Atticus’s Odyssey: Reincarnated Into A Playground - Chapter 1553

Capítulo 1553: Manifest

Scaling heat. Simmering air. The ground across the endless desert fusing to glass.

To Raziel, the shock of the other Marquis was irrelevant. He felt a surge of thrill as the impossible scene unfolded before him.

‘Ah… there it is.’

The gigantic silhouette of a flaming figure rose into the heavens, its size dwarfing the entirety of the desert. But it was the implications that thrilled him.

Manifestation.

A mastery of will so profound that it was rarely seen on the Verge. Many had gone millennia without even a shred of hope of ever accomplishing it. Yet a boy who’d only been on the Verge for barely a year had reached it.

“So you finally stepped out!”

Raziel roared at the top of his lungs just as the flaming silhouette began to shrink and compress, until it vanished entirely.

‘It vanished?’

His eyes cut through the thick smoke and landed on Atticus. Raziel’s eyes widened in shock.

No… the manifestation hadn’t vanished. Atticus’ form had changed entirely. Two opposing flames of white and gold now split his body in equal halves, the heat warping the air around him.

‘He compressed it…’

Was such a thing even possible? Manifesting will was already an astronomical achievement on its own, yet for someone who’d just manifested to have such control over it… it shook him.

He had underestimated him. Greatly. This was a talent beyond monstrous.

His eyes constricted as Atticus vanished into the wind. A coldness washed over him.

‘Already—!’

His eyes darted to the side, catching sight of a flaming kick crashing toward him. He hastily raised his staff to meet it, but his eyes shook as the heat finally reached him.

His flesh began to sizzle, his blood boiled, and his attire combusted in sudden flame. The sheer heat from the kick melted his staff before it even made contact.

Raziel widened his eyes and summoned his will to block, but the kick tore through it and crashed into his side.

A scaling wave of fire spread across his body, hurling him like a beam of light across the terrain.

Unimaginable pain flooded Raziel. The kick had broken through his will and rendered his body a scalding mess. His clothes burned to ash, and the flames began to ravage his insides.

Still, as Atticus streaked toward him in a beam of light, a large grin split Raziel’s scorched face.

“No warning. good. Yes. That’s it!”

His eyes turned emotionless, and the world blurred into muted silence. Raziel felt the power of Solvath’s fragments roaring within him and reached out.

A relieving wave washed over him immediately, healing his wounds and mending his Will at an inhumane rate.

He roared.

“Manifest!”

His will exploded in a violent wave that blasted everything back. Raziel’s will surged around him like a storm, wrapping and converging into the colossal form of a humanoid man behind him.

The giant was faceless, with broad shoulders and a large, blinding crown upon its head. The moment it stood, gravity seemed to multiply a hundredfold.

“Kneel.”

The giant fist drove forward with such force that multiple concentric circles ripped through the air as it shattered space itself.

But Raziel’s eyes flew wide as unimaginable pain struck him.

‘W-what?’

A single slash tore through the arm of his manifest. By the time he realized what had occurred, Atticus erased the distance and drove a flaming fist into his face.

The impact echoed like thunder in his ears. Moments later, fire ravaged his body and wind crashed against his back as he was torn away.

Still, his mind replayed the scene he had just witnessed. His manifest had been cut through… in a single strike?

‘…So this is the gap.’

A kick crashed into the side of his face and sent him tearing through the air. Moments later, another blow struck from above, forcing him down. Another came from below in a brutal uppercut that shattered his teeth and launched him into the heavens.

Raziel could barely form a thought as an arm gripped his face, hurling him through the air in vicious circles before shooting him downward in a streak of light.

He crashed into the ground in a violent explosion that swallowed the terrain.

Raziel’s breaths came out ragged and strained. He didn’t need to touch his face to know, his body was a broken, scalded mess. His limbs were mangled, his body more burden than flesh.

The fragments’ power healed him at a rapid pace, but Atticus’ flames were merciless, ravaging him relentlessly.

Raziel let out a broken laugh as Atticus slowly descended from the skies. Even now, there wasn’t a shred of emotion in his eyes. Only silence.

“You could’ve ended it with one cut.”

With the power he’d just shown, Atticus could have ended the fight with a single strike of his katana. Yet he had chosen to punch and kick him instead.

“Hah… you want me to suffer…” Another broken laugh escaped him before his eyes gleamed.

“Take a look at you! You’re faster. Stronger. Losing her did what I hoped—!”

Atticus was upon him before he could finish, his leg crashing into his chin and snapping his mouth shut.

Raziel burst into loud, broken laughter as he was torn back, carving a deep trench across the land.

“Don’t mistake this for helplessness!”

Raziel roared, unleashing the full force of Solvath’s fragments within him. The resulting explosion birthed a pillar of purple light that surged into the sky before collapsing around him.

His wounds healed and his body mended almost instantly, smoke rising from him. He pointed his palm forward as Solvath’s energy condensed into a gigantic orb of pure power.

“Then answer this.”

The orb shot forward in a beam of pure energy. As it closed in on Atticus, Raziel began calculating his next move.

Atticus’ weapon could somehow cut through stronger wills, but Solvath’s was a primordial star. The origin of origins. Weakened or not, he refused to believe anything could cut through it. The earlier strike had only injured his manifestation, his will.

‘I’ll retreat while he deals with thi—’

The thought froze as the beam reached Atticus and was cleanly sliced into two equal halves.

“No…”

A sudden disconnect struck him. Raziel glanced down, his limbs were falling from the sky. A kick plummeted onto his head, sending him crashing into the ground.

Atticus was upon him before he could move, attacks raining down in torrents of explosive punches.