Chapter 1195: Section 1196 Light and Shadow Overlap
In a desolate landscape enshrouded in darkness, a lone, luxurious library stood.
Inside the library, a petite demon suddenly raised its head, looking towards the endless Void.
“With but a glance, I pierced through the disorderly fabric of time and space, thoughts traversing in an instant, how terrifying!” a deep voice said, trembling noticeably, “Indeed, it was wise not to have left a mark on him back then.”
This petite demon was none other than the Cruel Scholar.
When his statue, the item of descent, was drenched in Angel’s blood, the Cruel Scholar had already sensed it. Initially thinking that Angel planned to use the item of descent, he preemptively attached his consciousness to it.
Likewise, he secretly lured Popota to persuade Angel to use the item of descent.
However, in the end, Angel still had no intention of interacting with the item of descent, let alone activating it.
As the Cruel Scholar regretted this, Angel confronted the avatar of the Lord of the Flameless.
Subsequently, the Cruel Scholar sensed those terrifying eyes, and even though the other was still in a far-reaching temporal and spatial distance, that massive consciousness had instantly arrived!
His consciousness, attached to the item of descent, had not even been discovered by the Lord of the Flameless, yet those eyes looked directly at it.
Forcibly driving the Cruel Scholar’s consciousness out of the item of descent.
It felt as if, despite living in one’s own home, one was being forcibly expelled by a stranger. And he didn’t dare to object, even now… even attempting to cast his gaze towards that world seemed to be obscured by a seemingly nonexistent barrier.
“Such a level of energy, is indeed akin to a ‘miracle’,” the Cruel Scholar murmured, his face showing fright. Fortunate that he hadn’t forced his will upon that human.
The Cruel Scholar watched the hazy world behind the Void, awaiting the moment it would unveil itself.
He wanted to know the fate that would befall the avatar of the Lord of the Flameless in the end?
This would involve the future, and how the Cruel Scholar would reassess Angel’s value.
As the Cruel Scholar kept his gaze on the world obscured by the barrier, his tail was swishing rapidly, searching among a pile of books for information about that world.
It was a world that even the Cruel Scholar, when attaching his consciousness, could not be certain of its location.
He always found it a little peculiar.
…
The Lord of the Flameless felt as though he had been dragged into an infinite space filled with chaos and darkness.
All around was the chaotic Void.
The only thing he could sense was a pair of eyes filled with endless brutal coldness, located far beyond the spatiotemporal distance.
The eyes stared directly at the Lord of the Flameless, their calm devoid of any ripples, yet the coldness conveyed through them caused sweat to form on his back.
Merely being observed, the Lord of the Flameless felt his spirit strongly oppressed.
“What is this? Could it be something that human has concocted?” Although the Lord of the Flameless had become somewhat wary of Angel, he refused to believe that a human not even qualified as an Official Wizard could exert such intense pressure on him.
Could it be some kind of Mysterious Object?
The only explanation the Lord of the Flameless could conceive of was that the human was exerting pressure on him through a Mysterious Object.
If indeed that was the case, the only method now would be to kill that human first!
With this in mind, he flicked a Flameless Fire from the tip of his finger, enduring the dreadful oppression brought on by the gaze.
Although he felt he was in the chaotic Void, he guessed that this place might be a special Illusionary Realm. So he flicked the normally enveloped Flameless Fire from his fingertip without hesitation.
After he did so, for some reason, the Lord of the Flameless heard a snicker in his ear.
Before he could discern it, he suddenly saw one of the eyes in the darkness turn into a star, illuminating countless worlds.
In the blinding light, a figure leapt out from the star, crossing the vast spatial distance, and arriving in front of the Lord of the Flameless in an instant.
The Lord of the Flameless could not make out the specifics of the figure, only feeling a wisp of long golden hair brushing past, followed by a fierce explosion of white light.
After the white light, the dark chaotic Void receded like a theater curtain drawing back.
The Lord of the Flameless was initially startled, then his tense mood relaxed somewhat, convinced that it must have been the Flameless Fire he had flicked earlier taking effect.
However, when he raised his head to look at the other side, his gaze suddenly froze.
The Flameless Fire had not corroded the human as he had imagined; instead, it hovered in front of the human.
It wasn’t truly hovering. The Lord of the Flameless noticed behind the human, a mass of strange green patterns had emerged, like numerous vines that blocked his Flameless Fire.
“Are these green patterns the power of the Mysterious Object?” the Lord of the Flameless speculated silently, “However, I don’t feel the aura of a Mysterious Object being emitted. Or perhaps, could this human actually be a bearer of the Mysterious Object?”
Once in the Face of Gluttony, the Lord of the Flameless encountered a mud devil killed by the Nameless Mist. A section of this mud devil’s backbone was a Mysterious Object.
The birth of a Mysterious Object sometimes does not follow natural laws, with even a biological body likely becoming the breeding ground for the mysterious.
While the Lord of the Flameless speculated thus, the green patterns resisting the Flameless Fire suddenly shattered.
…
Greerwu had previously thought the shopkeeper would use a Subduing Object, otherwise, how would he dare to emit a fighting intent towards the Lord of the Flameless? But to its surprise, the shopkeeper showed no intention of using a Subduing Object at all. Instead, strange green patterns emerged from his back, blocking the flames released by the Lord of the Flameless.
In Greerwu’s perspective, the Flameless Fire was but a casual attack from the Lord of the Flameless. However, what it did not know was that the Lord of the Flameless’s consciousness had already been dragged into the world of Void by a gaze from beyond the heavens, and that the Flameless Fire was an attack released out of sheer necessity.
When the green patterns shattered, Greerwu thought to itself: It’s over!
However, on the other side, the Lord of the Flameless furrowed its brows. For the moment the green patterns had broken, why could it suddenly no longer sense the Flameless Fire?
“Shopkeeper, be careful!” Greerwu shouted out loud.
In the instant that the voice fell, Greerwu’s vision blurred… Did it faintly catch a glimpse of a light shadow descending from the shattered green patterns?
Greerwu shook its head, looked again, and saw no light shadow. But the shopkeeper himself was now completely motionless.
“Could it be that the fire has already eroded into the shopkeeper’s body?”
While Greerwu was filled with worry, the Lord of the Flameless suddenly launched an attack!
Greerwu thought the light shadow was an illusion, but it was unaware that the Lord of the Flameless had very clearly seen the light shadow entering the human’s body.
What the light shadow was, the Lord of the Flameless did not know, but it saw a strand of golden hair.
As the light shadow descended, the Flameless Fire ceased without cause.
Angel stood still in place, head bowed and silent, seemingly unharmed. But the Lord of the Flameless’s heart began to race—something it hadn’t felt in thousands of years.
The Lord of the Flameless hadn’t felt palpitations in a very long time, but now, they suddenly appeared.
And against a human who seemed no more significant than an ant!
This made it somewhat irate, and under the influence of some emotion, the Lord of the Flameless initiated an attack. At that moment, it had yet to realize that the long-absent emotion driving its behavior was known as unease.
Or perhaps, it was the inherent fear a living being feels towards its natural predator.
When Greerwu saw the Lord of the Flameless attacking the shopkeeper, it was startled, and a sour sensation spread from its heart to its nose. It believed that this time, the shopkeeper would surely not escape from his fate.
However, Greerwu had not considered why the Lord of the Flameless, with its status, would bother to personally attack a human who was so beneath it in power that they were worlds apart.
The Lord of the Flameless’s attack was composed of three stages: intimidation, energy, and physical force.
To terrify with fearsome intimidation, to incinerate with the Flameless Fire, and to conclude with overpowering physical strength.
Even the Lord of the Flameless itself didn’t realize that it was attacking a human—ordinarily unworthy of its attention—with such a serious approach.
Moreover, the human being attacked was in an utterly defenseless, motionless state.
However, the attack that the Lord of the Flameless thought was foolproof developed some discrepancies.
The intimidation had no effect on the human opposite, to the point where it doubted its own abilities, but upon seeing the young fire demon behind the human whose face was now reddening with fear, veins and sinews bulging on the forehead, it was certain that its intimidation was effective.
So why was this human unaffected?
With the impact of the intimidation being almost null, the second attack—the Flameless Fire—arrived next to the human, and as the fire made contact, the Lord of the Flameless’s gaze shifted abruptly.
It once again couldn’t feel the existence of the Flameless Fire!
Once might be a coincidence, but for this to happen again it meant that this human must have a way to counter the Flameless Fire!
Alarm bells rang in the Lord of the Flameless’s mind.
But since it had already made its move, there was no reason for it to retreat.
However, the Lord of the Flameless was now more cautious than before.
As it rushed towards Angel with its formidable physical body, Angel, who had been silent until then, finally lifted his head.
At the moment Angel looked up, the Lord of the Flameless felt an unprecedented level of alarm!
The human before its eyes… No, the Lord of the Flameless could no longer sense the presence of a human.
His visage seemed to change, covered in shadows, concealing all features, with the only familiar sight being the radiant golden hair.
But originally, his golden hair was but a short layer.
Yet now, behind this short layer, the faint silhouette of long hair appeared.
The Lord of the Flameless suppressed the rising feeling of alarm, its hand transformed into a blade, aiming to split the head before it in two!
But at that very moment, a light suddenly shone from the face previously obscured by shadows, revealing itself.
Bright and piercing, yet filled with a cold and icy gaze!