In an instant, all paths of escape disappear.

The dragon's body grows brighter yellow as pulses of energy come off the orb, and the web of threads all around me gets smaller.

Many options run through my mind.

I could use a teleport crystal to get out of here right now without another thought, but I'd lose the chance to save Raven. Plus, I'd have shown myself and my abilities to another True Core... completely neglecting the warriors' words I'm trying to protect.

If I leave now, I might be safe in the short term, but it'd put me in an even worse situation, considering there are probably far more members of this organization than just Raven and the thread user...

I take my chances and lunge forward with an idea in mind, letting my sword in my left hand fall back into my storage while I twist my body and enlarge the energy form of my free arm, channeling Soul Energy, divine threads, and even activating my reflective barrier True Core trait into the movement.

Exactly what I expect to happen plays out.

On collision with the shrinking dome, portions of the threads that hit the center of my reflective barrier are sent erupting back, but all of the countless multiplying threads around its edges start to seep into my energy form, tethering into my cells, mimicking the same marble-like material I saw forming on Raven.

I don't flinch and continue my momentum forward, pushing through the raining wall of white webs with an enlarged left side, then slice off the entire exposed area the instant I make it through.

I don't even take the brain power to quick-heal my lost limb, I just set my sights on the source, zipping through the open air and swinging my blade at the marble orb.

My fiery blade clashes against the hard layer of countless threads, and an ear-shattering twang makes reality ripple where this True Core's highest defenses and my most powerful attack meet.

I pour every bit of power I can into the attack, enhancing its raw strength and size many times with my greater form, but the pure white barrier enhanced by the True Core's silky yellow energy doesn't budge.

Even with my perception on full blast, I can't see through the walls.

I grit my teeth as, out of the corner of my eye, the bright yellow dragon's front set of claws comes sweeping down at me, and I have to twist my body upward to block it with my only good arm. Surprisingly, its strength is the same as the orb's, as they're sharing a stream of divine power. Another ripple shakes the floor, walls, and ceiling, then the creature lets out another ear-piercing roar.

I'm forced to use the momentum to let myself get pushed back and avoid its other set of claws.

As soon as I touch the ground, and the dragon repositions itself in front of the orb, the man's voice ripples through my mind again as the white webbing in the air shifts its direction, coming from the five clones and the dragon above me.

"No hesitation to mutilate yourself to win the battle. Just like your invisible friend... In a battle of pure strength, I am sure you could best me, but you stepped into my house. No one has ever left without giving me what I desire."

The orb pulses again, and the dome of webbing starts to fall down toward me again, but in this instance, as the maniacal laughter of the man fades away from my consciousness, I notice something...

At such close range to the marble sphere, I can get a far more accurate reading on it.

There are still layers upon layers of threads hiding a True Core deep within it, but during the time it transmitted a message, and while the orb pulsed yellow to feed more power into the dragon above it, the layers loosened, and I could temporarily see a fuzzy image inside.

The image of a tall, thin man with a sunken face and bright white, wide-open eyes stares ahead with a look of insanity.

He sits on the hard white ground with his bony knees touching his chin, and his hands up in the air, spewing threads of divine energy to continuously replenish the orb, his clones, and the dragon standing over him.

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It's an off-putting image, making me remember the real body of the Apex Region's director. Time has not been kind to this man either, but he has at least managed to compress his True Core, and its burning hot power is about 50% greater than my own.

Despite this gap, my speed, reflexes, and array of skills give me an edge that far surpasses his need to rely on weak clones of himself and the corpses of monsters and hunters...

My combat experience and fighting instincts are on a greater level than his. Just from the movement patterns of the clones and statues being controlled, I can tell they are all led by logic and mimicking studied movements. He is not a natural fighter, but is relying on his gap in pure power alone.

However, once the transmission to speak to me stops, my ability to see within the orb ceases too. It gives me the impression that the defenses during that time are weaker.

The man inside only talks when I'm further away, or unable to get a hit and harden his shell.

As the second attempt to encapsulate me in the falling dome of webs commences, I sense Raven's lifeforce becoming weaker and weaker. It flickers rapidly, and I can only imagine the amount of pain and violent ringing that is going on in her mind...

The still statue of her that stares at the closed doors of the mansion is covered in crimson blood, as it continues to leak from her mouth, nose, eyes, and ears.

The bright True Core in her chest blinks and desperately holds onto light, as an endless loop of the desert battle she fought hours ago plays in her decaying mind.

While I could toy with this mad, rambling man, lose a few more limbs and regrow them as he casts his nets down on me to learn more of his weaknesses, I fear I have no more time to waste.

I stop zipping around the room and stand with my sword grasped in a single hand, staring directly at the closing gap of open air between myself, the dragon's two front legs, and the white orb beneath it.

I take a deep breath, grin, then yell out.

"Let's finish this!"

Then shove my fully charged blade into the floor, letting out a violent wave of mana enhanced by my True Core's energy.

It carries a very specific set of instructions using telepathy, and it takes my full power to make a crack in the top floor of this mansion and get my message to pulse out from the fracture I created while making my entrance.

As this wave of telepathy ripples throughout the endless forestland toward the 8 Great Nations, and past them into the Dark Continent, I set up my plan for once this transmission hits.

Three skills and a single ranked-up buff are activated: Dark Mist, Echo, Stealth, and Master of Illusion.

They're all enhanced by my True Core with every drop of energy I can produce.

The entire mansion blinks into darkness for a fraction of a second as my new ability [Dark Mist] creates a moment in time where my enemy is unable to use any source of perception within a contained area.

I feel the conflicting divine energy, stronger than my own, pushing into this skill, and it overpowers me, but that fraction of a second is all I need.

I limit all of my divine energy and mana control to stay contained inside my purple barrier, then activate stealth to disappear during this moment where my enemy's perception is limited.

[Echo] and [Master of Illusion] fill in the gaps for when the man of threads' perception returns to normal, needing an explanation for the odd burst.

This gap is filled in by a fake manifestation of myself attempting to break through the barrier, sacrificing a leg, and sneaking around the left side of the dragon to go in for the kill again, despite knowing that I can't break through the white shell no matter how hard I strike.

Meanwhile, in my real body, two things are happening.

The first is my left arm growing back at a rapid rate to grasp the Flame Emperor's sword with both hands and speed toward the closing blind spot.

The second is the sensation of my telepathy channel with one of my doubles linking up, receiving my memories instantly, killing itself on the spot, and allowing me to summon it here in place of the mirage imagery created with my skill and buff.

The dragon guarding the orb takes a step forward, predicting my double's movements as it bursts through the silky barrier, and another dome instantly forms to guarantee there is nowhere left for it to run.

My grin only grows more as I squeeze through the small opening and fly right past the dragon's front legs with a fully charged sword headed toward the orb in full stealth mode.

As my body double fails to fully slice off the infected portion of its limb, and another wave of white threads falls down on it, laughter echoes through the air.

"A valiant effort, but I've won. You even had more tricks up your sleeve in your final moments, but the ultimate victory is mine. I haven't had to use my full power in many, many years. Truly an exhilarating piece of art, a powerful warrior for my collection. I will immortalize you as a reward."

The double is quickly flooded with white threads, turning to marble far faster than Raven, as the man clearly doesn't want to take any more chances. The strength of my [Master of Illusion] buff and its exact match of mana control to my own makes the act just believable enough for me to follow through with my next portion of the plan.

The echoing laughs ripple through the room, and the dragon roars with excitement, and I can see the madman inside his protective orb as bright as day.

I don't waste a second to thrust my blade, crackling with True Core enhanced flames, through the outer shell of the protective sphere.

The tough white surface splits and fractures just like the floor moments ago, allowing me to thrust my blade's tip through, just barely.

It's more than enough...

I release every bit of True Core-enhanced flaming hot Soul Energy into the isolated hollowed out sphere.

The white orb glows bright yellow, but the hardness of the shell keeps it from breaking despite the immense amount of energy being forced inside.

The cackling laughs of a madman turn to screams.