Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix-Chapter 1507: Erased matter

"She teleported something invisible that is draining energy from the red star?" Rain furrowed his eyebrows. "Can actually living beings do that."

Rain had no idea what kind of creatures the machine gods had found so far, but it seemed that they had quite a variety... a being that could only assume a physical form by using energy instead of matter... that was worrisome.

Eventually, the monster took a humanoid shape without many details... All of a sudden, the creature appeared in front of Rain and swung his hand like a sword at his neck... Rain blocked the attack with his left elbow... but then his forearm was immediately chopped off.

Rain immediately teleported away and recovered the part of his arm that hadn’t been destroyed... then he soon realized what had happened. The matter touched by the enemy was completely erased.

Rain felt his body shaking thanks to the pain... unlike being cut by a sword or smashed by something, it felt like his very core and soul had been damaged by the attack, and that made him feel shivers. It was probably because of that the monster was absorbing energy from the red star once again.

"This won’t do it... I can’t recover fast enough, even with the matter aspect, to create the cells and glue together the damaged parts," Rain thought and then summoned giant earth arms and hardened them with the power of Wrath.

Attacking or defending would be the same, Rain would suffer damage. However, if that creature was once defeated by Arel, then it should have some weakness.

The concept of destroying a being composed solely of energy posed a unique challenge, as energy itself could not be created nor destroyed, only transformed. In the case of Arel and her manifestation, Rain understood that their essence was intrinsically linked to the boundless reservoirs of energy that permeated the red star.

While the physical form of such a being might appear ephemeral and insubstantial, there likely existed a core, an anchor point or nexus, that served as the focal point for their existence. Much like the machine gods who wielded control over their respective domains, Arel’s avatar would likely possess a central core or source of energy that sustained its existence and imbued it with power.

This core would act as a conduit, channeling and harnessing the vast energies of the universe, allowing Arel to manipulate and control them to her will. It would serve as the linchpin of her manifestation, anchoring it to the physical realm and granting it a semblance of form and structure amidst the chaos of its elemental nature.

"I didn’t see anything when the creature was taking shape or when I had that feeling..." Rain thought. "I have some ideas, but... perhaps I should test all my options."

"I like the look on your face. You should show it more."

"How about no?" Rain asked.

The monster charged again and then hit Rain with a barrage of punches... much to Rain’s surprise, his dark earth arms resisted the attacks for a few moments, and he couldn’t have asked for more.

Rain used Origin Punch again and his strike dispersed all the energy on the body of the creature... However, Rain’s fist disappeared as the dark earth’s arms dissolved, and his hand came into contact with the body of the monster.

The particles of light began to spread around quite fast, but soon they slowed down, and eventually, they began to return to their starting point... the monster actually survived Origin Punch.

"Does that sting?"

"You can experience that yourself firsthand soon enough," Rain said. freewebnoveℓ.com

"Very unlikely. I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve, and I don’t feel slightly worried about yours."

"Oh, really?" Rain asked. "I guess this might be worth trying in order to make you shut the fuck up."

Rain wanted to focus on his own plan, but acting recklessly might help in an unexpected way... when the monster was completely reassembled, Rain used Origin Punch with his left hand... he sacrificed that as well, but at the same time, the creature completely vanished into thin air as if had never existed in the first place.

Lvl 30: Energy Channeling - Channels external energy sources through one’s own body or objects, amplifying their effects and imbuing them with additional properties. Higher levels increases the possible properties.

Lvl 35: Energy Shielding - Constructs shields or barriers of energy to deflect and absorb incoming attacks, providing protection against physical, magical, and elemental threats. Higher levels make the skill ten percent more efficient per level.

Lvl 40: Energy Harmonization - Harmonizes disparate energy flows to achieve balance and synergy, optimizing energy usage and minimizing waste for maximum efficiency. Decreases the cost of all skills in this path by ten thousand points per level.

Rain used Origin Punch alongside Data Mining, so that completely erased the existence of the creature... Rain also learned that the monster, instead of being a new species, it was just a toy that Arel had created with her powers... a familiar made of energy, or so to say.

"Next," Rain said.

"... You are so annoying despite being so weak... it is time to stop sandbagging."

Rain needed to buy more time, but forcing Arel to show all of her cards was fine too... still, Rain didn’t expect that her final card was actually moving that massive red star. It was hard to imagine, but maybe that was her real body.

As the giant red star began to move toward him, Rain felt its gravitational pull getting stronger, so he teleported away from it. Still, the surroundings were becoming so bright that he finally realized what the enemy had been cooking... all of the suns in the area were close... completely forming a cage.

All of a sudden, Rain felt his mana being used faster than before... Arel wasn’t stealing it... it was just forcing his active spells to consume more energy than necessary. That would make escaping even more difficult...