manynovel Page 109
Page 109
Behind them, the shadows on the wall twisted and turned, and "Darkness" let out a wanton, eerie laugh, saying:
"He's just a man who's almost in his coffin, what's there to be afraid of... Even if the other party really wants to deal with you, he'll only become our nourishment."
Ignoring the provocative words of "darkness," Lak slowly turned around, looked at the shadow calmly, and said, "If your various primal powers had not been scattered, and you were not just a main will that had no use except for memories and meager strength, then I would not even be afraid to be an enemy of the kingdom now."
"As for now, let's be careful... Instead of that, don't you have a way to get me back to my peak condition?"
Looking at his heavily puffy eyes in the mirror, Lark felt a little heartbroken.
"Hey! What are you chirping about?! Aren't you polite enough?!" The "Darkness" in the corner was angered by Lak's disdainful attitude and shouted indignantly:
“You should be glad that what you have encountered is the dark side of the entire world, the most revered and pure will of the 'Abyss' Lord. I am above all origins.”
"When you merged with me, you already obtained something that all humans yearn for but cannot obtain—immortality! Do you understand? True immortality! Your lifespan has already been broken, enough to sustain you until the end of this world's collapse!"
"Your current aged appearance is just a disguise to avoid arousing suspicion from humans. Your body has long since recovered to its peak condition. It's just that... you're the one who researches the most complicated and mentally taxing ritual magic, which has affected even your outward appearance."
"You must understand, even if you obtain other sources that can prolong life, you will have to pay a severe price... unlike the will of the Abyss, which can grant you eternal life without any cost—"
"Darkness" said with no small amount of pride.
"Oh?" Lark showed slight interest.
"Are there other ways to obtain the 'original' power of eternal life? Wasn't the Abyss created to destroy this world?"
“You’re being far too simplistic, Lark. We live on the dark side of this world, wearing it down, eroding it, polluting it, and corrupting everything in it… dragging it into perpetual stagnation and collapse—but it is precisely because of this that our erosion of life is all-pervasive.”
The will of the abyss thought for a moment, then decided to let go and said to Lak:
"My memories have just returned somewhat, so I can now briefly explain two types of 'sources' that can grant immortality and unleash terrifying power:"
As "Darkness" boasted, it let out increasingly sinister laughter—
"One type is the origin of 'bloodlust,' which involves constantly absorbing the blood and energy of living beings to prolong one's own life and strengthen oneself."
"What appears to be an equivalent, cyclical transaction is actually just a continuous increase in demands until all living beings in the world are devoured."
"A creature that comes into contact with that source will fall into a frenzied thirst for blood, fear the sacred power of sunlight, and become a bloodthirsty being in the shadows..."
Chapter 143 Flesh and Blood Suffering, Mechanical Ascension to Godhood!!!
A chilling coldness spread through the air.
The basement of the church.
Archbishop Hope and Pope Brad stood in front of a giant, fixed ice ball.
Inside the crystal-clear ice ball, a snow-white, sacred cloth envelops a mature, voluptuous woman, who appears to be asleep, her hands clasped in front of her chest, a faint blush on her cheeks…
A cascade of long, silvery-white hair lay frozen in the ice, tiny ice crystals clinging to her frosty eyelashes, evoking a sense of awe.
"This is truly the most perfect crystal ball figure ever... Oh no, cough cough, I mean, the backlash from the Heart of Ice is a bit too powerful..."
Archbishop Hope instinctively blurted out the truth, then realized the Pope was still present, and quickly coughed a few times to explain himself.
Turning his head, he found Pope Brad staring intently at Saintess Lena in the ice puck, completely oblivious to his somewhat disrespectful words.
"His Holiness the Pope? His Holiness Pope Brad?"
Hope called out with slight confusion, and Pope Brad finally snapped out of his reverie, suppressing the covetousness in his eyes. Supporting himself with his jeweled scepter, he hunched over and said:
"You're right, it is indeed the most perfect, no, the most difficult situation—"
"As expected, what should Saintess Lena do now?"
Hope's heart skipped a beat, but then she saw Pope Brad reveal a kind and serene smile:
“Hope, you’re still the same… You easily lose your composure when it comes to the Saintess: I’m just saying it’s a bit tricky, but it’s not unsolvable. Believe me—I want to and have a better way to unfreeze Saintess Lena than any of you.”
"Okay, go and prepare some ritual materials for me first. Also, find some herbs with warming and strong effects. I need some time to study the backlash situation."
Brad bent down and explained the necessary materials to Hope. Hope quickly calmed herself down and memorized them one by one. Then, with a look of reverence and gratitude, she bowed to Brad.
"Please wait a moment, Your Holiness. I will gather the materials shortly. Please remain here and do not move..."
Hope was slightly worried about Pope Brad, who had some mobility issues, but access to the church's basement was restricted, and there was no one to watch over it for the time being. Anyway, she would be back soon, so she simply gave him these instructions.
"Don't worry, child, I'm not going anywhere." Pope Brad, on the other hand, seemed to be trying to reassure himself, and his tone was somewhat deliberate, as if he was eager to send the child away.
Hope nodded quickly, then confirmed the effects of the herbs Pope Brad had mentioned, mainly those that were warming and uplifting to the emotional threshold, before confidently walking away.
Brad waved his mechanical arm slightly, smiling as he watched Hope disappear down the basement stairs...
Turning around, Brad's deep gaze fell upon the ice ball radiating coldness before him, and the girl encased within it, wearing an ice-blue gemstone necklace—
With a clang, the jeweled scepter supporting his body was casually tossed to the ground. Brad stretched out his body like a fully healthy person, and sparks from the friction frequently flashed in the darkness of the basement.
With cracking sounds coming from all over his body, Brad's movements, which were initially stiff, gradually became strangely fluid as he walked step by step toward the hockey puck.
pat.
Pope Brad placed one hand on the surface of the sphere, which emanated a chilling aura, accompanied by a voice filled with appreciation:
"What a beauty……"
Despite the sphere emitting a freezing, inflicting chill to protect its host, Brad showed no signs of feeling cold.
Knowing that the relic and its host, who had been corrupted, could not perceive the outside world, Brad, now alone in the basement, shed his kind and gentle facade, revealing a face full of greed and desire.
"So beautiful...it's really too beautiful..."
One eye was fixed intently on the ice puck, while the other prosthetic eye's pupil remained eerily fixed. Brad's expression was extremely twisted and terrifying. He licked his dry, cracked lips, his eyes reflecting undisguised desire, and a thick, nauseating, dark sound echoed in the basement:
"So beautiful... A heart of ice..."
……
"Another origin is the origin of 'decaying artifacts'."
The Magician's Round Tower.
The room of Ang Lac, the friend of the second generation hero.
"Darkness" continued to boast to Lak with obvious pride:
"That is a power that can easily erode countless sacred artifacts in the Holy Church, and even all the mineral-rich artifacts in the world. Of course, the purer and more refined the artifact, the stronger the power it can give back."
"If we're talking about the absolute best, it would be the Round Table, a divine artifact from the Kingdom of Kur, and the Ice Heart, a sacred relic from the Holy Church. Don't be fooled by the fact that various races are the mainstream on the continent now; the decay of those sacred artifacts that have accumulated power for nearly a thousand or even ten thousand years is incredibly terrifying!"
"This... is an extremely useful dark power."
Lak nodded in agreement, then asked curiously, "Does this kind of source have no side effects?"
"For the Abyss, no source has any side effects, since it was originally part of the process of destroying the world..."
The will of the abyss snorted softly, then let out a strange laugh: "However, it's a different story for creatures that intend to plunder those origins."
"The mortal artifact's realization of immortality is extremely distorted. It causes the user to gradually abandon their flesh and blood body and transform their body into a mechanical material like a sacred artifact. This transformation is irreversible."
"But the source of the abyss has this endless allure. Even before I was born, the impure thoughts leaked from this source spread lies that tempted people to fall into depravity all over the world."
"What lie?"
Lak reached out and, while stroking the shadows on the wall, asked a question, feeling for the first time that it was actually a good thing that the "Abyss" had lost all its various origins and was left with only its will.
"Heh heh, a myth that's still firmly believed in by a bunch of pedantic, decadent fools..."
The will of the abyss twisted with pleasure, its voice like a murmur, a seductive whisper:
"Flesh and blood ache, machines ascend to godhood—!!!"
……
The deep white stretched as far as the eye could see.
The pure white mist blurred the view, like soft, loose clouds, endlessly enveloping a "sky".
At this moment, in the center of the sky, where countless clouds gather.
A dressing table made of pure ice sits in the center.
A woman with a head of smooth, pure white hair cascaded down her back. She sat in front of the ice mirror on her dressing table, quietly applying her makeup. Her naturally elegant face had a slightly mature look. The tight-fitting saintly dress accentuated her slender curves, and her beautiful face exuded a sacred and inviolable aura.
But in the blink of an eye, she tried to force a cute wink at the bronze mirror~
Chapter 144 Adolescent "Loser Girl" Won't Dream of a Blonde Boy
"I heard that men these days fall for this kind of thing, something like a thousand-layered routine? Pure Heart, what do you think?"
in white space.
Lena touched her naturally wrinkle-free cheeks, then deliberately blinked faster, while simultaneously grabbing her hair and creating a double ponytail hairstyle.
On his chest, the icy blue gem sparkled. He heard his holy maiden lower her eyes shyly, asking for the three thousand eight hundredth time in a sweet, coquettish voice:
"Would Mino like this?"
"ah#%@%%!!!!"
The next moment, Iceheart exploded, uttering a barrage of profanities, but these were all blocked by the green runes inscribed on her body. Only the rapidly flashing light revealed her inner rage.
After flickering for a long time, the clouds and mist around the white space gradually faded, and the surrounding scenery seemed to blend together.
At this moment, Bingjie Zhixin, having calmed down, forced out a steady voice and asked in a deep voice, "Holy Maiden, do you know... what state you are in right now?"
"What state is she in?" The Ice Saintess Lena pondered for a moment, her icy aura lingering on her aloof and unapproachable face.
She quickly tilted her head:
"The state of a girl in love?"
"It's a dream state that's been severely backfired on!!!" Iceheart couldn't help but roar like a menopausal woman.
"Your body is currently asleep inside the ice! Only your spirit continues to exist in this eternal and lucid dream... It's been half a month already, do you want to get out of there or not?!"
At this point, even Saintess Lena was momentarily dazed, realizing the gravity of the situation. She hadn't expected that she would be frozen in ice for a full month due to the backlash—
"If you say so..."
Lena's expression gradually turned serious. She lowered her head and asked Iceheart with great seriousness:
"My body has been frozen, so is the age difference between my body and Minola's equivalent to being one month closer?"
"Aaaaaaaahh ...