Chapter 191: Diana

Isn't he only one of the 36 Tigers? How is he this powerful?

Prior to this, King Arthur had indeed been looking down on his opponent.

He didn't know much about the Oni Organization, but he had heard of its Dragon, eight Onis, and 36 Tigers.

Among them, the Dragon was the leader, and he generally didn't go on any missions in person. Hence, the eight Onis were the most powerful regularly active members of the Oni Organization. King Arthur had witnessed the eight Onis in action before, and they were truly formidable adapters, with all of them worthy of being ranked near the top of the S tier.

However, in his mind, the 36 Tigers had to have only been equivalent to A tier combatants at the very most. After all, there were simply too many of them, and it was unfathomable to her that a single organization could gather so many powerful adapters, but it appeared that she had been mistaken.

Such an intricate and realistic illusion alone indicated that the technomancer had to possess powers that would place him in the S tier.

However, despite his surprise, King Arthur wasn't afraid of his opponent.

"The bane of all illusions is light, is it not?"

King Arthur raised his holy sword high above his head, and it began to glow as radiantly as the sun at his behest. Under the illumination of the scintillating light, the surrounding illusion began to become as shaky and hazy as a mirage.

"Looks like you really are a seasoned campaigner!"

The technomancer pulled out a Jack poker card, then tossed it up into the sky. After rising up into the air, the card transformed into a cavalier, which raised its weapon as it galloped toward King Arthur on horseback.

"I hear that they call you Dragon Knight, right? Let's have a showdown between knights!"

The knight was enormous in stature, and his steed was as massive as an elephant, presenting an astonishing sight as the pair descended from the sky.

However, King Arthur paid no heed to his assailant. In his eyes, this was merely another illusion.

However, as the knight drew closer and closer, the thundering of its steed's hooves was becoming louder and more insistent. In addition to that, the wind generated by the galloping horse and the roar of the knight couldn't have been any more realistic.

It's not an illusion!

In the instant that the knight's weapon was about to strike him on the head, King Arthur raised his sword in retaliation, splitting both the knight and his steed cleanly in half with a powerful swing of his sword.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Immediately thereafter, the knight and steed combination reverted back into a torn poker card that disintegrated into nothingness.

"Very impressive! Let's try a Queen this time."

Just as he proclaimed, the technomancer tossed out a Queen card this time, and the card transformed into a queen of snow and ice, waving her staff through the air in an attempt to stop King Arthur.

King Arthur immediately lashed out with his sword again, but his powerful strike merely passed through the queen's body without any impediment. This time, it was a pure illusion.

With his combination of illusion and reality, the technomancer was able to trick King Arthur into expending a great deal of energy.

Seeing as he was unable to break the surrounding illusion in a short time, King Arthur raised his sword to attack the technomancer instead.

"Don't tell me that you're also an illusion!"

Despite the apparent ferocity of his attack, this sword swing was nothing more than a decoy from King Arthur. As the sword swept through the air, he activated his telegnosis to its full capacity, and instead of focusing on his sword, he began to focus on everything around him. In that instant, he sensed something that had previously escaped his notice.

He immediately changed the trajectory of his attack, spinning around as he raised his sword in an upward slashing motion, and a trail of blood immediately splattered through the air.

Up ahead, the illusory figure of the technomancer instantly shattered, while the true technomancer flew out of thin air. A chunk of flesh had been sliced off his arm, causing him to bleed profusely.

"Bravo, King Arthur! Now then, let me show you who the true king is!"

The technomancer pulled out a King card as he spoke, then tossed it onto himself, instantly transforming him into the king of this illusory realm.

He was holding a regal staff with a crown on his head, and he seemed to be an almighty deity in this domain of his own creation.

The king swung his staff down upon King Arthur, who raised his sword in defense, but as soon as the sword and the staff clashed, King Arthur was instantly forced to his knees.

"Kneel before my power!"

In the face of the king's regal might, King Arthur felt as if he were supporting an entire mountain, and his body was trembling uncontrollably, on the verge of giving out at any moment.

"Traitorous fool! Opposing me in my own domain shall be the last thing you ever do!" As the king spoke, his staff became even heavier. "I am the ruler of this world! May the earth rise up to swallow this traitor!"

Under the king's command, the soil beneath King Arthur's feet began to churn and swallow up his body.

The surrounding insects and plants seemed to have also identified King Arthur as a common enemy, and they began to attack him viciously.

With the soil and plants closing in around him, King Arthur was finding it more and more difficult to breathe, while the weight crushing him from above was only becoming heavier and heavier.

"When a king orders his subordinate to die, the subordinate has no choice but to oblige!"

Right as King Arthur was at his most vulnerable point, the authoritative voice of the king rang out once again, and King Arthur's final shred of resistance was completely crushed, leaving him with the overwhelming urge to raise his sword and end his own life.

"This is a psychic attack, I can't allow myself to be fooled... This is a psychic attack, I must seize back control over myself... This is all an illusion..."

King Arthur was constantly trying to maintain mental clarity by talking to himself, but he was fighting a losing battle.

Right as his will was about to be completely rushed, many memories began to flash through his mind.

In the instant that was born as a persona, the first thing that he caught sight of was that violent dragon. At the time, the dragon knew nothing but destruction, and it resented everything in this world.

After that, he saw the outside world through the dragon's eyes.

He became friends with the dragon, and they constantly spoke to each other.

Over the course of their conversations, he discovered that the dragon was becoming more and more gentle, relinquishing its violent and destructive tendencies.

The dragon told him that her name was Diana, and that she wanted to be a princess. She also gave Arthur his name so that he could join her in the kingdom of her dreams.

The two of them were the best of friends.

In that strange psychic world, Arthur led a very peaceful life. One day, Diana hurt someone in a physical alteration, and she told Arthur that she wasn't suited to living in the real world, and that she wanted to relinquish control over her body to Arthur.

Initially, Arthur refused, but as Diana fell deeper and deeper into depression, she began to do nothing all day and allow herself to starve to death, so he had no choice but to take over her body for her.

In the real world, Arthur continued to grow and learn, and he came to realize that he was only the secondary persona, and that the so-called dragon wasn't actually a dragon, but a mutated adapter instead.

Diana's original persona had already been devoured by the dragon.

However, that didn't matter to him. Diana was his best friend who had always been with him, and they were inseparable to this very day.

"Diana!" Mustering his final shred of resolve and willpower, King Arthur freed himself from the restrictive earth and plants with a slash of his sword, then called out to his best friend. "Blast me with your fire!"

The two of them shared a psychic connection, and even before King Arthur had fully articulated his request, a sea of scorching fire had already swept through the entirety of this illusory world.

In that instant, all of the illusions were incinerated into nothingness, but the fire wasn't harming King Arthur at all, and he was rushing in the direction that the flames were coming from.

Finally, he was able to reach out and feel the dragon's head. He leaped onto the dragon's back while swinging his holy sword down amid a flash of golden radiance, dealing the final blow upon the illusory world.

Everything was instantly destroyed. The king, the creek, the insects... all of it was reduced to nothingness, and the only thing that remained was the technomancer, whose body was riddled with burns at this point.

King Arthur looked around to find that they were back in that dilapidated small town from before.

"Let's keep going!"

Having survived that baptism by fire, King Arthur's mental fortitude had been further strengthened, resulting in an enhancement to his powers.