The moment his simple, unadorned fist connected with the Imaginary Husk, it was as if the howl of a wolf rose up. The accumulated power surged directly into the Imaginary Husk's joints, blasting it into a shower of shattered limbs.
The imaginary shell encasing the golden eyeball disintegrated under that punch. Ren raised his hand, changing his fist into a claw, and directly grasped the eyeball.
Crack.
A fissure appeared in the imaginary core, then rapidly spread like blood vessels covering an eye, looking ghastly and terrifying.
Just as Ren was about to finish off the Imaginary Husk in one fell swoop, a strong sense of alarm washed over him. He immediately let go and pulled back.
The next second, the imaginary core he had just been holding was pierced by a sharp blade, and the imaginary seed shattered into true nothingness.
A Redundant Formula hovered at the spot where Ren had just been, slowly drawing out its dual blades.
Did they really backstab their own team members?
Only then did he realize that, in the few seconds he had fought the Self-Referring, so many imaginary monsters had unknowingly spawned around him.
"How can so many imaginary seeds be born in the pure void?" Although he still had very limited knowledge of the Imaginary Space, Ren was, after all, the master of the Dominance Theater, and he had some understanding of the monster-spawning rules here.
Imaginary monsters were existences that fed on matter. They tended to gather around buildings that had been swallowed by the Imaginary Space, attacking and killing creatures to gain sustenance. The pure void simply couldn't satisfy their desires, so the number that appeared was usually very small. It was with this in mind that Ren had planned to deal with them directly using force.
But the current situation was clearly wrong. There were far too many imaginary seeds, which couldn't have appeared out of thin air. The only possibility was that something nearby was constantly attracting them. Ren touched the hairpin on his head; the faint signal from it became much clearer, confirming his suspicion.
This area was probably where the battlefield of that "Last Lesson" was.
After drifting for so long, he had finally found hope. As he breathed a sigh of relief, Ren's lips curled into a smile. He immediately abandoned the idea of fighting the Imaginary Husks.
As a Herrscher of Dominance, only a fool would want to fight with brute force. Although the new puppet had provided him with power comparable to that of a B-rank Valkyrie, wasting his precious strength here would be very unwise.
Quickly retreating to create some distance, Ren raised his right hand and suddenly opened it. The countless puppet threads wrapped around him exploded outwards in an instant, weaving a terrifying web in the Imaginary Space.
With a slight turn of Ren's palm, the dense network of puppet threads enveloped the Imaginary Husks. The moment they made contact, the authority of the Herrscher of Dominance began to eat away at the control of the imaginary cores like maggots eating bone.
Although the authority of Dominance wouldn't allow Ren to directly control these imaginary creatures, the similar control patterns of their origins were enough to help him achieve a certain level of control. Gradually, some of the imaginary monsters entangled by the Dominance threads began to change. The puppet threads on them became solid, while the core of the imaginary seed became secondary.
"Fight for me."
His voice wasn't loud; in fact, due to the nature of the Imaginary Space, its range was short. But the moment the command was given, the controlled Imaginary Husks directly turned traitor, attacking the monsters beside them. A free-for-all was unavoidable. More importantly, the monsters controlled by Ren would detonate their own imaginary seeds when on the verge of death, self-destructing.
Tsk tsk, such poor quality.
After making that comment to himself, Ren stopped paying attention to the situation and kept stimulating the hairpin to search for the location of the final battle.
Finally, a collapsed ruin came into his view.
Stone steps stretching for miles, ruins like broken walls, a ground abandoned after being carelessly cut by terrifying power, and a boundless expanse of silence—everything here showed the fact that this place had once been a battlefield.
He was somewhat shocked; only by seeing it firsthand would he truly understand just how terrifying the destruction caused by a battle between Herrschers was.
He gently landed on a piece of ground that was slightly more intact. On his left, the bluestone steps still stretched upwards for thousands of meters, but on his right was an abyss with no bottom.
It was an extremely smooth cut surface, formed by the Herrscher of the Void's casual snap of her fingers. This was what it meant to command the power of space?
In comparison, he, who had to rely on deception and trickery to barely survive, seemed rather out of place. Ren had a very clear idea of his own position. What he needed was never world-destroying combat power, but rather a plan to subvert civilization.
So while he might feel some envy, that was it.
Squeak, squeak, squeak.
The strange sound rang out again. In the few seconds after Ren landed, a large number of imaginary monsters began to appear. After arriving here, Ren had retracted his puppet threads. Unlike the empty Imaginary Space, this place was filled with all kinds of stone pillars. Moreover, due to the Herrscher of the Void's battle, the remaining buildings were also on the verge of collapse. If reckless self-detonations caused them to collapse, it would be very difficult to find the Gem of Haste.
From this point on, he had to fight personally, which was also why he had to increase his combat power in advance. If he couldn't even break through the encirclement of imaginary monsters, how could he hope to obtain the Gem of Haste?
…
Boom—
A booming sound came from a stone wall, which was directly smashed into a large hole. The imaginary monster, having lost all signs of activity, was embedded in it, and then gradually dissolved into nothingness.
He had been fighting for an unknown amount of time. Ren couldn't think about it much. He just felt that the energy he had been accumulating in his body was almost completely exhausted. If he couldn't find the Gem of Haste, he would have to return to the Dominance Theater and seek another opportunity.
This was something he found hard to accept. He had planned for so long and had been waiting for this day. If he couldn't get the gem, all of his plans would be disrupted. Deceiving Kiana could temporarily ease the crisis, but it would inevitably be exposed for various reasons. When that time came, it would be Ren's death.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm his emotions. Ren stepped forward towards the next location.
Just at that moment, a few spots of bright red abruptly intruded into his sight.