Chapter 563: Awake Afresh
Ryan landed, staggering forward tiredly. Several pearls of sweat had left their streaming mark on his face, and his breath was ragged and pacing.
Revant's blank expression did not change as Ryan stood up; however, he did raise his head a little bit, hinting at slight disdain without having to convey it with all his facial features.
"You have come back after failing?" he said.
Ryan grimaced.
"I have searched every angle of the rift. Not the smallest life exists in this place. I think we may be the only ones here right now."
Revant stared at him for a bit, then shook his head with a click of his tongue.
"Foolish and oblivious mortal."
"What did you say to me?" Ryan took a step forward, his face wrinkling together in anger.
"You couldn't even take care of such a menial task that you were given by my master. Foolish, unwise, and oblivious-are you so weak that you can't see the obvious?"
Ryan's frown only got deeper, but he wasn't so blinded by anger that he couldn't see the point this strange man protecting Northern was trying to make.
Although Revant's tone of speech in delivering it was making his body boil.
Usually, he wouldn't even care, but for some reason, being called weak when everyone had somehow praised him for his awesomeness was stinging him.
Up until now, he thought he didn't really care. Everyone praised him and needed his power. He just respected Raven, the only person that saw him when others didn't.
The only person that could defeat him.
But faced with Revant who was challenging his strength and calling someone like him weak, was suddenly rousing emotions he had never had.
He suddenly felt a great urge to prove this man wrong, which had never happened before.
He couldn't figure out why he cared, but he did not want to be called weak. He is strong and everyone with great eyes could see that!
"I have checked every corner of this rift. There's no strangeness in it. There's no weakness or any point that indicates we've been trapped. Of course, I know we have been trapped, but I can't find any monsters or anything. What do you expect me to do? Freeze the entire rift?!"
Revant glared, "If that is what it will take to not disappoint the Master, then you should have resorted to it long ago."
Ryan tilted his head in utter confusion. Then he shook his head rigorously.
"No, I'm not going to have some unnecessary argument with a summon."
Revant slowly removed his folded arms from behind.
"What. Did. You. Say?"
"Revant, stop that."
Immediately the hoarse voice entered their ears, both their shoulders trembled.
Ryan saw first because he was standing in front of Revant. He saw Northern standing with a clear look in his eyes.
By appearance, he didn't look different. A child wouldn't see anything wrong. But something had greatly changed about him.
Ryan could feel his very soul cowering before Northern's presence.
Before, he had always looked at Northern, gauging that if he used all his cards against him, he would be able to win and at the very least it would be a draw.
But right now, right now, he couldn't even dare...
Revant hurriedly fell to his knees, a grin forming on his bowed face.
"My Lord, you have awakened. Forgive me, but this weak mortal was..."
"That's alright, Revant..." Northern said, tiredly scratching his hair.
After he was done, he combed his white hair back and blew into the air with his mouth.
Then he raised his head to the sky and dropped it, all the while silence drifted across the air. Ryan's gaze was fixated on Northern throughout.
Upon bringing his head down, his lips curled to reveal a pleasant smile.
"Wow. Wow. Wow. I feel so happy." He raised his hands into the air, his face radiating so brightly.
Ryan felt the pressure lift off a little bit, but he was still a bit tense in and of himself. Northern had changed tremendously, and the most terrifying part was that he couldn't gauge how much change.
"Ryan."
"Shooot!"
Ryan staggered back in a flare, almost falling, but Northern's hand held him from behind with a gentle touch.
"...how about we get out of this place?"
Ryan was frozen, unsure what had just happened. Northern was standing in front of Revant. He was a couple of steps behind Revant.
Then when Northern called his name, he felt a touch on his shoulders. This was beyond not seeing someone move.
It was so casual, like Northern had been there the whole time but he didn't see.
And when he staggered back and wanted to fall, the same thing happened again.
'What in the hell...?' His mind struggled to make sense of it.
"Ah, wait. We can't just leave yet, can we?"
Northern faced the blood mire. "The cores."
He snapped a finger and instantly, the whole ground in front of them was crowded with
splitting images of Northern.
"Clones?" Ryan muttered, absent-minded.
Immediately, all the clones, close to a hundred of them, began to walk forward, soaking their feet into the blood and picking the cores that had fallen from the monster bodies.
Ryan watched, his mouth stuck open. 'I didn't know he was capable of cloning too... I thought he is a summoner?'
Northern looked down for a bit, examining his profile before glancing at Ryan with an
intrigued grin plastered on his face.
Ryan suddenly felt like he was naked; he subconsciously moved his hand to cover himself
from Northern's piercing gaze.
'What is wrong?'
Northern licked his lips, making the boy want to jump out of his skin.
'I just need six hundred and sixty fragments more to devour his talents. Oh, how great this is.
I'll finally have something offense-based aside from black flames and black lance.'
Northern nodded with a satisfied smile.
"Alright, since everyone is done. Let's pack up." He clapped and all the clones vanished.
Ryan staggeredly stared around.
'What the hell is going on right now?'
Northern extended a hand forward, then like he was pulling the string of a bow, he pulled back
from the hand.
Ryan's eyes widened as he saw what happened.