The aura that emanated from Liam was unlike anything Crawford or Luna had ever felt before. It was cold, calculating, and filled with a deadly calm that was far more terrifying than any display of rage.
Liam had completely shed the mantle of the grieving, enraged lunatic and had become something else entirely. Before Crawford could even react, Liam appeared in front of him with his sword unsheathed. He no longer used nether.
Instead, the air around his sword crackled with a frigid energy.
Crawford sensed the danger emanating from Liam's sword. His eyes widened in shock. How is this insect wielding so much power?
With a swift, fluid motion, Liam swung his sword in a graceful arc and Crawford blocked the attack instinctively.
The blade that moved through the air with an eerie silence faced a strong divine barrier that had activated from one of the artifacts in Crawford's possession, clearly a handout from the higher-ups.
For a moment, the attack seemed to falter and Crawford's face lit up but the very next instant, the barrier completely froze. Like a cheap sheet of glass, the barrier cracked and shattered into a million pieces.
The shattered fragments of the barrier fell away, sparkling like diamonds in the air before dissipating into nothingness.
Crawford, his face now etched with a mix of fear and disbelief, stumbled backward. He had never encountered such a power, one that could so effortlessly shatter a divine barrier.
And the attack hadn't even dispersed yet.
The cold energy seeped into Crawford, freezing his entire being, his soul, his body, his mana core, completely rendering him unable to move or counterattack.
As the old man stood there, immobilized by the frost that he couldn't break free from, he finally realized the strength of the monster in front of him.
Crawford was not ignorant. He knew about the great Daos. Unfortunately, because he was imprisoned in the tutorial world, he couldn't gain a dao seed himself. It was forbidden.
But the moment he faced Liam's attack he knew exactly who he was up against, someone who had taken a step on the path of the great Daos.
But how was this possible? This person in front of him was almost a cripple. The last they faced, he was not this powerful. He was pretty sure Liam did not even know about the great Daos. How could he become in the span of a year? It was unbelievable!
Crawford couldn't accept this. This person should have never come back. This world was his. He was supposed to be the overlord of this marvelous world.
Over the past several months Crawford had painstakingly gathered resources and nurtured the world tree sapling, all for it to become indebted to him and bond with him.
And he was also about to succeed. He was going to be the hegemon of a high-ranked world. A twisted expression appeared on his face fleetingly and disappeared.
He then started unexpectedly begging.
"Please. Please. Don't kill me. I am sorry I lied to you. Your friends and family… Cough. Cough. Cough." The guy spurted out mouthfuls of black blood.
"I lied. I didn't do anything to them." He spoke with great difficulty.
Liam's eyes widened slightly. Seeing hope lit up in his eyes, Crawford's tired demeanor suddenly changed. He unexpectedly burst into a bout of laughter. "I didn't do anything to them because they all died before I could touch them."
He roared maniacally as he continued laughing loudly and spewing out more blood.
He did not seem to care in the least about his current condition or the injuries in his body. The fact that he was at death's door did not seem to matter to him at all. The words he was speaking only made half-sense. The man seemed delirious.
Seeing Liam's expression change, he redoubled his laughter. "They are all dead! They are all dead! Ha ha ha ha!"
Spatial tears started forming spontaneously and it was clear that Crawford had activated some sort of attack, perhaps one that was going to take down the both of them together.
However, before his laughter could even fade, Liam returned to his cold indifferent state as he stared down at the man with unwavering eyes.
"You are lying." He simply said.
A look of shock appeared on Crawford's face. "Why would I lie?" He angrily spat back.
He wanted to rattle Liam so that his final attack could reach him and he could somehow buy himself a chance but unfortunately, such a thing looked impossible. The opponent was too calm.
Liam's face turned into a shade of sinister, a wicked smile etched on his lips.
"Tell me, Crawford. Have you ever seen my army? Hmmm? What do you think they were doing while I was here fighting with you?"
Crawford became lifeless as he realized what had happened. He was never this man's match, to begin with.
He should have run away when he had the chance instead of rushing to his doom all on his own. It was not Liam who had curled up in a rat hole and licked his injuries. It was him.
With a chuckle, Liam squatted down next to the dying old man, his eyes sadistically gleaming as he watched the old man break down all over again right in front of him.
The spatial tears he had conjured did not help at all as each one was inexplicably freezing over, the moment they were forming.
Crawford's face looked truly miserable as he was unwilling to accept this fate.
The reality was painfully clear. He did not want to die. Not . He wanted to somehow survive. He wanted to once again become stronger and…
"Please… I can-" Crawfrod opened his mouth again, this time his eyes genuinely pleading for mercy but before he could finish his words, Liam ended his life with a wave of his hand.
Several ice spears materialized at the same time and pierced the old man's throat, freezing his head alongside his body, inside out in an extremely grotesque manner.
A moment later, a feeble soul seeped out of his body that Liam did not fail to capture. "I will see you soon enough." Liam sneered at the remnant soul and shoved it into a soul-storage marble.
Mass Release Chapter 4~
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