Chapter 32: An Unexpected Surprise |
A sharp stabbing sensation of being locked onto by weapons came from behind him. The crisis at his back made every hair on his body stand on end. Left with no choice, Robert could only once again use his shadow clone, swapping positions with himself to evade the attack.
He realized that he did not even have the chance to go down together and drag someone with him as a cushion.
Ignoring the mental exhaustion and the agonizing pain of his soul being torn apart from consecutively using his clone ability,
at the instant of the swap, he slashed fiercely across the dark space with a bone dagger wrapped in extreme resentment, and a crack imbued with the aura of death immediately appeared before his eyes.
As the dagger simultaneously turned to ash, the stagnant space also loosened at the same time.
Without the slightest hesitation, Robert was about to plunge headfirst into the White Bone Secret Realm. This was the only path to survival he could think of now, even if it was very likely that he would only be leaving the dragon’s pool to enter the tiger’s den.
But what he had not expected was that before he could rush in, a gigantic claw covered in strange patterns reached out first from the other side of the crack and grabbed him in its palm!
Robert was scared out of his wits and wanted to repeat the same trick, only to find that his power seemed to have been sealed, and he could not use his clone at all!
Just as Robert was about to enter the White Bone Secret Realm in the one way he had least expected, despite how desperately he had wanted to go in, the gigantic claw suddenly seemed to get stuck, unable to advance or retreat.
Robert’s body was twisted from the squeeze, his bones broken and tendons snapped. If not for the powerful vitality of the Transcendent level, he would already have been a lump of mashed flesh.
Kyle had not expected such an unexpected harvest either—a claw belonging to a Legendary undead creature!
If he had been facing the other party face to face, he would have retreated long ago. But with a single claw delivered straight to his front door, he could only ‘reluctantly’ accept it with a smile.
The phantom image of a metal gate slowly appeared behind the fissure, while countless complex magic runes continuously reinforced and filled the spatial crack.
The owner of the giant claw seemed to sense that something was wrong. It dropped Robert, who was in the way, and began struggling even more desperately, continuously spreading resentment, curses, and the power of decay in all directions, eroding the dark power within the Eternal Silence Domain.
“Crack, crack crack——”
Space split like glass, and countless fine cracks spread around the giant claw. Deathly aura seeped out from the fissures, and wherever it passed, even the darkness of the Eternal Silence Domain was corroded into an ash-gray color!
The strange patterns on the giant claw’s withered skin formed one delicate miniature rune array after another, as though it wanted to forcibly carve out another domain within Kyle’s domain and contend with him for control of space.
“Hah? A Death-type domain?” Kyle’s eyes lit up. Ignoring the drain on his mental power, he rapidly activated his threads of causality ability.
Such a good close-range learning opportunity— even if it meant going blind for a while this time, it was still worth it!
The blood moon in Kyle’s pupils reflected countless images, and thousands upon thousands of causal threads materialized within his field of vision.
These lines were like mathematical functions from higher-dimensional space, each one operating along a specific trajectory.
Kyle’s brain was like an overclocked quantum computer, frantically breaking apart and recombining this information, transforming the laws of the death domain into visualized spell models, then going a step further and turning them into quantifiable mathematical models…
If the threads of causality were his cheat, then mathematics was the tool he used to analyze and understand the world. It was the true core support that let him rapidly transform knowledge and resources into strength.
It was also through the construction and deduction of mathematical models that Kyle could convert part of those mysterious Transcendent laws into quantifiable, replicable technical paths, thereby opening up a path of advancement that belonged solely to himself within the shackles of the vampire bloodline.
As the record of the information contained within the death domain gradually became complete, Kyle’s mental power also approached the brink of exhaustion.
Before his consciousness scattered, he overdraw his life force again to record the final few sets of key data, while at the same time directly reversing and dismantling the death domain that was nearly finished taking shape.
“Alvaro……the rest……I’ll leave to you……”
After transmitting his final will, Kyle’s body lost vitality like a puppet with its strings cut. It went limp, only to be forcibly held up again by the surging black mist inside the metal armor.
Alvaro’s will immediately took over his body and domain.
The Eternal Silence Domain rapidly contracted, and the sharply strengthened spatial power completely crushed the now defenseless spatial fissure. The giant claw was also severed directly at the wrist!
The severed claw, having lost its main body, twitched and writhed madly within the domain. Only after Alvaro condensed several black metal chains, wrapping it layer upon layer and turning it into a metal cocoon covered in sealing runes, was it finally completely suppressed.
From the appearance of the giant claw to its sealing, only a brief moment had passed, but the consumption for the two of them had been enormous.
The originally dense darkness had become extremely thin. The senses of the several people returned once more, yet no one dared act rashly.
Even though their five senses had just been sealed, that heart-palpitating feeling had still clung to them like a bone-deep affliction and would not disperse.
Although they did not know what kind of battle had taken place, it was obvious that this was not something they could resist at all.
Alvaro controlled Kyle’s body and slowly stepped forward. The shock of the metal war boots striking the ground broke the deathly atmosphere.
“Now, it is time to settle our accounts.”
From beneath the armor came Alvaro’s imitation of Kyle’s voice. The darkness within the domain slowly swallowed and dissolved Robert, who had long since lost consciousness.
After dealing with Robert, Alvaro turned his gaze toward the others.
Bartos’s shattered body had already, under the potion’s powerful restorative effect, barely stabilized its injuries and was slowly growing new flesh tissue.
Like a man who had lost his soul, he lay on the cold ground, staring blankly at the pitch-black sky.
He should have been the only one who had personally witnessed the entire battle process.
Today’s blow had been too great for him. Robert, whom he had always looked down on, had only used two moves to make him lose the ability to resist.
Yet Robert had not even possessed the courage to face Kyle, this vampire, head-on. And the giant claw that appeared later had driven him into complete despair.
That violent spatial turbulence had kept roaring beside him. Had he been grazed even once, he would certainly have died on the spot.
But perhaps he had already been unlucky enough today that the Goddess of Luck could no longer bear to watch, and somehow let him survive through it…
Sarkhad, Claudi, and Gann were also all fully armed, tensely watching ‘Kyle’.
Sarkhad was the first to break the silence, his voice dry and taut: “Lord Kyle….we are willing to sign the contract.”
The successive upheavals had already made him recognize reality. Right now, he was only forcing himself to maintain the last bit of dignity.
Claudi followed right after: “Yes, my lord, we accept your conditions.”
Gann·Cole merely let out a sigh and nodded. He only hoped the contents of the contract would not be too harsh.
Bartos, who was still ‘playing dead’ on the ground, struggled to raise an arm and said hoarsely, “I……will sign too……”
“A wise choice.”