Requiem Of A Failed Hero

“What?”

Li Mingwu looked up, his eyes shaking as he came to a harsh realization of the truth. This was when the brownish pillar of surging energy that stretched from the monk’s hand to the sky was coming down like a gigantic sword about to split the ground.

He wanted to back away.

As if that would help. He looked back and saw the barren land that used to be a thick forest. Where the hell could he run to that the pillar of energy wouldn’t reach?

It looked like the monk was ready to destroy the entire gate. With that attack, he doubted if anything was bound to survive. The surrounding and the atmosphere were already chaotic as it is. The skies had darkened and the wind was howling strongly as if informing him of the impending danger.

What was he to do in this situation? Li Mingwu’s mind raced, searching for a way to counter the monk’s devastating assault. .

After years of using spatial manipulation and researching its uses. Li Mingwu was sure that his understanding of the laws of physics had grown and as such had greatly influenced his combat sense and abilities, allowing him to perceive the fabric of reality in ways others couldn’t fathom.

And yet before such a phenomenon, he was utterly helpless. His eyes were left to tremble at the sight of this threat, his old and wrinkling skin rose crisped and fear crawled all over him.

His usually slightly opened eyes were widely opened, his mouth almost dropping to the ground which gave away his brown and uneven set of teeth.

Gritting his brown teeth, Li Mingwu’s widened face suddenly narrowed, pulling his brows together.

There is always a way.

His agape mouth grew into a widespread grin.

‘This is so intriguing I feel like I can die from excitement. When? When last have I ever felt like this.’

They say the true joy of combat is felt when one’s life is threatened, for those that seek war and combat for pure joy.

Li Mingwu has always met weaker foes, people, and monsters he could always finish off without using the best of his abilities. Of the four unranked, he could confidently say he was the strongest, although many would object to it if it was to be said aloud. But he had met them several times and he would often tell his closest student, Mok Jun-Seo. ‘There is nothing to those guys, they are better off being Catastrophe rank’

Mok Jun-Seo would often think it was Li Mingwu’z pride. Indeed pride can blind a person, but Li Mingwu was also confident which was why he would often talk like that. He was confident in the extent of his abilities. An extent that can be realized when his life is endangered and in just a glance, none of the four was strong enough to threaten his life.

Not like this bastard monk floating in the air and mildly descending a pillar of energy on him.

The eyes on Li Mingwu’s forehead narrowed glinting an almost unnoticeable streak of black. In this moment, all of Li Mingwu’s magic energy shot up, but took a colorless form, perfectly blending with the space and aligning his inner spatial senses with the descending turmoil above him.

In a series of rapid calculations with the eyes on his head moving left and right, up and down, he identified the microfractures forming in the space around him, causing a complex net of distortions.

By instincts, Li Mingwu knew these fractures were the key to his survival.

He had never tried this before, suddenly getting creative with his spatial abilities had never happened to him before. All he used to utilize is his arsenal of spatial skills. But this was a different level and it was because of how much his life felt threatened by the monk’s attack.

None of his arsenal of skills would have worked. Nothing!

Li Mingwu’s body responded, his movements flowing with a mix of instinct and experience. With precise gestures, he pulled these distortions closer to himself, using the small fractions that formed a net.

It could not be seen by the naked eyes of course and was only possible because of his third eyes. Using his spatial manipulation, he weaved the spatial distortions into a protective cocoon, a pocket of warped space—at this point, the pillar was connecting to him.

Contrary to the loud ‘boom’ and ‘gbooaaa’ silence fell on the entire place as it was consumed by a vast blinding light. Everything became unseen, vaporizing to ashes in the wake of the whiteness that now existed.

It was brief but it was detrimental. Nothing was left, but a thick cloud of debris looming heavily on the highs and lows of the surrounding and the monk floating amidst it.

His angry frown had now become the usual wry smile and his eyes were slightly opened, looking down. His smile was short-lived and quickly turned back to scowl.

The cocoon acted as a shield, pushing back against the voracious weight and the burning intensity of the energy the monk wielded. The distortions in space were not usual, Li Mingwu’s guess was that they were something that only happened as a result of the monk’s attack.

He didn’t know how it would turn out but it was the best route his mind could follow, this was purely an action of instincts. And it usually does not happen to him.

The protective cocoon was made of the very fabric of the monk’s energy. The energy itself easily tore through space. If Li Mingwu had used the usual fabric of space to create a shield, it would have been to no avail. Using those distortions to weave a shield was his best bet.

It was like an adamantium sword hitting an adamantium shield. Of course, Li Mingwu did not have a perfect understanding of this before he created the cocoon, however, it summed up after he found out that he survived and the space behind him didn’t.

Moreso, the scowl on the monk’s face said more than needed to be spoken.

Time seemed to slow as Li Mingwu opened the cocoon, he didn’t believe he survived. He looked up and saw the monk’s eyes locked on him with an inscrutable determination burning within them.

Stretching out behind him was a vast darkness, starting from the ground, behind his cocoon to as far as his eyes could see. The veil of darkness spread like ink on parchment, consuming the once-familiar landscape with its cryptic embrace. The terrain, from the very ground beneath him to the distant horizons, had been cleaved asunder by the towering pillar of energy.

This division, though stark and definitive, was not an irreversible separation, for the severed parts of the space were engaged in a slow, mesmerizing dance of convergence. The fragmented elements exhibited an almost organic movement, akin to the tentative wriggling of two halves of a disjoined creature seeking to reunite. Space after all had a unique regenerative property.

Li Mingwu’s eyes widened as he came to comprehend what had just happened.

‘Did I just survive an attack that even the space could not survive?’

This thought, however, posed two questions to him. First, what in the world was that energy, that it had properties that were far superior to space? Second… he looked down at the cocoon that was now covering his lower body with spiky edges that seemed ready to close back any moment.

‘Have I transcended the limits of space itself?’