Chapter 1229 Zefal <TOC> Chapter 1231 Return to Ice Valley
Translator: SumTLMan
The young girl stood at a close proximity to Angel, her actions swift like a bolt of lightning. Even though Angel’s reaction speed had significantly improved, it was no easy task to evade her surprise attack at such a short distance.
It seemed as if the young girl’s bizarre, non-human hand was about to make contact with Angel.
Then, a distinct clang sounded.
A crimson chain materialized, wrapping around the wrist of the strange hand, sparking as it made contact.
It was Popoca who made his move. However, his power had been diminished to the level of a novice apprentice. He managed to block the girl for just a split second before he was blown back by the terrifying force transmitted through the chain, slamming him into the ground ten meters away.
Yet, this fraction of a second bought Angel the precious time he needed to react.
Not only did Angel dodge the attack successfully, he even seized this opportunity to counterstrike.
The young girl was kicked fiercely, sent flying into a distant tree. The tree was broken in half due to the impact, and the girl slowly slid down, landing seated on the ground.
“Are you okay?” Angel quickly moved to Popoca’s side.
Popoca’s cloak had been torn off, revealing his gaunt face, eerily pale.
“I’m okay,” Popoca responded in a low voice.
After checking Popoca’s condition with a ‘Detect Injury’ spell and confirming that he was not seriously injured, Angel turned his attention towards the instigator of this incident. Her transformed hand had reverted back to its previous frail, pale state. She sat on the ground, looking somewhat distressed.
However, the creepy laughter still echoed from beneath her hair.
The girl’s face was obscured by her scattered hair.
But the chilling laughter, coupled with her previous sudden transformation, cloaked her in a shroud of terror.
Angel watched her cautiously. The girl was no longer the timid child that was surrounded by the apprentices earlier. Instead, she exuded an eerie sense of incongruity.
Who was she? And what about her transformed hand, was it grafted, or was that her true form?
A faint light flickered in Angel’s eyes.
Second-level trick, Dispel Illusion!
“Human?” Angel’s eyebrows knitted together. After the Dispel Illusion examination, the aura of the young girl appeared to be entirely human, without any trace of abnormalities. However, the previous transformation could not have been an illusion.
Angel looked towards the distance. The apprentice wizards had fled, but some had not gone far, still sneaking glances at them. Angel noticed their eyes filled with surprise, and even a hint of fear, when they saw the girl’s Bizarre Transformation, a stark contrast from their previous arrogance.
Eyes can hardly lie. This meant that when they confronted this girl, she did not manifest this transformation?
As Angel found himself bewildered, the seemingly paralyzed little girl on the ground made her move. Gradually, she lifted her head, allowing her ebony hair, which had obscured her face, to fall to either side, unveiling an unremarkable and pristine visage.
Unexpectedly, the corners of her mouth began to curl upwards and, alarmingly, started to split apart.
The split extended horrifyingly to the roots of her ears, revealing sharp, beast-like teeth within her mouth, along with the blurry sight of raw flesh.
The transformation wasn’t limited to her face; her neck started to elongate. However, it seemed her skin wasn’t equipped to adapt to the stretch, causing her neck skin to split, unveiling the crimson muscles and stark white bones underneath.
Bone protrusions extended outward like barbs, and her neck slithered like a serpent, striking towards Angel.
Unyielding, Angel decided to stand his ground and engage her in a direct combat.
Angel’s intention was to neutralize her body first, but her skull, snaking and winding like a serpentine, consistently interfered with him.
During this engagement, Angel realized that with each contact with the girl, he could sense a terrifying, colossal force, something he’d never experienced even with Zefal.
The physical strength of this little girl was absolutely superior to that of Zefal!
Moreover, her serpentine neck did not hinder her, but instead endowed her with greater flexibility, allowing her to employ a variety of unforeseen tactics.
If Angel was not cautious, he would find himself ensnared by her; her neck bone wound around his waist like a coil, immediately giving a chilling impression of being strangled to death.
It was only by employing the ‘domain’ green rune that Angel was able to break free from her death grip.
Angel retreated several meters with a backward leap.
“Shop owner, let me assist you,” Greaves appeared at Angel’s side at this moment, his eyes alight with an eager battle spirit.
“No need yet.”
After Angel’s response, he advanced slowly, his aura escalating with each step, while the golden hair that covered his right eye was blown away by a gust of his own might.
Angel began to channel nightmare aura towards his right eye.
He had always considered attempting to activate his right eye in the heat of battle, and this was the perfect opportunity.
However, just as his right eye started to flicker with a faint radiance, the little girl seemed to sense something. A feeling of impending danger caused her to suddenly stand and retreat several steps back.
Simultaneously, a thunderous roar suddenly echoed across the sky.
Angel was momentarily stunned as he witnessed the little girl’s body elongate even further. Her legs transformed into long bone tails, resembling a millipede, extending to over ten meters in length!
This scene of metamorphosis, resembling an enormous centipede, was utterly beyond the realm of imagination.
In a moment of stupefaction, Angel swiftly burrowed into the earth.
Alertness sparked in Angel, his instincts bracing for an imminent assault as the other might emerge from underground.
Unexpectedly, his adversary didn’t move toward Angel but chose a spot some tens of meters away, amidst a fog of deathly aura.
The earth began to loosen, and from the bowels of the ground, a ghastly little girl emerged, snapping at the silent Zefal.
The once petite mouth transformed into a gaping maw, swallowing Zefal whole before plunging back into the earth without hesitation. As the earth roiled in its wake, the landscape convulsed, uprooting countless trees, and eventually disappeared in the distance.
After a long moment, Greaves finally turned to Angel and said, “Shop owner, she… she seems to have left.”
“I saw it.”
Bewilderment danced in Angel’s eyes. The sudden attack on him, the subsequent retreat, and then the audacity to devour Zefal and disappear — what did it all mean?
Angel was left pondering.
Nevertheless, his original intention had been to deal with Zefal. Now that Zefal had fallen into the hands of that monstrous entity, the outcome wouldn’t be pleasant.
As for the little girl, she was shrouded in mystery. Although Angel was not keen on stirring up trouble, if she chose to launch an attack unprovoked, then Angel must be prepared for anything.
At least, he must first unravel her origin!
With a swift motion, Angel traversed a kilometer with blinding speed.
On the ground, a dozen wizard apprentices were stumbling away in panic. Angel landed directly in front of them, causing instant distress among them.
“I bear you no ill will. Relax. I merely need you to answer a few questions,” Angel’s voice was calm and, coupled with his show of power earlier, the crowd understood that there was no hope in resisting, even collectively. After exchanging glances, their tension finally eased.
“Sir, please, speak your mind,” responded the only female apprentice on the scene. She tried to maintain a composed countenance, but her twitching eye betrayed an excessive strain.
“You must have observed what just transpired. I need to understand the origin of that little girl that you were pursuing.”
The female apprentice pondered for a moment and then explained, “We do not know her background. We encountered her at Thorn Ridge…”
After a while, Angel had a basic understanding of the little girl’s situation, gathered from the information provided. They had stumbled upon the girl at Thorn Ridge.
Thorn Ridge, located southeast, was not far from Cold Ancient Ruins and was so named because of the black thorns that flourished there.
The band of apprentices had willingly stayed behind in the Abyss stronghold city, their hearts set on the quest for opportunity and breakthroughs. Together, they undertook trials and tribulations, venturing from Black Rock City into the Abyss for almost half a year.
It was half a month ago when they came across the little girl in Thorn Ridge. There, in the heart of the ridge, she was bound by countless black thorns, her body near drained of all blood, and she seemed incredibly weak.
Whatever the reasons were, they ended up rescuing the girl and accompanied her to the Cold Ancient Ruins.
According to the girl herself, her name was Ethel.
Ethel admitted that she had forgotten many things and only remembered her own name. Given her young age and the potential she showed as a bloodline side apprentice, everyone took good care of her.
Everything had been going well until an incident occurred a day ago.
Mysteriously, they all fell asleep the previous night, and when they woke, all of their resources had vanished. Along with the missing items, Ethel was also gone.
At first, they didn’t suspect that Ethel had stolen these things, not until traces of her were found outside, and their spatial capsules were seen around her waist. This set off a chain of events.
From their accounts, Angel heard phrases like “Ethel lost her memory”, “she was such a good girl”, “we have no idea why she changed” over and over again.
It was apparent that they initially held Ethel in high regard. Her sudden change had given them quite a shock.
“Is there anything else you’d like to add?” Angel’s gaze swept the crowd. They all shook their heads, his gaze finally landed on an apprentice clothed in a green robe adorned with tree patterns, a wizard apprentice from Gravity Forest.
His forehead was beaded with sweat, his complexion pallid, and his eyes flickered, avoiding direct contact.
“What about you? Do you have anything else to add?” Angel asked as he approached.
He quickly shook his head, “I… I don’t know anything.”
At that moment, the female apprentice who had first spoken to Angel chimed in, “Sir, he just joined our team a few days ago, he hasn’t interacted with Ethel much.”
Angel nodded, neither confirming nor denying her claim, “Not knowing about Ethel doesn’t matter. You can talk about other things, for example, matters concerning Zefal?”