Chapter 238: A Contest Of Speed

However, Aiden had his Future Sight activated, and unlike the inferior Foresight, he could see a full minute into the future relative to himself.

So just at the nick of it, right before Herxes’ staff was to touch and make contact with Aiden’s body, he vanished.

He reappeared off to another corner using Void Step, his instantaneous teleportation space authority skill.

Herxes skidded to a halt, with his eyes widening in shock as his staff struck nothing but empty air where Aiden had been standing a split second ago.

“What—” Herxes began, but Aiden had already turned his attention elsewhere.

The first Space Lock was beginning to fracture completely under Lucina’s relentless assault, and with a thought, Aiden added another layer of Space Lock over the existing two.

Then another one after that.

Now Lucina had to contend with four of them stacked on top of each other. Although the first was practically done for.

It was true that unlike Va’s Law, which countered threats one after another in sequence, Lucina’s Law could target multiple things simultaneously.

Her flames burned against all four barriers at once, pressing against each one with equal intensity.

However, it still lacked that same instantaneous resolution power when faced with something equally strong opposing it directly.

Her flames were now burning through, but it was taking time because those locks were strong enough to resist her briefly before succumbing completely under the sustained assault from her Law’s conceptual fire.

And that meant Aiden had some time to get back to her specifically.

A situation of saving the best for last. Maybe.

Aiden then turned fully toward Herxes now, and a mocking smile spread across his face.

“You know,” Aiden began casually, “I’ve been curious about something. My speed stat is over the 400 mark now, and I’ve been trying to figure out just how fast I can truly move.”

He tilted his head slightly as his smile widened.

“So perhaps we go through a contest of speed then?”

Herxes had no idea what this speed stat was but his expression contorted into fury immediately.

Nothing under the sun had ever surpassed his movement. Nothing.

“You dare mock me?” Herxes snarled.

In that moment, they both raced toward each other.

Aiden was currently mimicking and using Herxes’ own copied ability: Speed of Herxes.

Herxes closed the distance first, swinging his staff horizontally toward Aiden’s ribs in a blur of motion.

Aiden twisted his torso backward just enough for the staff to pass inches from his chest.

Herxes immediately reversed the swing without pause, bringing the staff back around in an upward arc aimed at Aiden’s chin.

Aiden ducked, and the weapon swept over him so closely it barely stirred his hair.

Before Aiden could straighten fully, Herxes thrust the staff forward like a spear directly at his face.

Aiden leaned his head to the side at the last possible moment, as it sailed past his cheek.

The exchange had lasted less than a blink. Herxes continued pressing forward with relentless aggression as he launched strike after strike after strike in rapid succession.

Aiden dodged each one, left, right, ducking low, twisting sideways, but only barely each time.

The margin was razor-thin.

By the time half a second had passed, Aiden had dodged a total of 105 attempted strikes with the staff.

Then Aiden moved to the side and stopped abruptly, creating space between them again as he straightened up casually.

“Hm,” Aiden said thoughtfully, as if evaluating something mundane. “So when I use your power alongside my base speed, I’m only slightly faster but nothing too overwhelming.”

Herxes glared at him with fury burning in his eyes.

Was the Dragon vessel even taking this seriously?

Aiden’s grin widened further as he raised one finger like someone about to make a point.

“But what happens,” Aiden continued, “when I decide to boost my current existing speed, using your just-copied power with Velocity Magic?”

Then he whispered:

“Hyperhaste.”

In that instant, it looked like blue energy rippled outward from Aiden’s body as Velocity Magic stacked on top of Speed of Herxes.

Then he raced toward Herxes again.

Herxes reacted immediately and swung his staff downward in a vertical chop aimed at Aiden’s shoulder.

Aiden sidestepped it cleanly with noticeably more room to spare than before.

Herxes followed up instantly by spinning the staff around in his grip and thrusting it forward toward Aiden’s midsection.

There was another roundabout of strikes and fails. The difference was alot clearer this time but not overwhelming.

The Velocity Magic spell was only at Deity++ level, and when a booster wasn’t powerful enough compared to the baseline level it was enhancing, the effect it added wouldn’t be that considerably noticeable; especially when both combatants were already moving at speeds far beyond what most beings could even perceive.

Still, Aiden’s grin remained firmly in place as he straightened up once more and met Herxes’ furious gaze.

“Interesting,” Aiden.

Aiden separated from their exchange again, creating distance between himself and Herxes with a single backward step.

Then, without saying anything, his hair went completely white and stood up in a dramatic flare.

White lightning crackled across his body in violent arcs. This was Kayden’s Lightning Magic, copied and elevated to Deity++ level.

In the next instant, Aiden moved.

Herxes’ eyes widened as Aiden suddenly circled him at incomprehensible speed, leaving dozens upon dozens of afterimages that blurred together in a ring around the messenger god.

Herxes spun in place, desperately trying to track Aiden’s real position, but everywhere he looked there were only flickering remnants of movement.

Images that appeared and vanished in fractions of a second.

His Foresight couldn’t lock onto anything. The futures he saw were overlapping, contradicting each other, showing Aiden attacking from every angle at once.

It was unbelievable.

Then, all of a sudden, it looked like one of the afterimages had materialized fully and punched Herxes square in the jaw.

His head snapped to the side violently, and before he could even process what had happened, another afterimage moved from behind him and drove a fist into his spine.

Herxes stumbled forward with a grunt of pain.

Then another punch came from his left, striking his ribs.

Then from above, slamming down onto his shoulder.

Then from below, an uppercut that lifted him slightly off the ground.

It wasn’t multiple Aidens attacking simultaneously. It was just that Aiden moved so fast it looked like several versions of him were striking from multiple places at once, each blow landing before Herxes could even begin to react to the previous one.

Punch after punch landed in rapid succession—thirty, forty, fifty strikes within a fraction of a second.

He had completely overwhelmed the messenger god’s foresight. What was the use of seeing the future if you didn’t have the reaction speed to deal it that quickly?

Herxes tried to raise his staff defensively, but Aiden was already behind him before the weapon even moved halfway up.

Another strike hammered into the back of his head, sending him stumbling forward again.

Herxes swung wildly with his staff in desperation, but he hit nothing except empty air and fading afterimages that dissolved the moment his weapon passed through them.

By the time Aiden finally stopped moving and came to a halt several meters away, Herxes was breathing heavily, hunched over slightly with one hand pressed against his ribs.

Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth and from a gash above his eye.

But that wasn’t the color of blood, not human blood, at least.

It was darker, almost black but with clearer golden tints running through it.

Aiden tilted his head slightly as he observed it with genuine curiosity on his face.

“Hm,” he said casually, brushing a strand of white hair out of his face. “That’s the first time I’ve made a god bleed.”

He crouched down slightly and studied the droplets more closely.

“Is that how blood looks for deities?”

Herxes glared at him through labored breaths but said nothing. His staff had even be tossed to the side.

In that moment, seven massive swords of light materialized high above Aiden’s head.

Each one was at least ten feet long, plummeting downward simultaneously in a coordinated strike pattern designed to impale Aiden from seven different angles at once.

But Aiden’s Future Sight had already warned him. He saw them falling a full minute before they even formed.

With his future sight giving him ample warning, he moved preemptively and all seven swords had missed their mark, only striking at the earth and raising up dust explosively.

These attacks had come from Lucina.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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