Chapter 76: Eddie Nightwind
A bluish vortex appeared at the center of the ritual circle and soon formed into a portal.
Then, a gray-robed skeleton with purplish flame eyes walked out from it.
Unlike the last time, the skeleton already held a wooden staff in its right bony hand and stared intensely at Charles.
Meanwhile, Charles saw two fleshy hands from the other side and tensed up.
'He is here.' He muttered inwardly.
"You made a terrible mistake, Charles." A cold, gloomy voice filled with a bone-chilling aura came from the void, and soon a white-robed man walked out from it.
He had combed straight black hair, monolid blue eyes, square face, and looked around 187 cm tall.
As he stepped out of the bluish portal, the surrounding suddenly turned gloomier, and even the clouds in the sky turned red-in color!
Upon seeing the changes, Charles stiffened as he showed a shocking look on his face and then stared intensely at the white-robed man for two continuous seconds. He also loosened his grip and dropped the Ember Pistol.
But in secret, he stealthily moved it towards the Goddess Rodia's statue using his [Magician's Hand] skill and patiently waited for the opportunity.
Still, he didn't take his eyes off the white-robed old man and asked him cautiously while taking the Starfall Codex book from his space ring.
"Ancestor? Why are you here? Why did you come from along with that skeleton? You-!"
Eddie Nightwind felt amused as he saw Charles's behavior.
'Humph, where is your calm and composed character now?' He snorted inwardly.
"Don't be afraid, Charles. I'm angry at you mainly because of your rash actions." He paused for a second and soon took a step forward.
"Now, hand over the Holem's Crown."
A weak smile appeared on Charles's face as he took a step back and shook his head. At the same time, cold sweats dripped from his forehead continuously.
'Damn it, man. I need to act like a timid one and make him believe my acting.' He muttered to himself.
In truth, Charles was indeed scared of this old man. Although he was a transmigrated soul with years of experience in the assassination, he was still an infant compared to this old guy. He might have a system to rank up faster, but Charles knew that he couldn't rely on it too much.
But what an assassin needed was not only a cautious character but also a decisive character. A slight hesitation during an assassination mission would completely turn one's life upside down.
'My job here is to lure him from the Dreamworld and wait for the opportunity to complete my job.' He made a forced smile as he turned his gaze towards Max and asked.
"Mr. Historian-."
Before he could call Max, Emilia's shadows twisted for a moment and soon formed into a human figure.
The figure was a long brown-haired man in a blue surcoat, and he looked around 50 to 60 years old. He had emerald green eyes, thick eyebrows, olive skin, and a thin mustache on his face!
Charles, Max, and even Andrew became stunned upon seeing the new guest's arrival.
Emilia was the only one who showed a calm face!
'Abel Wilson? So, that's why she showed a calm attitude, huh.' An understanding expression appeared on his face.
"An Archbishop?" Eddie also stopped his footsteps and soon zeroed his gaze on the brown-haired man. After looking at his face for a second, he nodded his head as he crossed his arms together and smiled.
Indeed, he had expected that someone with the same rank would be waiting for him on the other side.
So, he wasn't surprised at all.
"Who else is there?" His cold voice echoed in the gloomy city ruin.
Meanwhile, Abel also narrowed his eyes for a moment and asked with a frown.
"Are you Eddie Nightwind?"
Abel tagged along with his sister to search for the Divinity of Morality in the broken temple. Moreover, this was a rare opportunity to venture deep into the Unexplored Forest.
He knew that this Unexplored Forest would turn into a complete danger zone once the First Red moon disappears, so he thought of giving it a try. He knew that Devils and Demons would come from the Chaos Rifts and occupy most of these city ruins if he missed this opportunity.
In truth, the city center areas were the Chaos Rifts!
It's a place where the density of the space was significantly less!
But what he didn't expect was Charles's actions and Max's arrival. Not only did they make some agreement, they even summoned a troublesome person from the Dreamworld!
If it were other members, he wouldn't have shown his presence.
Unfortunately, the one who was with Charles was his sister. If he hadn't acted now, he knew that consequence would have been much more disastrous.
Abel stared at Eddie as he shook his head and placed his hands on Emilia and Andrew.
A second later, they turned illusionary and soon disappeared from there!
"This is not a battle they should participate in," Abel said solemnly and teleported.
He appeared right in front of Eddie a moment later, grabbed his neck, and directly broke it!
Eddie's figure suddenly distorted and soon disintegrated into millions of pieces a second later.
Abel seemed to have expected this, so he clicked his tongue in annoyance and soon searched the surroundings through the power of the soul.
'Hmm? Why are there five members still on the battlefield?' Puzzlement appeared on his face. He turned around and soon squinted his eyes as he noticed that Emilia and Andrew were still standing near the Goddess Rodia's statue!
At that moment, he blinked his eyes and soon noticed that the one staying beside Emilia was not Andrew but Eddie Nightwind!
Before Abel could even understand the situation, Eddie took an eerie black dagger from his void pouch and directly plunged into his chest!
His face again distorted a second later, and soon he turned into a bald warrior.
Shock and fear appeared on Andrew's face as he looked at his chest and widened his eyes in disbelief.
"F*ck,"
Cursing aloud, he staggered back and forth and fell while facing the gloomy dark-red sky!
"Andrew!" Emilia also shouted in shock as she caught him in mid-air and hurriedly poured a vial into his mouth. Even Charles became stunned by the sudden assassination and grew warier.
'What the f*ck was that? He can even appear like this?' He glanced around the surroundings in vigilance and soon noticed that Eddie Nightwind was nowhere to be seen!
"Our consciousnesses are already pulled into his Dream Domain? No, it's not. He created a realistic illusion and is playing with us to weaken us psychologically." Abel carefully analyzed the surroundings and said in a cold tone.
He then let out a heavy sigh and appeared right next to Emilia. A second later, he looked at Emilia and Andrew, and then his face grew solemn.
"I can't even tell whether they are real or illusions."
"We are real." Emilia glared at her brother fiercely and then turned her gaze towards Andrew.
In the meantime, Andrew gulped down the liquid and started breathing heavily. He then raised both hands and soon showed an anxious expression on his face.
"T-This…My blood?"
At that moment, Charles noticed a big difference. Instead of red, the blood that oozed out of Andrew's chest was completely black!
Cough!
"When he possessed me, I completely lost focus, and I even thought of myself as the enemy," Andrew said in a raucous tone as he started breathing heavily.
Charles raised his eyebrows in suspicion and soon cast [Inspect] skill on him.
A second later, confusion appeared on his face.
'My [Inspect] skill is not working on him….' He suddenly thought of something and cast his inspect skill on the Starfall Codex magic book.
'It is working on my artifact… Does that mean these two are illusions?' He furrowed his brows as he squatted down and then directly plunged his dagger into Andrew's chest!
An instant later, Andrew's body turned into a puddle of black smoke and soon disappeared.
"He is an illusion," He said in affirmative as he didn't get Exp for killing him.
"Aren't you a little ruthless?" Even the Holem's Crown couldn't understand his train of thought and asked.
Meanwhile, Emilia's face suddenly distorted, and soon she turned into an ugly old woman!
In a second, both of her cheeks were torn open, and worms and saliva filled with blood oozed out from both sides and painted her grey robe.
"Kekeke," An eerie laugh came out from her mouth as she made a twisted, creepy smile and leaped towards Charles at an unpredictable speed!
Charles only saw a blurry shadow as he cast [Crimson Steps] on himself and backed away with fast footsteps.
'Eddie must have found out about our plan; otherwise, he wouldn't have created this illusion to hide.' The Holem's Crown calmly analyzed the surroundings and gave him a possible answer.
Charles barely managed to dodge the dagger in fake Emilia's hand and started flipping the pages. He stopped on the 17th page two seconds later and started chanting slowly.
This ugly woman-like creature would have killed him if it were before. But after his body entered into an Expert level stage, he gained some confidence.
While he was battling against the ugly-looking old woman, Abel and Max started to focus on the surroundings.
"Max Fireborn," Max introduced himself as he bent his waist, took Luke's greenish bow, and stood straight. He then stepped on Luke's neck and broke it neatly.
"I hate these types of characters the most." He glanced at the twitching body for a second and took out an arrow from his space ring. Unlike the other metal arrows, this one had multiple runal characters engraved all over it and appeared to be made of simple wood.
"Rune Smith?" A surprised expression appeared on Abel's face as he stared at the arrow for a moment and started to chant in a strange language.
Whenever he completed the first verse, his voice changed into something different and gave an ancient feeling. A few seconds later, Abel's eyes turned completely white as he ended the reciting and looked around.
Soon, he zeroed his gaze towards their left side skyscraper's entrance, raised his hand, conjured an illusionary spear out of thin air, and tossed it at full speed.
The spear made a whooshing sound as it created a sonic boom and appeared at the entrance in a blink!
But before it could collide against the porch pillar, it hit against something invisible.
An instant later, a shock wave appeared from the spear and broke the illusion around it. The surrounding air molecules fluctuated fiercely due to the immense vibration and soon revealed a white-robed old man.
Meanwhile, Eddie gripped the spear's tip with his right hand and seemed unaffected by the strong force. He tilted his head at an abnormal angle and curled his lips upward.
"Impressive." He nodded and soon broke the illusionary spear with his hand.
At this moment, Max had already placed the wooden arrow on the greenish bow, pulled the string, and locked his aim on Eddie's forehead.
Then, he released the string, took out a small palm-sized white orb from his space ring, and held it between his fingers.
When the wooden arrow was about to pierce Eddie, he suddenly broke the orb and spoke in a weird yet ancient tone.
"Var'mt."
At that moment, the wooden arrow exploded all of a sudden!
But that was not the surprising thing. Abel saw that Eddie's movement suddenly turned sluggish and became stunned!
"Time manipulation?" He asked out loud and soon shook his head. He knew that was an impossible task even for irregular and thought of another possibility.
"Gravity? No, it should be some form of Telekinesis." Stroking his chin, he waved his other hand, conjured tens of arrows made of pure light, and threw it towards the sluggish Eddie.
Eddie let out a chuckle as he saw the upcoming arrows and shook his head.
A second later, tens of weird monsters like horned foxes, goblins, and kobolds appeared before him and blocked those arrows from reaching him like loyal dogs.
…
On the other side, Charles evaded the ugly-faced woman's dagger attacks and soon turned his face grave as he saw a futuristic vision from the [Prevision] skill.
He bent his knee, crouched down a little, and leaped upward towards the sky. If it was before, he couldn't have reached 27 inches. But now, his high reached an extraordinary level as he shot towards the sky like a bird and backflipped.
At that moment, a black, eerie blade came from the other side, tore through the area where he stood before, and directly landed on the ugly woman's mouth.
The eerie black knife penetrated her throat with a flesh-tearing sound, and the tip appeared on the other side!
She gasped for air with a shocked face and soon fell backward. Her body turned into a puddle of black viscous things a second later and then directly vaporized into thin air.