MIGHT AS WELL BE OP

Chapter 974: Reverse Casuality

Aaaninja’s mind flickered in surprise and confusion as pain exploded violently within his mind, his arm soaring helplessly through the air before striking the ground with a heavy, lifeless thud. He couldn’t understand how Lucian had done it; he had attacked first, yet he had been the one injured instead, a contradiction so absurd and illogical that it bordered on impossible.

But it didn’t matter, he couldn’t afford even the smallest distraction during this battle. With that thought, his regeneration ability kicked in instantly, muscles, flesh, skin, bones, and veins snaking together and weaving themselves back into place as a new arm immediately appeared where the old one had been severed, replacing it seamlessly as though nothing had ever happened, as though the damage had been nothing more than a fleeting illusion.

Lucian didn’t pause or hesitate, the moment his first attack landed he pressed his advantage with ruthless precision, turning in a burst of overwhelming speed as his katana tore toward Aaaninja’s neck with lethal intent, while Aaaninja’s own katana screamed forward simultaneously for Lucian’s throat, the air between them shrieking from the sheer force of their opposing blades.

The next instant, Lucian activated the same ability again, but this time Aaaninja’s Eyes Of Genesis saw through it, although he still couldn’t fully understand it, it seemed as though Lucian was somehow editing reality itself in real time, subtly rewriting the laws of existence by swapping positions, enhancing his attacks, and erasing his enemies’ own strikes before they could properly manifest.

But before Lucian’s ability could fully activate, Aaaninja acted, activating his Time Slip skill and vanishing from where he stood as he slipped through time and space itself, phasing out of the present moment like a ghost leaving the material world.

Lucian’s katana, covered in Sword Intent and black lightning, missed entirely, shredding space, air, and wind at the same time, the devastation wrought by his missed attack tearing through the battlefield in a ravaging apocalypse and thunderous crescendo that distorted the very fabric of the separate plane.

Lucian wasn’t surprised that his attack had missed, he had already guessed as much, after all, knowing Aaaninja’s ridiculous talent and his overwhelmingly broken Eyes Of Genesis, there was no way the same attack would ever work a second time, yet he had tried regardless simply to test the boundaries of possibility.

Lucian immediately turned, his eyes snapping toward the location where he sensed Aaaninja’s presence, but the moment he met Aaaninja’s gaze, Lucian felt it, a tear opening in his chest as a wide, gruesome injury split him apart without warning. Flesh parted violently, blood splattered outward in thick arcs. His regeneration kicked in instantly and knitted the torn flesh back together as though time itself had been forced to reverse.

Lucian simply blurred as he increased the distance between himself and Aaaninja, his form turning into little more than a phantom streak across space. But Aaaninja took a single step and appeared directly before Lucian, then swung his blade yet again, and before the motion was even completed Lucian’s neck was torn apart almost completely from his head, the head barely held together by a thin stretch of sinew and shredded flesh.

Lucian didn’t dare to counter, the space around him folding like inverted glass as he teleported out of his position, and as he moved his neck snapped back into place while the injury healed immediately without leaving even a scar. His black eyes remained locked onto Aaaninja’s as he wondered how Aaaninja was injuring him with such impossible consistency.

’How is it doing this?’ he thought to himself, because for one moment he had been the one with the advantage, and the next it was Aaaninja who had seized complete control. He had only dealt one injury, but Aaaninja had retaliated and doubled that number with terrifying efficiency.

’The effect happens before the attack is even completed,’ Lucian immediately came to an understanding as he rapidly deciphered the framework and underlying mechanism behind Aaaninja’s attack.

Aaaninja called it Reverse Causality.

For there to be an effect, there had to be a cause, but with this skill Aaaninja had inverted that principle entirely, achieving the effect before the cause. The effect was the injury itself, while the cause was merely the attack that followed afterward, a grotesque inversion of logic that violated the natural order of reality.

Aaaninja moved again, his eyes snapping toward Lucian’s position as he accelerated, Temporal Acceleration boosting his speed beyond limits like never before as he erased the distance between himself and Lucian in less than a blink, appearing behind him as his sword blitzed forward to sever him cleanly in half from the waist.

But before the effect could even land, Lucian was already gone, he had vanished, and the moment he understood Aaaninja’s skill he could dodge it without issue, all he had to do was outpace the effect itself and escape the predetermined outcome.

The moment he appeared at his new position, his katana blurred as he unleashed a torrential storm of lightning-fast, black lightning-infused sword line attacks. Each burst out with crackling force and violent motion as they pressed down upon reality and existence itself, every strike linking to the next like an intricate, grid-like net before collapsing inward toward Aaaninja’s position in an inescapable cage of destruction.

Aaaninja’s eyes flickered sharply, his Eyes Of Genesis showing him the perfect path forward with flawless clarity. With his own Sword Intent covering his body, and Temporal Acceleration and Temporal Deceleration working in seamless tandem, he tore forward like a meteor, his form cutting violently through the air as he met Lucian’s attacks head-on. His sword carved through every single one of them without so much as a flicker of hesitation or doubt.

Anywhere a black lightning Sword Intent line attack existed, he was already there, his body turning into a blur as he moved from one position to another, leaving afterimages and phantoms in his wake. With every attack he erased, it exploded outward in violent shockwaves, but Aaaninja was already gone before the destruction could even reach him.

The entire separate plane seemed to be consumed in total armageddon and destruction, sword marks tearing deep into the earth below, ripping massive chunks of terrain free, mountains reduced to nothing despite their durability that rivaled that of constellations and planets, and trees reduced to mere splinters and wooden shards of their former selves.

Dust billowed toward the sky in vast, rolling waves, shrouding the entire battlefield and separate plane in thick haze and churning, swirling debris. Earthquakes tore outward relentlessly, ravines and chasms opening and yawning toward the sky as these two beings destroyed everything and anything within sight with terrifying indifference.

But the Separate Plane regenerated immediately as though time itself had reversed, space reattached seamlessly, trees regrew in an instant, chasms closed, ravines vanished, and the entire Separate Plane was remade anew as though the apocalyptic devastation had never occurred at all, leaving behind only silence and the lingering echoes of their overwhelming power.