Chapter 350: The True Presence Behind The Soldier

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Vladimir’s missing arm no longer mattered. At his command, materialized dragon energy gathered around the stump and formed a new limb made of spiritualized, burning fire. The fiery claws opened and closed as though they were real, responding perfectly to his movements. In response, he sneered and locked his eyes into his prey.

RUMBLE!

With a single leap, he shattered the ground and flew toward the Super Soldier, swinging his giant claws down at lightning speed. A devastating barrage of attacks followed, with explosive flames and red energy erupting from every strike. Vladimir’s aura surged with Ignias’ spiritual presence, combining their strength and allowing each blow to become faster and stronger than the last.

"Riven, I will assist him! Fight him and destroy him quickly!" Ignias roared, mostly focusing on the battle by helping Vladimir. "There is something strange about this soldier! He’s... not the just a soldier! There’s something sinister within him! Be careful...!"

"?!"

Riven was confused, but he nodded and charged with all his strength. He clashed against the soldier while unleashing his Spell and summoning dozens of Abyssal Blades. They flew toward the swordsman from every direction, yet he deflected every single one with his katanas while always wearing that same annoyingly confident smile.

"Hmph, you’d need more than that to- Oh?"

The soldier’s eyes gleamed as they met Riven’s. For a brief instant, a psychic connection formed between them, and both froze in surprise. Images and emotions flashed too quickly for Riven to understand, but he clearly sensed that another consciousness was staring back at him from inside the soldier.

"You’re...!" the soldier roared. "I see..."

"What? You... know me?" Riven asked as they clashed. Cagliostro thrust forward at lightning speed, but the soldier deflected every blow with his dual katanas.

"Hahah..." The soldier smiled as Cagliostro slashed his face. Blood ran down his cheek, and he licked it without losing that strange expression. "Yes, I see... To think destiny would finally make us fight... you and me."

"What?!" Riven could not understand what he meant.

"And just as I am doing, you’re not using your real body either," the soldier said. His eyes turned blue-green for a moment, and Riven finally understood that someone else had taken control of him. The posture, voice, and even the way he held his swords had changed.

"Wait...! Who are you?!" Riven asked. "What are you talking about?!"

"It’s time. Shall we have fun?" the soldier asked. His back bulged and suddenly tore open as tentacles surged from his flesh, covering themselves in black feathers and forming a single enormous wing. His aura skyrocketed, and his stats rose even further as he took flight. Cracks spread across the remaining structures below him from the pressure alone. "Show me what you can do, Riven Claymore!!!"

RUMBLE!

"Uuugh?!"

Vladimir was completely ignored. The soldier swung his blades and cut through the ceiling, floor, and everything between them. Vladimir’s dragon scales barely saved him from death as he was sent flying through piles of rubble, his transformed body covered in thousands of cuts.

"G-Gaaaha?! How strong is he?! This isn’t viable... We have to run, Riven!"

"Tsk!"

CLAAASH!

RUMBLE!

The ground trembled as cracks spread everywhere, but Riven managed to block the soldier’s dual blades with all his strength. Cagliostro gleamed as holy light collided with the cutting energy, forcing Riven’s shadow body to bend beneath the impact.

"That is Cagliostro, the holy spear Guinevere lost long ago, isn’t it?" the soldier spoke with a firm smile before parrying Riven’s blow. His artificial swords had been forged in the deepest areas of Claymore Techs and Claymore Labs using top-notch Magitech that combined spirit and psychic engines. Their blades extended into long sabers made of pure cutting energy. "And you’re fighting with a puppet, some kind of Shadow Clone? How interesting!"

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Riven met him with Cagliostro as explosions of blinding holy light and psychic energy erupted in every direction. He clenched his teeth and tapped the floor, summoning a garden of shadows and ghostly blades that flew toward his foe.

However, the soldier moved a single sword so rapidly that he formed a barrier of blade energy around himself, reflecting every attack back at Riven.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Hmm, perhaps you ought to come here personally," said the soldier. "Do you really think you can defeat me by controlling a puppet?"

"Who the hell are you?!" Riven roared. He unleashed his psychic power and overwhelmed the soldier with an immense pressure that hurled him backward and crushed his body into the floor. The floating debris around them slammed down at the same time, burying him beneath metal and stone.

TRUUUMMM!!!

"Oooh?! Hah!"

However, the soldier fought back with an equally immense psychic shockwave. The two invisible forces collided and tore through the fabric of reality, twisting the ruins around them until space could no longer endure the strain...

Crack, crack...!

CRAAASH!

A black hole tore open and connected their location to the Noosphere. Both fighters, along with everything around them, were sucked inside. They crashed into a floating island made from the rubble of lost worlds and forgotten civilizations, while fragments of buildings and machines continued falling through the opening behind them.

"You dragged us here?!" Riven asked, looking around at the endless psychic void. "Damn it!"

He swiftly leaped away as a giant meteor crashed toward him. Looking up, Riven saw the soldier using his psychic power as a gravitational force, drawing dozens of enormous meteors from the surrounding void and sending them down one after another.

"Come on now, is that all you can do? I am bored."

"Bored?!"

Riven’s eyes gleamed as his fusion with his shadow intensified. Blood, Poison, and Ice combined around him, spreading into a massive Domain that swallowed the floating island. Crimson frost covered the rubble while poisonous shadows rose between the broken structures.

The falling meteors were frozen solid and shattered before they could reach him. Riven began leaping from fragment to fragment, rushing toward the soldier and using the collapsing debris as footholds before swinging his polearm down with all his strength.

Through Cagliostro, he channeled Divine Axe Arts. He gave the Talent a quick glance, understood how to shape its power, and unleashed it against the soldier before another wave of meteors could fall.

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