Free Web NovelChapter 197: Chapter 193: Annihilation of the Deathcurse Squad
The rumbling behind him grew closer.
Ian didn’t need to look back to "feel" it. That thing was coming after him.
The SHASHA sound of threads scraping against rock came from behind him, dense and ceaseless, like a tide washing over a beach.
The stale air was replaced by a thicker, acrid stench that made his throat tighten with every breath.
He pushed the Furnace Body Tempering Skill to its limit, breaking into a desperate sprint.
The effects of the Spirit Cat Potion were still active. His body felt as light as a feather, his reflexes as quick as lightning.
But the path beneath his feet was warping. The walls of the corridor pressed inward, and on the reliefs, the eyes of the carved faces all opened, staring fixedly at him.
"To the left!" Gaga shrieked from his shoulder.
Without a second thought, Ian swerved sharply to the left.
BOOM!
The passage he had just run through collapsed. Giant rocks crashed down, and dozens of dark red threads emerged from the dust, writhing like tentacles as they reached for him.
’That was close...’
He grit his teeth and pulled a Black Hole Potion from his Dimension Ring, clutching it tightly in his hand.
’I can’t use this recklessly just yet.’
’This thing is powerful, but its range is small. After it’s used, it leaves behind a few seconds of energy turbulence. If I’m too slow, I might get caught in it myself.’
’I have to wait for an opportunity.’
Ahead, the corridor suddenly widened into a four-way intersection.
Ian paused.
From deep within the left passage came the sound of Witchcraft explosions and screams.
They were the voices of Wizards, accompanied by the flashes of exploding Witchcraft.
The right passage was quiet, but the reliefs on the walls were even more twisted, and a faint gray mist drifted in the air.
The path straight ahead was blocked by a pile of collapsed rubble, leaving only a narrow gap at the top.
The SHASHA of his pursuers was already within a hundred meters.
Ian’s eyes hardened, and he charged to the left.
"Gaa! There are people fighting over there!" Gaga squawked urgently.
"That’s the point," Ian growled.
He rushed into the passage, and his pupils contracted at the sight before him.
Four people in gray robes were locked in a fierce battle with a group of Gargoyles that had crawled out of the walls.
They were from the Withered Council. Judging by their attire and auras, they were likely the four remaining members of the Curse of the Dead Squad.
Samael had mentioned before that the squad had five members. He had pursued Ian alone, while the other four operated elsewhere.
All four were experts whose Spiritual Power had reached the stage of Liquefaction, yet right now, they were in a sorry state.
There weren’t many Gargoyles, only seven or eight, but each one stood over five meters tall. They were covered in black stone, with claws sharp enough to shred a Protective Spiritual Light.
What was more troublesome was that if they were shattered, the fragments would reform unless they were completely blasted to dust.
A gray-robed Witch was being forced into a corner by two Gargoyles, looking utterly battered.
Her Death Ray struck the Gargoyles, leaving only a few shallow pits.
A nearby Warlock tried to support her but was ambushed from behind by another Gargoyle.
With a KRAK, his Protective Spiritual Light shattered. Three bloody gashes were clawed into his back, deep enough to expose bone.
"Where’s Captain Samael?!" a tall, thin man in gray robes roared as he fought, his voice filled with panic.
"I don’t know! I can’t reach him!" another, stout man replied.
He was holding a Bone Scythe and cleaved a Gargoyle’s head in two, but the fragments immediately began to re-form.
The moment Ian charged in, all four of them saw him.
The tall, thin man’s eyes lit up, then immediately turned venomous.
"It’s you... Captain Samael went after you. Where is he now?!"
Ian completely ignored him.
He swept his gaze across the battlefield, his mind racing with calculations.
’The Gargoyles are blocking the middle of the passage, my pursuers are almost here, and these four... Perfect.’
Without breaking stride, he charged straight for the group of Gargoyles.
"You’re courting death!" the stout man sneered, turning his Bone Scythe to take a swing at Ian.
But Ian was too fast.
Like a shadow, he slipped between two Gargoyles, his right index finger tapping repeatedly.
Frost Ash Beam!
It wasn’t a full-power blast, but a dispersed spray of extremely fine, frost-white cold energy.
Like dozens of needles, it precisely pierced the Gargoyles’ joints.
KRAK! KRAK! KRAK!
The Gargoyles that were hit froze simultaneously, a thin layer of ice covering their joints.
Although they shattered the ice in an instant, that momentary hesitation created an opening in their formation.
Ian shot through the gap and continued to rush forward without a backward glance.
The four gray-robed figures were stunned for a moment.
"He’s trying to escape!" the tall, thin man roared, having come to his senses.
"Stop him! Something must have happened to Captain Samael!"
But they were tied down by the Gargoyles and couldn’t break free.
Just then, Ian reached the other end of the passage, now more than fifty meters away from them.
He suddenly stopped and turned around.
He raised his right hand, palm facing up.
A transparent, walnut-sized Crystal Ball with three colors of energy slowly swirling within lay quietly in his palm.
The Black Hole Potion.
When the four gray-robed figures saw it, they instinctively sensed danger, even though they didn’t know what it was.
"What are you doing?!" the tall, thin man shrieked.
Ian’s mouth twitched into a slight smirk, but he said nothing.
With all his strength, he hurled the Crystal Ball... toward the space in front of them.
Not at them, but at the ground near the entrance of the passage.
The Crystal Ball traced an arc through the air and landed.
TINK.
A faint sound.
The tall, thin man glanced back and saw the small, transparent sphere roll twice on the ground before stopping.
A hairline crack appeared on its surface.
Alarms blared in his head. "Dodge..."
He didn’t get the word out.
VMMMM...
There was no loud explosion, only the muffled thrum of space being torn asunder.
A two-meter sphere of absolute blackness erupted from the crack, expanding in an instant.
The floor, walls, and air at the passage entrance... everything was devoured by darkness, leaving behind surfaces as smooth as a mirror.
But what was more terrifying was that the instant the black sphere appeared, the SHASHA sound that had been pursuing Ian suddenly stopped.
Then, a Will—cold, greedy, and filled with an endless hunger.
It surged in from beyond the passage entrance like a tangible tide!
It "saw" the Annihilation energy released by the Black Hole Potion.
It also "saw" the four gray-robed figures in the passage, who were fighting the Gargoyles and radiating the vibrant aura of life.
"HISSS!"
An inhuman sound, like countless overlapping voices inhaling at once, resounded in everyone’s mind.
The four gray-robed figures froze in place, the color draining from their faces.
They felt it.
Whatever that thing was... it was colder than death and hungrier than the Abyss.
"Run!" the stout man was the first to react, roaring hoarsely.
But it was too late.
At the entrance to the passage, the moment the darkness dissipated, dark red threads poured in like a bursting dam!
Not one or two, but thousands upon thousands, dense and interwoven into a single, writhing tide.
Wherever the threads passed, the walls were stripped bare. The Gargoyles were entangled, dissolved, and absorbed, leaving not even a speck of dust behind.
Their speed was incredible.
"No!" the gray-robed Witch screamed. She turned to run but tripped and fell flat on her face.
The threads wrapped around her ankle.
She shrieked, frantically unleashing her Death Ray, but the beam vanished into the threads like a stone dropped into the ocean, without causing so much as a ripple.
The threads crawled up her leg, wrapping around it and tightening their grip.
The Witch’s skin shriveled at a visible rate. Her eyes bulged, and a gurgling sound escaped her throat.
A few seconds later, she was reduced to a skeleton loosely draped in skin, and then even the skeleton was swallowed by the threads.
The tall, thin man and the stout man were scared out of their wits and ran for their lives.
But Ian watched them coldly, showing no intention of getting out of their way.
"Move! Get out of the way!" the tall, thin man shrieked.
He gathered a ball of ghastly green corrosive energy in his hand, intending to blast Ian aside.
Ian didn’t move.
But Gaga, on his shoulder, did.
The little crow flapped its wings, activating the Omen Eye at full power!
The tall, thin man’s vision blurred. He thought he saw countless Resentful Spirits lunging at him, and his movements faltered for a fraction of a second.
That was all it took.
The tide of threads from behind overtook him.
"Ah!"
A brief scream, then silence.
The stout man was more ruthless. He bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of Essence Blood, which atomized into a mist and formed a Bone Shield behind him.
At the same time, he charged toward Ian like a cannonball, intending to force his way through.
This time, Ian moved.
He took a half step forward with his left foot and clenched his right fist. A Jade-like Radiance exploded from beneath his skin.
A punch infused with the full power of the Furnace Body Tempering Skill slammed into the stout man’s chest.
BANG!
The Bone Shield shattered, and the man’s sternum caved in.
The stout man flew backward, spitting blood, and landed right in the advancing tide of threads.
"May you suffer a horri..." His final curse was cut short as the threads devoured him.
The last one, the injured Warlock, was already scared witless. He had collapsed to the ground, a dark, wet patch spreading across his trousers.
The threads wrapped around him, and he was turned into nourishment without so much as a scream.
Four Level One Wizards at the Liquefaction stage, completely annihilated.
The entire process took less than ten seconds.
Ian watched impassively as the threads devoured the last person, and then its "gaze" turned to him.
Cold, greedy, hungry.
He turned and ran.
The tide of threads gave chase, but its speed seemed to have slowed slightly.
Devouring the four Wizards had "sated" it for an instant.
That one instant was enough.
Ian raced to the end of the passage. It was a dead end, with only a narrow gap high on the wall.
He kicked off the ground, leaped up, grabbed the edge of the opening, and pulled himself through, wriggling like an eel.
Gaga followed close behind.
On the other side of the gap was another corridor, even more dilapidated, but the acrid stench in the air was much fainter.
Ian landed and continued to sprint without pausing.
The SHASHA sound started up again behind him, but he had increased the distance between them.
He gasped for breath, a burning pain in his chest. Most of his Spiritual Power was depleted, and the effects of the Spirit Cat Potion were beginning to fade.
’But I can’t stop.’
After running for about five more minutes, a light appeared ahead.
It was an exit.
Ian rushed out, and the space opened up before him.
He was in a massive underground cavern with a ceiling so high it was lost in darkness. The ground was covered with jagged, strange rock formations and dried riverbeds.
In the distance, there was a faint light source, like some kind of glowing moss.
Most importantly, there were no twisted reliefs here, and no cloying, acrid air.
’Safe... for now.’
Ian leaned against a large boulder and slid to the ground, gasping for air.
Gaga tumbled off his shoulder and collapsed on the ground, its little belly rising and falling rapidly.
"So tired... Scared Gaga half to death..."
Ian stroked its head and took out two vials of Potions from his Dimension Ring.
One was for spiritual recovery, the other for physical stamina. He downed one and fed a few drops to Gaga.
A cool sensation and a warm current spread through his body at the same time, slightly easing his exhaustion.
He listened carefully. The SHASHA sound from behind had not followed him out.
’That thing... seems to only be active within the Illusion Corridor.’
"We’re safe for now," he said in a low voice, but his gaze grew even more solemn.
He had heard the last words of the four members of the Curse of the Dead Squad.
Samael was their captain, and now he was dead. The remaining four members of the squad had been wiped out. The Withered Council would not let this rest.
Then there was the Deep Red Royal Court. Blood Slaughter was dead, and Phoenix would surely know by now.
What was more troublesome was that he now had five Void Anchor Stones, as well as the Token and Recording Crystal he had looted from Blood Slaughter.
The thing deep within the Underground Palace clearly reacted to the Anchor Stones.
’I need to figure out what this Underground Palace is hiding, and fast.’ Ian looked toward the light in the depths of the cavern.
He rested for ten minutes. Once his breathing had steadied, he stood up.
"Gaga, let’s go."
"Where to, gaa?"
"To find a safe place and see what spoils we’ve managed to get."
