Chapter 286: Unsheathed!

Chapter 286: Chapter 286: Unsheathed!

The clear cry of a blade, like a dragon’s roar, resounded across the beach!

The Spirit Blade: Frozen Naraka was unsheathed!

The blade was as thin as a cicada’s wing and crystal clear. It was wrapped not in wind and snow, but in cold light condensed to the extreme!

The blade’s surface reflected the gloomy sky and sea, as well as Sakura’s gray eyes, which were now as sharp as a blade’s edge.

At almost the same moment, Aglaea, sitting in her wheelchair, seemed startled by the sound of the unsheathed blade and the chilling killing intent; her previously motionless back stirred slightly.

She didn’t turn around, but Sakura could feel countless invisible and intangible yet tangible gazes, like a disturbed spider web, instantly enveloping her from all directions!

The flow of air, the vibration of sand grains, the differences in temperature, and even the subtle changes in killing intent were all transformed into a flood of information through the Golden Threads, surging toward the wheelchair.

Sakura moved.

There was no violent momentum, no blazing flames.

Her figure suddenly blurred where she stood. In the next instant, she appeared several meters behind and to the side of Aglaea. The Frozen Naraka in her hand turned into a cold arc of light, difficult for the naked eye to capture, as it slashed toward the wheelchair!

This strike was so fast it seemed to transcend time. Wherever the blade passed, the air froze into fine trails of ice crystals!

However, just a split second before the blade was about to touch—

Buzz!

The wheelchair and the figure upon it vanished from the spot, like pencil marks erased by an eraser!

Only a faint circle of golden ripples was left behind.

Sakura’s blade struck empty air.

And at her original position, a silver one-handed sword flowing with golden light seemed to pierce out from the void, silently skewering the afterimage Sakura had left behind!

The Tailor!

It had appeared silently at some point, launching a perfectly coordinated interception and counterattack!

Sakura’s figure solidified again several meters away. Her gray eyes calmly swept over the wheelchair that had reappeared nearby, and the headless Tailor standing with its sword floating beside the wheelchair.

In their first exchange, both sides had demonstrated staggering speed and reaction.

The bullet chat in the Elysian Realm Hall instantly flooded the screen:

[Pardofelis: Whoa! What just happened?! Are my eyes playing tricks on me?!]

[Elysia: Oh my! Both of them are so fast! Sakura’s teleportation and the Tailor’s thrust happened almost simultaneously!]

[Kevin: The Tailor is very fast; it can keep up with Sakura’s ’Setsuna’ movements.]

[Hua: It’s not just fast. The Tailor’s attack timing and positioning are as precise as a prediction.]

[Su: The sensory network of the Golden Threads is at work. No matter how fast Sakura’s movement trajectory is, it will cause disturbances in the air and other media, which are captured by the Golden Threads.]

[Vill-V: Data recorded! Both sides’ peak speeds have broken records! Spatial disturbance coefficients and Golden Thread information transmission latency are being calculated!]

On the beach, the battle did not stop after the first probe; instead, it suddenly reached a fever pitch!

The Tailor’s figure turned into streaks of pale golden light, launching a continuous barrage of thrusts from every angle within the domain covered by the Golden Thread network!

Every sword strike was tricky and ruthless, aimed directly at vital points, and the speed grew faster and faster, as if it could predict Sakura’s evasion direction!

Sakura’s figure flickered constantly amidst the blade light and golden sword shadows.

The Signet of ’Setsuna’ was operating at full capacity, allowing her to perform continuous movements over extremely short distances with almost no cooldown.

She didn’t choose to fight head-on, but instead maneuvered through the dense attack web. The Frozen Naraka in her hand would parry one moment and launch a sharp counterattack the next. Blade and sword collided, splashing ice crystals and golden sparks, the crisp clanging sounds merging into a single melody as fast as a torrential rainstorm!

The naked eye was completely unable to capture the specific movements; one could only see a blur of cherry-colored light and pale golden streaks clashing frantically above the beach and the sea!

Slash marks and puncture holes appeared out of thin air on the beach.

Fast! Extremely fast!

In the Elysian Realm Hall, even the Flame-Chasers had to concentrate their spirits to barely keep up with the movements of the two.

Cyrene clutched her chest, too nervous to speak.

The data stream on the virtual screen in front of Vill-V refreshed frantically, and she herself was so excited her face turned red: "So fast! So fast! This is the confrontation of ultimate speeds! The Golden Thread information transmission has a limit to its latency! Sakura is exploiting this!"

Just as Vill-V said, Sakura was not dodging blindly.

Through each teleportation and exchange, her calm mind, belonging to a top-tier assassin, was operating at high speed.

Her gray eyes were not only locked onto the Tailor and the wheelchair but were also perceiving the "vibrations" of the invisible Golden Threads in the surrounding space.

(The Golden Threads’ perception needs time to transmit... Although it’s extremely short, there is indeed a delay.)

(The Tailor’s attacks are based entirely on the feedback from the Golden Threads... There’s a pattern to the attack trajectories.)

(The wheelchair’s movement, though eerie, causes the Golden Threads’ disturbance to peak at the moments of starting and changing direction...)

She was waiting.

Like the most patient hunter, she searched within the storm-like attacks for that insignificant yet real gap between the Golden Thread’s perception and Aglaea’s reaction.

At the same time, she was quietly changing her movement patterns.

She no longer pursued ultimate linear thrusts but began to incorporate more unpredictable movements to interfere with the Golden Threads’ judgment.

The Tailor’s attacks remained sharp, but Sakura could feel that the accuracy of the opponent’s "predictions" was slowly declining.

(Now!)

After a seemingly hurried parry, Sakura’s figure suddenly teleported back over ten meters, as if trying to pull away to catch her breath.

The Tailor’s golden sword light followed like a shadow, pursuing closely!

However, Sakura’s retreat this time was not due to exhaustion.

The moment her figure solidified, the ice surface she had deliberately condensed beneath her feet suddenly exploded!

Using the recoil of the explosion and the instantaneous burst of ’Setsuna’, her figure did not continue to retreat but instead doubled back suddenly on a trajectory that defied common sense!

Her speed soared to a new peak in an instant!

The target—was not the Tailor, but Aglaea in the wheelchair, who for the first time since the start of the battle was slightly further away due to the Tailor’s pursuit!

This change of direction was too abrupt, too fast!

So fast that even the Golden Thread network seemed to experience a momentary information overload!

The cherry-colored blade light, this time, was no longer a probe, but a certain-kill flash that condensed the ultimate meaning of ’Setsuna’ and seemed to freeze time and space!

"—Now, Setsuna!"

Sakura’s whisper and the blade light seemed to arrive simultaneously.

In the Elysian Realm Hall, everyone’s breath hitched.

Time seemed to have been pressed with a pause button.

A deep blue, icy hue enveloped the ten-meter space centered around Sakura and Aglaea.

The tiny water droplets floating in the air, the surging dust, and even those ubiquitous pale Golden Threads were all frozen and solidified in this instant, fixed into a bizarre and dangerous static image.

Sakura’s figure appeared precisely in front of the wheelchair, less than a meter away, like a phantom.

The blade of her Spirit Blade: Frozen Naraka flowed with a cold light that froze space itself.

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