MTLNOVEL Chapter 246: Survival
["Phantom"]
"Replication."
Using multiple doppelgangers, all blessed with divine speed, circles were ran around the airborne esper. Across the wind, he glided while the unseen force chased him.
It was his first encounter with the concept of telekinesis, no less against a calamitous force of it. At the regal gestures of the all-powerful lifeform, the air was spun into roaring tornadoes, dirt being turned into shredders.
He moved along with his copies, attempting to throw off the Esper God before—
A sudden flick of his foot against the ground completely altered his trajectory, suddenly shooting upward.
The speed he moved at pierced the sound barrier multiple times in a single sprint, cracking the wind each time his boots slammed against the air.
—Meters.
Just meters shy of reaching the pale-skinned warper of matter, he found himself brought to a halt. It held its six-fingered hand towards him like an immovable command—"freeze."
The air itself felt like a steel prison around every square inch of his body. No, it wasn't being "frozen"—it was being squeezed like an orange, as though the blood in his body was a delectable juice.
Inch by inch, millimeter by millimeter, he stretched his hand closer, bringing his blade closer to the Esper God's flesh. Yet, the invisible force squeezed more intensely; blood squirted from his pores.
He felt the blood vessels in his eyes pop, filling his sclera with scarlet liquid. A perfect moment was waited for, still watching the Esper God, eye-to-eye before—
["Intangible"]
His body began that of a ghost, slipping away from the forceful grip of the being. It was a split-second moment, catching the esper off guard as he stepped on the air.
["Execution"]
Releasing his intangibility, he plunged his blade through the side of the pale, bald creature's neck. He didn't waste any effort, not sparing risk as he cleaved the dagger through the entity's throat—squelch.
["Esper God defeated."] ["Anarch Coins: +2,000,000"]
[Experience Points: +5,000,000] [17,450,00/35,000,000]
[Assimilated ability from [Esper God]: "Telekinesis"]
Immediately as his blade left the other side of its throat, the esper lifelessly fell from the sky. He almost met the same fate before catching himself, standing on the air as his cloak of Hermes dissipated.
["Telekinesis"]
It came naturally to him; the new power at his fingertips. As though supporting his own body like a ventriloquist manipulating his own strings, he kept his body afloat.
He stared down at the desecrated landscape, finding a swarm of creatures awaiting him as he floated there.
Blood dripped from his nose and ears, breathing heavily as a painful heat resonated through his body.
["…Gaining a higher level isn't a clear-cut benefit. At the level I'm at now, it's incredibly hard to level up. That means the wounds I suffer…They're not going anywhere."]
He allowed himself to gently float down like a fallen leaf, touching the land with a brief exhale. All he could see in the farthest stretches were countless horrors. It was beginning to make sense what kind of world the "Bottom" truly was—a cesspit where creatures exiled from the universe were sent.
From all directions, waves and waves came, endlessly and maliciously. The abyssal sky rumbled, the ground quaked, and the stale air was filled with the chants of death.
["Telekinesis"] ["Supercharge"]
Pushing both hands out as if parting the wind, he expanded the unseen force through the valley. It rippled outward, pushing and crushed the creatures that stampeded for him.
A scenery of scarlet walls filled his vision, tidal waves of blood gushing at the gesture of his will.
["During moments like this, I wonder…"]
Hundreds, thousands—he didn't keep track. All he could see now were the notifications from his system, presenting the rewards of everything he killed. The telekinetic, crushing barrier fizzled out, giving with his own endurance—
"Gheugh…!"
He coughed out as blood leaked from his nose, spitting it from his lips. The entirety of his brain felt as though it was seeping in magma within his skull.
A flicker; from the sight of blood to nothingness—his consciousness was strung along by a thin string. For that brief lapse, it allowed a heavy-fisted fiend to arrive in front of him, delivering a sharp uppercut to his jaw.
"Pyuh!—"
He spat out, forced to look up at the abyssal sky as his own blood and saliva mixed in the air above. Everything blurred, his ears ringing as he stood there, hearing the cackling laughter from the fiend that had served him the swift assault.
"You weren't planning on falling already, were you? Man, I took you for a harder worker than this."
As he wobbled, hardly able to see anything through the blood that painted his eyes, the familiar, warm voice drifted into his right ear. The backhanded, yet encouraging words from the warrior were enough motivation to draw another breath in his lungs, just enough to briefly ignore the aching and throbbing through his body.
Just enough to ignore the drippage from his nose; just enough to ignore the splitting pain in his skull. The hyper-energetic rabbit-eared, man-shaped lifeform that had struck him launched towards him again–
Squelch.
Before its knuckles could touch his skin again, its entire arm split in half before its body was met with the same fate.
["Air Slash"]
It was reduced to a fine, red mist within a single moment, not so much as earning a twitch of the tired man's eye as he breathed out. Through the endless swarm, he pushed through, relying on the countless abilities assimilated, seizing all thoughts except his singular resolve–survive.
Hours and hours, an eternity of bloodshed, passed by–
"...Haaah…"
He hardly stood on his own two feet, hardly able to feel the ground anymore, only standing on a valley of monstrous corpses. There was nothing left of his coat nor the shirt underneath, drenched in blood, bruises, and cuts of his own, yet–he remained standing.
Up in that abyssal sky, he looked up as the sight of the impossibly-sized grimoire bled into the air, parting its pages–
["Congratulations, you have survived the week. Enter the door before you."]