The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1189: Future

Adept Horse’s replica had lost his legs. Sitting in a wheelchair, he was shocked to see Adept Horse, even incredulous.

He barely recognized himself.

He never thought that one day, he would succeed in losing weight—but that wasn’t all. He looked like a different person in appearance, temperament, and the way his eyes looked.

The replica flew into a rage, raising his hands to launch light elements at Adept Horse. Adept Horse dodged agilely and conjured a light shield to block some of the attacks, getting closer to his replica slowly.

He had just used Unbridled Light, but he still had enough energy to beat this useless and crippled version of himself. He wasn’t going to waste too much strength on this trash, though. His real enemy was Greed.

“How dare you live like this?! Like you deserve to live?”

“Why didn’t you go to hell? You’re the one who most deserves death!”

The replica growled in futile rage while manipulating light elements to chase after Adept Horse. Adept Horse dodged and answered, “Because White Rabbit wants me to live!”

The replica started and stopped attacking. His expression turned pained. His resentful eyes softened slightly. “No, that-that can’t be...”

“White Rabbit left me a note. She returned my feelings.” Adept Horse took a folded sheet of paper from his chest pocket. “I carry it around with me. See for yourself.”

The replica’s eyes widened. Without giving it much thought, he took the sheet of paper and unfolded it. Disappointment crashed into him a second later. It wasn’t White Rabbit’s note, but the list for the power concentration plan.

Adept Horse had used Object Duplicate. He could temporarily recreate any object he had touched as long as he had enough energy—special items being an exception. So he had created the list and handed it to his replica.

“Liar!”

The replica growled when he realized that he had been fooled. He was going to use Light when a pain twisted in his chest, his energy pathway shortcircuiting for a second.

Deception succeeded!

Seizing the opening, Adept Horse used Jump to close in on his replica before stabbing his heart with a dagger.

His replica threw up blood. In his dying moment, he glared at Adept Horse with venom in his eyes. “Why...didn’t you...go to hell...”

“Because I have her Jump,” Adept Horse said coolly. “I will live with her Talent. I will remember her forever. Simple as that.”

He retracted his dagger. His replica rolled off the wheelchair and slowly vanished.

...

It took less than a minute for all members of Team Nine Frost to end their individual battles. No time was wasted, and they all killed their past selves at the smallest price possible.

They gathered with their backs pressed together, watching out for Greed, their true enemy.

Chen Ying said in a low voice, “There. Sixty meters from my twelve.”

On the black-and-white clearing, a ball of black flames emerged out of nowhere. It fluctuated in a state between gas and liquid. Then it quickly took shape as Surnamed Li in her old-fashioned gown. freewebnσvel.cѳm

Hovering two meters above ground, she broke into a stiff, cold smile with her pale face. She didn’t open her mouth. A chilling, reverberating voice came from the chest wrapped in thick black mist.

“Why didn’t you run away?”

Nine Frost wordlessly lifted his hand, telling his teammates to not engage Greed verbally.

He would soon be able to use Three Heads Six Arms once more. Then the four of them would merge and take on Greed.

“Trying to settle things with your past selves?” Greed’s voice seemed able to penetrate anything and everything. “Haha, what a good show. Don’t humans always say that threads only become more tangled when one tries to cut them, though? Trying to move on will only make it more difficult to move on... The same applies to the weave of fate...”

“Let’s go!” Nine Frost spread his hands. “Three Heads Six Arms!”

Silence.

No one approached Nine Frost. Chen Ying, Harvest Song, and Adept Horse remained still, not able to even make an expression of horror. In fact, Nine Frost had failed to activate the Talent after the exclamation.

In an instant, countless intangible threads burrowed into his flesh and blood, reaching his neurons and infiltrating his consciousness until his very soul was enthralled.

Nine Frost had lost everything. His fate was slipping into another’s grasp.

Had the four of them escaped Apple Island and thus left Greed’s prying gaze as soon as they saw their Fate Slides, Greed would’ve been unable to form a deep connection to their fates. But they had never even considered fleeing. They all threw themselves into the fights.

Greed chose their weaker Fate Slides rather than ones closer in power for exactly that reason: to make them kill themselves.

And the awakeners fell for it. They killed their replicas.

Second, connect.

Complete.

Third, occupy.

Ongoing.

Greed’s laughter rang out of Surnamed Li’s chest. “All your fates will be mine!”

She closed her eyes in pleasure and spread her arms toward the sky like she was embracing the world. Nine Frost, Chen Ying, Adept Horse, and Harvest Song had been pierced by fate’s intangible threads, which connected to the Eye of Greed inside Surnamed Li’s chest to stream their fates like cables transferring data.

Suddenly, a shuriken stabbed into Surnamed Li’s arm. She started.

Harvest Song flashed out of the hidden weapon, her petite form cladded in black. With the medicine contained in her ring, she had temporarily broken out of Surnamed Li’s dominance. She cast the shriken and reached Surnamed Li with Mirror Man.

Without hesitation, she bit the corpse’s arm.

Rabies!

Wild energy entered Sunramed Li’s body in viral form, influencing Greed’s true form—that was the side effect of the physical buff the Talent granted. It induced a feverish frenzy.

Harvest Song knew that she couldn’t kill Greed. Her high agility was her strength, allowing her to get close to the target before the target reacted. Her mission was to buy another three seconds for Nine Frost.

“Ugh...”

As intended, Surnamed Li lost her composure for a moment. Although she immediately centered herself to resume control over the countless threads of fate, a portal had already opened above her. A man leaped out and lunged at her from behind.

Nine Frost!

He had shaken off the dominance over his fate temporarily with the same medicine. Then Harvest Song bought him enough time to use Portal.

Fate Dominance!

In that split second, Greed cut off the threads connecting to the other three awakeners in favor of gathering the energy to take over Nine Frost once more. She knew that while Nine Frost’s Weak Point was formidable, it would require him three punches to maximize its power. Greed wasn’t going to give him that time. He could at most make one punch.

A second later, Nine Frost held onto Surnamed Li from behind.

She started. Nine Frost never intended to make a punch!

Cracks formed on his face, arms, and the rest of his body, from which a heated light flickered. Nine Frost could no longer say anything. He couldn’t even form a thought. His fate slowly returned under Greed’s control, but his lips were curved into a smile.

The moment he shook off the dominance and created a portal, he had immediately followed that up with Self-Detonate.

The process took time, but it was irreversible once started. His energy was being converted, and an explosion was imminent. Nine Frost couldn’t stop it, neither could Greed even after she resumed control over his fate. Being detonated had become a destined future, a fate Greed could only accept.

“No!”

Now freed, Chen Ying rushed toward Nine Frost desperately.

Adept Horse grabbed her and stabbed her arm with a dagger of light elements. The damage triggered the golden mole on her forehead. The Absolute Barrier taking form trapped and protected Adept Horse and her.

Boom!

Blinding red light engulfed everything outside the barrier.