Chapter 203 - Surprise Me! (1/2)
”What do you mean you just have to fight with it?” Inhee could not help but think that the Supreme Ruler of the Void's idea was incredibly preposterous. ”The gap between that thing's existence level and your current existence level is akin to an ant facing against a black hole! You're a True Saint-level being, you know? Why aren't you acting like one? Are you seriously going to use your overwhelming advantage in stats and pummel the shit out of a measly Inanimate?”
”I know my limits, Inhee. I just didn't tell you what I had in mind,” the Supreme Ruler of the Void responded to Inhee's question, letting out a sigh not long after. As he continued to manipulate multiple strands of energy that connected with the orb in front of him, the Supreme Ruler of the Void decided to explain to Inhee what he meant by fighting with the Inanimate.
”At the start of the third stage, I'll set my combat power to a Rank 3 Animate since that seems to be the maximum power the Inanimate could muster while it attacked the pillars in the second stage,” the Supreme Ruler of the Void said to her. He then added, ”If the Inanimate reveals some tricks up its sleeve, allowing it to overwhelm me, then I'll adjust my combat power to be on an equal level against the Inanimate. I continue to do this until the Inanimate reaches the ultimate limit of its power, allowing me to gauge whether such an Inanimate can truly bring change to the world.”
”Ah, finally done,” the Supreme Ruler of the Void said not long after, a light smile was plastered on his face. While he retracted the strands of energy he connected to the orb, he looked at the standing Inhee and said, ”I've done my preparations for the third stage. Tell the Inanimate that the third stage is about fighting an incarnation of myself.”
”Okay.” Inhee nodded at his words, sending a strand of energy towards the orb that connected her to it. Just as she was about to talk to the Inanimate in the orb, Inhee looked at the Supreme Ruler of the Void and asked, ”Now that I think about it, what's the name of the third stage? I always tell the Inanimate the name of the stages before starting, so you better come up with a decent one.”
”Hmm…” The Supreme Ruler of the Void soon pondered over a name that would fit what he was going to do, eventually coming up with a decent one as he told her, ”The name of the third stage shall be…”
”A Heartfelt Fight.”
”…” In response to his suggestion, Inhee was left at a loss for words since to her, the name of the third stage radiated a different feeling. Fortunately, she understood what the Supreme Ruler of the Void was referring to since she had an idea of the mechanics of the third stage. Then again, she could not help but tease him over his bad naming sense.
”What a shitty name. It sounds like the title of a shitty romance-action novel.”
”It takes time to come up with a good name, okay? I don't know how you make good names so quickly, but it takes a long time for me to think up of one,” the Supreme Ruler of the Void responded to her words in a tone that made it sound like he was being wronged. Not long after, he said with a sigh, ”Just roll with it, okay?”
”Fine, fine. You paid me to do this anyway,” Inhee responded to the Supreme Ruler of the Void's statement with a teasing laugh, eventually starting to talk with the Inanimate in the orb.
…
Within the large stone room.
”Your 10-minute break is now up, Aurus,” Inhee's voice resounded throughout the room, startling Aurus all of a sudden. In response to Inhee's abrupt voice, Aurus looked up at the ceiling and said, ”To be honest, it doesn't feel like 10 minutes have passed.”
Hearing this, Inhee answered back with, ”Your perception of time in this place has just dulled. On the outside, ten minutes have already passed. For you to tell me this, do you have some sort of clock inside you or something?”
”Fine, fine, fine. The ten minutes are up, I get it,” Aurus said in response to Inhee's words while being inwardly surprised. The reason why he was inwardly surprised was that after Inhee told Aurus that he was going to get a ten-minute break, he went ahead and commanded Theresa to set a timer for ten minutes as he conditioned himself for the next stage…or rather, thought about what he was going to do next after clearing this impromptu trial. In actuality, only 7 minutes had passed since Aurus's break started, which was why he told Inhee that he did not get a 10-minute break.
Either way, he had already recuperated his losses from the second stage, which was a large amount of energy. Since he was back at his peak condition, and the Inheritance Ruler wanted him to go ahead with the next stage ahead of time, he decided to just go along with it.
”So…what's the third stage about?” Aurus could not help but ask Inhee, to which Inhee promptly responded, ”Well…let's just say that this stage is very unique when compared to the previous two.”
Whoosh!
In an instant, the area of the stone room had expanded to what it was in the second stage, being 9 large stone rooms combined. But instead of having a million Pseudo-Animate pillars surrounding Aurus, what surrounded Aurus instead was a translucent dome that had a dark tint to it.
At the very instant he was surrounded by this dark-tinted dome, the first thought that came in Aurus's mind was the idea that the Supreme Ruler of the Void was dissatisfied with his performance in the previous two stages, trapping him inside this dome in order to eradicate him. With that in mind, he could not help but look up at the ceiling of the stone room, asking Inhee with a slightly afraid tone, shouting, ”Inhee, what the heck is this? Are you trapping me here so I can't leave? You do know I won't give up without putting up a fight, right?”
”As if I have any reason to do that,” Inhee responded to Aurus's question, letting out a sigh not long after. After that, a few seconds of silence ensued, with Inhee pondering within whether it was going to tell Aurus the truth about the dome or not. Fortunately, the being beside Inhee told it that it was okay for it to tell the truth, letting Inhee breathe out an inward sigh of relief as it said, ”Anyways, don't worry about the dome. You're not trapped here.”
Listening to Inhee's comforting words, Aurus eventually let out a short sigh, although he was still a bit vigilant. Nonetheless, he still wanted to know the purpose of the dome, so he asked, ”So…why conjure a dome around me?”
”The Supreme Ruler of the Void told me to conjure that dome around you,” Inhee replied to Aurus's question, which only backfired as Aurus's vigilance towards Inhee had reached a level higher than before as he said with slight fear, ”So I was right! The Supreme Ruler of the Void was indeed dissatisfied with my performance!”
”…” Inhee was left at a loss for words thanks to Aurus's statement, wondering why Aurus was thinking about this even though he had done an exemplary job in the first two stages. Wanting to know why Aurus was thinking about these things, Inhee went ahead and asked him, ”Why are you thinking so pessimistically? You've done a great job in the first two stages. The Supreme Ruler of the Void just wanted to see your limits in this third stage, nothing more, nothing less.”
After listening to Inhee's words, Aurus realized that he might have overreacted after the dome was conjured around him. Nonetheless, he was not going to admit to it so easily, telling Inhee, ”Well, all of this could've been avoided if you told me the mechanics of the third stage at the instant you started to talking.”
”Trying to blame me, eh? You're way too tender to do that,” Inhee said in response to Aurus's statement before letting out a light chuckle. ”Don't you dare pass the blame on me, Aurus. You're the one who overreacted and you know that.”
Of course, hearing those words, Aurus went silent as he knew that that was the case, with Inhee ignoring Aurus's silence as it explained the mechanics of the third stage. ”Anyways, the name of the third stage is A Heartfelt Fight. In this stage, you're going to fight against an incarnation of the Supreme Ruler of the Void. Now that I think about it, it's more of a spar than a fight.”
”Either way, the Supreme Ruler of the Void will explain more about the mechanics of the third stage once it starts,” Inhee added. ”Also, since the Supreme Ruler of the Void is the one managing the third stage this time around, the rewards after this stage shall come from the Supreme Ruler of the Void, not from me.”
”I see,” Aurus said as he repeated Inhee's explanation a few times to get a better idea of the third stage. In response to his words, Inhee said, ”And with that, I shall now leave you with the Supreme Ruler of the Void. To be honest, he has already changed his opinion of you. He just wants to see your maximum power right now.”
Whoosh!