The Succubus’s Illusions and Sovenia’s Counterplay

In a moment of desperation, Wawalde abandoned his cleaving strike, instead smashing forward with an iron elbow encased in armor.

A sharp crack echoed, and the Succubus Heavenly King’s body shattered like glass, dissolving into countless shimmering fragments.

Sovenia recognized it instantly: ‘A decoy! It’s a decoy! She escaped!’

The only exit from the side hall was the doorway Sovenia currently occupied.

“Clones! Block the doorway with clones!”

Sovenia shouted without a moment’s thought. She knew the Succubus Heavenly King excelled at using illusions and decoys for movement; once she broke out of this confined side hall, capturing her would prove exceedingly difficult.

As she yelled, she silently activated a newly acquired card.

[Evolution+]

A warm current surged through her body, confirming this card was crucial in their struggle against the Succubus Heavenly King.

Wawalde’s reaction was remarkably swift; almost simultaneously with Sovenia’s cry, a luminous clone, identical to him save for its blurred features, materialized a dozen meters in front of him.

The clone wasted no time, lunging forward to stand beside Sovenia, shoulder-to-shoulder, firmly blocking the doorway, a spectral greatsword clutched in its hand.

A caustic voice drifted down from above: “What a pair of lovebirds! Such perfect synchronization, how many times have you two shared a bed?”

Sovenia and Wawalde looked up in unison, only to see the true Succubus Heavenly King suspended in mid-air. Her long, dark hair fanned out like seaweed, and her wheat-colored skin gleamed alluringly in the dim light.

The once magnificent court gown she wore now resembled mere tattered rags tied to her seductive form, barely concealing her vital areas.

The spot on her chest where Sovenia had stabbed her still dripped blood. A translucent, pale purple veil masked the lower half of her face, revealing only a pair of eyes burning with pink flames, which paradoxically lent her an air of veiled mystery.

“And you, Hero,” the Succubus Heavenly King’s gaze shifted to Wawalde, her tone laced with undisguised mockery,

“Just look at your face—half charred, rotting flesh. Utterly disgusting. How do you even have the audacity to still live in this world? Do you know how much I wanted to vomit every time I saw your face? You pathetic man, you’ve betrayed my benevolence!”

With these words, she flung her hands upward, scattering a vast cloud of pink powder that cascaded like a fantastical snowfall, swirling and settling throughout the entire side hall.

Wawalde remained deaf to her taunts, his powerful legs propelling him upward like a cannonball. He easily leaped over two meters high, his greatsword whistling through the air as it arced directly toward the Succubus Heavenly King in mid-air.

Faced with such a powerful and heavy blow, the Succubus Heavenly King found it impossible to evade, her body once again shattering into glass fragments.

Another decoy.

The next second, she reappeared like a phantom directly in front of Sovenia, barely three steps away, attempting to force her way through the blocked doorway.

“Move aside, you ugly wretch,” she sneered at Sovenia, her eyes filled with disdain. “As a princess, to be forced to wear such a tattered helmet just to survive—how truly pathetic. Unlike me, ‘Transcendent Charm’ is the finest armor of all.”

Sovenia remained silent, merely tightening her grip on the Moonlit Blade. Alongside Wawalde’s clone, she steadfastly guarded the sole passage.

Simultaneously, the pink snowflakes suspended in the air transformed before touching the ground, coalescing into countless clones, each identical to the Succubus Heavenly King.

Their forms filled the side hall, encircling Wawalde’s true body. Immediately afterward, all the Succubus Heavenly Kings, both the original and every clone, had their pink eyes light up simultaneously, and an invisible alluring power instantly permeated the entire space.

This was the Succubus Heavenly King’s signature move. She could create countless clones, and while these clones possessed no offensive power, they could continuously daze enemies with their gazes. This daze would deepen, eventually leading to unconsciousness.

Sovenia felt a sudden, sharp dizziness, as if struck by a heavy hammer.

Within her card system’s interface, a continuous stream of [Daze] cards, each bearing a negative effect, poured into her draw pile.

The Myriad Manifestations Deck was her cheat code. The Succubus Heavenly King’s mental charm attacks were filtered by the Myriad Manifestations Deck, transforming into negative status cards, [Daze], which were then inserted into her draw pile.

However, she wasn’t completely immune. Once her “hand” was full of [Daze] cards, preventing her from playing any others, she would succumb to the daze, unless she could deal with these [Daze] cards through other card effects.

And she could.

Sovenia breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that she had fought the Succubus Heavenly King before and knew that [Evolution+] was a counter card.

The second round began.

Wawalde’s true body roared, ignoring the allure of the surrounding clones, and charged directly toward the real Succubus Heavenly King at the doorway.

The Succubus Heavenly King, aware that Wawalde was a formidable opponent, shifted her focus to Sovenia, who appeared to be the weaker target.

She raised her hand, pointing it distantly at Sovenia. Instantly, all the clones in the room turned their heads, dozens of eyes burning with pink flames, all fixed squarely on her.

A terrifying wave of dizziness surged, blurring Sovenia’s vision and making her body sway precariously, almost to the point of losing consciousness.

It was in that very instant that the card deck in her mind automatically began to activate.

A [Daze] card was drawn.

Immediately afterward, the effect of [Evolution+] triggered, and the system promptly drew two more cards. As fate would have it, they were two more [Daze] cards!

The chain reaction had begun.

Drawing [Daze] triggered [Evolution+], drawing two more. Another [Daze], triggering it again, drawing more!

Swish, swish, swish, swish—

Cards flashed rapidly through her mind. The [Daze] card, originally a negative status card meant to pollute her deck, now served as a positive draw mechanism.

In a short span, she had drawn her entire deck.

All eleven cards, along with the nine [Daze] cards that had been inserted, a total of twenty cards, were now fully displayed in her hand area.

The Succubus Heavenly King was unaware that the long-legged elven princess before her was actually Jimi the Cruel, whom she had failed to “collect.” They had fought before, and the Succubus Heavenly King still did not understand why Jimi the Cruel could ignore her control.

Seeing Sovenia’s unsteady appearance, she assumed she had succeeded, a cruel smile curving her lips. Her five fingers curled into a claw, imbued with a pink magical aura, and she lunged directly at Sovenia’s face.

However, in the next second, Sovenia’s eyes regained their clarity. The dizziness receded like a tide, replaced by an unprecedented sense of control.

Without even looking at the multitude of cards before her, she made a mental command and selected one.

[Shield of Resolve]

[Please select one card from your hand to discard for a double defense bonus.]

As an experienced card user, Sovenia instinctively discarded an [Attack] card.

With a hum, a curved wall of ice erupted from the ground, appearing out of thin air before her. It firmly blocked the Succubus Heavenly King’s sharp claws, but the ice wall shattered instantly.

The claws pierced through the wall, sweeping directly toward Sovenia.

Sovenia parried with her sword, retreating as she blocked, taking a single step to hide behind Wawalde’s clone.

“Impossible!” the Succubus Heavenly King shrieked, her voice filled with disbelief. “How could it have no effect on you at all?”