Astrelya giggled softly. Her voice dripping with honey yet filled with hostility.

"A dream we pursue, a promise of tomorrow. The walls we feel so inclined to build out of self preservation." She tilted her head. "It’s the fire during the cold night, the warmth in the dark. It soothes, it comforts..."

"And it chains us."

"Safety is the barbed cage dressed in gold. The anchor that keeps us tethered to the ground, never allowing us to soar to the horizon beyond it. Safety is the hesitation you feel whenever you try to go past your limits but fear the pain that comes with colliding into the barbed cage.

"Safety is the knife that carves the wings off a bird so that it may never fly again." Astrelya stood up and walked towards Ria.

"Safety is what kills the inquisitive mind. The rules that constrain thought. Safety is what breeds cowardice, the fear of losing everything in that moment. Giving into safety is what rots a Hunter from the inside out.

"How many times have I saved you now? How many times have I pieced your body back together yet you still worry about... safety?" Astrelya lost her smile.

Her shadow seemed to loom over Ria.

"Beyond safety lies growth, it lies danger. There lies... death. Safety is to be stuck in your cage, never knowing the satisfaction of flying high into the sky. Growth is the leap into danger.

"To dive head first into the flames and emerge from the fire reforged! To grit your teeth through the uncertainty and slaughter the danger that lies before you. Will safety let you walk with dear Alice? Will safety let you kill a God?!

"Or will safety kill you? Slowly from the inside until you are nothing but a husk of yourself. A shadow of what used to be, a perfect demonstration of lost potential. What is life but a gamble? What is a fight but a test of your limits? What is desire but to step past the threshold of safety and push aside all that stand before you to reach your goal?

"Every nation, every religion, every being that had left their mark on this world had long forgone safety in pursuit of their desires. The willingness to risk their essence of being to reach that boundary beyond the cage.

"Once you become the flame stuck inside the lantern surrounded by safety, you’ll never become the inferno that burns down the God’s garden." Astrelya pressed her finger against Ria’s chest, right above her heart.

"That is unless you decide to break out of your cage of safety."

Ria’s response was stuck in her throat.

She stared at the Lord of Stars that was glaring up at her.

"So long as we remain in Terminus, I will continue to piece you back together. Whether you like it or not, I will burn away any thoughts of safety that might linger in your mind. This world is one that cares not for safety. It thrives on the will of those who have gone insane.

"Those who have lost their mind in pursuit of something great. Until you can give up your sanity, you’ll be forever stuck as someone WITH potential. But never as the one who realised it." Astrelya tapped Ria on the head.

"Now this is the question you have to ask yourself. Is whatever you’re wanting to achieve worth the price of sanity?"

After asking this question, Astrelya turned around and left, searching for more victims to use in Ria’s training.

Ria was so very close. She could feel it. Just a little more, just a little push.

That one final step and she’ll become something... magnificent.

An instrument of destruction. A weapon craving the blood of a God.

What lies beyond Ria’s boundary? What will appear once she finally lets go of reason?

What is the beast that is she hiding within that heart of hers?

"Ah~ I want to see it." Astrelya held her arms with anticipation.

###

Rosalyn panted heavily. Sweat coating her body, drenching her clothes.

She didn’t expect them to be transported to Terminus of all layers. Had it been anywhere else, it might’ve been fine.

But here? In the depths? Where the worst of the worst are kept?

Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to sit up.

Her regeneration was being slowed by a poison. Even if she makes herself a new vessel, the poison seemed to linger.

This was deeper than just a physical poison.

"I believe I have given you plenty of chances now. Is it not time you give me an answer?" A man sighed, approaching Rosalyn while Jin was being dragged along by his head.

Jin was completely paralysed. Even with his Outer God Physique, there was nothing he could do.

The man in front of them was not someone Rosalyn could take out even on her best day.

"F*ck you." Rosalyn forced a brave smile.

". . ."

Letting out another sigh, the man made a light cut on his finger and held it over Rosalyn’s leg.

As his blackened blood fell, Rosalyn shut her eyes and gritted her teeth.

"ARGH!!!!" Despite her preparations, she couldn’t hold back her scream as her flesh began to darken.

"It’s a poison that seeps through the pores. A painful one, though not a lethal." The man explained, snapping his finger as the pain disappeared.

Rosalyn panted heavily. She could feel her heart slamming against her chest, the nervousness when facing this man.

She knew full well about the kind of devastation he could cause, the transformations that he could induce.

"Are you still unwilling to give me an answer?"

Rosalyn held her tongue.

"Stubborn thing..."

Shaking his head, the man stood up and grabbed Rosalyn by her collar.

Rosalyn could only hope that the others were better off than her and Jin.

After all...

The man they met deep in the bowls of Terminus.

A man known by many. He who handles the most potent poisons in this world.

Leoric Becker, Abyss Lord of Poisons.