Chapter 675 - The Replica

Unlike how he did throughout the telepathic link, he does not monologue anymore and attacks right away. He moves surprisingly quickly in that bulky golden suit.

My kinetic attacks crash against it without it as much as registering the attack. My concentrated stream of golden thermal energy blazes on the surface, but barely heats it up, just creating hot, wavy air in the area.

While he moves around, a green light seeps out of him as he draws inscriptions in the air.

As my eyes activate, he does something else to overwhelm them, clearly prepared for my trait as well. But this time I am ready too, it would be weird if I was not after so many people tried to abuse it and overwhelm my trait with information.

The part of my mind that I dedicated to using Mana Wavelength Iris shuts off, but another replaces it while one more, smaller observes the way he overwhelms it and records it all. When that mind shuts off as well and another replaces it, that smaller part already has the information collected and modifies the replacement.

Even with how quickly the elf moves to draw, I observe the inscriptions, countering the effects. Most of them are wide-range attacks, meant to punish my comparatively low constitution while dealing with my quick, confusing movements.

When I try to teleport, the activation fails. I detect the inscriptions he has drawn behind his back to do so, then begin deciphering and countering them.

[Empyrean Lance] materializes, but as I shoot it at him, the chestplate of his armor opens and sucks it in in a blue whirlpool that redirects it there. A blender-like noise erupts, and exhaust-like pipes on his waist violently spit out black smoke where the remains of the lance flicker. The opening in the chest closes as quickly as it appeared, yet there is damage. I estimate he can manage it only a few more times.

Another of his wide range attacks activates again, making my mana sluggish and corroding the projectiles I stack around me. Another one sends a cutting wind my way. It continues to follow me, by what I estimate is a mark sneakily placed on me.

The barrage is relentless, and he counters most of my abilities. Kinetic energy is absorbed by the golden suit, thermal energy just heats the air around it. Projectiles are disrupted. Teleportation is blocked.

I sense movement as two gilded monsters break through the forest behind me: a gorilla-like one with pincers instead of hands, moving on four legs, and a praying mantis thrice my height. Both are entirely gray with golden halos over their heads.

I push through disruption and activate a set of arrays stored in my mind inspired by Maya. A dark blue armor surrounds me, darker blue than ever before, as I even push with [Manifestation], affecting parts of it that I know I am knowledgeable enough to create with the skill.

Surprisingly, it is not the gorilla that crashes against me, but the praying mantis. It moves blindingly fast, cuts a few times smoothly through the armor, and almost through my body, that I just shift at the last moment. For its height, it moves very nimbly on its many legs. I cannot help but admire the elegance of its movements.

More mana seeps out of me even as the barrage of attacks from the elf in golden armor hits my back, and I send kinetic energy through the armor to attack the mantis.

It avoids them, jumping to the side just as the gorilla shuts its pincers and a sonic boom echoes through the garden. The trees in the way evaporate into nothingness, and the shockwave slams into me, obliterating the armor in front of me before hurling my body through the air, bouncing me across the ground.

I absorb my momentum, freezing midair. Where I would have landed, the mantis appears, slashing through. I use kinetic energy to push myself along the ground, then unleash Wraith Dance.

Another wide range attack from the elf shakes the area where I stood, this time even joined by vibrations that aim to disrupt my kinetic energy based movement.

A healing mark from Lily restores my body just as I reach the gorilla, but at the last second, I change my direction as the second pincer shuts and explodes everything in front of it. Unfortunately, it does not hit the mantis behind me that dodges as swiftly as before.

I use [Manifestation] and a single, extremely simple sword forms in my hand. It is almost like the design of a sword made of wood you would buy for kids. It is pale blue but has an unearthly shine to it.

I lift it and block the claw of the mantis’s front scythe-like leg. The kinetic energy of the attack flows through me, all absorbed and easily channeled, resulting in the attack not moving me at all. The sword does not even crack as I block an attack from a much larger and physically stronger monster.

[Manifestation - lvl 7 > Manifestation - lvl 8]

Before the mantis can strike again, the last elf’s attack hits it. In a blink, the gilded monster’s body bulges, cracks, then bursts open.

[You have defeated Gilded Severis - lvl 379]

[Lvl 327 > Lvl 328]

There is an attempt to block my movement from the last elf, but I push through with sheer mastery of kinetic energy and use Wraith Dance to escape.

Where the mantis exploded, all is covered in gray liquid that melts everything. It even destroys the metal floor and drops down, eating into the rock in the big area. The liquid clings to the manifested armor around my body. I drop the affected pieces to the ground, where they continue to corrode as the liquid eats through them and the floor.

An alarm starts to ring. Additional metal plates seal over the already closed doors. The metal around the holes in the floor begins to melt, flowing to seal them.

The sword in my arm dissipates, and the mana it contained manifests into a hexagonal segment of the barrier I use to block the combined attack of two of the gorilla’s pincers snapped at the same time. The shockwave from that strikes my shield, then ricochets outward, uprooting trees across the entire area.

[Eclipse] drains the colors from the area, making the shimmering pale blue appear even more striking. The sounds I hear fade into a distant murmur. The smells disappear, even the flashing of the light becomes muted, and I combine multiple parts of my mind.

The restricting array the elf put around me shatters under my gaze, with a golden circle around my pupils, and a single [Empyrean Lance] shoots ahead, boosted by kinetic energy at a speed much faster than the gorilla can move. It pierces its chest, then continues forward into the wall, through it, and out of the base.

The distant sound of an alarm intensifies. Where I struck and pierced the metal wall, segments begin to melt, with inscriptions dancing as they close the hole.

[You have defeated Gilded Bruteclaw - lvl 368]

[Lvl 328 > Lvl 329]

My Ley Lines stretch over the area, and even as a few snap from the last elf’s actions, I use the ones remaining to move around, avoiding his attacks while reaching him.

When I get there, he just stands unmoving.

My [Empyrean Lance] pierces the head, and the armor reveals its interior. Its arms extend and swiftly move to coil around me to grab me at the same time as it explodes, releasing all the thermal, kinetic energy, and mana it holds.

I do not even attempt to move to escape.

Standing there, I absorb all that heat and kinetic energy back inside my body. A small black orb forms in front of my chest and absorbs all that mana, hungrily devouring it inside.

When it is all gone, I move the black orb over the top of my head. It spins and expands into the shape of a black halo, not that dissimilar to the golden ones the gilded monsters have.

And for the first time, I face the replica of the last elf who left the armor.

“I thought you would be stronger,” I say.

The last elf looks like a man in his mid twenties. Bright orange long hair combines with his perfectly shaped face and piercing dark blue eyes.

He is beautiful in a way that feels wrong, an unsettling kind of beauty that makes my skin crawl. You can tell instantly that such a person should not exist. His face and features are impossibly perfect, carrying an otherworldly beauty that feels as unnatural as it is flawless, like a divine being sculpted without a single flaw. He looks like a beautiful angel sent to earth not to save it, but to wipe out the human race.

Or maybe it is because of his expression that looks nearly dead and empty, with a hint of cold amusement. There is not a speck of fear in him.

Lastly, he has those pointed ears. They are not overly long like in some depictions, but of moderate length, angled to the side. Even though they are perfectly shaped and sharply defined, as if crafted with the same impossible precision as the rest of him.

"Yo," I greet him, "I thought you guys only showed yourselves if you believed you were capable of surviving or killing your opponent."

He moves with the confidence and elegance I would expect from someone with his face. Wearing a simple white loose shirt, partially unbuttoned at the neck, and black pants, he takes a few steps closer.

"Sometimes, when our available resources are not enough to test our target, one of us appears to gather more information for the others," he says.

"So you are a sacrificial lamb to make me reveal more of my abilities?"

"Indeed."

"Did you guys draw lots?" I ask, letting him come close, just within arm’s reach.

He is taller than I, and as cold as his perfect face is, it is easier to read his expression now. There is the faintest trace of superior amusement in it, just as I heard in our conversations.

His arm stretches out, and with the tip of his finger, he carefully touches the black halo I keep floating above my head. As he does, I notice there is not even a speck of mana left inside his body.

"I am not even joking, but I swear I will let you live if you tell me its name," I tell him.

The replica of the last elf lowers his head, and a strand of orange hair falls across his dark blue eyes.

A second passes as I face his gaze.

Then he laughs.

He laughs as if it is the funniest thing he has ever heard.

His arm moves, fingers pressed together. I notice a shine of mana forming around it, shaping a sharp barrier as he thrusts his hand toward my eyes.

I realize he has somehow stolen a fragment of mana from the black halo.

My body moves faster than his. My palm slams into his chest, kinetic energy drilling a hole through his heart and bursting out his back.

He staggers before finishing his attack, then collapses to the floor.

Looking at his body, I feel something close to a sense of loss as I watch the light fade from his eyes.

[You have defeated Replica of the Last Elf - lvl 101]

He is much lower level than I expected. If the other replicas are the same, then they have sent us to kill someone more than 200 levels below any of us.

I know level is not everything, and I have seen that proven many times before, but the number still pokes at my pride. I have not been paying much attention to the halo above my head, but… how did he manage it, especially at such a low level?

The conclusion is the same as always: there is still a long road ahead of me, but I think I would not have it any other way.

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