CHAPTER 95: | THE ADVENT OF STARLIGHT

  ---

  Back to the present.

  "..."

  Time itself came to a standstill, and the star-born swords hung suspended, their light frozen in the silent currents.

  Tap! Tap! Tap...

  In the stilled world, painted in shades of gray as time itself was frozen, the sound of a hand tapping brittle glass echoed.

  Ashin Sae Acoustine stood amidst tens of thousands of swords that had once radiated starlight, but now their luster was gone, their forms held motionless in the currents.

  Lumicor, the one who had summoned these weapons, watched as Ashin Sae Acoustine tapped his creations with clinical precision.

  Then, the sharp snap of a finger broke the silence, and the constraints of time began to mend.

  BZZZZZT!

  Time resumed in the next instant, and the swords of light exploded outward, flying in every direction.

  Lumicor merely glanced at his creations as they scattered.

  "..."

  His eyelids closed for a moment before he opened them with a profound calmness, as if he weren't in the middle of a battle.

  A sudden, cold wind whipped across his scaly cheek, and he winced in pain.

  "Hmm?!"

  His gaze shifted from his face to the sword of light that had cut him, and his frown deepened.

  "To dare to wound me..."

  Lumicor's voice was a low, resonant growl.

  But contrary to the dreadful atmosphere, Ashin Sae Acoustine just chuckled.

  "Pfft-hahahaha... Are you a fucking emo?"

  She laughed, a delirious, almost hysterical sound.

  The situation was so absurdly hilarious, this handsome, bone-chillingly arrogant man was now muttering words as cold as ice.

  'Did I flip his switch, turning him into his emo phase?'

  The question plagued her mind, and she couldn't help but laugh at the situation.

  But contrary to her expectations of Lumicor lashing out at her provocation, he just gazed at her with a chilling stillness.

  Down below, Amara merely shook her head before sitting upon the mass of tentacles that had formed a grotesque throne.

  "That nasty bastard is now extremely pissed"

  Samantha glanced at Amara, then closed her eyes, her hands trembling from the sheer pressure radiating from Amara's small, frail body, a contradiction to her overwhelming power.

  Samantha felt a wave of dread in the room with such an insanely powerful being.

  Closing her eyes, she slowly took control of her body, calming the fear that crept in.

  She then opened them to gaze at Amara in silence.

  "..."

  Silence reigned.

  Amara's amethyst eyes narrowed as she glanced at the corpses that littered the corner like a mountain.

  A predatory smile appeared on her face for a split second.

  With a flick of her hand, the tentacles that covered the imperial palace, inside and out, writhed grotesquely, devouring the piled corpses.

  Watching the process, Samantha flinched, her face contorting with disgust.

  The thick tentacles split open, revealing a voracious maw uglier than any filth she had ever seen, and consumed the bodies of her master's former aides.

  "How horrendous..."

  Unknowingly, Samantha had muttered the words, her expression still twisted in disgust.

  Hearing her words, Amara's smile widened.

  She glanced at Samantha with keen interest, as she'd never heard of the Supreme God of the Abyss having taken a disciple.

  "How odd. Did her majesty the emperor take a disciple in the time that she was alive?"

  Amara muttered, her curiosity piqued.

  'How could Samantha be a disciple of someone as great as Ashin Sae Acoustine? It was weird, that the history of atlantis didn't mention it.'

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Samantha, confused by her question, couldn't help but frown.

  Her master had said that when they were still in their original world, she had been her disciple.

  So why would this outsider speak of it in such a manner?

  Samantha smiled softly, her movements radiating an elegance only seen from the highborn.

  "Hmm? I'm quite curious how a mere outsider could know so much about the history of Atlantis?"

  Amara was questioned about her knowledge of the great Atlantis by Samantha, the disciple of her idol.

  She couldn't help but smile at the irony.

  "Curious indeed that a mere nobody like you is her disciple... I'm quite spooked that the Supreme God of Atlantis could have such a disciple."

  Samantha frowned at the audacious words that hinted at her being an average woman with nothing special, who somehow crawled her way up to become the emperor's disciple.

  She, too, was weirded out by this setup, of her being chosen as the emperor's disciple after she unified the entire abyss into an empire.

  She, an ordinary mortal with nothing special, was chosen instead of the bright young heirs of the formidable clans that had now been destroyed.

  Samantha gazed at Amara calmly, her eyes then drifting to the sky ocean, before she closed them.

  "I am curious indeed... so please do enlighten me with my shallow knowledge of the future."

  Amara found herself captivated by Samantha’s composure.

  She wondered how someone could remain so polite when their authenticity was being questioned.

  Was it her poise that earned her the role of Ashin Sae Acoustine's disciple, or perhaps her personality, as serene as the sky, with a voice as enchanting as a gentle stream?

  Amara's curiosity about this person named Samantha before her grew.

  She closed her eyes calmly and gazed at the battle unfolding in the sky.

  "Lumicor is truly pissed this time..."

  Samantha calmly nodded at her words, having concluded the same about the leviathan's state of mind from her own observations.

  Lumicor was an arrogant, self-centered man who only cared about himself, a genius who refused to bow to anyone.

  Compared to that man...

  She blushed, unable to help but remember the man more handsome than this leviathan, whose beauty was immense.

  Samantha's composure broke as she imagined seeing that handsome man one last time before she met her fate at the hands of this woman.

  "Alister..."

  She muttered, lost in her own thoughts, unable to forget that handsome face she was so fond of, the face she dreamed about.

  Amara gazed at Samantha, who was lost in her thoughts, and she couldn't help but chuckle at how lovestruck this woman was, who, from their exchange, had seemed to value her image the most.

  "How intriguing, to think that a dull woman such as her could make such an expression."

  Moths of light levitated from the ground, as flames of radiance began to rise from the earth like starlight, their forms shifting into swords.

  The currents looked beautiful, the radiance of the swords like an impossible art.

  Ashin Sae Acoustine glanced at the swords as they tilted toward her, surrounding her from all directions.

  Lumicor gazed at her with a chilling coldness and muttered.

  "Starlight Rainfall."

  Like the rain from a celestial sky, the starlight from the heavens rained down on Ashin Sae Acoustine.

  Lumicor's spell was met with a simple gesture, she closed her eyes and waved her hand.

  With a chilling grace, the currents spiraled into a vortex, briefly glowing before a wave of ice exploded outward, freezing the world solid in a flash.

  BZZZZZT...

  The colors of the reality bled into gray as time itself came to a momentary halt.

  But, Ashin Sae Acoustine knew she could only hold it for less than five seconds.

  "This is enough."

  She muttered.

  "Enough to deal with these troublesome things."

  Her breathing was a steady rhythm in the stilled time.

  Two seconds had already passed, but she remained unfazed.

  As she opened her bright red pupils, narrowing them into slits as her eyes swept across the surroundings.

  Her gaze cut through the intents that formed the swords, revealing the very circuits that allowed them to exist.

  "..."

  Another second passed.

  By the time the fourth second ended, a smirk touched her lips, she had found the weakness of all 10,490 star-born weapons.

  "Frozen Attainment: Volume 1: Touch of Frost."

  With a wave of her hand, the world lost its color, and the currents around her froze into solid ice.

  Silence followed.

  As Lumicor watched, frozen in shock, as his self-created spell, perfected over years, was turned to solid ice by her single gesture.

  BZZZT!

  Then, feeling the shift of time flowing back to normal, Lumicor swiped his tail at Ashin Sae Acoustine at light speed in a decisive move.

  But to Lumicor's dismay, Ashin Sae Acoustine was already prepared.

  In the final second of the frozen world, a hexagonal ice shield materialized before her.

  She smirked, shouting.

  "Frozen Attainment: Volume 1: Frost Shield!"

  Lumicor gritted his teeth, knowing there was no escape, channeled more power into his tail and roared.

  "Ascension II: Light Sweep!"

  The world blurred with light as his tail struck the shield.

  BOOM!

  The currents shuddered from the violent impact.

  Ashin Sae Acoustine's expression turned serious as cracks spiderwebbed across her shield from the powerful blow.

  She gritted her teeth, but it was too late.

  The shield shattered.

  Thousands of icy fragments exploded outward, some embedding in her face.

  As a massive shard plunged into her stomach, impaling her, her world spiraled into a dizzying blur, and she was sent flying back toward her castle.

  "M-master!"

  Samantha's face twisted with worry as she scurried toward her master, calling out desperately.

  "M-master, are you okay?!"

  Amara's gaze narrowed at the amusing drama unfolding before her eyes.

  She couldn't believe that a boy could push such a legendary figure like this.

  'Was she mistaken? Thinking that a figure from the past could handle this super genius named Lumicor that even that man acknowledged?'

  Amara was quite curious if this was the limit of this legendary figure...

  Touch!

  Lumicor appeared at the back of Amara.

  She shivered with an ecstatic rush, her legs going weak from Lumicor's touch.

  'Even my child Melissa would understand this feeling, right?!'

  Lumicor gazed at her for a moment, then scoffed, as he slowly walked toward the two figures in front of him.

  Step! Step! Step!

  His steps were deliberate and powerful.

  He walked at his own pace, not caring about the world around him.

  At his fifth step, moths of light began to rise from the marbled floor.

  They coagulated into swords of starlight as he pointed his finger at Samantha.

  "I'm impressed by your abnormal constitution, woman."

  Lumicor looked down at her coldly as a star formed on his finger, ready to end Samantha at any moment.

  "Tell me... why you're special."

  Lumicor's voice was cold as he asked an unexpected question that stumped Samantha.

  'Me, special? He's certainly joking, right?'

  Lumicor calmly lowered his gaze as he grabbed Samantha by her chin and stared straight into her eyes.

  He smirked.

  "Allow me to offer you something, woman... be mine, and I shall let you and your master live."

  "..."

  Silence ensued as Samantha merely stared at him in confusion, questioning herself.

  'Why are handsome men lining up to be with me? Am I beautiful? Heck no! Am I special? Hell no! So why are these handsome guys so into me?!'

  Samantha clenched her jaw as she gazed at the man before her, who was, quite frankly, her type, a cold and domineering man...

  But she couldn't help but remember that handsome fellow named Alister von Fai.

  She clenched her mouth, hesitating.

  Letting out an elegant sigh, Samantha made her decision.

  She extended her hand.

  Lumicor smiled and pulled a ring out of nowhere.

  "This means that you've accepted m..."

  GRIP!

  The sound of bones breaking echoed as Lumicor winced from the pain of his wrist breaking into dust.

  He gazed at the perpetrator.

  "You... you dare take what's rightfully mine?!"

  Maybe give it a try? ??