The frost-coated [Blades of Light] doubled in a matter of seconds.
Annan was keenly aware of the alteration mechanism at this time but couldn’t figure out how to overcome it at the time.
He could only continue to intercept and smash the ice blades assaulting him with the wheel of light in his hands. However, once the number of blades counted more than 50, Annan began to feel the pressure. Wounds appeared on his body, and his blood was being frozen before it could even flow out.
At this moment, the Rotten Man silently pointed his unoccupied left palm towards Annan.
Annan was sweeping his arms while retreating at that moment, severing a couple more of the ice-coated blades.
However, the shattered ice fragments did not transform into more light blades.
They all melted in the air, turning into a faint mist that surrounded Annan.
Suddenly, he smelled a strange fragrance in the air.
It was like a boiled rose, exuding a warm and mellow fragrance.
The scent plunged into Annan’s body in the blink of an eye.
Immediately after, Annan felt his body grow weaker and became unable to muster his full strength. The world in front of him began to be distorted as well. The colors of the world became bright, with dazzling purple, blue and cyan lights assaulting his eyes. On the other hand, the color of red was robbed away from his world.
Everything in front of Annan blurred and distorted as if he had drunk too much. His vision suddenly zoomed in and out. Even if he closed his eyes, he still felt a strong sense of dizziness.
Worse still, the fragrance became more intense. Its smell had also become more complex and more apparent.
With the slight sourness of a red wine emerging, it overwhelmed the sweet scent of the rose.
Immediately after, Annan lost his hearing.
He could no longer hear the wind, only a rustling like the sound of a static screen on a TV. Then, there came endless vague and malicious murmurs.
“…Ugh.” Annan bit his lower lip suddenly. He felt a stinging sensation in his abdomen.
Annan’s sense of distance and hearing was deprived. His color perception was distorted; the dizziness assaulting his head and the sense of powerlessness from his limbs revealed obvious flaws in his blocks.
Several ice blades pierced through his belly.
Fortunately, Annan possessed the [Frost Element], which allowed him to ignore the frost damage of the ice blades. Rotten Man himself shouldn’t be proficient at ice alteration. He just took advantage of the territory that Annan made and launched attacks on Annan.
Annan soon had a gist on the situation.
He recalled the smell of tulips when he met the Rotten Man. The fragrance made his consciousness blurred and drowsy, rendering him into a lethargic state like a muddle-headed puppet.
Then, there was the fragrance attack.
This particular “scent” alteration might be the Rotten Man’s unique spell!
Soon after Annan realized this, the sweet and sour mellow wine and the mysterious sweetness of the boiling rose surrounding him had a new addition, an icy cedar fragrance.
What Annan was deprived of this time was the sense of touch.
He felt a strange warm touch from his hands. It was like being held by a pair of warm hands. But, he could see that his left hand was empty, and his right hand was holding the Frost Wheel.
Immediately afterward, this strange sensation spread upward from both hands.
First, the sensation came to the back and shoulders. Then, it spread to the abdomen and the thighs. Annan felt countless warm hands of different sizes pressing on his body. This warm touch obscured all of his tactile perceptions.
He couldn’t feel the touch of the cold wind when moving at high speed or even the ground under his feet, as if he was stepping on cotton. The discomfort of being pierced by the ice blade in his abdomen gradually became unnoticeable as if it was an eraser rubbing it away.
“Annan! Dodge!” Salvatore couldn’t help but shout out loudly.
But Annan couldn’t hear anything.
He was like a drunkard, slashing the air and smashing away the ice blades. But more ice blades pierced through the body.
If Annan were an ordinary person, he would have died long ago. Even though wings helped cover his lower body, his upper body was already riddled with holes.
After the first few ice blades penetrated his abdomen, an eye somewhere on his body lost its light. It was like a crack to the world of darkness. Then, when Annan’s heart and head were penetrated, another eye was shut.
After that, Rotten Man didn’t attack Annan’s body at all but instead focused on the “eyes on his body.” In every move, ice blades penetrated several “eyes” on Annan. Soon, there weren’t many left on his upper body.
Annan, what is going on? Salvatore frowned and murmured.
Salvatore saw how Annan gradually lost his defensive stance.
His body gradually turned red, and his movements became more sluggish.
Is that poison? Salvatore soon realized something.
He looked back at the Rotten Man.
The Rotten Man’s raised left hand was locked onto Annan. Among the ice blades Annan crushed, a few smaller ice pieces melted directly, without hatching into a new light blade.
Damn it!
What should I do?
The battle has only been going on for less than half a minute, yet Annan’s sense of touch has already been stripped.
On the other hand, once Annan noticed that his sense of touch was removed, he had already thought of a way to overcome the situation.
Truth: The Way to Rise and Change— Annan called for his Truth.
As Annan activated the Truth Power attached to the Book of Divine Transporter in his heart, a glimmering panel appeared before his eyes.
[Subject to be improved?]
Element, Brilliance.
Annan muttered in his heart.
The text on the glimmering panel flashed across Annan’s mind.
[Assessing Shared Experience Pool. There’s no Shared Element stored.]
[Initiating in-depth element extraction.]
[Warning: The safe extraction limit of the element “Brilliance” of the target “Annan·Austere-Winter” is only 85%.]
[Probability of sublimation 0%.]
[Automatically optimizing the extraction plan…]
[Detected high enrichment of Brilliance element.]
[Route 1: Extract nearby Brilliance elements, which can temporarily increase the safe extraction limit to 100%.]
[Sublimation probability 3%]
[Do you confirm?]
So is this “the Way to Rise and Change”?
Confirm!
Annan roughly understood the essence of his Truth, “the Way to Rise and Change” was.
To put it simply, this seemed to be a backend authority to alter the data!
Annan suddenly stopped retreating.
At the next moment, all of Annan’s eyes closed at the same time.
He levitated in the air, but no light emitted from him. On the contrary, he resembled a black hole, absorbing the light around him and making the surroundings dimmer.
That wasn’t just a metaphor. The glowing blades of ice all trembled and stopped in place. Soon, the light within them extinguished. It was like Annan had taken the soul out from them. As the ice blades lost their spiritual aura, they fell to the ground.
Then, Annan’s eyes opened again.
His body was once again covered with eyes.
Simultaneously, the freezing rain in the sky became dense and gentle.
The difference happened so naturally within the freezing domain, it was hard for others to notice.
But only Annan knew.
He had switched the “freezing rain” to “drizzle” through the power of his emotions!
Through his closed eyes, the rain was like a radar, marking the location and mood of everyone within this half of the city, including Rotten Man, Silver Sire, and even Annan himself!
In the “drizzle” perception territory, only the mood of the Rotten Man and the Silver Sire couldn’t be perceived, but it was enough to inform Annan of where his enemy is!
There was no need for sight or hearing.
Simply through the perception of his heart
Annan’s wings unfurled majestically behind him. A stream of light emerged as well, pushing him forward swiftly. He closed his eyes and slammed into the Rotten Man at full speed!
The [Blades of Light], dozens of times stronger than before, pierced out from every “eye” of his!
Those were near-solid light blades.
With the blades protruding out from all over his body, Annan reached out and hugged the unsuspecting opponent!
The instant the Rotten Man was caught in Annan’s hug, he was pierced all over by the light blades.
Even so, Annan didn’t immediately let go of the Rotten Man. Instead, he hugged his enemy and continued to fly upwards together.
The light blades intertwined the moment Annan raised his altitude. Rotten Man was sliced into pieces in the process.
However, those pieces didn’t shed even a trace of blood.
They began to slowly melt in Annan’s arms like ice…
————————————————————————————————————————— Credits to MindMatrix for editing the chapter and improving the readability.