Chapter 741 Evil and Good
To Queen Mother"s relief, Iskanor"s head was just as soft as his own body.
It also broke under her punch, and it exploded in a violent manner just like his body.
"Splak!"
There are no more descriptions needed for what had happened, as the sight of an exploding head was already an enough imagery for Queen Mother.
It could have even made her feel sick, were it not for her experience with this kind of macabre matters before…
"…"
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Since she had no interest on watching a head pop, Queen Mother just shook her head for a second before she focused on storing more power on her fist.
She then clenched it tight, with her heart hoping that she can use her fist to batter her opponent for one more time.
But as much as she wanted to deal more pain on her opponent, she found herself unable to do so.
Why? It was because she had no more targets to punch at this point.
"…."
Even if Queen Mother will feel satisfied on punching a card-sized part of Iskanor, this is also impossible for her as her last attack left her with nothing to target anymore.
Her explosions were just too powerful, to the point that both Iskanor"s body and head were blasted away into the far reaches of the void.
All the entrails, bones, and flesh that existed within Iskanor were the majority of the fragments that were blasted away, leaving nothing but pieces of his hair and clothes floating in the void.
"…"
These pieces were obviously too small to be carried away by her blows, so Queen Mother was not surprised on seeing them. She just nodded upon seeing these pieces, as if they confirmed the might of her attack.
"…" She even allowed some of these pieces to touch her shriveled skin, treating them as nothing more but dust that had no actual effect against her body.
"…"
If it were her former version earlier, Queen Mother will surely feel repulsed, even when she is just touching the pieces of hair left behind by her enemy.
This man was after all, a person that Queen Mother fully hated.
But she just ignored these pieces and their revolting silkiness, as her mind was preoccupied with other matters.
More specifically, Queen Mother was engrossed on thinking about her opponent"s reaction to her attacks.
"When I saw that it was the Traveler Iskanor who attacked me, I thought that I will have to fight a life-death battle here so that I can escape."
"That was the reason why I unleashed my strongest attack already, even at the expense of my injuries."
"I was prepared to fight to the line here, but instead of having that, what I got was this?"
"A Traveler as powerful as Iskanor just died after I punched him two times?"
"This is certainly illogical…"
As much as Queen Mother prided her strength, she knew her limitations, especially against enemies that could be well beyond her expertise.
That is why she never treated Iskanor as a minor enemy, even when his expertise on soul abilities rendered his physical body weak.
Yes, Iskanor will surely receive damage from Queen Mother, since Queen Mother used her greatest strength against Iskanor"s greatest weakness.
But the damage that Iskanor should have received should have not been this bad.
He actually died just from two attacks by Queen Mother?
There is no way that this is possible, and Queen Mother was not an idiot to think that she had just won.
"…Since I am 100% sure that my power is not enough to kill Iskanor, then what happened here is not what I really thought…"
If the real Iskanor was not supposed to be this weak, then the fact that she saw Iskanor dying made Queen Mother realize that maybe, the Iskanor that she met here was not the real Iskanor.
Maybe this Iskanor is an impostor, one who was only meant to attack and capture Queen Mother without any care for his defensive abilities…
"If my guess is right, then the Iskanor that I killed here was not the real Iskanor!"
"This "Iskanor" should have been a fake or maybe a clone, someone that the real Isknanor has been controlling from a different place!"
Given that she had no more ideas on what could have happened here, Queen Mother slightly accepted this new theory of hers, as it perfectly rationalized everything that had happened.
In fact, this theory also provided Queen Mother with other clues, all which made her feel happy in spite of her self-inflicted injuries.
"Having Iskanor"s clone in this place instead of the real him could explain everything!
" It can explain why "Iskanor" can use the real Iskanor"s attacks, as "he" is just a clone that was meant to manifest the real Iskanor"s abilities."
"This could also explain why "his" body collapsed easily against my attack! "His" body was just not meant to be as powerful as the real Iskanor, so "he" just easily exploded under my blow!"
"Yes… it perfectly explains everything, and it also gives me a view of what happened here!"
By this point, the injuries that Queen Mother had acc.u.mulated were starting to take a toll on her, and it made her feel extremely weak.
And in actuality, the current Queen Mother could barely stop herself from fainting, as her last two attacks also took a lot out of her life force.
The only reason that she was standing now was her excitement from winning, and the notion that the real Iskanor could just be lurking nearby…
In fact, Queen Mother did all that she could to not faint, as her discovery of her enemy"s clone manipulation abilities gave her more dilemmas to worry about.
More specifically, Queen Mother discovered two dilemmas.
"…Since the "Iskanor" that I fought was just a clone, then there are two scenarios that could be happening here."
"First is that the real Iskanor is just nearby, and the reason why I met his clone was because he sent it to this place."
"Second is that the real Iskanor was actually far away from this place, and he just used some of his special abilities to make his clone come here…"
"If the first case was the true scenario, then I am in a bad situation. I just killed Iskanor"s clone, so there is no doubt that he will attempt to come here in order to finish me off."
"If the second case was the true scenario, then I am in a slightly good situation. Even if that man knew that I attacked him, he has no way of reaching this place yet…"
These two dilemmas were both worrying for Queen Mother, so she knew that if she had the chance, she would have done something already in order to deal with these problems.
Which is what she had been trying to do now, but she suddenly stopped worrying about them, as these dilemmas actually made Queen Mother realize another important matter.
"Wait a second…"
The two dilemmas that Queen Mother imagined might lead to different endings to her, but both actually revolve around one concept.
And that concept was the very place that Queen Mother was in right now, which the real Iskanor seem to treat with care.
"Even if the first and second cases were different, there is actually one similar thing between them."
"And that is the fact that in both cases, Iskanor sent a clone to this place!"
"Just that gesture alone shows that this place is important to him, to the point that he was willing to risk his clone"s life just to stop anyone from doing anything funny!"
Since Iskanor sent a clone to this place, then it means that there is something about this place that he deemed important.
Whatever this important object could be must be of high value, which certainly made Queen Mother feel interested about it.
But Iskanor"s clone did not actually say what he was looking for, so Queen Mother initially found herself wondering about her deceased opponent"s target.
"…"
Since the clone did not show any clues, Queen Mother relied more on "his" actions and gestures, which unfortunately are too few given "his" short-lived stint.
But eventually, Queen Mother"s imagination was able to help her, and she reached the answer that she was looking for.
"In my case, Iskanor used his clone to stop me from approaching the crown…"
"He might not have said it, but that clone"s actions prevented me from even touching the crown."
"It was as if… as if he does not want to me to do something to the crown…"
"Oh! So that means that Iskanor"s main target is this crown!"
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AT THE SAME TIME
ANCESTRAL TOMB, NORTHERN PORTION.
Amongst the empty and desolate landscape in this area, there was only a single figure that could be seen.
"…."
This figure was that of a man seating in a meditative pose, with his eyes closed in a tranquil manner.
"…"
His whole body was letting out a calm and peaceful demeanor as he maintained this pose, with his handsome appearance certainly adding a great charm to his persona.
His fas.h.i.+onable clothes did not hurt his appearance either, and one can even say that the contrast between his ancient pose and his modern dress elevated his already transcendent appearance.
"…"
This clean, intriguing, and peaceful look has made the man appear as if he was a creature of pure kindness and charm, but that quickly changed once he opened his eyes.
"Schwong!"
Red, devil-like light shone out of the man"s eyes, which was a great contrast to his peaceful aura. It even override all of his good points, making him closer to a devil rather than an angel.
"Schwong!"
This change was already enough to vilify the man"s image, but he managed to make himself look worse once he began talking.
"So that d.a.m.ned lesbian tree woman discovered my target huh. This is certainly vexing, and the fact that a lowly plant had seen it just makes me p.i.s.sed."
"But I should not be surprised that she defeated my clone. She is a Companion, so her skills should be on par with my clone."
"Hehe, I can even say that that woman is impressive. I wonder how good it will be if she allies with us…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"ALLIES MY a.s.s! THERE IS NO WAY THAT I WOULD ALLY WITH A b.i.t.c.h THAT RUINED MY PLANS!"
"ARGH! IF I HAD THE CHANCE, I WILL PERSONALLY TAKE THAT WOMAN AND TORTURE HER PIECE BY PIECE! I WILL TEAR OF HER BARK WHILE I BOIL HER ALIVE, AND I WILL MAKE HER CRY AS I PULL HER ROOTS!"
"I WILL PERSONALLY KILL ALL OF HER FRIENDS AND IT EAT IN FRONT OF THAT WOMAN! I WILL ALSO KILL ALL THE CREATURES THAT SHE CREATED, AND I WILL MAKE HER EAT THEIR CORPSES!"
"I WILL-"
"Oh well, nothing that I can do about it now. My clone was already killed there, so that crown is as good as hers already…."
"So what should I do now? Oh right, change of plans."