Chapter 583: Test (2)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
The ancestor's bloodline essence helped Angele become a rank 5 wizard—he was getting closer to the Siva State. The feeling was strange, it was like drinking ice-cold water after eating hot food. His body was numb for a couple seconds.
Angele left the room and carried Fra to her own bedroom. He then returned to his room and took down a large book with a black leather cover from a bookshelf.
Angele opened the book and saw a line of words that were written in Metia on the white paper.
'To the ones I loved and the ones that loved me…'
Angele rubbed the line carefully.
Raising his right hand, he slowly drew a circle under the words.
He did not use any ink, the circle just appeared as his finger moved around the paper.
The egg-sized circle was completed quickly. Angele started drawing colorful patterns inside it.
The lines were turned into complicated patterns in the circle. The patterns then formed a red scorpion.
*CHI*
Angele's finger stopped by the edge of the circle.
He moved his finger away from the paper and red light flashed on the circle, fading away several seconds later.
Angele thought for a while and added some words under the circle.
"Circle of Link."
He opened the book but the pages were blank.
Angele's finger landed on the bottom right of the paper and tapped on it.
*CHI*
After the noise, lines of words appeared on the pages automatically. It almost felt like someone was typing.
Time passed. Several minutes later, dozens of pages were covered with words.
"This will be my personal note as a wizard. I hope this will inspire the wizards who want to progress further." He closed the book and returned it into the bookshelf.
Red light flashed on the book as he put it down. The book slowly turned white and solidified; it turned into a stone book several seconds later.
He recorded part of his knowledge, experiences, and the things he learned about wizards in the book. The symbol on the cover was the sign of his true form. Wizards from other realms could summon his shadow by preparing sacrificial rituals and check the things recorded in the book.
If Angele gifted the book to Vivian or someone on the west coast, there was a chance that this book would be passed to the inheritors.
Angele had the help of the biochip and was one of the most knowledgeable wizards in the central continent. This book would be among the rarest finds.
He had the feeling that when he broke past the limit, it would be the time for him to say goodbye to this world. If he needed to return to this world, he would have to send his shadows.
"I killed a legendary knight to see how the church would respond. I wonder if Light Ancestor still has the power to impact this world. If there's nothing Light Ancestor can do, I'll go straight to the church and check the situation."
He stayed here for Vivian, so he wanted to make sure that the church was not a threat. If the church was not a threat, there would be no point for him to be here. He just needed to find a safe home for Fra.
***************************
Cynthia and Van escaped the battle. The knights from the church decided to leave the area with Rayton's body.
Several months later…
Heli and his friends stayed in the cave. Angele extracted more than ten tubes of blood from his body and Heli finally completed the payment. They decided to leave after they completely recovered.
Surprisingly, Fra wanted to leave the cave with Heli's team because she wanted to explore the world.
"Are you sure about this?" Angele stood in front of the cave and looked at Heli's team.
Under the light from the setting sun, Fra dressed up like a boy again; there were two silver crossguard swords on her back. One of the swords was the damaged sword she purchased from Angele. It seemed like Fra had made up her mind.
"I made an agreement with Miss Cynthia."
"Miss?" Cynthia slapped Fra's head. "I won't teach you sword skills if you call me Miss again!"
Fra's expression loosened. "Please no… Mr. Cynthia! You're my last hope!"
"What are you talking about? When will you learn…" Heli was speechless. There was a sword in his hand and the tall woman standing beside him was his sister.
Angele just stood there and watched them talk to each other with a smile on his face.
"Fra, I won't stop you this time, but remember, you're still a wanted criminal. I hope I'll hear about a legendary knight called Fra one day. Alright, I'll give you one more thing before you leave."
He raised his right fist and opened it in front of Fra.
There was a ring on Angele's palm. The ring was surrounded by a golden glow and looked like the rings used by holy knights. There was an egg-shaped gem on top of the white ring—the gem looked beautiful but simple.
"Woah, that's a nice ring!" Fra quickly grabbed the ring from Angele's hand and observed it carefully.
"Finally, you give me something for free. I'll take it."
"Say my name in your mind if you encounter any problem." Angele smiled and pointed at the ring. "Make sure you carry it with you and treat it like me."
"Well, I know you were reading novels recently but this sounds a bit ridiculous. Alright, it's getting late, we need to head to the next town and find something to eat. I'm hungry…" Van was getting impatient.
"Seriously? You just had, like, a whole bucket of rice." Cynthia rolled his eyes.
"See you, Andre." Heli waved his hands. "Thank you for your help."
The rest of the team followed Heli and started walking down the hill.
Angele smiled and nodded. He saw that Fra was still looking at him.
"What are you waiting for? Don't make them wait."
"I'll come back for you after I become a knight! Don't leave this cave!"
Fra finished those words and rushed to the team. She suddenly turned her head around and gave Angele one final glance. The man was still smiling; she recalled the day the man helped her escape the town, and tears appeared in her eyes.
"Fra, hurry!" Cynthia's voice was still feminine.
"I'm coming!" Fra entered the forest quickly but Angele could still hear them talking.
"Don't worry about him, Fra. We'll come back and visit him. It's not like this is the last time you meet."
"You're right…" Fra chuckled.
"You're laughing like an idiot…"
"What did you just say?!"
Angele watched the team disappear into the deep forest. He stayed in front of the wooden door for a while.
He suddenly sighed, turned around, and entered the cave. However, he left the cave again a couple minutes later; there was light fading away from his mirror.
Angele looked at the wooden door and raised his hand. He released a ball of flames into the cave which quickly landed on the floor.
The flames swallowed everything in the cave—stones, wooden furniture, and everything else.
The cave turned into a sea of flames and the red light illuminated Angele's whole body.
*BAM*
A wooden plank exploded in the cave.
Angele closed the wooden door and wiped the dust off his long robe.
"It's about time…" He turned around, entered the forest, and headed in the opposite direction than the group.
**************************
One month later…
In one of the church's cities, Misha.
The vendors lined up on both sides of the white street. Different patterns and characters covered the bronze signs over the vendors.
The street was crowded; several muscular men were pushing a bronze cart filled with white bricks forward. There was a woman with a pale face sitting at the corner, talking about people's fate. There were also girls from rich families walking with white roses in their hands.
The people on the street were approaching and leaving the vendors. There were also people discussing prices with the sellers.
The gentle sunlight of the early morning was nice and warm. The light went through the window of a coffee shop and landed on the surface of a white table.
There were two cups of hot drinks on the table, they smelled fragrant and creamy.
There were two people sitting by the table. One of them was a man with long red hair and brown leather outfit; there was also a large sword on his belt. It seemed like the man was in his twenties, and the goatee on his chin looked quite funny.
The other one was a woman wearing tight white leather armor. The tight outfit revealed her balanced body and there was black hair trailing over her shoulders. She looked like a woman from a noble family, her skin was nice and clean.
However, there was a cold expression on her face.
"It has been years but I still want to punch you in the face."
"Come on." Angele chuckled and sipped from the cup. "I didn't expect you to open a coffee shop here. I only traveled a couple months to reach this city. This is almost the border of this country. I knew you never liked me, but…"
"You used me like a defensive magic device. You enjoyed the victories but I was the one that did the hard work… I'll never forget that…"
The terrifying experience was still bothering Becky.
"Yeah, the good old days…" Angele sighed.
*Crack*
The cup in Becky's hand cracked after she heard those words.
She inhaled deeply and finally calmed down.
"Alright, what do you want me to do again?"
"Show this to my mother, Vivian, and take it to the inheritors of my old family at the west coast." Angele took out a large black pouch and handed it to Becky.
"That's ridiculous…" Angele gave Becky a headache. "How do I even travel to the west coast…"
"I trust you, Becky!" Angele patted Becky's shoulders with a serious expression on his face. "I know you can do this. I wanted to ask Turin for help, but sadly, he's not here."
Chapter 584: Portal (1)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
"Whatever… We are closely related anyway…" Becky emphasized the word "related".
Angele smiled. "Don't worry, after this ends, I won't control you using my bloodline power anymore. That's it."
"Promise?" Becky was a bit excited.
"Yeah."
"Alright, I'll do that for you then." Becky grabbed the pouch and held it in hands. "I think you're not here just for this. I'll give you some information you might need."
She tapped on the table.
A thin red barrier appeared around the two but it only stayed there for a second.
"I visited a lot of the church's buildings, including the one in this city and the capital, however, I'm certain that they are not protected by Light Ancestor. Their power came from the items from Light Ancestor; I think Light Ancestor is still sleeping somewhere in the Chaos Realm. That's all I know. Also…" Becky stopped for a second and continued, "I don't think it matters even if Light Ancestor knows about the church. Light Ancestor is in the Chaos Realm. That's far from here, and Light Ancestor won't be a big problem to you."
"If you're telling the truth…" Angele rubbed the cup and started thinking. He quickly checked Becky's memory using his ability.
He quickly found Becky's memory of visiting the church's properties.
"Oh… That's what you did…"
"You…!" Becky put her hands on the edge of the table and her body was trembling in anger.
"You're checking my memory again!"
"Don't you think this is an easy and effective way?" Angele shrugged. "I should probably go collect some more information by myself. They have a church here too, right?"
"Do whatever you want…"
"Sure, thanks for the information."
Angele stood up and organized his armor. He turned around and walked to the door.
He opened the glass door and left the coffee shop with other customers. It almost looked like he had been here for the drink.
Angele stood on the street and watched the crowd move. He turned to the right and looked around.
There were some white towers by the end of the street. In front of the towers, there were vendors.
Staircases were built on the surface of the towers. Angele could see people in white robes walking on those staircases.
Angele tightened his outfit, went across the street, and headed to the towers.
He walked down the street and quickly found an arched white stone gate in the front. There was a sculpture of a white lion in front of the gate.
The sculpture was well-crafted, it almost looked like a live lion that was sleeping on the ground.
There was no one guarding the gate, there were white robes leaving the gate and entering the valley on the left.
Angele glanced around with his glowing red eyes and released some translucent energy waves.
He smiled and walked to the arched gate, then stood in front of the lion sculpture, but none of the white robes around noticed his presence. The white robes were just chatting or reading the documents in their hands. They were all heading to the valley on the left.
"Katie, Monk wants to have lunch with you. He'll tell you about the next mission," a female white robe was talking with her friend.
"Is that so? Sure, I'll go meet him."
They passed by Angele and Angele leaned to the left slightly so that they would not run into him.
Suddenly, Angele glanced at the girl named Katie and found a white V-shaped pattern on her forehead. The pattern was releasing some weak holy power. The holy power was modifying the girl's soul and body constantly.
'That's how the holy power changes their thoughts, I guess…' Angele observed the pattern for a while but he was not interested.
He started walking to the gate again.
*ROAR*
Suddenly, the stone lion's eyes opened and it felt like it just roared. Angele could hear the voice in his mind.
He stopped, glanced at the stone lion, and flicked his finger.
*PA*
The stone lion's body trembled but it stopped moving quickly and everything returned to normal.
Angele smiled and entered the arched gate. He stepped on a white path with grass on both sides. He was not interested in the random buildings around so he headed directly toward the white towers.
He entered the tallest white tower and then a spacious, bright hall. There were rays of white light coming from the window on the right, and every object in the hall was illuminated by the light.
The hall was filled up with white robes—they were sitting on the padded long chairs and most of them looked young. They were all praying with their eyes closed.
There was a black platform in front of the chairs with a golden cabinet on it. The cabinet was tightly closed and there were more than ten locks on it. There was also a thick metal chain around it. It seemed like the item inside was extremely important.
Angele floated in the air and flew to the cabinet. He stopped about half a meter away from it.
'This must be the item Becky talked about—they can absorb the remaining power of Light Ancestor using the world stone with this item. I guess Light Ancestor has never known that some of his remaining power was used by the church…'
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes as he checked the cabinet and shook his head. He turned to the left and found a wall of leather paper.
It seemed like the wall was used for general announcements. The paper on the walls was waving slightly in the air due to the wind.
"Promoted Holy Knights"
"List of Stolen Treasures and Punishments"
"Member List of the Meeting in Sharon"
"New Member Contest and Events"
…
So many random things were on the wall.
Angele quickly checked the paper and found something interesting.
"Order: Suspend all actions regarding the wizard and bloodline inheritor hunting mission. All holy knights shall report back to the divisions they belong to. Further decisions will be announced later."
Angele pursed his lips into a smile.
'So, they decided to hide the truth; they don't even want to tell the members that a legendary knight is killed… I should probably make things harder for all of you…'
With a flick of his finger, he released a ray of red light into the golden cabinet on the platform.
The red light turned into liquid and merged into the white holy power inside the cabinet. The red liquid expanded and slowly dissolved in the white holy power.
The bloodline power had a hidden message in it, and the message was delivered to other holy cabinets in different churches through a certain channel.
The Pope and the bishops would learn about the message when they opened the cabinets.
'If Light Ancestor was sharing his power with the church, there would be nothing I could do. However, as the church was just collecting the remaining power that was released by Light Ancestor, things will be much easier for me.'
Angele looked at the painting on the ceiling. It was about people praying to a ray of holy light.
'It's about time to end my peaceful life and focus on studying the Lost Realm.' He thought that he already had the right to enter the Lost Realm since he was very close to Siva State.
'Although the church has the holy power, they won't be able to hunt down the wizards like they've done before as long as I'm still around.'
Saving the wizards here was never his intention; the holy power was from the remaining power of Light Ancestor, it would expel the energy particles and make people who used the holy power hate the wizards.
In other words, the conflict between the wizards and the church would never end unless Angele destroyed the church completely, however, there was no point for him to do that. The remaining power of Light Ancestor was endless; if he eliminated the church, another organization to find the power would appear sooner or later, so the only thing he needed to do was make sure that the church knew about his presence.
'The power came from a dimension fissure; it's the remaining power of Light Ancestor, so it's highly possible that the dimension fissure leads to the Chaos Realm…'
Mortals were like ants to Light Ancestor, so Light Ancestor would not do anything if mortals approached the dimension fissure. However, if it was a large insect or a bird, the situation would be different.
Angele was like a large insect to Light Ancestor; although he was still weaker than Light Ancestor, Light Ancestor might still wake up.
If he got too close to the dimension fissure, Light Ancestor might try to eliminate him.
He was not confident that he could survive a fight against Light Ancestor even when Light Ancestor was severely injured.
'I should choose an easier path…' He decided not to check the dimension fissure. 'The Lost Realm connected multiple strong realms, including the Chaos Realm. I can travel to the Chaos Realm using this method. My analysis should be completed soon…
'Where should I be when entering the Lost Realm…' Angele glanced around.
The white robes were still praying and there was an old priest singing in the hall.
'Well, this is actually a good spot.'
He noticed that the dimension was unstable here due to the energy waves released by the world stone. If he decided to enter the Lost Realm here, the pressure from the realm power would be easier to handle.
He was carrying the portal to the Lost Realm with him, so he could enter the portal from anywhere he wanted.
'Let's start.'
Angele took out a small box from the mirror. He opened the box, and some chilling air was released from it right away.
There were many ice blocks in the box that surrounded a white plate in the center. There was some black dust on the white plate.
'Zooming in…' Zero's mechanical voice echoed in his ears right away.
'Adjusting the magnifier…
'Lost Realm's force field detected… Checking the analysis progression…
'Force field completely analyzed. Opening the world portal…'
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes as he stared at the black dust on the plate.
Chapter 585: Portal (2)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
In Angele's sight, he could see the sea of black crystals and the dark portal was moving closer and closer to him.
Suddenly, a white hand reached out of the portal and slowly moved toward Angele.
'Come to me… I'm ready this time…' Angele decided not to resist; he just stared at the hand quietly but was ready to fully release his power.
*PA*
The hand grabbed Angele's left arm.
Suddenly, a strong force started dragging Angele to the dark portal.
Strangely, the blue light dots disappeared from Angele's eyes and the biochip was no longer zooming in.
It was like he was dragged into a different dimension. The whole world was spinning in his sight and he could not see anything. Angele thought he was falling down a white cylinder but he could see the white and black light dots flashing around him.
Several seconds later.
Angele slowly stood up on a platform over a black crystal under the gray sky. His face was pale and his head dizzy.
Raising his head, Angele checked the surroundings, but all he could see were the black crystals. He was also standing on a crystal.
"Where am I…?" Angele looked around.
His sight fell upon an area behind him. There was an irregular black hole with chilling air coming out of it. A pale arm was slowly returning into the hole; it disappeared after reaching the edge of the hole.
"My body shrank?" Angele was surprised, he walked to the black hole and peeked inside.
The only thing he could see was darkness. Although he had high Stamina, he still felt cold in the chilling air and goosebumps were rising from his skin.
Angele inhaled deeply but realized that he could not feel any gas.
'My body definitely shrank, but I'm too small and the elemental molecules are bigger than my body…' Angele held his breath. 'Luckily, I can survive without breathing, otherwise, it'd be a problem…'
Angele moved away from the black hole and checked the platform he was standing on.
It was a relatively small platform about five meters long and six meters wide. He walked to the edge of the platform and looked down.
Below the crystal was an endless abyss.
The place was deadly silent, it felt like standing in a forest of black crystals and the platform under his feet was the only thing that he could stand on.
He looked at one of the black crystals, the top of the crystal reached far into the gray sky.
'I can't see the top of the bottom… If my body is much smaller than before, it'll take me a long time to reach the top or the bottom of the crystal…'
He moved to the other side of the platform but the situation was the same.
'Warning, warning… The time here is different… Do you want to adjust it?' Zero's voice suddenly echoed in his ears.
Angele checked the time that was displayed in his sight.
'15:42:12.'
However, the clock stopped and he had no idea what was going on.
'What's happening…' Angele stared at the clock and waited several seconds, however, nothing happened.
'Is it due to the power of the Lost Realm or is there something wrong with my nerve system? Am I moving and thinking faster than before? I need to give the biochip the permission to adjust the time for me. Zero, adjust the time.'
After Angele gave the order, he saw lines of blue data flashing in his sight. A lot of random numbers appeared behind the clock and it seemed like many things were changing.
He checked the clock again and it seemed like the biochip developed a new way to calculate the time. The number still looked the same but the clock started running again.
'I knew time might be different for different realms but this one is a bit strange…' Angele checked the time—the smallest unit was not "second", it was something much smaller. 'This is a new unit that I've never seen and this is a whole new experience for me… Very interesting…'
Angele adjusted the time and sat down with his legs crossed on the platform. He rested for a while and tried to adapt to the new environment.
About half an hour later, he slowly stood up and walked to the edge of the black hole.
'This is a legendary realm… Let me see what's so different about it…' He stood in front of the black hole and jumped into it.
He lost to the gravity and started sinking into the endless darkness.
The hole above him was getting smaller and smaller, it turned into a small dot several seconds later.
The dot slowly disappeared into the darkness and there was nothing else in his sight.
Angele had no idea how long passed. He noticed that his feet landed on the ground steadily.
He was still in darkness but noticed that there was a stinky smell in the air.
"Cough… I can smell things again?"
*CHI*
He created a small ball of fire on his fingertip to brighten up the area.
The light revealed the surroundings and Angele realized that he was standing in a white tunnel.
There was a white wall behind him. It felt like that he was standing in a random cave that was full of stalactites.
'Wait… Those are not stalactites…' Angele's expression turned serious. He rubbed on the surface of the wall—it felt like touching a damaged wall.
Angele lowered his hand and sniffed at his fingers. They smelled like blood and he also noticed something rotten.
He took a step forward.
*PA*
His feet hit something in front of him with a noise.
Angele checked the ground using the light from the fire, there was a pile of white bones under his feet. The ground was covered with countless skulls and bones. His feet were almost buried in the bones.
He found some weapons, accessories, and damaged armor in the white bones.
*PA*
Angele picked up an iron leg guard, however, it broke into pieces when he tried to lift it up.
His brow furrowed as he picked some other items, but all of them broke into pieces right after they were lifted.
Under the dim light, Angele started proceeding in the tunnel. The bones on the ground were from human beings, random beasts, giants, and giant birds. He also found books, outfits, gems, crystals, and many other random things in piles of bones.
He kept trying to pick the items up but all of them crumbled in the air. Some of them were still glowing, however, none of them was still usable, and the books were unreadable.
'These are just garbage…'
Angele dropped a blue crystal pillar that was still glowing to the ground and started moving again. He was still checking the bones constantly.
'Those bones are from thousands of years ago but they are still in good shape. I think those creatures were strong creatures when they were still alive, but I don't see any traces left by a battle… Those creatures were not killed during a war. I hope I can find something like the crystal orb used by the wizards here…'
Angele glanced at the bones. Suddenly, he found something that was releasing purple light under a bronze shield ahead.
He walked to the shield, crouched, and moved it away. There was a thick purple book glowing under a silver mace and a white bow. The book was old and its cover was slightly damaged.
There was a black keyhole in the center of the cover and there were some silver patterns that looked like flowers around the keyhole.
Angele carefully removed the mace and the bow before grabbing the purple book.
He slowly opened the book and started reading—the words on the red paper were written in the Chaos language.
'The notebook of the North Empire's vanguards. This is our first day of the trip to Lost Realm and we entered the Bone Tunnel without any problems…'
The rest of the words were unreadable. Angele rubbed the page using his fingers but it made the words even harder to read.
He started turning pages. Most of the words were blurred, but he finally found something that was readable when he reached the 23rd page.
'Nate was killed, we returned to the Bone Tunnel. This is… Jump… Lost…'
Those were the only readable words he could find.
The rest of the pages had no valuable information. He closed his book and scrunched his eyebrows.
He checked the surroundings again and noticed the end of the tunnel turned from a white way to endless darkness. It felt like the tunnel would lead him into the abyss if he decided to go back.
The area in the front was also dark.
Angele stood in the tunnel quietly. With a flick of his left finger, he created a fireball over his left shoulder.
He put down the book on the ground and started advancing slowly.
He did not find many glowing items ahead, but he noticed some complete skeletons.
Angele had no idea how long had passed before he finally found some human bones under a purple robe. He checked the bones and found a translucent crystal orb.
The crystal orb was dirty and its surface was covered with cracks. It felt like the orb could explode at any time.
Angele picked up the orb carefully and rubbed it several times using his hands.
*CHI*
The crystal orb started glowing and made some strange noise.
"Well…" A young man's face appeared in the crystal orb. The man's face was upside down and he had a pair of yellow eyes.
"This is a crystal orb from my mother… This is the 153rd day of… Wait, let me double-check…"
"Come on, don't play with my orb. Go sit down on the side." A hoarse female voice came from the orb.
The young man's face slowly moved away from the orb, revealing the white walls of Bone Tunnel.
Chapter 586: Bone Tunnel (1)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
"If, I mean if, anyone can find this crystal orb, my purpose will be fulfilled…" The scene in the crystal orb shook slightly; it seemed like the crystal orb was turned to a different direction.
In front of the white tunnel, there was a red wooden door in the stone wall.
"Before entering this unknown door, I need to make a record. Although I don't know when we can leave Bone Tunnel and enter the Lost Realm, I still want to make sure that we have a record." The woman's voice was deep and hoarse.
The woman moved closer to the wooden door and carefully observed the surface of the door.
There were many engravings on the door. The engravings were human mouths that varied in color: some were white, some were red, and some were black.
The mouths had different sizes and shapes. Some were screaming and some were crying.
"Alright, this is it. The door appeared from nowhere and we're about to enter it."
The scene in the crystal orb was blurred for a second and turned black.
Angele's brow furrowed, he tapped on the orb but nothing happened.
Several seconds later, light returned to the orb but the scene was still blurry.
The woman started talking again, she was breathing heavily while trying to speak.
"Finally… We finally made it out… Is this thing on?"
"Yeah… It's activated…" The young man's voice appeared; he sounded a bit anxious. "Mom, what was that thing?"
"It's a monster! Don't worry, it's just a monster, I'll protect you…" The scene in the orb shook again but it was still blurry.
"The orb can't record images anymore I guess. Alright, this is the 354th day since we entered the wooden door. My pet is trying to stop that thing behind the door but I don't know how long my pet will survive. We've been running for days and I hope we can escape the tunnel before it catches up."
"Mom…"
"Calm down… Don't worry! I'm here…" The woman was trying to calm the young man down.
*PA*
The light disappeared from the orb again.
Several minutes later, the crystal orb glowed and he could hear the woman talking.
"That thing is still coming for us… It has been two years but it never gives up… I don't know what I can do. We need to find the exit…"
The scene inside the orb suddenly got clear, Angele could see a woman with dirty clothes and hair. The woman was wearing a black outfit and it seemed like she had not showered for years.
"Don't worry, boy. I'm with you…" The woman was holding her child in arms.
"Mother… It's painful…"
Her child's body was covered by a piece of black cloth and his face was pale. It seemed like he was sick or injured.
"Calm down… I'm with you… Don't worry…" The woman started shaking her child. "You're sick, you just need some rest…"
"Mother…" The child slowly fell asleep in the woman's arms.
"No worries, I'm with you… No worries… I won't let you die… I won't!" The woman's terrified expression reflected on the crystal orb.
Angele's brow furrowed as he watched the scene quietly.
The scene was blurred for a couple seconds. The next time Angele could see things clearly, the orb was already on the ground.
The woman was holding the dead body of her child in arms. She was shaking the dead body slightly while singing a cradle song.
"Sleep baby… Sleep…" She was not facing the crystal orb and it seemed like she was chewing something. She sang as she walked into the shadow.
Angele moved closer and noticed that she was chewing slowly on her child's arms. The dead body of her child barely had any flesh left on the bones.
The boy's arms and legs had no flesh left on them. The mother even chewed some of the bones into pieces. The boy's face was still in one piece; although he was dead, Angele could see the desperation in his wide opened eyes.
The scene quickly disappeared from the orb after and he could not hear anything else.
"What's this? The tunnel turned them crazy?" Angele muttered as he checked the surroundings.
The areas in front of him and behind him were all dark. The fireball on his shoulder was the only source of light here.
He could only find white bones and random items on the ground. Some of the bones already turned into dust—it looked like snow that would never melt.
He put the crystal orb into his pouch and started advancing again. The bones under his leather boots made some light noises.
Angele left the ground and floated in the air. He decided to fly instead of walking.
***************************
Two months later…
*DI*
A high-pitched noise suddenly appeared in the tunnel.
It was Angele—he was wearing the same brown leather armor, but its surface was covered with white dust. He slowly landed on the ground and looked at the area ahead.
"It has been two months… How long is this tunnel… I've been flying at full speed but I can't even reach the end," he muttered. "The biochip tells me when to eat and drink. It's understandable that people would go crazy in an environment like this…"
The tunnel was still deadly silent, he was the only living being here.
Lowering his head, Angele started checking the items on the ground again.
There were shields, weapons, accessories, and clothes. He removed all the worthless items and the dust in the air almost turned into a mist.
*PA*
Angele picked up a black belt with silver edges and pulled it slightly.
"The items here are better than the items I found earlier…"
He rubbed the belt carefully and it released a thin silver glow. The glow disappeared after the light was absorbed by Angele's hands.
"A level 1 item…"
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes—he quickly determined the level of the damaged magic device.
"The elemental power in the belt is impure, I'd never absorb it if it was not the only way to restore my energy here… Also, I need to consume a lot of food to support my bloodline ability but I don't have much left. It's a problem."
*BAM*
He dropped the belt into the bones and the dust splashed in the air again.
Angele took out several pieces of meat jerky and a small purple potion from the mirror. He threw the meat jerky into his mouth and drank some potion from the tube.
He rested for several minutes and started flying again.
The tunnel ahead was dark, it felt like the tunnel was endless and he only had one route.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye.
Finally, something different appeared ahead.
It was a wooden door with white edges and the door was built into the wall on the left side of the tunnel.
Angele landed in front of the wooden door and narrowed his eyes. A thin layer of red energy barrier appeared around his body.
He grabbed the handle on the door and twisted it slightly.
*Crack*
The door opened and as a noise echoed in the tunnel.
The door was not fully opened, but the gap still revealed the red carpet on the ground.
Angele opened the wooden door and his body was immediately illuminated by white light.
Behind the door was a spacious hall with a red carpet on the floor.
There was music playing in the hall, it felt like the noise was from an old phonography. It was a woman singing in a voice that Angele could not understand at all. The voice was deep and strange.
The music sounded like a love song but Angele had no idea what the lyrics were.
Angele stood in front of the door and peeked through the gap.
On the other side of the hall was a large mirror. Angele's body was reflected in it.
He was a young man with red hair in the mirror, wearing tight leather armor that was covered in white dust. The long red hair was tied up and there was a rusty silver crossguard sword hanging on his belt.
Angele glanced around the hall, the wooden door was the only entrance and exit of the hall.
The only thing he could hear was the song the woman was singing.
He walked into the hall slowly and rubbed the yellow wallpaper carefully.
The wallpaper was a bit rough; he quickly tapped on it.
*PA*
It seemed like there was nothing behind the wall.
Angele took a step back and hit the wall hard with his fist.
*BAM*
The wall did not move an inch, the strike did not damage the wall at all.
"Huh?" Angele lowered his fist and formed a knife hand, and his body was surrounded by dark-red glow.
*CHI*
He hit the wall with his knife hand.
*PA*
The fingertips landed on the wall but nothing happened.
Angele's expression turned serious.
"Nothing happened even with the power of my true form…"
Suddenly, he found a moving shadow on the wall.
He quickly turned his head around and found walking clothes in the center of the hall. It felt like that there were invisible men and women wearing clothes. The clothes were dancing and moving around.
The clothes varied in color and style. Some were luxurious and some had lace on the edges.
The dancing clothes made different noises in the music.
Angele started moving backward carefully; he reached the door and was about to leave the area.
Suddenly, he found something that looked familiar.
A white dress.
The dress looked the same as the white dress worn by the woman in the painting.
He recognized the dress immediately.
The white dress was standing by the mirror quietly; the clothes beside the dress also looked familiar.
A white t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
"Xinrui's outfit…" Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes.
'Zero, analyze the environment for me now!'
'Analyzing… Visualizing the changes…'
Chapter 587: Bone Tunnel (2)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
*CHI*
Some blue webs appeared in Angele's sight.
The blue webs disappeared within a second and everything returned to normal.
The clothes disappeared from the hall but the song was still going.
There were rows of blue data flashing in his sight. The numbers ranged from millions to single digits; also, the numbers were jumping back and forth.
'Unknown interruption detected, no force field detected, no signal received, environment analysis failed…
'No elemental energy detected, no force field model detected, no special energy detected, normal dimension, normal magnetic field, normal physical condition, no living beings found…'
Zero's report appeared in Angele's sight, there were rows of information.
'If so… Maybe I should do something to them…'
Black armor appeared on his right hand and he was ready to counter the possible attacks using the power of his true form.
He was walking backward and backed out of the wooden door slowly.
Suddenly, he gripped forward using the right hand.
The dark skin on his right arm quickly expanded, it turned into a large claw that had a length of over ten meters.
*WOO*
The claw made loud noise as it moved to the location where the white dress and Xinrui's clothes were.
*BAM*
The claw did not do anything, it just hit the wall with a loud noise and the whole hall started shaking.
The white dress and Xinrui's outfit dropped to the floor, turning into normal clothes.
Angele lowered his arm and grabbed the clothes. He wanted to take the clothes out of the room, however, the clothes turned into white ashes and slowly slid down the claw.
The claw turned into a human hand several seconds later.
Angele stared at the hall with a serious expression on his face. All the clothes he grabbed using the claw disappeared into the air.
The door suddenly closed as strong wind pushed Angele outside.
*BAM*
The wooden door closed by itself and the whole frame collapsed seconds later. The wooden frame almost landed on Angele, he quickly grabbed and threw it to the side.
The place where the wooden door had been at turned into white wall with a rough surface; it almost felt like everything that'd just happened was an illusion.
Angele raised his right hand and looked at his fingers.
The white ashes from the clothes were still on his fingers.
"Interesting…"
Blue light dots flashed in front of his eyes.
"The ashes are just bone ashes…"
He checked the wooden frame, it was not made of anything special.
*Ka-ta Ka-ta*
He heard heavy footsteps coming from ahead. Two black shadows with greatswords in hand were charging to Angele.
The black shadows were two female monsters covered in black scales. Their eyes were green and there were horns on their heads. The female monsters had mouths full of sharp teeth and almost looked like female swordsmen wearing tight black leather armor.
The two monsters were not shouting or anything, they just charged at Angele and slashed down with their greatswords that were over two meters long and surrounded by green glow.
*Dang*
The two greatswords were blocked by a rusty silver crossguard sword as fire sparked in the air.
Angele's body numbed—he was paralyzed for a second. He just stood there and his body was out of control.
"Damn!" he cursed and watched the two greatswords land on his neck.
*Clank*
The greatswords hit Angele's neck with a loud noise, however, they did no damage to him. The greatswords were deflected, and Angele released some red light that quickly sank into the two monsters' wrists.
Angele wanted to move but he was paralyzed again.
"A boring but annoying ability…"
His eyes were surrounded by bright red glow as he was staring at the two female monsters.
The two swordsmen-like monsters raised their greatswords and were about to slash down again. Suddenly, they stopped moving.
Red scorpion marks appeared on their foreheads.
"Die!" Angele caught the chance and the glow around his eyes got even brighter.
Blood spurted out of the monsters' foreheads and splashed on the tunnel's ceiling.
*BAM BAM*
The two monsters fell to the ground and stopped moving.
Peace returned to the tunnel; the battle made the bone ashes fly again.
Angele straightened his back.
"I was paralyzed but it was not just that… My body shouldn't be paralyzed so easily, it felt like that the time stopped for a second."
He walked to the two dead monsters with his brow furrowed.
The two female monsters had large breasts, long slim legs, and tight butts. If they were not covered with black scales, they would be two beautiful women with great bodies.
Angele looked at the two monsters' faces—their faces were terrifying and weird.
Green eyes, sharp white teeth, and long black ears. It felt like their faces were smoked.
Angele crouched and picked up one of the greatswords they dropped.
The greatsword was made of green jade stones. The texture was cold and smooth. Angele could see the tiny cracks on the surface of the blade.
He checked the handguard of the sword, it was made of some well-crafted stones. They looked like two black snakes biting each other. The handle of the sword was so large that Angele could barely hold it with one hand.
A black handle with a green blade, the greatsword looked wild but clean.
Angele held the greatsword tightly and slashed at the wall.
*Clank*
Some cracked white stones were slashed off the wall; strangely, the white thing just floated in the air without falling an inch.
About four seconds later, the white stones finally fell into the bones due to the gravity.
Angele rubbed the blade, he was satisfied with the result.
"It's a good weapon. It'd have taken me some time to take out the two monsters if I hadn't attacked using the pure energy from the negative emotions. With those weapons, they would be a huge threat if they got too close. I wonder if it's a dimension ability…"
'Zero, create a task and analyze the ability.'
'Task created… Insufficient information…
'More information is required to complete the analysis. The current success rate is lower than 12.7%. Needed time: Unknown. If the analysis starts, no other task can be created until the analysis is finished. Do you want to start the analysis?'
Angele's brow furrowed.
'The success rate is way too low… Don't create the task.'
He lifted the two greatswords and threw the mirror into the air.
The mirror rotated several times and landed on the left.
He then threw the two greatswords at the mirror.
*CLANK*
The two greatswords were blocked by an invisible force field.
"Huh? They can't be stored in the mirror?" Angele hesitated for a second and tried again.
It felt like the two greatswords were blocked by something and just could not enter the mirror.
"Whatever…"
Angele waved his hand, the mirror turned into a ray of black light and returned to his hand. He collected the mirror and put the two greatswords on the side.
"Let me check those two monsters."
He crouched by one of the monsters and repositioned it.
He pressed on the monster's face; the skin was tough, it felt like touching the trunk of an old tree, but it was still slightly warm.
Angele opened the monster's eyes. The monster had green eyes and black pupils that looked like tiny black dots.
He opened the monster's mouth and looked at the sharp teeth inside. The monster had a long tongue that looked like the tongue of a snake.
Angele released the tongue and started checking the monster's body. Her body felt much harder than her face.
'Maybe her breasts are hard too…'
He was curious and he put his hands on the monster's breasts. Angele pressed the breasts, the black scale on her body was so hard that it felt like she was wearing metal armor.
He found a symbol that looked like a green snake with a pair of wings above her breasts. He was not sure what the symbol meant.
'The scale is hard but her defense is low… and this symbol…' Angele thought for a second and took out a small silver knife. He stabbed the knife into the dead body carefully.
He carefully cut the symbol out of her body and noticed that it was connected to some green veins. There was sticky glowing liquid coming out of them.
Angele analyzed the liquid using the biochip: it was a mixture of water, gems, and protein.
He moved his hand down to the monster's stomach and scanned the area slowly using the biochip.
"This thing has no excretory system or reproductive system… Such a strange creature…" Angele sighed. "However, she can still absorb the nutrients from the food easily…"
He held the silver knife in hand and stabbed it into the center of the monster's chest, cutting her stomach open.
*CHI*
The monster's stomach was slashed open, revealing green and red organs.
Angele reached into the monster's body and took out some green organs. He lined up the organs on the side.
Several seconds later, he took out a green ball that looked like a balloon carefully. The ball had only one opening on the top; Angele was holding the opening using his fingers.
The ball was translucent and Angele could see what was inside. It was half filled with a bubbling light-blue liquid.
A drop of green liquid leaked out of the ball and landed on a bone.
*CHI*
The bone could not handle the acidity—a black hole appeared on the bone and there was white smoke rising from it.
A stinky and sour smell quickly permeated the air.
Angele took out a piece of rectangular stone from the mirror and put it under the ball.
Another drop of liquid leaked out of the ball and landed on the stone piece, leaving a hole on the stone.
'Such a strong acid…' Angele's expression changed.
'The stone piece had the similar resistance as my true form but it still failed to handle the acidity…'
He shook the ball slightly.
'Maybe I can make it into an acid bomb…'
Chapter 588: Bones (1)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
Angele took the stomach out of the other monster's body as well and sealed it with a gel-like substance. He coated the stomach with the bone ashes and threw it into his mirror.
He organized the items he was carrying and stood up. Angele decided to carry the two greatswords on his back.
He checked the mirror and noticed it was almost full.
'The mirror is almost full… I didn't think it was possible…'
He glanced at the white wall one final time and started advancing again. He decided to keep flying.
'Where did these two monsters come from?' He checked the surroundings carefully.
The tunnel was deadly silent. He checked the clock as he flew, but the time unit was still extremely small. It seemed like his body size was still the same, nothing changed after he shrank.
He kept flying until the biochip told him that it was food time. Angele landed on the ground and started resting. The only way to check time here was by checking the biochip's clock.
Another month passed.
There was no day and night in the tunnel. Angele did not encounter other monsters after that day, but he found several more wooden frames on the ground.
It seemed like the wooden frames were also from the white doors in the wall.
Angele checked the wooden frames and the wall, he was still trying to find an entrance, but nothing worked and he decided not to waste time on it.
The bones and items on the ground were getting stronger as he proceeded….
*************************
One year later…
*CHI*
A dot of yellow light was flying in the dark tunnel at full speed, leaving a light trail behind.
Minutes later, the yellow light dot slowed down and landed on the ground. It was Angele, who was covered in white dust.
His leather armor, skin, and hair were all coated with white ashes. No one would know what the original color of his outfit was.
He landed on the ground without any problem and stepped on the white bones. Angele crouched and knocked on the bones he just found. The bones looked like they were from a spider.
*PA*
It almost sounded like he was knocking on a piece of wood.
"That's much harder than I expected… The bones here were probably from the creatures with the power of rank 3 wizards… After so many years, those bones are still strong…" He looked at the area ahead, all he could see were bones.
The air here still stank.
Angele noticed that there were countless scratches on the walls.
He rubbed the walls and noticed that the scratches were thin. It seemed like the scratches were left on the walls unintentionally.
Some of the scratches on the left formed a large character but Angele was not sure what it meant.
The character had the size of a human's head and it looked like a "5" that was upside down.
Angele removed the dust from the surface of the character so that he could have a better view of it.
"I can feel that… there's something going on here…"
Angele's eyes were surrounded by a red glow; he closed his eyes and slowly put his fingers on the character.
A strange message was sent into Angele's mind by some remaining mentality wave.
"Anco… Misubu… I conquered the land because it's endless. I conquered the sky because it's also endless. Everything in this world is my son… I advance because I'll never look back…'
A deep voice echoed in Angele's mind; it felt like the voice was whispering to his soul. A creature with a weak soul might just kneel after hearing the voice because the voice was magical.
Angele snorted and released some dark smoke. There were white masks rolling in the smoke, they started singing in the air.
"Are you trying to take over my mind using a random picture? Arrogant!"
Raising his hand, a large shadow of a monster scorpion behind him.
The masks were just repeating the same sentence.
"I'm Lord of Terror…"
Angele's hand was surrounded by the shadow of a claw and slowly pressed on the wall.
*WOO*
The shadow of the scorpion claw was glowing, however, it seemed like the power inside the strange character was also strong.
Angele's expression changed.
"It has been years but the power is still strong… This thing almost had the same power level as me!"
*BAM*
The symbol on the wall exploded. Countless cracks appeared on the wall, and the strange force field also disappeared.
The claw shadow slowly disappeared from Angele's hand and he carefully pressed on the symbol.
Although he won, his expression was still serious.
'This is the tunnel to a strong realm… Based on the analysis result from Zero, the symbol's over 2000 years old! A weakened mentality wave that's 2000 years old almost had the same power level as mine; the one who left the symbol must be extremely strong!' Angele realized that there must be a lot of strong beings in the Lost Realm.
He checked the area ahead, it was still endless darkness. It felt like he would never reach the end of the tunnel.
"I found someone who was as strong as me here, which means…"
He inhaled deeply and tried his best to calm down.
"The bones on the ground are getting stronger and stronger. I assume that I'm getting close to the end of the tunnel. I wonder what the Lost Realm looks like…"
He glanced at the wall again and found several more items in the bones. He absorbed all the elemental power from the items and started flying again.
However, the path was still dark.
The two white walls of the tunnel were moving backward in his sight and there were white ashes splashing in the air.
Suddenly, Angele stopped moving and floated over some large bones.
He opened his mouth but failed to spit out a word. His throat was dry and he was having trouble breathing.
The dead body on the ground was over three meters tall, there were twisted spikes on his shoulders and head.
It was a giant who was sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall. It seemed like he was just resting before he died.
Angele's expression changed several times. He looked at the giant's bones and exhaled slowly.
'This big guy is the one who left the symbol on the wall…'
He noticed that the remaining mentality wave of the giant was the same as the one he found from the symbol.
'How did a strong being like him die? He wasn't injured and there was no battle here… How did he die?!'
Angele realized that Bone Tunnel might be more dangerous than he'd thought. The giant had the same power level as his refined true form but he just died here like a nobody.
Angele was one of the strongest beings among the realms he had traveled but things had changed.
"I need to check his bones now so I can find out the truth…"
Blue light dots flashed in his eyes, he landed by the bones and released two rays of blue light from his eyes. He scanned the giant's bones.
'No damage detected on the bones. No remaining soul detected. Reason of death: Unknown. Chance of natural death: 72%.'
The result was a bit surprising.
'For strong beings like us, we can live at least 100 thousand years… I don't think he died because he was too old…'
Suddenly, Angele noticed that something happened behind him so he quickly turned around.
A white wooden door appeared on the wall behind him, but he had no idea when it happened.
The door was tightly closed and the bronze handle of the door was rusty.
When Angele was still looking at the bronze handle; the handle started moving. It felt like someone was trying to open the door from the other side.
*PA PA PA*
The handle moved but the door was not opened. It seemed like the one on the other side was getting nervous and the handle was moving faster than before.
The noise made by the handle was loud in the quiet tunnel.
Angele stood in front of the door quietly and watched the handle move.
About two minutes later.
The handle finally stopped moving, it seemed like the one from the other side gave up. The noise disappeared and the tunnel became quiet again.
Suddenly, Angele grabbed the handle and twisted it hard.
*Crack*
The door opened.
Gentle sunlight shined upon Angele's body, face, and long hair.
Narrowing his eyes, Angele peeked through the door.
Behind the door was a golden sky and illuminated clouds looked like well-organized staircases.
Angele walked closer to the door and checked the area.
It seemed like the door was floating in the sky and there was nothing around t. The golden sky was endless.
The white door just stood over the clouds and it was the only thing here. A lonely wooden door.
Angele wanted to move his head into the door.
*BAM*
His head hit an invisible barrier.
Angele hesitated and raised his hand.
An invisible barrier blocked the door and he could not enter. The barrier was like glass in a window.
He tapped on the barrier slightly, it was hard, cold, and smooth.
Angele released some red light and coated his fingertips with it. He then knocked on the barrier again.
*PA*
The barrier was not damaged at all.
"What does it mean? I can open the door but I can't enter it."
Angele hesitated for a second and returned to the dead giant. He crouched and found a black notebook by the giant's waist.
It was an item he saw when he was scanning the bones.
Angele opened the notebook slowly. The paper was covered with characters like the one he found on the wall.
The white characters lined up on the black paper.
Angele rubbed the characters one by one using his fingers.
The messages stored in the characters were transferred into his mind slowly.
"Bone Tunnel, the tunnel to the Lost Realm. This is the Bone Realm, the Bone Realm is the Lost Realm. The Lost Realm is the tunnel. I'm deep in the dimension maze, the time and space here are a mess but nothing will stop me…"
Chapter 589: Bones (2)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
"Every 1000 years, I write down a message, and the time has come again. There's no energy supply, no food supply, and the only thing I can do is to seal myself. I can't find another way to survive. I've already forgotten the reason why I entered the Lost Realm.
"I don't remember the time but I'm certain that my memory is correct. I've been here about 300 years ago which means I'm in the maze again… I conquered everything… Will this be my end?
"I finally found the truth, this is the intestine of the world, the dimension maze. No creature leaves the intestine before everything is turned into nutrients… The realm consumes strong creatures to survive… There's no easy way out…
"I just opened another door, same monsters, same endings. They are just endless…"
Angele's finger stopped at the last character.
He already turned several pages and read all the characters.
'The abandoned intestine of the world? A dimension maze?' Angele had never heard of something like that.
He checked the giant's bones again but did not find any valuable items. It felt like the notebook was the only thing the giant had.
Angele found a line that was engraved into the ground on the right side of the giant.
He pressed on the line and received another message through the mentality wave.
"Keep moving forward!"
Angele could feel the dedication from the remaining mentality wave.
Angele sighed with mixed emotions and bowed to the giant's bones.
"You're a respectable being, at least you did whatever you could to pursue your goal."
He checked the surroundings and noticed that there were far fewer bones here; he could see the ground under the bones clearly.
Angele tried to contact the Nightmare Realm, however, he could not find any trace of it. That meant that he could not teleport back to the Nightmare Realm.
All the dimension power was restricted in this area.
He turned around and looked at the golden sky behind the door.
He found some strange runes on the frame of the door. It felt like someone engraved the runes into it; the runes looked like the characters on the giant's notebook.
Raising his hand, Angele rubbed the runes slightly.
"Three million years ago. Cloud Realm."
A message came from the runes.
'Three million years ago, what does it mean? The sky behind the door is a random realm from three million years ago?' Angele's brow furrowed. 'This Bone Tunnel is just confusing…'
*CHI*
The wooden door slowly closed and Angele was pushed away by an invisible force, he could no longer move any closer to the door.
*BAM*
The door fully closed and the golden light disappeared. The wooden frame detached itself from the wall, fell to the ground, and broke into pieces.
Angele's fireball became the only source of light in the tunnel again.
The dim light was nowhere close to the bright light from the sky.
Angele started searching the bones again. Only two other skeletons had the same power level as the giant but there was nothing around them. He assumed that their items decayed over the years.
'Also, why does the realm turn everything into nutrients…?' Angele stood up from the last skeleton he examined. 'Anyway, I need to keep moving, I'll find the answer sooner or later…'
He glanced at the giant's skeleton for one final time and started flying again.
About half an hour later, he found another white door on the wall.
He slowly landed in front of the door and put his hand on the handle without any hesitation.
*KA*
The door opened.
Behind the door was a room furnished full of paintings and with a blood-red carpet. The engravings on the golden walls looked like roses and the paintings were hanging in the air.
The paintings had different themes: he saw a castle in the forest, a small house on a snowy mountain, a grass plain, and some abandoned city.
Angele stood by the entrance and glanced at the paintings. There were around 20 paintings and all of them looked nice.
Strangely, he found a red skeleton of a centaur in the center of the room.
There was a black spear in the skeleton's arm and a silver shell was hanging from its neck.
Angele walked into the room slowly.
*PA*
The centaur skeleton slowly stood up and some white smoke came out of its empty eyes.
The centaur skeleton pulled the spear out of its arm and opened its mouth. It seemed like the skeleton was trying to roar.
A strong wind blew over Angele's body and his long hair was flying in the air.
Angele's expression changed, he took one step back and heard some light noise. He noticed that the door behind was closed.
"Is this the process of turning me into nutrients?" He turned around and looked at the skeleton.
The skeleton raised the spear; there were black electric pulses sparking around the weapon. The electric pulses gathered on the tip of the spear as a large pair of shadow wings appeared behind the skeleton.
The air in the room became sticky, it felt like the air was turning into jelly.
The centaur held the spear tight and threw it forward.
The black spear flew toward Angele with the black electric pulses around it, however, it suddenly stopped in the air. The power on the spear was getting stronger and stronger. It felt like the spear was gathering energy.
Finally, the black spear started moving again—it turned into a black string and flew at Angele like lightning.
Angele did not think the spear would be a problem to him, but the power level of the spear quickly passed the power level of a rank 5 wizard and it was still growing stronger.
Angele's expression changed.
'Earth!' he shouted in the mind.
Pieces of black stones and mud appeared on his body. The stones and mud gathered on the surface of his skin. His height and body size were increasing at full speed.
Angele quickly created two dark greatswords in his hands and slashed forward. The greatswords soared through the air.
They hit the flying spear without any problem.
*CLANK*
The two greatswords were destroyed. Angele's body leaned back due to the impact, and the earth armor on his body was cracked.
However, he successfully blocked the spear, which slowly returned to the skeleton's hand.
"Oblivion!" the skeleton shouted using the mentality wave.
The skeleton hit the floor using the tip of the spear and released some black energy waves. The energy waves were expanding in all directions.
The energy waves moved toward Angele and surrounded his feet. They almost formed a circle around him.
The skeleton raised the spear and pointed it at Angele.
*CHI CHI CHI CHI*
Countless black spears appeared in the air around Angele's body and all stepped into his body, turning him into a hedgehog.
Angele was hit by the spears after he recovered from the impact, he had no time to think and activated the second battle style when the spears broke through his mud armor.
"Lion!"
*BAM*
All the black spears were deflected and quickly disappeared into the air.
Angele turned into a strong lion man with dark-red skin within seconds; there was a pair of wings on his back, and his muscular body looked like a well-crafted stone statue. There was some thick dark fur around his neck.
'My second battle style… It has been a while since the last time I activated it…' Angele's three battle styles were Earth, Lion, and Light. They all had their advantages; with the three battle styles, he could maximize his power output without transforming into the refined true form.
Earth gave him incredible defensive and recovery abilities. He could easily handle a damage spell from a rank 5 wizard and barely needed any energy to activate this style.
Lion would strengthen his skin and muscles. It would also increase his strength and speed. He would be able to handle the creatures with the same power level as rank 6 or rank 7 wizards. He could also create around ten lion men when the style was activated. The lion men shadows were improved based on the lion men Angele could summon.
The third battle style was called Light, it was the final form that he created based on his understanding of Siva State. He had never activated it yet. He thought that Light was a stronger form than his refined true form but he could not handle the cost of using it at the moment.
Angele turned into a lion man and created a greatsword that was covered with burning flames in hand. There were red and blue light dots flashing in front of his eyes.
*CHI*
Angele started creating shadows of lion men. He created two at first, and the two lion men quickly turned into eight.
The eight lion men formed a circle around the centaur skeleton.
Two of the lion men had green jade stone greatswords in their hands instead of flaming greatswords.
*ROAR*
The eight lion men charged at the centaur skeleton and slashed forward from different angles.
The centaur skeleton raised its hooves and stomped.
*BAM*
The white energy waves the centaur skeleton released slowed the lion men down.
The centaur skeleton's wings swang in the air several times as it quickly drew a circle around him using the black spear.
The space was slashed through by the spear and turned into a dark circle that blocked the attacks from different angles.
*BAM BAM BAM*
The lion men were blown away by the impact; five of them were slashed into pieces right away. They fell to the ground and turned into red lava. One of the three remaining lion men threw the green jade stone greatsword at the skeleton.
*Clank*
The green jade stone greatsword hit the tip of the black spear and was deflected right away.
The skeleton suddenly stopped moving, it just stood there with the spear in hand and it seemed like it was ready to block any incoming attack. A large black hole appeared in the center of its chest and continued to expand.
The last three lion men roared and charged at the skeleton again. One of them picked up the green jade stone greatsword on the way.
In the shadow of the room, a ball of red flames was hiding by the red lava on the ground. There was a pair of red eyes in the flames, watching the battle quietly. It was Angele, he turned himself into pure energy.
He created the eight lion men who had the same power level as rank 6 wizards and turned his body into pure fire energy.
'The second battle style is not working… Using the bloodline to fight relies too much on my talent ability… If I don't really have a choice, there are no good spells for this situation… The skeleton will win if this continues…'
The black scorpion mark slowly appeared between his brow.
The temperature in the room started increasing rapidly. It increased from 20 degrees Celsius to over 100 degrees Celsius within seconds, but that wasn't the end. The place was getting hotter and hotter.
Chapter 590: Halfway (1)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
*WOO*
The carpet on the ground was ignited and started burning immediately. A sulfurous smell quickly permeated the air.
The battle between the lion men and the centaur skeleton lasted for about one minute and the temperature in the room was increased to over 1000 degrees Celsius.
The walls were red and the carpet was burning, however, none of them turned into ashes under such a high temperature. They just kept burning.
The centaur skeleton was slowed down and its body was surrounded by black electric sparks.
The temperature kept increasing and reached 5000 degrees Celsius after a while.
The black scorpion symbol was flashing between his brow and there were three balls of flames spinning in his pupils. He just looked at the centaur skeleton and waited to see what it would do next.
'This is the talent ability that I hate the most. The bloodline ability of Son of Sun, Heat Hell… I want to know how long you can survive in this environment.'
*BAM*
One of the lion men was blown away and his head was crushed. The lion man fell to the ground and turned into a pile of lava.
The last two lion men were buffed as the temperature increased. The destroyed lion men's power all gathered in the last two lion men's bodies, there were just two of them but they had the power of eight.
The two lion men were swinging the green jade stone greatswords so fast that the greatswords almost turned into blurry shadows. The greatswords would paralyze the skeleton for a second or two after the hits landed, however, the lion men would be blown away by the impact.
Angele hid in the lava; the outfit and underwear he was wearing all perished under the high temperature. He had no way to protect them from the temperature and the crossguard sword he had also already melted. The two green jade stone greatswords melted slightly but they were not severely damaged.
He was trying his best to make sure that his pouches and mirror were fine.
'This is just one of the random rooms in Bone Tunnel, maybe I'm only halfway to the exit. The centaur skeleton is much stronger than I expected. I wonder if the monsters in other rooms are stronger…' Angele stared at the centaur skeleton and hesitated.
The temperature in the room was still increasing.
8000.
9000.
10000!
Air bubbles appeared on the surface of the walls, however, the hanging paintings were not impacted. The fire disappeared from the carpet, what left was some black ashes.
The black electric pulses around the centaur skeleton started flashing and the surface of its red bones slowly turned dark.
'Finally, it's working…' Angele felt a bit relieved.
*ROAR*
The centaur skeleton raised its head and roared. He pushed the two lion men away and two more bone arms appeared behind its back. The skeleton suddenly started growing and its height reached four meters.
"The backbone of the world!" a deep voice shouted, the skeleton was speaking in the Chaos language.
The black hole in the center of the centaur skeleton glowed and a galaxy circle appeared in the air. It was slowly spinning in the darkness.
The stars in the galaxy circle varied in color and were rotating around a golden sun.
The centaur skeleton raised its black spear and turned around, pointing it at Angele, who was still hiding in the lava.
A bright light dot appeared on the tip of the spear as the weapon flew toward Angele's eyes like a meteor.
*CHI*
The spear suddenly stopped in front of his eyes; the tip of the spear was only ten centimeters away from him.
The centaur skeleton roared but it just could not move the spear any further. A lion man behind the skeleton slashed down with a green jade stone greatsword.
"It's over."
Angele recreated his body using the flames, and his right hand turned into a ray of white light and stabbed into the skeleton's skull like a white spike.
The white light disappeared from his right hand within seconds.
The three fireballs spinning in Angele's eyes also disappeared slowly.
"If you hadn't tried to gather all you power in the spear, I wouldn't have been able to break through your defense. Sadly, you are not an intelligent being; the story would have been different if you had been smart."
The Sun Hell of Son of Sun removed one-third of the skeleton's defensive force field and the skeleton's spear drained another one-third of its defensive force field. Angele caught the chance and destroyed its skull.
*KA*
The galaxy circle in the skeleton's chest collapsed and the whole skeleton was destroyed. The bones all fell to the ground.
Angele remained calm and released another ball of dark flames toward the bones.
*BOOM*
The fireball exploded and there were black ghost masks in the smoke. He could hear the ghost masks scream in the air.
The bones of the centaur skeleton were blown into pieces and were no longer moving.
Blue light shined in Angele's eyes; he glanced around and sighed.
He walked to the black spear and pulled it out of the ground. The spear had a long and smooth body that was covered with a line of blue runes. The runes were still glowing slightly.
*Crack*
The black spear suddenly cracked, it broke into pieces like it was made of glass. The cracked spear quickly fell to the ground.
Angele checked the remaining bones of the centaur skeleton but did not find anything.
"Those bones are just normal bones, they are just like the bones outside."
He stood up and his brow furrowed. Angele started checking the paintings.
"The secret of this room is probably hiding in the paintings."
He walked to a random painting.
The painting was an endless sea and there was a brown island in the center of it. There were several groups of white birds above the island.
Angele noticed that the waves on the sea were moving after he stared at it for a while.
*PA*
He suddenly heard the noise made by the waves and he could even smell the ocean. Angele even felt that there was wet wind blowing over his face.
*Twitter*
The birds above the island started twittering.
Angele stood in front of the painting and watched the things in it move. The birds were rotating and the gentle sunlight was illuminating the surface of the sea.
"Well…" Angele exhaled deeply and looked at the next painting on the left.
It was a painting of a white castle that was built on a mountain. Tree branches were waving in the wind and there were caterpillars moving slowly on them. The sky was blocked by the gray clouds.
He could see people walk by the windows of the castle.
"They are not paintings… They are windows…" Angele sighed and looked at other paintings.
The paintings were all windows that showed the general situations of other realms.
Angele looked at the castle again and slowly reached to it.
He had no problem reaching into the frame of the painting and could even grab the leaves on the tree.
The leaves were smooth and cold. It was something that Angele had never experienced.
He grabbed a leaf and sniffed at it. The smell was spicy and minty.
Blue light dots flashed in front of Angele's eyes; he slowly put down the tree leaf several seconds later.
'No energy detected… Another realm with no energy particles?'
He walked to other paintings and tested them one by one. The paintings were all connected to random realms; it felt like that this room was full of small portals. The room was somehow connected to a lot of realms.
The realms he tested all shared one similarity: none of them had energy particles, which meant that they were all weak realms.
He double-checked everything but failed to find any strong realms.
"Maybe I should keep advancing…" He stood by the painting and hesitated.
'The guardian of this room had the power level of a rank 7 wizard, if I encounter something stronger on my way to the next room…'
He thought of the giant that was probably stronger than him—a strong being like that still died in this tunnel.
Angele wanted to find a way to advance to Siva State but he did not want to give up his life for no reason.
'I should move forward. If I can't find anything valuable, I'll return to my world.'
Finally, he made the decision and picked up the two green jade stone greatswords.
He looked at the paintings for one final time and left the room.
*KA*
The door closed by itself as Angele left the room. The wooden frame fell off the wall and landed on the bones again.
Angele looked at the two green jade stone greatswords in his hand, the blades were covered with dark cracks and it felt like they could break at any time.
"They've reached the limit…"
Shaking his head, Angele dropped the two greatswords on the ground.
He thought for a while and decided to carry one of the damaged greatswords on his back. He also took out a small ball that looked like a beehive from the mirror.
The ball had the size of a palm and was covered with holes; there were black flies coming out of the ball from time to time.
"Nest of Torus, one of the rare items I created over the years… Maybe it'll be useful today…" He looked at the beehive in his hand and bit on the tip of his finger. He then dropped some blood on the beehive.
After some strange noises, countless black flies left the beehive and formed a black mist. They all charged at Angele's blood like bees that found honey.
This was one of the two strong magic devices Angele developed using his ability, these two magic devices could help him utilize his bloodline power.
The first one was called Nest of Torus and the other one was a ring that was called Ring of Fenrir.
Nest of Torus was used for offense and Ring of Fenrir was used for defense.
Angele held Nest of Torus in hand and floated in the air. He started flying again.
He kept flying and had no idea how long had passed. Angele felt that he was getting tired.
*DING*
The biochip warned him of new doors.
"Again…" Angele slowed down and landed on the ground.
He found a white wooden door on the right. The rusty handle looked the same as the handle of the last door.
There were only several skeletons in this area and there was barely any bone ash on the ground.
Angele checked the two skeletons using the biochip and noticed they were still releasing energy waves.
He quickly took down the green jade stone greatsword and threw it toward the skeletons.
*KA*
The greatsword was broken into pieces by some invisible forces before it could touch the skeletons.
Angele's pupils retracted slightly.
'I can't even break the green jade stone greatswords using the power of my true form… These two skeletons might have had the same power level as the ancestors when they were still alive. Their force fields are still up after they died…'
Chapter 591: Halfway (2)
Translator: _Leo_ Editor: Kurisu
Angele decided not to get too close to the skeletons, so he went around and approached the door. He was holding the ball in one hand and the door handle in the other.
He hesitated before opening the door.
'According to my last encounter, if there's a monster in this room, the monster should be weaker than the two skeletons, but…'
*KA*
The door was suddenly opened from the other side. It felt like someone inside the door opened it before Angele could do anything.
A strong force dragged Angele into the room immediately.
The room looked identical to the last room, the same red carpet and the paintings were positioned the same, however, the scenes inside the paintings were different.
A tall green mountain, a clear river, a yellow desert, and a dark night.
Also, there was a rotten body of an old woman sitting on a chair in the center of the room.
The rotten body was wearing a white dress and a hat with flowers on top. The hat covered her face and there were some blue flowers on her knees. The flowers looked so fresh that it almost felt like they were just picked.
Angele looked at the rotten body carefully and slowly stepped into the room.
"It has been a while since the last living being was here…" The rotten body suddenly raised her head, revealing her dried face. There were no eyeballs in her eyes and only dried muscles were left on the left half of her face.
The rotten woman noticed that Angele thought she was about to start a battle.
She scratched her face and tried to make it look like that she was smiling.
"Welcome, my guest."
"Welcome?" Angele checked the surroundings carefully, he noticed that the woman was speaking in the Chaos language. "Finally, someone that knows how to communicate. I should be happy, but I'm just not in the mood. Lady, I still think you're a threat to me."
"You're probably right, I'll lose my mind after my heart bumps 500 times and kill you." The woman smiled. "I'm still conscious right now, so yeah, you can talk to me for a while."
"Can I ask you some questions?"
"Sure."
Angele thought for a while and started asking.
"What is Bone Tunnel? How do I leave the tunnel and enter the Lost Realm or another strong realm?" He went straight to the important questions. He had no interest in who the woman was.
"Bone Tunnel? So that's what you call this area? It's actually quite appropriate…" The woman stopped for a second and continued, "We call this place the intestine of the world; this is a dimension maze, which means this area is the origin of the realms. The intestine of the world is an abandoned maze of a strong realm."
She leaned to the side and looked at the paintings.
"Can you see these paintings? Those paintings are entrances to other realms. If you can find the truth of the maze and walk out of it, you'll then be able to enter the paintings."
"What do you mean? How do I leave this maze?" Angele questioned in a deep tone.
"There's no real answer to that. You might be able to enter the realms through the paintings, but I don't know the truth of the maze. Also, if you do find a way to leave the maze, you might be able to enter the Chaos Realm." The old woman chuckled, her voice was clean and crisp. "Didn't you notice that the further you go, the stronger the skeletons are?"
"Well, I know about the bones but I still don't think this is a maze…" Angele noticed that he was getting closer to the real answer.
The old woman looked at Angele's face and said, "This is a dimension maze; if you can't find the truth of the maze, you'll be trapped in time, and you won't be able to return to your start point. Also, this is a never-ending tunnel…
"Do you know that this is an area from 26 million years ago and you've reached your limit? If you proceed further, the creatures you encounter will be stronger and stronger. After you reach a certain point, you'll become part of the world's origin and part of the chaos."
*BAM BAM BAM*
He suddenly heard heavy footsteps coming from outside.
A strong but invisible force appeared outside the door.
Angele's body was impacted by the force and he started trembling. The owner of the force had the similar power level as an ancestor.
"Wait… This mentality wave…"
He recalled the moment he found the mentality wave of the giant, the strong being that decided not to retreat.
The two mentality waves were identical but the power level was totally different.
"An arrogant creature that wanted to conquer the maze… You've seen his skeleton a couple days ago, right?" The woman smiled again. "Young one, you are losing yourself."
Angele could feel that his heart was racing, however, he was not tricked by the woman's words, but carefully put his right hand on the white ring that he was wearing on his left hand.
"I probably overestimated my own power, also, about the 500 heart bumps you mentioned…"
Before Angele could finish his word, the woman's body suddenly started trembling and the flowers on her knees quickly shrank. Several seconds later, the flowers turned into a couple of yellow seeds, which slowly disappeared.
Under the woman's chair, a white ring started expanding slowly. The ring was pushing in all directions and the red carpet on the ground would disappear after contacting the ring. In the effective range of the ring, some blue and white flowers blossomed.
Several seconds later, half of the floor was covered by the flowers.
Angele just realized that the time had come. He looked at the white circle with a serious expression on his face. With a flick of his finger, he released some red light into the white circle.
The red light quickly disappeared into the sky.
His expression changed and he threw the Nest of Torus into the air.
The next started spinning in the air and quickly released countless black flies. The flies almost looked like a black fog and were all moving toward the old woman. They were not impacted by the white circle at all.
The black flies all had glowing red eyes and were charging toward the old woman like crazy.
Rays of red light flashed in the room and illuminated the old woman in the center.
*WOO*
All the red rays suddenly stopped in the air, they fell to the flowers and quickly disappeared.
Angele roared and his body expanded. He released black smoke through his eyes, nose, and ears. The black smoke disappeared several seconds later, revealing his dark-red armor.
He activated his refined true form, a large scorpion that looked like a monster. The scorpion had a dark-and-red body, it also had over ten pairs of legs.
However, the size of the scorpion was much smaller than before, it only had a height of two meters.
When he activated his refined true form, the Nest of Torus vibrated and released a lot of red flies. The red flies also charged at the old woman.
*ROAR*
Angele raised his right claw; his power level was the same as a rank 8 wizard. He released some black smoke, which moved toward the old woman as well.
There were screaming white masks in the black smoke.
*BAM*
The scorpion claw hit the rotten body on the chair, but then the claw disappeared right away.
"Ugh!"
Angele groaned, his whole right arm disappeared into the air.
The white circle on the floor was slowed down.
'Damn! I can't even stop the aura; the power of that thing is on a whole different level! I need to leave now!' He was having trouble handling the intense pain. He stepped back and used the left hand to twist the handle.
*PA*
He pulled the handle out of the door but the door was still closely sealed.
Angele checked the center of the room—the old woman was still trembling and black bubbles appeared on her rotten body. New bubbles would pop up after the old ones exploded.
The white aura was moving closer and closer to him.
The black smoke released by Angele could not stop the aura at all. The nest in the air was also smoking, and it seemed like it could break at any time.
*CHI*
One of Angele's feet had already touched the edge of the aura and his foot disappeared immediately. The blood spurting out of his wound was also swallowed by the aura.
He had to move closer to the wall. He could hear his heart racing; it felt like that his heart was about to jump out of his chest.
The life-threatening situation made his head extremely clear.
He activated the Ring of Fenrir, which was on the middle finger of his left hand.
A small diamond-shaped black crystal appeared on top of the ring, but it was just a shadow. At the same time, a diamond-shaped barrier also appeared around his body.
Angele felt a bit relieved.
"This ring can handle ten level 8 spells, and I think…"
The edge of the barrier contacted the aura when he was still muttering.
*CHI CHI*
It sounded like meat being roasted. The aura was blocked by the barrier and stopped expanding.
The shadow of the purple diamond over Angele's ring was fading away at a fast rate.
"The same power level as an ancestor…" Angele's body was aching. He was still releasing dark smoke, which was being absorbed by the ring. For some reason, a smile appeared on his face.
He glanced at the rotten body for one last time, turned around, and started running.
Angele threw the ring away and jumped into one of the paintings.
*BOOM*
The ring and the nest suddenly exploded. There were white masks screaming and dark fireballs in the explosion.
Angele turned his head around when he jumped into the painting—the rotten body was standing up from the chair and the length of its neck increased as the head was charging at Angele like a snake.
The dark fireballs and black smoke caught up to the old woman's head, they swallowed everything.
Angele heard some noises coming from behind, it sounded like windows being cracked. His skin ached, it felt like someone was pulling his flesh and skin down his bones.
His sight blurred and he could not see anything. Again, he heard something screaming behind, it sounded like a mooing cow.
After the scream, something hit his back hard and his back numbed.
Angele could barely stay conscious, he turned his body into a crossguard sword using the rest of his mentality, but he had no idea what happened later.