Chapter 70 Breaking Point

As Flid continued to pummel Set into a pulp, Celine meanwhile was breathing out heavily as she faced her own battle.

"What's wrong, Celine? Tired?" Lullu asked while she casually sat on the side with some of the Immortals while some are keeping Celine busy.

"Shut it!" Celine shouted as she sent her Lucile-infused whip towards another Immortal.

Lullu picked herself up, and began making her way towards Celine as another Immortal went to replace her seat.

"This is the advantage of having numbers, Celine." Lullu said, picking up her sword and swinging it, sending a Lucile-airslash hurling towards Celine.

Celine immediately dodged by ducking. After the slash made it past her, Celine attacked Lullu with her whip while gritting her teeth.

Lullu looked at Celine's frustrated and tired expression with utter bliss. She then laughed as she exchanged attacks with her. "Hahaha! If you continuously act like that, you'll die alone."

As Celine was continuing her clash, the Immortals, who weren't fighting anyone, continued on scouring the town.

They looked for three girls and a woman with blue, emotionless eyes, but no matter where they look they can't seem to find them.

"What do we do, Sisters? Those four seemed to have left the town."

"That's probably not entirely true. They wouldn't leave their comrades behind. Tell the rest to keep the ones left occupied! Those four will reveal themselves sooner or later."

As the Immortals continued on scouting and exchanging information, inside the golden dome, the scene looks like a war-torn battlefield.

The massive crater they're in has dents, holes, crevices, and holes all over it. It like a calamity struck the place.

The forces that caused this mess are: the mighty Immortals versus the living, breathing, catastrophe, Chrys 'Golden Hands' Cheria.

Armed with their Lucile, the Immortals dodged, blocked, parried, and attacked Chrys. While Chrys is armed with his golden aura, negating every attack sent towards him while attacking with it relentlessly.

The Immortals are dealing with Chrys' attacks just fine. Dodging and blocking the earth spikes, evading the golden spheres of burning light, and dealing with the hurricane winds thrown at them.

Meanwhile, Chrys is just standing casually in the center of the dome, keeping the Immortals busy and away from him with ease. He looked like he has it so easy he might as well sip a drink while he's at it.

The Immortals saw how casual Chrys was looking, even looking like he has his mind somewhere else, they then thought. "Damn it!"

As she punched a gloden sphere away, an Immortal said. "Looks like our usual technique of tiring the opponents out won't work on him? Does he even get tired from all of this?!"

Another Immortal squashed an earth spike beneath her feet as she stated. "He might be putting up a face. But, even if he is..."

She then looked around her, seeing the Immortals blocking Chrys' attacks without rest. Although all of them had a bright smile on their faces, sweat poured down their body as fatigue began to build up.

The Immortal then returned her attention towards Chrys, who is still standing casually looking he isn't even paying attention to them, she then continued. "Even if he gets tired from this, I think we will be the first to fall in a battle of attrition."

"Can't agree more, Sister."

"So what do we do? Give up? I can't have that!"

"Me too!"

"Calm down, Sisters. But do you notice it as well?"

"What do you mean? Is something wrong?"

"Yes, something is very wrong."

"I refuse to believe that THE Golden Hands can be matched by only a hundred or so Immortals."

"The Golden Hands that I know is the one, who singlehandidly took down an entire kingdom when he was nothing but a brat."

"Not only did he did that, but he also covered all the surviving Superpowers in a shred of terror. And that was only when he was just a child. And he is currently standing in front of us as a full grown man."

"That leads me to only one reason why we haven't all died yet..."

The Immortal released a completely innocent and beautiful smile as she said sweetly, but the aura around her is truly terrifying. "He's holding back on us."

Another Immortal mimicked her expression as well as her aura before she asked. "Is he underestimating us?"

The previous Immortal then said. "No, he is not underestimating us." Completely dumbfounding the other Immortals.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

The Immortal then placed a hand on her chin as she stated. "This golden dome that keeps us in place, the woman with him that left, the missing girls with them, and his actions that indicates that his plan is to pin us down. That means his plan is..."

"To biding for time."

An Immortals then responded. "Is that so..."

"Then, do we just surrender our 'plans' for him?"

The Immortal then shook her head as she replied. "No, I have a better idea."

She then took a deep breath and yelled. "Sisters!!!" Gathering the attention of everyone within the dome, excluding Chrys, who isn't an Immortal and who seems like his brain is out of this world, but that doesn't stop him from attacking.

The Immortal then pointed her finger towards Chrys as she said with a smile. "Attack him, all at once, in close quarters."

All the Immortals all let out their smiles as trust, born from being raised together, gave them the reasoning for the order without needing to ask.

Then, after another second, all the Immortals, who were previously on the defensive, all charged at Chrys while still blocking his attacks.

Three of the Immortals all simultaneously attacked Chrys, who still has this distant look on his eyes.

All three of them landed their attacks, but before it could touch Chrys, his aura blocked it, completely negating their attacks.

"Tsk!" The Immortals released an annoyed click after seeing their Lucile-infused attacks fail, but they then realized that light in Chrys' eyes returned and matched with one of them.

After seeing that Chrys was staring at her directly in the eyes, the Immortal released a smile as she said. "Hello, welcome back! Yes, you're still with us."

While wearing a face of indifference, Chrys, who's hand is glowing a bright golden color, extended his hand towards the Immortals face.

"Dammit!" The Immortal thought as she tried to pull her face away from Chrys' hand.

The other Immortals also tried to pull her away as they remembered what the Patriarch told them.

The Immortals reached out to their sister that was in immediate danger of losing her life. They gritted her teeth as the Immortal that suggested to go close cursed her very existence.

Luckly, the Immortal was saved. But it was not the Immortals or herself that got her out of that situation, it was Chrys, who simply stopped moving his hand towards her face.

The Immortal, seeing the opportunity, immediately jumped away from Chrys, while the other Immortals also kept their distance.

Chrys meanwhile closed his hands before sending a single barrage of attacks, larger and more dangerous than before, forcing the Immortals to back off while trying to survive.

After Chrys' onslaught has ended, a group of Immortals grouped up as they watched Chrys take a round of deep breaths.

"That was a weird reaction, right?" One of the Immortals asked.

"Yeah, I thought that too."

"From what our 'sources' tells us, when he touches a person when his hands glow a golden color, the person will overload with his energy and explode into bits."

"Yes, that is true. 'They' think that we Immortals actually have to be in direct contact with him for couple seconds before we explode."

"Are you really going to take that 'fox's word'?"

"Ha! No. But if we continue fighting him, we might be forced to prove that."

"Well, we can't exactly back down, now can we?"

And within a single heartbeat, every Immortal lunged simultaneously at Chrys. Attacking him with Lucile-infused attacks since they know it somehow counters him.

A kick, a palm strike, an axe hit, a cut, a stab, a bullet made from Lucile, and many more. All of this hit Chrys in rapid succesion, but none of them damaged him since it was all blocked by his aura.

Although their attacks failed, the Immortals continued on attacking him.

Meanwhile, even though he wasn't even hurt or being knocked back, Chrys is just standing there in the middle without moving an inch with dead looking eyes.

The Immortals also noticed his odd behavior, one of them then yelled. "Don't let current behavior fool you. 'They' told us Golden Hands has a tendency to play mind games, be mindful us his hands."

As the Immortals continued on attacking him close-range while being mindful of Chrys' hands that no longer glowed, they then noticed a slight movement on the ground underneath Chrys as his eyebrows twitched a little.

Without a second to spare, the Immortals immediately moved far away from Chrys. A second later, an earth dome formed around Chrys.

Before the Immortals could ask what was going on, the earth dome slowly cracked, peeled off, floated mid-air, spun around, formed a spiked shape, before it launched in every direction.

The Immortals immediately went to work dodging and blocking the rock bullets, but due to being caught by surprise, some of them got hit.

After sending a few seconds worth of the rock bullets, the earth dome expended itself, revealing Chrys standing inside, mumbling to himself.

Some Immortals hurriedly tended to the wounded while the rest kept watch on Chrys, who is still muttering incoherently to himself.

"These wounds are only a few inches from your vital organs!" One of the Immortals tending to the injured screamed.

An Immortal bleeding from the shoulder walked over and said. "That means he was aiming for the kill..."

"Don't talk, you idiot!"

"Was he attacking blindly?"

"Did he purposely kept that attack hidden for this moment or not?"

"Shit! He does he really need mind tricks for someone as powerful as him?!"

Another Immortal came over and asked. "Is he muttering to himself?"

"Uh..." They all looked at Chrys and saw that his mouth was moving, but only low grumbling noises could be heard. They could get closer to understand, but no one dared in case it was another trap.

Just then, an Immortal with animal-like ears said. "He says..."

"No, not now. I made a promise."

"No, I'm better than this."

"Stop."

"No. Not needed."

"That's what he mutters to himself." The Immortal with animalistic ears said.

An Immortal formed a dejected expression as she said. "Talk about weird... and creepy."

"Don't let your guard down! This is most likely another one of his tricks! Don't be fooled!" An Immortal shouted.

Afrer hearing her shout, all the Immortals calmed themselves and put up their guard. But as they focused their attention at Chrys, he was gone from the place he stood.

At the corner of one of the Immortals' vision, she saw Chrys standing among them while holding an Immortal by the face with his glowing golden hand.

Chrys then said in a low, whispery voice. "Five, four..."

"Three..."

"Two..."

And before Chrys could finish his countdown, an Immortal unfroze herself and realized what was going on.

She immediately ran over and kicked Chrys in the arm, causing him to drop the Immortal, who doesn't look like she realized what was going on.

And before any other Immortal could adapt to the change in the atmosphere, Chrys grabbed the Immortal that kicked him right in the face, with his hand still glowing a gold color.

Chrys then spoke in an cold, emotionless, indifferent voice. "Five, four, three..."

Unlike before, someone else acted way before Chrys could finish his countdown. They did the same thing like before, kicking Chrys' arm in order to knock the Immortal out of his grasp.

As the Immortal landed on the ground with a tud, the Immortals all seemed to snap out of their frozen state.

They all moved every injured person and themselves included away from Chrys, who remained standing in place with an ominous aura around him.

The Immortals all breathed heavily, like they just ran a marathon, as cold sweat poured down their backs.

"W-what was that?!" An Immortal asked.

"I-I don't know. I was watching him then before I realized it, I was frozen in place, unable to move."

"Me too. But while I was frozen, I felt this ominous feeling surrounding me."

"Y-yeah, I think the source of that feeling is that man. I feel like something changed about him." An Immortal said while her voice wavered as she pointed at Chrys.

Another Immortal looked down on her shaking hands as she asked herself. "Was that... fear?"

Another Immortal did the same as she also asked herself. "A-am I afraid of him?"

Then one of the more experienced Immortals then said to herself. "That was... an embrace with death. I thought I overcame my fear of death?! Why was I frozen?!" She then gritted her teeth in frustration.

An Immortal, who still looks like she is recovering from the shock, looked at Chrys and asked. "Wait, is that?"

Another Immortal then asked her. "What is it? Do you know what caused us to freeze?"

The Immortal then pointed at Chrys as she replied. "No. But his eyes, the pupils have shrunk."

The Immortal then looked at Chrys, and saw that his golden eyes had it's pupils barely visible due to being so small. Now, Chrys' eyes now look like nothing but a pair of pure gold eyes.

"What does his pupils have to do with anything?" The Immortal asked.

"Well, according to 'them', Golden Hands is from Deldian, right?"

"I think so."

"Deldians have a special trait known as Fever. It's when they let their inner instincts take over, like a sort of adrenaline rush. A side effect is their pupils get shrunk."

"They usually activate when a Deldian feels a lot of stress, like losing an arm in a battlefield. Their Fever's effects keeps them fighting even though they might be seriously injured."

"Some of our siblings also have Fevers because of their ancestry."

The other Immortal looked incredibly annoyed as she asked. "Yeah, thanks for the lesson! But what does that have to do with anything?!"

The Immortal then nevously pointed at Chrys as she responded. "The Fever makes the Deldians mindless, unfeeling, war machines..."

"But... I don't think war machines smile like that..."

The Immortal then followed the other's finger pointing at Chrys, making the Immortal's heart sink.

Chrys is currently looking down on his glowing hands with his pure golden eyes. His mouth forming a manic, borderline insane smile before it slowly opened and laughed in a pattern.

"Ha! Ha! Haha! Ha! Ha! Haha!"

Chrys' slow, rhythmic, menacing, and insane laughter sent shivers down the Immortals' spine as they soon realized that they have been frozen in place.

"Ha! Ha! Haha! Ha! Ha! Haha!"