I Hate Systems

Grisha's jet-black knife, created using her attribute of space plunged into Chenger's neck. Multiple barriers manifested into reality, defending against the attack. But, just when it seemed like they would stop the knife, Grisha's second attribute took effect, allowing the knife to phase through the barriers and come into contact with her neck.

The tip prickled her, causing a drop of blood to ooze out when suddenly, Grisha's eyes widened in shock, noticing a mystical phenomenon take place before her. For a moment, it felt like the world itself was flipped upside down.

The gravity of the Secret Realm went bonkers as its spatial laws destabilised, causing cracks to form in its border. And these cracks affected the Origin Essence and all laws related to space, affecting her knife too, causing the tip to bend to the side unnaturally.

This shouldn't have made any sense, but it happened, causing the knife to blunt fully, avoiding Chenger's neck like water curving around a rock.

"Guh!" Suddenly, Grisha grunted for she was unable to phase through anymore, sensing that her body began to shrivel up for some reason.

"You've been inhaling my mist for so long. All that is still under my control. And now, your Origin Essence is under my control too." Chenger grinned, snapping her finger as Grisha's Origin Essence went out of her control, rupturing her insides, and causing her to spit blood.

Boom!

Suddenly, hundreds of feathers slammed into the two of them, creating a series of explosions.

"You've attacked your ally? Are you mad?" Chenger bellowed in anger, coughing vehemently as she came out with a bare minimum of injuries.

"Grisha's attack shaved a significant amount of your luck." Compass Carburettor spoke jovially, "Even for you, it is impossible to pull such nonsensical stunts back-to-back through luck. So, in this interval, you're vulnerable!"

"Tch!" She clicked her tongue, gazing through the corner of her eye to see that there were no signs of life in Grisha's injury-ridden corpse. 'There's still a chance she's acting.'

Thinking as such, she snapped her finger, unleashing dozens of vapour blades that sliced Grisha's corpse into a dozen pieces, only relaxing after that. She then turned around, surprised to see an energy blade fist slam into her, sending her flying away.

Chenger hurriedly shielded herself with a fluffy shield, absorbing most of the shock while she was sent flying. Suddenly, followed by a gust of wind, a jet-black figure appeared above her, unleashing another energy blade fist that slammed her into the side of the mountain, causing a large tremor.

Moreover, all the mist vanished mysteriously as Compass Carburettor unleashed thousands of feathers that homed in on her, attacking her nonstop, preventing her from taking advantage of the ambient Origin Essence.

With her endless reserve cut off, Chenger was soon backed into a corner as the countless defensive Artifacts she took out began to shatter one after another as the feathers continued to rain down.

But more than the attack, she was shocked at the feathers, "How come you're able to use this ability here?"

Of course, she knew about this ability clearly, for it was the first ability Rhizen obtained in most of his loops. It was pretty much his signature ability. And the moment she remembered about Rhizen, her eyes turned moist as she grunted in anger, "I'll fucking kill you!"

Boom!

From her location, mist spread out violently. That wasn't all, the mist from beyond the cleared-out zone rapidly grew in size and enveloped the cleared-out region once again. This happened within a second as Compass Carburettor's figure vanished.

It was his Apocalypse World version that he had been maintaining all along. He had summoned it right after Grisha's attack. And now, his summoning time was up as Compass Carburettor grunted in exhaustion, noticing his surroundings be covered with mist once again.

Chenger's voice resounded through it, making a snarky remark, "You sacrificed Grisha to unleash your trump card. But now, your defensive means have formed a crack and you've already been influenced by my Sentience attribute."

"What?" Compass Carburettor was stumped, noticing that he wasn't able to use his Origin Essence any longer, "How? I always shielded myself from the mist."

"The mist was just a distraction." Chenger smirked, "In truth, as long as you inhale a bit of my vapour, I can obtain control of your Origin Essence. And since the air is naturally humid, you wouldn't even notice anything amiss."

"From the moment you stepped foot here, you've been had, Compass Carburettor." Chenger smirked, "I was waiting for Grisha's death before revealing my trump card. Now, without her, you cannot escape."

"This is my victory."

…

"Huff…puff…hah…h-how is this possible?" Ranze muttered in shock, slumping to the ground in exhaustion, gazing at the figure of Warktor closing in on him calmly.

Gasping on the ground further away were Xuer and Bunuela, scattered amid a pile of debris resulting from her shattered Ice Crane Puppets. They were melting slowly, creating a pool of water that almost drowned them.

Xuer was barely forcing herself to stay awake, out of strength. Her Martial Spirit had suffered damage, preventing her from using even Origin Essence, not to mention activating any Origin Arts.

Bunuela had already fallen unconscious, bleeding profusely, with her hands both severed. There were signs of the parts being melted under extreme heat as patches of her melted skin and bones lay nearby. The pain was beyond what she could endure, falling unconscious.

Xuer wasn't any worse off either. Her tendons had been slashed, so she wasn't even able to move now, helplessly staring at Ranze's back, tearing up in despair. For, even he was on the verge of defeat.

"Honestly, you are strong, Ranze." Warktor smiled, slowly walking towards him calmly. Even though he sported injuries all over his body, none were fatal, "But, you're severely inexperienced. And, since I've already stolen the luck of the three of you, you're nothing but helpless lambs awaiting slaughter before me."

Suddenly, a bit of mist converged next to his ear, whispering something that caused his eyes to lit up before breaking into laughter, "It seems Chenger was faster than me. Surprisingly, she managed to kill Compass Carburettor."

"Now, only you're left." He grinned, condensing a Lava Chakram, throwing it towards Ranze, dealing the finishing blow.