MIGHT AS WELL BE OP Chapter 975: Temporal Erasure

Amid the swirling mists of destruction and smoke, Lucian struck like a shadow-born killer, his katana slicing toward Aaaninja's midsection with lethal intent, aiming to cleave the warrior in two from the chest in one swift, unyielding cut, even as Aaaninja dismantled each of Lucian's onslaughts with calculated precision.

Yet Aaaninja's gaze whipped around instantly, as if he had predicted this exact strike and lain in wait for it, his face serene and icy while he triggered both Temporal Slip and Reverse Causality simultaneously. In the blink of an eye, he faded from his spot, gliding once more through the twists of time and space, dissolving into nothingness like a wave merging with calm waters, and right after he vanished, Reverse Causality burst forth without delay, zeroing in on Lucian's skull with ruthless certainty.

However, Lucian evaded the trap effortlessly, blinking out of sight as he navigated the currents of space with the grace of a fish in a stream, elusive and seamless. The instant he rematerialized elsewhere, Aaaninja was waiting there too, as if peering straight into what was yet to come, his arrival pinpoint and eerie, yet before Lucian could react or shift, Aaaninja unleashed yet another technique: Stasis Field.

From Aaaninja's essence, mana exploded outward like a bursting supernova, forming a growing dome that halted all motion across hundreds of kilometers—mana streams, blood circulation, beams of sunlight, tiny particles, molecular bonds, quivers, and even noises—all locked in place as if some invisible force had hit pause on the cosmos. Lucian froze solid too, his mind alone racing while his form stood rigid, ensnared in timeless immobility like a sculpture etched from the fabric of being.

Without a second's pause, Aaaninja advanced, the lone figure allowed to stir in this hushed realm, but as he bridged the gap, an unforeseen twist unfolded—one he had overlooked, one Lucian had foreseen long before.

Right then, the whole Stasis Field shattered in a flash, time lurching forward with a savage backlash, clouds drifting anew, light streaming once more, solar rays dancing through the heavens, atoms humming back to life, though mana refused to return, as if an external force had blocked it—and truly, another power had stepped in.

Lucian had invoked his power known as Null Field.

His timing for unleashing it was flawless, accurate to the tiniest sliver of time. Null Field wiped out every form of energy in its range, whether mana, Faith energy, or Savor energy—as long as it counted as energy, it vanished completely, with no chance to fight back. And as soon as he triggered this power, Aaaninja's Stasis Field crumbled away, deprived of the mana it needed to persist, now nullified into oblivion.

Just moments earlier, Aaaninja held the upper hand while Lucian seemed cornered, but now their positions swapped with harsh suddenness, the shift so abrupt it bordered on ridicule.

In that very instant, dark bolts of lightning surged wildly around Lucian's hand and frame, writhing like destructive vipers, and he drove his fist forward with immense power, the blow slamming into Aaaninja's abdomen with earth-shaking force that ripped through the atmosphere, hurling his form skyward before flinging it back in a brutal arc, his torso crumpling like thin parchment in a gale.

Agony exploded in his thoughts and flesh like blaring alarms, his skin ripping apart from the unblocked strike. Regeneration surged at once, wounds and torment fading away as tissues reformed seamlessly, as if the damage had never occurred, his figure contorting while he planted his heels into the ground, gouging furrows through rock until he skidded to a stop.

Lucian wasted no beat, materializing in front of Aaaninja once more, his leg whipping toward the man's chin from the flank, sheathed in raw electricity. Another colossal clash rang out, snapping Aaaninja's head aside with ferocious speed, his body hurtling laterally like a fading comet streaking through emptiness, barreling through the sky in a thunderous rush.

Lucian wielded his elemental forces without relying on mana because among the myriad abilities he had mimicked, one bestowed this extraordinary liberty, bypassing normal boundaries and making standard constraints irrelevant.

Aaaninja, meanwhile, was pushed into pure defense against the barrage; he tracked the incoming strikes with perfect clarity through his Eyes Of Genesis, which needed no mana to detect simple physical actions, yet his form lacked the velocity to evade them. Boosting his pace required mana or Sword Intent, but Lucian had cut off access to both, stranding him in a state bound only by raw physicality.

His jaw shattered, teeth ripped from their sockets, bright red blood gushing from his lips in heavy rivulets, but such harm was familiar territory, pain a companion he had long tolerated with stoic resolve—yet deep down, he realized this couldn't last; he understood Lucian's Null Field had a duration, though betting on that unknown was risky, so he needed another approach.

Once again, Lucian closed the gap swiftly, his katana already whistling toward Aaaninja's throat to finish the fight decisively, without pause or mercy—for this was Aaaninja, and Lucian knew all too well the outrageous feats the man could summon if granted the slightest opening.

Aaaninja's sense of the world and time warped strangely, surroundings dragging to a crawl, existence thickening like syrup, his Eyes Of Genesis flaring with intense light as Lucian's electrified blade neared his neck, mere instants from severing his head.

With no options left, to prolong this clash Aaaninja resorted to a forbidden measure, one saved exclusively for Anthony: his Eyes Of Genesis... or more precisely, a concealed power within them, one that demanded no mana but exacted a toll in lifespan. Though Lucian's Field treated life force as energy and ought to block it, Aaaninja's Eyes Of Genesis circumvented the barrier effortlessly, as if it were mere illusion, defying the limit outright.

Slowly, Aaaninja's mouth opened, and he uttered, Temporal Erasure.

As those words escaped, Aaaninja sensed a chunk of his life force evaporate in an instant, a cold void creeping through him while decades upon decades were ruthlessly torn from his existence.

Temporal Erasure let Aaaninja obliterate chosen moments, items, or individuals straight from history's thread. The lifespan penalty varied by the target's scale, and here Aaaninja forfeited millennia of years, targeting one unyielding entity: Lucian Darkheart.

Immediately after, Lucian Darkheart blinked out of existence, no grand spectacle or ripple effect, no blast or warp, no hint whatsoever—he was simply gone, as if he had never been real, for he no longer was. Aaaninja had wiped him clean from the timeline, excising his essence from the chain of cause and effect.

And thus, Lucian Darkheart was utterly removed and banished from all reality.