Imaginary Space

Sirin narrowed her eyes, she had learned from previous mistakes that 'emotion' only made her underestimate her opponent, made her feel arrogant, and made her careless.

Therefore, facing Ashborn and Higokumaru, she did not rush but rather maintained her vigilance while thinking about the current situation.

She glanced at the solid shadow wall behind which was Kouro who was healing Welt.

'If Kouro manages to heal that Traitor, then the situation will become even worse for me. Although I hate to admit it, they are indeed strong. That means I need to finish this fight as soon as possible.'

Sirin seemed to think for a moment before her eyes shone brightly.

A good plan to defeat them all had formed in her mind.

Her eyes then turned to look at Ashborn and Higokumaru.

From the 'Knowledge' given by the 'Gods', she knew that Higokumaru (RIN) was the only surviving Herrscher from the Previous Era.

But that's why she called her a coward because Higokumaru didn't destroy humanity at all and remained alive until now at the mercy of humanity.

Her ability is to infect anything, sounding simple but actually very deadly for a civilization that relies on technology.

As for Ashborn himself, Sirin didn't know much other than that he was a clone of KOURO.

But even though she knew her opponent's abilities, Sirin did not know exactly how strong they were.

'Therefore let me see how strong those Cowards and Imitators are...'

Several dozen white spears aimed at Ashborn before darting off at high speed, this time all of these spears were unaffected by the authority of [Time].

Sirin did this because she wanted to make all the spears a deterrent.

*Swoosh!* x24

Ashborn stared at the white spears that shot towards him then glanced at the rocks flying in the air before turning around his two long knives and ordering Higokumaru.

"Focus on protecting Kouro."

Right after saying that, Ashborn instantly accelerated and jumped towards the rocks before running in a circle using the various rocks he found towards Sirin.

*Swoosh!*

Higokumaru jumped back and took cover behind a solid shadow wall with her 'rifle' still aiming at Sirin.

She glanced at Kouro who was healing Welt before asking, "[Tell me how long will it take you to heal Mr. Welt?]"

"5 minutes, No! 3 Minutes!" Kouro said before taking out the SP potion and drinking it quickly.

The healing speed of Welt's wounds was slower than what he had expected, this was really strange because supposedly with his [Death and life] authority, any wounds would be able to heal quickly.

He speculated that Sirin's [Time] authority might have affected the speed of decay of Welt's wound.

If his speculation was correct, then it meant that Sirin's [Time] authority could affect anything that came into contact with something that had been affected by her [Time] authority.

Kouro's expression became ugly when he thought of this, he just hoped that his speculation was not true.

...

The dozens of spears controlled by Sirin were seen mostly shooting towards Ashborn compared to Higokumaru.

This was not surprising as Ashborn presented himself as intimidating compared to Higokumaru who controlled the Arahato robot.

Ashborn under low gravity seemed to be able to jump around without reducing his speed creating a purple 'afterimage'.

Seeing Ashborn approaching, Sirin did not retreat but instead boldly approached him at high speed to create an 'afterimage' under the influence of [Time]'s authority.

*Clang!*

*Swoosh!*

In less than a second thousands of rocks floating in the air shattered into pieces as Ashborn and Sirin's 'afterimage' passed by.

Higokumaru with her extremely high perception ability was able to catch a glimpse of them and there were even several times she saw the gap from Sirin made by Ashborn.

Seeing an opportunity, Higokumaru immediately shot Sirin several times before moving to hide behind the shadow wall.

Her shots shot towards Sirin but unfortunately, Sirin had an energy shield that protected her from any attacks.

But Higokumaru had expected that, from the beginning, her role was to support Ashborn and protect Kouro.

Sirin stopped for a moment in surprise at Higokumaru's attack as if she didn't expect it to hit her.

Ashborn did not waste his chance and shot like an arrow towards Sirin.

*Swosh!*

Just when Ashborn was 1 meter away from Sirin, he suddenly felt a bad premonition and sure enough...

He saw Sirin smiling with her index finger pointing at him.

Ashborn's shrunken pupils reflected the purple-black lightning that spread out from Sirin's finger and instantly struck with lightning speed.

The lightning was a million times more deadly than ordinary lightning.

"Mr. Ashborn!" shouted Kouro with an anxious expression.

"[Don't worry, he won't die that easily.]" said Higokumaru calmly.

*BOOM!*

The lightning not only struck Ashborn but also shattered countless rocks into dust.

'With a distance this close, there's no way Ashborn can escape.' Sirin thought before her expression slightly changed.

Behind the flying dust, Ashborn could be seen standing before her without an injury at all.

"H-how is that possible!?" Sirin said with a shocked expression, after all with her own eyes she swore that she saw that her attack hit Ashborn squarely. "My attack should have hit you..."

Ashborn patted his slightly dusty shoulder before looking at her as if knowing what Sirin was thinking, he then said calmly, "Your attack did hit me. But fortunately you underestimated my 'shadow' ability."

"Shadow? " Sirin asked in confusion.

For all she knew, the Herrscher of Shadows' shadow ability was...

Sirin's eyes suddenly widened, "Don't tell me that you..."

"Yes. The moment after your attack hit me, I used my shadow ability to envelop my body before changing its nature to 'rubber'." said Ashborn with the shadow on his leg moving slightly.

Sirin's expression became serious after hearing this.

The 'shadow' ability at first glance looked weak compared to other Herrscher such as Herrscher of Reason, Herrscher of Void or even Herrscher of the End.

But from what she saw from the 'Knowledge' provided by the 'God', the main ability possessed by the Herrscher of Shadows was 'Transforming concepts', and...

"Transforming concepts... Adding concepts... And distorting concepts... Those are the basic abilities of the 'shadow'."  Said Ashborn.

The shadow as something flexible can change its concept to anything, to be 'Sharp' or even to be 'rubber', the higher the mastery of the shadow ability the more freely the concept can be changed.

Even to the point of turning shadows into 'living beings'.

A moment later the two of them stared at each other, Sirin who was floating in the air stared at Ashborn who could only stand on the rocks.

"Well with that power...I admit it... You are the strongest opponent I have ever fought, Ashborn... Nee~ Tell me... As a clone of Herrscher of Shadows do you not hate the one who created you?" asked Sirin while looking at Ashborn with an interested gaze.

After all, according to her cognition, Ashborn who was a clone of Herrscher of Shadows must have borne a very heavy burden and demanded to the extreme to be the same as his predecessor.

And what Sirin thought was true.

When he first opened his eyes, Ashborn lived his life in 'Hell' difficulty, he had to train at the point of unconsciousness and his body was almost paralyzed, his body was even genetically modified which gave him tremendous 'pain'.

Ashborn closed his eyes remembering the past, really... Thinking of those reptile-shaped green eyes looking at him with an interested gaze, but not seeing him as a 'human' but something else.

Did he hate Mobius? It would be a lie if he said no.

The hatred he had back then was great enough to the point that Aponia forcibly sealed his anger in his heart. But now... His hatred had long since disappeared because a 'friend' had taught him to make peace with the past.

In this case, it could be said that Sirin and Ashborn were a bit alike, they became someone's experiment for the sake of 'world peace' except that Ashborn had someone who brought him to the right path.

Hearing Sirin's question, Ashborn looked down for a moment and then said, "You are right, I used to hate my creator, she always did a painful experiment on me."

After that he slowly raised his head, "I really understand your suffering Sirin, hatred is what keeps us alive."

Sirin's eyes lit up when she heard this, Ashborn was indeed a person who truly resembled her.

"But that was before, I learned from a 'friend' to make peace with the past. He showed me that the world is not as bad as you think."

After saying that, Ashborn's violet eyes for the first time shone brightly like the warm sun.

"That's why... The reason I'm fighting now is because I owe a favour to my 'friend'... A debt that cannot be repaid."

"Disgusting," Sirin said with a disgusted expression, she thought Ashborn was someone similar to her, someone, who had hatred for mankind and had the desire to destroy them, but she was wrong.

"I thought you were the one who truly understood my plight... But in the end, you were just saying nonsense."

Right after saying that, the aura Sirin exuded instantly changed.

"I'll finish everything here."

Sensing something Ashborn's expression suddenly changed, he turned around and accelerated towards Kouro and the others while shouting at them.

"Get out of there!!!"

Too bad Ashborn was one step slower than Sirin.

"Too late." Sirin said before instantly teleporting near Kouro and with both hands posing like a cage.

[Imaginary Space]

Under the authority of [Time], an independent dimensional space suddenly opened up at high speed before spreading out and pulling Kouro, Welt, Higokumaru including Ashborn into that dimension.

A dimension where Sirin controlled everything.