Yet neither Madam Future nor the watchers were surprised... they knew that the Angrath Lineage had achieved such a high mastery of Wrath Aspect, the emotion itself no longer had control of them unless they allowed it.
Hence, the Ruiner might look gentle and chill, but in reality... no one could really tell how mad he was.
"The duel will last until death or if one of you uses a resignation token."
Gamemaster Gamble looked at them for a moment, and when he saw that both were ready, he dropped his arm and shouted, "Battle!"
"No hard feelings, love..."
Suddenly, the Ruiner’s white eyes showed a red line splitting them from the middle... his white hair as well had the same line breaking its white flow in half. Then, he started walking in the direction of Madam Future; with each step he took left behind a red misty imprint.
" Angrath Threshold Arts : First Threshold." He murmured gently under his breath as he unbuttoned his jacket, "Ruin Meridian."
The instant the last word was uttered, the Ruiner left behind a fading red mirage and hundreds of glowing imprints as he charged toward Madam Future. His expression remained as soft as an old man reading a newspaper on a bench... yet the veined fist shooting toward her like a comet told a very different story.
Madam Future’s pupils dilated as she took a single step forward, looking like she wanted to end this battle early.
However, her movement left behind a pale-blue footprint... just as the punch was about to land on her face, Madam Future’s form turned illusory for a split second. Then, she stepped backward into the pale-blue footprint as his fist sliced past her nose... the shockwave blew her misty hair upward.
She avoided the attack with such minimal movement, it seemed lazy... but in reality, it was perfectly timed.
"Interval Invulnerability! Madam Future has gone through many battles, and yet, this technique always ensured her survival!" Gamemaster Gamble commented excitedly, "How can you hit someone who can slip her body and soul in the gap between instances?!"
The Ruiner was familiar with Madam Future’s powers, and he didn’t care. He understood that she couldn’t keep abusing it forever, which meant...
Boom! Boom! Boom!..
He kept swinging left and right with his fists while circling Madam Future, who merely took steps in a small one-meter square, not leaving it.
She had eight blue-pale footsteps in all directions, and each time the Ruiner struck her, she simply took a step backward, to the side, or in front.
With each step taken, her form turned illusory as if it didn’t exist before it reappeared a millisecond later!
When the Ruiner increased his tempo, so did she... this made her resemble a flickering ghostly entity that kept jumping between the gaps in instances, each jump considered a mini temporal skip.
It wasn’t teleportation, but more so a glimpse of the future, and she simply altered it through her powers, ensuring that she would never reach a future where the Ruiner’s attacks hit her!
It was such a complex and powerful technique; it left the viewers astonished at the sight of the Ruiner’s overwhelming red barrage failing to touch a piece of her clothes!
’Future Sight... show me everything.’
But, Madam Future wasn’t planning to keep on evading forever... her eyes suddenly turned starry as she took a longer glimpse into the future possibilities of each attack she decided to use.
Tens, hundreds, thousands!
Although it might look like she spent a lot of time looking into them, in reality, no less than a split second went by!
She looked into thousands of possibilities and stopped only when she was almost certain about her counter-attack registering... she didn’t keep going, understanding that the future could never have a fixed outcome.
The results depended on the information in her hand, and Madam Future was going slow in this game for the sole reason of collecting more information about the Rifters!
While others were seeking to gather as many Joker cards as possible right from the start, Madam Future kept hopping from one challenge to another, ensuring that she met every one of her competitors.
It didn’t matter the result of the round... for she always emerged victorious after using Future Sight on them to analyze their fighting styles, combos, techniques, and such!!
Since she was merely taking a glimpse of the future and not acting on it, the system didn’t register it as an attack!
Madam Future was like anyone in this game of freaks... everyone had their ways of cheating their victory, and this was hers.
Now... with all the information she collected, she could finally fight for real.
’ Spiral of Inevitabilities Arts: The Awakening.’
Abruptly, the mist she was releasing from the holes on her temples and jaw increased in pressure until it gave birth to future misty fragments... mirages of what could happen.
Each fragment was a blurry scene of a possible strike, a possible wound, a possible motion... They were possible outcomes that she had anchored to the present and had them surround her in a ring of possibilities!
However, the viewers couldn’t see them... in their eyes, it appeared like Madam Future was surrounded by a colorful, misty halo.
But, the Ruiner could... only because Madam Future wanted to trap him inside the Spiral Inevitabilities she chose!
The Ruiner felt the tempo of the fight change immediately as quick flashes appeared in his eyes... short visions of his own future mistakes.
A punch he was going to miss... A dodge he would react to too late, or a hit he was going to take in a few seconds from now.
The Ruiner knew that Madam Future wanted to mess with his flow and fighting style, making him doubt his instincts, his moves, his decisions, everything!
Thus, he refused to partake in it or slow down.
’Second Threshold: Ruinburst Punch!’
The Ruiner’s eyes displayed two red lines, and so as his hair... but no one looked at them, their eyes were affixed on his fist that was engulfed in an agitated red aura.
His Arts were created and perfected over generations for the sake of keeping their wrath within control... the thresholds were actually somewhat like seals.
The higher the threshold, the less control he had over his Wrath and its effect on his decisions... but simultaneously, the more powerful he became.
Why? Because the Angrath Race’s secret to getting the best of their Aspect wasn’t by simply thinking of something to make them mad to get powerful... no, no, no... that was too unreliable in combat.
Their true secret was: They were always at their peak of madness; they just chose to seal it.
The Ruiner ignored everything and allowed his rage to guide him... the one emotion that had never let him down in fights.
He faked a knee drop, and the moment Madam Future evaded it, the Ruiner was already waiting there with his fist aiming directly for her head!
Everyone noticed immediately that the punch’s speed seemed to have increased immensely as if it was fired by a cannon... alas, the Ruiner didn’t realize that he was already trapped in the future within the Spiral!
The punch that he threw... it didn’t happen in the present. He threw it in the future, and the Spiral of Inevitabilities forced the future result of the punch to appear early in Madam Future’s sight, allowing her to evade it quite easily.
Yet... this wasn’t even the shocking part.
The Ruiner’s heart suddenly burned with pain as he watched his fist bypass Madam Future’s stoic face.
He didn’t know it... But, it was the pain of a counter-attack she hadn’t even performed yet as the Spiral of Inevitabilities made the future injury happen before the real hit could occur!!
The Ruiner immediately decided to retreat and leave the spiral, realizing that as long as he was trapped near her, he would have absolutely no idea what was going on!
Alas... the moment he tried to step away, Madam Future spoke calmly, "Inside the Spiral of Inevitabilities, the future punishes your errors before I need to."
She lifted her arm and made a slow, sweeping motion.
Every short vision of his upcoming mistakes... every misstep, every failed attack... lined up all at once, like a chain reaction. Then, the effects struck his body in a single burst!
Ten seconds’ worth of future errors hit him in one moment!
What’s even scarier? Madam Future might have spoken to the Ruiner in the present, but the attack had occurred three seconds into the future!
The Ruiner swiftly stepped away from her, having no idea what she meant by what she said... but three seconds later?
His body and soul were suddenly crushed by the ten seconds of attacks he was "supposed" to perform against Madam Future... but all of them were redirected onto himself instead!
The Spiral of Inevitabilities forced the future to "fix itself" in the simplest way possible: If he was destined to fail those attacks anyway, the Spiral made him receive the results of those failures before they ever happened!
This was the true horror of the Future Aspect and Seernia Lineage from the Chronovari Trueborn Race. Fighting them was the same as fighting the result of your own actions and mistakes!
"Argh..."
The Ruiner staggered in place, appearing like he was being hit by tens of ghosts at the same time... but the color of blood spilling down his nose and mouth was as real as it could get!