Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 847: Saving The World Through Delusions [GT Ranking Bonus Chapter]

There were two reasons why Acker Holloway wasn’t with Finch. The first was simply because he believed in the boy’s absurd luck to survive. The second was because he was dealing with his own fair share of enemies.

At this moment, Acker was surrounded by two Rank 6 Shadow Assassins. Yet the Buddhist showed no sign of concern, as though this were a perfectly ordinary occurrence to him. He simply stood there silently, seemingly waiting for them to make the first move.

Acker Holloway’s eyes shifted toward a particular building where he could sense a battle unfolding. He knew it was his teammate, Finch, who was fighting.

Acker Holloway decided to attack first before regrouping with his teammate. They couldn’t afford to remain separated for much longer.

With that, the hands resting at his sides slowly rose toward his chest as he performed a prayer gesture, his palms clasping together. The moment he did so, brilliant golden light burst forth behind him, manifesting into the colossal image of a Guanyin Bodhisattva. Along with it, numerous enormous golden arms emerged, their number easily reaching a hundred.

“The world shall know peace,” Acker Holloway spoke as one of his hands moved, and with it, one of the hundred golden arms shot forward in a blur before crashing down upon one of the Rank 6 Shadow Assassins with ridiculous force.

The Shadow Assassin immediately dodged with astonishing speed. The golden hand struck the asphalt beneath instead, instantly tearing it apart as dust and debris billowed skyward.

The second Rank 6 Shadow Assassin immediately closed the distance from behind, but with nothing more than a single thought from Acker, one of the hundred golden hands moved, instantly slamming downward toward the Shadow Assassin and forcing it to halt its advance and evade.

One of the Shadow Assassins immediately condensed darkness into an orb as it activated an ability before detonating it outward.

Dark Nova

The force unleashed by the explosion of darkness was maddening. Light itself seemed to vanish as photons were erased from the air. Cars disappeared, buildings shattered, and the devastating explosion surged toward Acker Holloway.

“Buddha grants peace and protection to those who seek it,” Acker Holloway spoke calmly.

The golden hands immediately moved, wrapping around him to form a cocoon of one hundred palms that absorbed the full force of the Dark Nova. The massive hands trembled as cracks spread across their surfaces, yet they held firm.

Violent tremors tore through the surrounding landscape as numerous vehicles were hurled backward by the shockwave. Yet Acker remained exactly where he stood. As the explosion subsided, the golden arms slowly unfolded, revealing him completely unharmed.

“One Thousand Bodhisattva Palms,” Acker Holloway declared as his mind stirred, effortlessly commanding the one hundred golden arms.

The very next instant, the hundred golden arms moved. They rose toward the sky before crashing down upon the earth in endless succession, every strike targeting the two Shadow Assassins. Every time they dodged, the Bodhisattva Palms simply adjusted their trajectories to pursue them. Every time the Shadow Assassins attempted to disappear into a shadow, the Bodhisattva Palms simply obliterated whatever object had been casting that shadow in the first place.

The next instant, Acker Holloway’s danger sense screamed as he detected an attack surging toward his back from within his own shadow. One of the Rank 6 Shadow Assassins had slipped directly into Acker’s shadow, and with no golden arm currently protecting his back, it had chosen the perfect opportunity to strike.

But Acker had always remained vigilant. His body immediately blurred as he shifted to the side while his hand instantly reached for the golden staff resting across his shoulder. Without hesitation, he retaliated with a devastating overhead smash.

Seeing the incoming attack, the Shadow Assassin simply became intangible in an attempt to phase through it.

But the impossible happened.

Acker’s staff actually connected.

With a thunderous impact, the Shadow Assassin was launched violently sideways before crashing into a nearby building with bone-crushing force.

Acker didn’t waste even a single moment. He immediately commanded half of the golden arms to focus entirely on the Shadow Assassin he had just struck. At once, fifty enormous Bodhisattva Palms descended through the air, unleashing an overwhelming shockwave as they simultaneously hammered into the building, completely wiping it from existence.

As though drawing inspiration from Acker’s Bodhisattva Arms, the other Shadow Assassin immediately summoned its own colossal black hands, their number also reaching one hundred.

“The darkness that plagues the world can never imitate or achieve Buddhahood,” Acker Holloway said as his black eyes calmly shifted toward the gigantic black hands.

He performed another prayer gesture, closing his eyes briefly before extending one palm toward the Shadow Assassin and its hundred gigantic hands.

The very next moment, the hundred Bodhisattva Arms surged forward, colliding head-on with the hundred gigantic dark hands. Both forces struggled against one another as though Light and Darkness themselves had entered into an eternal battle.

“Buddhism is Light,” Acker stated gently and calmly.

The next instant, every Bodhisattva Arm radiated with blinding brilliance before unleashing highly compressed beams of golden light, each one crashing into the opposing dark hands. Within moments, the black hands were completely erased, utterly incapable of withstanding the intense light-based assault.

The second Shadow Assassin immediately closed the distance, but the instant it came within striking range, one of Acker’s Bodhisattva Palms casually swatted it away with a sideways chop. But the Shadow Assassin refused to back down. It immediately phased through every building it should have collided with, effortlessly avoiding the resulting damage.

The moment it skidded to a halt, it raised both hands toward the sky as it activated another skill.

Shadow Maw

Darkness and shadows erupted from the earth before spiraling toward the sky, twisting together to form an enormous maw capable of swallowing entire high-rise buildings with ease.

The Shadow Assassin brought its hand down, and with it, the Shadow Maw lunged toward Acker, seeking to devour him whole. Yet Acker remained completely unbothered. With a mere thought, numerous Bodhisattva Palms shot into the air before seizing the Shadow Maw by its jaws, bringing the monstrous construct to an abrupt halt.

“Darkness shall not be allowed to devour the world,” Acker spoke as the remaining Bodhisattva Palms immediately slammed into the Shadow Maw, instantly bursting it apart into nothingness.

Acker shifted his gaze toward one of the Shadow Assassins and calmly pointed his staff in its direction. Before the Shadow Assassin could even blink, it suddenly felt a titanic force slam into its chest. Acker’s staff had mysteriously elongated and crashed into it, sending the Shadow Assassin hurtling backward. As it was blasted away, Acker Holloway immediately turned his attention toward the second one. With his staff still fully extended, Acker Holloway swung it toward the remaining Shadow Assassin.

Knowing it was impossible to phase through the bizarre staff, the Shadow Assassin immediately erected a barrier of darkness and shadows. The next instant, both attacks collided with cataclysmic force. A ruinous shockwave erupted outward with destructive intensity, tearing enormous chunks of earth from the ground.

Neither Buddha nor Buddhism had ever existed within Crymora, nor was Buddhism truly Acker Holloway’s ability. But to Acker, and to the rest of the world, this was undeniably his true ability.

Unfortunately…

Acker’s actual ability was called Chuunibyou.

It was an ability that transformed whatever Acker wholeheartedly believed, no matter how delusional, into reality. Since he genuinely believed in an unknown religion while pursuing his self-appointed quest to save the world, his Chuunibyou ability had simply manifested these miraculous Bodhisattva abilities into existence.

Even his staff was nothing more than an ordinary wooden staff he had purchased from the marketplace for a single copper coin. But Acker believed he had discovered the sacred Staff of the Way of Buddhism. As a result, the staff had been granted numerous extraordinary abilities, including the power to elongate at will. It had even gone so far as to negate the Shadow Assassin’s innate phasing and intangibility abilities.

One couldn’t help but wonder…

Could his delusions truly save the world?

____

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Hehehehehe… it was fun watching you all speculate about Acker’s Buddhism and stuff. Too bad he’s simply a delusional person. Lol.

Also, what do you guys think of both Biomancy and the Chuunibyou ability?

Lastly, it’s been ages since this Greedy, Shameless Author received a Super Gift. Please, I beg of you… help this Author… I will go mad at this rate as a result of withdrawal symptoms.

Thanks for reading and supporting me. Love you all to the moon and back.