Peaceful Life System: I only need to live peacefully-Chapter 146: Endgame (13)

The crimson glow in Riku’s eyes intensified. Slowly, mechanically, he rose to his feet, his movements stiff and unnatural, like a puppet on strings. He took one step, then another, moving towards the triumphant hooded man.

"Riku! Don’t listen to him! Fight it!" Clara’s desperate voice shrieked in his mind, but it sounded distant, like a voice from across a vast chasm.

"Young man, can you hear me?! Resist him!" Arnold yelled, pounding uselessly on the inside of his protective bubble. He watched in horror, his heart sinking into a pit of despair.

The hooded man let out another soft, satisfied chuckle. "It is useless. The Heart must obey the Brain. That is the natural order of things."

Riku came to a stop, standing directly in front of his new "master."

"Now," the hooded man commanded, his voice dripping with authority, "bow to me. Swear your allegiance, and together, we shall claim our rightful place as gods."

Arnold fell to his knees inside the bubble, his face a mask of utter defeat.

For a long moment, Riku did nothing. He just stood there, his body rigid, his eyes glowing with that same, unsettling crimson light.

The hooded man’s satisfaction began to fray, replaced by a flicker of annoyance. "I gave you a command, vessel. Did you not hear me? Bow!" His voice was much more stringent this time, laced with an impatient fury.

Slowly, as if fighting against some immense internal pressure, Riku’s body began to bend at the waist. He was about to give a slight bow. The hooded man’s posture relaxed, a smirk returning to his unseen face.

But then, the bow stopped. Riku’s head tilted up, and a slow, chillingly evil grin spread across his face. The crimson light in his eyes was suddenly replaced by a piercing, otherworldly purple.

"Riku! You broke free. Can you hear me now?" Clara, noticing the changes in Riku, tried to call out again. But once again, she got no response.

A new voice, ancient and echoing with a power that made the surroundings tremble, spoke from Riku’s lips. It was a voice that held the weight of millennia, a voice of pure, absolute authority.

"A mere human," the voice began, a low, terrifying rumble, "fused with the will of a dead, forgotten beast... dares to try and control me?"

With that, the crimson aura that had consumed Riku burst outward in a violent, explosive wave. His own powerful mana, once sealed, now flowed freely, a torrential flood of pure energy that forcibly ejected the foreign power from his body.

The red mist coalesced before him, condensing under immense pressure until it formed a single, small, perfect red pearl.

The pearl fell from the air, landing with a soft tink at the foot of the hooded man.

At the exact same instant, the temperature in the entire cavern plummeted.

The murky sludge on the floor froze solid with an audible crack. The droplets of blood from the earlier fight turned to tiny red jewels on the stone. Vyon, still kneeling in despair, was instantly encased in a thick layer of frost, his expression of shock and horror perfectly preserved.

Even Arnold, safe within his Aegis of the Unblemished Soul, felt a soul-deep chill seep into his bones, a cold that had nothing to do with the physical temperature.

Only the hooded man was spared the absolute freeze, shielded by the faint, residual aura of the creep emanating from the red pearl at his feet.

But his body was trembling, not from the cold, but from sheer, unadulterated terror. The calm, condescending master was gone, replaced by a man staring into the face of a power far beyond his comprehension.

He looked at the figure standing before him, at the eyes that now glowed with a terrifying purple light, at the being wearing Riku’s face but radiating an ancient and overwhelming power.

The hooded man took an involuntary step back, his voice a ragged, terrified whisper.

"Who... who are you?"

Even Arnold and Clara were completely spellbound. No one said anything, as they had no idea what was happening anymore. Could it be some more tricks by the Hooded man?

The being wearing Riku’s face, however, ignored the question. His purple eyes flickered with contempt.

"Pathetic," a cold, mocking voice echoed in the cavern, addressing no one in particular. "Absolutely disgraceful."

The ’Riku’, whose entire body was now glowing purple, spoke with a chill in his voice.

’"Riku... you let the heart of a dead lizard poison you? You sealed your own magic—your greatest strength—to brawl like a common thug? And yet, you want to be the one who has all this power?"

"Hahaha....You are weak. You are unworthy of this power. Watch closely, boy. Let me show you how true strength is wielded.’

Come! Rimeheart.

’Riku’ raised an open palm. The air above it grew impossibly cold. A block of shimmering, crystalline ice materialized from nothing, hovering above his hand.

With a thought, the ice block compressed, twisted, and elongated, its form shifting rapidly until it became a long, elegant, impossibly sharp blade of pure, dark ice.

He gripped the hilt, the cold of the weapon doing nothing to harm his hand. He gave it a single, experimental swing.

The air itself seemed to split before the blade’s edge, letting out a wave of frost that went straight towards the pearl on the ground.

At once, the faint red vapor still rising from the pearl at the hooded man’s feet suddenly stopped its upward drift. It froze mid-air, solidifying into millions of tiny, glittering crimson ice crystals that hung suspended in the air.

"Rime...Rimeheart? You are.. You are..."

At this point, the hooded man could only stammer. Even with all of his composure, he could not help but tremble at what he was seeing and hearing.

There was only one person in the entire history who had ever used a sword called Rimeheart. Someone who had stood at the very top of the world and was feared by every single entity.

A legend, who had not been seen for decades now.

"Riku" turned towards the hooded man, still with a demonic grin.

"Yes, I am the Grand Maximus."

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