Looking down at Kole, the giant's blue eyes met his completely dark orbs.
The giant squeezed the bony coin in his finger tightly. With a loud shout, his voice boomed in the surroundings, "Lord, give me your blessings!"
The bony coin shined with a deep white luster.
A pillar of light descended, enveloping the giant in a bright cluster of ivory flames.
At the same time, the man in the black trench coat shouted stridently, "Lord, give me…"
The giant waited patiently with a questionable look but suddenly felt the air around him turning cold.
"As if!" Kole chuckled mockingly as he thrust his clenched fist toward the giant.
Covered in a thin sheet of black ice crystals, his hand moved forward with a whiz. As the folded knuckles approached its target—the abdomen of the giant, the ivory flames gushed out, providing a soothing warmth but didn't melt ice.
Instead, Kole's expression twisted drastically.
His ice-covered fist kept passing through the flames quite effortlessly.
For a moment, Kole wondered what kind of flames they were.
Just before he was about to touch the giant, his face distorted to an unnatural degree where his facial muscles kept spasming, as if he was going through an existential crisis.
<
He felt like, his mind would split apart if he got any closer to the flames. The holy-looking white flames created an eerie epileptic assault, instead of burning like normal flames.
Making a decisive choice, Kole retracted his hand and vanished from the spot.
At the same time, the place where he disappeared from, became the source of a booming noise as a shockwave of unadulterated and concentrated power hit everything in its radius.
Appearing a large distance away, Kole glanced at the blazing ivory flames on his previous position with knitted eyebrows.
What a dangerous artifact!... He felt chills coursing through his spine, but simultaneously the adrenaline rushed to his head, and like an addict, a maniacal grin appeared on his face!
With a grin, Kole shook his hand to discard the ice crystals lightly.
The giant neither moved nor said anything.
He stood there in the middle of the dark decrepit room like an unmovable mountain, looking at Kole, coldly.
!!!
Suddenly, Kole vanished from the spot as he appeared behind the giant.
The giant was about to turn again to face his opponent but paused, sensing something amiss. He lifted his head and looked upward calmly.
A range of ominous black ice spears hung through the ceiling.
"Lord will protect!"
The giant raised his hand up in the air, but before he could make a move, the dark spears rained down at him drowning his figure in a dazzling spectacle of sputtering black crystals.
Despite the evident victory, Kole's expression was anything but triumphant.
He said lightly, to fulfill his curiosity, "Why didn't you remove the mark I left on your steam car? Although it was inconspicuously hidden, someone at your level should've figured it out…
"Why did you leave such a glaringly obvious trail for me to follow?" Kole recalled how easy it was for him to follow the positioning technique on the steam car and arrive at this abandoned building.
A gruff voice echoed from beneath the crystal rubble, "I didn't—he did."
"He?" Kole asked with an uncertain frown.
!!!
Before Kole could get any response, he was swept in a whirlwind of Mental storm!
This Mental attack was different from the earlier one, where the half-giant only used it to check Kole's faith!
Kole's expression twisted as this offensive triggered the memories of the events of his transmigration.
Appearing in the blurry palace, he saw white ivory flames burgeoning!
The edges of the Bright painting were tinged with silver embers.
With a swipe of his hands, the canvases changed positions as the Canvas of Felony devoured the flames!
Despite the change and the heavy sinister pressure on his psyche, Kole was slowly getting used to it and could change his very being with the Canvas of Felony for some time now.
Desperately resisting the madness and filthiness, Kole held on for a moment and waited for the flames to die.
In the real world, Kole saw the giant man rising through the wreckage of crystals while being covered in bony armor.
Soon, the armor retracted into the bony coin placed in his palm as his pristine white clothes, with not a single speck of dust, came into Kole's vision.
He was covered in an illuminating fire that emitted a bright radiance and made him look extremely holy.
Not a single scratch was made on his towering body!
With a push on the ground, the giant rapidly rushed toward Kole.
It didn't look like the sauntering gait of a giant, but the agile nimble footsteps of a fighter.
Raising his palm, a bony coin flashed in the devotee's hand.
"Lord has mercy!"
!!!
<
Kole was about to vanish into the Subspace when he realized it was too late. Even if he did teleport away, he would still get injured by the oncoming strike!
With a low growl, Kole Dominated his emotions, trying his best to maintain awareness on both the battlefields—mental and real!
His expressions slowly retained some semblance of calm as thoughts rapidly churned in his head like a cold, calculative emperor overlooking the world.
A bony coin, emitting a soft luster, flashed in Kole's dark eyes.
At the same time, from that small coin, 'crawled' out a menacing bony arm, like the arm of a skeleton.
Holding the bony coin between his fingers, the giant stretched his hand and pushed it forward, while the arm of the skeleton creeping out, attempted to grab at whatever came in front of it.
The ominous skeleton arm appeared above Kole's head and made a grabbing gesture, boding deep malice.
"Lord is retribution!" The giant growled.
Suddenly, Kole's lips curved up as a clown-like smile hung on his lips.
He mumbled in low voice, "<
The last part of his words came out like a slur, but Kole knew he was near unraveling it.
Immediately, the bony arm 'missed' its target as the coin uncharacteristically fell from the giant's hand.
"…" The giant glanced at Kole and then at his palm, which was holding the coin, and then back to Kole with a blank look.
Only one question revolved in his mind—How did I lose my grip?
Forcefully dominating his emotions, Kole's stretched lips retracted.
Sharp black steel-like ice crystals grew from Kole's fingers, looking like stretched nails, and formed a claw.
Without any hesitation, Kole dug it forward in a swift motion!
Blood splashed in the air!
From the corner of his eyes, he noticed the 'bony claw' retracting back inside the coin on the ground as a smirk emerged on his lips.
"My Lord!" Roared the giant.
Deliberating for a moment, Kole vanished from the spot where a bright fire prospered in his wake.
Appearing some distance away, Kole shook his hand as the icy crystals shredded away.
Meanwhile, the giant suddenly started muttering in a hoarse voice which turned into full-blown ravings, "My Lord… My Lord… My Lord…"
His eyes turned hazy, and even without needing to remove the mask from his face, it was evident, his expression was like that of a maddened beast.
Kole's lips twitched as they tried to stretch into a lopsided grin while looking at the bony coin, which was sealed in a black ice casing.
He gently twirled it between his fingers as an amusing glint flashed in his deep eyes.
"Hahaha!~..." He couldn't help it as he finally let loose his boisterous laugh.
Stealing something right beneath the eyes of the owner gave him immense pleasure, similar to how a clown would feel performing acts of trickery!
Forcefully dominating his emotions, Kole glanced back at the giant, who had five bloody holes in his torso.
However, he still stood tall, but despite the exterior calmness, the interiors of his mind were being ravaged as he raved incoherently.
"Give My Lord back!... Back!... My Lord!... Back!" The giant seemed to have entered a state of indescribable reverie.
Taking this opportunity, Kole appeared in front of the giant, and slashed a spear through the giant's neck, leaving a swift rustle in its wake. Blood poured out like a geyser, splattering everywhere.
The giant's head fell with a loud thud, along with his mountain-like body.
Hum… So, this thing can make someone a drug addict. If they start using this coin, will they lose their minds once they lose the coin?... Kole kept the coin in his pocket since it was still sealed.
"What a dangerous side-effect…" Having known all the Cursed Artifacts have some kind of dreadful effects, Kole didn't dare to make contact with it directly.
Narrowing his eyes, Kole's vision spun to the giant's mask-covered head that rolled towards his feet, quite conveniently.
Crouching down, Kole removed the mask.
As he gazed upon the familiar face of Otto Moore, Kole relaxed.
But soon, his brows furrowed in a deep frown.
"What did he mean by 'He'?" Muttering to himself, Kole vanished into Subspace to look for Creation Seeds.
…
Moore's Opulent Villa, West Grovebourne.
A unique scene was unfolding.
A man lay dead on the cold stone floor as silver moonlight shone through the windows. A sanguine river seeped into the chambers while an ominous metallic smell flooded the room.
"You!" Growled a giant-like man in his early forties sprawled on the bed.
His chest was bloodied while deep crimson trickled from the corner of his lips.
By the bedside was a middle-aged man in a lime-green tuxedo crouching near the dead body of Count Moore's personal guard as he cleaned the blade covered in blood with the corners of his suit.
"Sacrifices are Necessary, Count Moore…" Said the man in the lime-green suit as he stood up while gazing at the giant-like middle-aged man on the bed.
"Mor… Cough!..." Count Moore coughed out blood.
He said in a raspy voice, "Morris… Do you know what you've done?!"
Breathing heavily to cling onto the last vestiges of life, Count Moore spat viciously, "Do you realize the consequences of your actions?! You won't be able to escape… Even your precious daughter will be dragged into this mess!"
"Haha…" A chuckle came from the doorway.
With that, a series of footfalls echoed in the room.
Count Moore's eyes narrowed dangerously.
A figure appeared from the darkness of the villa.
"Don't worry, father. I've planned everything flawlessly.
"Alice Turner wouldn't get into trouble because a knight in shining armor will come to save her… Haha!~" The figure laughed as if he had planned everything long ago.
Slowly the outline of the figure was revealed in the eyes of Count Moore, who opened his mouth to say something but a lump of saliva got caught in his throat.
"What?... Surprised?" The figure chuckled.
"It was you who poisoned me! I thought it was Morris! I thought it was all his plan! But it was you!" Blood drained from Count Moore's face.
The figure revealed a smile as he flicked a bony coin in the air and caught it.
"Yes, father. Viscount Turner has always been my pawn…"
Chuckling to himself, the man fished out a pink coin with an eyeball etched over on one side while the other remained smooth. The eyeball had a vertical pupil carved inside.
The figure tossed the pink coin over to Morris Turner.
Morris, without any hesitation, caught it with deep fondness in his weary emerald eyes…
"Why…" Count Moore muttered as his expression became fatigued—too tired to fight for his life.
He mumbled helplessly, revealing a defeated sigh, "Why… Otto… Why?"
Otto glanced at Morris and said with a meaningful glint in his eyes, "Sacrifices Are Necessary—"
His vision turned back to his father as he revealed a grin while spreading his hands wide,"—To Achieve Greatness—Sacrifices Are Necessary!"