Chapter 402: The Counter-Siege
The grey-white void devoured the gallery.
Walls, floorboards, Mana-lamps—all matter vanished within a single breath. The
five Sin-Generals and Sophia were instantly localized within the Time-Space
Domain.
Skele-Pride was the first to initialize an offensive.
His greatsword executed a horizontal sweep, a silver-grey crescent of necrotic
energy tearing through the coordinates, aiming directly for Sophia's center of
mass.
Sophia pivoted.
The blade-wave grazed her frame, carving a hundred-meter fissure into the void
behind her.
Velocity Rating: High. Exceeding projections.
Pride's second strike manifested before the first had even dissipated. It was an
overhead cleave; the necrotic energy saturated within the blade caused the local
temporal flow to ripple with interference.
Sophia retreated three steps, the Hourglass of Ages glowing with a golden
radiance as she manifested a Temporal Barrier.
BOOM!
The barrier shattered. Sophia's arms hit a "Numbness" threshold, and her frame
skidded back fifteen meters across the grey floor.
Before she could stabilize, the space to her left warped.
Skele-Avarice.
Dozens of spatial rifts tore open simultaneously. Pitch-black energy spears
erupted from the fissures, locking down all viable exit vectors.
Sophia waved her right hand, deploying a Temporal Deceleration Zone around her
radius. The velocity of the spears plummeted instantly, as if they had
transitioned from air into high-viscosity honey.
But in the next micro-second, the deceleration zone was forcibly breached by raw
kinetic force.
Skele-Wrath.
The skeleton, wreathed in roaring crimson flames, utilized his own physical
frame to shatter the boundary of the time-slow zone. He lunged forward, a
flame-shrouded fist aimed directly at Sophia's face.
Sophia tilted her head, the fist grazing her ear; the shockwave of the punch
sent her silver hair fluttering.
Proximity Error: Distance is closing too fast.
She tapped her toe against the floor, launching herself backward to re-establish
a distance buffer.
But Skele-Lust provided zero downtime.
Purple thunderclouds gathered above; black flames surged from beneath; jagged
ice-spikes manifested from every coordinate. Three elements initialized
simultaneously, saturating a thirty-meter radius around Sophia.
Sophia's hourglass spun at terminal frequency, golden sand forming a revolving
light-screen to hard-tank the elemental flood.
Her expression finally transitioned to Somber.
Five Tier-6/7 entities. Synchronized Offensive.
When she had dueled Kaito in the street, he was a single unit utilizing seven
styles. She could audit a single source. But these were five independent
processors attacking from five different vectors with five distinct combat
logics.
Synergy.
These "Pests" possessed a high level of tactical synchronization. Pride handled
the frontal pressure. Avarice sealed the escape routes. Wrath breached the
defenses. Lust provided high-density suppression.
Logic Check: Localization of Secretary Greed?
Sophia diverted a fraction of her processing power to identify Greed's
coordinates.
Result: Target Missing.
The Blood-kin had vanished from the visible spectrum.
Logic Error: Impending—
"Kneel."
The audio manifested from directly beneath her.
Greed had utilized the shadows to infiltrate her blind spot. The Vampire's
silhouette emerged from the floor, his crimson vertical pupils locking onto her
ocular sensors.
[AUTHORITY: WORD SPIRIT]
Sophia's knees buckled.
She gritted her teeth, flaring her temporal Od to purge the suggestion-protocol,
but the micro-second of physical hesitation was enough. Pride's greatsword
arrived.
She couldn't execute a total dodge.
The blade sliced through her left shoulder, tearing fabric and skin. Crimson
blood—genuine biological fluid—splattered onto the grey floor.
Sophia let out a sharp grunt as her physical balance hit a "Sub-Optimal" state.
Wrath's second punch followed immediately, impacting her abdomen with the force
of a siege engine.
Sophia was launched across the domain, tumbling through the void before
stabilizing her frame. She gripped her stomach, a trickle of blood escaping the
corner of her mouth.
Pain Variable: Detected. Intensity: High.
She hadn't experienced this sensation in tens of thousands of years.
Sophia wiped the blood away, looking up at the five Generals. They had already
re-established their formation. Pride was at the vanguard, blade poised. Wrath
stood to his left, his flames burning with renewed intensity. Avarice held the
right flank, spatial rifts opening and closing around him. Lust stood in the
rear, elements swirling in her palms.
Greed had vanished again.
Sophia took a deep breath. "Intriguing," she murmured. Her tone was no longer
composed. She was Serious.
She hoisted the Hourglass of Ages above her head. The golden sand escaped the
glass, diffusing into every corner of the domain.
She initialized the same protocol she had used against Kaito: The Temporal Web.
Fast zones became faster; slow zones became slower. The entire domain was now a
non-linear temporal trap.
Pride was the first to breach an acceleration zone. His velocity spiked, but the
environmental resistance tripled simultaneously. Though his swings were fast,
the "Logistical Cost" in stamina was five times higher than nominal.
Wrath charged into a deceleration zone. His punch slowed to a crawl, as if
moving through deep water. His crimson flames were suppressed by the temporal
density, their burn-rate dropping visibly.
Avarice's spatial rifts suffered a "Coordinate Shift" within the distorted
zones. The exit points manifested meters away from their intended targets; his
energy spears were shooting into the void.
Lust's elemental magic was marginally affected, but her "Area of Effect" was
being sliced into fragments by the web, failing to produce a cohesive kill-zone.
The Five-Sin Synergy was liquidated by the Temporal Web.
Sophia initialized the counter-offensive.
She blurred between the distortions, her velocity exceeding the Sins' visual
tracking capacity.
Strike 1: A punch to Wrath's sternum. Saturated with 100x temporal acceleration,
the blow sent the massive skeleton flying across the void. Strike 2: A kick to
Avarice's flank. His frame folded mid-air, the sound of fracturing bone echoing
through the domain. Strike 3: A palm-strike to Lust's shoulder. Lust's human
avatar underwent a structural collapse, revealing the Lich skeleton beneath.
Three Generals repelled in less than ten seconds.
Only Pride remained standing in the center. His greatsword was plunged into the
floor, bracing his frame as he knelt on one knee. The blue energy arm was
supporting his weight, but his soul-fire had dimmed significantly. The
acceleration zones had siphoned a terminal amount of his Od.
Yet, he continued to audit Sophia. The white soul-fire in his sockets, though
faint, refused to go offline.
"What… have you done… to the Sovereign?"
Sophia walked toward him, looking down with a detached gaze. "Your loyalty
parameter is impressively high."
She raised her hand, preparing to execute a "Termination Pulse" on Pride.
Greed's voice manifested from the void behind her.
"Do not touch him."
Sophia spun around. Greed stood ten meters away. His aristocratic attire was
shredded in several places, and dark blood trickled from his temple, but his
crimson pupils were as sharp as razors.
"Initiate one more strike against him," Greed hissed, "and I will ensure your
sequence terminates in agony."
Sophia looked at the Blood-kin and felt a flicker of Annoyance.
These units were a persistent nuisance. One fell, another synchronized. One was
repelled, the first rose back up.
They were like a recursive logic error that refused to be purged.
No. It wasn't that they couldn't be liquidated. It was that they Refused to die.
Sophia withdrew her hand. "Very well." Her voice turned ice-cold. "We shall
resolve this as a group."
The Hourglass of Ages flared with a blinding, final light.
This time, she wouldn't hold back a single micro-second of her power.