Chapter 42: Hallucination?
Blinding white light flooded Su Xiao's vision. He instinctively raised his left arm to shield himself, and the next moment, excruciating pain shot through every part of his body, as if the intense light was about to disintegrate him.
Su Xiao leaped backward. Given Morisha's defensive capabilities, unless he decapitated her with a single slash, there was no way to instantly kill her. Moreover, before he could even land that slash, he might already be dead from the surrounding radiance.
As Su Xiao retreated, the stabbing pain across his body gradually subsided. Even so, his skin felt like it was burning.
There were no external injuries, yet Su Xiao's health had plummeted by over 60% in just 0.4 seconds. In that brief moment, he had lost most of his life. If it had lasted more than a second, the white light would have broken him down to the atomic level.
An energy shield materialized in front of Su Xiao. Observing the white light centered on Morisha, he realized its nature was somewhat similar to the Dust Release from the Naruto World, except its lethal range was far larger, and it activated without any warning.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Morisha clutched her throat, coughing dryly. A foreign energy rampaged inside her, making her experience a torment worse than death in an instant.
The pain came quickly and faded just as fast. Morisha stood up, one hand still covering her throat, blood seeping through her fingers.
For a normal human, having their throat slashed open by Su Xiao would mean death or severe disability. Unfortunately, Morisha was not a normal human. Light element gathered in her hand, and when she removed it from her neck, the light had already sealed the wound and was healing it at a decent pace.
After attempting close combat with Su Xiao for a few seconds, Morisha silently stepped back a few paces to create distance. The radiant rings around her shot toward Su Xiao.
The golden rings tore through the air as they flew at Su Xiao. He sidestepped one ring while slashing the other two apart with his blade.
Up to this point in the fight, neither Su Xiao nor Morisha was having an easy time. Comparatively, Morisha was worse off. After her inexplicably overconfident close-quarters assault, she had calmed down considerably. The taste of blood in her mouth warned her how reckless her earlier actions had been.
Morisha was puzzled. Why had she been so impulsive, charging into melee range with a witch hunter wielding a long blade who had already killed over a hundred witches?
As she reflected on this, Morisha's pupils rapidly contracted. She suddenly realized that her earlier behavior wasn't impulsiveness—it was a failure to suppress her instincts. Even more terrifying was that these weren't her instincts at all. Just moments ago, she had felt her swordsmanship was no less than Su Xiao's.
Morisha dug her nails into her palm. She was in the middle of a battle, yet she was contemplating things unrelated to the fight.
*Clang.*
A pale blue blade aura flew toward her. Morisha dodged sideways, but due to her lack of focus, the aura left a bloody gash on her fair cheek.
"Cowardly woman."
A male voice echoed in Morisha's ears. She fixed her gaze on Su Xiao.
"Cowardly? Me?"
Morisha felt a surge of anger. Su Xiao, who had just shattered a radiant ring, looked confused, not understanding what this woman was ranting about.
"Go, cut him down. You are the Sun Maiden, my vessel, the one who will inherit my power."
"?"
Morisha pressed her hand to her temple. This time, she was staring directly at Su Xiao. He hadn't spoken at all. The voice was her own "hallucination."
"You disappoint me, witch. Your talent does not permit you to wield a sword. You are a despicable one."
Hearing the voice again, Morisha's hair stood on end. Now she was certain—the Sun Transformation Crystal, passed down through her family for generations, had malfunctioned. Some consciousness had invaded her body during the ritual, and she had been completely unaware.
"Witch, you disappoint me. This is your last chance, and your trial."
A surge of golden energy enveloped Morisha's consciousness. It didn't extinguish her mind but instead wrapped around and permeated it.
At the same time, blinding white light erupted in front of Su Xiao. All four of Morisha's "Radiant Orbs" detonated simultaneously.
One Radiant Orb had already left a lasting impression on Su Xiao. Four exploding at once was unthinkable. He turned and fled, retreating into the second floor.
As Bubu Wang's canine motto went: Running away isn't shameful, especially when the enemy unleashes their ultimate move. This was called a strategic retreat.
The third floor of the castle was flooded with white light. Within the radiance, Morisha's appearance began to change. Her features grew more masculine, her height increased, and her feminine characteristics visibly diminished.
On the second floor, Melody looked at Su Xiao and Bubu Wang in confusion. The fierce battle above had suddenly gone silent, and then she saw the duo charging down the stairs.
Melody wasn't the only one bewildered. Su Xiao had no idea what was happening either. The enemy had just wasted all four uses of her ultimate ability at once. This abnormal behavior made him suspect something had gone wrong with her—perhaps during the light element inheritance, or maybe internally.
The white light quickly dissipated. Su Xiao immediately turned back to the third floor. As he returned, the drastically transformed Morisha came into view. Or rather, the opponent was no longer Morisha.
Morisha's height had increased to about 2.3 meters. Now, when "she" held that golden energy longsword, the 1.3-meter blade no longer seemed out of place. It suited "her" build perfectly—or rather, his.
"Morisha" still wore the golden one-piece dress. The stunningly beautiful Morisha had looked fine in it, but now "Morisha" appeared utterly bizarre.
Morisha himself seemed to notice that the dress was stretched tight after his height increase. He grabbed his collar and tore the upper part of the dress apart with a ripping sound, leaving it hanging like a battle skirt around his waist.
Morisha's upper body was now bare, revealing muscles that were not exaggerated but sharply defined.
"Seems... someone else has taken over."
Su Xiao admired Morisha's audacious move. He had seen transformations in battle before, but a gender swap was a first.
"You're not bad. You'd make a suitable vessel for me. Unfortunately, you're a successor of those people. As a failure, I can make a comeback, but I won't insult my former enemies. Win or lose, they were worthy opponents."
"Morisha" spoke, his voice now male.
Su Xiao immediately activated the Apostle's Eye's detection ability. The result was grim. He only got a name: Crownless Lord.
It wasn't that the Crownless Lord's combat power was off the charts, but rather that the Apostle's Eye's rank was too low to detect enemy units of a higher tier. Allies were fine, of course.
The Apostle's Eye was, after all, only a Light Gold equipment. This situation wasn't unusual, but detection-type equipment was so rare that Su Xiao had never had the chance to upgrade it.
The Crownless Lord took a deep breath, savoring the slightly burnt air. This was the feeling of being alive. He held his sword in his right hand and spread his left hand flat in front of him. Radiant Orbs materialized in his palm, rapidly expanding, stretching, and eventually forming rings.
The object in the Crownless Lord's hand was a perfect fusion of a Radiant Ring and a Blazing Sun—combining the speed and properties of the ring with the near-universal destructive power of the sun.
With a crisp crack, the white ring in his hand shattered, leaving fine cracks on his palm. This ability was too powerful for this body to handle.
Realizing this, the Crownless Lord slowly walked toward Su Xiao. Unlike Morisha, the Sunlight Sword had been his companion on countless battlefields, having slain hundreds of thousands, if not millions. The once-revered Crownless Lord had, one day, become a prisoner.