I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1168: The Inevitable Battle

As Northern spoke, the Chaos Prince stood frozen in dread. All around him, each one of Northern’s clones was tearing him apart, and a single Northern was advancing toward him like an inevitability.

He clenched his fist. His deranged expression from earlier had vanished—he looked at Northern and a mixture of horror and hatred contorted his features.

What had gone wrong?

What had he not accounted for?

What exactly was he missing? Why was Northern so strong and so impossible to kill?

’Did I get outsmarted? By a child? One who hasn’t even lived a thousand years?’

This was something he had been preparing for—letting his father kill him, shattering himself into fragments. Missing close to ten thousand years of civilization’s development, all for this. To have this moment.

First, he’d only managed to recover half of his soul. He didn’t know what had happened, but he couldn’t sense it anywhere anymore. But that was no issue. If Kryos had died and Northern had found a way to cut the flow, it was fine.

He’d gotten void, which was more than compensation—even though this was only half of what void truly was. But he knew where the other half was. And he also had the Plague Kings. He couldn’t feel the presence of two, but ten was more than enough, and his remaining twelve vestiges had each found purchase in one host or another and would have grown it.

By the time he assembled it all—mainly with the other half of the void—he would surpass his prime. His plan was perfect. He had even successfully created a weapon that could kill the Origins, and all of this was to test it beyond their watch.

Although that hadn’t gone smoothly because Ul was somewhere around. But the weapon had been created. Ul being there was, in fact, a blessing—a way to send a message to the Origins and tell them to come for him.

But the problem was Northern. The more Chaos Prince studied him, the more he realized the chances of leaving here alive were growing quite slim.

And truth be told, he was starting to get anxious.

’A human... a child... is making me anxious?’

He twisted between rage at himself and disbelief at his situation. He internalized his failure and called himself pathetic.

Northern stopped in front of him and raised his chin with a slight chuckle.

”I recognize that look.”

The corner of his lips spread fully to reveal a savoring smile.

”Don’t beat yourself up. The biggest flaw in your plan was me finding your vestige. From that moment on, Anki, it was never going to go your way.”

The Chaos Prince glared at him.

”How can you be so sure? You received a boost, that’s all. Are they sponsoring you too?”

Northern’s gaze fell half-lidded. It was mockingly dangerous.

”How can I be so sure, you ask? Because it is I, Chaos Prince. I am the demon, the flaw that is going to eat into every one of you bastards’ bones like a disease. I don’t care who or where they are—be it Origins, Tyrants, or the Gods. I will destroy them if they try to take what belongs to me.”

He looked down for a moment.

”And thank you for inspiring me. I know just how to do that. I’ve always wondered what it would feel like owning a nation of my own.”

His grin widened.

”I will build an entire Empire, Anki. One whose only purpose is to kill you all—Gods, Origins, and whatever the Primordials are. I will kill them all.”

Chaos Prince’s eyes had widened by the time Northern stopped talking. They were also trembling in disbelief. He was speechless.

Northern’s tone lightened.

”Well then, shall we bring this fateful battle to an end?”

Northern opened his hand, a sleek blade forming in it. The Illusioned Hefter caught the silvery glow of the moonlight and reflected it coldly as Northern raised it into the air.

The Chaos Prince did not move. He just stood there, pressing his lips together. Then he bit his lower lip so hard that blood splattered out.

He ground his teeth intensely, his eyes darting around frantically. Northern paused, slightly confused.

Then the Chaos Prince shot eyes burning with hatred at him. Northern had never seen anything like it. His eyes were red with pain—so much pain. His jaw was covered in blood. All the muscles of his face beneath his skin could be seen.

”I will take EVERYTHING from you.”

The words, for some reason, shook Northern, and his expression darkened with cold anger.

”That is, if you leave this place.”

As Northern brought the sword down, the Chaos Prince suddenly screamed.

”BAIRAN!!”

Northern’s eyes widened in shock. Hearing the name didn’t deter his strike, but he slowed for a moment, and the Chaos Prince exploded into millions of skin fragments, scattering in every direction.

Before Northern’s sword could fall, it was blocked by a familiar face.

Long white hair flowed backward, and radiant blue eyes looked at Northern with cold intensity—no emotion flashing through them at all.

Everything about Bairan felt the same, except the look in his eyes. They lacked the reverence, the honor they usually held whenever Bairan looked at him. Even in the least of situations, Bairan had always looked at him with honor and reverence.

To have the same Bairan regard him so coldly... Northern felt something like a thick, sharp pain tear into his chest.

The look in Bairan’s eyes was enough to tell him that his Sword King was gone.

’Aoi...’

[You will have to kill him and turn him into an Echo.]

’Is there no other way?’

[The influence of the Void is strong, particularly in this summon. All other souls have been recovered except this one. It seems the Chaos Prince had marked the strongest summon and salvaged all the rest to have absolute control over this one.]

Northern’s gaze darkened with pain.

Of course, Bairan being who he was, couldn’t have fallen into control so easily. That meant the Chaos Prince had been doing this since the very beginning.

He had probably tried to control all of Northern’s soul summons but discovered which ones would be very difficult to dominate.

And then he’d picked the strongest of them all and salvaged all the others to focus on that single one. The others were salvaged, which was probably why the rest could be recovered even through the memory of Chaos.

’How many souls currently exist within me?’

[7,891]

[Would you like me to echonize souls and fuse them to create a Supreme Echo capable of fighting the Sword King?]

Northern thought about it for a moment. Then he answered.

’No. It would be a disrespect to such a great man to be slain that way. If anyone is capable of killing him, it has to be those he taught. That is his definition of death.’

...According to the memory Northern saw.