Top Tier Perversion: Dual Cultivate Secretly

"You will not sit!"

Vincent had barely finished speaking when Anastasia attacked again.

Celeste did not retreat this time. She stepped toward Anastasia instead, getting close enough that the sword could not move freely.

Her palm passed above Anastasia’s head when the blonde lady ducked, and immediately turned her sword toward Celeste’s waist.

Celeste finally gave ground to avoid it, but Anastasia followed with the same step and reproduced the movement she had just performed.

The second attack came with ten times the intensity.

Celeste had already seen this happen several times now. Instead of blocking the sword like before, she moved completely out of its path and let the attack pass her.

BAM!

A nearby tree was cut apart.

Vincent stared at Anastasia, and could clearly see how powerful her attacks were.

’System, can I borrow this ability of hers?’

[Affirmative.]

’Do it.’

A familiar connection formed within his soul, except this time it went toward Anastasia.

[Chaotic Fate Resonance activated.]

[Subject: Anastasia.]

[Borrowed Ability: Palimpsest]

[Misfortune Acquired.]

[Loose branches and similar objects will have an unusual tendency to catch upon the Host’s clothing for the next twenty-four hours.]

[Sudden Incompetence Acquired.]

[The Host has forgotten how to whistle.]

The misfortune and forgotten skill did not bother Vincent.

However, as he felt Anastasia’s ability within him, there was another strange feeling.

’Wait. Why do I still have Vanessa’s ability?’

[Chaotic Fate Resonance permits the Host to maintain multiple compatible resonances simultaneously.]

Vincent blinked.

’So I have both?’

[Affirmative.]

’Wow.’

On a rare occasion this time, the system was actually useful and wasn’t trying to scam him.

Before he could appreciate the system, a sudden attack made him move.

Celeste had gotten past Anastasia and came straight for him. Vincent raised his axe, forcing her to change the direction of her attack, while Anastasia closed the distance from behind and made Celeste turn back toward her.

Vincent quickly moved away.

He suddenly remembered why this woman sitting down was such a big problem in the first place.

’Karmic Thread Perception.’

Thin threads appeared within his sight.

There were very few around here.

One, however, stretched directly between him and Celeste.

Blue.

Vincent’s expression changed.

’What the fuck?’

He had never directly attacked her before. The Mountain Slash on the cliff had gone through the ground, and even afterward he had only attacked near her to stop her from sitting.

Apparently that did not matter.

Celeste had struck him. He had interfered with her. Both had already affected the other enough that Fate considered there to be a karmic connection between them.

More importantly, there was a thread now.

If she sat, Vincent was most certainly doomed.

’Amazing,’ he clicked his tongue and dismissed the perception.

Anastasia and Celeste had already moved several meters away. Vincent ran after them and swung his axe when Celeste came near, but she moved away without much difficulty.

A few seconds later he remembered the movement and tried doing it again.

Nothing happened.

’Hm?’

He attempted the same swing another time while Anastasia was keeping Celeste occupied. It felt almost the same to Vincent, but there was still no amplification.

Anastasia moved past him while avoiding Celeste’s hand.

"Your shoulder!"

That was all she said.

Vincent had no time to ask anything.

Celeste came toward him again and Vincent swung. He paid attention to his shoulder this time, remembered exactly how he moved before, then repeated it when another opening appeared.

[Perfect retrace detected.]

[Palimpsest amplification: 10×.]

The axe struck Celeste’s raised arm.

BAM!

She was pushed sideways several steps.

Vincent almost lost the axe from the impact going back into his hands.

His arms hurt like hell.

But—

’Oh!’

He looked at the weapon.

’I can actually do it.’

Celeste also looked at him differently now.

Then she rushed him.

Vincent moved immediately.

The direction of the fight changed and annoyed Celeste.

Before, she only had to worry about Anastasia repeating an attack. Now Vincent could do it too, even if his version was much worse.

Anastasia could repeat proper sword movements while moving around Celeste. Vincent had learned how to repeat one basic axe swing after three attempts.

There was a fairly big difference.

Still, ten times was ten times.

Celeste stopped letting either of them prepare comfortably. When Anastasia performed a sword cut and started moving into the same position again, Celeste closed the distance and forced her to block instead.

When Vincent tried preparing his simple axe swing, she attacked his footing or struck the weapon before he could complete the same movement.

Vincent tried another repeat and had to abandon it midway when Celeste kicked toward his knee.

He raised his leg and moved away, feeling sweat trickle down his neck.

’She figured it out.’

There was no doubt about it. After all, she was a Transcendent cultivator.

The three continued moving deeper through the forest while fighting. There were considerably fewer monsters around here compared to before. Most had already fled the Highlands or were hiding from whatever had terrified them in the first place.

One mutated wolf hiding beneath some bushes suddenly ran out when the fight came near.

It happened to rush through Anastasia’s side.

She started turning toward it.

"Keep on her!"

Vincent intercepted the wolf instead. One axe swing entered through its neck and sent it rolling across the dirt while Anastasia never stopped attacking Celeste.

Vincent pulled his axe back and ran after them.

His bare foot landed directly on a sharp stone.

"Fuck!"

He stumbled, caught himself and kept going.

The sole of his foot was already covered in dirt and several small cuts. Earlier there had been plenty of grass beneath him, but now the ground had more roots, stones and broken branches than anything comfortable to step on.

This really was not the best place to run around barefoot.

There was also another problem.

His arms were becoming heavier.

Adversity Ascension still gave Vincent enough strength to swing far beyond what he should normally be capable of, but it did not magically make his body fresh again. The repeated attacks were slowly wearing him out.

Vincent looked at Anastasia.

Her condition was most likely worse than his.

Her breathing had become noticeably heavier, and after another tenfold attack, her sword arm shook for a few seconds before becoming steady again.

She had performed that ridiculous 100x amplifier and then kept fighting, making Vincent think that she might collapse any moment.

He had to hurry before both collapsed from exhaustion!

Another mutated beast ran from between the trees shortly afterward. This time it came directly between Anastasia and Celeste.

Anastasia killed it quickly, but that tiny interruption was enough.

Celeste rushed toward a flatter section of ground and lowered herself.

Vincent saw it.

"No!"

He swung toward the stone beneath her.

Celeste stopped sitting and moved before the attack reached it.

The ground cracked.

She remained standing.

But Vincent was getting really tired of doing this.

He chased after her and landed on another sharp piece of stone.

Pain went through his foot again.

’Goddamn it.’

Axe.

System.

That was basically everything he had to fight with.

Then Vincent remembered the object wrapped around his hand.

’I haven’t used this yet, and this isn’t enough. I need better treasures!’

The thought passed quickly and he focused on willing the Wayfarer’s Belt.

"Anastasia!"

He threw the loose end toward her.

Anastasia caught it with her free hand.

"Wrap her!"

She did not ask what he was planning.

Her sword stopped trying to retrace the previous attack and she immediately changed how she was moving.

Celeste noticed the Belt too.

The moment Anastasia tried moving around her left side, Celeste sent a low sweeping kick toward her legs to stop her.

Anastasia jumped forward instead of retreating, rotating over the attack while carrying the Belt with her. She landed low on Celeste’s other side and cut toward her abdomen almost immediately.

Celeste stepped backward to avoid the blade.

That was exactly the movement Anastasia needed.

The Belt passed behind Celeste.

She turned toward Anastasia before the woman could continue circling and attacked her head. Anastasia crouched beneath the strike, moved around the other side and threw the Belt back toward Vincent.

He caught it.

’Nice!’

Vincent immediately shoved the end through the buckle and willed the artifact to retract.

The Belt shortened almost instantly.

Celeste realized what was happening and tried moving away, but the loop around her was already complete.

It tightened around her torso.

Vincent kept retracting.

The Belt squeezed harder.

Celeste’s loose purple robes were pressed against her body while her movement became visibly restricted.

She grabbed the Belt with both hands and tried pulling it apart, but it was futile.

Vincent almost broke into a smile when he realized how strong this belt was, but just as he tried shortening it further, he realized he couldn’t. .

’Huh?’

Celeste’s body had already reached a level far beyond normal mortals.

The Belt could keep tightening enough to hurt her, but it could not simply crush a Transcendent cultivator to death because Vincent wished really hard.

Vincent didn’t know about it, but he stopped bothering to crush her and instead focused on his next move when Celeste grabbed the belt and pulled hard.

Vincent went flying.

’SHIT!’

He hit the dirt and was dragged several feet before managing to stop himself.

So much for catching her.

Anastasia attacked while Celeste was occupied with the Belt, forcing her to release some of the tension and turn back toward the sword.

Vincent quickly got up.

’She can’t break it. I can’t overpower her. Then what to do?’

The answer came almost immediately.

Vincent willed a section of the Belt longer, wrapped it securely around his own waist and tied it before throwing the remaining length toward Anastasia.

"Put it around yourself!"

Anastasia caught it while moving away from another attack. She wrapped it around her body without taking her attention from Celeste, and Vincent immediately retracted the unnecessary slack.

This was it.

Celeste kept running, so with the belt at least they will all be closer and Vincent could shorten or lengthen the belt to make her unable to sit.

The situation suddenly became very strange.

Vincent was tied to the Belt.

Celeste was trapped in the middle.

Anastasia was tied to the other side.

None of them could easily separate anymore.

Celeste tried to do so anyway and first rushed toward Vincent knowing he was the weakest of the three.

Vincent saw her run toward him and quickly extended his own section while shortening Anastasia’s.

The change was small, yet the pull from the opposite side shifted Celeste enough that Anastasia got a clean angle.

Her sword cut across Celeste’s side.

The next attack repeated the movement.

Tenfold intensity!

Celeste was forced away.

She immediately grabbed the Belt and pulled Vincent toward herself.

This time Vincent did not resist.

He let the artifact drag him forward and swung the axe while coming in.

Celeste moved her upper body away from the blade, but Anastasia had also allowed the pull to move her around the opposite side. Her sword came toward Celeste almost immediately afterward and forced the woman to defend again.

The Belt had turned the fight into something completely different.

Celeste was still strong enough to drag either of them around, but doing so moved the other person too.

Vincent could change how much slack existed between everyone, and Anastasia was experienced enough to use those small changes without needing instructions.

Celeste realized the danger and quickly changed tactics.

Instead of fighting the Belt, she started using it.

She already had a vague idea of the two’s attack pattern. They needed to repeat the same movement to reach the high intensity attack, so when Vincent prepared another repeated swing, she suddenly pulled him hard enough to change where his foot landed.

His movement became different and Palimpsest did nothing.

When Anastasia tried reproducing a sword attack, Celeste rushed Vincent and forced Anastasia to move differently to stop her from reaching him.

That cancelled another retrace, and using the chance, she quickly tried to sit down on a flat ground.

Vincent and Anastasia pulled from both directions before she could do so.

The fight suddenly entered a strange annoying equilibrium for everyone involved.

Vincent activated Karmic Thread Perception once more while catching his breath.

The thread between him and Celeste remained.

Except now it was red.

Vincent had no clue how it changed color. He was in the midst of fighting and couldn’t tell how karma classified the debt.

He would need to experiment later to understand. But what he knew now was that he absolutely could not let Celeste sit!

Vincent dismissed the perception.

At long last, Celeste stopped trying to move.

The three stared at each other while catching their breaths.

Celeste knew she had to do something otherwise the stalemate would only end up hurting her.

She didn’t know what other hidden cards these two had and she wasn’t going to risk finding out.

Vincent getting close to her had already spooked her enough.

She couldn’t fathom how there could be someone with zero karma in this world, but apparently there was.

Anastasia’s ability was far too strong, something she had never seen before.

She retraced her own attacks as easily as breathing and the tenfold intensity attacks had piled up and worn down Celeste quite a lot.

Plus, if she could use that initial attack that destroyed her defensive treasure again, Celeste might suffer some serious injuries and wouldn’t be able to flee anymore.

She understood her own shortcomings

Her gaze went toward the bracelet on her wrist.

The Dark Bead.

Her expression became much worse.

This treasure had not been something she received for free.

Celeste was an important core member of her organization that could request another expensive artifact whenever one broke.

Every useful treasure she possessed had required work, contribution and patience to obtain.

She used this dark bead once to power up, but that was not the entire usage it had.

It had another function, but using this function would destroy it completely and Celeste wasn’t willing to waste such a thing on two low ranked cultivators.

One seemed to have only just awakened and the other was just in the second realm...

It would be too big of a humiliation to destroy such a strong treasure on them.

But did Celeste have a choice?

Anastasia attacked again at this time.

Celeste blocked the first sword movement, and the second came ten times stronger, which she moved out of her way to block again.

However, the belt shortened and lengthened, cutting off her retreat.

Celeste couldn’t dodge and was sent staggering a few steps back.

Vincent’s axe was already coming from the other side and did not give her time to rest.

Celeste stopped hesitating and made her decision.

A crack appeared across the Dark Bead.

Anastasia quickly noticed it.

"Young master!"

The bead shattered.

BOOM—!

A violent force struck everything around Celeste.

Vincent and Anastasia were sent flying before they could do anything.

’How many times!?’

Vincent hit the dirt hard and passed through the bushes while Anastasia was thrown in another direction.

Vincent bled from his forehead and suffered multiple fractures on his limbs and most likely broke a rib or two.

Due to the surging adrenaline, he had not yet realized the state he was in.

’Get up! Get up!’ He screamed internally and tried standing up.

Away from him, the dark bead turned to dust in Celeste’s hand.

She did not pay it any attention for now and quickly grabbed the remaining two beads on her wrist. She placed the red one in her mouth and activated the yellow bead while turning to look at the deepest location of the Highlands.

Something was over there that kept all the monsters away, but she could not feel a threat from it.

Celeste quickly decided to teleport there.

She just needed one single moment so she could sit and declare the two as her enemy.

The yellow bead cracked and flashed with a white brilliance.

Space distorted around Celeste.

The air itself seemed to fold for a moment, and the effect spread over her body before reaching the Belt wrapped tightly around her.

Celeste frowned as she noticed this.

Away from her, Vincent suddenly felt a strong pull.

The distortion arrived from the belt and alarmed him, quickly flashing with a bright brilliance and swallowing him.

’What the—!’

Vincent disappeared.

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