Chapter 442 Friends. What are they for?
[THIRD BRANCH ACTIVATE: THE END OF TIME!]
"Boom!"
At the instant that Black Alex uttered this incantation, the wooden ball that he threw transformed.
It began to change its body, mimicking the appearance and shape of a boat.
To anyone who sees this boat right now, they will just see it as a normal sailing boat.
But if it were Alina or Professor Frances who sees this boat, they will surely react, as this boat appeared to be similar to the boat that the Great TimeMaster had summoned before!
This boat even exuded the same powerful Time aura that the Great Timemaster boat had, making it appear as extremely dangerous.
The only difference between the two boats was that Alex"s boat was way smaller, as its body was only as large as a human being.
Nonetheless, all the bodies a.s.san had sent towards Black Alex were affected by the sudden appearance of this boat.
"Gluong…"
A wave of green energy shot out of the boat, which proceeded to cover a.s.san"s sent bodies. Once this energy has made contact with them, Black Alex"s attackers immediately froze on their tracks, as if the green energy had stopped them from moving at all.
All of their attempts to cut Black Alex down had failed, and even their attempts to send out energy-based attacks were futile too, as the green energy just smothered them back into nothingness.
No matter what way these a.s.sa.s.sins tried to free themselves from the boat"s suppression, all of it failed as they were still stuck on their current position.
They can only watch helplessly as Black Alex and White Alex approached them with murderous intentions present on their faces.
"a.s.san, as you can see, this spell of mine is something that is unique, even to the standards of the Abyss." Black Alex muttered as he and White Alex continued to saunter towards their captured opponents. There was only a light strut on his movements, making it look like he was in control of the whole situation.
This was further proved when he continued to talk in a confident, uncaring tone.
"Using Abyss Magic to meddle with Time is something that many Abyss Magicians find hard to do. But because of my status as an Abyss Envoy, and my connections with all the Seven Sins, formulating a spell like this is easy for me."
"…"
"I had to use all of the Seven Sins just to make this spell. That"s something… that made the Abyss curious." Black Alex continued to say as he stopped in front of his opponents. "The Abyss is happy with my actions and they told me that if I keep up with this, becoming a Sixth Stage Being will be a piece of cake for me."
His eyes, which were closed as he activated his power, were now opened in their entirety, with their black-lidded pupils staring intently at Black Alex"s opponents.
"But my power is still primarily on controlling the Seven Sins, so my power over Time is still weak compared to a Chronomancer. And it will stay that way until the end. But this power… is enough to beat you, a.s.san."
The boat then continued to pump out more green energy at this point, which resulted on the sudden increase of pressure on the captured bodies.
Blood began to leak out of their orifices, making their sack-like cloth turn red. Their bodies, which should have been unable to move at all, could be seen to be s.h.i.+vering as they were racked by more and more unseen attacks from Alex"s boat.
White Alex, who was standing right beside Alex while all of this was happening, only shook his head from what he had witnessed.
"Black Alex, showing off your domineering power is something that you must do here, but sometimes, too much showing off is too bad." White Alex murmured as he swung his sword down.
"Schwing!"
White Alex"s sword cleaved through the heads of this captured opponents, quickly decapitating them in an efficient manner.
His sword, which was buzzing with all the killing intent fed on it, did not face any resistance from any of its victims.
"Thud thud thud."
A series of dull thumping sounds echoed all around the place as numerous heads fell down on the floor. Blood could be seen spurting out of the headless bodies, creating a grisly scene that made Kid Alex tremble and almost cry.
In face of this "unclean" scene, Black Alex and White Alex kept quiet.
"a.s.san, I know that you are much powerful than this. Even if you"re still a Peak Fifth Stage Being, your skills and abilities are enough for you to fight against a Sixth Stage Being. Don"t even lie to me. The Abyss can feel your power. "Black Alex suddenly blurted out as he kicked away the bodies littered around him.
He ignored the blood pooling on the floor as he looked at the upper right corner of the vault.
There was no triumphant expression on his face as he just looked disappointed, as if what had happened earlier did not make him happy at all.
The boat that he had summoned earlier had been recalled by him already, reverting back to its position on the Seven-Branched Tree.
As this Seven –Branched Tree began to fade away behind him, Black Alex continued to stare at then upper right corner of the room, as if he was waiting for something to come out there.
"…."
Seeing that nothing was happening at this point, Black Alex"s face began to turn red from rage.
"a.s.san! I don"t give a f**k on why you are acting like this! But if you are just playing around here, then I will ignore you already! I cannot waste my time with you anymore, as I have an important mission for the Abyss!" Black Alex roared out as he pointed his finger at place that he had been staring at.
"Now, if you still want to have your fight, then fight me in your best state. If not, then just stay there politely and let me do my job!"
"…" a.s.san, who had been noisy ever since Black Alex entered the vault, was nowhere to be heard at this point. Even under Black Alex"s provocations, he did not give any reply at all.
It was as if he had already left this place, leaving nothing, not even his tracks.
This realization appeared to have made Black Alex irritated, and it was obvious from his livid face that he could be las.h.i.+ng angrily at anything right now. The only thing that was stopping Black Alex from las.h.i.+ng out was the mission itself, which is still ticking urgently on their heads.
"That guy… he"s still the same as before. He still likes to play pranks. That… must have been his Dao. The Dao of Pranks." White Alex wryly said as he flicked the blood off his sword.
His sword has reverted back into this pristine white state, making it look as pure as a maiden. White Alex then sheathed this sword back into its container, which elicited a soft hum from the sword.
"If he tries to prank me one more time, I swear I will call down the Abyss to end him." Black Alex replied as he shook his head.
He then summoned Gluttony and Greed out of their secluded state. He commanded these two to devour the bodies on the floor, including all the blood that spilled out of them.
These two sprites happily complied with Black Alex"s request, with the both of them opening their mouths in monstrous proportions as they sucked the bodies around them.
A sickening, gurgling sound filled the air as Gluttony and Greed did their work, which made Kid Alex look more frightened.
"a.s.san… he did not follow the command given to him by Emperor Litch. The a.s.san that we met here… was just a piece of his consciousness. The real a.s.san... is not really in this place anymore. That"s the reason why we were able to defeat these bodies easily." White Alex said wistfully as he watched Gluttony siphoning the blood like it was just a smoothie.
"Hmph, if the real a.s.san was here, then my [END OF TIME] spell can only slow his bodies down for just a moment. That is the fight that I am expecting earlier… But what do I get? Just a chump sum of his leftover? Bah! He"s clearly offending the Abyss with these actions!" Black Alex snarled as he snapped his fingers impatiently.
It was obvious that he was still unhappy with what had happened, and this unhappiness made both Greed and Gluttony hasten their actions.
"Why are you unhappy? If a.s.san were doing things like this, then that means that he still treats the original Alex as his friend. That"s the only reason why he disobeyed orders." White Alex replied as he tilted his head. "If he really wants to hurt the original Alex, then his full-powered self should have been the one in this place…"
"But he did not do that, as he just placed a weak part of him in here. It was as if… he wanted the original Alex to succeed on his plans." Black Alex murmured as his face continued to appear gloomy.
"Why are you still unhappy with that, Black Alex? Now that we can obtain the items here easily, shouldn"t you rejoice at all?"
"Rejoice my a.s.s! As long as I am unable to fully defeat a.s.san, I will not be able to achieve my full potential!" Black Alex shot back against White Alex"s logical question. "I don"t care if he is treating the original Alex as his friend. I only want to defeat him, fair and square! The Abyss agrees with me on that too!"
"Well… you can worry about that later. For now, why don"t we just proceed with our plan?" White Alex muttered as he adjusted his hold on the still unconscious Wisteria. "Let"s take the items away already!"
"No. We don"t need to take the items away anymore." Black Alex suddenly said, which made White Alex look at him incredulously.
"We don"t need to take the items anymore? But that-"
"Instead of taking them away, let"s just use these items right here in the storage vault." Black Alex replied as he hastened his walking pace.
White Alex and Kid Alex sped up as they followed him, with their faces looking slightly confused from the words that Black Alex just said.
Black Alex only stopped walking once he reached the center of the storage vault, which had a coffin erected on it.
There are no mirrors present on this coffin, which makes it a closed casket. Whatever was inside it was unknown, although from the way that the coffin was placed here in the vault, it must be something extremely important.
Just the geometric design on the coffin"s red, glistening surface was enough to show that the coffin itself was a precious object. Since the coffin was already like this, then whatever was inside this coffin must be precious too.
"The original Alex just told us that the items that we need for the ritual are inside this storage vault. That means that as long as we get these items, we can start the ritual already." Black Alex said as he began to caress the coffin. "Since the items that we need are already inside this vault, we can just start the ritual inside this vault too! Nothing wrong will happen even if we did that. The Abyss…. also a.s.sured me that nothing wrong will happen here!"
"You want us to do the ritual here? Hmm… that"s unconventional, but I think it might work." White Alex replied as he began stroking the coffin too.
Kid Alex did not want to have himself left out, so he stretched his hands to touch the coffin"s cold, metallic surface.
"That"s enough stroking for today. White Alex, go and get the rocks and the keys. As for you Kid Alex, start scribbling the symbols on the floor already." Black Alex barked out these orders as he removed his hands away from the coffin. His eyes glinted menacingly for a second as he stared at the coffin, although he quickly wiped this look away as he averted his gaze. "The Abyss is hungry already, so we must quickly satisfy it. If we don"t do this ritual right now, the Abyss might take us as its food…"