I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1354: Quite A Dilemma

Colak would be lying if he said he wasn’t terrified, especially when he saw all of his soldiers, three thousand men frozen to death in an instant, and their commander still alive to witness it.

Their bodies littered the ground in every direction, forming a circle around where he stood with this strange young man and his doppelganger. Into the trees, across the snow, all of them lay motionless. He found himself wishing they were all just taking a nap, that perhaps this person was merely toying with him and had put them to sleep instead.

He turned his face to the man, actually hoping for something like that.

Now that he looked more closely, he could see this person was not old enough to be called a man. He glistened with an alabaster skin, a young and handsome face and blue eyes that seemed to ripple into themselves, enchanting and strange.

He gave the young man a restrained look, suppressing the hope in his own eyes.

”They’re... all... dead?”

Northern turned both his heads at the same time, observing the littered bodies. The synchronous movement was eerie.

Only the one holding the black rod spoke.

”I believe they are. I can’t feel any heat signature from them, so they must be.” His face carried no sympathy whatsoever. He might as well have been commenting on the weather tonight.

Colak had been restraining himself throughout this entire encounter, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword, which he hadn’t drawn since this whole battle started. Now, though, his fingers clenched tight enough to ache.

His gaze darkened, falling into something like the depths of despair. His head tilted slightly, stress lines forming beneath cold eyes.

Then he looked at Northern and simply said:

”I’m going to be executing you now.”

The moment the words left his mouth, he vanished into a spray of feathers. An overwhelming pressure erupted from within him, and violet fire exploded forth in a shockwave that swept across the frozen battlefield.

Northern did not move.

He simply allowed the shockwave of fire to wash over him, curious what exactly it was supposed to do.

This had not been the man’s talent, but it seemed that just like how Colak had been able to use his essence to strengthen his organs and build endurance, he was also able to execute a spiritual attack.

Northern analyzed it with his eyes and could already see that it was some sort of stigmatization tactic.

’He marked me... cool. Now what?’

Colak settled into stance, his attention fixed on the Northern holding the rod.

’I’m guessing that’s the real one...’

He spread his legs and began to draw his sword from its sheath. The atmosphere grew hotter as he did. The snow crust on the ground melted and dissolved into water, steam rising in thin wisps around his feet.

Then his eyes locked on the Northern before him, and he swung.

He did not move to close the distance. He merely swung the blade across the air, and a diagonal slash of violet fire flew toward Northern.

Northern moved the supreme shadow rod. The rod restructured its body, forming a longsword instead. He swung it in time to cut the fire in half.

The fire phased through the shadow and latched onto him anyway.

He wasn’t burning. Instead, he felt something seeping into his body, and immediately both his essence and stamina began to drain. Fatigue crept into his muscles while his essence bled out through invisible channels.

’Oh?’

The amount being drained was negligible.

[If your essence continues to drain at this rate, you’ll get completely drained in seventy-six days. However, because of Infinite Iteration, your essence always regenerates at a fast rate. The rate at which it is being drained is too slow to catch up to Infinite Iteration.]

’Thanks Aoi. Although I kinda already figured that out...’

[...]

Colak vanished again. This time he appeared behind the Northern holding the shadow sword, spawning from nothing and bringing his blade down toward Northern’s neck.

Meanwhile, the other unarmed Northern grinned and vanished.

With unbelievable speed, he intercepted Colak’s sword, catching it with one hand.

”Hey commander, you wouldn’t happen to be ignoring me, right?”

He yanked Colak’s sword to the side, opening his chest wide. Then he lunged a palm strike into Colak’s sternum.

Air exploded out of the man’s back. Blood sprayed from his mouth as his internal organs ruptured.

Northern released him.

Colak staggered back, almost falling, but righted himself. Blood covered his lower jaw, dripping onto the melted snow beneath his feet.

He observed both Northerns with confusion etched in his eyes.

’That was supposed to be an illusion.’

He looked at the Northern holding the black sword, who had now turned to face him.

’Was I tricked all along? Was that one the illusion after all?’

He couldn’t be certain. Something was wrong about both of them, and this was difficult to believe. They looked exactly the same. Moved independently. Spoke independently.

There was another possibility.

’That should be impossible. Cloning talents are extremely rare and cannot work on this magnitude.’

Both bodies of this young man could talk and act independently. No clone talent should be able to do such a thing.

’Unless... he’s a Paragon.’

Colak squinted his eyes, genuinely confused now.

’But there are no reports of a Paragon in Ryugan. Have we been deceived?’

After a long moment of observation, Colak straightened.

There were still too many unexplainable holes. The ice that had killed his men, for instance. Perhaps it could have been an item, but such an item would be either Ancient, Divine, or Eternal rank. He had never seen any of those item ranks. Acquiring them required defeating the undefeatable. It was something Luminaries could not accomplish in his land. It was certainly something a Paragon could never accomplish.

There were too many secrets surrounding this person. Too many unknowns. That was alarming, considering the Empire was quite proud of its intelligence network.

Then Colak’s eyes widened.

He suddenly remembered a conversation back at home with his friend at the intelligence bureau. The friend had been gathering intel on the state of the Central Plains. There had been talk of a Paragon who fought an Origin that was supposed to end the Central Plains.

At the time, Colak had passed it off, saying information often got exaggerated. But he had suspected there was a very strong and new Paragon out there somewhere.

That intel had been confidential. Many did not know of it, not Lord Pyrrhus and not even the sixth prince.

The intel had not been shared with their expedition because no one had expected this Paragon to be in Ryugan.

The intel was that he was in Stelia.

Colak continued to stare at Northern, finding himself in quite a dilemma.