Chapter 1349 - City of the Decisive Battle (6) (2/2)

“Huh? What?!”

Up until that moment, the Catherine with scarily-slow reactions finally responded to what happened and retreated hurriedly in shock, waving her arms around uncontrollably. For that reason, the snacks that were in her arms scattered to the ground. Looking at this scene, Little Five, who was watching the bustling show, sulked instantly. She tried to extend her arms to grab her ‘treasures’, but it was a pity that she couldn’t budge after being imprisoned. But even so, she gnashed her teeth and glared at Catherine, yelling at the top of her lungs.

“Hey! You fool, don’t throw my snacks on the floor!”

“Whoa! Sorry, I’m sorry!”

Little Five’s roar startled Catherine. The latter lowered her body instinctively and picked up the snacks that scattered on the ground. After all, she was used to being ordered around by Little Five all this while. Thus, as soon as she heard Little Five’s order, her first reaction was to immediately do what she commanded. Despite that, this definitely wasn’t an experiment of Pavlovian theory[1].

And just as Catherine lowered her head and was about to bend over to pick up the snacks, the Angel of Light returned to her senses. And this time, Rhode and Little Five finally witnessed what they hadn’t seen clearly just now. Catherine was engrossed in picking up the snacks scattered on the ground. Meanwhile, the Angel of Light flourished her sword repeatedly with great vigor, and from the momentum alone, each of her strikes could split the tower in front of her in two. The force from each swing was lethal and powerful.

But what surprised Rhode and Little Five was that such an attack didn’t work at all against Catherine. Rather than saying that the attacks were blocked, it would be more appropriate to say that they were directly erased. Rhode felt the spiritual power contained in the sword that the Angel of Light lifted. But after it erupted to attack Catherine, it seemed to completely disappear as if it turned into a gust of wind.

I didn’t know Catherine had that kind of ability…

At that moment, Rhode was considered to finally put his mind at ease. Indeed, for a personality like Catherine’s to survive until now could be considered a fluke, just like those singers who ran to the battlefield to offer condolences and do public service. If there weren’t any backstage supporters behind them, wouldn’t they have already been kidnapped or simply shot by a terrorist organization or the enemy? And if an absolute pacifist like Catherine, who couldn’t fight or curse back, didn’t have an ace up her sleeves, perhaps she would have died long ago.

“I, I don’t think that’s right. Fighting doesn’t bring any good; it only brings sorrow…”

The scene before them was like a comedy. The Angel of Light had fought to the point of literally going crazy and attacked Catherine repeatedly, but Catherine was completely unresponsive to her. She didn’t even try to hide, but was simply absorbed in picking up snacks, while communicating her philosophy to her other self. It reminded Rhode of a certain movie he watched a long time ago, where an undefeatable monk talked his enemy into a mental breakdown. Although Catherine’s language skill wasn’t as strong as the monk’s, her repetition of the same words over and over again was, in a way, like cutting flesh using a blunt knife.

“Haa… Haa… Haa…”

After some time, perhaps a few minutes, a dozen minutes, or a few hours, the Angel of Light who attacked incessantly finally stopped. At that moment, she was completely fatigued and could only half-kneel on the ground and breath heavily. On one hand, she consumed too much strength in the previous battle, and on the other hand, Rhode believed that she was also mentally exhausted. After all, whoever listened to Catherine’s constant nagging that

“fighting isn’t right; we should get along with each other peacefully” and yet, couldn’t hurl even a punch on her, was an extremely fatal and frustrating torture.

But Rhode believed that what Catherine was saying wasn’t nonsense; or rather, while it sounded like nonsense to others, it wasn’t to herself. Let’s not forget that this was the mental world, where mental power was greater than anything else, and the will to influence reality was hard evidence of that. Catherine didn’t want to hurt anyone, so she didn’t do it. But on the other hand, she wanted others to not hurt themselves either.

To put it bluntly, Catherine wanted a world where people didn’t hurt each other anymore. And this trait of hers reacted to the fact that while no one else could bring her down, she also couldn’t defeat others. And the decision to fight with brute force like the Angel of Light was, in fact, the stupidest. If it were Rhode, he would have chosen to confuse Catherine with his words, before going up against her. As long as he didn’t give Catherine the chance to be firm in her beliefs, her ability would be rendered ineffective. But unfortunately, it looked like the Angel of Light clearly didn’t know anything about it, hence why she had fallen for it…

“Alright! Go! Hit her! Now’s the chance! Catherine! Beat her up!”

Looking at the panting Angel of Light, the most excited person was actually Little Five. It wasn’t surprising since the Angel of Light had attacked the snacks on the ground in order to force Catherine to fight with her. Even though Catherine did her best to protect them, some of the snacks that Little Five loved the most were still crushed ruthlessly. This left Little Five in displeasure. If she weren’t imprisoned now, perhaps she would have rolled up her sleeves and fought the Angel of Light herself.

“That… Isn’t too nice…”

Upon hearing Little Five’s grumbles, Catherine was clearly hesitant. She looked at the Angel of Light who had fallen to her knees, looking as exhausted as a dog, and turned to both of them. It seemed like Catherine was clearly disinterested in Little Five’s words. And upon seeing her reaction, Little Five sighed in frustration, blinked, and smiled all of a sudden as if she came up with a good idea. Then, she continued to speak.

“It’s fine even if it means going up there and patting her! You won, anyway.”

“Okay then…”

After Little Five urged Catherine on, the latter nodded with doubt. But soon after, she walked up to the Angel of Light, came to a standstill, stretched out her finger, and tapped the Angel of Light’s forehead lightly. Unsure if it were due to the Angel of Light being too exhausted or because she was entirely speechless to the point of giving up on Catherine’s ability to be immune to her own attacks, she didn’t resist or dodge in the slightest.

“Don’t do that again, okay?”

For some reason, Rhode felt that this move was the most deadly strike to the Angel of Light instead.

“———!”

And the moment Catherine’s finger touched the other party’s forehead, suddenly, the mental crystal once again burst out with a dazzling glow. Soon after, two halos within the crystal expanded and shrouded Catherine and the Angel of Light together. The radiance became brighter and shortly after, it enfolded everything in sight.

And when Rhode opened his eyes again, the rune that bound him and Little Five had vanished, while the mental crystal, too, was gone. In front of them, there were only the two Catherines who were suspended in midair. Soon, a glow between their bodies began to flow and then, both of them began to overlap each other.

In the end, they metamorphosed into the same person.

Upon looking at this scene, the corners of Rhode’s mouth curled up slightly.

Looks like that’s what the mental crystal is for.

[1] A learning procedure that involves pairing a stimulus with a conditioned response.