Peaceful Life System: I only need to live peacefully-Chapter 147: Endgame (14)

"The Grand Maximus."

The name hung in the air, a pronouncement of doom. The hooded man, who had just moments before believed himself to be a master puppeteer, now found himself facing a legend he thought was only a myth.

"A lie," the hooded man stammered, taking another stumbling step back. "A trick! The Grand Maximus is dead! Gone for an age!"

The being wearing Riku’s face—the Grand Maximus—didn’t even deign to reply with words. He moved.

It wasn’t a Blink or a step. He simply ceased to be in one place and appeared directly in front of the hooded man, his movements so fast they didn’t register as motion. Rimeheart, his dark ice blade, swung in a lazy, contemptuous arc.

The hooded man, despite his terror, reacted with the instinct of a powerful mage, throwing up a hastily conjured shield of crimson energy.

The ice blade touched it. There was no grand explosion, only a soft hiss. The shield instantly froze solid, then shattered into a million glittering red shards.

The tip of Rimeheart continued, leaving a single, shallow, impossibly clean cut across the man’s cheek. A thin line of frost instantly formed around the wound, a burn of pure cold.

The Grand Maximus was already back in the center of the room, casually inspecting his blade as if he’d just brushed aside a curtain.

The hooded man clutched his cheek, his eyes wide with a terror that eclipsed all his previous ambition. The speed, the power, the sheer, casual disdain... this was no disciple. This was the real thing.

His terror, cornered and absolute, curdled into a final, desperate rage.

"NO!" he shrieked, his voice raw and unhinged. "I will not be denied! For centuries, I have planned this! I have sacrificed everything—my life, my family, my own humanity—to grasp this power! I am the Brain! I am the Will! I will not be undone by a forgotten ghost!"

With a furious roar, he snatched the small red pearl from the floor. "You want to see the power of a god?!" he screamed. "Then witness it!"

He shoved the pearl into his mouth and swallowed it whole.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the hooded man convulsed, his body arching backward. The crimson aura he controlled exploded from him, no longer just a mist but a tangible, seething sea of red energy. It swirled around him, solidifying into lashing tendrils, sharp spikes, and a swirling shield of raw Creep energy that danced around him like Gaara’s sand.

"Now, legend," he hissed, his voice distorted, layered with a dozen echoing whispers, "let us see you face the true Heart and Brain, united!"

A dozen crimson tendrils shot towards the Grand Maximus.

He didn’t move. The moment the tendrils entered the oppressive cold of his own passive aura, they froze solid and shattered, raining down like broken glass.

"Spikes!"

The hooded man snarled and commanded the ground, slamming his hands down in fury.

Spikes of solidified Creep energy erupted from the stone floor, aiming to impale him from below. The Grand Maximus simply took a single, casual step to the side, avoiding the entire volley without a second glance.

"Is that all?" he asked, his voice laced with profound boredom. He raised Rimeheart.

"How... is that possible? Even with two organs..." The Hooded man could only tremble in horror. How was he supposed to defeat someone who did not seem to be affected by anything?

"Yeah, yeah, quit your yapping." The Grand Maximus sounded bored and resumed his offensive.

What followed was not a fight. It was a deconstruction.

The Grand Maximus moved, and every one of the hooded man’s desperate attacks was met with contemptuous ease. The crimson shield was shattered with a simple tap of the ice blade. The lashing tendrils were severed with lazy, elegant swings. For all his newly acquired power, he was like a child throwing stones at a mountain.

"Enough, now stay down."

With a final, fluid motion, the Grand Maximus appeared before the hooded man once more. He drove the hilt of Rimeheart into the man’s stomach, knocking the wind from him and sending him collapsing to the floor, unconscious.

The Grand Maximus now stood over the defeated figure, a look of utter disappointment on his face.

"After all that noise," he murmured, "you are still just a man." He raised Rimeheart, preparing to deliver the final, killing blow.

Suddenly, the space behind the unconscious man tore open. It wasn’t a clean teleportation circle; it was a jagged, chaotic rip in reality, a portal of swirling black and purple energy.

A voice, ancient and layered, echoed from the portal. It was calm, curious, and utterly alien. "Greetings, anomaly."

The Grand Maximus paused, his blade hovering. He turned his head slightly, a flicker of confusion crossing his features. It was the first emotion he had shown other than contempt.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

The voice from the portal continued, ignoring the question in his eyes. "We understand that you are very strong. However, we still have need for these people. We will be taking them for now."

Shadowy, multi-jointed tentacles shot out from the portal. They moved with impossible speed, one set wrapping around the unconscious hooded man, another latching onto the frozen, statue-like form of Vyon.

Enraged at being ignored, the Grand Maximus swung Rimeheart. "You will take nothing," he snarled.

His dark ice blade sliced through the air, but the tentacles were faster. They retracted in a blur, pulling both bodies through the rip in space just as the blade passed through the air where they had been.

"We will meet again, anomaly," the voice echoed, a final promise. "But not now. The stage is not yet set for our dance."

The portal began to shrink rapidly, and the chaotic energies started to fold in on themselves.

"Oh? Do you really think that you can decide when the dance would start?" the Grand Maximus whispered, his voice dangerously quiet. He raised his free hand.

Absolute Freeze.

Instantly, the world stopped.

The motes of dust from the shattered shield hung motionless in the air. The dripping sludge from the cavern ceiling froze into a solid, unmoving icicle.

The portal, which had been shrinking, halted mid-contraction.

The very concept of time within the cavern seemed to have been frozen solid.

Only the voice from the portal remained, no longer calm, but laced with a sudden, dawning horror.

"What... what is this power? How did you... freeze..."

This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶