Chapter 146: Am I the Leader of the Smile Organization?!
In that fleeting instant, Lucy’s pupils dilated like never before, and an astonishment seized her, paralyzing her thought process for fractions of a second; breath caught in her chest before the utter horror of the spectacle!
The perilous aura radiating at that moment from the entity standing before her was no ordinary elemental aura like blazing fire or freezing ice, nor was it even a forbidden elemental aura like Chaos... Rather, it was an abyssal, profound aura within whose spectrums one could sense every known and unknown element in existence! Among them were elements of absolute mass destruction: Death and Nothingness, Life and Immortality, and the Abyss itself!
It felt as though the being standing before her could no longer be classified within the rosters of humans or mages at all... Instead, he sat atop the throne of primordial cosmic monsters that transcended the laws of dimensions and time!
This terrifying manifestation of energy pressed down upon the sub-fabric of the white dimension, causing the very particles of the void to vibrate and disintegrate beneath the weight of this overwhelming presence. It was not mere ordinary magical power; it was an absolute reign of authority that forced nature itself to bow.
Yet, despite witnessing and sensing this crushing, dominant power, Lucy utterly refused to step back or stop!
This was the very first time in a long while that she felt such a deep, primal dread... For a brief moment at the beginning, she had assumed she was in total command and control, but here she was now, standing with her hand frozen mid-swing of her blade before this majestic shadow entity!
The energy orbits within her body trembled for a few seconds, and conflicting emotions surged in the depths of her mind, caught between shock and disbelief. How could a summoned entity possess such dominance that made her fear him?
Ever since her youth, Lucy had been akin to a "rampaging monster" that could never be tamed or broken... She possessed sovereign techniques and abilities that far surpassed mere concepts of talent or phenomenal potential; she had attained the Truth Level while still in the bloom of her youth, sitting at the pinnacle of this world at a record age no one had ever reached before her!
How could someone like her be defeated?!
This strange sensation assaulted her for the first time in her life—the feeling that you are facing a being who will inevitably defeat you. Yet her towering pride refused to believe or accept that she could be defeated at the hands of a mere individual hailing from a lower, fragile world like Earth!
"Impossible... I stand at the peak of the Truth Level. No matter how miraculous the power this man holds is, I am in the Truth Level as well!"
SLAAAAASH!
Lucy’s sword descended with a force that cleaved the white dimension straight toward the shadow entity... And in that very same moment, the shadow entity raised his sword with a swift horizontal arc!
SPEEEECH!
The two blades met in the middle in a legendary collision! At the point of impact between the two edges, the laws of physics were completely shattered, and a colossal shockwave erupted, shaking Lucy’s private spiritual dimension to its very borders!
An immense pressure point was generated between the blades, expelling all surrounding particles, while the opposing auras continued to gnaw and clash. Meanwhile, Cain remained rooted in his position like a towering mountain, without shifting a single angle from his original stance.
In that rapid instant, Lucy decided to leave her sword suspended in midair to sustain its collision with Cain’s blade, while attempting a surprise, devastating low blow while he was distracted by the clash above...
However, before she could complete her attack, she found the shadow entity’s foot right in front of her face at the exact speed of thought, his foot striking her face directly in a crushing, direct blow!
BOOOOOOM!
That brutal hit sent her flying like a projectile backward into the expanding white domain!
Lucy resisted the immense recoil force driving her back, straining to stabilize her body in midair as she breathed heavily... Suddenly, she felt warm droplets trickling from her nose for the first time in her history!
She moved her pale fingers and wiped the liquid... then stared with eyes ablaze with purple sparks at the bright red blood staining her hand!
"This is... my blood?!"
In her entire life, Lucy could never recall bleeding a single drop of blood; in every battle, she was always the one watching her opponents’ blood splatter... But now, she had tasted true pain!
To Lucy, this was like a spark that ignited her heart, igniting her with a wild enthusiasm and frantic determination! She felt that she had finally found the phenomenal entity capable of hurting her and besting her!
Her veins glowed with absolute purple energy, and the temperature of the white dimension around them skyrocketed due to the rising spiritual pressure emanating from her body. It was no longer just a regular duel; it had turned into an overwhelming urge to fight and overcome this being who had challenged her dominance.
Lucy spoke in a tone filled with dark excitement: "No being in all of existence has ever been able to push me to bleed... You are truly special... Leader of the Smile Organization!"
Cain watched the change in Lucy’s expression the moment blood dripped from her nose... He had not wanted to hit her hard in the first place, but her previous strike had aimed directly at wiping out his soul entirely, forcing him to defend himself with utmost strictness!
Cain knew that Lucy had examined his past memories and learned of his "Transcendent State"... yet it seemed she still failed to recognize him within this shadow vessel!
And who in the hell was this "Leader of the Smile Organization" she kept talking about?!
Yes, Cain and this unknown man shared the exact same name, but they were by no means the same person... Had Lucy somehow tried to summon the soul of the Smile Organization’s leader, and instead of summoning him, summoned Cain’s soul instead?!
Yet that was a logically impossible assumption; the Mandalorian tribe’s grand summoning technique could never mistake the soul signature of its target, even if there were thousands of souls bearing the name "Cain"!
Cain paused for a moment, pondering the depths of this mystery... He began reviewing all the memories, situations, and temporal intersections he had experienced. How could a sovereign technique directed at a specific entity pull him personally from across the reaches of the universe? This soul link could never be forged or breached by any known magical means.
And there was no logical or magical explanation for this summoning anomaly other than one astonishing truth:
He himself... was the true Leader of the Smile Organization!