Chapter 1515 - 67: Infinite Deduction

"So... as long as I kill you, the All Secrets Order will be completely paralyzed, right?"

Holt looked at the Speaker in front of him. Ether surged in his body, lighting up his eyes. Just as he was about to shatter the shackles on him and set things right, a sudden, indescribable daze welled up in his heart.

It was strange. Holt couldn’t quite put the feeling into words, only that everything before his eyes felt exceptionally familiar, as if he had already gone through all of this countless times in some dream.

The eerie haze didn’t trouble Holt for long. Ether was fully unleashed, and a series of cracking sounds came from all around him. The shackles binding him collapsed one after another, turning into fragments of metal that clanged as they scattered across the ground.

The power of the Seeker of Glory was released without restraint, shaking the four directions.

Holt studied the Speaker’s withered face and murky gaze. He had been looking forward to seeing that utterly shocked expression, but in reality, the Speaker’s face was flat, as if he had foreseen all of this.

The same soaring Ether burst forth within the Speaker. He stood motionless like a tree stump, while at the same time, bizarre objects of delirious fantasy tore through reality around Holt.

First came a hideous, grotesque monster, its massive body covered in bristle-like steel spines. Its head had vanished without a trace, replaced by endlessly splitting serpent heads.

Similar nightmare-things appeared one after another, accompanied by wind and Thunder, as if a storm was sweeping across this place. The already dim light was completely snuffed out along with it, and darkness wrapped Holt entirely.

The Speaker’s sudden offensive actually surprised Holt a little. The assault was vast in scale, but it still couldn’t truly affect him. He calmly unfolded his Secret Energy, and an invisible quagmire swallowed everything around.

Under Holt’s power, the movement of all objects was slowed to the limit, to near-absolute stillness. These beasts, the wind and Thunder conjured out of thin air by Illusion Creation, all froze in midair, like a single frame of a film being paused.

"What an enviable power," the Speaker sighed softly. "Youth really is wonderful."

Holt understood that the Speaker wasn’t praising his youth, but the Alchemy Matrix he bore.

"You’re not bad yourself. Doesn’t look like you’ve gone completely senile yet."

Seeing that the Speaker could still move freely, Holt couldn’t help but grow wary and finally face this old man seriously.

At the instant Secret Energy·Amber unfolded, the Speaker did not continue pouring his offensive into Illusion Creation. Instead, he gathered a massive amount of Ether around him and, using the most basic Law of Ether Mutual Exclusion in concert with his own Rectangular Soul Critical, rejected Holt’s Control.

At Holt’s "praise," the Speaker let out a hoarse laugh. This had nothing to do with not being senile; it was simply that over several previous instances of Time Reversal, the Speaker had gradually figured out the nature of Holt’s Secret Energy and, based on that, found a way to counter it.

Holt’s Secret Energy could Control the speed of movement of things around him. If necessary, he could forcibly drag everything into a state of stasis to achieve a fake effect akin to time being frozen.

Under this power, anyone enveloped by Amber would become a lamb waiting for slaughter... In the runs of Time Reversal from a few cycles ago, Siti died exactly like that. Her movements had been slowed, and she watched, wide-eyed, as Holt strode toward her, punched through her heart, and then broke her neck.

Siti was unimportant; she was just another kind of resource.

In this Extraordinary food chain, as the creator of the Earthly Celestial Kingdom, the Speaker stood at the very top of everything.

Aurora Power shrouded the Speaker’s body. An ocean of Ether poured into the Alchemy Matrix, reinforcing the Rectangular Soul Critical and forming a dense Ethereal Barrier clinging tightly to his skin.

By using Ether Mutual Exclusion, he could avoid being encapsulated by Amber, though it consumed an enormous amount of Ether. Fortunately, with Aurora Power supporting him, the Speaker could afford this lumbering counterattack.

Besides, even if Holt slowed all of the Speaker’s creations, as long as the Speaker himself could maintain movement, there was still room for victory.

Holt’s expression grew grave. From his perspective, the Speaker had practically, at the very moment he released his Secret Energy, grasped the nature of that Secret Energy and immediately found a method to counter it.

No wonder this old bastard was still alive. Live long enough, and the accumulation of experience becomes terrifying.

Holt clenched his fists. Ethereal Amplification flooded his entire body, strengthening his power and speed as he stepped into the Extreme Realm.

With a burst of explosive, howling booms, Holt vanished from where he stood, streaking through the air like an invisible Death God.

The Speaker still wore that composed expression. In his heart, he muttered silently,

"First, from the left."

Mad illusions bloomed. A series of heavy, archaic iron walls rose straight up from the ground, and then the iron walls shattered in response. Holt plunged forward through the collapsing fantasies.

"Ha!"

The Speaker laughed loudly, turning his gaze to his flank, murmuring in his heart, "Then from the right."

Within the twisted illusion, ranks of iron-forged soldiers raised iron-forged spears, fully arrayed to meet a cavalry charge. The next moment, all the spears snapped, and their formation was completely scattered by Holt.

Holt couldn’t figure it out. How could the Speaker perceive his offensive so quickly? This was already beyond what could be explained by so-called prediction. It was more like... foresight.

Once he broke into the Speaker’s inner perimeter, their Ether clashed at high intensity. Razor-sharp shrieks rang constantly, as if a flock of birds were circling and wailing.

The Speaker’s Alchemy Matrix might have been outdated, but the intensity of his Ether was that of a bona fide Seeker of Glory, and under the amplification of Aurora Power, he faintly pressed Holt down by a head.