Chapter 46 : War 4 : Arman vs the Emissary 1

"You provoke me, oh Child of the Void."

As the emissary spoke[1], the ground rumbled and dark mana rose above the ground, threatening to destroy the entire battlefield. Chaos engulfed the battlefield as all ongoing fights had paused with some players causing their luck for being here while others were wondering whether the System would save them.

"Hmph. The same move again. You underestimate me."

As the large amount of mana was about to implode beneath the ground, Arman spread forth his hands once more but this time, he looked more serious than before.

"[Void displacement]"

The ground suddenly quietened recovering to its original state with the battlefield once again entering a state of silence but this time, there was a sense of relief in the air.

What Arman had just done was to transfer the dark mana brewing underneath into a pocket dimension, the exact same one he stored his potato chips. Such a feat was quite impressive and had displayed his amazing control and affinity with spacial elements, despite the distance between him and the dark mana.

A bit of dark mana and aura conglomerated and then compressed together, slowly taking shape and forming a humanoid creature, exactly like the one the players earlier encountered.

Staring at Arman, the emissary opened what seemed to be its mouth and said "As expected of a child of the Void. You didn't disappoint me."

As it finished speaking, it's body had completed its construction. After the last trace of dark mana and aura integrated into its body structure, a gloomily and fearful feeling spread through the battlefield. A hazy matte coloured mist surrounded the emissary, constantly giving off a feeling of chaos with a little bit of destruction and darkness. Even the bacteria in the air perished upon coming in contact with the mist. Reality and space seemed to warp at times but this stopped after awhile.

"It seems this is your limit. You're a projection not a clone."

"What about it?" The emissary eyed him.

"It's easier to smash. I was really hoping for a clone that way I could do some experiments with it once I'm done." Arman smirked.

The emissary chuckled "How foolish."

Even though it seemed like they were both having a hearty conversation, in actual reality, they were charging energy for their first attack, hoping to deal a heavy blow to the other.

Suddenly, black mist appeared round Arman and engulfed him, threatening to soundlessly end him like the millions of living organisms that had just died(AN : PS, its the bacteria.). The speed at which the black mist surfaced and engulfed was really astonishing as it left Arman with no time to dodge.

Even after he got caught in the mist, the emissary didn't relax and still kept his guard up even though he looked unbothered. A very short while later, his decision was proven to be correct as space broke a few metres away and another Arman walked out from the passage. It turned out that the 'Arman' the emissary had killed was nothing more than a spacial reflection of the real one[2]. As such, even its aura was realistic.

"You really are a dangerous one. This place is quite crowded, let's go over there." Arman pointed at the sky above the mountain and moved towards it.

The emissary also followed by, as if not scared of an ambush. But in essence, he really has no reason to fear one after all he is a projection of the real thing.

As the two bigwigs and heads left the battlefield for a better one, the skirmish on the ground began once more as the players hurriedly launched sneak attacks on the monsters, making good use of the time they were distracted. The NPCs also recovered themselves and continued the onslaught, pushing forward into the goblin army.

"Do you plan to face me alone or will you call the others?" The emissary asked Arman as soon as they had reached the mountain top.

"What others?" Arman asked with a naive smile on his face.

"...Humans, are failed creations. All you do is eat and sleep and live peaceful lives. But unbeknownst to you lies a threat far greater than you can imagine. The gods have failed you, yet, you still worship them."

"My apologies but are we really going to do this villain speech thing? I don't actually fancy any god so what you said doesn't really apply to me." Arman picked his ear with his right pinky nonchalantly.

"Then that makes you worse. For great is your punishment when my lord returns."

"Oh really? So then what now?are you going to tell me to praise him and I will be saved or something?" Arman looked at the emissary with an exaggerated look on his face.

"Cause you should know that I wouldn't. By the way, who is your lord? Demon King Malevus or is it the Revolter? No, I sense a bit of darkness, destruction and chaos in that mist around you. So I'm guessing the demon king or one other demonic lord or maybe even the god of war. I don't think the god of war would really being doing something like this despite how brutish he is made to look. I'm guessing it's a demonic god so Malevus it is."

"Ignorant. My lord has lived for centuries, a minor character as yourself isn't worthy of knowing his name." The emissary spoke as he swung his arm. With the movement of his arm, the black mist rushed over to Arman wreaking havoc as it moved by.

"Hmph" Arman smirked. Joining his hands together in a clapping gesture, he yelled out in a low tone "[Void entanglement]".

The space in front of him turned twisted as right became left and at the same time became up while left became right and at the same time down. Simply put, the 4 major directions became twisted, clashing with one another thereby creating an unending loop.

As the black mist stepped into the distorted zone, it clashed with itself in an unending loop, sealed in place at the spot.

"[Void displacement]"

After keeping the mist in place, Arman teleported it to the pocket dimension he kept the previous attack.

"If all you can do is defend, I wonder how long you can hold out." The emissary said as it conjured a dark mana orb on its right palm.

"Who said I can't attack." Saying so, Arman's figure slowly faded like coloured gas diffusing in the atmosphere. In the blink of an eye, his figure couldn't be seen again.

The emissary, despite not being able to see him, stood still without any display of uneasiness or fret. Suddenly, he stretched out his left arm and caught an object in air. It seemed like there was nothing there and in actual reality, there wasn't, only space.

A closer look with mana sensing and one would notice that the 'object' he caught was space or rather spacial elements that were forcibly bent to take the form of a blade. The space occupied was slightly bent and warped. Apart from that, no other feature of the 'weapon' could be made out with the naked eyes.

"Space blades? Party tricks."

As he concluded, a couple more space blades made their way towards the emissary, from multiple directions. Due to the difficulty in sensing them and their higher penetration and slicing ability, the space blades are ranked as one of the most powerful weapons. With a lot of them fired from different directions, dodging it becomes harder even for the emissary.

Lifting his left arm at chest height with his right palm still holding a dark orb, the emissary made the matte black mist around him to solidify and form a spherical shield.

*phew* *phew*

As the space blades collided with the mist, it produced a weird low pitched ethereal sound akin to the sound of an arrow flying through the air. At each collision point between the space blades an black mist, the space in that position seemed to be disturbed as it twisted a bit as if about to break, but quickly recovered. This was as a result of the intense power and mana capabilities demonstrated by the two fighters, showing that their levels was anything but low.

"My turn." After the space blades had all been blocked, the emissary threw the dark mana orb on his right palm at an empty spot in the air.

*boom*

*clash*

As the orb flew, it eventually stopped at a point and exploded, producing the sound of not only an explosion but also that of a glass window being shattered. Once the smoke dispersed, the emissary couldn't make out anyone there.

As he decided to check again, he felt a ripple in space behind him followed by Arman's figure. Arman had actually dared to teleport behind him and planned to deal a heavy blow. Not only was this idea dangerous, it was also reckless.

"Surprise~"

AN :

[1] At this point, you should have realised that the fiend or creature of darkness is an emissary to a being. Refer to chapter 43.

[2] I really want to be a space mage. You might get this ability,you might not but either way, I will still explain cause I really love it. A spacial reflection is kinda like how when you look at yourself in the mirror, you see a 'you' that is exactly like you only difference being that its a fake and its reversed(left becomes right). So what Arman does here is to hide in a pocket of space while he projects his image in the real world. This image has both his smell, aura, looks, and the best part, it can touch things. He can also channel his mana through it. So its kinda like a projection but its harder to see through it; very hard.

So I have been describing the NPCs' battles so far, making the book look like a fantasy genre rather than a LitRPG...but who cares. I feel like I or rather we, would be losing a lot not knowing how sh*t went down. Considering that the battles would be interesting and I would be dropping a couple of spoilers and hints here and there, there's no harm in describing them.