Chapter 200: Virtual World
~SLASH~
[A participant has been slain by another player!]
Kokoro's body was swiftly cut in half as Akira swung his blade at her so fast she couldn't react.
"You are useless now," were the last words she heard as her head felt dizzy and the world around her turned upside down.
The reason he did that? Well, it was because Kokoro proposed that they stop their assault on Stark to try and find the key to the next floor.
Why would he need to do that when he was stronger than Stark? Why would he need to put himself so low and stop his attacks because it wasn't worth it?
"YOU AREN'T STRONGER THAN ME, KID," he shouted at the boy and his clone, his pride hurt he wasn't able to hit or kill Stark no matter what.
But… what Akira didn't expect… was…
"I… Shall… Avenge… Myself…" Kokoro mumbled as the upper half of the body fell to the ground, separated from her lower half.
There was no way for her to survive this, her HP had already reached 0, but in her final moments before death… her tablet began to glow brightly with that same bluish aura, visible glitches appearing in it.
And suddenly…
~FWISHHHHH~
The entire hallway was taken over by the glitchy aura, the walls, floor, EVERYTHING, now replaced by that very same aura, making the floor look as though they were in some sort of simulation.
"VIRTUAL WORLD!" through her sheer determination, Kokoro was able to activate her mythical skill.
And so… her body suddenly began to fade out of existence.
"…?" Akira and Stark looked around, it was extremely weird.
"Time to end this," and only a few seconds later, a hologram of Kokoro appeared, it was an exact copy of her, except it had no colors, it was just a blue and transparent hologram.
~SLASH~
Akira immediately tried to slash her in half, but his katana fazed right through her, meaning they couldn't damage her.
"You are in my world… and you both shall suffer now…" she put her hands together and closed her eyes, an uncomfortable aura swirling around her, and she was strangely beautiful in that moment, the sight of her in this pose extremely peaceful.
But…
[Virtual World] was everything but peaceful.
…
[Skill: Virtual World]
[Rank: Mythical]
[Description: In a world of glitches and technology, this skill will allow the user to completely change her surroundings to her likings, placing all her enemies in a simulation where he was complete control, this skill lasts 30 seconds]
[Additional info: if the user dies, then if they have enough determination, they can cast this skill to avenge themselves]
…
"Akira, Chosen," she said, her voice distant and muffled, as if she were speaking through a glitchy radio, "You both…" she raised her holographic hand, and suddenly, hundreds upon hundreds of giant blue hands came out of the walls of the virtual world, surrounding the three of them completely (yes, the clone counts as one).
And…
"Goodbye," she closed her hand.
~FWISH, FWISH, FWISH~
~SLAM~
Dozens of hands rushed at each of the participants, each enhanced by [Rune Engraving] as fire, water, or lightning aura surrounded them.
~BOOM, SLASH, SLASH, FWISH~
"PHANTOM DANCE," Akira positioned himself, holding the handle of his katana with two hands, placing it upward.
And then… he started to swing it at each of the hands.
Surprisingly, he was able to cut through those attacks, meaning that as long as he managed to keep like this, he would surely manage to pass the 30 seconds…
[Phantom Dance] allowed Akira to swing his blade to the rhythm of the attacks, abandoning everything else to focus on dodging and countering instead of his usual attitude and skills, which were all on the attacker side.
Like he was dancing, his movements were smooth and following a clear pattern, each swing leaving some white trial of aura that looked beautiful.
And as for Stark… he was struggling more than he thought.
[Focus] allowed him to see all the of attacks, whichever angle they came from, allowing him to dodge them by a hair's length every time, but it was still fairly difficult as there were so many of them.
His clone was on the same situation, although it was still confidently smiling.
All three of them felt one thing: if any of these things hit, then they would be dead.
[23 seconds of 'Virtual World' remaining]
"Holographic Missile…" Kokoro closed one of her holographic eyes, then raised both her arms, summoning not one, not two, but THREE missiles, sending one at each of the people stuck in her virtual world.
"INVINCIBLE DODGE," not difficult for Stark and the [Superior Clone] to dodge them using their dodge attack, then following through with a combo of 10 [Invincible Dodges] thanks to the new perk.
But as for Akira…
"COSMIC BARRIER," he was forced to place his barrier in front of him as slashing a missile wouldn't do anything.
And so…
~BOOOM~
Even though he was protected, the fact the attacks were enhanced by the [Virtual World], as well as the fact he took the explosion in the face…
"-3472!" his barrier shattered and he was sent flying backward, forced to continue slashing in the direction of the hands who didn't stop coming.
[19 seconds of 'Virtual World' remaining]
Kokoro's face remained neutral through all of this, she could clearly see that they were all struggling, yet she didn't stop, why would she after all, they were her murderers.
But somehow, around 70 percent of her power was specifically targeted at Akira, maybe since he was the one who dealt the finishing blow…
[13 seconds of 'Virtual World' remaining]
By this point, the three got the hang of it, and now smoothly managed to avoid all the holographic hands coming their way, even though their speed and numbers were in fact increasing.
[9 seconds of 'Virtual World' remaining]
And at that very moment… when all were confident they would be able to get out of this place safely… Kokoro began to float in the air, her eyes closed, her mouth shut, and her hands still together, as well as her legs crossed, almost as if she was meditating.
And so… she used her final resort.
"I didn't want to do this…" she spoke loudly, "But all of you are monsters, undeserving of living or leaving this place, I shall take you with me to spare the world of your presence…"
"…"
"…"
"=)"
And…
"ELEMENT SIMULATION!" she used her strongest [Legendary] skill.
Her hands, feet, torso, her entire body basically, began to glow with four different colored auras: red for fire, green for earth, blue for water and white for wind.
It looked like she was powering them up as some sort of energy sphere was forming in the middle of her chest, a trail of aura leaving each of her body parts and powering up that ball at the center, regrouping all the elements.
[7 seconds of 'Virtual World' remaining]
And while she was doing that, ALL attacks had stopped, meaning that Akira and Stark could Kokoro and whatever she was doing.
Yet in that moment… both of them could sense that this wasn't good, not one bit.
[Element Simulation] was a beam-like attack that could be used from long-range, where Kokoro using her tablet would simulate the four elements and launch it at her enemies.
And now… that attack was coming at them, with only five seconds left before 'Virtual World' ended.