As "Loraine" touched Adam's body, a glimmer of triumph flickered in her eyes.
Victory was within her grasp.
But the moment her fingers made contact, she felt... nothing.
No resistance, no response, and no effect.
Her authority and her power had done nothing!
A split second later, the Adam before her tilted his head, his lips curling into a smirk.
Loraine's eyes narrowed.
"I was just waiting for this too."
Before she could process what he meant, the "Adam" before her shimmered, then— vanished!
It was a deception crafted by Adam's [Surreal Creation].
Loraine's mind raced.
When Adam had used [Location Swapper] earlier, she had assumed he had only moved twenty meters away.
But in truth, that was only part of the trick.
The real Adam had escaped much farther, leaving behind a flawlessly realistic illusion to fool her!
An A-tier ability like [Surreal Creation] wasn't something to be taken lightly.
And now, she realized her mistake far too late.
A wet sound echoed beneath her.
Loraine's gaze snapped downward.
A pool of crimson spread beneath her feet... Adam's blood!
Her instincts screamed at her to move, to escape.
His fingers clenched.
From the pool at her feet, hundreds, no... thousands of razor-sharp crimson spikes erupted upwards, impaling her body in an instant.
Loraine's figure was skewered in place, impaled from every angle.
She barely had time to react before another wave of spikes tore into her.
Adam didn't stop there.
His hand shot forward, hurling pulse disruptors in her direction.
The small devices landed around her in a perfect circle, emitting a low hum as they activated.
A low vibration ran through the air as the mana in her body which allowed her to connect to Celestia was being cut off...
Loraine convulsed violently, her body twitching under the mana-disrupting force.
Adam waited, expecting a cry of pain, a scream, or something.
But what he heard instead was laughter.
Then, she spoke, her voice unnervingly calm despite the pain she should have been feeling.
"To be able to transform into a ghost body, to control blood, manipulate illusions, see through the future, and even swap locations... "
Her head lifted slightly, eyes gleaming with something between curiosity and amusement.
"You have far too many abilities for an Ember-ranked Stream Hunter who hasn't even ranked up yet."
Adam's fingers twitched.
His mind raced through possibilities as to what she was up to this time.
Loraine interrupted his thoughts with a whisper that sent a chill down his spine.
"You are the third S-ranker."
Loraine's lips curled upward into a knowing smile.
She leaned forward, despite the spikes running through her body.
[Trespassed Corpse has been slain.] Googlᴇ search ɴovel(ꜰ)ɪre.nᴇt
[+7330 Exp, +4 Basic Soul Core.]
[Level 38 → Level 39]
[Mana Circulation has been increased by 1%]
[E-tier Item has been found!]
[All-Purpose Key] : A one-time use key that can open any doors and locks.
As Loraine's body turned lifeless, Adam remained still, his gaze locked onto the corpse.
Something about this didn't feel right. Even in death, she left behind more questions than answers.
He frowned, his mind replaying the last moments of their battle.
'It seems she had a misunderstanding...'
Celestia, or at least the consciousness controlling Loraine.believed him to be some kind of Stream Hunter with an ability called [Omnipotence],an S-ranker ability.
But that wasn't the truth.
She didn't seem to know about his [Temporary Copy] and [Permanent Copy] abilities, the ones he had acquired from another universe.
The abilities that allowed him to copy skills from his viewers.
If she had truly understood what he was capable of, she wouldn't have been so quick to assume he was some grand, hidden force within the Tower.
'If it weren't for the fact that I took extra caution, teleporting farther away and fooling her with an illusion, she definitely could've killed me with that last ability of hers...'
Adam clenched his fist.
A close call served as a grim reminder... in the Tower of Yxthar, hesitation meant death.
'Never trust a villain when they start talking too much during a fight.'
His instructor had drilled that lesson into him, and tonight, it had saved his life.
His mind drifted to something else Celestia had mentioned...
A way to complete the Tower of Yxthar in a single step.
Was it a lie? A half-truth? Or was this something that had existed all along, hidden beyond the perception of even the strongest?
'I wish I had a lie-detecting ability like Evelyn from the first floor...'
For now, he had no way of confirming the truth.
What he did know, however, was that he had to be more cautious when dealing with anything related to Celestia in the future.
[Nalyd has d 30 coins]
[Nalyd says this misunderstanding could be advantageous]
[Experienced Old Knight] : I agree, the more she is misinformed about the streamer, the better it is!
[WeaverOfStories has d 15 coins]
[WeaverOfStories wants the streamer to avoid Celestia as they find her a bit scary.]
[System_Sovereign has d 15 coins]
[System Sovereign says he ships Celestia and the Streamer!]
[JustJoeKing] : Ship? Where are you sending them?
A faint groan caught his attention.
He turned his gaze toward his unconscious teammates, who lay scattered across the battlefield. R
elief briefly washed over him... they were still alive!
But just as he took a step forward to help them, something unexpected happened.
Their bodies began to change.
Adam's eyes widened as his teammates' flesh twisted unnaturally, decomposing at an accelerated rate.
In mere seconds, their skin ruptured, muscles contorted, and bones cracked apart as if something was tearing them apart from the inside.
He instinctively stepped back, his blood magic already forming defensive spikes around him.
'This isn't normal regeneration failure...'
His first thought was that they had been Celestia's puppets all along, and their connection had been severed due to the pulse disruptors.
But that theory didn't hold up.
If they had been under Celestia's control from the beginning, he would have noticed when he had deployed his disruptors earlier in the fight.
Then realization struck him like a hammer.
His expression darkened.
Loraine had healed his teammates during the battle.
At the time, it had seemed like a simple act of ensuring they stayed alive for her own purposes.
But now, it was clear: the healing had been a trap all along.
She had placed something within them.
'That woman... Even when healing others, she was sowing death.'
Adam thought, secretly glad that he still relied on his own blood regeneration during the battle.
'If I hadn't been careful, I would have ended up the same way.'