Chapter 373: Invitation (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
The eyeballs melted and turned into red liquid. The liquid formed a head-sized blood ball on top of the magic circle.
The surface of the blood ball was boiling.
Angele raised his hands and started drawing runes in the air.
Blinking red runes were released from his fingers and sunk into the blood ball.
The blue light dots in front of his eyes were getting brighter and brighter as more and more runes merged with the blood ball. Also, there was sweat dripping down his chin.
The floating blood ball started shrinking as the runes sunk into it.
The color of the ball also changed—the intense red glow brightened up the whole reading room.
Angele finally finished the last rune after about one hour.
The last red rune drew a straight line in the air and jumped into the ball.
The blood ball was still shrinking.
*PONG PONG*
The deep noise sounded like human's heart beating.
The blood ball looked like a small human fist and there was no longer anything happening on its surface, but Angele could see the red vapor rising from it.
The vapor created a mysterious red mist and it had an intense syrupy smell.
Angele looked at the fist-sized blood ball and scanned it with the biochip.
'Bloodline extracted, checking the database…' Zero reported back quickly.
'Searching completed, no data found, bloodline effect simulation started…'
'Simulation completed, possible bloodline merging effect: Increase your attributes, acquire an unknown ability, possible evolution. Consequences: body shape change, appearance change and more. Please collect more data.'
Zero's report came back.
Angele read the result carefully but he was a bit confused. The result of the simulation was not helpful, it did not mention how many points of attributes he would get and not all the consequences were listed.
He hesitated for a second and sighed.
'I should wait.' He tapped on the surface of the blood ball.
*CHI*
The red ball turned into a ray of light and sank into his chest. It turned into an eye-shaped signet beside the red musical signet.
It was the third bloodline signet he got and it was also sealed inside Angele's body.
Angele had two choices at the moment.
First, he could keep practicing the Molten Core River and slowly progress just like the other wizards in the central continent.
Second, he could extract the bloodlines' abilities and walk the same path as the ancient wizards. Although Angele was not sure how the ancient wizards strengthened their bodies, he knew that the ancient wizards increased their power by improving their bloodlines.
They signed contracts with the strongest beings from different realms, they also acquired the power, knowledge, and bloodlines by exploring the mysterious chaos world.
It was nearly impossible for the modern wizards to travel to other realms. For them, the only way to communicate with the beings from other realms was by using the world stones.
However, Angele had the bloodline signets—he could easily go to other realms and find the information he needed. He had the opportunity to become one of the strongest modern wizards in the main world.
He rubbed the bloodline signets several times.
Angele decided to visit the Lion Tree City and see if he could some valuable information or knowledge there.
*************************
Two days later.
In a forest northeast of the Ness River. The golden sunlight warmed up the surface of the ground and the temperature was high between the trees.
The gentle wind was hot and humid.
The golden light was reflected by the dark-green tree leaves which looked vibrant and clean.
There was a large sea of trees beside the endless yellow plain.
A man in a black cloak slowly stepped out of the forest. He slowly removed his black hood, revealing his clean face and long red hair. It was Angele from the Ness River.
He left the mansion when the time was right and followed the directions as indicated by the arrow on the map.
Angele finally left the forest after two days of traveling.
He stood by the edge of the forest and looked at the plain.
It was a yellow plain with no grass, no creature, and no tree, it was empty.
He was standing on a small hill and the view was quite nice.
On the other side of the plain, there was a yellow city sitting on a large empty area quietly. The wind mixed with the sand blurred the sight of the city slightly.
Angele looked at the city, but the latter was surrounded by some yellow fog; it almost looked like the whole city was covered with fog, and he could barely see anything.
The only noise he could hear was that made by the wind; there were no insect and no bird cries, the place was deadly silent.
Angele took out the scroll tapped it slightly and unsealed it.
'This is the Dark Cloud City.' He moved his right index finger on the map and found the mark quickly.
'The Lion Tree City is not far ahead.' He checked the black arrow, it was not pointing at the Dark Cloud City, but the city on the left of the plain.
Angele put on the hood again, he sealed the scroll and started advancing.
*CHI CHI*
Suddenly, he heard some strange noise coming from behind.
Angele stopped moving, leaned to the side and glanced around, but he did not find anything and so decided to keep moving.
Yellow smoke rose from the ground quickly in the grass behind Angele. The yellow smoke turned into a translucent human-shaped shadow. There was nothing connecting the man's head and neck.
"Siiii!" the shadow shouted and jumped to Angele.
*BAM*
The shadow hit the black cloak and was turned back into a pile of yellow smoke; it returned into the ground quickly.
Angele was not interested in the strange creature. He increased his speed and headed into the direction pointed by the arrow.
It was not the first time he had seen something like that translucent shadow. He met many of them on the way here and their appearances varied. Some were old, some were young, some looked like males, and some looked like females.
They would try to jump on Angele after they saw him, but they were all blocked by the black cloak.
Angele was not sure what those creatures were. They looked like creatures with no intelligence, but it was possible that they were the mutated citizens of the city. They could not be destroyed by physical damage and they could go through any object that was not black.
Those creatures were only active during daytime as the night was too dangerous for them.
The whole Nightmare Realm was getting more and more strange.
Angele increased his speed again after tightening his cloak. He was headed to the left of the Dark Cloud City.
*********************************
It was night. On a small hill on the plain.
The sky was covered with black clouds and the moon was nowhere to be seen. The air was hot and humid.
Angele was standing on the hill overlooking the city on the plain. He was still wearing a black cloak.
A dark area was surrounded by a circle of red string.
That dark area was the Lion Tree City according to the map.
A sulfurous smell permeated the air as the wind brushed over his face.
Angele calmed down and stared at the city.
The red strings were flowing slowly, releasing poisonous gas and high-temperature heat waves. The string was a river full of dark-red lava, its surface bubbling.
The dark area in the center was filled up with buildings built with black rocks. Some of the buildings were more than 100 meters tall, but some were only six to seven meters tall. They looked identical to the office buildings on earth.
The city was surrounded by heat waves and poison. It almost looked like the city was set on fire.
The red light from the lava river was eye-catching in the dark night.
Angele inhaled once—he could smell the sulfur from the air.
'Good thing I'm practicing Molten Core River and this heat is like nothing to me.' Angele sighed. He quickly made several hand gestures as he chanted some strange incantations.
More than ten red eyes slowly appeared around his body as he finished the incantation. Those glowing eyes disappeared into the air quickly.
It was the improved Eye of Fire spell. Angele stepped forward and started moving to the city.
*BOOM*
Suddenly, a green star appeared in the sky. It was dropping toward the black city.
The green star made some loud noise; it sounded like a plane, leaving a trail of green light behind.
Angele could see that there was a terrifying creature inside the green star. The creature looked like a berserker wearing a terrifying bone armor.
There were two green axes on the creature's back. He was wearing a horned bone helmet with a white flashing rune on it. There was a crazy look on his face and his mouth was wide open, it seemed that he was shouting.
The star landed in the black city quickly.
*BOOM*
A ball of green light disappeared into the city and the land was shaking.
Angele's expression changed several times and he started walking toward the black city again.
It was a great opportunity for him to communicate with other intelligent creatures in the Nightmare Realm. He wanted to learn more about this world and the things happening around.
Chapter 374: Eye Devil's Party (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
The color of the mud under Angele's feet was getting darker and darker. The temperature of the ground was also increasing, and pink mist was rising from the cracks in the land.
*KA KA KA*
Angele was advancing slowly but steadily. White smoke would rose from his feet every time he took a step forward.
*CHI*
A strange noise came from his feet.
Angele knew that it was the sound made by his burning boots. He could feel that his feet were getting hotter and hotter.
He lowered his head and looked at the ground. There were only several hundreds of meters between him and the lava river.
'My fire resistance is high but I can still feel the heat…' Angele looked ahead.
The red smoke kept rising from the black area in the front and he could see some lava flowing in the cracks on the ground.
The smell of sulfur permeated the air.
Angele stopped for a second and took another step forward.
*CHI*
Fire sparked on the edge of his black cloak and quickly expanded to other parts of the cloak, igniting the whole thing.
*WOO*
Angele's body was covered in red flames and the cloak started burning.
He raised his hands.
Black metal liquid spurted out of his skin and coated the surface of the burning cloak completely.
The fire extinguished seconds later and Angele had a new black cloak that was made of black metal.
His face turned pale and he quickly put his right hand on the face.
A black mask appeared on his palm and he covered his face with the mask. The nose and mouth area of the mask started transforming. They turned into a large filter.
Angele took out a glass tube from the pouch and poured the yellow particles into the filter. He dropped the tube to the ground after the process was completed.
He started walking to the dark city again.
The eye-catching red lava river was getting closer and closer.
Angele could hear the noise made by something burning in the air and the color of the sky around turned from black to red.
On the other side of the river, there were some small burning dots moving around.
Those humanoid light dots were surrounded by the poisonous fire; they were naked and their bodies were red. Angele could see the golden flames in their eyes. Those strange creatures were humpbacked, their hands and feet replaced by sharp claws. They were also breathing heavily.
With the help of the black metal cloak and the black metal mask, Angele's body was not exposed to the air. He stood beside the lava river and white smoke started rising from his body.
Angele stood by the edge of the lava and raised his head, but he did not see any bridge.
'Damn, this place is definitely not for human beings…' Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes.
'Average temperature of the area: 782-952 Celsius. Air composition: Unknown poisonous gas, 87.21%. Final conclusion: Not a place for mortals,' Zero reported back quickly.
Angele took a deep breath; the air from the filter was minty and refreshing. The high-temperature gas was not a big problem to him. He had already completed the third stage of the Molten Core River and his fire resistance was probably higher than most of the creatures in the area.
He walked to the river and stepped into the lava with no hesitation.
*PA*
Black metal liquid appeared under his feet and it quickly formed a rectangular blanket over the red lava river.
Angele walked on the metal bridge calmly.
The humanoid creatures were staring at the unwelcome guest.
"Ha…" Red poisonous gas was coming out of those creatures' mouths. They were looking at Angele like looking at a delicious piece of meat. The creatures already prepared their claws, they were ready to strike.
Angele walked over the metal bridge and landed on the other side of the river within half a minute. More than 20 fire men were moving toward him from all angles.
He quickly glanced at those fire men.
Each fire man was about one meter tall; they were getting closer and closer, the road was almost blocked by them.
'What's this all about?'
Angele stepped forward with a blank expression on the face.
*CHI*
A sea of red hair spurted out of the black cloak and penetrated the heads of the fire men around.
*CHI*
All the hair returned into the cloak.
Angele only stopped for one second, then started walking again.
The fire men fell to the ground, turned into piles of red lava, and slowly sank into the cracked land.
The rest of the fire men witnessed the scene and decided to retreat. They watched Angele walk to the large city slowly.
Angele entered the dark city and the buildings around him were all burnt black. There were burn marks everywhere and he did not detect any living beings around.
The warm wind was blowing the black ash into the air.
Angele felt like he was walking on a thick blanket that was covered with ash. The ash almost covered the back of his boots.
It almost looked like the land was covered in burning firewood and there was fire sparking from time to time.
The street was dark and he did not detect any movement of any living beings.
Angele checked the surroundings and headed to the center of the city—it was a tall black building.
It only took him about ten minutes to reach it.
Angele observed the buildings on the street carefully; the whole city looked like a ruin that just survived some intense fire and there were dead bodies on the ground, but they were also burnt black.
He saw two people already standing in front of the tall building.
The first one was the star he saw from the sky, it was the berserker with bone armor and a bone helmet.
The grayish white bone armor was decorated with dark green crystals. There were two green axes on the man's back and they were made of translucent dark green crystals.
The man's head was hidden under the horned helmet. The two horns had different length and they looked wild.
The other one was a woman wearing dark red armor. There was a V-shaped open area on her chest, it almost looked like she was wearing a V-neck tight suit.
There were six black thorns on the back of the woman, they looked like a pair of bone wings; there was red glow on the tips of the wings.
The two quickly noticed Angele's presence. Angele took several steps forward and stood several meters away from the two, so he would have enough time to react if anything happened.
The woman looked at Angele and smiled, countless green crystals appeared on her cheeks and they looked like a bunch of terrifying green eyes, blinking constantly with green lights.
"Finally, someone new." She chuckled. "I didn't expect Eye Devil to find us some new blood."
The berserker did not say anything, he glared at Angele and lowered his head. The man was more than two meters tall and he had a muscular body. His arm had the size of a male adult's leg, it looked quite strong.
"One more," he spoke in a deep tone.
They heard the noise made by some metal armor as the berserker finished his words.
*DANG DANG*
It sounded like an empty metal armor suit walking on the ground; the noise was getting closer and closer.
The three turned their heads around and looked at the black street.
A man with a full black armor was walking to the building step by step from the street.
The man was fully geared and there was a broken purple cloak on his back. The cloak was dancing in the heat waves.
Strangely, some green gas would be released from the gaps of the man's armor every time he took a step forward.
There was a long silver sword in the man's right hand and there was a pair of green eyes on the sword's handle. The blade was about two meters long, but it was thin and Angele noticed that there was a long green string in the center of the blade.
"You're early." The voice from the black armor sounded like it was a robot that was speaking. He was speaking in the ancient language—it sounded a bit like a swarm of bees flying around and the voice was hard to distinguish.
The man looked around and his sight fell upon the stranger in a black cloak.
"Huh? A newbie? Who invited him here? Spider, did you invite him here? Bone, was it you?"
"What are you talking about?" It looked like the berserker hated his nickname. "Why does it have to be us? You didn't even mention Eye Devil's name."
"We know each other for years and I know how Eye Devil deals with things. He'll try to kill every newbie he meets. The only possibility is that he can't kill this guy," the black armor responded. "Do you really think Eye Devil can't win a fight against him?"
"Well, anything is possible." The woman that was named Spider started playing with her long purple nails.
The black armor glared at Angele again and walked past him. He leaned against the black building and stabbed his long sword into the ground.
Angele hid under the black cloak and he looked a bit speechless.
He was trying to scan the three using the biochip, but the force field around the three could easily deal more than 1000 degrees of damage and Zero could not analyze their power level at all.
Fortunately, Angele had high attributes and the interruption effect of the crystal scorpion. Otherwise, he would have trouble standing still under such pressure.
Chapter 375: Eye Devil's Party (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
In the Eye of Fire, the three were releasing eye-blinding light and they looked like three small suns.
The stronger the creatures were, the more intense the light around them would be, that was the fundamental of the Eye of Fire. However, Angele had never seen such strong light, even when he tested the spell on Vivian.
The three stopped chatting. They just stood there and waited patiently.
Angele decided to proceed with caution so he just waited there as well.
The other three here could easily kill him; his only advantage was the two bloodline signets on his chest. For some reason, the energy waves released by the signets covered the mentality wave he was releasing.
It was a passive ability that would take effect when he partially activated the signets. The energy waves released by the signets were old but elegant.
The other three had trouble understanding the strange energy wave so they did not say anything else.
Angele had not expected to meet such terrifying creatures. He'd thought that the lords attending the party were at the similar level as Eye Devil and he could somehow handle the situation using the bloodline signet. However, the situation was much more complicated than he'd thought.
Angele knew the environment and the creatures of the Nightmare Realm were dangerous and what he witnessed confirmed the theory again.
The four stood in front of the black building for two hours and they looked like four sculptures.
A large white eyeball appeared in front of the black building. The eyeball was surrounded by tentacles and covered in blood veins.
"Masters, please follow me. My lord has finished the preparations," the eyeball spoke in a high-pitched tone. It turned around and walked to the entrance of the building after finishing the sentence. The tentacles around its body were waving in the air.
The Bone started moving the first—the Spider, the black armor, and Angele followed after them.
They entered the dark hall together.
There was a complicated red magic circle on the surface of the floor. There was a triangular platform floating in the center of the magic circle and there was a silver crossguard sword standing on top of the platform.
The triangular platform was moving up and down.
The four followed the eyeball into the magic circle.
*CHI CHI*
Red light flashed in front of Angele's eyes and the environment around changed.
It was a spacious red hall and the red light was fading away from the magic circle on the floor.
The hall closed and the eye-shaped glowing crystals on the walls were releasing bright red light.
There were several tiny windows beside the glowing crystals.
Angele could see a black cliff through the window. A burning waterfall of lava was dropping from the cliff, it looked like a long red blanket. The noise made by the flowing lava was loud and the heated air was over 1000 degrees Celsius in temperature.
'It's underground…' Angele looked at the sky but the only thing he saw was black rocks.
*CLAP CLAP*
"Welcome to the Eye Devil's Cave. Clap, everyone!" A bloody eye suddenly appeared on the right side of the bumpy wall.
The eye looked like a feline's eye and it was moving around. It seemed like the eyeball was trying to get used to the "eye socket".
Angele recognized the voice immediately—it was from the woman he met in the forest.
"Get to the point. Don't waste our time!" The black armor leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. It seemed like he was getting impatient.
The eyeball on the wall moved again and its sight fell upon the black armor. "Vapor, be patient, I invited many guests here."
"Huh? Are they all related to the thousand-eyed bloodline?" Spider seemed interested.
Eye Devil chuckled. "Well, I'm not the only one with the thousand-eyed bloodline this time."
"Alright, let's get out and we'll know how many people are here." Bone shook his body and his bone armor made some loud noise. He walked to the left side of the hall and the wall separated as he reached the end of the hall.
Behind the wall, there was lava—Bone stepped into it with no hesitation.
"Wait, I'm not finished yet… The location was changed to the Blood Hall this time," Eye Devil opened her mouth again after Bone left the hall.
Spider shook her head and laughed. "Well, why can't you be nicer to Bone?"
Angele did not say anything but he felt a bit relieved.
If the party were to be held in the lava, he was not confident that he could handle the thousand-degree golden lava for too long; also, he would have a hard time trying to observe the area inside the lava.
It was good that they changed the location.
"Ah, one more thing." Eye Devil's sight fell upon Angele. "This is a hermit I met in the southwest area. His sealed body had the similar power level to me. I think he's one of the sleepers that woke up due to the broken seal. Friend, tell us your nickname—just trying to make things easier here."
The other two stared at Angele as they waited for the response.
Angele noticed a hint of fear in their eyes and he was speechless. He felt like he was standing on a cliff and there were people waiting to push him down. Angele was playing with fire but he was not sure if he would be damaged by the fire.
He must not reveal his true power to those terrifying creatures—they would probably devour him if they found out about the truth.
Angele calmed down and smiled.
"You can call me Phoenix, I think I already told you that last time."
"Oh… Yeah, I have a bad memory. Sorry, you did tell me last time. Alright, Phoenix, I hope this will be an eye-opening experience for you. You can leave through the exit now as the coordinates had already been changed." The eye disappeared from the wall as she finished her words.
The red lava by the exit turned into a dark red light screen after she finished her words.
"Let's go." Vapor held the long sword in hand tight and entered the light screen.
Spider followed after him.
Angele turned his head around and looked at the wall that Eye Devil vanished into.
"Eye Devil, I hope I'll find something I need this time," he muttered and entered the light screen before Eye Devil responded.
"I won't disappoint you…" Eye Devil's voice came from the behind.
Angele stepped forward.
His sight blurred for a second during the teleportation.
He entered a larger red hall and there were several people waiting inside.
Those people were naked and countless red eyes covered the surface of their red skin. Their hands, bodies, necks, and faces were all covered in human eyes.
There were two long rectangular tables on both sides of the hall and raw meat was lying on the silver plates quietly; some of the meat looked like human arms and legs.
*CHI*
A tall man that was covered with eyes was sitting on the table beside Angele. He was cutting a living woman in half; he bit on the woman's leg, tearing off a large piece of flesh.
The blood dripped down the legs of the table and entered the sinkholes in the ground.
The smell of blood and barbequed meat permeated the air.
Angele stood in front of the light screen and glanced around. He followed after Vapor and Spider—they were heading to the center of the hall together.
He noticed that the red men would bow to them as they walked by. Angele could see the respect and fear in their eyes.
They also bowed to Angele as he was following the lords.
Spider was not concerned about the people on the side. She glanced around and she looked disappointed. "The Blood Hall is sick as f*ck."
"Well, I like it." Vapor chuckled, he was walking in the front.
The three walked down the hall and reached two rows of black seats on the other side of the hall.
Angele looked around and sat down on a chair with tall back.
There were a total of eight seats, four on each side, and they were reserved for the main guests of the party.
Angele sat on the side, Spider and Vapor sat next to each other.
The blood hall stank; the strange smell came from the dead bodies of the animals on the table. There were also bodies of human beings and they were cut into pieces. None of the meat was fully cooked.
Green blood, blue blood, and red blood were mixed all together, then turned into a strange dark-red color. The tables were a mess.
Angele calmed down quickly. The scene was disturbing, but he was a dark wizard and he had seen people doing experiments using living human beings.
Although the scene made him uncomfortable, he decided not to say anything. He wanted the others to consider him a strong individual that did not like to speak too much. The fewer things he did, the safer he would be.
*WOO*
The floor started vibrating as Angele was thinking about his situation.
A long rectangular table appeared in front of the seats.
Three girls with countless eyes on their red skin brought them three large silver plates from the side and they carefully laid down the plates in front of the important guests.
Inside the plate, there was a naked human girl with clean blonde hair. Her hands and feet were attached to the edge of the plate and it seemed like they cut off her tongue. The girl was struggling and there were tears running down her cheeks.
The red girls also served them several cups of bubbling green drinks.
"Please help yourself. This is the appetizer. A young and beautiful human girl. We checked her blood and health condition before washing her. I assure you that she was not infected and she just woke up from the blood cell about two hours ago," the red girl explained in a gentle voice.
Angele looked at the girl on the plate and his face was twitching.
It seemed like they wanted him to eat the girl alive…
Chapter 376: Eye Devil's Party (3)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
This fifteen-or-so-year-old girl had clean and elastic skin, and the silver plate fit her body perfectly on the table.
The girl was staring at Angele with fear and sadness in her eyes.
Angele raised his head, glancing at Spider and Vapor.
The bones on Spider's back stabbed into the young boy on her plate; also, it seemed like the boy's flesh and organs were already turned into liquid. He looked like a balloon that was filled up with liquid.
Spider was absorbing the red liquid from the dead boy using the bones on her back.
Vapor was still wearing the full-body black armor. He supported his chin with the right hand but he did not touch the girl on the plate. It seemed like Vapor was thinking about something.
The dark green light on his armor already faded away, then turned gray. The texture of the green string on his long sword changed from translucent to metallic as well. Also, the color of his helmet and armor all turned gray.
He sat on the seat, looking like a silver stone sculpture.
'Good, it seems like not all the people here eat human beings.' Angele felt a bit relieved and he was about to move his sight away.
*CHI*
Vapor suddenly raised his hand and pulled the girl's right breast off her body. He threw the flesh into his mouth without paying it too much attention; blood leaked out his helmet and splashed on the table.
Vapor was not concerned—he wiped the blood off with the back of his right hand and started thinking again.
The girl in front of him was struggling in pain and was in her death throes.
Angele was a bit speechless. He looked at the girl on his plate and narrowed his eyes. He leaned to the side and looked at the red girl that was standing beside him.
"Where did you find the material?" He pointed at the girl on the table.
The eyes on the girl's body blinked several times, she looked confused.
"You mean the human girl? It's a rare treat. We caught them at a human residential area not so long ago and they reproduced in the blood cells. You're looking at the product from the honorable blood cell technique of the thousand-eyed bloodline. Only one human being can be reproduced every ten years. The one on your plate is an important source human from the cell."
Angele was interested after hearing the explanation.
"I want to take her back and do some research. Are you sure she was captured not so long ago?"
"Of course. Do you want me to pack her up for you? We'll prepare everything for you," the red girl responded politely.
"Pack her up? What do you mean?" Angele wondered.
"Well, I'll cut off her hands, feet, and head so we can put her into several bags and it'll be easier for you to carry," the red girl explained calmly.
"She'll be dead if you do that. I want to do some experiment with her first." Ange was disappointed.
The girl was surprised. She bowed to Angele and quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, master! I'm sorry. I didn't know that…"
"You can leave now." Angele waved his right hand.
"Yes. Master." The eyes on the girl's body blinked several times again, she turned around and walked to the side door of the hall.
Angele observed the girl carefully and stopped the girl from struggling with both hands.
It seemed like the girl heard the conversation between him and the red girl. She calmed down slightly after she learned she would not be killed. The girl looked sad and tired.
However, she knew that Angele would do experiments with her body. Although she would not be killed right away, she knew that the procedure of the experiment would not be a pleasant experience for her.
Angele rubbed the girl's waist softly, it was smooth and clean. It felt like touching warm silk.
He grabbed the girl's breast, the texture was soft and comfortable. He then checked the girl's eyes.
"Good, eyeballs are normal," Angele muttered.
"Open your mouth and show me your tongue!" he ordered in a light voice.
Tears spurted out of the blonde girl's eyes. She opened her mouth but there was nothing inside.
"Ah, sorry, I forgot your tongue was cut off." Angele sighed and removed the metal belt that was preventing the girl from escaping. He turned the girl around.
He pressed the girl's neck and slowly moved his hand down.
Angele stopped after reaching the girl's tailbone.
He sighed with a hint of relief.
'Good, no curse, no tracking spell... it's a healthy subject.' Angele did not want to take back anything that could expose him to danger.
He tied the girl up with the metal belt again and lowered his hands. Angele just sat on the seat quietly and the girl started struggling again.
Angele quickly glanced around the hall.
There were dozens of people standing or sitting beside the two long rectangular tables on both sides of the hall. They were naked and their red skin was covered with the red eyes. It seemed like the eyes were checking the surroundings constantly.
Some of them were drinking fresh blood and chewing human flesh while chatting.
Besides the eyes on their body, they also had a pair of normal eyes under their eyebrows. Also, it seemed like they did not care that their genitals were exposed to the air—maybe such was their culture.
Angele also saw several tall men with only one eye on their faces devouring the food on the table.
Those muscular single-eyed men were almost bald, their muscular bodies were only covered by yellow leather skirts and none of them was wearing shoes. Also, it seemed like the large white bones they carried were their weapons.
Also, most of them were chewing large bones with little meat on them.
A tall and muscular man stepped out of the dark red light screen as Angele was looking around. The man was wearing a large bone helmet and there were two dark green axes on his back. The man was breathing heavily and he was furious.
"F*cking Eye Devil! Damn it! One day I'll crush you into pieces and feed you to the insects!" he cursed and walked to the main seats of the hall. It seemed like he was ready to fight.
However, it looked like the monsters in the hall were used to Bone's reactions, they just bowed to him.
Bone was not concerned about how others thought of him. He walked to Angele and sat down on an empty seat.
"Someone! Bring me a wild rhino!" he shouted to the waiters in the corner.
Several minutes later, a five to six meters long black rhino was brought to him by two red girls.
*BAM*
The enormous silver plate was dropped in front of Bone. To ensure that Angele had enough space in front of him, the rhino was standing on the plate.
Bone was about to grab the rhino's head but he turned to Angele first.
"Hey, Phoenix, right? You don't like that soft meat too, huh?" He pointed at the blonde girl and pursed his lips.
Angele was surprised, he was not sure what he should say.
Bone grabbed the rhino's head and pulled a large piece of skin off its head. "Try this, it has a bite." He moved the left hand to the middle of the rhino's body.
*KA*
A large piece of bloody rhino meat was dropped to Angele's silver plate, including the bones.
"Trust me! You'll like it!" Bone chuckled and started sucking the brain out of the rhino's skull. He put his head close to the rhino's head and started devouring the creature.
The blonde girl on Angele's plate was hit by the bloody rhino meat with skin hard. She trembled and wanted to move away but her movement was restricted by the metal belt.
Angele grabbed the rhino meat, it had the texture of a stone. It felt like holding a large red tire in hand.
Also, he would rather eat raw rhino meat than the human flesh. Although he preferred the cooked meat, he did not want to draw any unnecessary attention.
Angele decided not to eat the girl and his excuse was his intention to use her in an experiment, but there was no excuse for him not to eat the food Bone gave him. He thought that he should at least show his appreciation as a guest at the party.
Angele scanned the meat using Zero and pulled a strip of meat down with his incredible strength. The mouth area on the metal mask melted so he could throw the meat into his mouth.
Angele started chewing the raw rhino meat quickly.
"Huh?" The taste of the meat was not what he expected. It was sweet and fragrant.
The meat had the texture of the creamy beef jerky on the earth. Also, the rhino blood made the meat juicy and sweet. The meat was quite tasty.
"You know your meat." Angele nodded at Bone, he was satisfied. "But the meat is a bit tough for me."
"Ha, I knew you'd like it!" Bone laughed, he sounded happy. "The meat is not tough, you're just too weak. You should eat more rhino meat, it'll help you build your strength."
Angele was speechless. His Strength was over 15 and it was at the similar level as a mutated beast. Angele was certain that he could fight the mammoth from the tales, a creature famous for its incredible strength. He could easily destroy the rhino on the plate without using any spell but Bone thought Angele was too weak.
Chapter 377: Eye Devil's Party (4)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
"It's understandable, you and Eye Devil didn't focus on training your strength," Bone said as he chewed on the large rhino bones—he'd already finished eating the rhino's brain.
Angele was not sure how he should respond to Bone but someone else interrupted before he could say anything.
"Bone, not everyone is like you. Phoenix was sealed for too long and he's probably still recovering." A familiar face appeared on an empty seat beside.
The woman was wearing a black robe with a silk mask, only the top half of her face was exposed to the air. It was Eye Devil.
"Eye Devil! How dare you!" Bone dropped the rhino bone to the table and stared at Eye Devil. "Why didn't you stop me?"
"Well, you left that hall before I could finish my words. You should blame yourself for that." Eye Devil chuckled.
"Whatever, I won't let it slide this time!" Bone turned around and started eating again after he stared at Eye Devil for a while.
Eye Devil's sight fell upon Angele. "Phoenix, why don't you have some food? You didn't like the appetizer?"
Angele smiled. "I'm taking her back to do some experiments. I need to see if human beings have changed after all those years." He decided to choose his words wisely.
"Is that so? Do whatever you want to." Eye Devil did not say anything else.
Bone patted Angele on the shoulder. "I know you're different! Come here, let's have some real food!" He used his right hand to cut the rhino in half and sliced off a large piece of fresh rhino meat for Angele. Bone did everything so fast that Angele had no time to decline the offer.
Angele lowered his head and saw a large piece of rhino filet on his legs.
"Thanks, rhino meat is the perfect snack for me. I like it." He nodded at Bone slightly.
The rhino meat reminded him of the beef jerky on the earth. He pulled a small piece of fillet down and threw it into his mouth.
"Snack?" Bone and Eye Devil's expressions changed.
"Rhino is a relatively large creature and you consider it a snack…? How large is your true form…" Eye Devil and Bone looked at Angele in a different way. They misunderstood Angele's words.
Eye Devil pursed her lips and closed her eyes.
Angele was chewing the rhino meat but he suddenly heard Eye Devil's voice echo in his ears.
"Phoenix, I have an offer for you."
Angele was a bit surprised, he was not sure if he could send the words to Eye Devil using the energy particles without being detected. He decided to exchange eye contact with Eye Devil.
It seemed like Eye Devil was not getting suspicious.
"It's easy. Help me make the price higher and I'll give you a share. Also, I'll help you once for free, the detailed procedure is…"
In the front of the hall, there was a red platform between the main guests' seats.
The five waited for about two hours and the rest of the main guests filled up the three remaining seats. They were all wearing black cloaks and their faces were covered by metal masks. They looked like three human beings but Angele had no idea what kind of monsters they were.
The people eating at the tables all stopped and stood up. The red girls cleaned the table and the floor. The place looked much better without the blood.
Eye Devil disappeared from the seat within seconds and she appeared on the red platform quickly.
*CLAP CLAP CLAP*
Eye Devil clapped her hands several times.
"I'm glad that you decided to attend my party. We have three masters from the ultimate hell, Bone, Vapor, Spider, and a hermit named Phoenix that just broke the seal. There are eight sealed masters here, something that hasn't happened in several thousands of years. This is a grand party for the lava hell!"
*CLAP*
The guests beside the tables started clapping together and they were staring at Eye Devil with excitement in their eyes.
A gentle smile appeared on Eye Devil's face.
"As the host of this party, I appreciate that you decided to join us today." She bowed to the guests slightly. "Also, I prepared a small activity before we start the party."
She clapped her hands as she finished the sentence.
*CHI*
A bloody meat cocoon dropped down from the ceiling.
The meat cocoon was supported by some white spider web and it was floating on the right side of Eye Devil.
Eye Devil smiled and pressed on the meat cocoon slightly.
"We found this item on the edge of the void fissures. We'll auction the item before the party starts. The rules are the same as always, tell me the price you want to pay using the void talk."
The meat cocoon cracked open in the center and inside, it was a golden headguard that looked like a crown.
The was a fiery ruby in the center of the V-shaped headguard. The whole item looked simple but elegant.
"This is the Minstrel's Crown, an artifact from an empire of the Soul Lake Realm. The crown was worn by two of the empire's Emperors. That's the reason why this accessory is infused with mysterious power." Eye Devil smiled and looked at the guests. "You must be the nobles from different areas since you received my invitation. Come closer everyone, you can check the artifact with your own eyes."
Eye Devil walked straight back to her seat, she sat down slowly and started resting.
The guests stepped forward and started observing the crown inside the meat cocoon carefully. They took the crown down and whispered as they observed the artifact.
Spider, Vapor, and Bone stood up as well—they walked to the crowd and looked at the crown.
Time flew.
The three black robes that came from the ultimate hell were not interested in the crown. Two of them stood up and started checking the ancient paintings on the walls.
The last one was communicating with someone else with the "void talk" ability.
The two black robes stood next to each other, they were releasing freezing energy waves.
A red man and a red woman walked to the two black robes and greeted them politely.
"Elder Ice Lance and Elder Snow Devil, right? Do you remember me? We've met in the ultimate hell once about 150 years ago." The red man opened his mouth.
"Of course, Elder Luis, it's been a while but you still look young." One of the black robes chuckled.
"I'm nothing compared to you two. You're still at the top level, but we're getting old and we're much weaker than before. The thousand-eyed bloodline is relying on Eye Devil now." The eyes on the man's skin blinked altogether.
"This is Lina, my new Liyus, and she'll be with me for the rest of my life." The man named Luis introduced the girl to the two elders.
The girl bowed to the elders. "Nice to meet you, Elders."
"Nice to meet you too. Liyus, huh? Please take care of Luis for us as his wife." The other black robe hugged the girl slightly.
"It's my duty, don't worry." The girl nodded and smiled.
The four had a short conversation. Luis wanted to introduce his wife to his old friends and he reached his goal. The red man and the red girl left together.
The two black robes started observing the paintings again and no one else talked to them.
"Snow Devil, did you see the guy that covered himself with the black cloak?" Ice Lance looked at Angele, the young man was taking a nap. "I don't like him. Did you notice the strange fragrance around his body?"
"I noticed that moments ago. Where did Eye Devil find this sealed form? He probably just broke the seal and he's having trouble stabilizing his power. Don't worry about him. Also, what do you think about this crown?" Snow Devil responded.
"It's a decent artifact, but I don't want to pay too much for it." Ice Lance showed two of his fingers.
"20000 soul crystals?" Snow Devil gasped. "Well, that's a lot of resources, but I guess it's fine for you."
Angele noticed the two black robes as well.
He opened his eyes and started chewing the rhino meat again. He was checking the creatures in the hall.
The terrifying part was that all the defensive barriers around the creatures in the hall could easily deal over 1000 degrees of damage.
It meant that he could be easily killed by any of the creatures attending the party.
He hid his true power with the bloodline signet; otherwise, those creatures would know how weak he was.
Angele used the mentality compression technique and let the bloodline signets do their thing.
He already knew that the crown everyone was looking at might be counterfeit—such artifact would only be treated as collectible after being purchased. No one would try to activate its effect. An artifact from the Soul Lake Realm... it was an honor for any nobles to own an artifact like that.
Eye Devil wanted Angele to raise the price for her and she would give him a share as a reward. She knew that Angele just broke the seal and he would do anything to get the resources.
It was a thought she had after the fight with Angele in the forest. The woman had a similar way of dealing with things to the wizards. She would do anything as long as the benefit justified the cost.
Chapter 378: Eye Devil's Party (5)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
The guests returned to their own seats after checking the crown. Vapor and Spider returned to their seats as well.
Eye Devil slowly stepped onto the platform in the center and glanced around.
"So, have you checked the authenticity of the artifact?"
"Of course, it's authentic. It's an artifact from Eye Devil and we all trust you," a minotaur that was surrounded by burning flames responded in a deep voice.
The minotaur's words made the other guests chuckle.
"Is that so? Elder Ebola has some good taste." Eye Devil nodded at the minotaur. "Alright, name your price now."
"10,000!" A young red man stood up and shook his wine glass slightly, there was a smile on his face.
"12,000!" Another man shouted—he was talking to his friend not so long ago.
The two black robes nodded slightly and one of them joined the bidding. "20,000."
Eye Devil's sight fell upon him. "Thank you, masters from the ultimate hell."
"Thanks, Eye Devil," the black robes responded to Eye Devil politely. It seemed like they feared Eye Devil's power.
"23,000." Someone else joined the bidding.
The two black robes did not move an inch until Eye Devil stopped looking at them.
Ice Lance was a bit confused. "Elder Snow Devil, I don't think we need to be so polite to Eye Devil."
"It's common sense, we pay our respect to the strong individuals," Snow Devil answered in a light tone. "We're not the sealed ones, we're just here to represent them. You're here because of your father and I'm here because of my master. Eye Devil is not being polite to us, she just knows who is behind us."
"You're right." Ice Lance nodded.
The price was already raised to 30,000.
Eye Devil blinked her eyes and smiled.
Spider and Vapor were talking to each other but their voices were so low that Angele could not hear anything.
Angele and Bone sat on the side and watched the guests bid.
"37,000!" An old man with the thousand-eyed bloodline stood up as he used the void talk to increase his voice.
The hall became silent after hearing the number, it seemed like no one was willing to pay more than that.
The guests in the hall hesitated after hearing the number. The main guests glanced around and waited to see if someone else would bid again.
Angele's sight fell upon Eye Devil and noticed that she raised her right fist slightly.
"40,000." Angele buffed his voice using the energy particles so the guests in the hall could all hear him.
Suddenly, all the guests looked at the stranger with curiosity in their eyes.
The hall remained silent for several seconds.
"41,000!" Elder Luis held his wife's right hand tight and joined the bidding.
"50,000." One of the main guests raised the price again.
It was Spider, she was sipping fresh blood from a red wine glass. Spider's cheeks were covered with tiny green crystals—they looked like opened green eyes and they were blinking. It almost looked like the eyes were part of her skin.
Angele shrugged. "I'll stop here if Spider wants the crown."
Spider looked at Angele and there was a friendly smile on her face.
50,000 was the final price.
Eye Devil clapped her hands after the auction ended. Two teams of red girls stepped into the hall—there were golden beetles on the plates that they were holding. The golden beetles had patterns that looked like human faces on their backs. They were screaming and struggling on the plates.
The plates were put down in front of the guests; they floated in the air and it almost looked like they were supported by invisible stands.
There was a plate in front of Angele as well. There were more than twenty golden beetles lying on the tiny silver plate. Those beetles were running around the plate like crazy, but they just could not leave the plate. It looked like they were struggling in pain.
"Nice, finally some good stuff!" Bone praised. He grabbed a beetle from the plate and threw it into his mouth. The man looked satisfied as he chewed the beetle.
"This is the beetle king from the oblivion realm, try it, you won't be disappointed," Bone explained.
"Beetle king?" Angele looked at the beetles curiously. Those beetles had golden shells and six legs. Some of them were trying hard to turn themselves over.
Angele's brow furrowed, he grabbed one of the beetles and threw it into his mouth.
He could feel the six legs of the beetle moving in his mouth. Angele hesitated for a second and bit the beetle.
*Crack*
The beetle stopped moving and some sticky liquid leaked out of its body. The liquid was salty, it tasted like a thick shellfish soup.
Angele tried his best not to spit the beetle juice out. Although his body was strong enough to handle the weak poison inside the beetle's body, the texture of the thing was just unpleasant.
"You can have mine if you want more. I don't like it." Angele spat out the beetle legs and pushed his plate to Bone.
Bone grabbed the plate and poured the beetles into his plate. "Thanks!" The man looked excited.
Angele was a bit speechless as he watched Bone chew the golden beetles.
"Alright, we should get to the point since the auction is finished." Eye Devil stood on the platform and asked the waitresses to take the crown away.
The woman glanced around and the smile disappeared from her face.
"I think you've already heard about the information of the void fissure."
"The images from the other realms appeared in the void fissure and that's the reason why we gathered you here," Vapor added in a light tone. "Eye Devil, just tell everyone about the situation."
Eye Devil nodded. "Alright, which realm should we southerners choose this time? I think you're familiar with our old plan."
"Well, it depends, I want to know which fissure is easy to go through." A single-eyed man chuckled. "Although we all want to go to the elf realm, it's not us who makes the decision."
"Morrow is right. The lords of the north will select the Soul Lake Realm. They were defeated the last time and I'm sure they are not happy with the result," Luis explained.
Bone sat on his seat; he was still eating the golden beetles. "What's the new plan? Eye Devil, did you find a good target for us this time?"
"We just broke the seals and we need some time to recover. Let's postpone the discussion and wait for the lords to regain their power. The void fissures can wait." Eye Devil clapped her hands and the walls of the hall started moving down.
The hall turned into an open platform after all the walls disappeared.
Angele heard some loud noise from outside.
The platform was surrounded by a sea of lava and there was a lava waterfall dropping from a high cliff on the other side. The lava drops splashed on the surface of the lava sea.
The platform was built in a large cave underground.
There were many dark tunnels leading to other areas of the cave, the lava entered those dark caves and disappeared. However, the lava from the waterfall refilled the lava sea and it was a balanced loop.
Angele sat on the seat and he could feel the temperature around him increasing at an unbelievable rate.
'Warning! Warning! The temperature is reaching the limit that you can handle.'
Angele's expression changed but his face was covered by the black mask and no one knew what he was thinking.
'How's the temperature around me?' He wondered.
'1231 to 1257 degrees Celsius.'
It felt like being trapped in a heated metal cube. Angele's skin was burning, and his dark red hair looked like heated iron on his shoulders. A burnt smell permeated the air.
The good thing was that his hair was also buffed by the fire resistance from the Molten Core River; the only problem was that the venom on his hair could not handle such heat.
Most of the creatures in the hall could handle the temperature but some of them were reducing the temperature around their bodies using some special techniques.
Not all the creatures could handle the bizarre environment with their physical forms.
"Alright, the rules are the same as always. Let's get the party started." Eye Devil smiled and returned to her seat.
Suddenly, translucent fire spirits appeared in the area around the platform. Each fire spirit was about the size of a human's palm and there were invisible wings on its back. They were naked and they were all playing some light music using the harps in their hands. The music was getting louder and louder—it almost covered noise made by the waterfall.
The music sounded like boys and girls breathing. It was beautiful and attractive.
Some of the single-eyed men and women hugged each other. They fell to the floor and rolled several times.
Also, the naked men and women with the thousand-eyed bloodline started having sex right away.
Most of the guests in the hall were affected by the music. Spider jumped into Vapor's arms and she was seducing the man.
Eye Devil sat on the side and smiled. She was sipping from a glass of blood wine slowly.
"This again…? It's so boring." Bone stood up. "Well, I'll be leaving." He glared at Angele. "Phoenix, you're not interested too, right? Why don't you leave with me?"
"Yeah." Angele stood up. "Let's go. Wait, Eye Devil, where are the materials you promised me?" He looked at Eye Devil.
"Don't worry, I've already prepared them for you." Eye Devil smiled. "I asked my servants to get them ready." She clapped.
A red girl appeared by the edge of the platform, she walked to Angele and Bone quickly.
"Masters, please come with me."
Angele and Bone nodded, they followed the girl into the dark red portal.
Chapter 379: Eye Devil's Party (6)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
The two returned to the first building they entered after leaving the portal.
A large red magic circle was releasing rays of blinking red light on the ground and there was a stone platform floating in the center of the circle. A long silver sword was stabbed into the stone platform.
Bone stretched his body and the bone armor made some loud noises.
"Alright, I thought there would be something that I could help you with, but the crown she auctioned was a joke." With a flick of Bone's finger, a white light dot landed on Angele's palm, turning into a white skull.
Angele checked the weight of the skull.
"What's this?"
"You can contact me using this thing. To be honest, I haven't met a man that I liked in years. Just talk to me if you need any help!" Bone hit his chest armor with his right fist, making some noise. "Alright, I'll go back to my Bone Sea now. Also, don't trust Eye Devil, that woman is hard to deal with. She can get mad at you anytime. Be careful."
"Sure." Angele nodded. He still had several questions to ask; however, green flames covered Bone's body before he could say anything else.
The green light blinked and Angele's sight blurred. Bone had already disappeared from the scene after he could see things clearly again.
A wide smooth tunnel appeared on top of the building and Angele could see the night sky through the hole.
A green star was flying away from the area in the sky. It was Bone, his body coated with the green flame.
The tunnel on the ceiling slowly disappeared; it looked like a recovering wound.
The female servant was not surprised by the scene. She started talking after Bone left.
"Please follow me, master."
"Sure."
Angele and the female servant went straight to the 27th floor—they stopped in front of a dark red room.
The door was open.
There was a blonde girl standing in the room—it was the same girl that Angele saw on his plate. There was also a group of single-eyed men with sharp ears that were tied up by the wall. They looked tired.
What caught Angele��s attention was not the living creatures—it was a pool of blood in the center.
The blood in the pool was boiling and a sweet fragrance permeated the air.
The blood pool was surrounded by four black snake statues and there was dark red blood coming out of their mouths.
The female servant bowed to Angele politely.
"Those are the gifts my master prepared for you. The blood in the pool is the essence of the creatures collected by the thousand-eyed family. Also, those single-eyed men are the inheritors of the single-eyed giant. The female human you asked for during the party is also here."
"Good." Angele nodded slightly. He looked satisfied. "You can leave now."
"Understood."
The female servant left the room quickly.
Angele glanced around. The blonde girl and the single-eyed men were looking at him in fear. He shook his head slightly and walked straight to the blood pool.
"Eye Devil, where's the reward you promised me?" Angele turned around and talked to a wall. He noticed that someone was hiding behind the wall when he entered the room and he was certain that it was Eye Devil.
Angele detected the difference between it and other walls because he had two bloodline signets.
*CHI*
The wall was ripped open by a large bloody eyeball. The black pupil in the eyeball twitched for several times and calmed down.
"The reward is here too, but I need to make one thing clear, I can't give you any soul crystals. You can choose something else." Eye Devil's voice came from the eyeball.
"I was never going after the soul crystals. Tell me more about the Nightmare Realm. I noticed that something isn't right after breaking the seal this time," Angele spoke in a calm tone but his heart rate slightly increased. He was trying to play as someone that just broke the "sealed form" after a long sleep.
"The realms overlapped, it's not a big deal. How long have you been sleeping… Whatever, let's not waste the time. What do you want?" Eye Devil responded in a calm tone.
"What do you have to offer?" Angele questioned and his expression did not change.
"You know what, I acquired an inheritor's secret technique not so long ago—it was from a sealed one that had similar abilities as you. I can give that to you for free, I think it'll aid you greatly. The secret technique is too good to be the reward of what you did for me, but I might need you to help me again in the future."
"Inheritor's secret technique? Are you sure that the technique doesn't come with a secret trap?" Angele wondered.
"Well, there'll be traps but there's no such thing as a free lunch. Many living beings had access to the secret techniques but only a few of them succeeded." Eye Devil was not concerned.
"You're right." Angele nodded slightly.
"Alright then. Secret technique it is. Do you want me to deliver those things to you?"
"No, it's fine. I'll walk back and check the changes that happened to the environment on my way." Angele declined the offer politely.
"Sure, I'll see you again." Eye Devil's voice stopped after finishing the sentence and the eye on the wall slowly closed. A black scroll was released from the closing eye and dropped to Angele's feet.
Angele picked the scroll up and put it in his pouch. He glared at the blood pool and there were blue light dots flashing in front of his eyes.
******************************
An hour later, Angele slowly walked out of the black building.
A naked girl with blonde hair was following after him. The girl was surrounded by some red light, protecting her from being killed by the high temperature.
The two went across the city and passed through the lava river. They slowly stopped after they were far away from the city.
Angele turned around and stood on top of a small hill, overlooking the black city.
The red eye-shaped bloodline signet was blinking on his chest; the light was much more intense than the musical note from the signet of the scorpion woman.
Angele was playing with a small red stone in his hand.
He extracted the blood essence from the blood pool and turned it into a blood crystal. The energy from the blood pool was all stored in the crystal. He did not expect that there was so much power in the pool that it could be turned into a blood crystal.
The bloodline signet from the single-eyed giant was successfully buffed by the single-eyed slaves. The reward for attending the party was quite good.
He glared at the blonde girl.
"What's your name?" Angele sent the words using energy particles.
"I… I don't know…" The girl hesitated, her tongue was fixed by Eye Devil's servant. "I forgot everything… Part of my memory was taken away by the blood cell and I don't know anything about myself."
"Is that so? The blood cell is interesting." Angele decided not to ask too many questions. He did not want to save the girl, but he did not want to kill her either. He had his own rules—the girl did not offend him or take anything important away from him. There was no point in killing a human being for no reason; it was something that he would not do.
The girl could not survive alone in such a bizarre environment and Angele did not want others to know that he was a human being as Eye Devil might try to kill him if she found out about the truth.
Also, Angele did not want to bring a random stranger back to the mansion as he had no idea if the girl was a trap. He did not want to put Freia in the risk.
He thought for a while and took out the black scroll that he acquired from Eye Devil.
Angele unsealed the scroll and countless dark red runes appeared on the surface of the leather scroll.
*WOO*
The scroll started vibrating and rays of red light were released by it; they formed a translucent light screen that looked like a hologram in the air.
It was an enormous dark red map.
The map was divided into three areas separated by a lava river. The two areas on the left were in red and some tiny areas were marked in black. The larger area on the right turned from red to blue, and then blue to white.
"Phoenix, this is an interactive map called the Eye of the Truth. The information displayed on the map is collected by the eyes from the thousand-eyed bloodline inheritors. It's an important map and I hope you don't share it with anyone else. Ah, actually, they won't be able to view the map without my authorization. If you want to know what is happening with the world, the only thing you need to do is checking the map." Eye Devil's voice slowly disappeared after finishing the explanation.
Angele glanced at the map without saying a word, he raised his left hand and pressed on the area on the left.
*CHI*
The size of the red area was increased by multiple times and it filled up the whole light screen. Clear views of the mountains, rivers, ruins, and forests were displayed in front of his eyes.
A sentence that was written in the universal ancient language was displayed at the bottom of the map: "Two hourglasses until the next time the Oblivion Realm overlaps with the word."
There were two red wooden hourglasses behind the sentence and the sand inside the hourglasses already started dropping.
"Overlap of the Oblivion Realm?" Angele was a bit surprised.
He looked at the scroll and opened the second half of it.
*WOO*
Red light flashed on the surface of the light screen and the scene changed.
A man's deep voice came from the light screen.
"According to the intel collected by the thousand-eyed bloodline inheritors, the Oblivion Realm has been moving toward our Nightmare Realm in the last several years. The Oblivion Realm is the realm of death and corruption; it is a totally different realm than the Nightmare Realm, something like this should never happen. I think all the realms are merging with each other, but it's just an assumption. We're not the only example here."
A female voice joined the conversation.
"You mean the realms will change if they contact each other and this is our best chance to explore the other realms. We should take over their realms and conquer them! We haven't got the chance to communicate with the other realms since the wizards that could talk to us disappeared. This is our best opportunity! We shall take everything that enters our sight!"
"You're way too aggressive, we should wait for the old bastards from the other realms to move first. It's impossible for the Nightmare Realm to take over other realms if we use a plan like yours every time the realms overlap. Alright, it's about time for us to end the broadcast. This is Collins and Blue Feather from the thousand eyes. Please tune in again tomorrow for the new broadcast…"
Angele was speechless after listening to the broadcast. He slowly closed the scroll.
He thought the conversation was a record of a meeting or something and he did not expect it to be a broadcast…
Chapter 380: Changes and Bloodline (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
Angele was heading to the mansion with the blonde girl. He applied a thin layer of dark metal to help her defend against the strange creatures.
Several days later, the Dark Cloud City finally appeared in their sight again.
Angele stood in the dark forest as the sun started rising—he overlooked the yellow city that was sitting quietly on the plain. The yellow city was deadly silent in the wind mixed with the sand. There was not a single person walking around the city.
The blonde girl stood behind Angele and looked at the city as well.
"I think… I've been here…" She suddenly opened her mouth. "Everything looks so familiar to me."
"Familiar?" Angele turned around and saw the confused look on the girl's face; there was sadness in her eyes. He knew that the city reminded the girl of something but she was trying to hide it from Angele.
Angele narrowed his eyes, the red eye-shaped bloodline signet shined, the string around the signet released some red light.
"It's fine if you can't remember…" He raised his right hand patted the girl's head softly. The gentle expression on his face calmed the girl down.
Angele rubbed the girl's soft blonde hair and the red light disappeared from his chest.
*CHI*
A strange noise echoed in his ears.
Countless images were transferred into his mind like a movie.
The blonde girl held the edges her dress and walked down the carriage. She walked to the meeting hall that was full of guests with a gentle smile on her face and there was a man in a white suit by her side. The golden light illuminated on the two's bodies, they were elegant and polite. They drew everyone's attention with the golden light surrounding them.
"Dear Angelica, the party is starting, we should hurry," the young man spoke in a gentle tone.
They joined the party. The two mixed with the noble guests and started dancing along the music.
Suddenly, the sky was torn apart and the earth started shaking. A group of men that was surrounded by flames rushed into the hall and they started executing everyone in their sight.
The girl started running with the young man and the guards she brought here; however, the burning men caught up quickly.
The girl asked the guards to draw the monsters' attention and she wanted the young man to attack them from behind. However, the man gave the girl one final glance and started running away, leaving the girl to face the monsters alone.
The images disappeared after the final scene.
Only a split of a second passed when Angele was viewing the images.
He slowly lowered his hand. "Do you want to go check the city out? It's your hometown, right?"
The girl stared at the Dark Cloud City and tears were running down her chin like a river.
The girl had already learned a lot about Angele in the last several days; the man treated her like a brother, he was always so kind and polite.
"It's fine, master, let's just head to your place," the girl lowered her head and responded in a low voice. "This is no longer my hometown, all my friends were killed by the…"
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes as he nodded.
"Let's make one thing clear, although you're my test subject, I won't hurt you for no reason. If you're willing to cooperate, your body will be strengthened after some minor damage from the experiments."
"I'm ready, master. I'm grateful that you didn't eat me back in the hall." The girl raised her head. Although there were still tears on her cheek, she had already calmed down.
"Alright, let's go. I need to you to become friends with another girl at my place." Angele turned around and started walking to the Ness River.
The girl gave the Dark Cloud city one final glance, it seemed like she wanted to memorize the look of the city. She ran toward Angele as the young man was already meters away.
The two slowly vanished into the vibrant bushes of the forest.
*******************************
Ten days later, by the Ness River.
The golden sunlight of the afternoon illuminated on the surface of the river and the mansion.
*HUA*
The leaves from the trees on the left of the mansion were dancing in the gentle wind.
Two people stepped out of the forest slowly. One was tall and the other one was short, and they were both wearing long metal robes. Not a single inch of their skin was exposed to the air.
"Finally…" The man in the front removed the black mask from his face, revealing his pale skin—it was Angele.
He turned around and looked at the girl. "Do you remember your name? What should I call you?"
The girl opened her mouth but she hesitated. "I don't. Master, please give me a new name."
Angele nodded slightly. "Alright, I'll just call you Orphie from today. It means 'forget' in the chaos language."
"Forget… Orphie…" The painful memory struck the girl again but she tried her best to hide it. It seemed like the memories were coming back to her.
Angele looked at the mansion. "Let's move. It has been a while since I left my territory."
He stepped forward and a red string spurted out of the black cloak, stabbing into the mud on the ground.
The red string returned to his cloak within a second—it was formed by Angele's long red hair.
Angele was not interested in the tiny spy he just killed and he just started walking again. Orphie glanced at the ground, she noticed that blood was leaking out of the mud and she was a bit scared. The girl stopped looking immediately and ran toward Angele.
The girl had no way to survive in such a bizarre environment alone. The girl had no crystal card device and she lost part of her memory so there would be nothing she could when facing dangerous creatures alone even if she knew how to activate the crystal card device.
Angele stepped into the sea of vines in front of the mansion. The vines on the ground already turned black; they moved aside to let him pass through.
Angele was advancing slowly; the blonde girl behind him was checking the surroundings constantly. She already noticed the remains of the dead creatures between the vines and some of the vines were soaked in colorful blood.
They finally arrived at the defensive barrier about one minute later.
Angele raised his right hand and pressed on the barrier, he lowered his hand after several seconds and grabbed Orphie's hand. They then stepped into the barrier together.
*CHI*
It felt like walking through a large bubble.
They finally returned to the mansion.
Angele pressed on his chest and released a ball of fire. The fireball turned into a red bird that was surrounded by a golden glow. The bird swung its wings and flew toward the mansion slowly.
"Phoenix!" The door of the main building was pushed open—a girl jumped out of the door and grabbed Phoenix in her arms.
"Green! You're back!" Freia was still wearing the gray sweater with a pair of thick cotton socks. Her long black hair trailed over her shoulders and the hair on her left shoulder was braided. The girl looked pure and cute.
"Yeah." Angele nodded. "I brought a friend back for you. This is Orphie and she's my new lab assistant."
Freia looked at Orphie and blinked her eyes curiously. "Orphie… You're the first human being I met besides Green, my brother, and my father."
"You've been living in the mansion your whole life?" Orphie sounded surprised.
Angele watched the two girls greeting each other, he walked away as the two started chatting.
Freia had been practicing sword skills for years and Angele was certain that Orphie would not be able to hurt Freia. He checked Orphie's memory multiple times on the way and made sure that Eye Devil did not plant anything inside the girl's body.
Angele did not care about the soul stones, the map, or the inheritors of the single-eyed giant. The inheritor's secret technique that Eye Devil gave him was the most important item he'd acquired this time.
Angele quickly walked to the second floor as he entered the main building. He entered the reading room and locked the door. A black snake rune flashed on the surface of the door.
He quickly walked to the lab platform that was covered with random items.
*HUA*
All the random items were blown away to the side.
Angele pressed on his chest using the right hand. The musical signet and the eye-shaped signet started shining at the same time; red glow was released from Angele's body and the red light engulfed the whole room.
Every object in the room was illuminated by the red light.
Angele took a deep breath and calmed down after the preparation was completed. He relaxed and put down the filter mask on the corner of a table.
He slowly took out a stick that looked like a flute from the pouch.
It was a yellow stick, its surface covered in complicated flower and vine engravings. There was also a mermaid engraving in the center of the stick. It was the carrier of the secret technique that Eye Devil gifted him.
Angele held the stick in hand and observed it carefully.
"It's a musical instrument that looks like a flute…" He noticed that there were many tiny holes on the stick. "The flute is infused with fire energy particles but mermaid should be the symbol of water… That's strange."
Angele played with the flute for a while but he did not know find the right way to activate it.
'Create task. Scan the object in my hand.' He had to rely on the biochip.
'Task created, scanning…'
A hologram of the flute was displayed in Angele's sight; the flute started spinning and it was scanned by several translucent blue strings.
Seconds later, rows of data slowly appeared under the flute.
Chapter 381: Changes and Bloodline (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Kurisu
The hardness, heat resistance, tenacity, completeness, different energy conductivity, etc... rows of data kept refreshing in Angele's sight.
'Activation simulation started,' the biochip reported back.
Angele waited for about ten seconds and the flute finally stopped spinning in his sight.
'Activation method: Fresh blood. Lead your mentality to the third, fifth, and seventh hole.'
Angele remained calm. He raised his left hand and pointed forward with the index finger. The tip of his finger was slashed open and a fresh drop of blood landed on the surface of the flute.
It looked like a chemical reaction occurring as the blood came in contact with the flute. The flute vibrated and dark red flames were released from the holes.
The dark red flames formed several palm-sized mermaids and they started rotating around Angele's body.
*CHI*
Flames were released from the flute and the mermaids dissipated in the air one by one.
Angele narrowed his eyes as an invisible mentality wave was divided into three parts and the entered the third, fifth, and seventh holes of the flute accurately.
*PA*
Intense dark red flames spurted out of all the opening in the flute; the flames floated in front of Angele, turning into a large mermaid.
Strangely, there was a key in the center of the mermaid's chest, a golden key that had the texture no different than a normal key's.
Angele raised his right hand and turned the key around.
*Crack*
The mermaid opened her mouth and released a ray of red light—the light hit Angele's forehead hard.
Angele leaned backward due to the impact.
The red scorpion mark between his eyebrows appeared and it was absorbing the bright red light.
The information was transferred to his brain.
It took more than half an hour for the mermaid to finish transferring the information to Angele.
*WOO*
The mermaid separated into red flames and returned to the flute.
Angele shook his head. It seemed like he was trying to understand the information that was just sent to his brain.
'That was refreshing… Such secret technique can only be studied by ancient creatures with pure bloodlines... Although my bloodlines were extracted from the inheritors of the ancient creatures, I can still study the technique…'
There were a lot of thoughts going on in his mind but Angele's expression did not change.
'Alright, I'll skip the confusing part and study the basics first… Maybe I can start practicing it soon…'
Angele grabbed the flute and returned it to the pouch after all the flames were gone. He walked to the left and sat down with his legs crossed.
He closed his eyes tight and sat in the quiet reading room. The two bloodline signets on his chest were releasing eye-blinding red light.
The red light turned into strings of energy and started rotating around Angele's body.
Time flew. The two signets on Angele's chest started merging into each other several hours later.
The black metal robe slowly melted on Angele's body and it was absorbed by his skin.
Seconds later, the two bloodline signets completely merged into each other; they turned into a blurry red meatball and it looked like there was a small balloon on Angele's chest.
The red meatball released countless blood veins that looked like tree roots. They quickly covered Angele's whole body.
Ten minutes later, Angele was covered by the terrifying blood veins—including his face.
The blood coming out of the red meatball was being transported inside Angele's body through the blood veins.
The meatball looked like Angele's second heart; it was bumping quickly.
Angele already lost his consciousness but he could still feel the constant pain coming from the skin. It felt like he was being stabbed by thousands of sharp needles.
He got used to the pain quickly as he had survived countless dangerous battles in recent years. Angele was no longer the young man that could not handle the pain.
He had no idea how long had passed, but he could feel the pain leaving.
Angele opened his eyes again and he noticed that the room turned into a mess.
It looked like all the objects in the reading room were blown to the ground by a strong wind. Some weak containers like the glass beakers and test tubes hit the walls or the floor—they broke into pieces and there was colorful liquid everywhere.
Angele slowly stood up from the floor and his feet numbed as he sat on the floor for too long.
He could feel the itchiness coming from his head and the center of his eyebrows. Angele looked at his chest—the red meatball already disappeared and the two bloodline signets were no longer there.
He raised his right hand and held the fist tight. It felt like his body was lightened for some reason.
'This is… strength… the pure strength of my physical body…' Angele noticed that his body looked different and he could feel the energy from inside.
Angele waved his right hand after the numbness disappeared from his feet.
The silver metal liquid slowly formed a mirror in front of him.
"What the…" Angele was surprised.
The man in the mirror looked completely different.
Angele's face remained the same but there were two tiny cracks at the place where his eyebrows should be. They looked like a pair of eyes that were closed and there was golden light leaking out of the cracks.
Also, a dark red horn appeared on top of his head. It was still growing between his long red hair.
Angele's body was much stronger than before. He looked like a barbarian that just left the snow mountains in the mirror.
He touched his new "eyebrows" and discovered that they had similar texture to his eyelids.
'Interesting… But what will happen if I return to the main world… will my body stay in this form?'
'Zero, have you finished checking my body?'
'The two ancient bloodlines merged into each other and the impurities were removed. Your attributes are increasing at a fast rate…'
'Angele Rio, Strength 21.2, Agility 18.5, Stamina 32.0, Mentality 157.1, Mana 157.2, Fire Resistance 247 degrees, other resistance 104 degrees. Gene limit reached. Healthy. Bloodline signet ability has been turned into Talent Ability,' Zero reported back quickly.
'That's crazy…' Angele gasped. His Strength was increased to 21 from 15 and his Agility was increased to 18 from 11. The Mentality was increased by 30 points and the Stamina was increased by more than 10.
Angele's new attributes were terrifying… He was certain that he could handle the fire spells casted by rank 2 wizards just with his physical body. He could just stand there and wait for the opponent to use up all his mentality and mana.
He waved his right hand again and the metal mirror disappeared.
Angele's expression turned serious, it seemed like he was thinking about something.
Seconds later, he pressed the center of his chest and his body disappeared from the room.
*********************************
Main world, in the mansion beside the Ness River.
Angele's body slowly appeared in the reading room.
He quickly created another silver mirror as he regained his physical form.
The man in the mirror looked just like a normal human being.
Angele tightened his fist—the only thing that changed were his attributes. Also, he noticed that he could no longer activate the abilities of the bloodline signet in the main world. It seemed like something was preventing him from doing so.
It seemed like there was a mysterious power interrupting his bloodline ability.
The ability of the musical note and the memory scan from the eye-shaped signet already turned into his talent ability. However, he had not fully activated the eye-shaped signet yet.
'Why is the Nightmare Realm different from the main world?' Angele was confused.
He walked the window. The glass was blocked by the curtain and only several rays of golden sunlight passed through the gap between the curtain and the window. Angele moved the curtain to the side and peeked outside. He saw Lyn talking to a new maid they just hired—the female wizard was wearing a long black dress. She noticed Angele's sight and raised her head.
Angele nodded at Lyn through the window, he lowered the curtain and returned to the center of the room. He then pressed on his chest again.
*CHI*
Red light flashed in front of his eyes.
He returned to the Nightmare Realm again and there was red mist in the air.
Angele created the metal mirror again, the horn appeared on top of his head and his eyebrows were replaced by two eyes.
He looked in the mirror and started thinking.
'The merging of the bloodlines was the result of studying the basics of the inheritor's secret technique. The bloodlines I used were extracted properly and the method I used was simple. There was no point for the creator of the technique to write down fake information. I'm sure that the different environment is the reason why my appearance changed…' Angele was trying to find out what was happening to his body.
'Sadly, Henn is studying the Thousand Shadow Orb right now, otherwise, I could ask her about the situation.' Angele shook his head slightly.
High-rank wizards could spend years to study a rare item and Henn had not talked him for months.
The good thing was that Henn's mentality wave was covered by the Thousand Shadow Orb and that was the reason why the shadow lord did not go for Angele.
Angele licked his lips and there was a strange sulfurous taste in his mouth. He was a bit surprised and opened his mouth.
He saw that there were countless sharp teeth in his mouth through the mirror. The teeth had the shape of a crocodile's teeth and there was white light reflecting on them.