CHAPTER 823: 823: DIVINE GAME – CARD SWAP 72

After thanking the white bear, Rita still didn’t leave.

"You still need something?" the bear asked.

Rita gave an awkward smile, pointing at a glass of liquor on the cloud table. "This one... are you still drinking it?"

It was the only poisoned drink among the five cups.

The bear ground his teeth. "...I’ll drink it. I’ll have it with my meal later."

Seeing his temper flare again, Rita quickly slipped out of the garden.

Including the wristband on her arm, she now had only ten [Demon’s Pass] left.

She had already marked the coordinates for five statues and five backup statues in her mind while gathering the passes.

Like the existing demon statues, she had deliberately avoided the Old District when choosing locations.

The white bear might be friendly, but she didn’t believe she was the special one—seven other mysterious beings still lived inside.

She sprinted toward her first coordinate, stopping by one statue along the way to grab a platinum academy uniform and throw it on.

Reaching the point, she gripped the [Demon’s Pass] and visualized her soul flame.

As the comet key solidified, the outline of a statue appeared in her mind. She could choose its form.

Should she pick something small and hidden, or something that closely resembled the other demon statues to throw off the others?

No. Neither.

Rita chose herself.

Why should her road to the championship be marked with someone else’s likeness?

The moment the statue appeared, she knew hiding it was impossible.

When the [Demon’s Pass] transformed into a massive silver statue of herself, a red beam shot down from the heavens like a colossal hammer, slamming into the ground with a deafening crash.

Every surviving apprentice would now be coming for her.

The crimson beam bathed her statue, displaying its full life bar.

She could feel a link between them—the statue was her, yet not her.

She could use any self-targeted skill on it, her only means of protection. But any skill that couldn’t overlap on a single target, once used on the statue, could not be reapplied to herself even after cooldown.

Testing its mobility, she got the message "Immovable," which eased her mind a little. Being destroyed was bad, but being moved was worse.

She lowered its health and activated [Mystic Force].

That one needed to last the longest, so it was worth her strongest defense.

Summoning the deep blue ship’s helm, Rita teleported instantly to her second coordinate.

Another red beam fell.

She wrapped the second statue in a [Nebula Bubble]—her third bubble today, and the last she had visible to others.

If the shield didn’t get canceled by some special skill, this one would be safe for eight minutes.

She dashed toward the third point.

By now, apprentices were moving directly to intercept her.

No words or deals were needed—every remaining player had just formed a silent alliance.

Those without flight would target her statues; those who could fly would focus on killing Moonlight Marsh’s Rita before she could finish.

Even apprentices from her own academy weren’t exempt. Out of courtesy, they chose to destroy statues instead of attacking her directly.

The city guards that had hounded unregistered apprentices all game had vanished completely, likely due to game rules.

Resistance was already mounting. To create the third statue, she had to kill four apprentices to get the chance.

The third crimson beam split the sky.

She cast [Hide-and-Seek] on it.

Weaving through countless skills, she flew hard toward the fourth coordinate. An apprentice charged at her head-on.

Rita didn’t so much as flinch—her speed and direction didn’t change.

She just gripped her dagger tighter.

That was all she needed.

It had been years since she’d pestered Lightchaser to teach her attack skills. At Moonlight Marsh, she had always been more interested in skills with special effects.

She already possessed the best combat techniques for herself—and had honed them to the peak.

[Throat Slash · Lightchaser] (SSS): Consumes one point of battle will to slash the enemy’s throat with a dagger. As long as battle will remains, this skill never goes on cooldown. It seems to connect with four other skills.

[Debone · Lightchaser] (SSS): Consumes one point of battle will to carve away the enemy’s vital bones, crippling them. As long as battle will remains, this skill never goes on cooldown. It seems to connect with four other skills.

[Backstab · Lightchaser] (SSS): Consumes one point of battle will to deliver a fatal strike from behind. Damage depends on execution and battle will. As long as battle will remains, this skill never goes on cooldown. It seems to connect with four other skills.

There were two others Lightchaser had never taught her.

But these three were already enough.

Lightchaser always asked if these skills had ever gone on cooldown. Rita would lift her chin and answer coolly with one word: Never.

The aerial clash ended in just three seconds. A body plummeted from the sky while the Moonlight Marsh third-year didn’t even glance back, flying straight on as if nothing had happened.

She reached the fourth point.

The fourth crimson beam lit up Demon City.

Glancing at the apprentice who had chased her here—whose health was at least triple hers, on par with Fat Goose—she marked him with the fourth statue and used [Sleepless Tonight].

For the next ten minutes, he and the statue would share all damage.

The world went black when the skill triggered. By the time her vision cleared, Rita was already five meters away.

Only one left.

Five minutes later, standing in the middle of a ring of corpses, the fifth [Demon’s Pass] turned into a statue.

She left behind a shadow clone from [Another Me] to guard it.

The crimson beam of the fourth statue was trembling, its color fading—it was the weakest in protection.

But the first to fall wasn’t that one—it was the second statue, the one she’d given a [Nebula Bubble].

The five beams had barely coexisted for three seconds before dropping to four.

Rita showed no anger or panic. She shut out all negative emotion and used the freshly cooled [Absolute Freedom] to teleport to her first backup point.

The sixth [Demon’s Pass] became a key in her hands.

She crowned the statue with a pumpkin hat, placed a little snowman in its grasp, and finally cast [Endless Autumn], restoring 50% of its health every minute for the next three minutes.

Once again, five crimson beams pierced the clouds above Demon City.