Soul of Negary
chapter-477-30041322

Regardless of what other people were preparing for the return of the so-called King of Evil Spirits, the people gathered around the city lord's manor were currently in shock.

"Lost? What do you mean?" the bishop found it unbelievable that a pastor under him would actually say such a thing.

The city lord's manor was situated at the very center of this border city, all the large paths lead straight to it, and since it was in a relatively high location, anyone would be able to see over half the city from here, so how could they be lost?

However, the fog that was gathering increasingly more around them had caused the bishop's unease to grow gradually stronger.

"Do not panic, his great majesty Eldridge is watching over us. Everyone is here, you can tell us clearly what happened" the bishop helped this pastor stand up and spoke to him in a calm tone, utilizing his mental power to ease the other party's panicked emotions.

"Yes… sir" the pastor slowly calmed back down thanks to the bishop's aid and explained: "We were searching in the manor… for remnants"

If this was earlier, everyone around would have chuckled at him in a mocking tone. Everyone on city lord Dolan's side had already run if they could, in fact, quite a few of those people had already been accepted into their ranks. The so-called act of searching for remnants was actually just them ransacking the manor, meaning that while they were busy fighting Dolan, these pastors were sneaking around.

Of course, they had also sent in people to ransack the manor in a similar manner, and everyone understood that perfectly.

And so, since no one here was an idiot, they waited for this pastor to continue:

"Gradually, we started to hear the sound of crying and laughing throughout the estate. We went to search for them since we thought someone was hiding, but after the fog began to spread, we started to become lost within the estate"

"No matter how we tried to move, we weren't able to leave the estate at all" the man's tone was becoming rapidly fearful as he explained: "It wasn't until the fog had become thoroughly spread out that we managed to leave the city lord's manor and find you, bishop"

"You mean to say that there was something wrong with this fog that would cause us to be lost or trapped here?" the bishop confirmed the unease he felt earlier and tried leading some people down the path leading away from the city lord's manor, but once their eyes became clear again, they found themselves returning to the city lord manor's gates.

The pastor was correct, their movement seemed to have been restricted to inside the fog, their original sense of direction had become completely useless, and unless the fog continued to spread, they would not be able to leave it.

At the same time, the bishop discovered something even more terrifying. By the time he got back to discuss this matter with everyone, he finally noticed that the large group of over a dozen Combatants had become separated at some point, only 5-6 people were still with him.

The bishop didn't notice anything strange at all during this entire process. He could clearly remember still talking to the people who had disappeared just a bit earlier. It was almost as if they had all vanished in a split second.

"The fog is getting thicker" the bishop's expression was becoming grim.

This sudden situation had made him feel like things had gotten way out of control.

Could Dolan have activated some sort of treasure as a last resort?

The bishop thought of this possibility, as there was no other reason for the fog to suddenly spread as soon as Dolan left his estate.

We need to return to the manor, that place is the origin of all of his, perhaps we'll find a solution there.

The bishop stabilized his thoughts and said: "Follow me closely, we're heading into the estate together"

After declaring that, the bishop pushed the gates of the estate that had been closed at some unknown point, only to be greeted by a gust of cold wind that caused even the bishop to shiver.

"Follow…" the bishop declared again, only to notice as he turned around that there were no longer any gates behind him, but instead an empty hallway. None of the people following him earlier was anywhere to be seen either.

Uuuuoooo…

As if it was the middle of winter, the strong breeze carried with it a natural shrieking that caused goosebumps to instinctively appear all over the bishop's body, followed by some chiming clear laughter.

『 Ehehehe, uncle, play a game with me~ 』a voice sounded from behind the bishop.

As he turned his neck, he was greeted with a pale white face. A completely naked young boy was clinging onto his back while severely tilting his head to look at him. The boy's pair of jet-black eyes began to leak bloody tears as the bishop turned around, the bright red liquid was very pronounced on top of the pale white skin.

『 This game is called, 'pretending to be blind' 』the boy laughed out loud, the more he laughed, the larger his mouth became, then with a curt cough, a bloody hand shot out from his mouth towards the bishop's eyes.

Instinctively, the bishop tilted his head away and twisted the muscles on his upper back to fling the young boy away. The muscles of his arms bulged up as an aura of vitality fused with metallic characteristics of his bones to form a glow around his hands, trying to block the attack.

However, the hand from the mouth completely ignored the bishop's actions and phased through his hand like an illusion, then tightly grabbed the bishop's well-maintained face, carrying with it a nauseating stench of blood.

The hand applied enough force for the bishop's face to distort, then pulled it back towards the boy's gaping open mouth.

Even as the bishop was pulled into the young boy's mouth like that, nothing actually changed with his body at all, only the fog around them seemed to have gotten a bit thicker.

…

While the bishop and aristocrats were losing contact with one another, Dolan took advantage of the vast power temporarily brought by Burning Soul Tempering to rush straight towards the Eskin manor, completely ignoring everything that occurred behind him.

All he wanted to do right now was to move faster and faster. His body practically moved like a gust of wind, he could clearly sense his vitality burning away, but he didn't care about that as well. The only thing he cared about currently was to make up for his mistake and save his son.

He could already sense the aura changes within the Eskin manor.

…

Aureum's body leapt backwards and kicked the wall, while leaving a few cracks he leapt forward once again towards his opponent. Under the support of dust, he controlled his body to accumulate all the kinetic energy into a single punch.

As his fist came into contact with Ryan's palm, Ryan's wrist trembled a bit. All the hair on his body stood up as some kinetic energy was expelled through his pores and reduced the force, neutralizing the attack.

Both of them were forced to retreat a step, but Ryan's complexion suddenly became flushed as he opened his mouth and spat out a jet of sword qi.

Aureum's combat experience was basically zero. Although he had suddenly become stronger, reaching the same level of strength as Ryan who was only a step away from becoming a supernatural Pugilist, when it came to real combat, he was at a disadvantage.

The jet of sword qi was extremely fast, forcing Aureum to twist his head to dodge. Even so, the sword qi brushed past his face and still managed to leave a long wound before striking the wall behind him and destroying one of the bricks.

School of Solid Qi, this was the Pugilist school of techniques that Ryan practiced. It was a relatively common school of techniques, only better compared to the run-of-the-mill [Bone Forge Art] that's taught on the streets, and Ryan had practiced these techniques to their very limits. All he needed was a little bit more resources to try and break through his body's physical limit, then attempt to stimulate his Metal Soul through enlightenment and become a supernatural Pugilist.

This was also the reason why he had worked for Dolan.

Seeing Aureum avoid his sword qi, Ryan's lips curled into a smirk. A burst of energy seemed to have been circulating within his body and provided just enough power during this critical moment to stop his retreat. He once again leapt forward with his fist aiming to hit Aureum's head.

As Aureum struggled to put up his hands to stop Ryan's fist, he raised his knee and attacked Aureum's stomach, using the excess momentum to spin and kick Aureum's head, which gave off a clear cracking noise.

As Aureum's body fell down, Ryan still didn't let his guard down and kicked Aureum's head again. Under this extreme force, his head broke off from his neck and flew away, splattering blood everywhere.

This was the brutality of close combat, even a single wrong move can easily be taken advantage of by the enemy to kill you.

"Now it's your turn, you know where the vault is, don't you!?" Ryan breathed heavily for a short moment before leaping out from the window to land in front of Parry, lifting him up with one hand.