CH399 - CH400

CH399

David narrowly escaped danger several times, thanks to the fire lizard bombs crafted by Helag.

These bombs were powerful and easy to use, allowing David, a gaseous wizard, to wield crystallized wizard-level attacks.

David lay hidden in the rubble, suppressing his presence and slowing his breathing.

Being an earth-element wizard, he could better utilize earth energy particles to conceal himself among the stones.

David’s innate spell was Petrified Body, turning his skin into hard rock.

With this spell, his body was covered in a thick layer of stone.

Combined with the surrounding earth energy particles, David became indistinguishable from a rock, avoiding detection.

This tactic helped him survive numerous crises.

Each night, David turned into a stone, enduring the perilous darkness.

Before nightfall, he’d find a suitable spot and remain still until dawn.

The past few nights were uneventful, with occasional creatures passing by without noticing him.

No creature would be interested in a rock.

This night started normally, but an unexpected visitor arrived after midnight.

David, hidden in the rubble, saw an old man stumbling toward him.

Anyone in this place at this time wasn’t ordinary.

David observed the old man’s tattered clothes and the massive snake-like creature coiled around him.

On closer inspection, it wasn’t a snake but a large worm.

The old man exuded a dangerous aura, unsettling David.

Fortunately, the old man hadn’t noticed him, muttering to himself.

“Finally… the moment has come. With enough sacrifices, the god will have a chance to descend…” the old man mumbled, stopping to gaze at the dark sky.

The surroundings were so quiet that David heard every word clearly.

Realizing the old man’s identity, David knew he was an Abyssal cultist.

The airship crash was caused by such cultists.

The old man was clearly powerful and strange, beyond David’s ability to confront.

David hoped the old man would leave soon.

If discovered, his fate would be grim.

However, the old man stopped and pulled out a quill.

Raising his left arm, he stabbed it with the quill, drawing blood.

He used the blood-soaked quill to inscribe strange runes on the ground.

“What is he doing…” David wondered, puzzled by the old man’s actions.

The old man continued inscribing, occasionally stabbing himself for more blood.

Hours later, a large blood-drawn array appeared on the ground.

The old man, now covered in blood crusts and small wounds, seemed unfazed, smiling at the array.

He then threw the large worm into the array.

“Now, it’s time to welcome the god’s descent.”

The old man spread his arms, looking skyward as if embracing something.

The worm landed in the array, causing the runes to glow.

A strange aura began spreading.

The aura grew stronger, filling David with a sense of danger.

Suddenly, the old man turned, staring at David’s hiding spot.

He seemed to sense David through the spreading aura.

Realizing he was exposed, David scrambled to flee.

A blood-red claw reached for him, piercing the rocky layer covering his body, grabbing his flesh and bones.

The claw pulled David back, dropping him at the old man’s feet.

“Didn’t expect to offer fresh blood to the god at this time. It seems the god’s will is at work,” the old man said.

Instead of killing David, he broke his limbs and tossed him into the array, intending to use him as a living sacrifice.

In the array, David endured excruciating pain, sweating profusely.

He remained silent, contemplating escape.

But gathering magic was difficult, and his limbs were useless. It seemed his life would end here.

The uncomfortable aura intensified, causing spatial ripples to spread.

The old man, seeing this, was overjoyed, tears streaming as he knelt, “The god is coming!”

Spatial ripples grew stronger, destabilizing the area.

Above the array, a black vortex formed, intensifying the spatial fluctuations.

Footsteps and a man’s voice interrupted, “Yeah, I’m here. Your dad has arrived.”

The old man’s fervent expression froze, turning to see a tall figure in dark gold armor.

“Who are you?” the old man asked.

“I told you, I’m your dad,” Helag laughed.

David, lying in the array, was incredulous, thinking he was hallucinating in his final moments.

Struggling to lift his head, he recognized the figure despite changes in size and armor color.

It was unmistakably Helag.

In a flash, Helag appeared before the old man, slapping him hard. The old man’s head flew off, landing nearby.

Only a headless corpse remained, collapsing silently.

CH400

Helag hadn’t expected the old man to be so fragile. A single slap sent his head flying.

From the magical fluctuations emanating from the old man, Helag could tell he was a crystallized wizard.

Originally, Helag had planned to quickly get close and severely injure him.

But it turned out the old man was already at the end of his rope, his life force nearly extinguished.

The quill the old man had been using wasn’t just drawing with blood—it was also draining his life force.

By the time he finished inscribing the runes, his life was almost spent.

“You killed me, but it doesn’t matter. The portal is already open. You can’t stop it,” the old man’s head said, rolling on the ground, his eyes still fixed on Helag.

Helag, having dealt with Abyssal cultists many times, was unfazed. He knew the old man was using some kind of dark magic to sustain his life.

He turned his attention to the large worm and David, both lying within the ritual circle.

The worm, once plump, was now rapidly deflating like a punctured balloon.

After observing for a moment, Helag realized that the worm was storing a vast amount of life force.

This life force was being drained from the worm and absorbed into the ritual circle below, not a drop wasted.

Helag quickly understood: the life force was one of the energy sources powering the ritual.

He couldn’t just stand by and let the ritual absorb all the worm’s life force. If it did, something terrible would surely happen.

But stopping the flow of life force was tricky. It was intangible, and Helag figured only a necromancy-specialized wizard would have the means to handle it.

After a moment of thought, Helag remembered a talent from his bloodline: the Death’s Withering.

This ability allowed him to absorb the life force of other beings to enhance his own.

Helag had never used it before, as it was clearly an Abyssal Plane ability, and he was reluctant to rely on it.

But here, in the polluted zone, it didn’t matter. David was his ally, and the situation was urgent.

If the ritual absorbed all the life force, who knew what might happen?

“I’ve spent years preparing for this, finally gathering enough life force. It’s hard to kill so many people at once. Even Franz, after all his planning, failed,” the old man continued, a smug smile on his face. “But I’m different. I’ve been accumulating life force bit by bit, and now, everything is ready!”

The old man seemed pleased with himself, confident in his plan’s success.

Helag ignored him, flashing into the ritual circle and grabbing the worm.

Seeing this, the old man sneered, “It’s useless. You can’t kill it. Killing it will only make its life force drain faster.”

Helag paid no attention to the old man’s words. Holding the worm, he activated his Death’s Withering ability.

Immediately, Helag felt a pure stream of life force flowing from the worm into his body.

Seeing that it was working, he increased the absorption rate, drawing the life force faster and faster.

The worm, already deflating, shrivelled even more rapidly under Helag’s influence.

The ritual circle was also absorbing life force, but Helag’s Death’s Withering was far more efficient as if they were competing for the worm’s life force.

To Helag’s surprise, his ability was even more powerful than he had anticipated. He was absorbing life force much faster than the ritual circle.

In just a few dozen seconds, Helag had absorbed 60% of the worm’s remaining life force, with the ritual circle taking the remaining 40%.

As the life force flowed into Helag, it spread throughout his body.

He didn’t feel much different, except for a surge of vitality.

Helag knew his lifespan had likely increased significantly, though he couldn’t tell by how much.

The sheer amount of life force suggested the old man had caused countless deaths to gather it.

The old man, watching in shock, gasped, “How… how are you doing that?”

Life force wasn’t something just anyone could absorb. Aside from necromancy spells, most people couldn’t do it.

A normal person’s life force was limited, only so much.

A first-level wizard’s lifespan was around 300 years, not even close to that of many powerful creatures.

Seeing Helag absorb life force so freely left the old man baffled.

Helag ignored him. Once the worm’s life force was fully drained, the old man would die as well.

His priority now was to get David out of there.

Since the ritual hadn’t absorbed enough life force, it began drawing from Helag and David.

Helag quickly walked over, picked up David, and moved out of the ritual circle.

Though David was burly, he was like a small child compared to Helag’s four-meter-tall form.

Helag took some healing potions from his spatial ring and gave them to David to prevent his injuries from worsening.

“Helag, what are you doing here?” David asked, struggling to find the words.

“I heard about the airship crash and knew you were on board, so I came to find you. I couldn’t just let you die out here,” Helag replied with a smile.

David was deeply grateful. Though he had much to say, he knew now wasn’t the time for a reunion.

After treating David’s injuries, Helag prepared to leave.

He glanced at the ritual circle.

Though it hadn’t absorbed enough life force, the amount it had taken was still enough to activate it.

Above the circle, the black vortex had grown large, with a faint crack visible within it.

Helag could feel the ominous aura emanating from the crack—an aura from the Abyssal Plane.

Small cracks like this would normally be repaired by the natural forces of the plane.

But if someone on the other side was actively widening the crack, it was a different story.

The ritual circle continued to operate, working in tandem with the forces on the other side, causing the crack to expand.

Helag conjured several fireballs, aiming to destroy the circle, but they had no effect.

The ritual was already fully formed. The only way to stop it was to analyze its structure and break it, just like before.