Chapter 362: The Golden Sovereign
Blade’s sword tear through the air, and smashed into Carl, rising a massive, blinding cloud of shattered stone dust and thick smoke into the air.
".....?!"
Blade blinked, his momentum completely disrupted by the lack of physical resistance. He swiftly turned his head to the side, staring at Carl, who stood completely unharmed exactly 50 meters away. There were no spatial ripples, no teleportation runes—just pure, unadulterated physical movement.
’This? This isn’t a skill, it’s his real baseline speed.’ Blade thought in profound shock, forcing himself to stand completely upright to hide his trembling knees.
"You were holding back from the very start?" He asked, his voice betraying a sliver of dread.
Carl casually tilted his head to the side, his posture relaxed: "You can say that..." He raised his hand, staring indifferently at his palm as if examining a minor detail:
"I might be Lv400, but my stats are that of a Lv500, you’re only Lv200, so you can’t follow my true speed... Surrender, you can’t win me. I am not my junior sister." He said, giving the Eagle Academy’s prodigy a fair, candid warning.
"Junior sister?" Blade turned his head to the Dragon Academy’s spectator section, staring directly at Grace, the gentle dark mage.
"Hey, don’t misunderstand, we aren’t genetically related, but I see her as my junior sister!" Carl yelled at him, defensively clearing the air regarding his protective nature, and Blade slowly, cautiously nodded his head.
"Okay, I won’t go easy then." He raised his sword, channeling his unique ability, and his body seamlessly multiplied into ten:
"I didn’t fight your junior sister because she surrendered, but you... I want to see you--"
WHOOSH!
Carl appeared instantly behind him in literal microseconds. Before Blade’s optic nerves could even process the visual data or his brain could formulate a thought, a devastating, energy-infused punch smashed right into his exposed back.
BAM!
He flew violently forward, face first, smashing heavily on the reinforced ground, rolling continuously through the debris, before coming to a painful, grinding stop.
"Impossible... Why didn’t the damage reflect back to you?" Blade asked in absolute shock, his face covered in dirt and blood as he pushed himself off the ruined floor.
"Oh? That’s simple." Carl smiled softly at him, an air of untouchable energy surrounding his casual stance: "I am 100% immune to all debuff... No matter what class it is." He shrugged nonchalantly.
"Immune to all debuff... What sort of absurd ability is that?" Blade staggered back, picking his fallen sword from the cracked ground.
’Well, it’s from my golden Angel bloodline, do I also have to reveal this?’ Carl thought internally, warring between his parents’ strict orders for secrecy and his Captain’s absolute command to go all out. He decided to toe the line, and lightly shook his head:
"You don’t have to worry about that... I am attacking for real now." He said, his aura shifting as his deadly, epic-class daggers materialized seamlessly into both hands.
’He is a terrifying monster!! Not only is his speed faster than me, my main debuff won’t even fundamentally work on him... He’s like my absolute perfect counter.’ Blade thought, panic setting in as he looked up at the vast, open sky above the arena:
’The specific skill I used against Rose, it won’t work on him due to his unparalleled assassin’s speed... Wait, is this still systemically count like a normal assassin’s skill?’ He thought, his breathing ragged, and tightly tightened his grip on his sword:
’Seems I have to use that... I have come so desperately far just to give up right now. I absolutely have to do it!!’
He raised his glowing sword high above his head, pushing his energy core to the absolute point of self-destruction: "Summoning!!! Angel of Illusion!!!"
BOOOOM!!
"....?!"
The whole massive audience froze in their seats, rising their heads to the sky as the atmospheric barrier violently cracked opened. A dimensional rift formed, and a three meters tall, flawless white female Angel descended gracefully from the crack, two long, glowing white swords held firmly in hand.
The celestial entity entered the Arena from above, the air instantly turning cold and sterile, and landed softly behind Blade, her unblinking white eyes fixed entirely on Carl.
"Carl!! This is my absolute strongest ability!! The Angel of Illusion is a very powerful, ancient entity whose strength is above Lv500!! You alone simply can’t deal with it!!" Blade yelled with a desperate, triumphant smile, believing he had finally cornered the untouchable vanguard.
In the Dragon Academy’s section, the team watched the divine entity with deep concern.
"Sister?" Grace called out in a low, worried voice, but Mirabella remained entirely unfazed and simply nodded her head:
"Don’t worry, just watch." Mirabella stated, her tone exhibiting absolute, chilling calm.
"That Angel, it’s indeed way above Lv500." Hayatobi exclaimed in genuine surprised.
"Can Carl physically defeat such a thing?! It’s two to three times his height!" Yakima muttered under her breath, intimidated by the sheer divine pressure leaking from the summon.
_
Down on the stage, Blade issued his final directive.
"Angel of Illusion!! Don’t legally kill him, just strictly make sure he won’t have the physical ability to fight." Blade ordered, pointing his glowing sword directly at Carl.
"As you wish."
The majestic Angel raised both her white swords into the air, crossing them in an ancient, divine sign: "Myriad Illusions."
BOOOOM!!
Massive, monolithic Mirrors appeared all over the place, erupting from the ground and descending from the sky, seamlessly surrounding Carl in a flawless, inescapable square formation.
"The Illusions will violently manifest creatures of his deepest nightmares, they strictly won’t kill him, but will aggressively drain all his spiritual energy. I just need ten seconds." The Angel said, her ethereal voice revealing absolutely no human emotions, perfectly mirroring her flawless face.
"Hahaha!! That’s absolutely enough!! Without spirit energy, he will surely surrender!!" Blade laughed, leaning on his sword as he stared triumphantly at the monolithic mirrors.
The whole Arena stared intently at the mirror construct. They couldn’t visually see what was happening inside the trapped dimension, but they heard what the Angel summon just said. The countdown began in everyone’s minds.
Ten seconds passed. Then fifteen.
"Um..." Blade blinked, his victorious smile faltering, and asked nervously:
"It has been way more than 10 seconds... Is something fundamentally wrong?"
The Angel stared deeply at the mirrors, a completely out-of-character frown finally gracing her flawless face: "This? How can--"
"-- How can a mere lesser Angel of Illusion ever hope to trap the direct heir of the golden Angel clan?! The absolute rulers and supreme creators of all Angels?!"
BOOOOM!!!
A blinding, cataclysmic Golden light violently burst out from the center of the mirrors, completely overriding the illusionary magic and shattering the monolithic constructs into millions of harmless, dissipating fragments.
"...?!!"
Absolutely everyone in the stadium froze. They stared in profound awe at the two massive, radiant golden wings stretching out majestically behind Carl. The disguise was gone; his hair was no longer a common blonde, but burned as pure, liquid gold, perfectly matching his glowing golden eyes. The sheer divine authority radiating from him suppressed the arena’s energy entirely.
The summoned Angel of Illusion froze in pure, instinctual terror. Her ethereal pride instantly broke under the weight of her species’ supreme apex predator. Before everyone’s completely stunned gazes, the Lv500 entity dropped heavily to her knees, abandoning her swords as she bowed her head in absolute, trembling submission:
"Angel of Illusion, humbly Greets the Supreme Golden Angel Ruler!!"
".....?!!!"
