Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As Lin Sheng closed his eyes and the sacred power in him rapidly rose, he began to see a group of light balls appear in his mind’s eye. Red light balls represented the Blackfeather swordsmen, white the Sacred Shield Tyrant, gray the vault guards, and blue the core of Gray Angel. Other than that, there were also other light balls of different colors and sizes floating in the dark, waiting for Lin Sheng to make his choice. He glanced up and saw seven different light spheres.
“I can only see this because the space in my soul is large enough?” He speculated while he took a quick glance at the light balls. Immediately, the largest one, which was of a pale-white color, caught his attention. The light ball was slightly smaller than the Sacred Shield Tyrant’s, and it had a shimmering human face on its surface. He felt a weird sense of irritability, depression, and uneasiness just from looking at it.
“This should be the one.” He reconfirmed his findings. That particular light sphere was the largest and weirdest thing in his entire field of vision. Its feel and the energy perfectly coincided with the face monster with a thousand arms, so he hesitated no more and went up to it. At that moment, the light ball gradually and quietly expanded. Like closing curtains, it gingerly embraced Lin Sheng’s consciousness in its fold.
Amid a soft whine of the wind, Lin Sheng opened his eyes and found himself standing in a beautiful yet decadent and freezing palace. Above him, a whitish-gold candleholder hung from the ceiling. It consisted of a hundred candles, and it looked like a giant icicle. Under his feet was a thick, pure black carpet, which was decorated with many white hexagonal patterns. On his left and right, round columns protruded out of the walls with massive portraits of nobility hanging at each interval. They looked grim and impassive in the dim candlelight.
“Your hands… are beautiful…” Up ahead stood a young boy wearing an exquisite tuxedo. He was smiling at Lin Sheng. “I wish I could have those beautiful hands of yours…” The young boy looked at him with a pair of big eyes, but they were soulless and unfocused.
“You-You are?” The hurried and scared voice of a woman was heard next to Lin Sheng. He turned around and was shocked to see a blonde woman wearing a white-laced dress standing on his right. She looked terrified while she slowly stepped back. Heavy, golden white, flowery gauze hung aslant on her head as she shivered. “Don’t… Don’t…” She was frightened. She then turned and ran in the opposite direction of the cloister toward the main entrance.
Just then, another young boy wearing a white tuxedo that was identical to the earlier one appeared from the right side of the doorway and stood in her path.
The woman shrilled in fear, but her voice suddenly muted as her skin began to age and turn dull. In the end, her entire being became all withered and dehydrated, except for her arms. The skin on her arms appeared more tender and softer than before, as though the skin had sucked her soul and all of the fluid, as well as blood, in her body dry.
Following that, the woman dropped dead to the ground. Her arms melted into the carpet like candle wax while the other parts of her body turned into dark ash and vanished.
The young boy stood still and smiled before he slowly walked toward Lin Sheng.
“You cannot hear, can you, my lord?” Lin Sheng suddenly heard the low feebly voice of a man behind him. He turned around and saw an old man in a yellow robe standing on the black carpet. He was looking calmly at the young boy.
“Yes, Igor.” The little boy smiled. “You’re right. I cannot hear your voice.”
“The kingdom is falling,” said the old man calmly. “Follow me. There is still one last ray of hope.”
“I like your hands. Could I borrow them?” The young boy did not respond directly to the old man’s words. After a while of silence, the old man took out a golden mask and gingerly put it on his face with one hand. Meanwhile, he clutched his arm firmly with the other. All of a sudden, blood splattered all over the place as the old man ripped his arm off his shoulder and tossed it to the young boy.
“I cannot protect you anymore, my lord.” He quickly stopped his bleeding, his eyes full of sadness.
“That is all right.” The young boy caught the arm and held it tightly in his arms. “You will live as long as it is with me.” He looked up and smiled. “Just like you have kept me alive, Dark Igor.”
Right then, Lin Sheng’s vision shattered into golden dust like a broken crystal before dissipating in the air. He returned to a dark field of vision, where the young boy with white hair quietly floated in the air before him. The boy opened his eyes, but his pupils looked empty. It was a stark contrast to his elegant, body-hugging royal tuxedo and the tender, spotless skin on his face.
However, what baffled Lin Sheng was the gray-haired old man behind the boy. The old man was wearing a yellow robe and holding a staff in his hand. His mouth was sewn, and his body was assimilated into the boy’s back from the waist down. As the old man was semi-transparent, he was not clearly visible without taking a closer look.
“Have they grown together?” Lin Sheng knew that the old man was Dark Igor, the royal magician whom Khadula, the young boy, forever kept beside him.
It was unclear what had happened in the Fay Vault, but Khadula and Dark Igor seemed to be fighting and waiting for something at the bottom of the pool.
Was it the Mastery of Death and Decay or some unknown existence imprisoned inside the stone chamber?
At first, Lin Sheng thought that the stone chamber was designed to jail Khadula. But he had killed Khadula the night before, and the stone chamber still remained intact. Plus, the ax even continued to shine with a dazzling green light.
“Perhaps, the hidden secrets will never see the day of light again…” Lin Sheng sighed quietly and shifted his attention to the young boy. “It’s time to try a new way of doing things.”
He gazed intently at the boy as his consciousness entered the boy’s body. In a split second, the memories of the thousand-armed face monster rushed into the hollow shell of the summoned creature, and with that, the boy’s face turned creepy. His smile exuded a peculiar air of frenzy, danger, coldness, and cruelty.
A few seconds later, after all of Khadula’s soul fragments had been duplicated, Lin Sheng retracted his consciousness and opened his eyes.
In the courtyard of the temple ruins, a boy stood before the summoning circle. His hair was white, his face delicate and sharp, but he appeared kind of genderless. He was at most nine, and his soulless, amethyst eyes were bright and clear. His skin was softer than silk, his face spotless, and his pink lips as tantalizing as rose petals. He was more beautiful than a doll.
“Khadula… Your name is still Khadula, although it is not your real name,” Lin Sheng commanded. Without saying anything further, his consciousness quickly poured into Khadula’s mind via a secret channel. He could keep all of his summoned creatures under his full control and turn them into his avatars.