Chapter 776 Tulas <TOC> Chapter 778 The Sword in the Helm
Translator: SumTLMan
The ensuing close combats, one after the other, were all deftly avoided by Tulas. Even when Angel used himself as bait, hoping to shoot Tulas during his approach, the latter managed to vanish at the merest ripple of the Prelude of Death.
Angel attempted to launch indiscriminate attacks in a full 360-degree arc to hinder Tulas’s path, yet his stratagem invariably fell short. Tulas’s power facilitated his breakout from the encirclement time and again, each occasion at the most critical moment, through spatial displacement.
Angel even contemplated leveraging Gravity Lines to forcibly halt Tulas’s stride, but Tulas appeared equally wary of this tactic. At the sight of the Gravity Lines, Tulas would swiftly spatial shift to a safer location using his power.
After numerous failed attacks, Tulas seemed to discern that Angel was an adversary tough to crack. His offensive fervor had waned considerably from the outset, and he even began to retreat slowly.
Upon noticing Tulas’s tactic of fighting while retreating, Angel’s emotions teetered between subtlety and frustration.
He hadn’t anticipated that a ghost possessing a unique ability would be so troublesome. Moreover, it seemed as though Tulas intended to execute a strategic withdrawal. If Tulas were allowed to escape, the tables would be turned, with the enemy in the dark and him in the light. Given Tulas’s spatial power’s efficacy in ambushes, defending against Tulas would then become challenging.
Angel understood that the reason he had been unable to detain Tulas wasn’t solely due to Tulas’s agility. In fact, there was another factor at play. While the ripples from the Prelude of Death could extend over a broad range—covering a maximum of a 180-degree sector directly ahead—their propagation speed was not fast.
Tulas would instantly use his power to flee as soon as he sensed the ripples from the Prelude of Death. Meanwhile, the ripples were still in the process of expanding, resulting in Angel’s recurrent failures.
Other ghosts, ignorant of the Prelude of Death, would even charge straight into it, including the ghostly jellyfish of the Sea of Ghosts. This was why Angel could handle the much more formidable ghostly jellyfish yet was helpless against the alert Tulas.
As the fight wore on, Tulas even appeared less fearful of the Prelude of Reincarnation in Angel’s hand, choosing instead to engage in guerrilla warfare with Angel.
People often said that battling ghosts was a nuisance, a sentiment Angel had never agreed with until now. Apart from the Prelude of Death, his other methods were indeed ineffectual against ghosts. Even with illusions, Tulas was entirely unafraid. If something felt amiss, he could just use his spatial displacement to leave.
As Tulas’s actions increasingly suggested a withdrawal, Angel grew more and more agitated.
“So, you think you’re invincible just because the expansion of the Prelude of Death is too slow to catch you?” A glint of determination flared in Angel’s eyes. “Then I’ll just switch to a method that can!”
Once again, Angel raised his gun, his figure flickered, and he assumed the posture of bait, leaving his guard wide open!
Tulas, who was initially retreating, still decided to charge forward after a moment of consideration upon seeing Angel’s unguarded state.
“Even though you’ve gained a bit of wisdom, you still don’t understand,” Angel taunted. “If I use the same plan twice, there must be a trick up my sleeve!”
As Tulas charged forth, Angel deftly sidestepped, landing directly behind him. Taking advantage of his blind spot, he readied his firearm once more. Tulas, his back to Angel, was oblivious to the imminent Prelude of Reincarnation and failed to sense the ripples of the Prelude of Death, thereby neglecting to activate his abilities to escape. Instead, he turned, intending to launch a second offensive on Angel.
However, in the split second he spun around, a white light bullet—imbued with a faint, mysterious power—audaciously fired!
This time, Angel opted not to use the Prelude of Death but chose the valuable white light bullet. He had considered this previously—the bullet’s speed was beyond imagination, even faster than the acceleration brought about by the Gravity Lines. Under Tulas’ unsuspecting circumstances, it was certain to hit the mark.
Based on prior tests with the white light bullet, a ghost pierced by it would immediately fall into a state of internal energy imbalance. In such a condition, the ghost would be paralyzed, even potentially falling into a state of spiritual unconsciousness.
When that happened, Tulas would be unable to move, and Angel would have no trouble dealing with him.
Granted, this method was effective but would cost one precious white light bullet. However, the bullet was procured for usage. Worst comes to worst, he could replenish his ammunition when he next returned to the mainland, perhaps by taking a detour around the Sea of Ghosts.
Angel’s plan was a resounding success!
Tulas hardly comprehended the dazzling white light before his eyes when it burrowed into the center of his forehead. His eyes blazed with a fierce red light, but in the next moment, he slumped to the ground, weak and defeated.
Angel approached, a twinge of regret in his eyes due to the expended white light bullet. Observing Tulas, immobile and powerless, Angel initially intended to end him with a swift Prelude of Death. However, as he prepared to pull the trigger, his hand hesitated, and his mind began to churn.
His regret stemmed from the loss of the white light bullet. But he had always planned to use six bullets simultaneously to conduct experiments on ghosts. Although the current time and place seemed somewhat off, wasn’t the incapacitated ghost before him an excellent experimental subject?
Moreover, Tulas was an anomaly in himself—a rare, intelligent ghost. If Angel wanted to experiment with the white light bullet, ordinary ghosts as experimental samples were easy to find, but such an exceptional sample was not so readily available.
Additionally, Tulas had already been hit by one white light bullet. To avoid waste, it made sense to choose him as the experimental sample!
A thought crossed Angel’s mind, and his initial plan to eliminate Tulas with the Prelude of Death gradually evaporated.
Based on the logs he had previously observed and the approximate date of Tulas’ disappearance, Tulas had been in this mysterious, enclosed space for at least two millennia.
If Tulas could regain his spiritual intelligence, Angel could glean some information about this space from him.
With this in mind, Angel made the decision to unleash all of the remaining five white light bullets onto Tulas.
However, just as Angel was ready to pull the trigger, an unexpected turn of events occurred. Tulas, who was previously collapsed on the ground, suddenly raised his head, revealing a bizarrely split countenance.
Divided down the centerline of his nose, his face presented two starkly distinct visages. One half was the horrifying grimace of a ghost, while the other half was that of a young man, a calm and ordinary visage. Although the bull-horned helmet he wore obscured most of his face, one could still discern that he was but a youth.
“A half-ghost?!” Angel exclaimed in surprise. “How could it be so quick?”
Without giving Angel a chance to react, Tulas made use of a spatial shift without a moment’s hesitation. He instantly appeared several dozen meters away, swiftly making his escape into the dark depths.
A tinge of annoyance played across Angel’s face. He hadn’t anticipated that Tulas would transform into a half-ghost at such speed!
Back when he was testing on Phantom Island with 233, the ghost took an entire day to become a half-ghost.
It might seem like he was spending a considerable amount of time contemplating whether to keep Tulas as an experimental subject, but the thought only took a split second! Yet, in such a brief amount of time, Tulas had transformed into a half-ghost. This was even quicker than the thirteenth daughter of King Guman!
Angel had underestimated Tulas’s uniqueness.
Seeing Tulas about to disappear into the darkness, Angel immediately gave chase. Without any need for Angel’s prompting, Toby understood intuitively and transformed into the Griffin of Fury.
Within the darkness, the flaming Griffin acted like a natural source of light, illuminating the pitch-black deserted island.
With the enhancement of Gravity Lines, Toby should have found the chase after Tulas to be effortless. However, Tulas had the power of spatial shift. Though the shift distance seemed short, the frequency of his shifts seemed limitless. Despite Toby’s best efforts, he found himself unable to catch up with Tulas who was continuously shifting.
Tulas continued to sprint towards the center of the island.
As the chase ensued, Angel’s eyes grew darker, for he realized that Tulas’s strategy during the chase was evolving noticeably. At first, Tulas simply shifted rapidly in a single direction, but as time passed, his intelligence significantly increased after becoming a half-ghost. Gradually, he learned to shift in the opposite direction. One moment he was sprinting eastward, and the next, he was heading due west. Toby often found himself unable to react in time. Moreover, executing a 180-degree turn at such high speeds often resulted in him being thrown off course due to inertia.
Tulas was growing amidst the chase, as if the wisdom he possessed during his life was slowly awakening.
“Slow down, speed can be a hindrance when trying to navigate corners. Just walk him at a normal pace, the island isn’t large, he won’t get far.” Angel patted Toby gently, whispering his advice.
Toby nodded, gradually reducing his pace.
As the minutes ticked away, the gap between them and their target started to close, but Angel was in no hurry. In fact, he was curious to see just how long Tulas could sustain his abilities.
Angel understood well that even inherent abilities, though seemingly limitless, were restricted by certain factors, such as the total amount of energy one possessed.
Eventually, Tulas would run out of energy and when that moment came, he would be as helpless as a turtle in a jar.
It seemed Tulas had also realized this, his savage ghost face growing more ferocious, while the calm human face betrayed a hint of anxiety. Suddenly, as though he had made up his mind, he started running towards the centre of the island.
Angel followed suit, trailing him to the central mountain range of the island, where he suddenly discovered that Tulas had vanished mid-spatial shift.
During their chase, Angel had determined that Tulas’ spatial shift distance couldn’t exceed a hundred meters. But now, within that range, there was no sign of any movement or life. How had Tulas simply vanished into thin air?
Angel paused, momentarily taken aback. When his gaze fell on the central mountain range, a flash of realization sparked in his eyes: “Could it be that there are concealed spaces inside this mountain? Did he spatially shift inside the mountain?”
Angel felt that his hypothesis might be correct, given the high likelihood of such a scenario.
Of course, it was also possible that Tulas had burrowed into the ground. Often, ghosts found rest underground, but that was usually in their graves or if there was an open space beneath the surface.
Regardless of the possibilities, there should be a hidden space somewhere within this area.
As Angel thought of a hidden space, he instantly recalled Lucas’s treasure. He hadn’t found any place where the treasure might be hidden elsewhere. Could it be hidden here?
With this in mind, Angel handed a few high-quality luminescent stones to Toby: “This mountain range isn’t large. Patrol the skies with these. If the half-ghost appears in your sight, notify me immediately.”
Toby, having deactivated his griffin form, manipulated the Gravity Lines to place the luminescent stones around him. He nodded at Angel and began to circle the skies.
Meanwhile, Angel landed lightly on the ground. He started circling the mountain range, searching for any hidden tunnels, while simultaneously deploying a dozen scouting puppets for a multi-directional search and surveillance.