NOVGO.NET Chapter 993
The killing intent is visible to my eyes; I don’t even need to rely on any other senses to see it. It lights up like red and purple lightning bolts streaking through the primordial aura in the air.
Almost instantly, every single one of our body doubles is struck, and they freeze on the spot, unable to move at all.
I get to feel the absurd sensation nine times from my own doubles, then nine times again from Maria’s before I feel the aura actually hit my real body.
It gives me just enough understanding of the situation to put up the proper defenses.
I activate my Primordial Defense and siphon all of the corruption filled with primordial-grade demonic essence up through my arms, past my neck, and into my head.
Bright flashes of Source resin flood away from Maria’s wings and out from her sword to cover her head as well in a similar fashion.
Still, the intense shock of the mental attack hits our psyches with so much pressure we’re frozen in place for a few milliseconds.
The control over my energy forms even wavers, the glyphs reinforcing my body shift in strange patterns, and the shock of the blow completely disconnects my senses from the outside zone for a moment.
The fact that so many doubles were just destroyed, and I don’t have the conscious idea to create more, sets two things in motion.
The first is all three daggers coming toward our real bodies, and the second is all of the spread-out blobs of Primordial Aura connecting directly to me rather than finding a new body double nearby.
It increases my recovery speed and shakes me out of my daze in time.
I have to use the outdated escape method, grabbing Maria’s hand and shadowstepping away.
We don’t even go to a new area of forest. I retreat even further away from the Royal Family Head, into a portion of Primordial Trees that are all entirely claimed.
As the Corruption and Source Resin spread back out into our bodies, we activate our body doubles again to give us more mobility before the daggers catch up. However, there is a horrific ringing in our ears, and my perception sensitivity is half as clear as it was moments ago.
I start to cycle my bright red ethereal fire through my body, and use an old cycling technique to pour it into Maria’s body as well.
The pristine white and blue archangel’s form is flooded with red fire, and we continue swapping our way through forest that’s already been traveled through while healing. In a matter of seconds, the foggy vision and ringing sounds go away, but the Royal Demon’s yelling in our minds does not.
“Where is he? The Fallen One! There is no way you could have made it up this far without him, especially with that skill….”
We don’t respond, and slowly get back into a rhythm.
Just as we break out of the forest we’ve already linked to my system, and begin touching new trees, another shockwave of killing intent destroys every one of our doubles, and puts us into a moment of shock again.
“Do not ignore me! You! The one who wields fire. Show me the soul weapon you’ve been hiding. It must be you!”
Last time, we only regained our consciousness moments before disaster. This time, we were stuck much further away, and structured our mental protection in a more efficient fashion.
In fact, I don’t even lose any major sensory function, there is only a sharp pain and some ringing.
We’re able to summon our body doubles and continue linking worlds almost instantly.
I watch my linked worlds surpass 96 billion in the back of my mind as he yells again and sends another wave of mental attacks from afar.
“This is enough playing around! I’ve deduced enough. She holds the resin of an origin world, and you must be the one who steals skills. Tell me, other than the Creator’s Legacy, you must have come in contact with another fated soul artifact. The Originator’s texts have never been wrong. I must get my hands on it, that is how I can make it out of here…”
This time, the mental wave is not even powerful enough to make me waver. All I feel is a slight echoing sound on the outer edges of my consciousness for a moment, but no actual damage is done. The ringing and blurry vision are avoided.
Yet, the gravity in the atmosphere becomes extremely tense. I feel the Demon’s eyes tracking me in particular, as though he’s lost interest in Maria altogether.
He doesn’t send any mental attacks at all for a few full seconds. I’m able to take advantage of this and touch hundreds more trees, bringing my linked worlds past 97 billion.
This isn’t just from my efforts.
The linking of the outer settlements has spread like wildfire, creating a bright crescent of domains in my mind, stretching to wrap around almost a quarter of the distance to envelop the neutral zone separating the settlements from the demon-owned land in the center of the garden.
The spread of linked domains even pushes outward far further than I traveled with Ulgar when we first got here, but the further out they link, the fewer Primordial Trees there are, and the lower the world count gets. It’s clear the focus is concentrated on linking more domains as close to the neutral zone as possible.
All of my energy pathways pulse with excitement, as I’m getting closer and closer to unlocking a new perk, but I feel this Demon’s eyes digging into my soul no matter where I run.
He clearly does not know what my plan is with these trees but doesn’t seem to care. This Royal Family Head uses an advanced form of Primordial Aura to look deeper into me than I can even see myself.
At first, it just feels hot, like there are eyes on me that I can’t shake off.
Then it starts to affect my movement speed. My joints start to burn with sharp pain on especially fast movements, then my muscles even become sore out of the blue.
I feel a wave of perception seep past all my mental defenses and deep into my soul.
It has a level of power that I can’t touch yet, like the barriers of those domains, and the seal surrounding my dormant soul sword.
There is also one more thing deep inside my soul that I do not want this Demon to see… That is the suppressed soul bond with Ember, that still faintly shows the direction he’s hiding in. My current bond with Maria is so close and shines so bright that it shields it from immediate detection.
However, I know if this Demon digs far enough, he’ll see it. So, I make the decision to move my soul sword closer to the surface of my consciousness and let him lay his gaze on that first.
When the unblockable aura touches the dark outer layering of my dormant sword, I feel an instant repulsion in the depths of my mind. At the same time, the Demon’s purple and rainbow eyes widen, and he contracts this advanced Primordial Aura back in an instant.
“It’s real… The Originator’s Amplifier is real…” echoes in my mind, and tens of times more killing intent crackles out from this Demon’s invisible body who stands high up on the stump of a dying primordial tree.