Like sudden visual deprivation.
In an instant, Luo Shu's vision plunged into absolute darkness, where not even his outstretched hand was visible.
Yet this wasn't physical light extinction, but the power of a concept imposing midnight's darkness upon their surroundings.
Theoretically, as fellow Demigods, Lana's night manipulation should have required breaching their conceptual defences first.
Demigod clashes were battles of concepts - wielding equal swords and shields, typically resulting in stalemates when power levels matched.
Yet astonishingly, Lana's manipulation achieved immediate effect.
Only two explanations existed:
First - Lana's mastered concept surpassed Luo Shu and Kurumi's.
Second - She expended multiple times their Spiritual Power to forcibly overwhelm their defences.
According to Luo Shu's judgement, Lana was most likely the former.
In the blink of an eye, as darkness descended, blue-white streaks of lightning erupted from Luo Shu's body, casting a dazzling radiance.
He had briefly transformed himself into the Calamity Concept, using Calamity to command lightning.
Through lightning's inherent suppression of darkness, Luo Shu forcibly dispelled the surrounding night, summoning back the light.
Yet even so, he had only driven away less than a quarter of the darkness—far more remained under Lana's control.
Unlike Luo Shu, who forcibly neutralised the darkness, Kurumi Tokisaki immediately infiltrated the City of Devouring Time upon detecting the encroaching darkness. Through her mastery over shadows, she merged with the darkness itself, vying for control over it.
One countered while the other seized control – within moments, the spreading darkness was dispelled, with nearly half the nightfall now under their command.
Faced with this situation, the being possessing Lana swiftly took action.
Her lips parted slightly as her throat undulated unnaturally.
Then, a melodious, soothing song flowed from her mouth.
The lullaby-like melody whispered in Luo Shu and Kurumi Tokisaki's ears.
As the sound echoed, weariness and drowsiness settled over Kurumi Tokisaki's mind.
At that moment, Luo Shu, who had already activated Calamity Absorption, ignored the forcibly imposed drowsiness and snorted coldly.
"Hmph!"
A sharp sting and tingling sensation instantly flooded Kurumi Tokisaki's consciousness.
In that instant, Luo Shu had bestowed upon her the calamity of electroconvulsive therapy.
While the electric shocks used in psychiatric treatment weren't painful for a Demigod, the Electrocution Concept effectively countered the artificially imposed drowsiness and fatigue.
Her entire body tingling unbearably, Kurumi Tokisaki suppressed her discomfort. As she recovered, she couldn't help remarking:
"My, my, doing such things to a lady in public... how utterly disgraceful of you, Luo Shu."
After casually mocking him, Kurumi narrowed her eyes as an enormous metallic clock materialised behind her, its hands spinning wildly backwards.
Recognising her opponent's superior mastery and application of concepts, Kurumi immediately activated her ability.
"Zafkiel – Degraded 12th Bullet!"
Tick! Tock! Tick! Tock!
The madly reversing hands caused everything around them to flow backwards.
Lightning crackled around Luo Shu again as the darkness controlled by Kurumi reverted to Lana.
Even the dark concept initially imposed to alter the environment flowed back to its source.
As if time itself were laughing, everything returned to its state one minute prior – even Lana's deliberately torn clothing restored itself.
When the temporal reversal ceased...
Lana stared at the smirking Kurumi Tokisaki and expressionless Luo Shu standing fifty metres away, visibly surprised.
The ancient voice within her sounded perplexed:
"To wield the Time Concept... so that bastard Guro wasn't deceiving me after all?"
Across all worlds, the powers of time and space represented extraordinarily potent and esoteric abilities.
Under normal circumstances, only Top Tier Class Demigods could hope to attain such advanced conceptual powers after ascension.
The "Night" mastered by Lana's own Class, the Night Witch, represented but a branch of temporal concepts.
A derivative formed from the fusion of time and darkness.
Day and night themselves were offshoots of the Light Concept, shaped by time's influence.
With proper adjustment and sufficient talent, night could potentially touch time's domain.
The prerequisite for such achievement... naturally being complete intelligence about a Class governing temporal concepts.
Lana turned to Kurumi Tokisaki, a faint smile appearing on her face as she said:
"Little girl, what's your Class?"
Hearing this, Kurumi Tokisaki's eyes flickered as she smiled sweetly:
"Shouldn't you introduce yourself before asking questions?"
"Oh?"
Lana was momentarily surprised, seemingly not expecting Kurumi to counter with such a question, but she quickly recovered and replied with a smile:
"Fair point."
"Then, let me introduce myself. My name is Nak."
"Apostle of Night, Nak."
"And the origin of the Gorgon lineage in this world, the first witch!"
Hearing this, Luo Shu and Kurumi Tokisaki both thought, 'as expected'.
The vessel for a demon's descent might not be able to unleash its full power.
This limitation was inherent to the vessel itself, as well as a restriction on Spiritual Power output.
Despite the constraints on Spiritual Power, the concept she wielded had suppressed both Luo Shu and Kurumi Tokisaki.
Under such circumstances, there was only one possibility.
She was an Apostle who had completed an Authority Embryo and elevated her abilities to a grand scale!
An Apostle-level demon descending into reality at this point in time... Luo Shu narrowed his eyes, a hint of doubt surfacing in his mind.
The Nak before him, who wielded the Night Concept, seemed different from the Apostle who had projected power remotely during the Akihabara incident in his memory.
Could there be another Apostle lurking in the shadows?
Realising this, Luo Shu's expression darkened imperceptibly.