Chapter 624 - 569: Antimatter (1)

Sol'khin ignored everything else and charged at Arthur, prioritizing him over everyone else. As Arthur was significantly weaker than Zodiak, it'll be much easier to get his soul. 

Within a split second, a dark shadow manifested itself in front of Arthur but Sol'khin didn't strike with his sword, instead, he stretched his arm toward the parasite's soul, attempting to stab his chest. 

This swift attack was almost successful were it not for the interference of several individuals, the first of them being Zodiak, whose body became bigger and unrecognizable as Dark blue flames covered him from head to toe.

The old man held Leiu's hand and tried to fling his body far away but an unusual kind of unstoppable darkness enveloped Zodiak, isolating him for some time. Sol'khin snorted and used his the other hand to block an incoming sword. Surprisingly, this sword managed to cut the youth's hand and even pushed him back a few meters.

The Sword God, Ber Von Xin, appeared in front of Arthur and swung his sword again, releasing a pure white sword essence that partially canceled Leiu's darkness and blasted him even further away. Losha and Maxine also attacked, each using their full power in order. 

Grail, the Divine Sword, emitted a pillar of light which hit the target's right side while Maxine's sword stabbed the empty air, magically forming three floating green circles directed at Sol'khin. The circles slowly rotated for a second before unleashing a waterfall-like attach which was made of shiny green energy. 

The two attacks simultaneously hit Sol'khin, dealing enough damage to send him flying but, unfortunately, weren't strong enough to pass through the thick black armor.

Excluding those who knew about Sol'khin, the rest of the contestants were perplexed and didn't know who was the enemy and what must be done to clear this floor. 

"Long story short, something evil is controlling the Nameless Knight and if we get rid of it, we clear the Red Tower."-X

Seeing the dumb looks everyone was having, 'X' spouted gullible lies to trick them into helping him. Sigradzomr was almost back into the battle but from the previous exchange, it was clear that Sol'khin has the upper hand thanks to Leiu's overwhelming power.

While some believed the blurry-faced man, there were others who were skeptical of his words, like Losha, for example.

"Yeah… I don't think you're right. You want us to defeat him? I think the real problem is that thing."

She pointed at the humongous dragon rising in the air and preparing to attack again. The Elder Dragon's eyes focused on the youth wearing black armor and seemed ready to strike again.

…

"What do we do?"

Lucy whispered to Arthur while witnessing the unfolding events. She didn't know who to side with, especially now that things got very complicated.

"Let's standby, for now."

He wrapped his hand around her waist and used skill provided by the Space Bender title, quickly turning invisible along with his wife, and disappearing from everyone's view. He made sure to activate his stealth abilities to their full so that Sol'khin won't be able to locate him amidst the chaos.

Even though he was using his brother's body, he wasn't accustomed to the power nor the skills, moreover, it won't be easy to track him down with all these people attacking from all directions.

"What do you think Zodiak will do?"-Lucy

After a short silence, Arthur sighed and replied: "I really have no idea."

He turned his head and looked at the big dark blue silhouette rushing at Sol'khin. In addition Zodiak, Sigradzomr also descended upon the relatively small Sol'khin, however, contrary to his allies, the dragon didn't care about anything else and unleashed attacks that hurt both his target and everyone else.

Zodiak was a step faster than the dragon as he wielded the dark blue flames and relentlessly attacked Sol'khin, who used Anduril to block the fire and negate the corruption effect of Dark Magic. As for the Elder Dragon, its threatening descent was stopped by a black-haired woman. She stepped in the air as if it was the ground and wielded dual long red daggers, she was crazy fast and all you could see was her dissipating after-image.

By the time the dragon reacted, its left-wing was shredded by countless red flower petals that came out of Xyktia's daggers. Even after damaging the massive left-wing, she didn't stop as she danced in the air and filled the sky with countless raging rose petals which hit the dragon's head, blinding it for a few seconds.

Sadly, the Lady of the Darkness wasn't able to do more than that as she faltered and was hit by a beam of golden light emitting from the top of the Sigradzomr's right-wing. Her body was sent flying like a kite across the sky and fell into the bottomless abyss.

"Tsk tsk… the things we do for love."-The Joker

Despite her disappearance, the sharp and deadly petals didn't vanish and kept attacking the Elder Dragon, leaving it no choice but to cover itself with its remaining wing to lessen the suffered damage.

As the contestants were backing away, unwilling to involve themselves in a this fight, which was beyond their capabilities, Zodiak was becoming stronger the longer he fought. Anduril and Leiu's darkness were slowly but surely having little effect on the transformed old man, whose sole goal was to get rid of Sol'khin.

"Hahaha Zodiak! It's no fun if only the two of us are fighting!"

Using Leiu's body, he wielded the thick dark sword, swinging it left and right, continuously, deflecting the dark blue flames and pushing away the madly attacking Zodiak.

After one last exchange, Sol'khin threw Anduril in a specific direction… the sword crossed dozens of miles within a second and when it reached its target, Leiu appeared behind it with his hand tightly grasping it.

A loud sound of two metal clashing with each other echoed across the flour as Arthur was forced out of his stealth. The parasite was clenching his teeth and holding a normal-looking sword while facing Sol'khin, who was smirking at the distressed Arthur.

Were it not for the mysterious sword given to him by Timos, he wouldn't have been able to block that seemingly normal attack. In fact, Arthur's sword remained unscathed even after coming in contact with Anduril, which is supposedly the strongest sword in the multiverse.

Thanks to his sky-high strength and the sword, Arthur was able to block Anduril for three seconds before someone interfered. Lucy and Ber Von Xin attacked at the same time, the latter used her left hand to clench her right wrist and unleashed a small wave of white fusion flame, as for the Sword God, he raised his sword to the sky and swung down, releasing a devastating strike which split the sky and any type of energy in its way.

The flames hit Sol'khin's front while the sword attack accurately hit the target's head, dizzying Sol'khin for a split second. Arthur jumped a little to the back then slashed with his sword… Although he didn't use any skill, the attack blasted both the nearby Lucy and Ber Von Xin but it, fortunately, didn't damage them. 

It passed through the wide Anduril and hit Sol'khin in the chest, causing him to stagger a few steps and even cough some blood. For a few seconds, he stood there, dazed, as if he couldn't believe he was injured by Arthur.

*******

BONUS LORE 

Darkness and Dark Magic.

Many people think that these two are the same thing because, on the outside, they have many similarities, however, the truth couldn't be more wrong.

Dark Magic is reliant solely on Dark Mana, which is actually converted normal Mana. It affects and is affected by emotions and it is able to corrupt material and spiritual things such as Earth, Water, and even ghosts. Once it invades a target's body, Dark Magic can weaken their energy circulation and slowly corrupt their Dantian, it is like a ticking bomb which can be detonated at the user's will. Only its caster can cancel its effect and very few attributes can resist its potent effect.

Void Magic, Dark Matter, and Antimatter are all able to cancel or even reverse the effect of Dark Magic. 

Darkness, or Darkness Magic, is something unique which is rarely used by cultivators or even high-leveled players. Mastering Darkness Magic is very hard and finding or creating skills suited for it is close to impossible due to its nature. Not only is it easily countered by many attributes, but it can also backlash if the environment is not favorable. What most people know about Darkness Magic is it that it revolves around curses and debuffs, however, that is only a portion of it.

The true darkness is when you can shroud the sun and turn the sky blacker than night. It is when you wield the real darkness however you want, whether it's making a powerful skill vanish or erasing things from existence. Anything in existence emits light and the role of darkness is to get rid of that light so, essentially, Darkness is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, attribute. However, ever since the Era of Beginning, there are only a few who mastered and a handful who displayed its true deadly potential.