"Damn it, that Cauchy youth from earlier was the Spirit Shaman?" Chris' expression turned grim. He had already assumed that the Cauchy people and Negary were inseparably connected, but he didn't think that the young man he saw was actually a Spirit Shaman.
"I really wonder what kind of answer would they give to my provocation" Chris now understood his enemy a bit better: "Negary might be even more powerful then we had assumed"
From Bukittel's memories, Negary offered him to become a symbiote with the germs. This could allow a person to break through the limits of humanity, which means those who surrendered themselves to Negary would become even more terrifying.
In fact, from what he saw in Bukittel's memories, Chris couldn't help but admit that the other party gave off an almost irresistible sense of charm, a fatal air of danger as well as a deep ominous feeling. If a weak-willed person were to face Negary, they would definitely choose to surrender to him from the pressure alone.
"Are you Mr. Chris?" a voice suddenly called out.
Chris followed the voice to see a man in a black robe standing not too far away from the alleyway, looking at him.
"As Lord Comoros ordered, I'm here as your guide. We've accepted your request" the black-robed man spoke in a low tone: "We will arrange for a meeting between you and Isabella's mother-daughter pair, but whether or not you can bring them away will depend on how good you are"
"Really now?" Chris looked at the black-robed man standing in front of him. He knew that he was one of the peacekeepers of Reystromia, a Cauchy Crowmen. Through his rhythm, Chris could sense the strange vitality from his body.
"Has he been modified by Negary?" Chris silently thought and wondered to himself how he should defeat him if a conflict were to happen.
"Please follow me" the black-robed man turned around and headed for another direction. Chris squinted his eyes a bit before following suit. Unlike Chris who was only a vanguard, Augustin and the rest of the Church of Divine Grace's top brass found themselves greatly hindered on the way here.
Before Chris came here, the upper echelons of the Interkam Kingdom had done quite a bit of both open and under-the-table transactions for this matter. If nothing changes, Augustin should arrive with reinforcements very soon.
Only at that point would they feel confident in being able to bring Isabella out of this place, otherwise, Chris alone would find it very difficult to protect both Isabella and her daughter.
"This is the place, Mr. Chris, please come in" the black-robed Crowmen led Chris to a luxurious manor and opened the door for him.
"Thank you" Chris spoke with a low voice and headed inside without much hesitation.
"No need to thank me, Mr. Chris, I'm very impressed with the tales of your exploits. I really hope we get a chance to fight" the black-robed Crowmen respectfully said, pulled down his hood to reveal a face full of black stripes: "My name is Nozades, I'll be waiting for that day"
Chris glanced at the stripes on Nozades' face, nodded and entered the manor, walked through a long hallway before arriving at the center room, where he saw a young man praying.
"Legendary Adventurer Chris Modo, it's an honour to meet you, I am Comoros" the young man finished praying and stood up.
Comoros still maintained a youthful look of about 18-19 years old. These 10 years hadn't greatly affected his outer image, but if you took a look at his aura and general atmosphere, you'd find that he had completely changed.
Originally, Comoros was only a cowardly young man whose insanity was awoken, but if anyone saw him now, they would think of the same description-------- eerie.
It was as if something horrifying was hidden in the depths of this person's heart, and if you were to let your guard down for even a single moment, the horrifying existence would jump out from his body and devour those looking at him.
"Lord Comoros, it's an honour to meet you" when Chris saw how eerie this young man was in front of him, he recalled the information he collected about Comoros.
It was him who brought the faith of Negary back to this place. It was also him who created and led the Crowmen peacekeepers of Reystromia through Negary's orders. In Reystromia, other than Negary, he was the one who had the most authority, a position of being below 1 and above 10,000.
But after meeting him face-to-face, through [Respiratory Art], Chris was sharply able to notice that Comoros' rhythm was imbalanced.
The core concept of [Respiratory Art] was to harmonize oneself with the rhythm of all things through certain breathing techniques. Since the human body was also part of 'all things', it naturally had its own rhythm, furthermore, each person's rhythm was unique and would change depending on their current state.
An excellent [Respiratory Art] practitioner could clearly tell the imbalance within another person's rhythm through their heightened senses and could even point out where the imbalance lies. Because of this, most disguises were useless in front of a [Respiratory Art] practitioner, unless they could somehow change their own natural rhythm.
And the rhythm he could sense from Comoros was extremely strange, even stranger than those of the Crowmen. The Crowmen's rhythms were strange because something foreign had been mixed in with them and caused their rhythm to become warped, but Comoros' rhythm felt like two types of completely different rhythms were forced together.
"This chaotic and ominous feeling that provokes fear simply just by sensing its rhythm… this is Negary huh?" Chris exhaled deeply.
This 'Comoros' in front of me might as well be Negary himself, over half of his existence has already been corroded by Negary, turning him into a puppet that only knows to obey.
"Isabella and her daughter are currently in the guest room at the back, you may go see them. As for whether or not they are willing to come with you is your business" Comoros calmly spoke: "And also, do not disrupt Reya's order"
Chris lightly nodded and went past Comoros to go into the guest room, only to see the hesitant and uneasy Isabella as well as the curious Nala sitting at the table.
"Greetings, lady Isabella" Chris greeted the mother and daughter pair while using [Respiratory Art] to sense their rhythms. Isabella's rhythm was quite normal, besides a large amount of germs inside her body from living in Reya for too long, she only had a few minor diseases.
But what really caused Chris to feel shocked was Nala. The rhythm of this little girl was even a bit stronger than Chris' own, there was even the sound of a dragon's growl coming from her rhythm, not even the wide-spread germs all over the town managed to enter her body.
"The Dragon's bloodline has been awakened? So Nala is the Saintress of Salvation in the prophecy" as Chris saw a golden gleam in Nala's pure and clear eyes, he finally believed the Witch's prophecy.
"I trust that your ladyship can already guess why I came here. Please prepare yourself, after a bit more time, there will be people who are coming to escort your ladyship back home" Chris glanced at Isabella who had a complicated expression on her face.
Isabella's lips trembled a bit before she finally spoke:
"I refuse"