Free Web NovelChapter 37: Chaos 3
He gripped my throat tightly, cutting off the air to my lungs. The murderous intent radiating from him was so suffocating that I felt it pressing down on my body like a massive mountain. Behind his black mask, I could see a sinister smile spreading across his face.
"Who are you?"
His voice came out distorted and strange, whilst his fingers tightened further around my neck. My vision began to fade gradually, and the edges of my vision turned white. Veins bulged on my forehead, and I felt my consciousness was about to slip away at any moment.
But suddenly... he loosened his grip.
I gasped for breath, taking one breath after another in a frantic rush, until it felt as though my heart would leap from my chest; yet I could not hear its beating amidst the din filling my head.
The masked man repeated his question in a cold voice:
"Who are you?"
"I’m... G... Gail."
"Gail, is it? What a strange name. Gail, may I ask you a question?"
"..."
Before I could answer, he suddenly squeezed my neck again.
"Yes! Yes!" I said hastily.
"You know what? I never forget the face of anyone I’ve ever seen in my life. And that’s why I find you so very interesting. When I saw you in the arena, your rank was barely that of a novice. But just moments ago, your rank became that of a King. Then suddenly... ...you went back to being a novice again. Don’t you see that doesn’t make sense? Unless you’re hiding something. Isn’t that right?"
"..."
"Haahhh...!"
I felt his grip tighten around my neck, before it loosened again, and air rushed back into my lungs.
"You know what?" he said in a calm tone that made my blood run cold. "I hate being ignored."
Although I wasn’t entirely sure, the person hiding behind the mask was most likely mad.
He was capable of killing me at any moment, perhaps without me even realising what had happened.
That’s why I had to choose my words very carefully, whilst at the same time searching for any way out of this impossible predicament.
I swallowed hard, then said:
"Sorry... I’m just... afraid of dying."
Luckily for me... he seemed to believe me.
Or at least, that’s what I thought and hoped.
In truth, I couldn’t tell what was going through his mind as he said:
"Oh, don’t worry about that. I’d gain nothing by killing you. On the contrary, you’re more useful to me alive. Besides, you’re going to die any moment now, but I can treat everyone’s injuries—though that depends largely on the answer you give."
I furrowed my brow.
"What answer?"
"The answer to the question I asked you a moment ago."
I feigned confusion.
"Huh? I didn’t hear it. I’m sorry, my mind was in a bit of a mess just then."
I felt a little anxious that he might get angry, but that didn’t happen. He simply repeated the question.
As I listened to him, I glanced quickly around me. By the time he’d finished speaking, I’d already come up with a plan.
I sighed and said:
"Promise me you won’t kill me after that."
He smiled and said:
"Don’t worry, I promise."
Of course, I didn’t believe him.
But I wasn’t trying to get a real promise; I just wanted to distract him for a while. If I’d really wanted to guarantee my safety, I would have asked him to sign a spiritual pact.
After a moment’s hesitation, I said:
"Well... I did it with the help of a tool. Thanks to it, I can temporarily raise my rank."
I mixed a bit of truth with a lot of lies.
What if he had the ability to detect lies?
But when I saw him deep in thought, as if he believed every word I’d said, I realised my plan had worked.
At that moment, I turned my gaze towards the monster’s corpse lying in the distance.
I concentrated as hard as I could, until it felt as though my head was about to explode.
Then I used telekinesis. I desperately hoped I could move it... and luckily, I succeeded.
He raised his head then and noticed the blood streaming from my nose and eyes,
"What’s wrong with you? Haha... Are you about to die?"
At that moment, he let his guard down slightly and didn’t notice the monster’s corpse hurtling towards him. Or perhaps he did notice it, but his overconfidence meant he didn’t see it as a threat worth paying attention to.
That’s what I thought when I saw him wave his hand dismissively, splitting the corpse in two without the slightest effort.
But suddenly...
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several explosions rang out simultaneously, followed by a massive blast that engulfed the entire warehouse.
I was lucky that I had previously placed all the mana bombs inside the monster’s body. I never imagined that such a random act would become my lifeline.
As soon as the grip on my neck loosened due to the explosion, my body shot off like an arrow, hurtling downwards.
I crashed into one of the walls with such force that I felt as though my bones had turned to dust, then I went right through it.
And in fact... it wasn’t just one wall. It was several walls in a row.
I went through them all in a matter of moments, whilst my body hurtled on unstoppably like a runaway projectile.
I didn’t know how I was still alive.
It seemed like an impossible miracle.
Then, after what felt like an eternity, it suddenly stopped after I collided with something solid. ƒrēewebnovel.com
My vision was filled with static, and I could no longer see anything clearly. I could only make out intermittent flashes of light appearing and disappearing before my eyes.
In fact... I began to think I had turned into a ghost rather than a human being.
With every passing second, I felt my body turning to liquid,
and yet... it wasn’t as I had imagined.
I felt no pain.
In fact, the sensation of pain had vanished completely, as if it had never existed. Yet I continued to crawl.
I resembled a monstrous creature more than a human being.
Behind me stretched a sticky black trail, made up of burnt flesh and foul-smelling matter falling from my body with every movement.
I didn’t know where I was heading.
All I knew was that I had to reach the safe.
So I kept moving forward, the words coming out of my mouth with great difficulty:
"The safe... I have to reach it... I’m still..."
But the words soon broke off before they could be finished.
I kept crawling towards the unknown.
I could hear distant sounds; it seemed the place had already collapsed, and yet... the space I was crawling through remained strangely intact.
After a period of time I could no longer gauge, my hand touched something that was cold and warm at the same time.
This was accompanied by a tremendous sucking sound that filled the space, as if it were swallowing everything here.
I felt the object slowly. It was hard and smooth to the touch.
A huge, rare-looking gem.
Only then did I realise that I had finally reached my destination.
The vault.
I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but suddenly, as I tried to crawl a little further, I fell, my body crashing to the ground.
My only remaining hand had melted... or perhaps it had simply stopped working; I don’t know which of the two is true. In fact, I no longer understood how I was still alive.
The sucking sound began to fade gradually, as if there wasn’t much left to swallow. And although it was strong enough to swallow everything, it didn’t pull me towards it.
My breath was fading, and I was already dying. And just as I was about to die,
I suddenly felt Something was crawling over my body; I couldn’t tell what it was... but I had a strange feeling that even if I saw it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t be able to understand what I was looking at.
That thing continued crawling until it reached my chest. Just as the last spark of my life was about to go out.
And suddenly...
A stab.
I felt that mysterious thing pierce my chest and burrow deep into my insides.
The moment that happened, my heart began to race violently, whilst a strange heat surged through my body, rising and falling, and although my vision was extremely blurred, I could just about make out the screen in front of me.
[ Mission successful: Part of the Ancient Being has been recovered. ]
[ The Ancient Being has recognised you as its host... ]
[ Prepare for rebirth. ]
