Planet Master

194- Blitz (2)

“Intruder detected. Intruder detected. Intruder detected.”The mothership let out a three-alarm alert mentioning an intruder. It meant that the split body of the Outer Being could split once more.

“Remember this. Stay behind me.” Tatsumi clenched his teeth as he felt the coming enemy from the corridor and needed to face him there.

“Reinforced space initiated inside the mothership.” The next one was to make sure that the transcendent power from both Tatsumi and the enemy would not exceed the boundary of reinforced space in the corridor.

“Please, be safe.” Ame said this before Tatsumi moved straight to the corridor and felt that the space was reinforced so well that his attack would amount to just a regular strike by a lower-realm transcendent.

The weakness of the mothership was that it was not adequate for internal defense despite its multipurpose capabilities.

That was why there was a need for Jeliel to let its battle body inside, to prevent this kind of thing from occurring.

“Annoying living beings that develop sentience, better be gone.” The Outer Being in front of Tatsumi was actually formed from liquid.

‘His form is actually similar to slime.’ Tatsumi thought and his expression became grim.

Without the Slayer Division and only Tritis’ group with their slight foresight decided to support him, it looked like it was the right decision as the enemy could even infiltrate the mothership while it was at its most vulnerable time.

That was why Tatsumi had to step forward.

Then the corridor was locked by the AI of the mothership, isolating it from most outside intervention.

“What makes you hate every sentient being in this Universe Field?” Tatsumi asked.

“How do you even like them?” the Outer Being spoke.

“Ha, they develop something that we don’t which is unique. You on the other hand feels like a civilization destroyer.” Tatsumi taunted by saying this.

“Is that how you look us? Amusing.” The Outer Being grinned.

Then the two moved faster than sound, causing a shockwave before clashing against each other.

The Outer Being could form a blunt object despite its fluid nature and Tatsumi reinforced the blade of Dragonsbane using his Ether, which went slightly berserk due to using the Gate of Opening.

“Hmm?” the Outer Being was surprised to see that his casual attack was intercepted by Tatsumi.

Tatsumi was also surprised to see that the Outer Being was equal to him in strength.

But of course, that was all a probing attack. Next, it would be increasing their strength gradually until they had to use their trump cards.

Tatsumi slashed, chopped, and thrusted with his Dragonsbane while the Outer Being used the Warhammer as an offensive tool while its body could recover from Tatsumi’s attack.

‘The core…is the weakness but it is covered already so obviously. Let’s step up the tempo then.’ Tatsumi thought and his transcendent base was at Rank 4, Star Realm. But he only opened one gate so the increase in strength was not obvious. But the Outer Being was also increasing its strength in its swing.

‘The second gate, open.’ Tatsumi thought. Along with that was the surge of Ether as he moved faster, deadlier and more precise since this was actually his full combat prowess without enhancement from Tritis’ group.

Slowly, the Outer Being was overwhelmed despite using the same amount of strength.

“Good, good. Let’s see how far you can go!” The Outer Being’s form was wriggling; the fluid which formed its body slowly formed a humanoid form with two standing legs and two arms, one of which held a Warhammer.

Then the Outer Being spun and spun while heading toward Tatsumi. Worse, the momentum of the hammer increased along with its speed and danger.

Tatsumi then knew that stopping the hammer would be suicidal and he should just deal with the body. With a quick movement technique, he moved to the right where the Outer Being’s reach was a bit delayed due to spinning from its right to the left and that gap was all Tatsumi needed.

With one slash, Tatsumi slashed at the arm as well as the core. Although he successfully severed one arm, but he failed to go through the core and had to retract Dragonsbane quickly, otherwise his weapon would be used against him.

Tatsumi cleared the blade from the fluid by incinerating it in the hot Ether.

“Urgh…”

Tatsumi looked at the Outer Being while he raised the distance. Its look became fierce and its appearance returned to normal despite previously being stabbed and sliced.

‘Well, looks like I need to review what I know so far.’ Tatsumi then spent some of the time waiting to inspect his own body.

‘According to Teacher Maito Dai, the third gate should be…here. Open!’ With that thought, Tatsumi managed to open the third gate and his transcendent energy reacted so much that its jade color became greener in appearance.

‘Then, with this, I also need to open the third mind palace. Temporarily possessing the Rank 4 power means I can achieve this.’ Tatsumi then went to his mindscape and saw the third palace. He first removed the chains surrounding the palace’s gate.

After doing that which he had expected to be easy, Tatsumi could feel the feedback of fully opening the palace’s gate as well as activating the palace, meaning that his mind power now increased dramatically.

But Tatsumi dared not increase his power any more than this. It was because the balance between mind, body and technique started to shift. His technique was solely lacking in his current realm.

‘My technique is improving too but it needs accumulation which I don’t have much at the moment. But with Martial Will, the technique can be bridged.’ Tatsumi used Martial Will and it increased in its effectiveness.

His Martial Will was like a small sun encompassing the entire corridor which was filled with reinforced spatial layer.

“Now, another round begins.” Tatsumi said as he brandished Dragonsbane.

Both were increasing their power and output for battle. The Outer Being that Tatsumi faced was actually a late Rank 5 while Tatsumi was a Rank lower than it.

‘He is a lower Rank than mine. But why…why did he can exchange blows with me?’ the Outer Being asked himself in his mind.

Tatsumi learned more about technique as the Outer Being grew serious, almost injuring him in the process, but it made him stronger, as he could glean the Outer Being's technique.

Exchanging blow after blow, Tatsumi started to refine his own technique. He could even read the intent of the Outer Being, which had previously been veiled.

‘The usage of the Warhammer is amazing. Using momentum to deliver a blunt attack strong enough to shatter any defense while unbounded by its limitation…worth studying.’ Tatsumi grinned as he felt that he had found another perspective on combat.

Third gate and third mind palace had been opened so his battle prowess had reached Rank 5 pinnacle while the Outer Being was just a late Rank 5, the difference was starting to show in their exchange.

While Tatsumi and the Outer Being were battling, Dian, Tritis and the others were watching through the specially live feed from the mothership.

They saw with their own eyes how the battle developed and could not help but clench their fists, worrying about Tatsumi who had to face the Outer Being.

Ame stared at the live feed without blinking. Her eyes observed each and every move that the two made. Charlene also did the same, analyzing the transcendent energy flow as well as mental power being unleashed.

“He has reached the third gate and the third mind palace.” Charlene muttered which could be heard by everyone.

“But his technique lagged, so he compensated for it with the Martial Will. Even now, he is still trying to fill the gaps in technique.” Ame said with a worried look.

Every battle had its own variables and for this time, it was the Outer Being sent to eliminate them. Its power was at Rank 5 but that could change at anytime which worried the two.

Dian breathed in and out, he felt the distress from Ame, Charlene and his group so clearly. Even Long Wu looked focused while Bore tried to glean anything worth learning from the exchange of moves.

Dian thought to himself.

The battle raged on, causing spatial cuts here and there due to Tatsumi using Martial Will to slice through the fluid of the Outer Being and reach its core properly. Despite learning many new things, Tatsumi had to digest them later, not when he was still in battle.

The Outer Being kept rotating in a certain direction to increase its momentum and deal damage to Tatsumi while keeping an eye out for his cut.

The two reached a stalemate. As Tatsumi could not cut the core, the Outer Being could not hit Tatsumi without being damaged in return.

As he was battling, he also searched for the next gate and tried to open the fourth mind palace.

‘This is hard. It looks like I know where it is as well as the way to open the gate of the palace but all of this depends on his transcendent base which was temporarily elevated to Rank 4.

Tatsumi had to dodge the incoming warhammer as he thought about this. Then, before the Outer Being even swung its first, Tatsumi parried it with his blade.

The sound of two metals clashing could be heard. The head of the Warhammer was made from metal, too, apparently, and Tatsumi found that Dragonsbane was slightly chipped on the blade.

Then this made Tatsumi careful not to clash rashly with the head of the Warhammer and opt to dodge it.

But the space around him was narrowing, causing Tatsumi to be in a difficult situation. Then inspiration struck as the Nafs in the Afterlife were helping him. Then Tatsumi gritted his teeth to open both the fourth gate and the fourth mind palace.

When the fourth gate was located, Tatsumi let the flow of his Ether to the point designated as the fourth gate and tried to pry it open. At the same time, Tatsumi tried to shatter the chains enveloping the mind palace and pushed the door open.

Then the Ether went completely rioting but the fourth mind palace was also opening its door, causing mental power to flow into his mindscape.

‘With this, I have a chance to defeat the Outer Being in front of me.’ Tatsumi could feel the transformation inside his body. Then he channeled the rioting energy slightly to Dragonsbane and made a counter by slashing at the Outer Being.

The Outer Being felt the threat and tilted its core slightly as the slash finally surpassed its fluid body and cut through all the way to the space behind it.

Then another three slashes came and for the first time, Tatsumi gained ground as the Outer Being was cornered slowly but surely.

Tatsumi then finally hit the core and the Outer Being churned but was not quite dead yet.

“How hard is its core!?” Tatsumi clicked his tongue at the sight but continued to slash at the core. One, two, three, continue to slash at the core.

The Outer Being’s form became unstable as the core was damaged. Its wielded weapon was slowly losing its form as Tatsumi kept damaging the core.

Then when the twelfth slash came, the core of the Outer Being was slashed and then shattered. The weapon it held, the form it had slowly turned into a pool of liquid. Tatsumi felt no hostility from the pool of water.

“Finally, it’s over.” Tatsumi slowly closed the fourth gate and the fourth mind palaces. Then the third gate and the third mind palaces. He did this until he closed off the second gate.

Then Tatsumi felt the liquid flew toward him, assimilating with him as he was able to read some of the memories from the remnant of the Outer Being he had slain.

“Reinforced space retracted.”

The voice of the mothership’s AI resounded before the space around Tatsumi returned to its previous state, frail. Then the door to the bridge was opened and Tatsumi walked back to the bridge.

When he returned, everyone had a look of disbelief as well as a sense of relief seeing Tatsumi safe and sound.

But two people were not satisfied with the result and got closer to Tatsumi.

“Are you sure you are okay?” Charlene looked worried and scanned him thoroughly while also touching his body.

Ame was in a similar state, checking for injuries. But Tatsumi had already used the remaining Ether to recover from the injury he had, mostly an internal injury, by receiving the shock from the Warhammer as it hit the nearby space.

“If you feel something is wrong, call us, okay?” Ame said as she looked at Tatsumi’s eyes. Tatsumi blinked his eyes and then looked at her eyes in return. He nodded and then grabbed Charlene’s hands.

“I am fine. Please don’t worry about that. I appreciate your concern, though.” Tatsumi said to her.

Charlene knew that he was right but still checked for potential danger. After confirming that there was nothing to worry about, she stepped back.

Tatsumi turned to Tritis’ group and said, “Thank you for the support and power-up. That proved to be useful.”

He took a breath as he felt that his power was slowly returning to his normal state. But he was glad that it ended right now.

Seeing the people who supported him grit their teeth and kneel in exhaustion made Tatsumi feel slightly guilty, but more concerned about him opening the fourth gate.

“If my opening both the fourth gate and the fourth mind palaces caused you this, I am sorry.” Tatsumi bowed down ninety degrees as he said this to Tritis’ group.

“No. It is our duty to support you.” One of them said.

“It is quite a surprise that you can stand your ground against that Outer Being.”

Tatsumi had the impression that Tritis’s group was actually praising him and sincerely wanted to support him.

“There is an incoming message from the Slayer Division.” Tritis said as she opened the communication channel.

“They have defeated the Outer Being on their part and are now returning.” Tritis said.

Dian realized what was going on and said, “Looks like defeating the Outer Being here affected the other battles.”

“It means that this Outer Being is really a split body from the original and defeating it is weakening the original?” Charlene realized and summarized the event.

“Right. That looks to be the case.” Ame nodded.

“Lucky for us, then.” Long Wu grinned.

“I feel like I am becoming stronger once again.” Tatsumi clenched his fist as he felt the force of his physical body increase, and his Body Refining Technique circulate on its own, absorbing the remnant of the Outer Being.

Right now, Tatsumi had reached the seventh heavenstage of the Revolutionary realm as well as his physical body. His mind was tempered also and reached similar power, meaning that he had increased all his available power and that kept raising even as he spoke.

Then everyone looked at him. They could feel the large power from the remnant of the Outer Being that flowed in Tatsumi’s body was gentle, unlike that of others that sought to corrupt them.

Revolutionary Realm eight heavenstage…Revolutionary Realm ninth heavenstage…

Tatsumi finally reached the pinnacle of the Revolutionary Realm that he had envisioned. Now, he just needed to bloom the planetary seed that had formed inside his body, his core that initially formed during the Core Formation Realm.

“Wait a moment. I need…to break through.” Tatsumi said with a bit of urgency in his tone.

Then he sat cross-legged.

The others were surprised to see this so soon.

Ame and Charlene went to his side, guarding him while the AI of the mothership detected traces of transcendent going on their break through.

“It is detected that a transcendent is going on with the breakthrough.”

“Reinforcing the space around the target.”

“Internal protection activated.”

The sound reverberated and everyone took a step back from Tatsumi. With him as the center, he let out a shining light. His Martial Will was let out freely and Dian’s group was able to learn more about Martial Will.

Ame and Charlene also grew stronger since learning Martial Will helped them in defeating the Outer Being.

Tatsumi felt that his body was bloated with Ether and the body had reached its maximum capacity to be refined within this rank and his mind power was also reaching its maximum capacity for the current rank and realm.

Then he focused on his core-nascent planetary seed which would be transformed into a planet inside him.

He focused on making the planetary seed evolve into the planet, making his breakthrough to the Planetary Realm or Rank 3 transcendent according to the standard of everyone else.

As he made his breakthrough, a pressure different from Rank 2 transcendent let out from his body. The planetary seed inside Tatsumi’s lower dantian was slowly covered by the mantle before the soil covered it entirely.

The previously evolving core had now turned into a proper planet. The planet then formed its own atmosphere and became a miniature planet inside the lower dantian.

His Martial Will was also following the breakthrough, reaching a new height while his body and mind power rose in power once again due to his breakthrough. Although this realm was still in the theoretical stage but Tatsumi was fortunate enough to make it a reality.

He took a deep breath as he inhaled the transcendent energy around him, slowly turning it into Ether inside his body and refining it to all his body parts, even the smallest capillary blood vessels. His mind power now increased by fivefold and he finally opened his eyes.