Chapter 313: The Hero’s Forbidden Authority Finally Appears!

Down there, Luke calmly looked toward Marrec.

"So it’s your fault, Marrec." With those words, the other two Vorthars raised their hands.

"Heaven’s Palm!"

The ability was activated twice.

The sky darkened once again.

Two additional spectral palms appeared on either side of the original one, creating a triangular formation around Marrec as all three descended from different directions.

"WHATT!!!!!!"

The spectators rose from their seats.

Even those who had already witnessed Luke’s abnormal strength couldn’t hide their shock this time.

Brynessa’s eyes widened.

Selene’s expression also changed as she finally felt the threat represented by the three descending palms.

The palms were still spectral.

But then their color began to change.

They turned black.

"Black-colored palms..."

Black, because, Luke had used Nyx’s third ability.

His Forbidden Authority.

Authority of Severance.

The three manifestations now carried both energy severance and physical severance.

That changed their danger completely.

Even a Peak B-rank couldn’t simply stand there and receive such an attack without consequence.

Peiro’s mouth opened slightly.

"What a monster."

He could sense that the raw destructive power of Luke’s Heaven’s Palm itself had not yet reached true Peak B-rank level.

But the addition of Forbidden Authority changed that.

Even in its current weakened state, the authority made the attack dangerous enough that a Peak B-rank would be forced to take it seriously.

"That’s why Forbidden Authority shouldn’t be used."

Peiro looked at the arena.

If he hadn’t reinforced it beforehand, he was certain that the whole battlefield itself would be destroyed and the attack would continue into the dark walls beyond it.

Yet another question appeared in his mind.

"How is his body not breaking apart?"

His gaze remained fixed on the three Lukes.

He could clearly sense the backlash generated by the techniques.

Yet all three of them remained standing calmly.

Luke’s body showed no obvious sign of collapse.

Peiro didn’t know anything about the Atlas Titan.

He didn’t know that Azrion’s body had been created specifically to bear forces that ordinary bodies couldn’t withstand.

That was exactly why Luke had grown so fond of this Titan.

Even though, it wasn’t a pure Titan, but its physique was suited for carrying the impossible weight.

Still, Luke should have been struggling under the backlash of these techniques.

Instead, his current fusion form had given his body a foundation that could theoretically carry something as absurd as the endless Void itself at its peak.

That meant its ability to endure backlash was equally abnormal.

Perhaps Luke could even force his current form to withstand the backlash of a Half-A-rank attack.

But an actual A-rank attack was still beyond him.

So, not that anyone would find out yet.

Since, Luke simply didn’t possess enough energy to produce a genuine Half-A-rank attack in the first place.

Below, the three Heaven’s Palms continued their descent.

Then Luke’s pissed-off voice, but confident voice, rang out throughout the arena, like the Void itself letting everyone present here know what he said.

"I don’t need my attack to compare to a real attack."

He looked directly toward Marrec.

"I have enough methods to make my attack stronger than real attacks."

This time, nobody could deny his statement.

Even Marrec stared upward with widened eyes.

Something was wrong with those three attacks.

He didn’t know whether his Essentification could withstand the combination of forces contained within them.

The raw power was one thing.

But that strange felling was another.

If those palms touched him, there was a possibility that his Essentification ability could be disrupted.

And if that happened, he would die.

The three palms drew closer and the pressure became heavier.

Marrec’s body was already being forced downward by the combined weight of the attacks, and he finally understood that continuing to gamble would be foolish.

So, he shouted toward Peiro.

"Lord Peiro!"

His voice strained against the pressure.

"I SURRENDER!"

The moment those words escaped his mouth, his body disappeared.

Space rippled.

Wrrr...

Marrec was teleported out of the area just before the three Heaven’s Palms reached him.

The next instant, he reappeared at a safe position within the arena.

He turned immediately.

What he saw left even him stunned.

The three Heaven’s Palms collided with the Peak B-rank arena at the same time.

Although two had appeared slightly later, they had synchronized their descent perfectly.

The impact struck with the force of a nuclear explosion.

BOOOOOOOOOO!

The arena floor shattered beneath them.

The destruction spread outward as broken earth and stone were torn apart by the impact.

The shockwave surged across the battlefield.

It reached the arena barrier.

BOOM!

The barrier rippled violently.

Wave after wave moved across its surface as the protective structure absorbed the force.

For a brief moment, it looked as though the barrier itself might break.

Another fraction of force and it might have happened.

But it held.

The destruction inside the arena was severe enough without that.

A huge cloud of dust rose from the center.

Visibility disappeared beneath the debris.

Peiro raised one hand.

A strong wind swept through the arena.

WHOOOSH!

The dust cloud began dispersing.

Slowly, the battlefield became visible again.

The center had been destroyed across an area roughly ten kilometers wide.

A massive pit had formed where the arena floor had once been.

At the bottom, no ordinary ground could be seen.

Only darkness remained.

Luke was floating above the destroyed area, using force to keep himself suspended.

Peiro also stared downward.

For some reason, the two of them were looking at the same thing.

The others, however, couldn’t understand what had caught their attention.

To them, the destruction itself was already more than enough.

Then a strange sound emerged from below.

CRICK—

CRACK!

It sounded almost like glass slowly breaking.

The spectators looked toward the pit.

Thin black lines began spreading across the damaged ground.

They weren’t ordinary cracks.

The ten-kilometer-wide area that had already been destroyed began to change again as the fractured ground started separating from itself.

The earth broke apart in sections, forming a strange pattern as though an enormous piece of glass had been shattered from beneath.

The pit began hollowing further, while the dark lines continued spreading.

Peiro’s expression slowly changed.

"Forbidden Authority."

The words escaped his mouth quietly.

He had not seen genuine Forbidden Authority being used like this for a long time.

Even though Luke’s current mastery of it was weak, the nature of the ability was unmistakable.

The others didn’t understand.

They assumed the strange phenomenon was simply another consequence of Luke’s attack aftermth.

Peiro knew better.

The destruction wasn’t stopping.

The Authority of Severance was continuing to work through the already damaged area, cutting deeper into the structure of the arena itself.

Marrec stared at the scene.

His throat moved as he swallowed.

For the first time since the battle had begun, genuine fear appeared on his face.

"Did the hero do this... because I provoked him?"