Chapter 404 I want to...

For someone who was about to receive a visibly heavy attack, Alex did not show any hints of fear on his face as the spear whistled its way towards him.

He only stood still in his place, with him not giving any effort to dodge the spear. He did not use any of his abilities to stop the spear from hitting his head, which just made his situation look more precarious.

"Hehe."

historical

At this point, Delia began to smile as she felt the spear tip touching Alex’s skin. She did not feel any resistance at all, as she only felt soft flesh hitting her spear. This feeling made Delia feel giddy, as she was extremely familiar with this feeling before!

"Heh, this technique of mine might look basic, but I have killed a lot of men using this technique alone. That already speaks about its fatal capability against my opponents! And now that I have reached Stage 6 using my spear arts, all my spear abilities, including this attack of mine are way stronger than before!" Delia thought to herself as she sent more of her power cursing through the spear. She relished the feeling of power residing in her spear as she continued to thrust it towards Alex.

"Oh Alex, I hope you can survive this attack. Because if you don’t, then our deal will be off!"

After she made this declaration, Delia let out a shout as she released the tornado compressed inside the spear head.

"Boom!"

A tornado which was as large as an elephant materialized right in front of Alex, which then engulfed his body with winds reaching speeds that are even greater than the speed of sound. Fortunately for the bystanders, the power of the tornado’s winds was only focused on the tornado’s body alone, which spared everything that was not touched by the tornado.

"Rippppp!"

For the things that were touched by the tornado, all of them were shredded into extremely tiny pieces, with some of the sturdy structures showing signs of extreme wear-and-tear. Even the spear that Delia held appeared to have some scratch marks in it, which was the effect of the tornado’s decompression.

"Hmph, this attack of mine is part of my offer to you, Alex." Delia said as the tornado continued to do its work on Alex. "Walk out of this attack alive, and I will consider talking about my offer more."

"Hoh? So that’s the reason for your sudden attack to me, Delia? You’re just trying to sort my power out? Hmph, what a crude method. But I can applaud you for using this method here. After all, your method is a sure-fire way for you to confirm my power..." From inside the tornado, Alex’s confident voice rang out clearly even when the tornado continued to rage on him. "This attack of yours is a good attack, but this has no use against me anymore..."

"Bzzt bzzy bzzt."

After Alex said these words, numerous holes suddenly appeared on the tornado’s body, which all proceeded to suck the tornado itself.

Each of these holes were as large as a human head, with their shapes comparable to that of roughly drawn circles, and with their bodies having the same appearance as that of the empty space.

Each of these holes appeared to be both beautiful and abstract, although there were something inherently alien from them that was enough to make them look extremely unsettling.

"Woooh..."

A loud whistling sound could be heard inside the room as the holes continued to devour the tornado, which was now shrinking at an exponential rate. The tornado of course seemed to have tried something to destroy the holes too, but its efforts were useless as the holes continued to whittle the tornado down.

"..."

Everyone just stared at the tornado and the holes with a quiet and sudbued look, as if they were not interested on making any moves on these two objects. Even the haughty Delia was only looking at the holes with an interested look, with her not making any effort to destroy them.

As for Alex, he was still standing at the same place that he was in earlier, with him not moving even by an inch in any directions. He only kept his body still as the holes continued to do their work.

"..."

A few more seconds passed by in this unsettling silence, and it was only when the tornado was fully absorbed by the holes that activity returned to the people in that place.

"So just like me, you have also become a Sixth Stage Being. Congratulations Alex, you just took the first step to becoming a unique being." Delia said in an amused tone as she slung her spear on her back. The killing intent that she was pouring on Alex earlier was now gone, as only an expectant expression can be seen on her face. "Now that I’m done checking your power level, let’s proceed to my offer. I want to-"

"Oi wait a minute! You’re just going to forget the fact that you attacked Alex? Hmph, how audacious of you!" Alina interrupted Delia’s speech as she pointed her katana towards her. "Do you think that I can just accept you strutting around here like you owned this place? Hell no! Even if you made a move against Alex for ’friendly’ reasons, there’s no way that you can go unpunished from that!"

"So you want to beat me up then? Hehehe, why don’t you try it now? From what I can feel, you are a Sixth Stage Being too." Delia replied smugly as she stared at Alina. "Come on, make your move now. You have a prime reason to kill me already, so be free to attack!"

"..."

"Come on, what’s the hold up? You can attack me already!"

"..."

"Why are you not slashing your sword? Are you chickening out now? Hehe, if you are just like that, then you’re not worthy of looking at me!"

"..."

The livid look on Alina’s eyes at this moment makes it obvious that she was already itching to strike at Delia. Even a dolt like Asteria can feel that Alina was only a few moments away from unleashing her sword on Delia! She just needs a little more push to do the deed!

But instead of making an attack right now, Alina only gritted her teeth as she began to pull her katana back. An extremely unwilling expression appeared on her face as she did this, making it obvious that she was not happy with what she was doing.

But even if she was unhappy, she still kept on pulling her katana back, even when Delia continued taunting her.

"...Tsk, you’re lucky that your real body is not here. If your real self was here in this place, I would have beaten your face up already!" The indignant Alina muttered angrily as she placed her katana back on its sheath. "I thought you were already the real deal, but my eyes showed me that you’re just a duplicate. Tsk, now I can’t just kill you, as that will be detrimental to Alex! Ugh, if I can just really strangle you right now I would have done it already..."

"Hoho, so you can still see my real status as a duplicate even when I am already this strong? Good. This is good." Duplicate-Delia replied as she ignored the murderous threats uttered by Alina. "This just means that your eyes are still in their prime condition! Hehehe... I wonder what would happen if I pair my tongue with your eyes? Will something spectacular happen?"

"You-"

"So that’s why I felt that you’re weird. You’re actually just a duplicate." Alex suddenly said as he jumped in between Alina and Delia. The timing of his speech was impeccable, as it managed to stop Delia and Alina from devolving into another argument. "Heh, now I can see why you’re confident on coming here. Since you’re just a duplicate, you can easily approach me without any fear of death.... Heh, what a sly way for you to talk to us while keeping yourself safe. No wonder you’re still alive up to this day..."

"My ally’s power really is helpful to me. Without that boy, my life as a traveler would have been a lot harder." Duplicate-Delia replied calmly in face of Alex’s ’praise’. She then sent Alina another sneer before she went back to looking at Alex. "So now that you know that I am just a duplicate, what would you do to me now? Would you still hear me out, or will you just destroy me? Frankly, I would want it if you choose to hear me out. But if you don’t, then its fine. It’s not like I would die here...."

"Interesting. Interesting. This just makes me more intrigued by what you want from me." Alex slowly replied as he approached Delia. He walked towards her in a slow calculative manner, as if he was measuring something with his movements. "What would you want from me that made you come here? Come on, I want to hear what you will say."

"But Alex! This woman just attacked you earlier!" Alina blurted out as she kept her hostile gaze at Delia. "Will you still entertain her even when she just attacked you? Come on Alex, you know that this woman is a possible traitor! You can’t just listen to her!"

"Don’t worry about that, Alina. Her attack earlier was not meant to kill me. She only did it to measure my strength." Alex replied as he placed his hands on Alina’s shoulders. "Believe me, if this woman is really trying to kill me, she will not do something as simple as that spear attack. Besides, the one that we are facing here is a duplicate, so there is no problem even if I will hear her out. This duplicate is not powerful enough to make any dent on me."

"I know that, Alex. I am just reminding you that this woman could be planning something sinister against us."

"I know that, Alina. It’s not like I will quickly accept her offer to us." Alex replied as he let out a snort. "Don’t worry Alina. As long as I notice wrong with her offer, I will quickly reject her and kill her on this spot."

"Yes, that’s what I want to hear from you, Alex." Alina said as she appeared to have calmed down now. "Don’t get swayed by this woman’s wiles. Just keep your mind clear while listening to her!"

"Hey! I am still here, you know! I can clearly hear your slanders about me!" Duplicate-Delia blurted out as her glare at Alina returned. "So you’re already discussing about the possibility of killing me even when I am not yet talking about my offer? That’s too much for me, even if I am just a duplicate! I still have feelings you know..."

"Since you have decided to approach us at this manner, then you should have been prepared on the things that can happen to you." Alex said as he let go of his hold on Alina. He then went back on looking at Duplicate-Delia again, who appeared to be irritated right now. "Now that there’s nothing that can stop you from talking, you can already state your offer to me. Go on, the floor is yours."

"Sigh, if it weren’t for that Alina, I could have already told you my offer 15 minutes earlier..." Duplicate-Delia grumbled as she shook her head. She then moved her head to the side as she narrowly dodged a stone that was thrown by Alina. "Hey, did you just-"

"Just state your offer already." Alex said in an exhausted tone. "Just ignore Alina, ok?"

"I will ignore her as long as you can stop her from throwing rocks at me. Can you do that?"

"Just... just continue talking. I don’t want to see you stay here with Alina any longer, so just do what you have to do!"

"Fine! If you don’t want to discipline your rowdy partner, then I will just finish talking here quickly! Hmph, love really makes people blind..." Duplicate-Delia continued to grumble to herself for a few more seconds before she let out a sigh.

This sigh was then followed by Duplicate-Delia uttering the words that Alex had been waiting to hear.

"My offer to you is just simple. I want to..."