Chapter 288: 288

A-2-15: Lonely Armor, is the entity with the strongest combat capabilities among all known contained anomalies. Other S-class and A-class anomalies might have other abilities and uses, but when it comes to combat, Lonely Armor is the strongest without a doubt.

This sentient black armor that suddenly manifested in this world was ridden with many sword and blade marks, he carried a heavy and large claymore that was full of holes, as well as a tattered red cloak on his back.

When he suddenly manifested in public, he caused quite a commotion at the time. However, the commotion was swiftly suppressed by the SCR Foundation, which then administered amnestics whenever necessary and signed contracts of confidentiality wherever it was needed. Although some footage still floated around the internet from time to time, most people believed it to be nothing but an elaborate practical joke.

Lonely Armor was highly cooperative with the SCR Foundation, clearly stating his background as an amnesiac traveler.

He had wandered alone for numerous years by himself. According to him, he had gone through many worlds in search of a way home using a compass inside the armor, which would require a bit of time whenever he arrived at a new world in order to determine the coordinates of the next one.

As for where he came from, why he needed to go home, why he was currently a suit of empty armor, he didn’t know.

A-2-15 also didn’t mind being studied by the SCR Foundation, readily agreeing to tell them everything he knew. However, the black armor originally had no intentions of studying other worlds, so he had always silently sat in a single place. If no one could find him during the time he stayed there, he would sit still for dozens of years at a time, waiting until the compass once again determined the next set of coordinates.

Naturally, if people of these worlds asked for his help, he wouldn’t mind extending a helping hand, considering it his travel fees.

As he was used to sitting alone without saying a word, he would appear to be completely stationary if no one interacted with him, thus gaining the name Lonely Armor.

「 Stand behind me, this enemy is terrifyingly powerful 」a voice filled with solitude resounded from inside the armor as he raised his large claymore against Negary.

“Got it, big brother armor, you should be careful as well” Victor heaved a sigh. Having chatted with this suit of armor during his time at the training base, he knew more or less just how powerful this armor actually was.

〖 You carry a very interesting aura, are you also an otherworldly entity? 〗Negary casually waved his hand, cutting the reindeers barking at him into pieces.

Negary’s current self was an entity at the peak of the third stage of release. Thanks to his powerful soul, he could easily draw powerful magic formations at a swing of his hands and feet, unleashing various spells; of course, he could also manifest a body to construct the newest Dragon of Eternal Sin form to exert the true power of a dragon.

Naturally, another way of measuring his strength would be the number of worlds he had infected, the more worlds he infected, the more worlds’ power Negary would be able to utilize. With this Anomaly world as the standard, he only needed to infect it around 70% in order to utilize power at the same level of the New Deity, Progenitor Dragon, as well as the seven Gods.

Naturally, there was a difference in power between the seven Gods as well, against the strongest God – Eternal Heat – Negary had estimated that even if he fully infected an entire world, he would only be able to barely hold his own against them, and he would have a lot more weaknesses to be taken advantage of.

…

「 So you’ve already taken control of this zone of space, huh? 」the armor’s voice was extremely solemn, he had gone through many worlds, witnessing many strong people, but none of them had ever been this way before, infecting before manipulating an entire world.

Without any exchange of words, combat began almost instantly. The large claymore turned into a flash of light in the armor’s hand, cutting into the space aspect of reality with pure strength. As the sword swung forward, the entire space erupted in light, scattering countless golden particles everywhere.

…

〖 What advanced swordsmanship! 〗Negary’s eyes lit up.

The armor’s sword strike had cut into the world aspect of reality, and stimulated a change in space with his pure strength, completely restructuring it while expelling the soul viruses that Negary had connected to.

These golden particles began to gather around Negary, gradually converging to form an intricate perfect body with a pair of bone blades attached to the arms.

The armor in front of Negary was highly unusual. Despite there being clear openings and joints from the outside which facilitated the armor’s movement, no matter which aspect Negary observed it from, he found that its existence was tightly bonded together in every way, causing Negary to be unable to extract any information on it.

That single sword strike had clearly displayed the armor’s power. According to Negary’s estimations, the other party must be at the same level he was, although this estimation was made solely based on that sword strike.

In the Moon Tree world, those people were either too strong or too weak compared to him. Entities at the peak of the third stage of release weren’t only rare, they were basically extinct. The only ones of that level were either irrational Evil Gods or are hiding in some secluded corner that not even Negary managed to reach.

Now that he had finally clashed against another entity at his same level, Negary would naturally give it a try to test how strong he had truly become.

Negary’s body flickered, swinging his left arm towards the armor. Light was reflected off the bone blade, causing it to vanish before the consecutive sounds of clashing weapons resounded again and again in the air.

Both Negary and the armor became illusory, both of them had seemingly turned into flashes of light. Their surroundings had also become extremely foreign and hostile, every point, every angle unusually dangerous.

Santa Claus who was still in this room was now completely unrecognizable, having been turned into a living amalgamation of flesh and red fabric. Indeed, even though he currently looked like that, Santa Claus was still very much alive.

The armor seemed to be extremely familiar with space, his swordsmanship easily capable of slicing through it, or entering it. He didn’t exude anything like magic power or interference force either, only pure kinetic energy from moving his arms and legs.

This caused his sword to become extremely pure, in fact, if it wasn’t for him being concerned with the allies behind him, he could easily kick up a spatial storm with his sword.

If Negary hadn’t researched the aspects of reality as thoroughly as he had, he wouldn’t necessarily be able to keep his upper hand against the armor.

As the bone blade on his arm swung upwards, a flash of light flickered and left a mark on the armor.

〖 I’m slightly disappointed 〗Negary gradually lost his interest in this battle.

Negary watched the armor, the other party’s strength and combat experience couldn’t be faulted at all. Instead, it had even surpassed Negary’s expectations.

However, the armor could only utilize his swordsmanship to an extreme level of skill without actually changing it in any way, as if he only knew the appearance but not the essence of his own swordsmanship. The armor’s swordsmanship expertise wasn’t his own but carved onto the armor by someone else through an unknown mean, and the only thing he knew to use was that set of swordsmanship techniques.

This meant that the armor’s abilities had been fixed, becoming a constant. Negary couldn’t kill him right now, but Negary was becoming stronger with every passing second. According to his calculations, Negary would only need to infect the world by 27,236…%; or make a breakthrough on any of the 131 spatial equations he was currently working on, and he would be able to thoroughly defeat him, the values were precise.