Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Within the endless blue sky, golden sunlight shone upon the thin clouds.
A black airship was traveling amidst the clouds in the sky.
The airship's control center was located right at the tip of the ship. It was an average-sized room that had minimum visibility due to the lack of light.
A woman in a long, crimson dress stood in front of the glowing control board, her hands rapidly moving around its surface.
The walls of the control center were embedded with glowing white crystals. The gentle glow it produced cast a light on her body.
*CHI*
A translucent image of a human being appeared beside the control board.
It was a bald woman wearing a tight black suit.
"Master, the Lords of Thousand Waterfall City are mustering their army at the Ana River. Black Earth seems to thirst for waging war against us as well." The bald woman sounded unfazed.
"We have defeated the lords during the last battle, so they should be recovering from the damages. The problem is their city's magic device that can hold the line against us for a while. But what I do not understand is why they decided to rendezvous at the river..." Vivian sounded surprised. "Did Black Earth summon their Earth Legion led by Rumpetto, the Stone-caller?"
"No, it is the Lightning Legion," the bald woman immediately replied.
"That is strange. The Earth Legion should be their strongest army. They must have forgotten how I annihilated their aerial knights years ago...They cannot do anything to us if it's the Lightning Legion..." There was a confident smile on Vivian's face.
Suddenly, Vivian detected movement in front.
A black string appeared just a meter right in front of her face and moved towards her forehead at lightning speed.
"Again?" Vivian raised her hand and released a ray of red light that blocked the incoming attack.
*CHI*
The black string disappeared after it touched the red light.
But at the same time, a translucent hand appeared behind about to grasp her neck.
*BOOM*
Another ray of red light was released from her hand.
The translucent hand was destroyed by the light.
*Roar*
A clamor that of a beast's roaring reverberated not far from their location. The translucent hand shattered into pieces and soon vanished into the air.
Vivian turned around; her face had now turned cold-blooded.
"There is a spy in our airship. Check each and every one's identity immediately!"
"Understood!" The bald woman nodded in affirmation and disappeared. She seemed to be used to seeing such assassination attempts.
Inside the control center, Vivian turned and started modifying the control board again while looking at the map of the scanned terrain nearby the airship.
After a while, she slowly raised her head and gazed at the endless sky ahead.
"He is coming...Justin, the Storm Giant..."
The situation was increasingly worsening. Vivian's army was being targeted by three different enemies. Even if she was confident triumphing against them in the upcoming battles, she was uncertain if she had brought enough manpower to war.
The lords were assembling their army, while the storm giant was a well-known rank 4 wizard. Justin was comparable to Vivian in terms of their level of skill and his army was well-trained.
The biggest problem lay in Black Earth's Rumpetto, the Stone-caller, though the Earth Legion itself was not a big problem. Vivian was the second most powerful council elder of Elemental Hand and had rarely lost battles.
The positions of the council elders were not determined by their skill levels. Instead, it was hereditary as all elders had their own successors who would take over once they retired or died. Molten Core River had been passed on to Vivian. The same thing happened with the gravitational magic circle that had been continuously improved over the years by her predecessors, the former third elders. This was the strongest magic circle that could aid in increasing the overall power of Molten Core River. Without it, her power would greatly reduce.
The other elders were similarly successors of certain advanced meditation techniques and special abilities.
Vivian thought for a while, feeling a bit anxious at this time. 'The situation is getting worse for Elemental Hand. Good thing is, Black Earth did not target Angele. He should be fine.'
Angele had still been receiving assistance from Henn, but she needed more time to restore her mentality. Average wizards could not possibly handle her attacks.
Aside from that, Vivian had sent a special troop that would patrol around the mansion without her telling Angele.
*********************************
The Nightmare Realm. The mansion by the river.
The mansion was being protected by a transparent energy shield. The entire shield looked similar to a glass dome which reflected the image of the surrounding trees.
Distorted energy waves were extending to all angles. Green vines were rapidly growing to form into green undergrowth that encircled the entire mansion.
When dawn arrived, the black beetles finally began to retreat as they feared the light.
There was a bell-shaped, red energy ball on the ground.
It was flashing rhythmically as though it was breathing.
But as time passed, its surface turned transparent.
After ten minutes, it completely dissipated only to reveal the person standing inside.
Short brown hair, silver skin, and a muscular body.
It was Angele, who had stayed inside the ball for three days.
He opened his eyes slowly and checked his body.
His appearance seemed to have slightly changed and he seemed to have gotten more handsome than before.
"The magic circle is more effective than I expected." With a flick of his finger, silver metal formed a white shirt and white pants on his body.
There was a dark red band on his naked right arm.
The surface of the band was covered with complicated runes. The Abyssal Box and Queen Christina's Cube had already disappeared from the ground, forming into this metallic armband.
"Henn has told me how to create this. I can now absorb the flames from the beetles better." Angele lightly patted the armband.
"But something does not seem right. My mentality only increased slightly." Angele knew he had nearly mastered the third stage.
He practiced the engraving process of the magic circle as he absorbed the flames.
After completing the second stage of Molten Core River, he needed to master the magic circle and rune engraving technique in order to progress to the next rank.
Angele only stood there for a while thinking, but he was still not sure if his flame absorption rate was normal. At this rate, it would take him about an hour to fully master the third stage then he would become a rank 2 wizard.
Taking a deep, long breath, he turned around and walked to the main building of the mansion. The magic stones used to supply energy to the matrices needed to be replaced. He needed to return to the real world to see if everything was fine.
The mansion in the Nightmare Realm was relatively safe since the beetles could do nothing to him. Angele could merely enter the realm if ever the mansion in the real world was invaded by enemies.
With the defensive and offensive magic matrixes, the black beetles were no longer a threat to him. The only problem was if his opponent's mentality wave was too strong, he would not be able to enter the realm instantly.
Angele still carried more than sufficient supply of food and water to the Nightmare Realm. The bloodline extraction method and the Nightmare Realm were two of his biggest secrets at the moment.
He spent most of his time in the Nightmare Realm for the next week.
Angele rested at daytime and killed countless black beetles during the night.
The flames created by burning the dead black beetles were absorbed into the energy ball by the armband. The energy was then converted into fire mentality that was required by the Molten Core River.
Angele needed to infuse his mentality with fire energy particles as soon as possible.
He had never stepped out of the mansion in the Nightmare Realm. He decided to advance to the next rank first before doing anything else after the encounter in the dinner party.
*****************************
Ten days later...
The Nightmare Realm.
Inside the mansion.
*BOOM*
The windows on the second floor were blown into pieces.
The broken glasses fell to the field of grass like it was raining.
Angele stuck his head out of the window and coughed several times.
There were tears in his eyes, but there was a grin on his face.
The scorpion mark on his forehead was as crimson as fresh blood.
White smoke was slowly coming out of the room through the broken window.
After the thick smoke drifted out, Angele turned to look at the middle of the room.
There was a complicated magic circle on the floor, a combination of runes and a hexagram. The three largest runes looked like the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Countless tiny runes and complicated strings surrounded the three major runes.
There was a tiny red bird flying around right in the center of the magic circle.
The bird was enveloped in flames and its tail was glowing. It looked like a mutated wild goose but smaller in size.
Angele observed the flying bird carefully.
The bird was approximately the size of his palm. Its feathers, claws, and eyes were completely enveloped in golden flames. From time to time, it would breathe out flames from its beak.
Angele felt puzzled. Was it him or the advanced meditation technique that decided the appearance of his second body?
According to the book of Molten Core River, the second body's appearance depended on the owner's personality and properties of their soul.
'This bird looks familiar...' Angele hypothesized in his mind after observing the bird for a time. He was now becoming excited.
Angele could control the beautiful and mysterious creature using his mind and if he did not command it, the bird would just fly around him.