Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Right now, both Lucien and Natasha dared not to fly. If they flew close to the trees, they would be blocked by hills and tree crowns, which would slow them down and delay them even more; if they flew high up in the clear sky, they would easily be spotted.
After casting Advanced Speed on himself, Lucien was moving almost as fast as Natasha, who was a radiant knight. They flashed through the dark forest like two streaks of shadow.
As they were running, a burst of bright light exploded in front of Lucien's eyes. He lost his sight for a couple of seconds because the light was so unexpected and dazzlingly bright.
Natasha, however, was made immune to the bright light by her blood power. She changed her direction in midair and jumped at a big tree nearby.
The early evening stars had been dyed with red by the setting sun. In the warm hue stood an alluring beauty in a long, white robe.
It was Asin, the G.o.d of Love and Beauty! Natasha instantly recognized who she was.
Without any hesitation, she wielded the sword in her hand, an unreal crevice that seems to not belong to this world appeared with the movement of the sword and directly whacked the light of the dusk star into two.
Before the defense s.h.i.+eld was destroyed, Asin's body dimmed and was about to integrate into the darkness.
However, before Asin disappeared, Lucien had activated a magic spell with his spiritual power. An invisible wall appeared on the shadow. Asin hit the wall and bounced back. Then Natasha's sword cut Asin's throat open.
There was no blood coming out, only a thick cut. Against the power of Pale Justice, the two defense spells activated were torn open like a thin piece of paper. When Asin's head fell onto the ground, her body also quickly perished.
In the Life Ritual, Asin had already died and become an undead creature manipulated by Congus and was therefore unable to ward off Pale Justice, which was at the legendary level when swung against an undead.
Bits of G.o.d's Glory drifted out from Asin's body and attached to the cracks in Natasha's armor. Meanwhile, the rotten body had lost its power and turned into Asin's original look — a centaur.
Natasha was very surprised, but it was not the perfect time asking why. She came back to Lucien and said, “let's go. Asin tried to stop us even when he knew it would be a great risk. It means that DemiG.o.d-lich is already nearby!”
Asin's domain included that of tracking and hiding, that's why Lucien and Natasha did not find out that they were being followed. If DemiG.o.d-lich was still far away from them, Asin, who still had a little bit of intelligence remaining, would not reveal Her presence in front of Lucien and Natasha.
Lucien's sight resumed. He turned around and was ready to head for the dark forest over the cliff.
Suddenly, bitter crying and howling approached them. The atmosphere instantly became overwhelmed with the aura of death. Water and life force started to leak away.
DemiG.o.d-lich was here!
Lucien and Natasha realized it at the same time. Natasha swiftly turned around and help Pale Justice straight up in front of them to block the fatal sound waves brought by DemiG.o.d-lich's Howling.
In the crying and howling, birds within the radius of two hundred meters fell down to the ground one by one, their bodies already partially decayed before they even touched the soil.
Pale Justice lit up. Its light was warm, soft, but determined. In the horrible and sharp howling, the sword trembled fiercely, as if the power had reached its limit.
Facing a legendary over a thousand years old, an experienced sorcerer with endless spells, there seemed to be absolutely no chance for them to win at all. To die in peace would be a blessing from the G.o.d of Truth.
The dangerous power came closer and closer. The distance between them would soon be less than two hundred sixty meters!
Lucien, at this time, took a step forward and lifted his left hand. Dazzling moonlight came out from his hand, and black flame twined around it.
“En?” Accompanying the voice, white light of life force and pure moisture joined together, and they formed a wall of defense dazzling in green and grey light.
Lucien's left hand fiercely hacked downward, but nothing happened.
He immediately turned around and dashed. Through the telepathic bond, he shouted to Natasha.
“Run! Out of the three hundred meters range, then we may still have hope!”
Lucien just made Alterna temporarily stopped suppressing the power of the mysterious existence in the World of Souls, pretending that Alterna was ready to fight to frighten DemiG.o.d-lich.
Lucien could only use this method once. Although it would work if Lucien simply let Alterna out, in the end, Lucien would still die from the mysterious existence's pieces losing control. Unless there were no other choices, Lucien would not turn to this last plan.
Understanding how urgent the situation was, Natasha immediately pulled out the sword and caught Lucien up. She was faster than Lucien, so she grabbed Lucien's arm and dragged him to run around the cliff.
Under the great pressure, Natasha was running even faster than she thought she could. In the darkness, the two figures became two almost invisible shadows.
The angry voice came from far behind, advancing very quickly.
“I'm going to turn both of you into corpse servants!”
The concrete colors of black, white and grey extended out and covered Lucien's body. This was the consequence of Alterna temporarily let go of the pieces.
Fortunately, Natasha was prepared for this. She grabbed Lucien with her left hand and kept running for their lives as fast as she could.
When the long mountain road ended, in front of Natasha there were two options: On her right-hand side was the dark forest, while on her left was the extremely deep lake that Nika mentioned. Meanwhile, the horrible power approaching them from behind was closer and closer.
According to Nika's words, the lake was at least four to five hundred meters deep. She slightly slowed down and cut off the dull colors on Lucien with her sword. Then, she pulled Lucien together with her and jumped into the lake.
The world suddenly became silent. They sank fast in the water.
Not yet reaching the radiant knight level, Lucien was not able to move or breathe easily as he wished underwater. He also dared not to cast Sea Cloak, as DemiG.o.d-lich might sense the magic waves.
Natasha took a glance at Lucien and pulled him in her arms. Then her lips attached to that of Lucien and infused fresh air into his mouth.
Lucien had no time to taste the kiss at all. He was sinking fast with Natasha.
Pointing at the cliff, he gestured to Natasha that there was a slant limestone cave.
Under his black cloak, DemiG.o.d-lich stared at the two paths and came into a dilemma. He cast a couple of spells but none provided a solid answer. He was rather p.i.s.sed: In this b.l.o.o.d.y world, the ultimate range covered by his spiritual power was about only two hundred meters. Even with those investigation spells, the figure could only go up by around a hundred meters.
After one day of tracing, he already knew that Lucien's track of destiny was unusual and that Natasha was s.h.i.+elded by the power of Alterna, so he did not waste his time on casting prophecy and horoscope spells.
However, as a legendary sorcerer, Congus the DemiG.o.d-lich was by no chance a fool. After a while of thinking, Congus sent out his Devourers, Dead Giants, and mummies to the dark forest to search for Lucien and Natasha. Meanwhile, Congus himself flew to the lake and cast the spell above the lake.
“Toxin of Filth.”
Suddenly, the waves in the lake turned pale and the color quickly expanded. Fish floated to the surface of the lake, half-rotten.
The lake gurgled as if it was boiling. A shadow huge as large as a castle surfaced. It was a giant monster with a dragon bloodline!
However, it had also gone rotten!
Underwater, when Lucien and Natasha saw the slant cave, both of them were very encouraged.
However, at this time, Natasha noticed that the color of the lake was turning pale very fast. The nearby algae and weeds were all gone, together with the fish. Surrounding them was the sheer silence.
“Go!” Natasha yelled through the telepathic bond.
Swimming for their lives, their speed had reached their physical limit.
When they were almost there, the muddy paleness had also arrived.
Natasha, at this time, grabbed Lucien's arm and pushed him into the cave when Lucien was totally unprepared.
Meanwhile, she turned around and pulled out Pale Justice against the death power.
The power of the sword divided the paleness into halves. Pressing against the sea cliff with her left hand, Natasha turned over and jumped into the cave.
“Watch out!” Lucien hurriedly cast a spell and stopped the paleness in the shape of disgusting tentacles from catching Natasha.
As soon as Natasha jumped out from the water in the cave, she also turned around and hacked her sword at the pale tentacles.
With joint effort, they finally got rid of the filthy paleness. However, Natasha's armor, the Violet Guardian, had been severely damaged. There was even a hole in the back.
Natasha had never had such a dangerous experience before, and she now felt extremely exhausted. But she knew that they could not stop here as they have not escaped from the danger yet. She forced herself to move on and said to Lucien,
“Keep moving. We'll be safe on the other side.”
“Will you?” A cold voice came from the front of them.
DemiG.o.d-lich emerged from nowhere in his black cloak.
All their efforts ended up to be in vain. For a second, both Natasha and Lucien had lost all their hope.
However, desperation only existed for a blink. After a brief communication through the telepathic bond, Natasha picked up her sword and swung it at DemiG.o.d-lich.
“Life Depri…” Congus knew that Pale Justice was extremely powerful to specters and could actually injure him, so he was very cautious. He was ready to kill Natasha with one single strike.
However, Natasha suddenly disappeared from where she was. Congus lost his target, while Lucien was holding Sun Staff inlaid with the big gem on the top.
“A ninth-circle maze… interesting…” Congus sneered. “But you're on yourself now.”
He was ready to confine Lucien using Spirit Confinement.
Lucien begged in desperation. He seemed to be in a demented state.
“All you want is to kill me, right? You want Alterna and the pieces, right? Come and get them!
“But please let her go. She has nothing to do with this. She is implicated because of me, and, yes, she's a descendant of Her Excellency Hathaway!”
Congus was a bit amused, as he was a bit surprised to see that Lucien, who was praised as always remaining well-mannered and calm, had lost all of his dignity. “For this very reason, I won't keep her alive. If they know, Hathaway and that old b.a.s.t.a.r.d Lord of Storm would find every possible way to kill me.”
Congus stared at Lucien and continued. “What a pity. You could have the chance to become a grand arcanist, and your achievement could exceed my students', or even mine. But you overestimated yourself. Your involvement in the World of Souls and the fact that Maskelyne gave you his amulet are doomed to kill you.”
In Congus' eyes, Lucien had completely lost all hope.
Lucien burst out into tears. “Let her go! I give you all you want! Alterna, and the pieces!”
What happened next slightly shocked Congus: Lucien's right hand suddenly grabbed his left arm and directly pulled it off from his body. The white bones and red flesh formed a sharp contrast, astonis.h.i.+ng by the sight.
“You want it? I give it to you! All!” Lucien cried out aloud and threw his left arm at Congus.
Had Lucien totally gone mad?
Although feeling it quite unexpected, Congus did now lower his alert. Using Mage's Hand, he caught Lucien's left arm in great caution.
At this time, the left harm burst out dazzling silver light and the colors of black, white and grey quickly extended. The colors instantly infected the mage's hand and then completely enveloped Congus.
All the exaggerated looks and emotions disappeared on Lucien's face. Calmly, he lifted up Sun Staff and pointed it at the void.
Natasha's figure emerged in the air. Without any hesitation, she wielded Pale Justice and hacked it directly at DemiG.o.d-lich!
