Chapter 77: Devil's Smile
Meanwhile, Charles landed two meters away from where he stood before and turned around.
At that moment, his gaze was cold as ice!
He recalled his previous battle in the Dreamworld, zeroed his gaze on a lone-robed skeleton, and finished his chanting.
A second later, a thin black needle-like structure came out from the Starfall Codex book and flew towards the skeleton with a whooshing sound.
It directly appeared in front of the grey-robed skeleton's forehead a moment later and collided against it!
BANG!
The skeleton's skull tilted upward due to the collision, and soon the skeleton stumbled backward.
At that moment, the Holem's Crown watched the other fight and suddenly spoke in his mind.
'This Eddie looks completely different, lad. He doesn't have a physical body nor has a soul. No, he does have something that resembles a soul, but it's not.'
'Fake soul? Yeah, he did mention that he created a fake soul and is planning to turn it into a true one after capturing you by creating an ultimate miracle.' Charles swiftly evaded the upcoming bone spear and responded.
'Oh? That's why he borrows power from the Dreamworld through this skeleton and the 'Mark of Imagination,' huh. Lad, kill this skeleton and find a way to remove the 'Mark of Imagination.' Once we did that, we might completely restrict him from borrowing energy from the Dream-world and kill him here.'
Charles instantly raised his hand as he heard those words, pointed his finger at the grey-robed skeleton, and cast [Incinerate] spell on it.
In a blink, a crimson ray appeared from his forefinger and soon reached its skull!
But as it was about to land on its skull, the grey-robed skeleton moved its wooden staff and tried to block it like the last time.
But unlike the last time, this [Incinerate] spell was an upgraded version. As it made contact with the skeleton's wooden staff, the ray instantly disintegrated it and landed on the area where the frontal bone was located!
A second later, the frontal bone on the skeleton's forehead broke and caused the skeleton to move to and forth.
Meanwhile, Charles placed the Starfall Codex in the space ring and walked towards the skeleton.
In less than three seconds, Charles arrived in front of the skeleton, curled his lips upward, and gripped the skull of the bony skeleton with both hands. After that, he twisted it with full force and ripped it from the skeleton along with spinal bones!
He then threw the skull on the ground and smashed it with his right leg!
The whole skull turned into a blackish viscous thing the second later and then vaporized.
'Next is this mark.' He nodded thoughtfully and turned his gaze towards Eddie, who moved sluggishly due to the strange gravity force.
At this moment, Eddie also noticed the sudden weakening of his connection with the Dreamworld and stopped playing around.
He took a deep breath and broke the gravitation effect by clapping his hands and sharpening his gaze towards Abel.
Abel also sensed the meaning behind his gaze, so he turned his face grave and waved his hand. One, two, three... No, tens of humans made of pure white light appeared from his body and dashed towards Eddie at an incredible speed while gripping different weapons in their hands!
They were all incarnations of Abel!
But whenever an incarnation's attack landed on Eddie, his figure distorted, disappeared for an instant like an illusion, and then reappeared in another area.
Watching this scene, Max shook his head and muttered to himself.
'Abel is no match for his illusion abilities. Although he doesn't seem to have other class abilities, he is still way above him in terms of comprehending the power of Dream.'
He rubbed his chin, took out an old blue-colored scroll from his space ring, and tore it into two.
An instant later, the space around the surroundings suddenly began to twist and soon locked into a large cube-like structure!
It was a Rank-4 space spell, Spatial Folding!
Upon seeing the strange scene, Eddie finally turned his attention towards Max.
"You are the irregular?" His tone went cold. If Max didn't appear in Riverdale City, he knew that things would have gone much smoother.
"It seems I need to take things seriously," Eddie muttered as he stepped forward towards Max and snapped his fingers.
An instant later, the surrounding area turned dimmer, and soon Eddie's figure started to grow larger. Multiple heads with distorted figures appeared over his neck region, and he looked more like a real nightmare Lord!
Some heads appeared humanoid, while other ones looked like strange animal ones.
Upon seeing the strange humanoid figure with different distorted heads, Abel and Max felt pain in their chest. No, their heart started to beat faster!
Not only them, even Charles felt that something so evil was trying to invade his inner world.
"Something is wrong with this guy." Max frowned as he placed his hand on his chest and took out another spell scroll.
He then locked his gaze on Eddie's original head and tore it.
A second later, a weird magic circle filled with multiple runal letters appeared before him and soon expanded to an unimaginable size.
"Thought Curse." He spat a mouthful of blood as he said those words and tapped his space ring twice.
Another two spell scrolls appeared in his hand as he tossed them upward and made them open using soul power.
After that, he directly tore those scrolls using the invisible soul power and smiled.
One was a spell enchantment scroll, while the other was a reverse spell scroll!
He knew that his last scroll didn't have much power, so he strengthened the spell effect using the enchantment spell scroll.
As for why he cast this 'Reverse spell' scroll, he felt that it might help them in the future.
Yes, Reverse spell was not an instant effective spell.
Like the 'Miracle' spell, requirements were needed for this spell to activate!
It might take a minute or an hour, or even a day. But when it happens, it would completely catch the enemy off guard!
At that moment, Eddie felt that he couldn't think clearly from time to time and got confused.
He didn't get anxious, though. Instead, he zeroed his gaze on Abel and cast his class spell [Dream Invasion].
It was a spell to pull one's consciousness into a separate world and make them experience despair and fear!
Eddie knew that battling against two of them would only put him in a more dangerous position, so he instantly chose to eliminate the weak-willed person.
Abel's face froze an instant later, and soon he started showing confusion, anxiety, panic, and fear emotions!
In such a short amount of time, he entered into a strange world filled with barrel land and battled against Eddie countless times. But soon, he realized the difference in strength and started to lose. He first lost to Eddie after one hour of battling. Then, he lost in 50 minutes. Days passed as he lost countless times against the white-robed old man and finally felt despair!
As he was about to lose his mind, he suddenly saw that the surroundings started to break like glasses and soon noticed that he had returned to the earlier battlefield!
'Is that a nightmare?' Fear gripped his heart as he cast a wary look at Eddie, who was still showing a calm expression on his face, and finally sighed.
'Fighting against him will only make things worse for me. Although I could use one of my trump cards and kill him, I think it is unnecessary in this situation.'
Then, he didn't even think twice before he cast a teleport skill on himself and disappeared!
"He escaped?" Even Max became flabbergasted at the sudden twist and moved his lips.
"Edth'wft,"
Another strange word echoed as he stared deep into Eddie's eyes and raised his hand.
"This is all I can do for you, Charles." He said before he pointed his finger at Eddie and cast a spell.
Eddie initially showed a confused expression on his face, but soon he let out a strange cry using all those distorted faces and fell on his knees. He suddenly started to lose those memories he absorbed from other Nightmare Creatures!
Shock appeared on his face as his figure also reduced to normal size, and soon he started breathing heavily. He staggered due to the sudden, shocking blow in his mind and finally stopped in front of the statue.
He then recalled the moment when the real Eddie died in a strange dimension, and the current 'him' desperately tried many methods to save himself in the Dreamworld.
He was not the 'real' Eddie Nightwind. If he were one, he wouldn't be in such a state.
In the meantime, Max took a few deep breaths and felt fatigued. He knew that casting high-level spells using spell scrolls would always give a mental burden, but he felt this was worth it.
"This is my limit." He said as he took two steps back and soon disappeared from there.
On the other hand, Eddie stood up while placing his hand on the Goddess Rodia's statue to support him and stared at Charles.
At that moment, Charles stood at the center of the ritual circle and showed a stunned look on his face.
Meanwhile, Eddie subconsciously smiled and muttered to himself.
'Haha, I won.'
Although he did lose all of his previous strength, he still won against them and pushed them back in the end.
'I need to return to the Dreamworld-' That thought instantly froze as he felt that the connection with the Dreamworld cut off all of a sudden!
He instantly zeroed his gaze on the red-gem embedded ring and soon realized it must be the artifact's doing.
But he didn't lose his calm, though. Instead, he took a small white paper out of nowhere, placed it on his forehead, and spoke coldly.
"Runeth, come and help your real owner."
At that moment, Charles subconsciously believed that the one who appeared in front of him was the real Eddie Nightwind and widened his eyes in shock!
Even the Holem's Crown felt that the one who appeared was the real Eddie Nightwind and became stunned inside!
But that shock lasted for just a moment, though.
Charles quickly calmed his mind and gave a new order to Runeth.
'Go to him and wait for my further orders.'
While speaking, he used his [Magician's Hand] skill, controlled the 'Ember Pistol' which lay near the Goddess Rodia's statue, and adjusted the muzzle to 125° angle.
Meanwhile, the red-gem-embedded bracelet in his right hand moved on its own and soon came out of his hand. After that, it hovered in the air for a moment before changing itself into a reddish gem-embedded crown and then moved towards Eddie Nightwind!
Upon seeing the Holem's Crown, Eddie heaved a heavy sigh and muttered in a depressing tone.
"If they had done their job right, I wouldn't need to come here now."
After that, he caught the Holem's Crown with both of his hands and placed it on his head.
At this time, Charles sat on the stone-like floor with a cross-legged position and asked in a tired tone.
"Why did you pull me into this mess? Why did you lead me here if you wanted the crown? You could've taken it anytime, right?"
Eddie turned his face towards Charles as he heard those words and blinked twice. He then pointed his finger at the ritual circle and spoke with a mysterious smile.
"It seems you finally figured it out. Hehe, but you still got wrong about one thing. This sacrificial ritual is not to sacrifice the Holem's Crown, Charles. It is to summon the will of 'Hell' plane and seal both you and Holem's Crown in this city ruin for a day. Although I could request the 'Hell' plane to help me form the true soul in exchange for a divinity, I don't want to be a devil." He purposefully paused for a second and then asked with a grin,
"How do you want to die now?"
Upon hearing those words, the corners of Charles's lips suddenly started to go upward and formed into a smile.
It was the smile of a devil!
'I got you now.' Charles muttered inwardly and squeezed the Ember Pistol's trigger using his [Magician's Hand] skill.
From the beginning, Chares solely focused on assassinating him, so even after Eddie mentioned something about sealing them in the city, he didn't even focus his attention on his words and patiently waited for a perfect opportunity like this!
Eddie suddenly heard a bang sound from behind and got startled!
'A sneak attack?' He coldly snorted and cast 'Double Thoughts' skill on Charles.
An instant later, he suddenly felt that his thoughts turned messier and couldn't be able to think clearly!
No, he suddenly noticed that he was affected by his own [Double Thoughts] spell!
Now, the Reverse spell took effect!
At that moment, a bullet made of pure silver came out from the muzzle and soon landed on his back.
An instant later, Eddie's whole body turned stiff!
He couldn't move, nor could he be able to think!
'I'm feeling thirsty… It's a well-planned attack. Wait. Why would I need to drink water now?' Double thoughts continuously appeared in his head as he tried to move his hand, but it turned into a futile attempt!
"Do it now." Suddenly, he heard Charles's cold voice.
Then, the Holem's Crown on his head suddenly began to vibrate, and soon he heard a familiar old man's mocking laugh in his head.
A moment later, Eddie's mind suddenly turned foggy all of a sudden!
His memories then started to disappear slowly, and soon he felt that some invisible power was devouring them like a World Eater!
It was the Holem's Crown's Dark Star spell, Erase Existence!
The white-robed old man soon turned into a fog and disappeared from Charles's sight.
No! Eddie was erased from the universe itself!