As if gradually emerging from the shadows, two figures slowly took shape around the corner of the corridor, becoming clearer and clearer.
One of them, a terrifying giant figure, was none other than Faceless surrounded by four masks.
His companion was a small, frail man.
"Hehehe..."
Sinister laughter echoed through the hallway.
They officially encountered Dekan and Cornelia in the corridor.
Dekan and Cornelia had no intention of continuing to flee; they were prepared to fight them to the end.
"You can spare the girl, just kill the boy."
"Understood."
After a brief exchange, Faceless did not choose to act immediately.
Instead, it was the frail man who raised his hand.
Several cards appeared in his palm, and then his other hand brushed over each card one by one, triggering them all.
Suddenly, black mist and shadows pervaded the corridor and the ground seemed to turn into a poisonous swamp.
Accompanied by eerie winds, Dekan and Cornelia felt their bodies becoming extremely uncomfortable, even their breathing became heavy.
What followed was a darkening of their vision and a stinging pain from their internal organs to their skin.
These cards were clearly of the poison and curse type.
Their offensive power wasn't strong, but they had a long reach, and the skills were precise in their targeting.
Dekan and Cornelia not only felt their attributes decreasing, but they were also subjected to continuous damage.
However, soon the expression of the caster began to change for the worse.
He felt an indescribable agony coursing through his body, making him momentarily unstable.
He couldn't understand the principle behind it.
It was as if he had also been cursed at the same time.
"Damn it! I’ve lived for all these years and someone actually dares to curse me!"
Dekan was infuriated and summoned the Ruined Poet without hesitation.
Instantly, the 6-fold pain feedback turned into 60-fold.
The caster felt as if his body was pierced by countless sharp swords, and his eyes, already protruding, widened like copper bells.
He opened his mouth and his throat began to rasp uncontrollably.
Then, he fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, his life or death uncertain.
Confirming that the caster was taken care of, Cornelia immediately took out a tier 3 "Group Purification" card to remove the curse status from herself and Dekan.
Since Dekan, only tier 2, couldn't use tier 3 spell cards, he purchased a tier 3 purification spell card for Cornelia before they set out, just in case.
Protection against poison, curses, and mental control was common knowledge when going out.
Faceless narrowed his eyes, staring intensely at the summoned creature behind Dekan, paying no attention to his fallen companion.
"Young man, hand over your epic card voluntarily and I'll spare your lives."
Faceless said coldly, his eyes filled with an unmistakable madness.
He desperately wanted Dekan's card.
Unfortunately, epic cards couldn't be acquired by killing their users.
Once an epic or legendary card was bound to a soul, it wouldn't automatically unbind even upon death.
If the user was killed, the epic card would shatter and disappear along with them.
This was why epic cards were so scarce in the current world.
Not all epic cards were successfully passed down.
Many were lost in the Shadow World or disappeared with their owners.
"Hehehe."
Upon hearing Faceless's proposal, Dekan seemed to find it amusing.
You don't deceive a three-year-old like that.
However, Dekan wanted to play with Faceless a bit, so he asked, "If I give you this epic card, will you let us go?"
"Hehehe, of course..."
"Daga kotowaru!"
Without waiting for Faceless to finish, Dekan shouted.
At the same time, Cornelia also charged towards Faceless.
With one swing of her hammer, she could knock him out with 20 times the pain!
"Then you might as well die."
Faceless's tone carried a strong sense of caution.
He, who was already quite cunning, became even more careful.
Although Dekan and Cornelia were of lower tier than him, that mysterious epic card posed a significant threat.
Faceless protected himself with his evil spirit mask, took a step back, and summoned three tier 5 summons at once before commanding them to attack Dekan and Cornelia.
Although tier 5 summons were not as powerful as tier 5 warriors, their sheer number could be troublesome for opponents of the same tier.
Summoning a bunch of tier 5 summons to surround a tier 4 opponent would undoubtedly put them at a disadvantage.
He summoned three "Multifaceted Aberrations" - bizarre and twisted creatures with tortured human faces covering their beast-like bodies.
These tier 5 summons were immune to crowd control and had high health and attack.
They couldn't be easily controlled or defeated, especially by opponents weaker than themselves.
"Your strategy is too obvious. As long as I don't attack that boy, I won't get stunned, and you won't be able to deal with my summons."
Faceless muttered, a mocking look in his eyes.
However, things took an unexpected turn.
"Thud!"
Cornelia knocked out one of the "Multifaceted Aberrations" with a powerful blow.
Then she engaged the other two "Multifaceted Aberrations" in combat.
The one on the ground howled in agony.
Before it could get up, Cornelia delivered another blow, nearly rendering it unconscious.
After a brief skirmish, the other two "Multifaceted Aberrations" seemed reluctant to confront Cornelia any further.
Whenever their attacks hit Cornelia, they experienced intense pain and stiffness in their movements.
Faceless: "???"
What kind of stun effect was this?
Could it control "Multifaceted Aberrations"?!
No, it wasn't a stun!
Faceless stared at the Ruined Poet behind Dekan, analyzing frantically, and quickly figured out what was happening.
The epic card behind Dekan, which possessed extraordinary strength beyond logic, didn't provide a simple control effect bonus. Instead, it added a pain sensation!
The equipment on Dekan and Cornelia must have effects like pain feedback or increased pain sensation!
What kind of new cultish system was this?
Even a member of the Resurgence Church like Faceless couldn't help his desire to curse.
But he quickly regained his composure.
The solution to this unconventional system was simple.
The opponent's core or command center was too obvious.
Moreover, pain feedback couldn't be reflected back to the summoner through summons!
As long as Faceless didn't use his main body to attack Dekan, he would remain invulnerable!
So, if he used summons to attack Dekan and the Ruined Poet, he would lose at most two or three summons, but he would definitely be able to get rid of Dekan and the Ruined Poet!
Then, with the Ruined Poet's bonus gone, Cornelia wouldn’t be much to fear.
"I'll see how long you can hold on."
Faceless took out two summon cards originally used for close-range protection and commanded them to bypass Cornelia to attack Dekan.
Although all the summons were wary of Cornelia's hammer strikes and she tried her best to block them all, blocking four of them was still too difficult.
This made Dekan furrow his brow. He quickly retreated to the other end of the corridor with his Ruined Poet.
Both he and the Ruined Poet were too fragile and couldn't withstand even a slight scrape from the enemy.
Cornelia forced herself to hold off the summons to protect Dekan. But, she was finding it increasingly difficult to withstand their combined assault.
"Hold! Fight!" (I can’t hold on much longer, we need to fight him with everything!)
She believed that the front line was about to collapse and shouted to Dekan.
Her idea was to take a desperate gamble, abandon blocking the incoming summons, and attack Faceless's body to knock him out.
"No!"
Dekan immediately stopped her.
Faceless might have some defensive cards left.
Rushing in recklessly carried too much risk.
If the backline Dekan collapses, Cornelia wouldn't be able to reach Faceless smoothly.
If they wanted to win, they had to take down Faceless with one blow.
They had to wait for Dekan to create an opportunity for Cornelia!
And Dekan was already preparing for it.
He just needed a little more time to charge up this move that had never been revealed to anyone.
"Wait! Mask! Reflect! Strength!" (Wait for me to create an opportunity for you. The mask beside him has damage reflection properties. Make sure to pay attention to the strength you use when fighting him.”
Dekan conveyed the tactics to Cornelia.
Cornelia: "Got it!"
Earlier in the hallway, the damage caused by Dekan's hydrogen explosion was all blocked by the evil spirit mask.
As the caster, Dekan sensed a tiny amount of damage being reflected back to him.
From this, he deduced that the mask had a damage reflection attribute.
As for why Dekan didn't experience a significant amount of reflected damage, it was due to the unique damage calculation principle of the "Hydrogen Explosion" card.
Its damage was mainly divided into two parts. The first part was a tier 1 Fireball spell, whose purpose was not to directly hit the enemy but ignition.
The second part was the explosion caused by igniting the hydrogen, which was not attributed to any damage source.
Therefore, the "Hydrogen Explosion" card also had another use - to test whether the opponent had damage-reflecting equipment!
Dekan didn't want Cornelia to accidentally get injured by her reflected damage.
As long as they could make Faceless suffer enough to faint, it would be enough.
Faceless looked at Cornelia and Dekan's miserable appearances and couldn't help but laugh.
"Hahaha! I thought you guys were much stronger!"
"As long as I don't attack you, you're just a useless piece of trash that can't reflect damage or pain!"
"Now hand over that epic card and maybe I'll let you suffer a little less before you die!"
The more Faceless understood the Ruined Poet's effects, the more he coveted this core card of the new pain-reflecting system.
However, when he saw that Dekan remained unmoved, he was filled with anger. Unable to vent his anger, he could only continue taunting.
"Even if you guys specialize in pain reflection type control, they’re completely useless before!"
"Playing pain reflection and curses in front of me, you're much too naive!"
Faceless spread his arms. Tthe muscles of his face under the veil seemed to twitch strangely, as if emitting a manic laughter.
"Hehehe."
Dekan's gaze was ice-cold, and his eyes, as deep as the depths of the sea, were even darker than black.
He looked at Faceless as if he were looking at a fool.
"Your stupidity is truly laughable."
"If I don't beat you to death, I'd be a lousy pain reflection grandmaster."
Dekan muttered to himself in a voice so faint it was almost imperceptible.
He seemed to have finally prepared something and shouted to Cornelia, "Wait! Hit!" ("Wait for me to control him, then go hit him!")
"Okay!"
Cornelia's voice was filled with excitement.
Although she didn't know what Dekan was planning, she knew, based on her experiences, it was time for their opponents to surrender.
Finally, Dekan finished preparing his ultimate move.
It was time to reveal the true secret of the "pain reflection."
He lowered his head, clutching his chest, seemingly repeating something over and over again, his voice gradually growing louder.
"Cornelia got hurt helping me fend off the enemy, it's all my fault! I feel so heartbroken, so guilty..."
Dekan seemed to be hypnotizing himself like a man possessed.
"Why must we fight, why did you target us, why are you trying to rob us… Is it because we're too kind... oh I am so furious!"
Dekan felt more and more depressed; his negative emotions were about to reach their peak.
"We can't win, there's no hope, why am I so weak, I hate my own helplessness!"
Dekan bowed forward, gripping his clothes tightly as if he couldn't breathe due to heartache.
"Guilt! Anger! Despair!"
"Pain! It hurts so much!"
"Faceless, it's all your fault!!!"
When Dekan lifted his head and shouted the last sentence at Faceless, Faceless suddenly felt his heart skip a beat. Out of nowhere, there was a pain as if a thousand-pound stone had struck and pressed down on his heart.
Then came an indescribable twisting pain. He felt as if it was tearing his heart apart.
He clutched his chest in agony.
In an instant, Faceless felt apologetic for being human.
He collapsed to the ground, spewing blood uncontrollably and staining his veil a rusty red color.
While the summons could still function, they lost real-time commands from their master and became sluggish in their movements.
At the same time, Cornelia took advantage of the opportunity to break through the summon's encirclement.
"Why...how can you reflect damage?! I haven't even harmed you!!"
Faceless's voice trembled as he looked at Dekan in disbelief.
"You made me sad!"
Dekan proclaimed confidently.
Being saddened was also being hurt, and heartache was also a kind of pain.
Even though Dekan's heartache was the result of self-hypnosis, it amplified his inner negative emotions infinitely.
The ultimate technique of the pain-reflecting system - 60 times heartache attack!
The only drawback of this move was that it required self-hypnosis, and the casting time was too long.
"Puuu!"
Hearing Dekan's words, Faceless couldn't help but spit out another mouthful of blood.
This mouthful of blood was caused by anger.
He had never seen such a shameless person before!
Damn it! Pain reflection wasn't meant to be used like this!!!
However, at this moment, Cornelia's warhammer had already reached him.
Faceless looked at the ever-increasingly larger hammer appearing before his eyes and, before he could start to feel fear, lost consciousness.
With a "boom," Faceless was smashed against the wall and fell unconscious.
All his summons also disappeared.
Cornelia had followed Dekan's advice and had not used her full strength, only using a quarter of her strength to strike Faceless's head.
This blow was enough to knock Faceless unconscious.
The reflected damage she received wasn't too severe.
Phew, this time it was really over.
Cornelia, while enduring the pain, covered her head and sat down on the ground.
In the distance, Dekan also let out a sigh of relief. He looked tired but still smiled helplessly. In the chaotic corridor of the Demon Academy, the two of them gazed at each other and locked eyes.
A knowing smile.
It was all thanks to their tacit understanding of each other.
