Entire years could pass by without anything important. And there'd be minutes that would alter an entire lifetime.
As he reached out his hand, the unbearable past he buried deep within flashed in Crimson's mind.
Sold by his parents because he was talented, the hellhole he was taken to showed no such thing as mercy. Right from that tender age, he experienced all pains in the world that could be experienced.
The leaders of the organization deemed it as the perfect learning method to create spies that wouldn't leak a word. It's also there that they were subjected to several methods where their souls were distorted enough so that even powerful soul controllers would find it very hard to extract their memory.
Crimson didn't know what normal people were like. But he understood that it wasn't normal to feel a burst of pleasure whenever he tortured someone to a horrifying death.
It felt really good, to see them bawl their eyes out and scream until their throat breaks. Instead of letting them die instantly, cutting their throats or wrists and letting them slowly but torturously bleed to death was wonderful.
Crimson couldn't find any difference in food, music, or beauty. There was no novelty he wanted to pursue, no woman he wanted to love, no place he wanted to visit. To him, they were one and the same.
But violence and pain...they were different. Whenever he saw someone in deep pain, he had a twisted pleasure he couldn't resist. Every inch of his body and every sliver of his soul screamed for him to get more of that pleasure.
'That's why, I have to survive, to get what I want…I must.' Crimson's eyes glowed for a second and the space around a porcelain bottle shifted.
The eyes of the unicorn statutes all around turned to him instantly and spat out small red orbs at a speed that resembled teleportation.
If it was anyone else, even the fastest Adept, they would've been unable to escape these vitality-draining red orbs.
But Crimson just waved his hand and space began to ripple with him as a center. It was as if invisible waves were splashing against the red orbs. These space ripples continuously pushed against the red orbs and kept them away, just a distance from where they could take down Crimson.
"You're done," Miss Calamity's voice was filled with equal parts of glee and fury.
An invisible force field of life spread from her. As it passed by the shelves, the precious plants, herbs, and fruits collected there all began to grow wildly.
This invisible force drilled a hole right through the space waves and reached Crimson in the blink of an eye.
When Miss Calamity's clone thought he was going to end for certain, a bracelet he was wearing under the robe suddenly lit up.
A single wave of blue power shot at the invisible force and broke it with ease.
"Huh? The smuggled artifact…"
Zahara asked him to take an artifact through some channels a while ago. He thought it was a replacement to the one he lost but this treasure was on another level!
It behaved normally so far but when it sensed Miss Calamity's power, it revealed its true power.
'They planned this way back.' Miss Calamity frowned and clenched her fists.
The blue power rippling out of that artifact was the power of time itself. It wasn't normally countering her attack, the time power was directly freezing her attack!
"Eshala…" Miss Calamity gnashed her teeth but didn't stop her hand movements.
She formed a unique symbol and pushed her palm toward the Specter.
Miss Calamity's left arm dissipated into particles of light and a thick beam of green light shot out.
Instead of attacking him directly, the green light dispersed into several rays and struck the unicorn statues.
As a result, instead of going to the attacker, the red orbs all targeted the spy.
"You erased your life fluctuations?" Crimson Specter's expression was fierce and his eyes blazed with hatred.
Even a rank 6 Forcender couldn't do that, much less rank 5. But the one he's facing was no ordinary rank 5. It's a clone of a rank 9.
By paying the price of an arm, she did the ridiculous thing of deceiving the entire defense system of the treasury that she's not even 'alive'.
'What do I do? What do I do?' Crimson's eyes wandered around and he desperately searched for an exit.
He wanted to teleport right after getting the porcelain bottle but the treasury activated its defense arrays right after an item was taken without authorization. By the time he figured a way to teleport out of the defense arrays, this happened.
"You'll not win!" Crimson said in a freezing tone and unleashed all his power to resist the onslaught of the red orbs.
He couldn't let them cross a certain distance or it'd be over once they start sucking his vitality.
"I'll not win? No, I won long ago." Miss Calamity shook her head and kept her gaze on his shining bracelet.
It seemed to have a mind on its own and was solely focusing on her. If she made a move, then it'd get involved.
Despite being supremely confident in her own abilities, Miss Calamity couldn't help but want to avoid a collision with this dangerous artifact.
What's more, with an arm gone, her power had dropped. From the peak of rank 5 to just a low rank 5. She was no longer able to defeat Crimson one-on-one.
But that didn't mean she'd stay still and give her enemy a chance to figure a way out of his predicament.
With a cruel smile under her veil, she snapped her fingers. The red orbs were pushed by an invisible force and got into a specialized formation. Compared to earlier, they were much more efficient and dangerous.
Crimson's face grew pale as he realized his aura was draining at an alarming pace. Even with his reserves, these monstrous little black holes would empty him in ten minutes at most.
As Crimson's eyes grew more and more desperate, Miss Calamity crossed her arms and waited patiently.
If she attacked now and provoked that bracelet accidentally, the certain victory would vanish and an uncertain future would appear.
"Come on. Do your best."
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