Chapter 732: Avatar of Machina vs. Riley Ross (2)

"But I'm not sleepy yet."

Hypnos and the others were clearly just spirits devoid of any of their emotions when they were still walking amongst the living, their eyes were completely hollow; the insides of their mouth like an abyss. But still, within that abyss was a certain sense of... distress.

Despite the spirits being hollow, there was an obvious change of expression on Hypnos's ethereal face. Eyebrows, slightly lifted up as if truly shocked that his abilities did not work on Riley.

"Don't be too shocked, Hypnos," Riley calmly sighed even though he was still being held by the other summons, "One of the first abilities I received was immunity to all and any influence on the mind. Which is weird now that I think of it, I developed dementia in my own universe and still—"

And before Riley could finish his words, Hypnos once again grabbed his head; this time, covering his face and his eyes so the effectiveness of his mind control would work even better. But alas, all it did was make Riley smile.

"I have already told you, Hypnos. That doesn't work on me."

And with those words, Riley also placed his hand on Hypnos's head. Or more specifically, he slapped him even with his eyes covered—completely shaving off his face and a large part of his head. Or even more specifically, his head was gone in an instant.

"Oh...?" Riley tilted his head to the side as he watched as Hypnos's ethereal silhouette withered away. He then turned to look at the other spirits holding him; the smile on his face, growing wider by the second.

And then, with a snap of his fingers, the other spirits all turned into dust-if spirits could turn into dust, that is. But that is what they looked like as Riley watched their fragments dance and flutter away until nothing of them was left.

Chihiro, who took this time to collect herself, quickly spat out blood as her summons were all defeated at the same time. Chihiro shares her mana with her summons, and when they die, the toll on her body is too hard to ignore.

Fortunately for her, not all of them withered away—one remained.

The rogue Norinlad, Kerrigan.

"Ah, you are Bounty Hunter Kerrigan," Riley hummed in amusement as he looked at Kerrigan, "It was hard to recognize you since you do not have your usual skin because you have become a spirit. But you do not have to worry, Norinlad. Your end is already deemed to be inevitable since you have already ended."

"..." Kerrigan's spirit seemed confused with what Riley was saying, but only for a while. With Chihiro's orders, Kerrigan rushed toward Riley; the very expanse of space around him, distorting as it seemed to flow one with him.

"Even now, I still do not get how your racial abilities actually work, Kerrigan." And even with this force rushing toward him, Riley just casually placed his hand on his chin as he started flying back to avoid Kerrigan, "In fact, aside from Tedi, you are the only Norinlad I have seen—and she is completely different from you. Weird, too wei-"

And as Riley was enjoying himself and chatting with an unexpected opponent, Chihiro appeared behind him; the two of them, doing some sort of pincer attack which Riley thought they should have done before when there were still more of them.

Unbeknownst to Riley, however, this was Chihiro's plan all along. The other summons were just decoys to let Riley put his guard down—the most important factor of this attack was Kerrigan.

"This will not work, Chihiro."

But it will, a small smirk crawled behind Chihiro's mask as Riley pointed his palm toward Kerrigan.

"Pavoom," and as he uttered those words, Chihiro ordered her remaining summon to go on an all-out attack and pierce Riley straight through the heart.

Kerrigan's entire body was engulfed in some sort of white light that seemed to destroy even the darkness of space itself, erasing it completely momentarily. Even then, however, Chihiro did stop her attack and continued to rush toward Riley; her hands, glowing as she had been charging up one of her spells since earlier.

She continued. After all, Kerrigan was not someone who would die easily—there was a special process on how to kill him. And now, with Riley placing all of his attention toward him, Chihiro snapped her fingers; the energy she has been charging up since earlier, now wrapping around her hands like a fiery caestus.

"Now!" And like a war cry, Chihiro slammed both her knuckles together, creating a spark that washed out everything.

"What are you doing, Chihiro?"

"Kh!" And even as her face was suddenly grabbed by Riley, Chihiro did not panic as she waited for Kerrigan to come out of the weird white beam that came out from Riley's finger.

"..."

"..."

But even after a few seconds had passed, even as the white ray disappeared... Kerrigan wasn't there—and this is when Chihiro noticed her nose was already bleeding—a sign that Kerrigan was instantly defeated just like that.

"H...how?" Chihiro asked.

"I don't know, Chihiro," and Riley dutifully answered with a sigh, "I was given the talent to kill everything."

"...Heh," Chihiro could not help but just let out a small chuckle as she heard Riley's words.

She really should have ran. But no—she doesn't want her System to be afraid. She wanted to prove that she could overcome this... monster in front of her.

But now that Riley literally had her in his grasp, Chihiro just softly chuckled. Her System also stopped telling her to stop, almost as if it was giving her last moments of peace before Riley kills her.

"You know..." Chihiro's muffled voice seeped out from Riley's palm, "...I actually also have a talent for killing things."

"Oh?" Riley tilted his head before looking up at Chihiro, "Can you show me?"

"Don't worry...

...you will feel it too."

And with those words, Chihiro placed her fists together and pointed them at Riley; the energy gathered in them, letting out several pulses that caused Riley's hair to violently snap in space.

"..." Riley could not really see anything else but the glowing glyphs being released by Chihiro's fist, "If you release something like that, you might also kill yourself, Chihiro."

"...I know."

And without even any hesitation, the glow around her eyes instantly disappeared as it seemed to have been vacuumed by her fists—and once again, the expanse of space turned silent as it waited for the blast to gush forth.

And when it did, everything that could disappear within a million kilometers disappeared into nothing... including Riley.

As for Chihiro, well... the only thing that disappeared from her were her arms, and they were already regenerating from their mangled base. By all means, this was an attack that Chihiro would have not been able to survive, and the only reason she was still here...

...is because of the thing she was sucking.

It was a vial, an elixir that the System rewarded her a long time ago—a literal life-saving potion.

"Is... is it done? We—" Chihiro quickly covered her mouth, 'less she jinxed the entire situation. And before she could celebrate, however, her System once again bombarded her with an endless barrage of messages.

And they all said one thing—

[Absorb Riley Ross's Soul, now!]