Reborn as an Extra Chapter 585: It’s my ’Path’! Rio Vs Raika. Part-1.
Previously on Reborn as an Extra...
Creating projections like this is typically an extraordinary rarity, reserved for just a handful of exceptional individuals who possess the talent to craft such lifelike illusions of a person.
Rio eventually pieced together that Raika was probably an illusion formed by someone purely to reach out to him, navigate the spirit realm, and toy with his mind.
Yet Rio remained baffled about why anyone would expend such vast amounts of their own power just to harass him without any clear motive.
Raika appeared so lifelike that Rio failed to realize he wasn't a genuine living being until after performing numerous tests and experiments on him, plus delivering several strikes.
’When I slashed him... I didn’t feel the sensation of cutting anything at all; it was like I was slashing in empty air...’
Soul-based strikes, flames, lightning bolts, and more—Rio experimented with it all, and almost everything proved ineffective against Raika; after all, he was merely an illusion crafted by another.
He wasn't even truly alive!
’The one who forged such a vivid illusion held extensive knowledge about me in intricate detail... and they anticipated my entry into the spirit realm well in advance...’
Venturing through the spirit realm carries immense peril; even demons avoid lingering here, steering clear of establishing homes within because the Sea of Miasma's influence dominates so intensely.
Demons have no desire to devolve into mindless thralls of the sea of miasma, much less any other beings.
Therefore, Raika's creator selected him for this task, aware that personal entry into the spirit realm posed grave risks, yet dispatching an illusion remained feasible.
An illusion faces no threat of corruption.
As long as the link is severed promptly, no taint or miasmic harm can rebound from the illusion to its originator.
The most effective means of eliminating an illusion involves severing the psychic bond linking it to its controller.
However, accomplishing that feat proves extraordinarily challenging.
Those gifted with the power to disrupt psychic links or interfere mentally are already scarce, and confronting an illusion from a mighty entity makes it virtually insurmountable.
Should you somehow succeed in breaking the link, the adversary could simply summon a fresh illusion instantly!
’But I don’t recall any formidable figure in the original novel wielding this sort of ability...’
Typically, only a elite group of mighty entities can generate such potent illusions of themselves, and for one to engage the world as authentically as Raika does, it demands an intricate array of advanced techniques.
Even Rio, master of every element, lacks the capability to form his own lifelike illusion.
The utmost he achieves is a holographic image via light elementals combined with sword intent.
He can't render it nearly as convincing as Raika!
’I suppose that's why they warn against judging an SS-ranker's might by sheer physical power alone...’
’Countless among them command strange world authorities enabling all manner of uncanny feats...’
Rio felt certain the architect of Raika was at minimum a pinnacle SS-ranker; nothing less could produce an illusion wielding force equivalent to a top-tier S-ranker.
Raika's output surpassed standard peak S-rankers by a wide margin, and inexplicably, he pierced Rio's barriers with ease.
’No... he’s employing some form of ’world authority’ to circumvent my protections...’
Rio’s shadow robe had evolved into a legendary artifact; breaching its safeguards shouldn't be simple without legendary techniques honed to 90% proficiency or beyond.
’Even lesser world authorities wouldn't suffice... this stems from a superior-tier world authority...’
World Authorities ascending to Level 5 or higher gain the prowess to nullify or overpower legendary-rank artifacts' influences.
’Fortunately, my shadow robe received that upgrade, or the prior direct strike might have inflicted far graver wounds...’
’I must evade direct impacts, or else... defeat is inevitable today...’
Rio lacked prior experience battling illusions, and Raika was designed precisely to exploit and neutralize his every strength.
In the brief milliseconds Rio pondered these matters internally, Raika pressed his assault onward without the slightest pause!
He elevated the hovering Lyre encircling him and unleashed a devastating Gravitational Pulse straight at Rio!
The spirit realm's space-time structure was inherently brittle, and under this brutal distortion, enormous rifts tore open across the zone, obliterating all within into oblivion.
A ferocious gravitational surge smashed Rio downward into the terrain, leaving him no chance to evade, as it propagated swifter than light itself by traversing the space-time weave!
Rio possessed ’Spatial Suture’ to seal rifts and halt space-time disintegration, yet that technique targeted individuals or confined zones.
Faced with the immense scope of Raika’s spatial onslaught, Rio improvised on the spot, expanding his spatial suture's coverage to shield himself from the encroaching spatial annihilation!
Channeling enormous reserves of mana alongside full-throttle sword intent, Rio commanded space-time elementals to mend and seal the fissures blanketing his surroundings.
’Phew~ In the instant that followed, Rio rocketed toward Raika with blistering velocity.
Gripping his sword in one hand, Rio produced a spatial anchor in the other, infused it with his miasma to activate, then levitated it nearby via telekinesis.
Spatial anchors shine in fortifying space-time stability and curbing abilities tied to space-time manipulation.
Normally, Rio forgoes them since his sword intent and other powers suffice against ambient spatial disturbances, but circumstances today demanded otherwise.
Raika proved erratic with a staggering repertoire of techniques; furthermore, Rio's mana reserves were finite, and deploying miasma risked forfeiting the hard-won intuition he'd reclaimed.
Such a lapse in intuition would tilt the scales toward Raika, rendering his strikes far deadlier and more accurate on Rio.
’Luckily, I tote an assortment of gear for every contingency...’
Rio embodied the essence of excessive preparedness in all endeavors.
Regardless of whether it was leisure time, Rio kept his full kit of tools and essentials organized within his space ring.
His space ring served beyond mere apparel and survival provisions; it housed an array of elixirs and artifacts amassed or purchased amid his criminal-hunting exploits.
Through pursuing fugitives nationwide, Rio grasped the wisdom of readiness for any scenario imaginable.
Consequently, Rio naturally owned a backup spatial anchor, acquired after witnessing its value during the raid on a covert smuggling ring near the orc nation's frontier alongside Raji.
Though the orbiting spatial anchor offered no offensive aid and even impeded his own space manipulations, Rio recognized prioritizing the dampening of Raika’s spatial techniques as crucial now.
The more restricted Raika's skill options became, the simpler it grew to anticipate and evade his forthcoming maneuvers.
’I can somewhat grasp now the frustration others experience clashing with me...’
Much as Raika wielded an array of odd techniques, Rio had mirrored that approach for years on end.
Link, Liam, Lia, and fellow combatants all recognized Rio's erratic and unforeseeable nature.
His skillset seemed boundless, and upon witnessing an opponent's technique, he could replicate it effortlessly, incorporating it into his own arsenal like a taunt to their diligence and practice.
’My previous encounter with a versatile skill-user dates back to the experimental ascension spire in dragon valley...’
’Yet there, I merely dueled a diminished echo of myself, straightforward to foresee since it mimicked my patterns... but this foe diverges entirely...’
’He’s serving me a dose of my own tactics... ugh...’
As Rio inwardly groaned, Raika hurled a barrage of countless thunderbolts his way, only for Rio to conjure metal poles that diverted the lightning and hurled it back toward Raika.
Raika vanished outright to elude the redirected strikes, then materialized adjacent to Rio for a fierce close-quarters brawl.
Within mere milliseconds, Rio and Raika traded over a hundred thousand strikes, ravaging the miasma-shrouded terrain completely!
Nearby beasts shattered into fragments or vanished utterly from the explosive clashes of Rio and Raika's forces, spawning shockwaves that radiated outward relentlessly.
Rio detected formidable creatures drawn by the uproar, charging in to partake, yet Raika displayed utter indifference.
He seized a colossal mutated serpent by the tail, attempting to wield it as a lash against Rio, but it exploded from within due to Rio’s counterstrikes!