1477 Pseudo Divine
The jingle of trinkets echoed through the space. With that sound, the composed expression on Zahara's echo vanished.
Almost at the same time, Zahara's real body which was still a significant distance away channeled its power. Her echo vanished and concurrently, the real Zahara appeared.
Knowing she couldn't afford to take any delays, she channeled her power and pulled Varian.
The jingle of the trinket sounded again and the world in front of her shattered.
A near invisible grain of life power on Varian's hair shone with blinding brightness. It expanded and took the shape of a veiled young woman.
Sometimes, her long hair turned green, the other times, blue. Changing along with her hair were her eyes.
In the state of constant flux between various colors, she looked like a being composed entirely of energy instead of a creature of flesh and blood.
A torrent of time power swept over Miss Calamity, trying to block her before any moves were made.
But from the moment she appeared, she had already spread bits and pieces of her power outward, scattering in all directions and across various distances.
The tide of time did indeed slow her down, but as it did, the Miss Calamity facing that attack turned into a secondary figure, a mere clone dedicated to protecting Varian while her real body materialized from one of the scattered bits of power.
In her eagerness to capture Varian, Zahara decided to take a risk and lunged forward.
She vanished abruplty, like she had disappeared from the world.
In the terms of time power, she would be 'skipping' a duration of time, depending on the difficulty posed by the surroundings.
Miss Calamity furrowed her brow, her thoughts churning.
It's not that she could act as fast as her opponent, but due to being a higher 'lifeform', she could think many times faster if she wanted to, allowing her to respond in an appropriate time.
'If Zahara had it her way, she'll grab Varian and try to leave. Once he is captured, I'll be passive.'
Even as that thought was just taking place, her clone split into three and they grabbed Varian, Sarah and Sia.
Suffocatingly thick life power enveloped the three. Basked in the dense green power, the trio had just started to react to the battle.
The sound of a paper tearing and a chalk scratching against a board rang together.
Three fingernails touched Varian's eyes, just a single movement away from piercing them. And then, they were pulled back violently.
Zahara who was supposed to appear beside Varian was blocked by the intense energy shield and when she did appear next to it, she breached in.
Unfortunately, a dozen or so Miss Calamity clones were waiting for the very opportunity and pounced on her.
One of the clone turned to Varian coated in the green light and slapped.
With enough force to destroy dozens of solar system, the slap somehow did not break the shield but sent him flying.
The space broke due to the sheer force and he blasted through the inner space before somehow breaking out into some other place.
'Wh-What?'
Varian's heart was pounding in his chest, on the verge of explosion.
He just saw a strange woman, then Miss Calamity and now he's here. He couldn't understand what's happening at all.
'And where the fuck am I?'
[You went from one end of Centaurus to another. Basically, you crossed a duchy.]
'With that one slap?'
[She didn't slap. She swatted you away.]
Varian gulped down his saliva and checked his body.
The remnant power of space-time in his body did not allow teleportation. But Miss Calamity brute forced such restriction and pushed him away.
He checked Sarah's and Sia's condition through synergy. They landed nearby and were rapidly moving in different directions.
Miss Calamity's clones were moving them to safety.
'Wait, what about me?'
Varian's eyes widened and his chest tightened.
[…Err, you're used as a—]
A delicate hand appeared in front of him all of a sudden, followed by Zahara herself.
As she's millimeters away from grabbing his face, Miss Calamity's clone appeared behind her and slapped her on the back.
Almost at the same time, a green energy block enveloped Varian, blasting him away to safety.
The encounter was so quick that it registered on Varian's mind only a full second after he crossed some other duchy.
'A bait.' He finished what Logos was about to say.
The next two minutes or was it five? With his sense of time distorted like never before, all Varian could tell was that he came close to grazing death a few dozen times and was saved every single time.
He was dancing on the edge of death all the while being utterly helpless about it.
But to Miss Calamity, it was a relatively safe bet. Thanks to Zahara's eagerness, she managed to inflict enough wounds.
"Why…why are you?" Zahara's golden skin had turned a shade darker and her bright eyes were now gloomy. "I am on the verge of divine rank and yet…"
She had taken that step and could ascend at any moment, as long as she had an ephiphany.
A half-step divine ranker, Zahara was not even considered a celestial ranker anymore.
And yet, she was defeated by Miss Calamity.
"Heh," To her opponent's confused questioning, the lips of the lady under her veil curled up. "Someone had this great idea of causing a border crisis when my brother-in-law went into Cradle. To get back as soon as possible, I ended up fighting hard. And it happened."
She streched her hand and a silver white light flickered over her palm.
Zahara's expression hardened before she broke into a smile.
"Bitch!" Miss Calamity cursed and slapped into the space ahead.
"Hahahahahah!"
Zahara split into dozens and dozens of forms, all shooting outward in different directions.
These were all echoes of future, different timelines where she could take that particular path.
It was a difficult move and was usually something only the divine rankers could perform. Zahara managed an imperfect version but that in itself posed a big danger to Varian.
With a clap of her hands, dozen of green threads raced after the echoes, and Miss Calamity herself materialized next to Varian, using the clone next to him.
She gave him an apologetic look but it would be a full half-
second before he could register it and another quarter-second before he could speak.
There wasn't that much time.
As she expected, Zahara appeared in front of Varian, with a few of her echoes.
In an arrow formation, they reached them with full force and atacked.
Boom!
Miss Calamity's shield clashed against the torrent of time power. As she hoped, the two reached a stalemate.
"Give up." The veiled lady said with a strong smile. "The best you can do is a stalemate. You don't have any more time."
Any rank 9 powerhouses sneaked into the kingdom would be found by the defense system and the defenders would be sent immediately.
It should've happened when Zahara tried to breach the borders, but it seemed like there was a delay.
Still, Zahara wouldn't be able to accomplish anything.
With Miss Calamity's protection, Varian would be safe.
"Haah, I didn't want to do this." The silver light emanating from Zahara's body began to dim and part of it began to break apart like crystals.
Miss Calamity's calm expression collapsed at that sight. "No. Are you crazy?"
"Heh."
Zahara's power shot through the roof and the power of time striking Miss Calamity's shield, turned from a flood into a tsunami.
"Damn it!"
With as many treasures taken as soon possible, dozens and dozens of Miss Calamity's clones along with her main body faced the attack.
With each drop of power, an echo of Zahara was destroyed but there were too many.
Like a relentless flow of river destroying even the sturdiest of mountains over time, the torrent of her power eventually cracked the powerful defense.
And from it, a single drop of power headed for Varian.
"No!"
One of Miss Calamity's clone threw herself and attacked the drop.
Most of the drop dissipated into nothingness, but a tiny part of it 'skipped' time before it faced extinction.
"Shit! no!"
And it appeared on Varian.
Boom!
The damaged echo of Zahara appeared.
"Yo—"
With a slap of her hand, the space-time fabric ripped apart.
She and Varian disappeared.
