Chapter 157: Destruction
Xiao Lin walked toward the castle walls and noticed they were blank; the Ancient Normese words had completely disappeared. He scratched his head as he smiled awkwardly. “You’ll need to give me some time, my mind is a mess at the moment. It’s like I just woke up from a very long dream.”
Lilith shrugged, looking at the thickening dark clouds. “You’ll need to hurry up, or we’ll be stuck dreaming here forever.”
Xiao Lin gulped, noticing how weak he felt. Thankfully, Lilith had gathered quite a bit of water and he felt refreshed after drinking it. Closing his eyes, he tried to remember everything that happened.
He had noticed the Ancient Normese words that were on the walls, and prepared to translate and a.n.a.lyze them. He could still vividly remember that. However, after that, his memories were very vague. It was as if he had fallen asleep the entire time.
Of course, that was just what Xiao Lin felt, from Lilith’s perspective, he was trapped in a furious obsession for the next few days, tirelessly translating the words on the wall at a rapid speed.
If the high priest’s soul came over from the blood-colored world, then from the moment he entered that frenzy, Xiao Lin had probably lost his consciousness.
This was not the first time Xiao Lin encountered possessive magic. That last night in New Washington, the American, Norn, was probably also controlled by this spell.
As for why Asabanor chose to possess him then, and even picked Xiao Lin instead of Lilith who was much stronger, the two of them had different thoughts.
Lilith felt that when Xiao Lin was busy translating, he let down his guard to the outside world, and these possession magics were very hard to pull off, with many ways to circ.u.mvent them. If there was enough warning, the magic would usually fail.
Xiao Lin did not think it was that simple. It was obvious that Asabanor’s soul had been following them from the start. When they entered the castle and found the words on the wall, the high priest might have realized the significance of the words. He might have just picked Xiao Lin because Xiao Lin knew Ancient Normese. Plus, he was more of a novice and would probably have been easier to control.
After that, Lilith left the castle in frustration, but as the words on the walls were read, the world started to go through shocking changes. Lilith felt something was off as she was leaving, and she also recalled what happened to Norn in New Washington, which caused her to suspect that Xiao Lin had fallen to the same magic. In the Final Land, the only one who could pull off that spell was Asabanor.
That was what Xiao Lin managed to gather from Lilith’s information. As for what happened in his spiritual world–which was what he was calling it–the high priest tried to extinguish his soul. When his consciousness was trapped within that freezing cold, it was only thanks to that small flame that he could wake up.
The thing that puzzled Xiao Lin the most was the ending. That spark gave him warmth and helped him wake up, but it was impossible to fight the powerful Asabanor with just that. Xiao Lin was very clear that the thing that really saved him was that mystical light, as well as the man that was formed by those tadpole-like words.
Xiao Lin let out a sigh. If those words were from the crystal walls, then what should his next step be? He decided to experiment. He chanted those strange Ancient Normese words in his heart. Just like when he was using the draconic power, he tried to regulate the output as he pleased.
He was only met with failure. No matter what he tried, nothing changed. The sky suddenly turned darker as the sounds of violent winds could be heard and the castle behind them started to rumble.
“Let’s leave!”
The two of them immediately fled toward the plains far away. When they were halfway there, they heard loud crashing noises as the castle behind them collapsed. Xiao Lin turned around to see a pile of ruins behind him before awkwardly saying, “If that really is Ivanovich’s grave, do you think he’s going to haunt us for this?”
Lilith kept her eyes forward. “That would require us to be alive! Run, quickly!”
Xiao Lin turned around and sucked in a breath. At the fringes of the plains, a blackish-grey and ma.s.sive tornado was forming, linking the sky with the earth. Everywhere it pa.s.sed left the earth shattered, and even the sky broke apart like gla.s.s, getting absorbed into the tornado.
“What is this!”
“This world is probably at its end!”
“Just because we came here? What kind of joke is this!”
With that, Xiao Lin suddenly paused. If they were to think about what they had done since they came, then it would only be one thing. He had absorbed all the words on the crystal wall. If he were to guess, the words should all be in his body at the moment.
Which is to say, was he responsible for destroying this world?
Xiao Lin jumped in fright at the thought, but he did not have time to regret it. What was important at that moment was escaping.
The tornado did not move quickly, but it was getting larger and larger. What caused Xiao Lin and Lilith to lose hope was, behind them, even more tornadoes were forming, surrounding the whole world.
Numerous tornadoes were quickly going to merge into one. The two of them did not have anywhere to run. They were at the center of all the tornadoes, so they were just sitting ducks. No matter how they struggled, they could only look as the tornadoes surrounding them started to get closer, waiting to be enveloped.
The two of them were deathly pale. In the face of that overwhelming power, even the two SS-rank talents did not have any chance.
“Die, you despicable demons!”
Then, a sharp voice could be heard, and what followed was a black shadow. It looked nothing like a woman, and only its basic organs could be vaguely made out in the blurry shadow.
It was high priest Asabanor! He really did just retreat from Xiao Lin’s body earlier instead of being eliminated. However, it seemed that he still refused to give up. Xiao Lin and Lilith were already panicked, and they were filled with anger. With the appearance of an outlet for their frustrations, they both cried out and withdrew their weapons, fearlessly rushing forward.