Crimson Specter was slowly losing the battle. Facing against the red orbs that continued to push against him like mad dogs, his reserves were about to bottom out.
'In thirty, no, forty seconds…' Miss Calamity narrowed her eyes and an invisible ripple spread out from her.
It would be hard for rank 5s but even as a weak Forcender, she was displaying great skill in grasping her own life force and using it outside her body.
This force hovered around the red orbs and waited in ambush. Once the orbs rush in to take him out, the Specter would lash out and try to escape. Then she'd strike him.
Crimson's eyes grew fiery as he noticed the confidence blooming on the veiled woman's face.
The world around him suddenly quietened down and all his worries disappeared for a brief moment.
"Haaaa~" A deep sigh left his lips and Crimson's eyes met with Calamity's.
Then, under the Princess' dumbfounded gaze, the waves of space-stopping the red orbs suddenly vanished. The orbs shook violently for a moment and were about to race toward him. Princess' attack was also ready to strike him.
'Without that defense, it's over. But did he really give up?'
As the red orbs started to reach the man's body, his red, ominous robe whose insides were inscribed with ominous but esoteric runes slid down.
The right half of Crimson Specter's body was youthful and resembled a humanoid in late thirties. But the left half was limp, wrinkled, and resembled a bag of bones than a living being.
"Oh damn…" Miss Calamity realized she overlooked one thing so far.
A fierce space storm brewed around Crimson. The red orbs that tried to drain him were blasted away. Miss Calamity's force attack was cracked into pieces.
Crimson Specter looked into the veiled woman and pointed to his left body with an ironic smile."It's a curse and a blessing. Few members of my race have the talent to sacrifice their vitality to temporarily improve their space-time powers. It's the reason why my parents were able to sell me for a good price. It's the reason they…even saw me as fit for this job.
I hate this talent. It made my life miserable. But without it, I'd have been killed by my own parents. It saved my life."
As he continued to speak, his youthful half also began to age. The skin sagged and wrinkled, the muscles shrunk, and the bones turned light and brittle. His straight back arched, and the skin on his face dried like he was a mummy.
'A sad past can never give me sympathy against a man that committed evil. What if your life was bad? It doesn't justify destroying others' lives. The oppressed becomes the oppressor and the oppressor justifies his behavior with his poor past. This is why the cycle never ends.' Miss Calamity set up a force field to resist the space storm.
The two fields clashed.
One was the fundamental power of space. Anything it touched, anywhere it went, it just twisted the fundamental building block of reality—space.
The other was Qi, the applied life force. It could affect anything and everything—space, time, order, and chaos.
The Qi field tried to calm down the space and neutralize the space storm. It worked, partially. But the space cracked faster than the Qi field could fix.
If it was just a pure contest of strength between the two, Crimson Specter would never gain any upper hand against Miss Calamity.
But thanks to his racial talent, Crimson's space storm grew fiercer and fiercer until it started to rip apart the tiles of the floor and crack the walls.
Despite her Qi field collapsing, Miss Calamity didn't back away. The defense arrays in here were being slowly eroded, one by one. When enough were gone, Crimson would directly teleport and escape.
"Thanks to you, I'll gain the reputation of killing Miss Calamity, even if it's just a clone." Crimson smiled even as his body began to shrivel.
'I might really die here.' Even though she's a clone, she didn't want to die. But the instructions of her main body were crystal clear.
She must obtain the item even at the price of her life. It's just that even if she tried her best, she couldn't win the Specter using his racial talent.
A clone and a hastily created clone at that definitely wouldn't be able to replicate the main body's talent. Else, with Miss Calamity's talent, this fight would've ended in the first minute.
Tiny, almost invisible cuts began to appear on her body. It was as if a sharp thread was sliding on her skin, strong enough to tear her skin but gentle enough to not spill out blood.
Miss Calamity shone with a white light and her injuries began to quickly heal. But just as the old ones disappeared, newer and bigger ones appeared.
In just seconds, she was a bleeding mess. She felt like a wild animal slowly bled to death for the amusement of the butcher.
As his victory was assured, Crimson glanced at the legendary woman with a relieved smile. "If I hadn't used my talent, I would've lost. The legendary spy losing to a mere clone, hmph. But you know, this mission was supposed to be way easier. It's you who pulled the strings and brought it to this stage."
Miss Calamity's eyes only responded with a sharp glare.
Crimson didn't care. He could feel it clearly. A few minutes at most and he'd be able to leave.
"First, Havocs. They were a persecuted race in Nexus Empire who ended up here. Of course, I was the one who helped them move here. So, on this important day, they promised to help. With a rank 4 and a couple rank 3s, this would've been a cakewalk."
"And they lost to a nobody." Miss Calamity sneered.
"Second," Crimson didn't respond to her provocation. "The twins of Starsafe and their sibling—the drug lord of Ubiq, were working against the Duke for ages. They have members in the palace who could help them turn down the defenses. With their help, I wouldn't need to wait so long to teleport."
Miss Calamity tried to lift her hand and strike him while he was immersed in speaking. But the fluctuating space restricted her movements and her hand, which just moved a few inches was losing a large chunk of flesh.
"You did these two things. I'm guessing that bug outside was also your idea. Too bad it's too weak." Crimson sneered.
"You sneak attacked."
"So? That bastard wrecked my plans and made me lose my vitality. He deserves a very painful death. Lucky for him he's already dead." Crimson sneered and cast a glance at the rubble outside the treasury.
That man was buried underne…
"Huh?"
Miss Calamity also noticed something weird.
That body was missing.
"W-Wait, he didn't die?" Crimson blinked his eyes in disbelief.
But even if he didn't die, why didn't he feel Varian slipping away? He's a fucking rank 5!
He would've never guessed that Varian's order powers allowed him an extraordinary degree of stealth.
But he did guess that trouble might return. Even though Varian was so weak, Crimson didn't want to risk losing everything after this harsh victory.
"I'll end this quick."
