Chapter 4636: The Final Sacrifice

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The Webslinger was launched away, her body covered in blue gore and blood. Her young face was covered with an expression of shock. When Rui had been able to keep up with the Web Conqueror for as long as he had in the previous phase of the battle, the Webslinger had suspected that she was not his equal.

And yet, now that she actually faced him, she realized how significant the gap was.

Unless one had a less expensive solution to hyperdimensional Martial Art than Administrative brute force, one could not fight Rui Quarrier.

Hyperdimensional maneuvering was beyond overpowered, especially when the laws of his body were altered to make it extremely cheap. Using it, he could become intangible to his opponent; he could move much faster than they could ever dream of moving. He could bypass all defenses.

On top of that, hyperdimensional maneuvering resonated well with the rest of his Martial Art. He could use it to make most of his other techniques that much more effective and powerful, as he had with the Tide of Samsara.

The Divine Mother did her best to maintain her distance, knowing full well that allowing him to touch her would be a death sentence. Although the Mindwebber was able to survive the poison, it had also left her incapacitated, which would mean immediate elimination in this battle.

WHOOSH WHOOSH!

She used her webs to shoot and sling herself about at extremely high speeds, preventing him from easily catching her, all while blasting him with powerful web shots.

The attacks were irrelevant. Rui simply phased through them like they didn’t exist or like he didn’t exist. Until she learned how to attack into the higher dimensions, she simply stood no chance.

’I have to find a way to sling myself to the other side!’

She eyed the boundary beyond which she would be able to open a return portal through the Gate of Conquest. Unfortunately, Rui clearly knew what she was thinking. He always positioned himself to ensure that she could never simply juke him and escape. His ethereal eyes were fixed on her, predicting and reading her to great depths.

At this rate, she would never be able to escape.

She gritted her pincers before changing strategies. The Emperor of Water cared about his subjects’ lives to a significant degree, which was why he didn’t escape despite the extremely unfavorable odds he had been thrust with at the start of the battle.

She could perhaps use that.

Even though Gaia was extremely well defended thanks to Mother Maeria and even the dying Jormungandr, there were many other people in the solar system who weren’t so well-defended.

Her Webstinger pointed towards the closest web city, making her intentions clear. "I’ll. Destroy. Them! If. you. Don’t. Let. Me. Go.... I’ll destroy all of them!"

Yet, her words didn’t so much as even phase Rui. His ethereal eyes remained fixed on her like those of a predator. Even when she launched an attack at the city, he didn’t go to intercept it.

BOOOOOM!!!

RUMBLE!!!

The city exploded, engulfed in multiple bright explosions as a product of malfunctioning antimatter containment chambers after initially sundering.

Nearly a million people had died.

Yet, the Emperor of Water didn’t even register it. Or rather, he did, but he wasn’t moved by it. This was a man who had long grown accustomed to thinking of the big picture as the Emperor of Kandria and the Chancellor of Gaia. The death of nearly a million people was indeed tragic, but it paled in comparison to how much suffering humanity would endure if one of the Divine Mothers escaped.

That was why he used her attack on the space city rather than trying to prevent it. The momentary distraction from her slinging-based evasion had caused just a tiny little delay in her next evasion of his aggressive pursuit.

That minute opening was nothing short of a blunder when facing someone like Rui Quarrier.

WHOOSH

He arrived before her in the blink of an eye, just moments before she could sling herself away.

His palm touched her abdomen before she could activate her web sling.

That was enough.

RUMBLE!!!

Her body shook as he poured the Tide of Samsara into her body. At the same time, in the other battle, Amare tore through layers and layers of nets, finally eroding the fortress-like defense system that the Divine Mother had created to keep the female Martial Transcendent away.

Her palm thrust impaled the Divine Mother’s body through her chest, emerging through her back.

Almost simultaneously, both Divine Mothers had been defeated.

And simultaneously, they both understood what needed to be done. An air of finality and acceptance flashed in their six eyes as fierce conviction blazed on their expression.

The Webslinger abandoned her life, allowing the poison to spew through her body. Instead, she used the webs of her verse for one final act. She used them to web him to her, binding him to her for just a moment before her life was extinguished.

For less than a nanosecond, Rui was unable to move, even with the higher dimensions.

At the same time, the Netweaver dug her body deeper into Amare’s impaling arm, refusing to allow the woman to extricate her arm.

SPLAT

"My. Body. Is. My. Final. Net," she whispered, activating a self-destructive technique that converted the webs of tissue within her own body into a prison to restrict Amare. An explosion of fascial web tissue covered Amare’s body, restricting her for just a few moments.

They both sacrificed themselves to hinder the two Martial Transcendents for just long enough.

Just long enough for the Mindstitch to escape.

The expression of the final Divine Mother was intense, unlike anything before. She bore the sacrifice of two of her sisters, both younger than her, who gave up their lives just to give her an opportunity to escape.

It was an opportunity she took with every ounce of power she had left.

"NO!!!" Argenton bellowed as he tried to convert all the light in his very existence into a single attack to slow her down. He could see both Rui and Amare already starting to escape from their opponents’ sacrificial restrictions. He just needed to slow down the Divine Mother by a single nanosecond.

And yet, his opponent was a mental manipulator.

"Go. To. Sleep."

Her command drilled into his consciousness from the information dimension, shutting him down from the inside out.

WHOOSH!

The triumphant Divine Mother shot right past him, rushing towards a return portal that had formed a hundred meters ahead. A surge of jubilation, euphoria, and determination boiled within her just a meter away from the portal.

And then a surge of despair, when Rui Quarrier appeared between her and the portal with a hyperdimensional blitz. His Martialverse, having been pushed to the limit, had already deactivated, causing his body to begin fading. Yet, his fist charged forth nonetheless. It charged forth with one last attack before it faded completely.

"Circle of Infinity."

WHOOSH...

Time slowed down in her six eyes as her life flashed before her. Apparently, this was not a phenomenon limited only to humans. She understood, instinctively, that this was it.

She was to die.

Yet, she didn’t falter.

A moment before her head exploded, a single whisper escaped her.

"Glory. To. The. Arakai."

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Her head was completely erased.

But not before she transmitted a powerful pulse of information with every last bit of her remaining Administrative power just a moment before her death.

A powerful pulse of information that traveled through the portal.

A powerful pulse of information that contained the secret.

The secret to Administrative impunity.