Chapter 1279: Section 1280 Abyss of Corruption
The familiar shape of the crown made Angel startle.
He was naturally no stranger to this crown. Elisa had even had him make a replica of it before. The dimensions, every detail, even every jewel and every single pattern, Angel remembered all of it clearly!
This crown was indeed the Crimson Authority!
The reason Eulica was wanted by King Gumman, as well as why she fled to the Forbidden Magic Island, and why Suise pursued her. Everything stemmed from this very Crimson Authority.
The Crimson Authority was a Mysterious Object, a treasure that had been passed down through the Gumman Kingdom for many years!
Up until now, Angel still did not understand the purpose of this Mysterious Object. When he saw this crown appear in Eulica’s palm, a strong sense of alarm surged within him.
...
The power of Mysterious Objects never made any sense.
Eulica’s lips curved into a sinister smile, and the crown in her palm began to emit a brilliant red light.
Instinctively, Angel wanted to take several steps back, but before he could even move, a beam of red light burst forth from the crown in Eulica’s hand, rushing toward his face.
Angel saw nothing but a bright blood-red light, and faintly heard Suise’s loud shout, “Eulica, stop!”
Angel’s mind was in a fog, he couldn’t remember what he did; his vision went white, and he plummeted from the sky.
…
He was in a daze, and the world was engulfed in darkness.
Slaughter, blade glints, battlefields, gunsmoke. All sorts of bloody and terrifying images, along with bursts of sharp, mocking laughter, flooded into his brain.
Angel felt as if he was struggling helplessly in the mire, but it was no use, Negative Energy had already begun to invade his soul.
He could almost see it, the dark maw not far away, and the Abyss of Corruption that it represented.
“Is that my destination?” Angel looked up in confusion; from within the Abyss, a faint music seemed to tempt him forward. If he stepped into that deep maw, the Negative Energy that troubled him would dissipate with it.
No, not dissipate, but completely Assimilate.
Angel took steps toward the dark maw, his steps were very mechanical, as though someone was pushing him there.
Just outside the maw, Angel looked inside.
He saw that within the Abyss of Corruption, scenes unfolded: everyone from Pat Manor, including Jon, Lyon, and all his relatives and friends… were all dead, the killer being a man in a black robe.
The man had his back to Angel, and Angel felt that his silhouette was somewhat familiar.
All of a sudden, the man turned around.
Angel’s pupils shrank; he saw that this man looked exactly like himself!
But his hair was black, and his eye sockets were pitch-dark, his complexion pale, with a dangerous smile curling at the corner of his mouth!
“Who are you?” Angel didn’t know how he was able to speak, but he indeed asked.
“I am you,” the eerie voice came back.
“No, you’re not me. I wouldn’t do this!” Angel looked at the images in the Abyss, the relatives lying in pools of blood, how could he possibly kill them?
“Isn’t that what you want deep down? They are your burden. Once you kill them, you’ll be free of worries,” the wicked laughter subsided, followed by a soft mutter, “You’ll be free.”
Angel had a moment of confusion: freed?
“Yes, free. Come over, and once you cross this boundary, you’ll be reborn.”
Angel looked toward the Abyss of Corruption in front of him, stretching out his hand, as if trying to reach into it… but at that moment, his right eye began to sting sharply, and he clutched at his eye in pain.
As green Patterns emerged before him, Angel seemed to remember something, the muddled thoughts swept away, and everything before him Transmuted.
That person in the Abyss of Corruption was not him at all, but a blurry Phantom Shadow, formless, twisted and swaying, even its crimson eyes and gaping maw, like serrated teeth, constantly changing!
“Damn it, I was so close!” It roared, “Nobody can stop me!”
As it spoke, the Phantom Shadow suddenly burst out of the Abyss of Corruption and opened its body widely, forming a massive net, enveloping Angel completely, trying to drag him into the Abyss.
Angel felt himself sinking deeper into the darkness, bombarded more by the tangled Negative Energy. Had it not been for the green Patterns roaming around, he might have completely succumbed.
As the Phantom Shadow engulfed him, the green Patterns in his right eye began to show clear rejection and Ward.
Under the dissipation from the green Patterns, the Phantom Shadow before him started to fade away, but the process was too slow to eliminate it in a short period of time.
Though it was screaming in agony, it was not slow, inching Angel closer and closer to the Abyss of Corruption.
Just as Angel’s lower half was about to fall into the Abyss, a sinister laugh rang out.
The laugh was terrifying, so much so that even Angel felt a chill run down his spine.
At first, the laughter came from behind, but soon it was surrounding him from all directions. Angel looked up, paying attention to his surroundings… Could it be that he had already been dragged into the Abyss, and this laughter belonged to a creature from the Abyss?
In the pitch-black darkness devoid of any light, suddenly a pale face appeared.
Angel was startled.
Upon closer inspection, he realized it wasn’t a normal human face at all, but rather the face of a puppet. And at that moment, the sight of the puppet was even more terrifying than a human face.
Why was there a puppet here?
While Angel was still puzzled by this question, the puppet suddenly began to emanate endless waves of resentment, forming seas of grudge that surged toward Angel… more precisely, toward the shadow that had ensnared him.
The shadow itself originated from the Abyss of Corruption, a conglomeration of all negative energy, and it had a considerable degree of ward against the tide made of resentment.
However, the boundless wave of resentment was endless, and even though the shadow could resist it, it could no longer advance further at this moment.
On one side was the surge of resentment, and on the other, the sinister shadow; neither was a good thing, yet at that moment, they maintained a terrifying balance.
Under this terrifying balance, Angel obtained a moment of freedom.
Although Angel felt he could move again for the moment, he didn’t know where to go. Darkness surrounded him, with no paths in sight; he didn’t even know if he had already fallen into the Abyss.
As Angel felt at a loss, a call suddenly came from the darkness.
“Angel.”
Angel paused, seemingly seeing a Light Gate in the darkness with a figure standing outside it, calling him.
He hesitated for a moment, then walked towards the Light Gate.
The moment he stepped through the Light Gate, the mist cleared, and chaos shattered…
…
Angel suddenly opened his eyes, the brilliance of the outside world blinding him for a second, causing him to squint reflexively. Through the narrowed slits of his eyes, Angel saw a figure standing by his side.
“It seems you’re awake now, how are you feeling?” a deep voice reached Angel’s ears.
Angel struggled to sit up, his eyes now adjusting to the light, slowly opening them: “Mentor?”
It was then that Angel noticed the figure standing nearby was none other than Sanders. Sanders, with his back to Angel, had picked up something from the table and was leisurely placing it back in the Gravity Garden.
Angel was taken aback; he vaguely saw that the object looked like… a humanoid puppet?
Could it be the puppet that had suddenly appeared in the darkness before?
Suddenly Angel remembered that Sanders had spent seven million Magic Crystals at the Twilight Auction to buy a Mysterious Object, which seemed to be called the Resentment Puppet?
Combining the appearance of the puppet that released waves of resentment in the darkness with his current realization, Angel seemed to understand something.
Angel looked around and found himself lying on a bed, a very familiar bed—it was the one in Pat Manor where he had slept since he was a child.
“Is this my room?” Angel asked in confusion: “What exactly happened, how did I end up here?”
Sanders turned his head to look at Angel: “You passed out, as for why you passed out, you haven’t forgotten, have you?”
Angel hesitated a bit, recalling the previous events: “I was fighting Eulica when I saw her bring out a crown, it was the Crimson Authority, and right after that, the Crimson Authority released a red glow, and then I plunged into chaos. In the dark chaos, it seemed like I saw an Abyss of Corruption, and, a puppet.”
After hearing Angel’s recollection, Sanders nodded, neither confirming nor denying: “It seems you remember.”
“Crimson Authority, I remember that you even duplicated it once, right?” Seeing Angel nod, Sanders raised an eyebrow: “Since you knew about the Crimson Authority, you still foolishly stood there, were you looking for death? Don’t tell me, you were so scared at that moment that you forgot how to use the Gravity Meridian?”
Faced with Sanders’s ridicule, Angel quietly bowed his head: “At that time, I was puzzled and didn’t react.”
“When an unknown Mysterious Object is aimed at you, what you should do is find a way to deal with it, or if there is no way, run away quickly,” Sanders said irritably: “It’s also fortunate that you resisted at the last moment, and because the Crimson Authority isn’t of the instant-death type, otherwise you wouldn’t be unconscious now, but rather ready for eternal rest.”
Resisted at the last moment? Angel pondered for a moment, as if recalling something.
When the red glow from the Crimson Authority was rushing towards him, Angel had already begun to experience a muddled state, but at the most critical moment, a message of Soul Gospel briefly flashed through his mind. Without thinking, he followed this Soul Gospel and used Magic Power to activate his right eye.
Angel touched his right eye, which now showed no abnormalities, but at that time, it must have been the activation of that peculiar mask.
The last moment of resistance Sanders referred to was that mask?
“Mentor, what exactly happened?”