Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Chapter Three Hundred Twenty-One:
The white hand was particularly noticeable in the darkness.
It looked as if it had been submerged in water for a long time, the swollen palm covered in layers of wrinkles, with no nails at the tips of the fingers, only five dark holes.
"Cluck, cluck."
It sounded like the voice of a person just before their neck was snapped, slowly emerging from the bottom of the well.
Gryss felt a tingling sensation on his scalp as he stared at the hand, overwhelmed by a foul, decaying coldness that seeped from the Black Well, slowly eroding his body.
'Slap!'
Another identical hand grasped the edge of the well, and the two hands began to exert force slowly.
Streams of black liquid overflowed from the Black Well along with the appearance of the two hands, flowing onto the damp ground and seeping into the soil.
A strong smell of blood immediately filled the air.
Silently, between those white hands, a pale male face emerged from the well.
The man's pitch-black eyes bulged and were filled with bloodshot veins; beneath them were heavy bags as if he hadn't slept for dozens of days. His cracked lips parted slightly, emitting intermittent 'cluck, cluck, cluck' sounds.
His long black hair clung to both sides of his face, and strands of black liquid slowly oozed from his scalp.
Gryss stared wide-eyed at the face that emerged from the Black Well, disbelief etched on his features. He opened his mouth, feeling a dryness in his throat.
"Yuri!? What happened to you?"
"Splash."
With a forceful push, the man with the face of Yuri crawled out of the Black Well with a whoosh.
Exposing his bony, pale body, he crawled on all fours, covered in black liquid.
At that moment, Gryss realized that the limbs below the man's waist were not legs but identical pale arms.
A chilling sense of horror washed over Gryss, as a cold dread gnawed at his mind.
Yuri crawled slowly with his four arms. Blood tears began to flow from beneath his bulging eyes, and he approached Gryss with a mix of malice and a fierce expression.
The four arms made distinct 'slap, slap' sounds against the damp ground.
The entire dark forest seemed to be enveloped by that sound.
...
On the other side of the Black Forest.
Freya yanked her hand fiercely, and five Azure Thin Lines sliced through the surroundings. In front of her, within a ninety-degree fan-shaped area, everything shattered into pieces.
Large trees crashed down with a rumble, and among them, an Alien Creature resembling a combination of a water buffalo and a tiger was torn into countless fragments.
Shattered entrails and body parts scattered across the ground, with some muscles still twitching.
As she killed this creature, countless red Thin Lines with a faint glow quickly floated toward Freya from the pile of debris, swiftly merging into her right arm.
The mental and physical energy she had expended was suddenly restored by more than half.
However, her gaze then shifted to another part of the shadows where a cat, seemingly several times larger than normal, lay quietly. Its emerald green pupils narrowed slightly as if it were waiting for an opportunity to pounce.
"Chirp!"
With a light sound, the Azure Thread pierced through its head before it could do anything, white liquid and blood slowly flowing out from the back of its skull.
"Hmph! Endless!"
Gently retracting her palm, Freya bent down to pick up a black orb nearby, a faint green light flashing in her eyes. It was unclear what she was thinking.
After a long moment, she squeezed the orb tightly in her hand, and the powder flowed down through her fingers.
Then she turned and walked in another direction, quickly disappearing into the dense curtain of rain.
After leaving that place, Freya used the lingering life force from the blood to track down Yule Forest.
As night fell, the surrounding Demonized Creatures gradually increased in number.
These creatures seemed completely unaware of the powerful spiritual fluctuations surrounding Freya, persistently causing trouble and interference.
However, just as she maneuvered around those illusions and was about to find the two fleeing figures in black robes, the life force connected through the blood suddenly ceased.
As a result, she had no choice but to seek out those illusions created to attract her Negative Energy. She used the residual Spiritual Messages within them as a means of tracking.
However, this method of searching was quite crude; it wasn't until she collected three Negative Energy Orbs that she finally grasped a general direction.
Half an hour later.
Freya squinted as she looked at a forest area shrouded in faint White Mist. Next to her, some lifeless Demonized Creatures lay scattered in the shadows.
A faint blood-red Thin Line flew out from these corpses, while the bodies rapidly shriveled up.
She raised her hand to examine the Black Doll in her grasp, which was glowing with a dazzling red light. Streams of Spiritual Messages emanated from its head.
Through the aura above, Freya has confirmed that this object was left behind by one of the two wizards.
From the direction of the mental signals, it is clear that the two are indeed hiding ahead.
However, the reason she does not approach is that, in her perception, the White Mist Forest ahead gives off an extremely uncomfortable feeling.
It feels as if countless sticky and murky substances are filling the surroundings.
She lightly sniffed the air around her, her expression slightly tightening.
"This sensation seems to be the aura of a Spirit."
The Spirit is something Freya has been researching for a long time, but unfortunately, this entity, which is completely opposite to living beings, is quite rare; even artificial creation relies solely on luck.
Moreover, once generated, it cannot be detected, which has kept her at a cognitive level where she believes it can be dispelled with pure mental power or energy.
Nevertheless, many novel ideas still popped up in her mind, though there were few opportunities for practical application.
In the past, she had an inexplicable attraction to Spirits due to her constitution, but this situation improved after she advanced to become a wizard.
The last time she encountered one in the ruins, she didn't have time to study it due to the urgent circumstances.
Now encountering it again piqued her interest immediately.
"I guess those two also encountered a Spirit, which is why one of them died," Freya analyzed calmly while sensing this faintly cold aura. "Perfect. I can use this opportunity to test some of my previous ideas."
After a pause, she rummaged through her waist pouch and pulled out a row of golden fine spikes, tying them diagonally around her wrist. Then she took out two bottles of Transparent Liquid in clever Test Tubes and held them in her hands.
Having completed these preparations, Freya then strode toward the ancient area.
The White Mist in the forest surged. Just as Freya was about to touch it, the White Mist bizarrely parted to both sides as if welcoming her.
With an intrigued gaze at the phenomenon of the White Mist, she did not linger and directly moved forward in the direction indicated by her psychic senses.
Fifteen minutes later.
In the quiet White Mist Forest, Freya came to a halt.
She looked down at the Black Doll at her waist with a puzzled expression, as the psychic signal it emitted had suddenly vanished.
"Is it here?"
Freya raised her head to look around, her eyes glowing with a faint green light, which appeared particularly eerie in the White Mist.
The air was still drizzling lightly. The damp ground was a muddy mess.
Suddenly, her gaze shifted to her feet, where a clear Black Spot appeared beside her boot.
It also emanated a faint metallic smell.
"Blood?"
Crouching down, Freya extended her finger and gently touched the bloodstain.
A sticky sensation transmitted from her fingertip; as she rubbed it, her finger was instantly stained a deep red.
Standing up, she frowned and suddenly turned around.
A shadow abruptly appeared in her line of sight.
It was a crooked tree. The Deep Green Leaves drooped heavily from its branches, and the bark resembled the wrinkles on an old face, with numerous black marks stuck to it, densely packed together.
She noticed that these marks were individual Crimson handprints. Layer upon layer covered the entire trunk, and she could not tell how many there were.
Freya stared blankly at the handprints, vaguely sensing a strong attraction emanating from them. She unconsciously walked toward the large tree.
As she approached within a meter of the tree, the wrinkled bark began to twist, forming the handsome face of a man. The wooden mouth smiled as if trying to say something.
At that moment, the branches surrounding the tree trembled slightly before slowly enveloping her.
'Swish!'
A light sound echoed as a golden spike pierced sharply into the rigid male face.
A black blood hole gradually appeared at the location of the spike, quickly expanding until it covered the entire tree.
"Low-level Nature Illusion."
Freya let out a cold smile as she reached toward the blood hole in the tree.
In the sticky sensation, she seemed to touch something special, and then Freya suddenly tore at it with force.
'Tear!'
A wooden face was pulled out from the blood hole by her.
"Ah!!!!"
The face let out a piercing scream, its wooden eyes filled with extreme fear as it looked at Freya, two deep streams of blood tears emerging from its eye sockets.
The sound made Freya frown. She pulled out the spike and stabbed it again into the forehead of the face.
'Thud.'
The scream instantly ceased.
The large tree attached to Face suddenly began to rot rapidly, with clumps of black solid falling off. Within just a minute, the entire tree had completely disappeared.
Standing in place, Freya looked at the Face in her hand with a hint of satisfaction.
In her view, thick black tendrils were attached to it, but these tendrils were firmly pinned down by the spike in the middle of her forehead.
"A decent experimental subject. It seems that the condensation of Grievance and Death Qi is quite high; I just wonder if there is any true consciousness within."
Although Freya did not have a deep understanding of Spirit, she could tell that this wooden Face was a natural accumulation of Grievance.
While it was also a product of Grievance, it was not a pure Spirit in the true sense.
After putting away the Face, Freya turned around and found a pitch-black Short Staff hidden in a patch of grass.
The Short Staff was embedded with a dark crystal that emitted faint red light, and clear lettering was visible at the end of the Short Staff.
"Grisjorn, this is the owner's name. The spiritual imprint is still present?"
After a brief examination, Freya discovered that although this Cursed Item's Short Staff did not reach the level of a Magic Weapon, its effects were nearly equivalent.
As she toyed with this Short Staff, which greatly enhanced Negative Energy spells, Freya felt puzzled.
"Was it deliberately discarded? Or did they run into trouble?"
After some thought, she took out some seeds and scattered them around.
As soon as these seeds touched the ground, they quickly sank in, while a layer of green light enveloped Freya's eyes.
Images transmitted by the Reconnaissance Seed continuously appeared in her mind.
White Mist, White Mist, and more White Mist.
Suddenly, just as Freya was about to retract her spell, a different image appeared.
It was a Rudimentary Rain Shelter, and behind the shelter was a Black Well. Next to the well stood a figure in a black robe, hunched over and pouring something into an Iron Bucket that rested atop the Black Well.
The Black Well was constructed from neatly arranged black bricks, which were covered with patches of green moss. A thick layer of black, gelatinous substance surrounded the edge of the well.
Streams of black liquid overflowed from the mouth of the well.
"Hmm? The appearance of this well!?"
Seeing the figure and the Black Well, Freya's expression slightly tightened, as if recalling something she had read in a book.
"That's right, isn't that Hell's Mouth? The passage to hell for Transcendence, harboring countless unknown horrors. How could this thing be here?"
There were many Hell's Mouths, but not all led to hell; some were merely nests for Death Qi creatures.
However, some had indeed been discovered in the Black Sea, resembling pits that led to the true Hell World, a place coveted by Necromancers.
After its discovery, that particular Hell's Mouth was quickly secured by an organization within the Black Sea for private use as a passageway.
Although Freya was aware of this Hell's Mouth, she did not know the specific factors that led to its formation.
Just as Freya intended to observe the Black Well up close, she suddenly felt her gaze shift abruptly.
Then, a terrifying pale Face appeared before her.
The face seemed to be a grotesque amalgamation of two faces twisted together, appearing exceptionally bizarre.
This strange Face tilted its head curiously at what it held in its hands, its pitch-black eyes filled with bloodshot veins and an expression somewhat dazed.
The sudden shift in focus made Freya narrow her eyes slightly.
"Oh? Discovered, Hell Warden? Even this has appeared?"
As the figure murmured to itself, it suddenly opened its Big Mouth filled with Fangs and swallowed in one bite.
'Bang!' Darkness descended.
The green light in Freya's eyes faded, and she rubbed her eyes to adapt to the aftermath of the disrupted magic.
"Look at how big Hell's Mouth is; it probably doesn't really lead to hell. It might be a moving nest of some Hell Creature. However, this is the first time I've seen a Hell Warden. I've heard that they can see the afterlife through their eyes, and after drinking their blood, a soul can temporarily leave its body. Coming from hell is also the closest world to the Wizarding World." (To be continued...)
Comment 0 Comment Count