Klein felt that Ophelia was a bit angry.
And she certainly was.
In the next second, the figure on the dragon's back suddenly vanished.
There was no gathering of strength, no trail of fire from battle qi propulsion. She simply took a step forward, and it was as if she were wiped from existence by an invisible hand. When she reappeared, she was already a hundred meters away, standing face-to-face with the fake “herself.”
The silver dragon let out a low roar, restraining its instinct to follow. It hovered steadily in the air, providing Klein with a solid casting platform.
Klein leaned against the warm dragon scales. The dizziness brought on by the excessive consumption of mental energy still clung to him, but he forced himself to focus, locking onto the center of the battlefield.
The probing began.
Ophelia didn't even reach for the sword at her waist. Facing the duplicate, she simply threw her right hand forward.
It was a punch, as simple as it could be.
The reaction of that “her” was eerily fast. The moment Ophelia’s muscles tensed, it moved as well—posture, angle, and speed were identical down to the last detail. It met her with the exact same straight punch.
Two fists clad in dragon scale gauntlets collided in mid-air.
There was no world-shaking explosion, only a dull “thud,” like a heavy hammer slamming into wet mud.
A visible ring of white shockwaves blasted outward.
Ophelia’s figure remained as steady as a mountain in the air.
The duplicate, however, was sent flying back over a dozen meters as if hit by a locomotive. It only managed to stabilize itself with an extremely stiff posture.
“As I thought.”
Ophelia shook her hand, the joints of her gauntlet making a faint grinding sound.
The feeling was wrong.
Very wrong.
In terms of raw data, the opponent’s strength and speed were almost a perfect replica of her own. But at the moment of impact, she could feel that her power was a concentrated burst at a single point, while the opponent’s power, though vast, was as loose as a pile of sand.
More importantly, the feedback from the punch wasn't that of hitting a body of flesh and blood. It was a viscous sensation, like striking high-density gel.
Klein, watching from a distance, understood as well. Through the pollution on Ophelia’s left arm, this thing had read her biological information and performed a perfect “decompression.” It had copied her physical attributes and even simulated the appearance of her dragon scale armor.
But the “armor” covering the duplicate was semi-transparent, its runes were dim, and it was nothing more than a soulless empty shell.
On the battlefield, that “her” stabilized its form and looked down at its own fist. Within those pure gold, pupil-less eyes, countless streams of data seemed to flash by.
It was as if it were... applying an update?
A moment later, it looked up and locked onto Ophelia once again.
This time, it initiated the attack.
Its figure blurred, leaving behind a trail of afterimages. The duplicated longsword in its hand turned into a streak of cold light, stabbing toward Ophelia’s ribs at an extremely tricky angle.
It was one of Ophelia’s own preferred opening stances.
“You learn fast.”
There was no emotion in Ophelia’s voice, but her sword was already out of its sheath.
Clang!
She struck second but arrived first.
The crisp sound of clashing metal exploded in the air. The edge of her blade precisely parried the opponent’s tip, sending sparks flying.
The moment the blades met, Ophelia’s wrist sank. Her blade slid down the opponent’s spine like a venomous snake’s tongue, slicing directly toward the wrist holding the sword.
The duplicate responded. It flipped its wrist, reversing the hilt, and caught the slice with its crossguard with a loud “clang.” The entire movement was incredibly fluid; it had clearly applied the data it just read.
Simultaneously, its left hand transformed into a claw, tearing through the air as it lunged for Ophelia’s throat.
However, Ophelia didn't even look at the reaching left hand.
She didn't dodge. Instead, she took a forceful step forward, dropped her shoulder, and slammed into the opponent with a brutal shoulder check.
Bang!
The duplicate’s body staggered violently. The attack from its left hand lost its mark, grazing past Ophelia’s ear by a hair’s breadth.
It lacked “combat instinct,” and even more so, it lacked “spirit.”
“Combat isn't a math problem.”
Ophelia’s cold voice rang out, almost right against its ear.
Golden battle qi erupted!
It was no longer the pillar of light that pierced the heavens, but instead transformed into countless tiny golden sword glints. Like flowing gold dust, they instantly coated the entire length of her longsword.
A horizontal slash!
In its haste, the duplicate raised its copied longsword to block.
Clang—!
The sound of the collision this time was so sharp it set one's teeth on edge.
The copied longsword shattered into two pieces like fragile glass before the genuine article coated in golden sword glints!
Ophelia’s momentum did not stop. The residual force carried through, slashing deep into the opponent’s chest.
A wound deep enough to see bone was torn open. The illusory armor mimicking the dragon scale armor flickered violently, becoming nearly transparent. There was no blood in the wound, only a semi-transparent, mycelium-like substance writhing frantically.
The immense force sent the duplicate tumbling backward.
Ophelia hovered in the air, her sword tip pointing diagonally downward as she looked coldly at the pathetic fake.
She had already figured it out.
A mere imitator. A clumsy warrior.
However, just as Ophelia prepared to step forward and end it all, the duplicate she had sent flying performed an action that caught her off guard.
It stopped in the distance, making no move to heal its wound or re-condense its broken sword.
It simply raised its hand, its pure golden eyes locked onto Ophelia.
In the next moment, the blue light of the alchemical arrays spread across the entire battlefield actually began to converge toward it!
Behind the duplicate, space began to warp. One massive phantom after another emerged from the distorted void.
A shark with giant jaws, a squid waving dozens of tentacles, a massive sea serpent with bone wings... they were all the fragments of the evil god that had been dismantled by the array earlier!
However, these were all phantoms composed of pure energy.
The circle of dozens of phantoms surrounded Ophelia, pouncing toward her silently from all directions.
Ophelia’s brow furrowed.
Defeating one duplicate wasn't hard, but facing dozens of phantoms that could be regenerated almost infinitely would inevitably turn into a long war of attrition, even if she could win.
And the duplicate stood quietly in the distance, like a cold commander.
Its goal wasn't to defeat her.
It was to wear her down.
Klein remained on the dragon’s back, but he reached out his right hand, fingers spread, aiming at the chaotic battlefield.
“Did you really think an imitation like you could counter my array?”
A speck of silver light lit up at his fingertips.
“Structure Analysis... Energy Source Locking...”
“Command Rewriting...”
Klein’s fingers suddenly clenched as if grasping something invisible.
“—Chain Annihilation.”
On the battlefield, a shark phantom lunging at Ophelia suddenly had its head explode in a burst of blinding silver electricity without any warning.
The electric light didn't jump; instead, it acted like a living silver whip, brutally tearing through the phantom’s body. It then emerged from its tail and, at an incomprehensible angle, instantly pierced the core of the nearby sea serpent phantom!
Then the third, the fourth...
Silver electric arcs pierced and tore frantically between the dozens of phantoms, forming a dense, airtight net of death. Every time an arc passed through, it precisely detonated the phantom’s energy core.
Those massive phantoms were as fragile as paper before the silver electricity. They didn't even have time to dissipate before they were detonated one after another in the violent energy.
In less than two seconds.
The army of phantoms besieging Ophelia was wiped out.
The battlefield fell silent once again.
Only Ophelia and the lone duplicate in the distance remained.
Ophelia tilted her head and glanced in Klein’s direction. The look in her eyes was clear: Good job.
Klein gave her a small smile. His face was still pale, but he had regained his composure.
Ophelia turned back, gripping her longsword tightly once more.
The game was over.
She raised her sword, and golden battle qi began to condense again, sharper and purer than ever before.
However, the duplicate didn't react at all.
It simply watched her, watching as she gathered a power capable of destroying everything.
No, it did have a reaction.
The deep wound on its chest and the writhing membrane-like structures suddenly stopped repairing themselves.
In their place, a faint, entirely different light began to glow from deep within the wound.
It wasn't the blue light of the array, nor was it the golden light of battle qi.
It was a... ghastly green, profound light.
Then, it moved.
It wasn't an attack, nor was it a defense.
Slowly, very slowly, it raised its hand and discarded the broken half of its sword.
Under Ophelia’s astonished gaze, the blank expression on the face of the duplicate—the fake that had imitated her every move—changed for the first time.
The corners of its mouth curled up, revealing an extremely stiff yet unmistakably clear... smile.
Then, it opened its mouth and produced the first sound that wasn't an imitation. It was a chorus of voices, with the tones of countless men, women, the old, and the young overlapping, creating a sound that made one's skin crawl.
It didn't look at Ophelia.
Its gaze bypassed the hundred-meter distance, went past its “original,” and landed firmly on the figure on the dragon's back behind her.
“Klein...”
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