Chapter 297: Tricked
Throne Hall, Royal Palace.
At that moment, Rhea raised her hand, gestured everyone to stand up from their kneeling position, and sat on the Iron Throne.
The next moment, all of them stood up, moved towards their seats, and sat down.
Ashley also followed their actions and sat down next to Noel.
At that moment, her eyes turned abnormally black.
A second later, she casually touched her space ring, took out a silver pocket watch, and flipped open the outer case.
Unlike other pocket watches, this one appeared unique and ancient!
Instead of needles, numbers, and dials, countless star-like dots appeared inside!
In truth, this was the same pocket watch Emilia forcefully took from Russell!
Star Watch! (Ref. Ch.31)
Ashley glanced at the crown, moved her finger into the bow, and pressed the crown.
Strange energy seeped out of the watch and enveloped the whole Royal Palace in an instant.
Then, everyone's movement began to slow down a bit by bit and finally halted.
It was the 'Time Stop' ability!
All those who stayed in the Royal Palace were completely frozen in Time!
A moment later, an illusionary figure of a woman in her late twenties appeared in front of Ashley.
She had blonde hair, close-set azure eyes, faint eyebrows, silken ivory skin, elongated face, and an aquiline nose.
Currently, she wore a long black gown and appeared to be around 179 cm high.
She extended her hand with some difficulty, took a step forward, and curled her lips upward.
At that moment, space and Time began to distort around her body and completely nullified the 'Time-Stop' effect around her!
She then calmly walked on the carpeted floor, stepped on the dais, walked past the Head Priestess, and soon arrived in front of Rhea.
In truth, she was waiting for the coronation ceremony to complete and planning to take over Rhea's soul!
A second later, she turned into a ray of white light and entered Rhea's body!
The 'Divine Lady' entered a dark space a moment later and soon found herself floating in the air.
She then looked at the surroundings and soon widened her eyes.
"Fire?" A shock appeared on her face.
Yes, instead of normal cloudy areas or Icy plains, the surroundings were filled with lava pools, rocks, a large purple sea of flames, and so on!
Upon seeing such a scene, her pupil shrank abruptly!
"I've been tricked!" A tremendous invisible ripple came out of her body.
But to her shock, it couldn't spread to the surroundings at all!
'Hmm? Why does this Inner World appear so quiet?' A frown appeared on her face.
Only then did she notice that the outside 'Time Stop' had a similar effect in the Inner World.
'No, one's Inner World shouldn't be affected by the Star Watch's Present Time ability… That leaves with only one option… The owner of this Inner World has deep understanding towards the Present Time…'
At that moment, a person's image appeared in her mind.
'Charles!' Confusion appeared on her face.
Soon, she closed her eyes, let her divine power seep into the nearby area, and muttered.
"Hmm, this Time Divine Power doesn't belong to Charles… Wait… Why do I feel something familiar with this energy?" She froze for a moment and soon widened her eyes.
"Lord Udnir's Divine Power? Impossible! He isn't someone who would seek help from a mortal to achieve his goal… This is the work of someone else… Angel of Time… It must be that darned Royal Elf." Her voice turned abnormally hoarse.
Her lips trembled all of a sudden as if she recalled something terrible.
"Angel of Time? That's interesting."
Just as she muttered, a cold voice came from the small reddish pebble that floated a few meters away from her.
A moment later, the pebble expanded suddenly and formed into a figure of a 25-years-old young man.
He wore a black overcoat over his formal suit and appeared calm as water.
Upon seeing his appearance, the frown on her forehead deepened.
"How come you are here, Charles? When did you switch places with Rhea? If you are here, then who is the one I sealed before?… Wait… That's your clone?"
A look of realization appeared on Divine Lady's face.
Meanwhile, Charles nodded his head and spoke.
"When you possessed Emilia to seal me a while ago, Rhea used a Fate spell and switch places with me. Because of the Holem's Crown's Past Illusion ability, we managed to pull this off in three seconds without alerting anyone." He paused for a moment and asked with a smile.
"Shall we start?"
Meanwhile, the Divine Lady sized him up and down and asked.
"You think you can win against me?"
Simultaneously, she extended her right hand, gripped the thin air, and smiled.
A second later, she manipulated the surrounding Time Divine Power, accelerated the Time, and appeared in front of him in less than a second!
Charles's pupil shrank abruptly!
Before he could even think, she conjured a long black sword and directly thrust it towards his chest!
'What the f*ck? She actually using the artifact's 'Time Power'!'
While thinking, he cast [Fire Born] spell and enveloped himself in a flame!
A moment later, the sharp sword went deep into his chest and appeared on the other side.
Then, his whole body began to enlarge all of a sudden and exploded!
The next instant, the System's Time Stop ability stopped in his Inner World, and everything returned to normal.
Simultaneously, another pebble rose from the ground and soon formed into a figure of a 25-year-old young man.
"That was close," Charles muttered in a solemn tone and soon frowned.
'This woman is indeed a scary one.' He stealthily took out a strange azure gem from his pocket, dropped it into the nearby lava sea, and clapped his hands.
A moment later, the whole lava sea turned purplish.
He then raised his right hand and pointed his finger towards the Divine Lady.
The next second, the whole Inner World shook violently and released monstrous rays of purplish flames towards her!
Meanwhile, the Divine Lady hovered up in the sky, casually dodged those purple flames, and furrowed her brows.
'What is he up to?'
"This Mind Fire might pose some problem for me…" She muttered in a grim tone.
But just as those purple rays flew past her, they suddenly stopped in mid-air and transformed into appearances of Charles!
Hundreds of purple-skinned Charles suddenly appeared in the sky and leaped towards her from different directions.
Some grabbed her leg, some grabbed her waist, and some grabbed her hair, and so on…
Then, their bodies began to bulge and exploded one by one while releasing tens of thousands of Rank-3 [Knowledge Seeker] spells.
Even though the Divine Lady was terrifyingly powerful, she still couldn't dodge all those Rank-3 spells in such a short time!
More than tens of [Knowledge Seeker] fire spells entered her illusionary body and stole some of her memories!
Upon seeing some of her memories were disappearing, wrath appeared on her face.
"You are seeking death!" She shouted furiously and waved her black sword.
An invisible force came out of the sword, released in every direction while sending ripples, and destroyed everything in its path.
Countless minute sword cuts appeared all over the world!
Rocks crumbled into dust, lavas split into multiple cubes before reforming, and even faraway fire forests were annihilated!
What's more shocking was that even Charles's illusionary body was split into multiple pieces and fell on the ground.
If it were in another person's Inner World, Charles's main consciousness wouldn't have a chance to survive.
Thankfully, he was in his Inner World.
A few hundred meters away from where stood before, few broken pieces of stone merged into a pebble and soon formed into a figure of a 25 years old young man.
"So, you can only use your sword abilities now, huh. No, I think you can also manipulate Time and Space elements and controls them to some extent, right?" Charles gave her a deep look, conjured a flame sword, and disappeared from there.
A moment later, he reappeared few meters away from Divine Lady and asked with a teasing smile on her face.
"Are you ready for another round?"
Simultaneously, he used [Accelerate Thoughts] skill on himself, pointed the flame sword at the sky, and slashed it at Divine Lady.
A second later, countless reddish chaotic rays of bullets came from all over his Inner World and moved towards her uniformly.
All of them were Rank-4 [Finger of Destruction] spells!
When they were about to reach her, some bullets changed their directions a little and collided with nearby bullets.
In seconds, countless terrifying explosions echoed in the sky and shook the whole Inner World while releasing chaotic flame in all directions!
As for the Divine Lady, she was also absorbed into the chaotic fire!
But before the chaotic flames could do some damage to her illusionary body, Divine Lady once again slashed her sword.
A moment later, all those chaotic flames were split into countless pieces and started to vanish!
'As expected of a Divine, it's going to be a battle of life and death.' A grim look appeared on Charles's face.
