Chapter 373: Cognitive Devil's Ability
Boom~
A white trail cloud dragged across the sky, like a hyperspeed fighter jet flying past.
[Lily of the Three Section Staff], running desperately towards Fubuki with red eyes regardless of everything, had no mind to look at the scene in the sky.
[Lilith], sitting on the ground in despair, saw that scene. She had no mystic eyes or pupil techniques and couldn't see clearly who was in that high altitude at all.
But she could see the starting point of that white trail cloud was exactly where the cruel battle had just erupted.
Clutching her neck, her consciousness began to blur. Finally, she slowly fell to the ground, murmuring:
"Mr. Mercenary Tao, please... kill..."
"What... exactly do you want to do?!"
In the extreme speed flight, [Sage] could hardly breathe. The intense wind pressure was like a wall, and he was pressed against this wall by pure violence, sliding for who knows how far.
So far that his tough dragon scales began to shatter piece by piece in friction. Amidst the bloody mess, a large amount of minced meat fell from the air.
The white trail cloud also began to turn red.
He roared in pain, but perhaps understanding his ability, Mercenary Tao no longer gave him any response. Thus, he couldn't activate the ability of [Cognitive Devil].
At the same time, because he couldn't observe the existence of Mercenary Tao's [Mental Body] at this moment, he also couldn't use the ability of [Manipulator] to find Mercenary Tao's mental weakness.
He never thought that his ability combination, which had galloped through various mission worlds undefeated for so long, would be broken by this guy Mercenary Tao in a completely unreasonable way here.
It was as if he had created a set of self-consistent and powerful rule cycles, but the opponent came up and kicked the table over, saying "F*ck your rules, my big fist is the rule."
This kind of power crushing rules usually only appeared when there was a fundamental difference in power levels between Reincarnators.
But he was already a Reincarnator at the top of the Third Ladder. How could Mercenary Tao crush him?!
Couldn't figure it out, absolutely couldn't figure it out.
Sage's angry hiss now was more because he understood Mercenary Tao couldn't kill him at all!
[Cognitive Devil (Native Devil, High-Rank Devil, Hell Species): A special powerful devil catalyzed by a high-level existence. Modifies cognition, devours cognition, parasitizes cognition. All creatures whose cognition is affected by you will sign a contract with you. Simultaneously, you must regularly supply a large amount of twisted cognition for feeding, otherwise you will also be Devoured by the Cognitive Devil.]
Sage had followed His Majesty into this world long ago, carrying out large-scale cognitive intervention on this world, twisting the concept of heroes and successfully introducing [Professional Heroes].
And through the opportunity of Saitama defeating [God] and His Majesty twisting the future to end the birth of monsters in this world, thoroughly twisting the necessity of the concept of [Hero].
Ultimately, this world centered on [Heroes] gradually let [Heroes] be lost.
This was Sage's proud masterpiece. Simultaneously, because of this, he acted quite wantonly in this world.
Because he knew very well that even a monster like Tornado, wanting to kill him, wasn't such a simple thing. No, to speak arrogantly, even if it were Saitama, whether he could kill him was also unknown.
His life was already completely connected with the lives of hundreds of thousands, millions, or even more people in this world.
Sage's expression twisted as his flesh was constantly torn by friction. He could no longer maintain the indifference of leisurely drinking tea while watching Tornado and [???] destroy a city instantly in cruel combat.
"If it's you, you should have thought of it already!"
"All ordinary people in this world under the cognitive influence of [Professional Heroes] are my contractors!"
"To kill me is tantamount to killing all those people first!"
Squelch!
The mandible along with a large piece of flesh was rubbed off. Amidst severe pain, flesh and blood flew. Although Sage was, in a sense, immortal due to the existence of [Cognitive Devil], his ability couldn't exempt him from the pain of death.
This was the fundamental reason he always manipulated others to disguise as himself for combat through [Virtual Persona]. He didn't want to experience the pain of death.
[Cognitive Devil] was a High-Rank Devil touching the level of [Concept] and [Causality], a high-tier power that ordinary Reincarnators couldn't possibly touch until death.
By twisting cognition, making the opponent mistakenly believe he could determine life and death with a word, as long as the opponent accepted this concept, then he could determine the opponent's life and death with a word.
By twisting causality, reversing the concepts of [Cause] and [Effect] in conventional cognition, the attack form of [Reversing Cause and Effect] could be achieved. Punching under the premise of confirming hitting the target, no matter what evasion ability or protective power the opponent possessed, the [Effect] of the opponent being hit by him would be born first, then giving birth to a reasonable [Cause].
"In this world... I am invincible... Ugh!"
Squelch!
Amidst the head and upper body exploding with a bang, another corpse fell. Kaito Shirogane was currently in 128 times acceleration of 7 times [Setsuna]. Normally, his body should have been overwhelmed.
But under the activation state of [Transcendent Helix] talent, Kaito's understanding of his body was extraordinary. Even the LV5 Satsui no Hado, which was violent and almost impossible to control, was tamed in his palm.
In the sky, Kaito sensed the surrounding aura. This place was far away from [???]'s power that was so dark it made him Uncomfortable. While killing Sage, he was searching for the true treasure of this world—[Limiter]!
Accurately speaking, Kaito prepared to comprehend stronger power in this state, and killing Sage was just a spice in this process.
After all, so many Reincarnators died, but Kaito didn't get many Crimson Drop Cards. Although there was a promise from [Luo Xi], and having caused [Chaos Sage] to lose so many members, the other party should give considerable returns.
But Kaito had greed far above common sense for everything.
Sage must die~
Sage just twisted the cognition of his death through the [Cognitive Devil] contract, replacing it with the result of someone unknown dying in his stead. But before he could see the surroundings clearly...
A large hand pressed on his head again. Sage was horrified. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the ends of the opponent's pitch-black long hair seemed to have started turning white.
A surge of hope suddenly rose in his heart.
Does the opponent have a time limit in this state?!
Maybe I...
Pfft bang!
Speed increased again. The rapidly contracting sonic boom cloud overlapped in front of the two. Kaito pressed Sage's head and smashed into it expressionlessly.
Dragon scales, skull, brain matter, blood—various things erupted in the air simultaneously.
Sage's nerves were taut in that terrible pain of death. He didn't even have much time to use his ability to soothe his nerves before being resurrected by twisted cognition again.
"Damn it! Do you want to kill everyone, Mercenary Tao?!"
"Are you going to kill tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people?!"
This conjecture suddenly arose in Sage's heart. Because this conjecture was very absurd, he initially didn't think anyone would do it.
But if someone really paid the price of killing hundreds of thousands or even millions of people... then, he would die...
Once the concept of [Death] appeared, it would trigger a massive amount of fear. That was the fear of the annihilation of one's own [Existence] that any intelligent creature should have.
"Do you really know the consequences of such a thing?!"
Kaito lowered his head, eyes filled with surprise and curiosity.
"Didn't you guys say these people are just NPCs, not counted as human at all..."
"You shouldn't be one of those fools from [Azure Sky], right? Heh, coincidentally I'm not either."
In those eyes with faint spiritual light, the smile held no cruelty, yet it made [Sage] Yu Huaxin palpitate even more.
When most Reincarnators said plot characters in mission worlds were NPCs, they actually had a condescending mentality, a proof of believing their existence was nobler than those plot characters.
But this Mercenary Tao only had indifference in his eyes.
As if to him, facts should be so.
Or more extremely, except for himself, he didn't treat anyone else as the same kind...
Suddenly, Kaito's expression changed, looking down. In a city below, two prominent fist intents intertwined; terrifying force erupted inch by inch.
Terrifying impact force erupted thousands of meters below, then shattered the entire atmosphere.
Kaito's figure moved like a spirit snake, appearing behind Sage instantly, using the opponent's dragon-scale-covered body as a shield in front. Simultaneously, his body relaxed completely, [Six Powers · Paper Art] (Kami-e) unfolding without a teacher.
[Roaring Aura Void Splitting Fist]!
Explosive fist intent exploded upward from the ground. Sage's body exploded like rotten meat in an instant.
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