Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
This sudden change in situation baffled Cassidy. If she were a person with perfect senses now, perhaps she would come up with countermeasures quickly. However, she was only a muddle-headed and one-track minded soul fragment at the moment. In this case, she was relatively surprised by the abrupt changes. She instinctively tried to escape, but no matter how hard she struggled, she just couldn’t get out of this mysterious world around her. She waved her arms and thrust her legs on the spot, which seemed somewhat comical. This left her increasingly dubious. She instantly retreated to stay as far away from Rhode as possible. But she quickly learned that no matter where she ran to, she was as though making no headway. No matter the direction or how much effort she put in, Rhode would stand before her whenever she lifted her head like he was waiting for her arrival.
“Phew…”
At this moment, Rhode heaved a sigh of relief.
It seems like this works pretty well.
Even though Cassidy’s ability was hard to deal with, Rhode was still the Void Dragon, after all. The battle between them was taking place in the Void Territory and under the Void Dragon’s soul protection, so it was predetermined that Rhode had the home field advantage. Besides, as the Void Dragon, he was the true dominator and conqueror of rules. Although Cassidy was powerful in the rules of ‘contrast’ as a ‘manager’, Rhode could fire her as the ‘boss’ no matter how capable she was. Currently, this was what Rhode was doing. He seized the opportune timing while Cassidy was dealing with his three shadow clones and caught her off guard, dragging her into his very own ‘void world’. In this place, he was the creator of all things including rules. As of now, he had weakened Cassidy’s mastery of the ‘contrast’ rule and here, she was basically no threat to him at all.
“You stole my power! How did you do it?”
Cassidy glared at Rhode. Facing her fierce stare, he shrugged nonchalantly, lifted his head, and gazed at her. Right now, Cassidy was unlike before. If she was like a hungry wolf before, she had become a terrifying monster in a horror movie now. Although her power was diminished to the lowest by Rhode, she continued to exude a dangerous presence. This left Rhode knitting his brows. For some unknown reason, he felt like the situation was far from ordinary. But even so, he held down the uncertainties hidden deep in his heart and sauntered toward her. Upon witnessing him closing in, Cassidy’s fuming and sinister expression turned terrified instantly as crystal-clear tears trickled down from the corner of her eyes as though she were wronged. She wailed and shivered, taking steps back in fear.
“N-No, stay away. You baddie. Don’t come near me! What are you trying to do? What are you trying to do to me?”
Cassidy screamed in lingering fear and Rhode sensed a strong, mysterious aura which left him puckering his brows. He clutched the sword hilt and stared at the young lady when suddenly, her expression changed once again. The terrified look disappeared in the blink of an eye, only to be replaced by a warm, passionate smile as though she had just witnessed something amusing.
“No… hahaha, stay away. Hahaha, I will kill you if you come any closer okay! I’m serious, hahaha. Look at you, hahaha… Don’t come here. If you dare come any closer…” Cassidy said when suddenly, her expression turned sinister, grim, and scary. She widened her mouth without any warning and growled like an agitated lioness. “…. I will kill a damn bast*rd like you hundreds of thousands of times! You scoundrel! Let me go! Do you hear me!”
“Frankly speaking… this is considered some sort of talent, I suppose.”
Rhode lamented softly at this scene. He couldn’t be blamed for thinking this way because the changes in Cassidy’s mood were as quick and abrupt as the ‘face-changing’ performances he watched in the real world: as soon as the performer turned away and looked back, he would have a whole new face. What surprised Rhode more was that Cassidy’s aura changed along with her mood. She no longer pretended to be strong even though she was afraid. Right now, whatever expression she put up was the aura she exuded. When she was afraid, she was totally like a harmless and timid little rabbit. But when she raged, she was like an erupting volcano. This transcended the realm of ’emotional’ and ‘mental illness’ and reached a realm unknown to ordinary humans… Back then, surely his younger sister didn’t create her for this unique ‘artistic talent’, right? Or perhaps ‘facial talent’?
“Argh… Ahhh!”
At this moment, a mournful scream interrupted Rhode’s thoughts. He realized that Cassidy seemed to be in incredible pain. She stretched out her arms, clutching her head. Her eyes were shut as her body shivered. Along with these reactions, Rhode discovered that something was disrupting his space!
“What happened?!”
“Oh no. Do it quickly, Big Brother!”
At this moment, his younger sister’s voice sounded anxiously in his ears.
“What’s wrong?”
“Her Order is crumbling. Big Brother, you still remember Cassidy’s power of contrast, right? She’s only a soul fragment now and doesn’t have the mastery to control it. The consequences will be dire if she undergoes such intense transformation and power!”
“Order, Chaos!”
Upon hearing his younger sister’s answer, Rhode’s expression changed slightly. But he hesitated no more. He flourished the sword and leaped up quickly. This time, he wasn’t holding back anymore. He remembered Alice mentioning Cassidy’s power of contrast, which meant that Cassidy was able to switch Order and Chaos. In this case, perhaps after suffering from too much agitation, Cassidy slowly turned toward Chaos. Even though Rhode didn’t know if the mighty Deity Wardens could turn into Chaos worshipers, he wasn’t willing to take this risk!
“Get lost!”
Upon sensing Rhode’s attack, Cassidy snarled and swung the sword at him. But this time, Rhode charged forward with his sword instead of evading, hacking on the ‘iron plate’ in Cassidy’s hands. Previously, the reason why he didn’t choose to clash head-on with her was that they were in the actual world and if Order were to shatter during their battle, he would need to clean up the mess afterward. But it was different here. Now that Cassidy was pulled into his own space and her power of contrast was weakened drastically, there wouldn’t be as much trouble dealing with her.
Clang!
The swords clashed and this time, Rhode’s sword wasn’t negated. Instead, he held on firmly and swept away Cassidy’s sword, leaving the young lady grimacing from the immense force. She took half a step back and flourished the sword from above with force. But this time, she didn’t notice the other two figures surrounding her. Rhode’s shadow clone technique hadn’t been deactivated all this while!
Shing! Shing!
The criss-crossed blade rays erupted instantly from the left and right, sealing off her retreat entirely. Even though Cassidy realized that something was amiss, it was all too late. During the split second of distraction, Rhode struck forward with his sword and conquered the ‘iron plate’ in her hand forcefully. Then, he disappeared in a flash and arrived before her, flicking his wrist around and striking her in the chest heavily with the hilt. The gravely-hurt Cassidy couldn’t tolerate it anymore. She suffered from agony due to her power of contrast going berserk and the pincer attack from Rhode’s shadow clones earlier on. And now, this strike to her chest from Rhode was too much to take as she fainted on the spot. As she became unconscious and collapsed to the ground, the irrepressible power inside her exploded instantly. The invisible power blasted and swept across the entire space like massive waves and this seemingly endless cosmos rippled in the impact.
“Big Brother, hurry up!”
“Got it!”
Before Cassidy crumbled to the ground, Rhode grabbed her and a bright, dazzling summoning ritual emanated from his body, enveloping the entire cosmos in an instant.
“Wake up, Cassidy!”
At the same time, a line of extremely familiar system prompts appeared before his eyes.
[Spirit Language. Activate]
Shortly after, dazzling rays emanated from Cassidy, merging and interweaving into pure, white lines of light that took shape above Rhode’s palm gradually. After a few seconds, a strange card of black and white was formed. Rhode looked at it and heaved a sigh of relief. But at this moment, he heard his younger sister’s voice.
“Be careful, Big Brother!”
“Huh?”
Rhode lifted his head quickly and only just realized that layers upon layers of dazzling halos had erupted from Cassidy like protective barriers enfolding her completely. Then, the halos shrunk abruptly, before expanding all of a sudden!
The world before him was enveloped in a pure, white brilliance.
