Chapter 145: Transcendent Mode
"Will you stop this nonsense... Lucy?"
The distorted voice emanated from the center of the calm shadow, which stood with composed elegance only a few steps away from Lucy.
Lucy kept her head lowered, her purple eyes gazing into the endless void without sparing the entity before her a single glance, as though she were contemplating something far beyond the boundaries of the situation at hand.
Cain let out a deeply troubled sigh.
Using the supreme techniques he had just regained, he immediately performed a rapid magical scan of Lucy’s aura and extraordinary soul.
There was nothing.
Her mind was completely clear. She was under no form of mental control, directive magic, illusion, or external influence.
And that was precisely what confused Cain the most.
He could not make sense of it.
Lucy had suddenly summoned him through a forbidden technique that was never meant to be used except during the most dire crises in their world, only to attack him viciously the moment he spoke to her.
Cain knew with absolute certainty that Lucy could be reckless and throw childish tantrums from time to time.
But she would never go so far as to attack him with the explicit intent of killing and erasing the husband she loved.
As Cain slowly extended his shadowy hand, surrounding it with a warm aura to dissolve the magical shackles binding Lucy’s body, he prepared to speak to her seriously and uncover the truth behind the predicament she had dragged him into.
Then...
The expression on Lucy’s face suddenly changed, completely overturning Cain’s expectations.
The corner of her lips curved into a faint, mocking smile.
She slowly raised her head, fixing her blazing purple eyes upon his faceless features.
A low, broken chuckle filled with destructive pride escaped her throat.
Lucy spoke with unmistakable defiance:
"You caught me off guard... I admit that! And I admit that you defeated me in the first round through sheer skill..."
Her smile widened.
"You truly deserve for me to fight you with my full strength, without holding back even the slightest bit!"
Suddenly...
Reality flipped upside down.
The surrounding fabric of space exploded.
The vast darkness around them transformed into a pure-white expanse, stretching infinitely in every direction without any visible boundary or end.
The nearby planets vanished completely.
The stars and meteors disappeared.
Every inch of the surrounding void was replaced by nothing but ethereal white, extending endlessly without physical barriers or geographical dimensions.
Cain’s gaze swept across the transformed surroundings as he assessed the new situation.
He immediately realized what Lucy had done.
She had pulled his entire entity into her "Private Spiritual Dimension."
Here, within this overwhelming white domain, Lucy was the absolute sovereign.
She possessed complete authority over the laws of matter, space, and time, allowing her to manipulate the magical laws of this dimension as she pleased without being bound by any external cosmic laws.
Cain’s gaze returned to Lucy, who stood before him with regal composure.
The magical shackles that had bound her had completely dissolved, as though they had never existed.
Her aura, power, and supreme mana had all returned to their absolute peak, radiating with terrifying intensity.
She stood only a short distance away, her colossal purple aura pouring from her body and colliding with Cain’s presence with every passing moment.
Even that aura alone possessed enough power to tear an entire planet apart, shatter its foundations, and reduce it to scattered dust if it were unleashed within the physical world.
Lucy straightened her regal posture and pointed her index finger downward with cold majesty.
GWOOOOOOSH!
In that fleeting instant, a supreme force descended from the vast white expanse above, targeting the center of Cain’s head.
It was a devastating conceptual attack designed to split him in two and completely erase his existence.
Yet Cain was still desperately trying to avoid harming Lucy.
He understood that she had misunderstood something and, more importantly, that she did not know his true identity.
He raised his shadowy palm with absolute firmness, intercepted the devastating force, and scattered it into the surrounding void with a casual wave of his hand, as though brushing an annoying fly away from his face.
Yet at that exact moment...
Lucy moved.
Her strongest weapon, the Dimension Destroyer Sword, shot toward the blackened shadow with lethal precision, its blade aimed directly at his neck.
The attack seemed to have begun only a microscopic distance from his throat, moving at a speed that surpassed the limits of time and physical measurement.
Nevertheless...
The blade’s trajectory came to an abrupt halt.
It struck an invisible barrier, sending sparks flying across the white dimension.
Another legendary sword had appeared in Cain’s shadowy hand.
It had not been there a moment earlier.
Its terrifying screech echoed through the surrounding space.
The sword radiated the dark aura of the rare Chaos Element, a legendary forbidden element possessing the conceptual ability to deconstruct and destroy most things, dimensions, and even existence itself.
Lucy’s eyes widened in utter astonishment.
How could this summoned entity possess a sword infused with the absolute Chaos Element?!
According to her calculations and the laws of this world, this was an entirely unforeseen strategic disaster!
Yet she gritted her teeth in suppressed fury, flooded her entire body with mana, and shouted at the top of her lungs:
"Do you think that weapon will help you now that you’ve entered my personal domain and submitted yourself to my laws?!"
GWOOOOOOSH!
SKRATCHHHH!
FRRRRR!
In a single fleeting moment, millions of sword strikes erupted!
Lucy appeared to remain almost completely still, her body vibrating only slightly from the sheer speed of her movements.
In reality, however, her sword was moving through millions of complex combinations and rapid maneuvers, unleashing destructive aura and supreme spells toward Cain within her personal dimension.
Lucy shouted with provocative anger and defiance:
"Why don’t you attack, you cowardly bastard?! Are you afraid of dying instantly?! Attack... attack like a true warrior if you have the courage!"
Cain sensed an immense and unprecedented surge of energy gathering within Lucy’s next attack.
This was the first truly focused attack she had unleashed from the full power of the Truth Level.
And this time, the target was not merely his physical vessel.
It was the very root of his soul.
Cain’s shadowy soul trembled as he watched the dense purple aura gathering along the edge of Lucy’s raised blade, preparing to descend upon him with overwhelming destructive force.
Lucy was no longer joking.
She was not testing his abilities.
She was fighting a genuine battle to the death.
She would not hesitate to erase him completely and return his soul to nothingness.
In this state, words, hesitation, and attempts at pacification were meaningless.
She was prepared to unleash everything she had.
Cain had no choice.
He had to take her seriously.
He summoned his supreme, suppressed form.
[Transcendent Mode... Activate!]
At that exact miraculous moment...
It was as though the very fabric of space and time had been distorted.
Time itself ceased to flow for the briefest fraction of a second.
The vast white expanse split open.
And from Cain’s shadowy form...
An eternal, sovereign aura began to radiate.