I Hate Systems

"It was all in your head."

Compass Carburettor's words slammed into him like a thunderbolt, for a moment jolting Arnark out of his mental stability. But a grunt later, Arnark threw his fist, vaporising Compass Carburettor's figure.

"Where the heck are you aiming at?" Just when Arnark intended to sigh in relief at having wiped out the enemy for real this time, the familiar annoying voice resounded once again.

"Come and die at my hands!" Arnark bellowed as he unleashed his attacks radially, destroying everything in his wake.

The attack began to crack the barrier when suddenly, the laws of the world actually took action to reinforce the barrier, ensuring it never got damaged ever again.

'Wait...why are the laws mending the barrier erected by Peddler?' Arnark became alert, sensing that something was happening behind the scenes, something he wasn't aware of yet.

He looked around, observing the figure of Compass Carburettor standing fifty metres away from him. A familiar voice taunted him, "Where did your spunk from before go? Eh? You done already?"

"Is he really here?" Arnark frowned as he closed his eyes and focused on the faith gathering in the region, observing the field, gradually realising that the figure of Compass Carburettor taunting him wasn't the real one.

It was just a shadow infused with some faith. The actual Compass Carburettor was deep underground, "So, there you are."

Arnark raised his hand and condensed the faith of a divine beast under him, a mole. His hand then touched the ground, instantly forming a tunnel towards the actual figure of Compass Carburettor, "Stop hiding and get out!"

Boom!

He roughly yanked out Compass Carburettor's figure and slammed him onto the ground, watching blood spurt out in response. He didn't let go of his hold and attacked until he truly crushed his opponent this time.

"You're dead now..." He didn't even finish his statement when he stared at the figure of Compass Carburettor reappear before his eyes again, shouting in a fluster, "How?"

"Why aren't you dead yet, Compass?" Arnark shouted. He possessed absolute power, his divine faith making him peerless. Irrespective of how much Compass Carburettor attacked him, he wouldn't even suffer a scratch.

But now, here he was, vexed instead, having absolute power but still unable to kill his opponent.

'What the heck is happening?' He thought, rapidly morphing his faith into that of his divine beasts to rely upon their exceptional senses and prod around.

This was his original strength as the God King, capable of using the powers belonging to all the faiths under him. Before, he didn't even need to use such a thing to destroy Compass Carburettor.

But when that was proved false by his lack of death, Arnark gradually began to use his true strength. Unfortunately for his mental sanity, no matter what he did, like a cockroach, Compass Carburettor kept reappearing before him.

'Wait!' It suddenly struck him as Arnark frowned, realising something, 'Compass's experiences! Right! I forgot about them!'

He hurriedly deactivated his power, blocking the divine faith from reaching him, and causing his body to begin turning into a rock.

The moment it happened, his surroundings morphed, allowing him to see the figure of Compass Carburettor he had been gazing at until now was just a flimsy wave of faith. The actual figure of Compass Carburettor was high up in the air, hanging from the barrier like a spider, calmly observing his actions all along.

"You tricked me, Compass!" Arnark grunted in anger when suddenly, he realised that this too was part of the scheme, watching a spear of shadow pierce through his head.

He allowed his faith to flow through him once again, watching the spear stop partway in his head. Had he been a moment later in activating his powers, he would have died. With a huff from him, the spear disintegrated.

His injury began to heal once he switched to a divine beast's faith with healing powers. But the moment he allowed his faith to flow through him, the figure of Compass Carburettor hanging like a spider vanished.

And appearing before him was the same. But this was obviously fake, as Arnark shattered it with a punch, grunting in anger upon seeing another appear immediately after.

'I'm only able to see his true body without any faith flowing through me.' Arnark took a breather to calm himself, understanding that in his current state, there was nothing Compass Carburettor could do to injure him.

He looked around, observing the Saints watching the battle with rapt attention. Confusion was evident in their expression, unable to understand just what the heck was happening anymore.

'How is Compass doing this...?' Thinking as such, Arnark flickered to another location and blocked his faith, observing a change in the setup, noticing the figure of Compass Carburettor standing only a couple of metres behind his original location.

The moment he blocked his faith, it seemed Compass Carburettor was waiting as a shadow spike rushed at him, intending to pierce him, directly aiming for his head.

'Shit!' Arnark grunted in fear and allowed faith to flow through him again, exasperated upon seeing that the shadow spike had pierced more than halfway through his head this time. The moment faith flowed through him, the attack failed to do any damage.

A second later, his injury vanished, but so did the original figure of his enemy. 'As a Deity, it seems I'm under some mysterious illusion. But that vanishes as a mortal.'

'So, he's doing something through the divine beasts praying to me.' Thinking as such, Arnark relayed a command to all his divine beasts, 'Tell your Saints to close their eyes for a moment.'

In response, despite sporting confused expressions, all the Saints of the divine beasts closed their eyes. Immediately, Arnark observed the figure of Compass Carburettor before him flicker and dissipate like a mirage.

'So, that's how it is.' Arnark grinned and stared at the original figure of Compass Carburettor, for a moment blocking his faith to confirm, 'Through your actions, you're giving them mental suggestions to cause them to hallucinate in a certain way. And this hallucination is affecting their mind and influencing their prayers.'

"As the target of the prayer is a manifestation of the same, I've been put under an illusion. This is how you've been fooling me, Compass." Arnark spoke with absolute confidence as he clenched his hand into a fist and punched forth, killing the target, "Too bad, once I saw through your trick, your doom was..."

"What the fuck?" Arnark shouted in exasperation, watching the figure of Compass Carburettor reappear once again. "Seriously! What is happening?"