Beyond the Speed of Perception

The limit of the dimensional plane's endurance had finally been reached.

(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡BRRRR-KABOOOOMMM-SHWWWAAAAA...!!!!!!!!)

At the center of the devastated clearing, the pillar of emerald light unleashed by the Spirit Queen continued its descent from the heights of the firmament, exerting a colossal gravitational pressure upon the ground.

"¡¡¡¡¡GWRAAAA-SHWIIIING-GROOOOOOOOO-GWAARRRGHHH-AAAAAAARRRGHHH~~~~!!!!!"

In that moment, the natural energy—channeled with the direct intent to crush and restrain—fell like a liquid, uninterrupted column that made the bedrock groan, disintegrating stone into a cloud of inert dust.

(¡¡¡THUMP-THUMP... PUM-PUM...!!)

Yet, despite that... Beneath the continuous punishment... Clinging to life... There was a heartbeat.

"Grrr... RRR..."

She was a female-appearing chimera with white fur, jet-black scales, and rusted iron chains running along her body, which now displayed deep cracks leaking an aberrant, kaleidoscopic glow.

(¡¡¡CRACK-KRRRRZSSSSS-FSSSHHH...!!!)

Even while being crushed under that weight, she flatly refused to yield; instead, faced with the mountain of energy trying to bury her, that figure began to unconsciously alter her posture.

(¡¡¡SHHHHHH—FROTT...!!!)

Slowly, her joints flexed down into the cracked mud.

(¡... THUMP-THUMP... PUM-PUM... PUM-PUM...!)

Regulating her breath, she distributed the burden of the pillar by reducing her profile, pressing her belly against the surface in the low, fluid, and contained silhouette of a feline in a predatory stance.

(What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?)

Her two tails ceased their aimless thrashing, aligning parallel to her torso to balance her center of gravity, attempting to offset the crushing weight upon her back.

— It is unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable...! —

The silence of her breath grew thick and tense.

"..."

In stark contrast to her fractured mind, her body stilled all at once, and her pulse stabilized...

<What is she planning?>

It was due to those sudden shifts that the Spirit Queen sensed something was terribly wrong.

(¡¡BZZZZZT-ZAP...!! ¡¡FZZZZ-VROOOOOOMM!!)

In response, she intensified the pressure even further, dissolving the structure of the multilayer barrier at an accelerated rate in an attempt to deliver the final blow.

(¡KRAK-CHHH-BZZZ!)

Yet in parallel, right where the beast's hind claws dug into the shattered stone, the golden lightning upon her skin shifted its rhythm.

(¡Krrr-shhh… ZZZZZZZZZ!)

As a result, instead of scattering into the atmosphere or rising toward the column of light, the golden electricity flowed in reverse, draining down into her limbs to concentrate all its power against the earth.

(¡¡¡FSHHHHHHH—ZRAAAAK...!!!!!)

Consequently, step by step, the electrical current lost its erratic nature and coalesced into a flat surface.

<... That stance... And the flow of her energy...>

The golden light liquefied beneath the beast's claws, spreading into a perfect geometric design and forming a dense disc that spun upon its own axis.

<Is she going to charge...?>

In turn, that luminous platform began to absorb and channel the pressure from above, concentrating the entire mass for a surge of absolute acceleration.

(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡CRACK-CRAAAACK-SHATTEEEERRRRRR...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Yet simultaneously, her body began to fracture at an accelerating rate.

<Is her intention to blow herself up?!>

Fissures tore through her skin and scales like deep wounds, cracking apart like shattered porcelain...

<<"—Ihi... iaja! iaja! IAJAJAJAJA!!—">>

... Yet in that moment... Despite the decay, neither doubt nor pain existed... Instead... What she experienced...

<<"—Hihi... ihihi... AHAHAJAHAJA!—">>

... Was an overwhelming sense of liberation.

(¡¡¡ZUUUUUU-FZZZZ-VROOOOMM...!!!!!)

And as her body fell apart, at the base of her heels the divine energy condensed—shifting from electrical sparks into pure light—compressing into a critical point so small and brilliant that the surrounding air began to warp from sheer concentrated mass.

<¡¿?!>

The pressure was so immense that, guided by her instincts high in the firmament, the Spirit Queen felt a visceral alarm freeze her jade sockets in the face of the impending impact.

<Tsk... There are no other options left..!!>

She understood instantly that if the beast managed to unleash the momentum from that platform, no defense or distance would be enough to stop her.

<COME AT ME!!>

Deciding to stake everything on a single gamble regardless of the consequences, the Queen took an extreme measure.

(¡¡¡¡¡CLANK-CLK-CLK-CHHHHHHHH-KRNGGGGG...!!!!!)

Keeping her right hand extended toward the ground to maintain the crushing weight of the emerald pillar, she raised her left hand toward the sky. Extending her power like roots, she began to forcefully tear away every trace of natural energy sustaining the multilayer dimensional dome.

As a result, the thirty-five mystical layers isolating the forest—formed from the concentrated essence of all the high spirits of Ky'lar—answered the call of their sovereign, and the energetic mass of the barrier was violently sucked into the center of her left hand, feeding the column of light to forge it into an attack of absolute extermination.

(¡¡¡CRRR-CRAK-SHAAATTERRR-BOOOOOOOM...!!!)

Yet, stripped of its foundation, the containment dimension... Collapsed.

(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡CRASH-GLASS-KRRRRZZZZZT...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

And with the deafening sound of thousands of gigantic mirrors shattering all at once, the false firmament of the astral plane burst into pieces as the thirty-five layers cracked in concentric lines, falling away in massive fragments of inert light that dissolved into the void—laying bare, for the very first time, the real sky of Ky'lar above the storm of forces about to detonate.

(¡¡¡¡¡THUMP-THUMP... PUM-PUM... PUM-PUM-PUM-PUM-PUM...!!!!!)

From the ground, the erratic heartbeat of the beast accelerated all at once into a rhythmic, hypnotic pulse, counting down the final seconds.

(¡¡¡¡¡BRRRR-KABOOOOMMM-SHWWWAAAAA...!!!!!)

Meanwhile, high in the sky, the Spirit Queen condensed every drop of natural energy harvested from the thirty-five destroyed layers into a spherical mass of stellar density above her left palm, aiming directly downward to erase every atom in the clearing with an absolute execution strike.

(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡—!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Yet...

(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

... The strike was never fired.

<....>

On the ground, the golden light compressed within the circular platform did not detonate outward; instead, it imploded inward.

<...?>

In that precise instant, the chimera's silhouette "vanished"...

<... What...?>

There was no preliminary shockwave, no trail of kicked-up dust, nor a single flash of movement perceptible to the senses.

"¡¡¡GROOOOAAARRRGHHH~!!!"

Distorting the causality of space-time itself, the chimera had surpassed the speed of light.

<¡¡?!!>

Only at that moment did the mind of the Spirit Queen—incapable of processing an event occurring faster than anything she had ever experienced—finally react.

(¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡SLASSSSSSHHHHH-SPLATTTT...!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Immediately following, a mute, delayed agony rocked her a second later.

<¡¡!!>

Because of that, lowering her gaze mechanically, the Queen watched as her left arm was severed cleanly from the shoulder...

(¡¡¡SHRRRRRR-VROOOOM-KRRRR-SHHHHH...!!!)

... And directly behind her, millimeters from the nape of her neck in the open sky, the presence of the beast reappeared—suffocating, glacial, and lethal—floating in the void before reality itself could register the claw strike.

(¡¡¡ZSHWIIIP-KRAK-SHRRED~~!!!)

Yet before the Spirit Queen could process the loss of her left arm, the presence behind her vanished into nothingness once more.

<... Not behind, above—!>

A second mute flash sliced through the atmosphere.

(¡¡¡¡¡CRACK-SLASSSSSSHHHHH...!!!!!)

One of the sovereign's colossal wings of light and foliage was severed at its root, falling away in a shower of feathers and leaves that withered upon contact with the air.

(¡¡¡VUU-PNDUL-SHWRAKSS!!!)

Immediately following, a third abyssal claw strike crossed her flank diagonally, tearing away a massive section of her torso.

<Impossible...! I can't... I can't keep up with her movements!>

Moving at a speed the Queen had never before perceived, the attacks kept coming faster and faster against her body before she could even register the movement.

(¡¡¡¡¡SLASSSSH-SLASSSSH-SLASSSSH-SLASSSSH...!!!!!)

Without delay, an untiring, multidirectional rain of cuts battered the Queen from every conceivable angle.

<Above, below, left, right, diagonally...?!>

The assault, unleashed at speeds leaving light itself behind, did not fade upon impact; on the contrary, every glowing trace refused to extinguish, remaining suspended in the void like an incandescent filament.

<There's no time to react?!>

The vertical trails rose at her flanks like towering titanic pillars, while the frantic intersection of slashes in the center began to oscillate from one side to another in a perfect geometric sweep, creating a colossal arc of pure energy with shifting colors like an aurora that, snapping shut instantly, continuously tore away pieces of the Spirit Queen's body.

(¡¡¡¡¡SHRRRRRR-FSSSHHH-VROOOOMM...!!!!!)

As a result, cornered at the absolute limit of her existence, the Queen was forced to abandon her attack and concentrate all her strength purely on regeneration.

(¡PlAS-TZZZZZZZZ...!! ¡¡CRRR-CRAK...!!)

Yet while invisible claw strikes kept tearing through her and ripping pieces from her figure, golden sap and wooden fibers burst forth desperately from her core to restore her body and protect it—reassembling her torso, her arm, and her wings at the same frantic speed with which they were being destroyed, holding her form together through sheer brute force.

(¡¡¡ZUUUUUU-FZZZZ-VROOOOMM...!!!!!)

High in the firmament, as the trajectories of blinding speed intertwined, the unprotected night sky of Ky'lar began to stain with a kaleidoscopic network of glowing geometric shapes: rhombuses, polygons, acceleration circles, and streaks of crimson and golden light that forged a parabolic cage of continuous cuts around the Spirit Queen while an aurora expanded across the heavens.