Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player

Chapter 758 Time

The morning sun continued to spread its golden rays over the capital of the Kingdom of Mibothen, painting a picture of hope after the intense battle. 

However, when Belial realized that he hadn't been teleported to hell after fulfilling the clause of the contract, he widened his eyes and, looking down at his hands, asked himself:

"What...? What's going on? I didn't..." He uttered in a voice and thought: 'I'm sure the condition of the contract was to work until dawn, so why weren't we pulled back? Why, Dad?

Kaizen smiled and began to stretch his shoulders. 'Looks like we're going to have an overtime, Belial. Bloody Lily must have bought us some more time."

Belial, surrounded by the morning light, took a few steps back when he saw Kaizen approaching and as he raised his hands a sphere of dark energy began to form between his palms.

"Overtime? You're the one I've been wanting to face all this time, Kaizen!" Belial's words resounded with ominous promise. He then launched the sphere of energy towards Kaizen, which, for a moment, seemed to hit him square in the face.

A smile appeared on Belial's face. However, the darkness of the sphere didn't last. A golden light emanated from Kaizen and he seemed to absorb the sphere of dark energy as if it were a flame consuming the darkness, but unlike Og'tharoz, he didn't suck in this darkness, it was more like a shield resisting a fireball. 

Undeterred, Belial waved his hands once more, trying a different approach. With one swift movement, he summoned streams of black energy, which came straight out of the ground to try to trap Kaizen and drain his life force. The currents streaked towards the Evolved, but before they even touched him, they disintegrated into sparks.

Kaizen, watching indifferently, seemed unreachable. "You still don't understand, Belial. No skill of yours will work against me."

Belial gritted his teeth in frustration. His mind was racing in search of a strategy that could penetrate Kaizen's apparent invulnerability. Determined not to be defeated, the demon began to channel a time manipulation spell, hoping that temporality itself could be his ally. He copied this magic from a creature from hell, a predator that by simply touching its prey with its teeth makes it age so quickly that it turns it into pure bone.

"If the darkness doesn't affect you, I'll try something more subtle." Belial muttered to himself and, with an elaborate gesture, he released a temporal shockwave towards Kaizen.

Surprisingly, the temporal wave hit Kaizen, causing a slight distortion around him. However, the expression of surprise on Belial's face quickly turned to horror as the distortion dissipated and Kaizen remained unharmed.

Kaizen, with a defiant look on his face, said: "Time has no more dominion over me than an ant would. You're the one who's wasting time, Belial." Kaizen smiled at his own joke.

The truth was that Kaizen was now an Evolved, he was putting an idea to use <Psychokinesis> that he had had for a long time. This idea was basically to create an invisible shield around his entire body, preventing anything from touching him. Before with the mana and stamina statuses this was practically impossible, because although he had the control to do it while standing still, he could never do it while moving and the very act of moving would be enough to break the shield, so it became impractical, unlike now.

Frustration overtook the demon, but his obstinacy did not give way. In desperation, he concentrated his mana in his hands, shaping a blade made from the essence of black flames. With a furious cry, Belial advanced towards Kaizen, brandishing the dark blade.

However, when he swung his sword at Kaizen, he caught the middle of the blade without any problem.

Kaizen looked into Belial's eyes with superior calm. "Accept reality, Belial, there's no way you can beat me. If you had been less arrogant and acted before any of the other demons, considering that you defeated Zylok and Fryft single-handedly, by now the city would be under your feet, including me, but you gave us time to act, learn and evolve. Now it's too late, I believe I'm at a level of strength well above you, but still a little below Surtr."

A feeling of helplessness came over Belial as he listened to Kaizen. He undid his sword of black flames and retreated, increasingly desperate, while Kaizen slowly advanced, like a ruthless judge in front of a condemned man.

"NO, PLEASE! I PROMISE I WON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE!" Belial tried to plead.

Despite this, Kaizen continued walking towards him.

"I MEAN IT! I'LL GO TO HELL AND NEVER COME BACK!" 

The demon kept trying, but Kaizen's expression was impassive.

"I killed two demons today and I was so excited that I forgot to copy their skills. It was stupid of me, I confess. I was so emotional that I didn't think rationally, but I won't make the same mistake three times." Kaizen said.

[~Condition of Copying~

Belial is a demon who holds many secrets, convince him to confess one of his great secrets].

Seeing this notification, Kaizen smiled, because given the situation, getting Belial to confess a secret didn't seem like it would be too difficult a job.

Kaizen calmly raised an eyebrow at Belial's desperate pleas. He seemed to be enjoying every moment of the demon's desperation. "Belia, you're making promises to the four winds out there, but I don't care about that, at least not until you tell me some secret. You know, there's only a real bond between two people when secrets are involved, tell me one and maybe I'll consider sparing you."

Belial, with sweat dripping down his demonic face, swallowed. However, he also realized that, at that moment, his only chance of survival lay in confessing a secret. Belial gritted his teeth, pondering his options and then, after taking a deep breath, Belial said:

"I know I'm not the strongest demon in hell, and I'm not talking about the demons in the other circles, like Delgron and the others, of course not. There's one who works directly with Surtr, like a butler, he alone could easily finish me off, because he's actually the one who taught me how to manipulate the black flames."

[You have met the conditions.]

[You have successfully copied the skill 'Time Shock (S)'].

[Do you want to save this skill? YES/NO.]

[The copied skill is saved in the Apographer's deck.]

[Skill: Time Shock

Time is something that is directly linked to everything, but the way certain creatures see it is different, as is the way they are affected

(Note: this skill makes anything in the radius of the skill affected, except the user, and makes the target's time pass considerably faster, changing their appearance permanently or even killing them. If the target is a player, upon death the appearance will be reset to the avatar's original state).

Acquisition difficulty: S.]