Extra's Death: I Am the Son of Hades

Chapter 656: Transcending The Limits

Barbatos inwardly acknowledged Nameless Death’s superiority in strategic battle.

However….

“If you can’t awaken your Path fully, then we have no need to fear you.”

Barbatos understood that if Nameless Death had to fake an enlightenment, then it meant he was nowhere near to actual enlightenment.

Without a Path, they had nothing to worry about.

Barbatos dashed towards Nameless Death.

He didn’t try to undo the Silence on Zagreus.

There was no point.

Zagreus couldn’t remember the previous timelines.

He wouldn’t know what Nameless Death had done or how to counter it.

Turning back time to remove the magic wouldn’t matter. Nameless Death could do silence Zagreus again before Zagreus understood what was happening.

Berserker had been watching this unfold with narrowed eyes.

A grin slowly stretched across his face.

“This is it,” he muttered to himself, barely able to keep the excitement out of his voice. “This is what I’ve been waiting for.”

It wasn’t just a fight anymore.

It was a battle where every move counted, where strength alone wouldn’t carry you to victory.

All of them were powerful.

All of them had aces they hadn’t fully revealed yet.

And they were all walking on a tightrope, where a single misstep could mean instant defeat.

Berserker’s grin widened.

“A proper fight.”

With a loud laugh, he lunged toward Zagreus.

Even silenced, the Ancient Dragon blood flowing through Zagreus gave him immense power.

He blocked the initial strike, his claws tearing into the ground as he braced himself, but Berserker didn’t let up.

At the same time, Barbatos attacked Nameless Death again.

Shadow tendrils lashed out like whips, sharp and fast, aiming to pin him down or slice through his limbs.

Nameless Death fought back.

When he was about to be overwhelmed, he would use [All-Shadow] to slip back into the past at the exact moment before he would have been struck.

He knew he wouldn’t win by doing this forever.

It was just a stalling tactic.

What mattered was what he was focusing on during those moments in between.

’I need to improve Resonance.’

Time lost meaning inside the battlefield.

From the outside, it might have seemed like only seconds were passing.

But within the bubble of looped time and constant rewinds, the battle had stretched into days.

Over and over again, Nameless Death threw himself into combat, only to rewind the moment before defeat.

But each time, his mind dug deeper into his technique.

’Resonance was created by combining all of my Concepts,’ he thought, ducking under a blade and letting a shadow claw tear through his side before activating [All-Shadow] again.

Blood splattered the air, but he didn’t flinch.

’The resulting fusion of Concepts produces a raw destructive energy.’

He had always used that destructiveness as the main feature of Resonance.

But now, in the middle of this chaos, he saw something he hadn’t before.

’It’s not just meant for destruction. That’s not the only way to use it.’

His understanding deepened with every cycle.

Barbatos began to sense something was off.

His attacks grew more furious, and desperate.

He conjured legions of shadow beasts, each shaped from the minds of slaughtered gods and monsters.

Zagreus, still unable to speak, created countless weapons and rained down infinite bombardment from the sky.

The mental pain wouldn’t kill Nameless Death.

But it should freeze his mind, if only for a moment.

’It seems like he is gaining an enlightenment. We need to stop him.’

They had no way of knowing whether Nameless Death was truly gaining enlightenment or faking it again, but the risk was too great to wait and see.

This time, though, Nameless Death refused to let them break his concentration.

He fought back, even as his body broke again and again.

Even as his bones cracked and blood sprayed across the broken battlefield, he didn’t let his mind stray.

’The destructive output of Resonance is like burning the fuel.’

’The fuel explodes and does damage.’

’But fuel isn’t meant to explode. Sure, that does damage, but there is a better way to use the fuel.’

’It’s to power something.’

He was no longer using Resonance simply as a weapon.

’The fused Concepts—the energy created from them—can be used to empower a Concept.’

He had been wasting the Resonance Energy, using it as a blunt force tool instead of harnessing it to reinforce his Concepts.

His grip on his sword tightened.

He exhaled.

Then, for the first time, he channeled Resonance into his World Devouring Flames.

The flames twisted around his blade, black and crimson, dense with potential.

He swung.

The blade passed through Barbatos.

At first, Barbatos thought it was a failed attack.

That Nameless Death hadn’t gained enlightenment.

But then, the world started to burn.

The flames clung to his World, spreading like a curse.

The fire was consuming the very essence of Barbatos’s World.

His mind recoiled from the backlash.

But he kept his eyes at Nameless Death, eyes filled with the dawning realization of what had happened.

Zagreus noticed too. He stopped mid-charge.

His fists were raised, but he didn’t strike.

Because it was already too late.

Nameless Death had learned a technique beyond what one should be able to learn at his Stage.

They could see it.

The oppressive pressure rolling off of him wasn’t just power.

It was clarity.

It was transcendence.

He had broken his limits.

And in doing so, he had found it.

His Path…

….that he walked on to grow stronger.

….that he walked on to defeat his enemies.

….that he walked on to overcome his limits.

….that he walked on for eons and would continue to walk on until he reached the Zenith.

It was the Path Nameless Death would never stop walking upon.

If Nameless Death became the strongest in his universe, then he would go to other universes.

He would continue doing so until he was the strongest in all universes.

When he became the strongest in all universes, he aimed to go beyond, to wherever that was.

Nameless Death would keep on walking on his Path until the end of eternity.

That was Nameless Death’s Path.

To continuously transcend his limits.

Until the end of Eternity.

It was…

The Path of Eternal Transcendence.