Chapter 157
157 Ignition
Zero who perceived the playfulness in Layton’s gaze decisively tried to escape, although she did not feel a sense of danger yet she still decided to leave unfortunately even if she decided to escape moving from the surface layer of space to the interlayer it was too late, her eyes widened with shock as with her movement she suddenly seemed to spontaneously ignite, no it wasn’t that she ignited but the whole practice field caught on fire, the fire elemental particles in the air, especially in Layton’s field, had been excited wantonly releasing their energy creating a state of burning, this phenomenon originated from Layton’s small field which immediately rapidly expanded as the particles released energy spreading throughout the entire room, the fire element particles that also travelled to the inner part of space was not exempt from this and zero who subconsciously tried to travel through space to the inner layer when she felt threatened was recruited by the attack.
The attack only occurred for some seconds but it was enough to substantially injure the assassin even Lilith who was in a cocoon formed from black mud was not spared, it was only because of the divine characteristics of the black mud granting her enough resistance that the short attack did not worsen her injury. This short marvelous attack was exerted by the influence of the fragment of law Layton had just gained insight into from the external characteristics of the attack it was obvious he comprehended an aspect of the law of fire specifically the law of ignition.
The reason the first law he comprehended was that of fire was inescapable from the influence of his master Solace, Layton was privy to a front row seat when solace became a deity, the influence of the divinity and power he hadn’t grasped yet played a major influence in Layton’s cognition, this was especially evident in the moves he created as he progressed in his cultivation, for example, the Magia Erebia spell although it seemed the focus was on the agitation of one’s dark information and primal urges hidden in the cells, its actual core was on the ignition and burning of those urges and information as a way to release and obtain energy generated by the ignition, this was the same for the Magia Erebia spark.
During the holy grail battle when Layton was in the heat of battle with his other self and they both evolved a plane Layton’s form during the clash for control over the evolved plane was that of a sun, this was also the case during the last plane travel as he escaped from the astral plane by turning his physical body into a stellar body which was essentially a huge ball of flame albeit composed of rippling psionic energy.
Although Solace’s unintentional influence on Layton has been cleared up when Layton advanced to legend, the traces still left by Layton’s actions in his memory were enough impetus to propel him to gain an understanding of a part of the laws of flame that were present in his actions, which was ignition as most of Layton’s self-created moves unconsciously began with or revolved around that principle, although at present because of his short time he was only able to influence fire elemental particles it was enough, coupled with his superb means he was able to create a move that could easily incapacitate others especially when caught unawares.
His previous move primarily made use of the trace of laws he mastered but the existence of his realm ensured the scope of the attack covered the whole room spreading even into the interlayer, his realm made use of the release of energy that would occur during ignition to rapidly expand and with that expansion, the various fire elemental particles around were incorporated into the domain during the spread and were also influenced by the law causing them to follow suit and also ignite.
As for how Layton discovered Zero’s existence, the matter was simple although Zero’s means of concealment worked but when she left the interlayer although she was still out of the range of Layton’s domain she was still perceived by him, this was because of two reasons one was that Layton was in a peculiar state of enlightenment and was especially sensitive to various fluctuations around, the slight tremble of space that occurred when she came out of the interlayer especially when he was the only conscious person around was obvious, the other was that when Layton truly grasped his will his range of perception was instantly magnified leaving the restrictions of the domain, the domain itself even served as a receiver allowing him to receive information from outside it strengthening the accuracy of his perception.
This wasn’t to say that Zero’s means of concealment failed, Layton really forgot about her existence but when he noticed something was wrong with the space his vigilance increased and using the special transcendent characteristic of his will he discovered her when she merged into his domain, after all his will had been reflected by his domain giving him absolute grasp of the space inside it, a foreign body no matter how hard she tried to merged into it and hide was just displaying itself to Layton especially when he was already on guard, although he had still forgotten who she was but considering the environment although Layton did not search his memories he was able to guess she was an acquaintance but she had simply used some means to blur his perception of her, this was why she saw playfulness in Layton’s gaze when he opened his eyes, as for her safety in the face of his experiment with his new moves he wasn’t bothered to care one was that he was indeed exhausted and couldn’t handle another prolonged battle so he couldn’t really care about the possible mortality his moves might cause, the other was that the life span of his moves was short, although the strength of it sufficient but its short timespan would make it difficult to fully kill someone of sufficient strength in such a short time although it could temporarily incapacitate them.
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