The clash of steel echoed through the white void.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
I ducked under Hinata's horizontal slash, feeling the wind pressure ruffle my hair. Close. Too close.
I countered with an upward strike—one of Harald's techniques—but she'd already sidestepped, her footwork annoyingly perfect.
"You're telegraphing," Hinata said flatly. "I can read your next three moves before you even start the first one."
She came at me again, and I barely got my blade up in time.
Damn, she's fast.
The impact rattled through my arms. She wasn't even using her full strength yet, I could tell.
"Dead End Rainbow."
Oh crap—
Seven simultaneous strikes from impossible angles. I managed to block three with Armament Haki coating my Ame no ohabari, but the other four connected.
Shoulder. Ribs. Thigh. Forearm.
Blood welled up from the cuts, and I stumbled back—
Then the wounds just... closed.
Instantly.
And the spots where she'd cut me felt different now. Harder. Denser.
I could even feel my soul developing resistance.
What the hell?
<
I stared at my now-healed shoulder. "Raphael, did I just... adapt? Like, automatically?"
<
"You adapted?" Hinata lowered her sword slightly, looking genuinely surprised for the first time since we'd started. "In real-time? That's..."
"Ah, yeah." I scratched my cheek, trying to sound casual. "It's one of my Unique Skills. I call it Adaptation. Basically, anything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger against similar attacks. "
Technically not a lie. The Essences basically functioned like Unique Skills anyway. No need to complicate things by explaining metaphysical concepts from outside this world.
Hinata studied me with those sharp violet eyes. "Unique Skill at five years old. And it is reactive evolution." She shook her head. "You're going to be terrifying when you grow up."
"I'll take that as a compliment, Hinata-nee!"
"It wasn't exactly meant as one," she said dryly. But there was a slight upturn at the corner of her mouth. "Alright. If you can adapt, then I won't hold back anymore."
She moved.
So fast!
I activated my Observation Haki, trying to predict where she'd strike next—
Left side, no wait, feint—actual attack from below—
I twisted my body, barely avoiding the upward slash that would've opened me from hip to shoulder. My counter-strike was clumsy, and she batted it aside effortlessly before driving her knee into my solar plexus.
Oof!
The impact launched me backward. I hit the ground, rolled, came up coughing.
My torso felt like it'd been hit by a cannonball, but even as I registered the pain, it was already fading. My internal organs shifted, reinforced themselves, grew denser.
<
While Raphael worked in the background, I pushed myself up and rushed back in.
Hinata met me halfway, and we exchanged a flurry of strikes. Her technique was flawless—every movement economical, every strike purposeful. Mine was... less so.
I had the muscle memory from legendary swordsmen, sure. But knowing the moves and actually executing them in real combat were completely different things.
She caught me across the shoulder again—adapted.
Stabbed toward my heart, I barely deflected it—
Her follow-up kick caught my side—adapted.
This continued for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes. Each time she hit me, I grew stronger. Each technique she used, Raphael analyzed and catalogued.
And slowly, gradually, I was getting better.
My movements became smoother. My counters more instinctive. The gap between thought and action narrowed.
But more than that, something else was happening.
As Raphael analyzed Hinata's techniques, as Arlo's body adapted to her attacks, patterns began to emerge. He could feel it—the underlying principles of her combat style, the mathematical precision of her movements, the spiritual energy she wove through every strike.
She's not just using physical techniques. There's magic integrated into her swordsmanship.
<
Arlo activated his Unique Skill: Creator.
The skill thrummed to life within him, that pure and unrestricted power allowing him to freely configure his soul energy to produce whatever ability he desired. But more than creation, it granted him something else—the ability to detect and analyze the skills of anyone he came into contact with.
His awareness expanded, touching Hinata's spiritual body—not invasively, but with the delicate precision of a surgical instrument. He could feel her soul, the energy that defined her existence, and etched within that energy...
Skills.
Two of them, burning like stars within her spiritual framework.
Unique Skill: Mathematician—a computational ability that allowed her to instantly calculate optimal attack patterns, predict enemy movements, and adjust her combat strategies with inhuman precision.
Unique Skill: Usurper—a power that let her seal, steal and takeover the abilities of defeated opponents, though its full potential had never been truly explored in her timeline.
Arlo's Creator skill reached out, his soul energy reshaping itself, mirroring the pattern of Mathematician...
<
<
Understood. Transfer the data.
Arlo felt the information flow from his Creator skill into Raphael. The Ultimate Skill absorbed the knowledge structure of Mathematician like water soaking into dry earth, integrating the mathematical frameworks and refining them beyond their original parameters.
<
Now for the other one.
Usurper was more interesting. The ability to steal and utilize enemy abilities had potential, but Arlo already possessed something similar through Beelzebuth's various subskills.
But he remembered something else. Something from the web novel timeline he'd read in his previous life.
Yuuki Kagurazaka's Ultimate Skill: Greedy King Mammon, and its predecessor unique skill Plunderer.
The ability to steal skills, authorities, and even Ultimate Skills from opponents. Not like usurper it didn't require analysis and opponent to be stronger than oneself to work at it's fullest. It is considered to superior to predator as it copies skill on same level not inferior copies.
That's what I want.
Using Usurper as the foundation, as the conceptual blueprint, Arlo activated Creator once more. His soul energy shifted, restructured, evolved the base concept into something greater.
He poured his understanding of skill mechanics into the process. His knowledge of how abilities were etched into souls. His memories of reading about Plunderer's terrifying capabilities.
Creator starts working, molding the soul energy to maximize the skill performance.
<
<
<
Arlo felt the new skill settle into his existence, its framework weaving into his soul alongside all his other abilities. It was hungry, eager to be used, but he pushed that aside for now.
Focus. The fight isn't over.
Hinata had given him space during that brief moment of skill creation, but now she was moving again. This time, however, there was something different about her stance.
Her sword glowed.
"Good," Hinata acknowledged. "You're starting to trust your body instead of overthinking."
She stepped back, and I noticed her sword beginning to glow.
Not normal light. Something purer. Something Holy.
Spiritual energy condensed along the blade's edge, and my Observation Haki started screaming warnings.
"Hinata-nee?" I asked cautiously. "What's that?"
"One of my strongest techniques," she said simply. "I'm going to use it now. I know this domain will revive you if something goes wrong, but—"
"Actually," I interrupted. "Raphael, disable the resurrection function."
<
Confirmed. I want to see what my adaptation can really do.
<<...Understood. Resurrection protocols deactivated.>>
Hinata's eyes widened. "You turned off the safety? Are you insane?"
"Maybe a little?" I grinned. "But if I'm going to grow stronger, I need real stakes. Come on, Hinata-nee. Show me what you've got."
She looked at me for a long moment, then sighed. "You're either very brave or very stupid."
"Why not both?"
Despite the situation, she smiled. "Alright. Don't say I didn't warn you."
The glow around her sword intensified. The air itself seemed to vibrate with concentrated energy.
"This is a fusion of My battle arts and Holy Magic," she explained, even as power built around her. "I've refined it over years into something that transcends both."
The light became blinding.
"Melt Slash!"
She swung.
The blade didn't reach me—she was still several meters away.
But that didn't matter.
A wave of pure holy energy erupted from her sword, so bright it turned the entire white void into a realm of absolute radiance. The attack moved impossibly fast, warping space around it.
My Observation Haki screamed, but there was nowhere to dodge.
I brought Ame no Ohabari up, coating it in my strongest Armament Haki—
The holy light hit me like divine judgment.
Pain.
Not just physical pain. This went deeper.
My flesh started to disintegrate. My bones began to dissolve. But worse—much worse—I could feel my spiritual body being torn apart.
Spiritrons. The fundamental particles that made up spiritual matter. They were being annihilated by the millions.
My consciousness started to fragment. I tried to scream but had no lungs. Tried to think but my mind was coming apart—
Is this it? Am I actually going to die?
Then something deep inside me responded.
The Essences.
Adaptation. Limit Break.
They recognized this moment. This was the moment.
A wheel appeared in my fracturing awareness.
It spun.
And spun.
And spun—
<
My body stopped disintegrating.
Instead, it began to change.
The cells that reformed weren't purely biological anymore. Spiritrons—those same particles that had been destroyed—started integrating into my physical structure.
My flesh became something between matter and spirit. My soul blazed with new strength as its framework restructured to contain power that mortal flesh never could. I felt as if I didn't need my physical body.
It hurt.
Oh god, it hurt.
But I could feel it working. Feel myself evolving. Becoming something more.
<
The pain vanished.
I stood in the center of what should have been my death, completely whole.
My body looked the same, but I could feel the difference. Each cell was infused with spiritual energy now. My magicule reserves had exploded—ten times larger than before. No, bigger than that. The energy flooding through me was immense.
And something else. Resistance. Multiple layers of it, etched into my very existence.
<
<<- Physical Attack Nullification: Complete immunity to conventional physical damage. Attacks lacking sufficient spiritual energy will pass through harmlessly or be absorbed.>>
<<- Spiritual Attack Nullification: A Nullification-type skill that completely negates effects (mind control, mind reading, etc.) and damage on the mind and Spiritual body.>>
<<- Holy Attack Resistance: Reduced damage from holy magic and sacred techniques.>>
<<- Natural Elements Resistance: Reduced damage from fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning-based attacks.>>
<<- Pain Nullification: User no longer experiences physical pain. Damage registers as data rather than suffering.>>
<<- Status Condition Immunity: Complete immunity to poison, paralysis, sleep, confusion, and similar debilitating effects.>>
<<- Mental Attack Resistance: Significantly reduced effectiveness of mind-control, illusion, and psychological manipulation.>>
<<- Abnormal Condition Nullification: Immunity to curses, hexes, and reality-altering status effects below certain threshold.>>
The information flowed through me as I flexed my hands experimentally.
"You..." Hinata had lowered her sword, staring at me with unconcealed shock. "You survived Melt Slash. No, you didn't just survive—you evolved into a Saint? In seconds?"
"Guess my skill Limit Break kicked in," I said, examining my transformed body with wonder. "Pushed past the limitation of being purely physical."
<
<
Oh. Oh.
"Hinata-nee," I said slowly. "I think I can use your attack now."
She blinked. "You... what?"
I raised Ame no Ohabari, gathering my newly expanded magicule reserves. The energy responded eagerly, condensing along the blade's edge just like hers had.
But something was different.
My magicule capacity was much larger now. The light gathering around my sword wasn't just bright.
It was blinding.
Pure white radiance that made Hinata's version look like a candle next to a spotlight.
"Melt Slash."
I swung.
The wave of holy light that erupted was massive. It carved through the void with enough power to level mountains.
Hinata's eyes went wide. She raised her sword defensively—
The energy engulfed her completely.
When it cleared, she was still standing, but her armor was scorched and cracked. She was breathing hard. Akashic Domain had revived her.
"That was..." She had to stop and catch her breath. "That was way stronger than mine. How?"
I shrugged, trying to look modest. "Bigger magicule reserves, I guess? And maybe my skills amplified it somehow."
<
Hinata lowered her sword, and her form started to shimmer.
"I think this is enough for today," she said with a tired smile. "You've learned what you needed. The rest comes with experience."
She looked at me with something like pride. "You're going to be something special, Arlo."
Before I could respond, she dissolved into light particles, returning to whatever database stored the Echoes.
I stood alone in the white void, processing everything.
Holy shit. I'm a Saint now. I evolved into a spiritual lifeform.
<
<
<
That's putting it mildly.
I deactivated the domain and found myself back in my room. Morning sunlight filtered through the screens—only a few minutes had passed outside.
Time dilation really was broken.
Before I could process further, a knock came at my door.
"Arlo-kun? Are you awake?"
Sachiko's voice. Warm and familiar.
"I'm awake, Sachiko-nee!" I opened the door to find her smiling at me.
"Good morning! I thought we could have breakfast together, then maybe you'd like to come see how I handle the trade negotiations today?"
A perfectly normal request. A perfectly ordinary day.
I looked at my sister—who had no idea I'd just spent hours being disintegrated by holy energy and evolving beyond mortality—and smiled.
"I'd love to."
We walked to the dining hall together, Sachiko chattering about her plans while I listened.
But part of my mind was elsewhere.
For the next few years, nothing major happens in this world. God Valley is seven years away. Orochi's dead. Sachiko's protected by Uriel's barrier.
Which means I have time.
An idea crystallized as we sat down for breakfast.
The multiverse.
It's about Time I use the reincarnation part of Essence of overcoming limitations, those customizations are very intriguing . I could freeze time here, or slow it down, so even if I spent years elsewhere, only seconds would pass in this world.
I could explore. Learn new power systems. Grow even stronger.
I don't want to limit myself to a single universe, if i did what would be the meaning of me getting that overpowered essence.
"Arlo-kun? You're making that serious face again." Sachiko's amused voice pulled me back. "What are you thinking about so hard?"
I looked up at her and smiled. "Just the future, Sachiko-nee. All the possibilities."
"Well, don't think too hard," she teased, tapping my forehead gently.
I nodded and focused on breakfast, enjoying this moment of peace.
Because soon—very soon—I would step beyond the boundaries of this world entirely.
The multiverse awaited.
But that was tomorrow's problem.
Today, I had breakfast with my sister.
And honestly?
That was enough.
End of Chapter 12
Next: Preparations begin.