Chapter 410: The Supreme Legendary Technique... Part-2.
Chapter 410: The Supreme Legendary Technique... Part-2.
Contrary to popular belief, Ashtel's reputation of being extremely powerful doesn't rely solely on his 'World Authority'.
His world authority, 'Shockwave', certainly isn't something to be scoffed at, but it isn't one of the most powerful out there.
There are world authorities like Idri's 'Absolute Rule' that can make anything possible, and there are world authorities like Fenix's that can make a certain territory completely under his control.
There are people who have world authorities that can do fancy stuff like heal others or even control vitality, etc.
But all of this doesn't matter.
In the world, no 'World Authority' is actually weak; all 'World Authorities' are supposed to be equal from the start; the difference originates from the user itself.
The world Authority 'Shockwave', is the perfect one for Ashtel.
It grants him the power to control the shockwaves, vibrations, and even subtle movements of cosmic forces.
Ashtel can use it to create gravitational waves; he can create immensely powerful shockwaves that can travel right through the space-time fabric and ignore every other obstacle.
He can increase the power of his shockwaves to easily shatter the space-time fabric, or he can change the frequencies to make the space-time fabric change its properties by force.
Everything in the world is made up of only four things: matter, anti-matter, dark energy, and mana, or miasma.
And using shockwaves to control the structure of the atoms, Ashtel can create various things out of nowhere.
Ashtel's martial technique is something that he made for himself with his own efforts.
The 'Sage Art' is something that is meant to deal with 'Matter' and various different forces of nature that can be comprehended and evaluated.
The 'Fool Art' is meant to deal with 'Anti-Matter' and the forces that can't be evaluated and comprehended with simple means.
The sage art symbolizes'reality' and the fool art symbolizes 'virtuality', mixing reality and virtuality, mixing matter and anti-matter, will cause conflict to the point that it's unimaginable.
Up until his later years, Ashtel was never able to mix and stabilize his two techniques.
But then he awakened the world authority 'Shockwave'.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
This became the perfect power to stabilize the polar opposites of nature, and he finally learned to balance out his two arts.
That's where the 'Cosmic Martial Law' was born.
Mixing 'Reality' with 'Virtuality' in such a way that it stabilizes and doesn't collapse-that's the power to create a gap in the world, a literal permanent hole in the space-time fabric- that's called a 'Black Hole'.
Being able to use powers that govern the most powerful concepts of the world is not something everyone can do.
Ashtel once thought about teaching this technique to Link, but this technique only suits himself; not even Link was able to learn it; it is tailor-made just for him; others can't learn it that easily.
His world authority isn't the sole reason why he's called the strongest; there are powerful skills in his arsenal, and the most important of all, he carries the burden of an entire nation on his shoulders.
Obviously, his punches will be much stronger.
"Beautiful, you say? Well, when an entire race is supporting your back, the power it grants is indeed beautiful, I guess...."
"All that big talk, and in the end, it was all but a bluff..."
Standing in empty space, Ashtel sighed to himself.
He warned Neo many times before; this isn't the first time they have had this conflict, but none of them were as big as this one.
From the start, Ashtel knew that Neo was the type of person who doesn't like to follow the rules and likes to go his own way.
But being free and breaking the rules is not always a good thing.
This kind of mentality only seems good in fiction or in times when you actually are under the oppression of someone.
Otherwise, this kind of person will only create chaos that will cause problems for others.
Neo is basically just an example of a person who doesn't want to let go of the past.
He was born in time for war, and his mentality growing up was molded by the flames of war.
At that time, hatred and rebellion again among the Orcs were common things, and no one felt anything amiss about trying to deal with the enemy.
It was war after all; everything was allowed in those dire circumstances.
But just like nothing is eternal in the world, the war also ended after lots of sacrifices and
losses.
Peace finally came, and maintaining this peace became a big responsibility that fell on Ashtel's shoulders.
Now that peace had come, all powerful people like Ashtel and Neo had to now calm down and blend into society like normal people.
They had to stop showcasing their powers and causing problems here and there.
People tolerated them during the war, but now that peace had come, still causing trouble here and there would have created another conflict.
Neo, who was always the type to never sit in one place calmly, couldn't take the slow and boringness of peace; he wanted more from life.
For him, Ashtel, who was now upholding peace and keeping chaos at bay, became a massive
obstacle.
Ashtel could see all this; he knew that Neo is also nothing but a victim of his mentality.
'Well, I not much different either... From the start, I hoped for peace... Now that finally have it, I just don't want to let go of it...'
Troubled times give birth to strong people; if Link and others want to reach his levels, they need to face tough times too.
But Ashtel himself doesn't want to let go of that peace, which he has earned with his decades
of efforts.
'Sometimes I wonder if I am becoming an obstacle for the younger generation?'
Being strong is good, but if you keep handling all the things yourself and others keep relying on you, then the next generation will never get the chance to rise up.
As long as the old don't move on from their positions of power, how will the younger ones get
to progress?
'Sigh... I guess this is also one of the dilemmas that the person standing at the peak must face. Being the strongest is not the kind of blessing I thought it was...'
'It's just a path of loneliness and chaos...'
Ashtel shook his head at that moment, deactivated his techniques, and made the black hole
disappear.
Time seems to have started moving once again, and the broken debris of the planets and the sun of this solar system could now be seen floating everywhere.
'Well, this is the exact reason I don't like going all out... just a small fraction of power, and
things go to sh*t...'
'Sometimes everything in the world seems so fragile...'
At that moment, Ashtel suddenly remembered a memory from the past.
...
(A forgotten memory)
"Fragile, you say! Hmph, you have quite the nerve to be saying that to me!"
An extremely beautiful woman pouted her cheeks while glaring at Ashtel angrily.
"You see this fist of mine; I can beat ten of you with this in one attack, you know!"
Ashtel was shocked by that woman's attitude towards him.
Despite him being so much stronger than her, she was completely unafraid of him; she was the most daring woman he had ever met in his life.
"W-what!? Why are you staring at me with a racoon-like face like that!? I am telling you, if you dared to call me fragile again, I am gonna throw this pepper spray at you!"
(Back to present)
"Er... thinking about that time makes me feel kind of weird now..."
Ashtel scratched the back of this neck with a look of awkwardness on his face.
'I guess... I would have gone the same path of being a chaos bringer if not for her...'
"Thinking back, it was quite an enjoyable time..."
That weak, fragile woman made the strongest person of the entire human race bow his head
to her; she swayed him with her words alone.
Despite being a demi-god, even Ashtel has a human heart after all; even he has his emotions.
Being the strongest is not his entire personality; aside from all of his power and strength, he still has a human life; he had his own family and has a story of his own.
He loved, he dreamed, and he cared about a lot of things; that's just what it means to be a
human.
'Sigh... I guess I should forgive Neo too; he's also on a misguided path, that's all. I have already shattered his power and his entire body...'
'Even if he starts from all over again with an artificial body, it will teach him about the world.'
Not everyone is as fortunate as him to have met someone brilliant enough to change their
thought processes.
'He likely had prepared some artificial body, and he likely is going to use that forbidden technique to get inside it and then fight me again...'
'Sigh, this guy... He really is just as stubborn as I was before... blindly pursuing the peak of the
world...'
Ashtel's wife was not a powerful person; she was just an ordinary awakener with just a little
bit of talent.
But her personality and values were truly much more brilliant than gold and diamond. She
was a unique existence.
She died giving birth to Link as she was too weak to withstand the process. Giving birth to a
child that was too heaven-defying is not an ordinary process; it's a tribulation of its own. It was too much for her fragile self in the end.
Still, her existence was always unique; she gave birth to the 'Hope of the Universe' after all. She was never ordinary.