Free Web NovelChapter 1782: Dark and Dreary
Something about Adam’s words caused the flames in the lich’s eyes to violently flicker.
A chilling sense of foreboding suddenly washed over him. How long had it been since he felt this way? He couldn’t even recall. He almost felt... alive.
The lich had always been deeply wary of prophecies. The deeper one delved into the arcane arts, the more one came to understand that fate, causality, and destiny were not merely abstract concepts.
Under certain circumstances, they could become terrifyingly real forces capable of influencing the flow of the universe itself.
It went without saying that among the different types of Magi, Diviners were infamous for their prophecies. And that was precisely why that devil’s words had always lingered in the back of the lich’s mind like a curse he could never fully erase.
But here was the strange part, something he could not comprehend at all.
How did Adam come to know of the devil’s prophecy?
The sense of unease within the Cult Leader grew intense, and suddenly his mind started to ring relentlessly with the very words that he’d been hearing for the last thousands of years.
The Beyond... The Beyond... The Beyond...
Adam astutely noticed the change in the Cult Leader’s demeanor. He knew that the lich had been corrupted by the abomination, and as a result, his state of mind was not stable — it never was.
The youth’s dark eyes flashed with a calculating light, and his following words further served to destabilize his opponent’s mind.
He said in a cold and even voice, "The Winter Lord said that to me in his dying breath."
His eyes narrowed, and his expression grew even more solemn. "He said a bunch of gibberish about the devil’s prophecy. I pieced together the rest. Come to think of it..."
The corner of Adam’s lips curled slightly upward in a taunting smirk.
"Wasn’t the Winter Lord your most cherished subordinate?"
The flames in the Cult Leader’s eyes flared with intensity, and his bony fingers couldn’t help but twitch subconsciously.
In that moment, amid the maddening chorus of the Beyond, a shocking thought emerged in his mind.
How did Adam know about the Winter Lord’s final words?
Despite the chaos in his mind, he was able to quickly connect the dots.
There was a clandestine organization that had only recently come to light. Because of the mysteries surrounding it, he had been highly wary of this secret organization.
The lich couldn’t find any information about this group. Since the moment it had appeared, it had been an enigma.
Until now, that was.
So was the Dark King part of the Order of the Faceless Magi?
No...
What if the Dark King was the leader of this secret order?
"Heh." Adam chuckled coldly. "Realized, haven’t you?"
The lich remained silent, but the flames in his sockets constricted and intensified, as if filled with cold wrath.
"That’s right." Adam raised his hands wide.
"I am the Stranger."
Hearing the youth confirm his suspicions, the lich couldn’t help but praise, "Well played, Constantine."
He then ventured another guess. "Were you also the one behind the Great Purge within the Brotherhood?"
"Oh, my." Adam feigned surprise. But his eyes spewed nothing but ridicule and venom. "I had to get rid of all the rats within the Brotherhood, you see. If I hadn’t..."
His eyes narrowed. "They would have notified you about the new portal that we were building near Springdale."
The lich’s aura turned dark and dreary. The air around him distorted. And his silence was louder than any words he could ever say.
"That’s right." Adam’s words turned cold.
"I know about the portals. I knew about them all along. Took me a decade or two, but I managed to alter the rune magic sustaining them. How else do you think I changed the portals’ origin and destination? Alas, I couldn’t mess with the one beneath Aranal. Or else, we would have already won the war by now."
The more the Cult Leader listened to Adam speak, the colder and more furious he became. Countless years of his planning had been ruined just like that...
And Adam even flaunted it before him.
The pale green flames within the lich’s sockets flickered violently as an oppressive killing intent slowly spread across the battlefield. For the first time in a very long while, the Cult Leader found himself losing control of his emotions. A loss of control that wasn’t due to his madness.
Suddenly, the Dark King’s following words echoed in his ears.
"Want to know who the traitor is?"
The moment the lich heard the word ’traitor’, something snapped inside of him.
And it was in that moment that the Dark King struck with the force of a tyrant.
"I can tell you."
Those words came from far closer than the lich would have liked.
In that split second of shock and fury, the moment his focus had wavered, the raven-haired youth seized the opportunity and appeared directly before him.
Dark and oppressive mana coated the youth’s hand, violently distorting the very air around it.
And then, the lich felt as though a terrifying mountain had slammed into him.
Hand of Doom: One Hit!
The strike landed squarely on his chest.
His armor instantly caved in as the overwhelming force hurled him across the battlefield like a cannonball. The lich tore violently through the air, producing a massive rippling shockwave in his wake as the surrounding earth exploded beneath his trajectory.
The Dark King followed closely behind him, his physical speed so astonishing that he did not fall behind in the slightest. At the same time, he rapidly weaved the hand seals for his next spell.
A second later, he swiped his fingers down vertically.
Rank 4 Spell: Grand Quadrant Prison!
However, this one was an altered version of the spell. Adam did not need to imprison his opponent.
He only needed the spell to stop his momentum.
A gigantic iron gate descended from the heavens and landed directly in the lich’s path.
With another thunderous boom, the Cult Leader’s flying figure smashed violently into the iron gate, instantly forming a massive dent in its surface. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
And just a split second later...
The Dark King unleashed a crushing follow-through attack.
Hand of Doom: Earthly Meteor!
BOOOOM!!!
