“I think I’ll go pay a visit there. It’s not like anyone can stop me from entering or leaving any place if I want to.”
“No, Almond,” James frowned. “Did you forget these Cyberterra people have devices to disrupt space?”
“I know,” Almond smiled. “I’ve experienced it, but no device can stop me anymore. At least, not on this first layer. Their devices can disrupt the material space only, but my space mastery is high enough that I can use space matter using Mana to coat myself into a pristine space layer and connect it to anywhere I want and teleport. In short, I don’t need space to use space.”
“I’ll be back, and you all can watch what happens there. I’ll leave this screen here and make sure that the spatial eyes there capture everything to get all the information we can have.”
“Alright, but be careful,” Admiral Rudra nodded, his expression serious. “Don’t get reckless.”
Almond nodded, and in the next moment, he vanished.
The old monsters and other powerhouses shifted their gazes back at the screen and saw Almond arriving as the trio floated in triangular points.
Seeing Almond, Kexell laughed and said, “The party’s getting fun. Hey, Almond. Why don’t you teleport us all to those damn elves? Might as well get the last one in the fray.”
“I would like this talk, actually,” Neo Elvergarde said as he looked at Almond, his eyes flickering. “Your body is weird…Interesting.”
‘This old man is very perceptive, alright. He even located my spatial eye and sensed something wrong with this body that’s made in the second layer with powers beyond his current realm,’ Almond noted.
“If you are not taking us to the elves, I have a proposal.” Kexell grinned. “Why don’t the two of you attack me and finish me off? We all are part of something, and us killing each other might invoke something.”
Almond manifested his throne and sat down. “I’ll watch. You two can start.”
“Tsk, fine. Hey, are you up to it?” Kexell turned to Neo.
Neo looked at Almond and then Kexell. In the next moment, his aura surged as seven streams of nano-metallic particles manifested and turned into seven rods floating behind him.
“Since you two are here in my territory, I’d take action nonetheless,” Neo spoke calmly as two rods flickered, both sending a blinding one-meter beam at Almond and Kexell.
“Ouch!” Kexell was stuck, tearing a hole into his throat before exploding. “Well damn, that hurt. Hahahaha.”
On the other hand, Almond blinked as a translucent barrier flickered around him. Anything coming into contact with that layer of barrier would enter into a portal whose exit was at his command.
As the beam arrived, instead of teleporting, a clash occurred between two forces, each one fighting against the effects.
Almond decided not to resist and simply vanished from his spot before arriving at the other side a hundred meters away.
And his focus settled on Kexell.
Neo also looked at Kexell as his brows creased.
“Thanks.” Kexell’s nostrils burst out the usual flames as his injuries began recovering, the hole in his throat mending and blood turning into dark mist before returning to him.
Meanwhile, Neo’s aura suddenly turned unstable, and his body glowed. A small trail of blood seeped out from his nostril as his cyber-half buzzed strongly as if screaming.
“So that’s your game,” Neo narrowed his eyes.
“Indeed,” Kexell laughed and flew up before spreading his wings. “Now, shall I rain some disaster?”
Darkness burst out from him, taking on shapes of small wyverns with eccentric patterns as they all opened their mouths, aimed at both Almond and Neo before unleashing a torrent of swirling orbs.
Almond leaned back as he made a move without moving a single muscle. A flicker in his eyes and all incoming orbs at him vanished before appearing above Kexell from a portal, shooting at him.
Meanwhile, Neo’s seven rods spread out before creating a large barrier, covering all orbs as he blocked them.
But Kexell was gone. Dodging his own attack from Almond, the stream of darkness arrived behind Neo as a tail manifested, enchanted with power before striking Neo.
Neo reacted quickly as he waved his hand, a rod in his hand that clashed against the tail, pushing him a couple of hundred meters away before he stopped and clasped his palms together before a powerful electric discharge spread, covering 500 meters of area into a flowing electrical stream.
Almond’s eyes shone. ‘He has two strong masteries. Metal and Lightning are both powerful variants on top of that. Well, now I am interested.’
This was a perfect chance to improve his Lightning Elemental Mastery.
‘But will he attack Kexell with his full power despite feeling that cursed rebound himself?’
Suddenly, Neo’s whole body shone and vibrated before it split into two, flickering with glowing blueish-purple lightning.
One went for Kexell and another for Almond.
Almond just remained passive, dodging and directing away incoming attacks so he could focus on Kexell and Neo’s fight.
That other Neo didn’t hold back and unleashed an even stronger one on Kexell, manifesting a semi-metallic lightning drill that drove into Kexell’s chest.
But it was like Kexell had no defensive power as he never tried to dodge or defend and attacked Neo as he got hit, bursting out with a rain of dark silver shards in black flames.
Neo dodged as he turned into lightning while his attack drilled into Kexell, bursting out blood as Kexell screamed with his tongue out and eyes derp. “Oh my god, so painful~”
“So painful that I can’t hold my laughter back anymore! Hahahahaha.”
Kexell turned into darkness before mending together anew while the Neo that attacked Kexell suddenly turned black, as a dark silver mark appeared on his forehead.
‘This is different,’ Almond’s eyes glinted, his All-Seeing Eyes at work.
*Splat*
Neo’s black body, as if enveloped by darkness, suddenly burst out with spikes before it melted and vanished.
“What do you think?” Neo asked as he floated beside Almond.
Almond glanced at him. “I think you also got an answer on how to deal with that cursed rebound.”
Neo eyed him, slightly surprised. ‘Also? I took two hits to figure it out, but he sent the dragon here instead of attacking him and figured it out by watching?’
“You must have good eyes then.”
And then both of them looked behind as they saw Kexell with his mouth wide open.
*Burst!*
A torrent of dark silver flames with a black stream burst out with intensity enough to even burn the space as Almond sensed it burning away while automatically mending fast as well.
‘Less of burning, but more like eroding it,’ Almond’s eyes glinted.
“I hate this,” Kexell loudly roared as he saw both of them away, dodging his attack. “Fuck you two. Next time I’m coming, I am forcing you to go all out against me!”
After saying that, he turned into darkness and streamed away. In the blink of an eye, he was gone.
“That dragon is disturbed, but his will-influenced cursed conceptual power is very strong. And you,” Neo turned to Almond. “You have no fear of death for some reason. And from those confident eyes, it seems like death won’t affect you as well. From the strangeness I felt from your body, there’s a seventy-eight percent chance that this body is your clone.”
“But you still didn’t attack Kexell to test his cursed rebound, which means you also can’t afford to get this clone killed.”
Almond was speechless. “What are you, an analyst?”
“Sort of. So we can do this in two ways. I will do everything in my power to try to kill you, or we can talk over tea.”