Chapter 10: Erasing Time
Diablo did not move.
He was waiting, waiting for Li Qing to play his final trump card as he had predicted.
Then, he would strike at the most tense, most critical moment, when Li Qing was closest to success, and extinguish Li Qing's last hope in one fell swoop.
The life of an invincible person is so boring.
Li Qing didn't know what Diablo was thinking, he just mumbled nonsense in front of him:
"Sir, my dear Mr. Diablo, please show mercy."
"I swear to the Virgin Mary that I just stumbled into this place today by accident and I have no ill will towards you or your organization."
"Besides, you can trust me, I'm really tight-lipped—"
"The girl across the building didn't like to wear clothes at home in the summer. I watched her with a telescope for the whole summer and didn't tell anyone."
"Auntie Liu next door who likes to kiss her dog will never know that her dog eats shit in the community every afternoon."
"Oh, and..."
"There is also Lao Wang who lives in 303 downstairs. I have never reported him and Mrs. Chen who lives in 304 downstairs to the property management for causing noise disturbance..."
hehe.
Are you trying to make me relax by saying all this nonsense?
So boring.
Diablo said nothing, but silently calculated the time in his mind:
1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds...the 8th second, it’s here.
Just as Diablo had predicted with his Epitaph, Li Qing seemed to feel that the time was right. He suddenly stopped his annoying chatter and swung his fist in the direction of Diablo's body.
"Heavenly Sound Wave!"
At this moment, a bright white light appeared on Li Qing's fist.
The ball of light enveloped his fist, obscured his palm, and then flew out of his hand when the light was at its brightest.
"hehe."
Diablo laughed mockingly, then tilted his head slightly and easily dodged the attack of the positioning light ball.
This wave of sound flashed past Diablo's head and disappeared into the air behind him in vain.
Almost at the same time, the Crimson King fought back.
It tensed its evil arm covered with red and white stripes, and slashed out with its hand knife with the force of splitting Mount Hua.
The next moment, the Crimson King used his hand knife to easily tear apart Li Qing's shoulder and cut through his chest like a hot knife cutting butter.
Thanks to the digitization ability that ignores the rules of reality, Li Qing's flesh and blood healed instantly after being torn, as if he had never been injured.
However, his health points, like the stocks that A-share investors have just bought, dropped sharply from more than half to 12% like a high diving.
12%, that’s a bit exaggerated…
The Crimson King could kill him if he sneezed right now.
However, Li Qing's eyes became fierce:
The moment the Tianyin wave of light left his hand, it was like a magic trick, and a gun suddenly appeared in his hand.
He is still weak now and it is impossible for him to win by hand-to-hand combat. He must rely on the power of guns to resist.
But the Crimson King is extremely fast, so its dynamic vision must be good.
If Li Qing raised his gun and aimed directly, he probably wouldn't even have time to raise his arm before the enemy would notice his movements.
By then, let alone shooting and killing people, I'm afraid that even his hand holding the gun would be broken by the Crimson King.
Shooting directly is unlikely to work.
Therefore, Li Qing chose to use the Heavenly Sound Wave as a sleight of hand.
As early as when he pretended to nag, he had quietly held the gun in his hand.
Then, Li Qing covered his palm with the white light of the Heavenly Sound Wave, perfectly covering the gun he was holding tightly in his hand.
Diablo couldn't see the gun in his hand, he could only see the white light flying towards him. When he dodged the positioning light of Tianyinbo and focused his attention on Li Qing...
Li Qing has taken this opportunity to complete the key action of "raising the gun and aiming".
Next, he only needs to gently pull the trigger to blast Diablo's head with a supersonic bullet.
"You shouldn't underestimate your enemy, Diablo!"
Li Qing seized this split second and fired a fatal shot at Diablo.
There was a flash of fire, thunder exploded, and bullets were fired.
Although the Crimson King is fast, he is not fast enough to catch bullets with his hands.
Not to mention, this powerful stand had just come up and chopped Li Qing with a knife, and there was no time for it to turn around and help its master block the bullet.
Diablo seemed to be defeated.
But…
"No datsu no datsu!"
Diablo laughed wildly, "All your tricks are useless!"
"Now…"
His pupils reflected the flash of fire from the muzzle, and he looked like an emperor with arrogance burning in his eyes:
"Time will begin to engrave again--"
"The Crimson King!"
At this moment, Diablo eliminated time.
The time he saved this time was still just 5 seconds.
However, the moment he entered the [Time Cut] state, he transcended the constraints of the rules of reality and became an invincible existence independent of the timeline.
First second:
The bullet passed through his ethereal body that existed outside of time without causing any damage.
Second 2:
Li Qing is in an unconscious "stuck" state.
He held the gun tightly and stared straight ahead, as if to confirm Diablo's death.
Of course, Li Qing, whose time was cut, could not see that Diablo not only passed through the bullet unscathed, but also took two slow steps forward towards the bullet.
Second 3:
Li Qing had already fired the second and third bullets unconsciously.
The two bullets still passed through Diablo's body in vain, but Li Qing didn't notice it at all.
At the same time, Diablo stretched out his arm and calmly snatched the pistol from Li Qing.
4th second:
Diablo removed the magazine from his pistol.
Then, with a strong sense of mischief, he stuffed the empty toy-like gun back into Li Qing's hand without any hesitation.
At the same time, he ordered his stand, the Crimson King, to adjust his movements and pinch Li Qing's head with his palm in advance.
5th second:
Diablo did nothing.
He just looked at Li Qing quietly, looking at the ridiculous expression on Li Qing's face as if he had successfully counterattacked, and looking forward to his funny reaction when he realized that something was wrong the next second.
Finally... the [Time Cut] state ends and the timeline returns to normal.
"kindness?!"
Li Qing was instinctively stunned.
He was blind in digital mode, unable to read the seconds on a watch or count the seconds using blood. Logically, he had no way of noticing that Diablo had activated the time slash.
However, he has super perception abilities.
For Li Qing, the "sound wave environment" he feels in his ears every second is different.
Therefore, at the moment when the time cut ended, Li Qing immediately felt the change in the sound information:
"Just a second ago", he was holding a gun and blowing Diablo's head off.
“The next second”…
There are no bullets in the gun, and when you pull the trigger you can only hear a crisp clicking sound.
Diablo was alive and well, with a face full of mockery.
The Crimson King was gently stroking his bare head as if he was grinding a walnut.
"Time cutting..."
"He's slashing again!"
Li Qing understood the situation instantly, and then...
Then it was time for Diablo's commentary:
"Hahaha…"
"How was it, any surprise?"
Diablo laughed carelessly and said:
"While you were getting excited about your cleverness, I, Diablo, have already eliminated the time you had when you 'successfully counterattacked'!"
"The original time has been erased, and what remains is only the result I changed!"
"Only results remain in this world!"
“And what you are witnessing and touching now is your future self. Your past self a few seconds ago saw your future self.”
"This is my ability, the Scarlet King!"
He stood on one leg, clenched his fists, and leaned his chest back. He said to Li Qing in a sullen tone:
"Li Qing!"
"Your mediocre Stand abilities won't allow you to defeat me, Diablo!"
"oh…"
Li Qing responded indifferently.
His expression now was just like that of a hotel waiter who sees a customer stingily paying nine copper coins in front of the counter. Not only is he not nervous or taking it seriously, but he is so happy that he wants to laugh out loud.
"Aren't you afraid?!"
Diablo sensed something was wrong.
"When have I ever been scared?"
Li Qing smiled calmly:
"I am a little nervous. After all, your power is too strong."
"But, thanks to your pride..."
“I survived.”
※※※
PS: Possible controversial points (from Moegirlpedia):
If we assume that Diablo cannot attack during a time jump, but can move people and objects, it will be easier to understand some parts of the original work that may have logical bugs.
1. Trish was kidnapped with a severed hand: While Bucciarati was staring at the elevator's floor indicator, he secretly destroyed the elevator and entered. At the moment when Trish's hand was cut off, he activated the time jump and took Trish away during this period.
2. Diablo activated the time jump just before the cleaner saw his true face. During this time, he cleaned and organized his belongings and escaped through the window.
3. After killing the fortune teller in the urban area of Sardinia, he was almost discovered by a child, so he quickly activated the time jump, during which time he hid the fortune teller's body and bloodstains and took a taxi away.
4. Kill Naranjia by force: Cut off the iron railings and throw up Naranjia who has just set the flag, then activate time [leap] and [deletion] at this moment, hide your body during this period and wait for [result] to be achieved.
