Gopelmu stared at the swarm of phantom swords that now occupied the vast majority of the hall, and couldn't stop himself from cursing.
"Are you insane?! Is this really necessary?"
He had only intended to drive Fu Zhu and Acheron out of Penacony, not to actually kill them. Gopelmu was well aware that to completely kill two Envoys, even if he managed to summon the Infinite Leader and was lucky enough to win, Penacony would have long since ceased to exist!
This was not the outcome he wanted. Yet Fu Zhu, by summoning such a vast number of phantom swords, was clearly trying to fight him to the death!
But now, Gopelmu could only bite the bullet and continue having the Chorus of Harmony chant. As long as he could summon the Infinite Leader, the situation was sure to turn around!
Gopelmu took a deep breath. While urging the Chorus of Harmony to summon the Infinite Leader, he raised a barrier on the field. The moment the barrier manifested, the phantom swords gathered by Fu Zhu's side shot out in unison.
Immediately following was a dense, ear-ringing series of dings. The countless phantom swords, like a flowing river, relentlessly struck the barrier Gopelmu had raised, not stopping for even a second.
After a mere dozen seconds, the barrier Gopelmu had raised was covered in a dense layer of countless phantom swords. These swords then exploded after a brief pause, dealing a second wave of damage to the barrier.
Gopelmu gritted his teeth. He felt that if his current form wasn't a raven, his face would have surely turned the color of pig's liver. Who knew why Fu Zhu's expression showed no change at all, even after continuously firing such a quantity of phantom swords!
Stealing a glance at Fu Zhu, Gopelmu discovered that he even had the leisure to yawn!
Was his power truly endless?!
"Damn it... Pfft!"
Gopelmu was distracted for just a moment, and the barrier shattered with a boom. He himself suffered no small amount of damage from the backlash. But before he could even catch his breath, the sky full of phantom swords immediately changed direction and charged straight for him.
Gopelmu's face went pale. He immediately flapped his wings and took to the air. But the phantom swords behind him clung to him like a shadow. No matter how he twisted and turned, they followed his every move.
Fu Zhu watched Gopelmu being chased all over the hall, so preoccupied that he couldn't even attend to the Chorus of Harmony being attacked, and couldn't help but frown.
"As expected of someone enhanced to an Emanator's level, he's actually quite fast."
Fu Zhu glanced at the time. He had already spent nearly half an hour on Gopelmu. He had no idea how Xing and the others were doing.
He had to get rid of this troublesome Gopelmu quickly.
Fu Zhu immediately switched to Observer Mode. The surrounding time came to a halt the moment he entered Observer Mode. Even Gopelmu, who was flapping his wings desperately to escape the phantom swords, was frozen in mid-air.
Fu Zhu flew in front of him and observed the raven-form Gopelmu for a few moments. Although his current body was not human, Fu Zhu could still see a sliver of panic in his dark pupils.
"Hmm, this is a good chance for an experiment."
He had been curious before. Just what level of power could he achieve in Observer Mode?
His entire understanding of Observer Mode came from the Observer Mode in MC. But this was the real world. Since other MC content had produced some unexpected bugs when combined with the real world, there was no reason Observer Mode wouldn't have some bugs of its own.
Fu Zhu tried to use the phantom swords. In the next second, countless phantom swords appeared by his side, but these swords also immediately entered a state of time suspension upon appearing.
"Hmm?!"
Fu Zhu's eyes lit up. He felt as if he had found another way to use Observer Mode!
And so, he began to circle Gopelmu. A large ring of phantom swords formed around Gopelmu, completely sealing off all his escape routes.
After doing all this, Fu Zhu returned to a spot outside the phantom sword formation with a satisfied expression. Although he was just a disembodied consciousness in Observer Mode, it seemed he could still use any ability that didn't require his limbs to complete.
For example, the phantom sword skill from the SlashBlade mod. This was an ability he didn't need his limbs to assist with. Therefore, he could use it normally in Observer Mode. Of course, without exiting Observer Mode, these skills would also be in a state of time suspension.
Similarly, because he had previously gained the power of the Path of [Elation] and could directly place blocks out of thin air, he could do the same in Observer Mode!
"Looks like my development of Observer Mode has been far too shallow."
Fu Zhu was very pleased with these discoveries. He secretly decided that he would have to continue researching Observer Mode later. This was, at present, his greatest trump card.
"Now then, let time flow."
Fu Zhu placed a block out of thin air beneath his feet and exited Observer Mode. In the next second, the phantom swords he had arranged in advance pierced Gopelmu's body simultaneously, with absolutely no time delay.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
In just an instant, Gopelmu felt as if he had been pierced by ten thousand swords. Of his entire body, only his left eye remained intact. He turned his left eye in terror to look at Fu Zhu, who was now standing on a floating block at some unknown point in time.
"You..."
Gopelmu expended the last of his strength, but his throat couldn't even form a complete sentence. He looked horrified. Just a moment ago, he was doing his best to dodge those phantom swords, and they had been left behind him. But why, in the next second, had Fu Zhu and those phantom swords directly hit him?
Gopelmu felt his soul gradually weakening. He desperately turned his intact left eye to look around and saw the phantom swords that had lost their target and shot past him, empty, behind him.
These phantom swords... were the ones chasing me just now?
Then what about the ones that pierced my body? How did Fu Zhu suddenly appear in front of me? These two events were completed with almost no time difference...
Time difference?
Gopelmu suddenly realized something. He looked at Fu Zhu in horror, mustering his throat to question him with disbelief.
"Your... ability... is time! Impossible... even Finality... shouldn't have such an exaggerated power..."
Before Gopelmu could finish his sentence, the phantom swords piercing his body suddenly exploded. The secondary damage from the swords completely destroyed his raven body, not leaving even a single trace behind.
Then, several dropped items fell from where his body had exploded. Fu Zhu landed from the block and collected all the items on the ground into his inventory.
Before he could carefully savor his gains from this battle, Acheron walked over to his side with a complex expression on her face.
"You can control time?"