Chapter 1279 The Crown Reappears <TOC> Chapter 1281 Scarlet Glow
Translator: SumTLMan
The visage of the crown, so familiar in form, gave Angel a momentary pause.
Of course, he wasn’t unfamiliar with this diadem. Previously, Eliza had even asked him to reproduce it. Every dimension, each minute detail, even each gem, every rune, was etched crystal clear in Angel’s memory!
This very crown was the Scarlet Sovereignty!
The initial reason Eureka was wanted by King Guman and why she fled to this zone forbidden of elemental magic known as Edge Island, as well as why Suis pursued her here… Everything stemmed from this Scarlet Sovereignty.
The Scarlet Sovereignty is a Mysterious Object, the prized jewel that had been cherished by the Kingdom of Guman for countless years.
To this day, Angel still doesn’t know the true purpose of this Mysterious Object. When he saw it appear in Eureka’s palm, a sense of heightened vigilance surged within him.
The power of a Mysterious Object rarely played by the rules.
A strange smile curved Eureka’s lips, and the crown in her palm began to emit a brilliant red glow.
Instinctively, Angel wanted to retreat several steps. However, before he could even move, a beam of red light shot out from the crown in Eureka’s hand and surged straight towards him.
All Angel could see was an overwhelming sea of crimson light. In the distance, he faintly heard Suis’s shout, “Eureka, stop!”
His mind was in turmoil. He couldn’t recall what he’d done. His vision went white, and he plummeted from the sky.
…
Everything felt muddled, the world around him pitch-black.
Slaughter, flashes of swords, battlefields, gunpowder smoke… Various horrifying scenes of bloodshed accompanied by shrill, mocking laughter all flooded his mind.
Angel felt as if he was struggling futilely in a quagmire. But it was of no use; negative energy had begun to assail his very soul.
It was as if he could already see, in the distance, that dark, yawning maw and the abyss of corruption it symbolized, waiting to swallow him whole.
“Is that the final destination?” Angel, lost and bewildered, looked up. The abyss seemed to whisper softly, beckoning him to come closer. Stepping into that enigmatic maw would seemingly dispel the negative energies tormenting him.
No, it’s not about dispersion, it’s about complete integration.
With each step toward the enigmatic abyss, Angel moved as if he was in a trance, as if being guided by an unseen hand to Descend into the Abyss.
As he stood on the edge, Angel peered into its depths.
What he saw shook him: vivid visions of everyone from Pat Manor, including Jon, Leon, and all his family and friends… dead. The perpetrator, a man draped in a black cloak.
The man’s back was turned, but there was something eerily familiar about his silhouette.
Suddenly, the man faced him.
Angel’s eyes widened in disbelief. The man’s face was an exact replica of his own! Yet, his hair was jet-black, his eyes a void of darkness, his pale face twisted into a dangerous smirk.
“Who are you?” Angel managed to muster the words, though unsure how.
“It’s me… you,” the eerie voice echoed back.
“No, you’re not me. I could never do such a thing!” Angel exclaimed, looking at the gruesome scenes in the abyss. How could he possibly have harmed his loved ones?
“Don’t you secretly wish it, though? They weigh you down. Once they’re gone, you’ll have no more ties,” a wicked laughter followed by a hushed whisper continued, “You’ll be free.”
A fleeting thought crossed Angel’s mind: Freedom?
“Yes, freedom. Come, cross this threshold, and you’ll be reborn.”
Angel, staring into the haunting abyss, reached out, seemingly to touch… But just then, a piercing pain shot through his right eye, making him clasp it in agony.
As green runes danced before his eyes, a memory seemed to strike Angel, clearing away the fog of confusion. Suddenly, the world before him transformed.
The figure lurking in the abyss wasn’t himself at all. Instead, it was a murky, formless shadow, devoid of any human silhouette. It writhed and swayed, its scarlet eyes and gaping mouth shifting constantly, resembling jagged sawteeth.
“Damn it, so close!” it roared with fury, “No one shall stand in my way!”
As it spoke, the shadow surged from the abyss, expanding its form into a vast, encompassing net, ensnaring Angel, intent on dragging him down into its depths.
Angel felt himself descending into an even deeper darkness, an overwhelming surge of negative energy assailing him. Were it not for the protective circle of green runes around him, he might’ve been completely lost.
As the shadow consumed him, the green rune in his right eye started actively repelling and resisting the engulfment.
The shadow gradually faded under the dissolution effect of the rune, but the process was painfully slow. It couldn’t be eradicated in such a short time.
Despite its anguished screams, the shadow moved swiftly, inch by inch pulling Angel towards the abyss.
Just as half of Angel’s form was on the brink of being swallowed by the abyss, a chilling laughter pierced the silence.
The laughter was unsettling, and even Angel, being its target, felt unnerved.
Initially, the laughter seemed to come from behind him, but it quickly echoed from all directions. Angel looked around, wondering if he had already been dragged into the abyss and if this laughter was the sound of its monstrous inhabitants.
In the profound darkness devoid of any light, a ghostly pale face emerged.
Angel recoiled in shock.
Upon closer examination, he realized it wasn’t a human face at all. It was the face of a doll, and its sudden appearance was far more terrifying than any human face could ever be.
Why would there be a doll here in the abyss?
In the throes of Angel’s befuddlement, a doll began unexpectedly emanating waves of boundless resentment, coalescing into a tidal surge of grudges, bearing down upon Angel… More accurately, assailing the dark specter that ensnared him.
The shadowy specter, birthed from the fallen abyss and the epitome of negative energy, possessed a commendable resilience against this tidal surge of resentment.
However, the vastness of this resentful deluge was overwhelming. Even if the dark silhouette could withstand it, advancement at this juncture seemed improbable.
On one side was the tidal wave of grudges, on the other, the malevolent shadow; both nefarious in nature. Yet, in this moment, a terrifying equilibrium took hold.
Beneath this horrifying balance, Angel surprisingly found a fleeting sense of freedom.
While Angel felt momentarily liberated, he remained uncertain of his direction. Enveloped in pervasive darkness, devoid of any path, he began to question: had he already plummeted into the abyss?
Amidst Angel’s burgeoning disarray, a beckoning voice pierced through the obsidian void.
“Angel.”
Startled, Angel glimpsed a luminous portal within the darkness, from which a silhouette beckoned him.
He hesitated momentarily before gravitating towards the radiant gateway. The instant his foot breached its threshold, the enveloping fog dissipated, and chaos shattered…
…
With a jolt, Angel’s eyes sprang open, momentarily blinded by the surrounding radiance. Instinctively squinting, through the narrowed slits of his eyes, he perceived a figure standing beside him.
“It seems you’ve awoken. How do you feel?” A deep voice resonated within Angel’s ears.
Struggling to sit upright and as his eyes adjusted to the luminance, Angel inquired softly, “Mentor?”
Only then did Angel realize that the figure nearby was Sanders. With his back turned to Angel, Sanders retrieved an item from the table, leisurely placing it back in the Gravity Garden.
Angel paused momentarily, a fleeting vision forming in his eyes — was that an… effigy shaped like a human?
Could it be the same figure that had suddenly emerged from the depths of the dark earlier?
A fragment of memory came rushing back to Angel. He remembered Sanders once bidding at Twilight Auction and spending seven million magic crystals for a Mysterious Object, rumored to be named——Grudge Doll?
Considering the figure from the dark, one that released overwhelming waves of resentment, a realization seemed to dawn upon Angel.
Angel quickly scanned his surroundings and found himself lying on a familiar bed — the very same one in Pat Manor where he had slept since his childhood.
“Is this my room?” Angel questioned in bewilderment, “What happened? How did I end up here?”
Sanders turned to look at him, replying, “You passed out. As for the reason, surely you haven’t forgotten?”
Angel hesitated, recalling the prior events, “I was battling Eureka, and she unveiled a crown known as the Scarlet Sovereignty. A red light burst from it, and I was swallowed by chaos. Within the engulfing darkness, I perceived a fallen abyss, and yes, a doll.”
Hearing Angel’s account, Sanders simply nodded, neither confirming nor denying, “It seems you remember.”
“The Scarlet Sovereignty, you tried replicating it once, didn’t you?” Seeing Angel nod, Sanders raised an eyebrow, “Knowing the power of the Scarlet Sovereignty, why would you just stand there so obliviously? Were you courting death? Don’t tell me you were so terrified that you couldn’t even activate your Gravity Lines?”
Confronted with Sanders’ derisive remarks, Angel cast his eyes downward, “I was caught off guard and failed to react in time.”
“When an unknown Mysterious Object confronts you, your first instinct should be to deal with it. And if you can’t, you run,” Sanders scolded, “Fortunately, you managed to resist it at the very last moment. Coupled with the fact that the Scarlet Sovereignty isn’t instantly lethal, or else, instead of being unconscious, you’d be pushing up daisies.”
In the final reckoning, did he resist for a moment? After a thoughtful pause, Angel seemed to recall something profound.
As the radiant scarlet glow of the Scarlet Sovereignty approached, Angel was already sinking into a dazed state. But at that pivotal moment, a soulful epiphany flashed across his mind. Without a second thought, he channeled magic through this epiphany, activating his right eye.
Angel gently touched his right eye. At this moment, it appeared ordinary. Yet, back then, it likely triggered the activation of that mysterious mask.
Was Sanders referring to that very mask when he spoke of resisting at the last moment?
“Mentor, what precisely transpired?”
Chapter 1279 The Crown Reappears <TOC> Chapter 1281 Scarlet Glow