MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 984: Backlash

Chapter 984: Backlash

Lucian Darkheart could be seen floating within the void of the Acarnis Galaxy as he basked in his glory. He floated with his eyes closed, imrsed in the overwhelming magnificence of his own triumph, savoring the stillness that followed the astra shattering clash. Three years... he had waited three long, relentless years for this singular mont, and it had finally paid off... all his training, every calculated risk, every brutal confrontation, every sleepless night spent refining his power and sharpening his mind.

Although he did not say it out loud, Lucian could not help but respect Aaaninja; even with all his own overpowered abilities that he had ticulously copied over the course of a century, Aaaninja had still managed to keep up with nothing but sheer talent and brilliance. With just his ti manipulation talent alone, he had managed to contend against Lucian even when faced with various reality-warping skills that should have decisively overwheld him, standing firm against impossibility itself with nothing but ingenuity and terrifying instinct.

Indeed, Aaaninja Chronisynth Eternos was not a man that could be scoffed at. His battle IQ and resourcefulness were truly imnse, switching to soul abilities and obscure techniques the very mont his ti manipulation ability was taken away, adapting seamlessly as though every setback was rely another variable in an equation he had already solved.

Such a genius.

Lucian smiled faintly, for he had no problem admitting that Aaaninja was a genius who stood on an equal level with him; after all, he saw Aaaninja as his ultimate rival, the one existence that forced him to push beyond complacency and transcend averageness. As for Aura Nova, she would have to earn that title when she achieved her perfect self, when her potential crystallized into sothing undeniable rather than sothing rely promising and raw power.

But then, another thought occurred to Lucian: he and Aaaninja had been on equal footing almost throughout the entirety of the battle, their powers colliding like cosmic forces, and the deciding factor had ultimately been the Personification ability that they had both used in that climactic exchange.

Neither Aaaninja Chronisynth Eternos nor Lucian Darkheart had known they possessed such dangerously transcendent skills. When ??? had bestowed the skill upon him, it had been granted under a peculiar condition, as sothing that they would only gain awareness of when they truly went to use it, as though the knowledge itself was sealed until necessity forced its revelation.

aning, Aaaninja had not known of the skill until the precise mont he used it, and it had been the sa for Lucian, both of them unlocking an ultimate card neither consciously prepared for nor fully comprehended until it manifested.

None of them could have imagined that their ultimate cards would be this... broken, extraordinary, and overpowered. Even those three words seed to undercut the sheer magnitude of what they had unleashed, as though language itself was too primitive to properly define such transcendence.

A thought occurred to Lucian: he had only won because he was the sole one with knowledge of the fourth wall. But did he care? Absolutely not. It was one of his own abilities, just as Aaaninja had the backing of the River Of Ti and Kingsley had the backing of the Universe; advantages were aningless if they were not utilized, and he had simply used what was his.

Lucian’s foot made contact with the lunar surface where Aaaninja’s dead body lay. The dust shifted faintly beneath his weightless descent. He stared at it in silence, then sighed as he shook his head, wondering why Aaaninja had not resurrected yet; after all, he had not ’truly’ killed Aaaninja, so this was not True Death in the absolute sense.

As Lucian was about to shout out Aaaninja’s na, certain that the River Of Ti was definitely watching and listening from beyond causality, he felt sothing hit him. It did not arrive slowly like a gentle wave; no, it crashed into him with ridiculous, unfathomable force and power, like an ocean collapsing inward upon a single point.

Lucian imdiately dropped to his knees, the impact stealing his breath. The next mont, he vomited a huge amount of blood as though he were about to expel his own heart. Lucian felt his internal organs twist and rupture one after the other as he vomited liters upon liters of blood onto the pale lunar surface.

He felt pain bloom across his entire body, a violent, invasive agony; he, who possessed a Pain Nullification ability and should have been immune to pain and suffering, now felt it to a degree he had never experienced in either of his lives.

’A backlash?’ Lucian thought to himself, but before he could dwell on it for long, he vomited again, and this ti he did not rely expel blood; he vomited bile, thick and bitter. Normally, his innate, ridiculous regenerative abilities should have already activated and begun restoring him, knitting flesh and stabilizing organs within seconds, but they had not. It was as though the backlash had forcefully suppressed every hope of regeneration, every chanism of survival brutally silenced.

The next mont, he felt his skin pale slightly, then pale again; it was paling with every passing mont, draining of color and vitality. His perfectly arranged abs and athletic body, a physique sculpted through battle and reinforced through countless enhancents, started to wither as though he were losing mass and substance itself. Next ca his hair; the black strands that once scread with vitality began to show streaks of white, and then, almost rcilessly, they turned fully white.

Lucian did not need anyone to tell him what was happening; he was losing his lifespan, and he could feel his vitality dropping in real ti, slipping away like sand between his fingers. He imdiately attempted to act, for there was no conceivable way that a man like him, who had toured the galaxy since the age of twenty and was now over a century old, did not possess at least one ability capable of bypassing backlashes of any conceivable kind.

But before he could activate his skill, Lucian felt it again, a restriction; the sa oppressive force that had suppressed his regenerative ability was now sealing every ability he possessed at that mont. Yet it was not just that. His mana rank was also dropping permanently in real ti, an irreversible regression.

Lucian, who had been at the Ascendant Mana Rank, felt his Mana Rank collapse to the Exarch Mana Rank within the span of seconds. It dropped again to the Hyperion Mana Rank monts later, the mana within his mana core evaporating into nothing but thin air, as though siphoned by an invisible, rciless entity.

He was losing both vitality and mana rank simultaneously, his very foundation eroding without resistance.

Even all access to his skills had been restricted, sealed behind an impenetrable lock, but Lucian did not give up. His thoughts shifted toward the system inventory as he desperately searched through the countless artifacts he had acquired over his long and perilous escapades across worlds and planes, relics of ancient civilizations and historic remains, but he could not find a single thing capable of helping him in this predicant.

Lucian knew what was happening. He was dying, and no, this was not the type of death where he would simply resurrect afterward. No, even his Reality Anchor ability would not function here, as every ability had been comprehensively blocked, suppressed beyond activation.

’I’m dying, huh?’ Lucian thought with a blood-stained mouth as crimson liquid trickled down his lips, jaw, clothes, and body, staining him in the color of mortality. But Lucian felt no fear. It was rely death. He had died once in his previous life; there was no fundantal difference between that first death and this incoming one, aside from the scale of what he had achieved in between.

’Hopefully, the author has started a second book; maybe I will reincarnate there,’ he mused inwardly, a faint trace of humor surfacing even as pain relentlessly assaulted him from every direction.

At this mont, he felt perfect clarity, not because he was at the edge of death, not because of so mystical enlightennt triggered by mortality, but simply because he genuinely had no problem dying, and in that acceptance, there was an undeniable, almost serene lucidity.