Death… And Me

Chapter 3935: Creepy

The ribbons of golden plasma opened their eyes again, thousands of them, each one pulsing with divine energy and cold intent. They went straight for Roan, who was closest.

He reacted instantly, darting away in a flash of motion, weaving between the searing trails of light. He didn’t strike back. His main techniques mirrored those of his fake younger self, and using them here could expose his identity. So, he simply dodged without using any fancy moves, which made things difficult, but would not be linked to his fake self.

Every missed beam struck the city below.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Each impact bloomed into a blazing explosion, wide enough to level entire districts. Waves of radiant energy swept outward, erasing everything in their path.

’Kentucky, we can’t fight here. We need to lure this thing somewhere no one can see us!’

’I’m still in the middle of my mission,’ Kentucky replied through their link. ’If I flee, I’ll be punished. I don’t have your Mirage Assault trick to make a copy of myself and trick them, you know?’

Back at the castle, Drora didn’t hesitate. He grabbed Suliao, his energy flaring as he tore through the air.

’Didn’t you hear him?! Get the hell out of here! I’ll carry Suliao, so just focus on surviving! This isn’t a fight we can touch!’

That single command shattered the remaining discipline. The escorts scattered in every direction, abandoning formation without a second thought.

Kentucky followed suit, though not too far. Drora’s orders were exactly what he needed, so he could come back in a moment.

Meanwhile, Roan raced out of the city with the Golden Sphere right behind him. The thing moved like a storm of living light, its countless ribbons coiling and twisting, each one splitting to reveal blinking eyes that shone with judgemental gold. He wanted to accelerate, but the creature cut off every route, reshaping itself faster than he could fly.

*Creeee!*

Kentucky’s cry tore through the sky as he arrived. He had fled in a different direction from his group before changing his appearance with Rean’s technique once again. Now he wasn’t a Minokawa anymore, but some other kind of Demon Bird.

Instantly, half the ribbons turned toward him. The Sphere recognized both Roan and Kentucky as anomalies to be erased.

The air trembled as its attacks split, half following each of them.

Too bad for the Sphere monster, Kentucky was still the fastest flyer in the twins’ group. If Roan could dodge, so could Kentucky, even more so.

Roan gave a short nod, spotting brief openings among the golden threads. Together, they dove through the gaps and fled into the distance. The Golden Echo pursued relentlessly, filling the horizon with explosions. Every missed strike detonated into massive suns of energy that devoured everything nearby.

Behind them stretched a scar tens of kilometers wide—a molten trench of annihilation cutting straight through the city and into the plains beyond. Tens of millions perished in mere seconds.

The two managed to flee, but the Sphere wasn’t slow. If anything, it was faster, only its divided focus on both of them kept it from ending the chase quickly. Still, its pressure mounted.

Normally, Roan and Kentucky could cross thousands of kilometers in moments at their Sky Space-Time Realm Middle Stage. But within that radiant field, all spatial and temporal powers were sealed. Space refused to bend between different points. Time refused to accelerate around them or slow anything they focused on.

They were trapped in the Sphre’s domain.

’Red Death, Third Movement Form, Crimson Lightning!’

*Kabrum!*

Roan finally thought he flew far enough, not feeling any Divine Senses around other than Kentucky’s. A scarlet bolt cut across the heavens. Roan became red lightning itself, vanishing forward.

Kentucky wasn’t far behind. His wings flared open, black and white flames igniting as the wind element surged beneath him.

*Flap!*

A deafening sonic boom followed. His flames spread in a massive arc, blocking some of the golden ribbons.

They flew side by side, fully aware of the stakes. Splitting up might save one of them, but it would doom the other, and there was no telling if the Sphere would stop once it finished the first.

They had to destroy it. But first, they needed distance, somewhere remote, away from witnesses that might appear at any moment.

After a short while, the golden light that had enveloped Lobokian City faded, leaving only ruin and silence. The Prime Minister, among the few survivors, immediately sent word to the continent’s higher-ups. Soon, experts would come, Space-Time Realm ones, and then the Divinity Realm.

Roan and Kentucky didn’t have long.

Roan spotted a mountain range ahead. ’There! We’ll fight there. The peaks will block its line of sight and buy us time.’

’Alright!’ Kentucky answered, sweat beading down his neck.

But Sister Orb’s voice cut through their thoughts.

[No. Don’t stop. It’s not using its full power yet. If you fight now, you’ll die.]

’What?! How do you know?’

[Ignore the ribbons and the blasts. Focus your Divine Sense past the golden sphere, watch the core. Feel what’s inside it.]

They obeyed, if only for a split second, weaving between attacks as their senses pierced the storm.

What they found froze their thoughts.

’Celestial Laws!’

That thing wasn’t just a weapon. It was a fragment of divine authority, a remnant of the Judgement Protocol itself. Of course, neither Roan nor Kentucky knew about it. The only thing that mattered was the Celestial Laws they felt, and that was bad news.

[Keep fleeing for a few more seconds,] Sister Orb urged.

A pulse of energy rippled through their minds. Suddenly, Roan and Kentucky felt the familiar presence of Rean and Celis, once distant, now only thousands of kilometers away. Sister Orb had contacted them.

Both had been on missions of their own, but neither could ignore the danger.

Rean arrived reluctantly; if it were only Roan, he might have let things play out, but Kentucky was there, too.

Still, the two couldn’t teleport directly inside the golden field. The Sphere’s radiance sealed every space-related ability, and even the Celestial Soul Dimensional Realm was suppressed.

So, Rean and Celis charged forward instead, cutting through the skies toward the blinding golden horizon.

As soon as they entered range, the Golden Sphere changed again. Half of its countless eyes shifted, locking onto the new intruders.

A wave of golden ribbons surged toward them, burning holes in the air.

Rean and Celis saw them coming, and those eyes didn’t make them feel very good. ’That thing is creepy...’