Chapter 813
The Hunt Begins, Helchin!
Pomanach felt his mind go blank for a moment. When he came to again, his body felt extremely fatigued, as if his strength had been drained. It was as if he had been frozen in time, and Alistair had beaten him up and then escaped. Of course, Pomanach knew it was just an illusion. Time had not stopped; this was another application of the Preservation Technique—directly “preserving” Duchess Beyad in a safe place. As for himself, who had been drenched in Twilight energy, the Path of Love power surging within his body was also severely suppressed, causing it to wane. It was like warm blood rapidly freezing and drying up on a cold winter night.
Pomanach had always disliked the Twilight Path. He would never admit to his own aging, let alone admit that he had veered towards the Twilight Path—precisely because of his intense aversion to it. And now, the chilling sensation lingering within his body made Pomanach detest it even more. This power… its aura felt very similar to the ice that had trapped him in the hallucination earlier…
“Twilight—” Pomanach gritted his teeth, his voice filled with hatred.
Undoubtedly. The special power Duchess Beyad had used before undoubtedly came from Black Phase Grunewald! This was not groundless speculation. The Twilight energy that could control him, combined with the fact that it was the time for the Winter Envoy’s ascension, the heavy snow outside, and being on Grunewald’s home turf. Alistair had also mentioned when they met that Heinrich was frozen here too. This clearly indicated that everything was Grunewald’s conspiracy! No wonder she deliberately stayed here!
“Do you want to kill me?” Pomanach’s voice grew louder with increasing emphasis: “You can try—”
The armor formed by his rapidly flowing blood suddenly shattered, revealing his right hand, as ferocious and sharp as a dragon’s claw. He violently grabbed the ground, and the Spirit Tower’s floor crumbled like tofu. Then, blood energy flowed along the ground and infused the entire Spirit Tower. Faucets spun rapidly, spewing scalding blood that emitted white smoke from every floor. The corrosive blood burned through the Spirit Tower’s walls where it touched the ground, and vital white smoke flowed through the corridors.
A passing student breathed in the white smoke and began to cough violently. But before they could cough for long, a blood-soaked hand suddenly emerged from their chest, disemboweling them—some were boys, some were girls. They were only seven or eight years old, erupting directly from their chests. The bloody children bathed in the corrosive white mist, their semi-transparent blood membranes dissolving in an instant, and their skin quickly becoming intact. They grew rapidly, transforming into teenage boys and girls within a few steps.
Throughout the Spirit Tower, new children were constantly born, and young adults in their late twenties emerged. Some of the clones stopped growing at their teenage years, some remained at the age of a few years, some stayed in their twenties or thirties… and there were even middle-aged people in their forties and fifties, and elderly people in their sixties and seventies. Their numbers reached twenty, thirty, forty… finally settling at sixty-six. The ageless Pomanach—the moments he was supposed to have experienced in his life but never did, now manifested as individual clones. Rather than his spirit splitting into so many parts… it was more like he had manifested many bodies and given them his own face.
At this moment, a twilight halo expanded again, enveloping the dying students and instantly making them disappear from their places. And on the top floor, Alistair was preserved. As she watched the students who had been rescued, her expression was exceptionally solemn. Two pure white flame butterflies emerged from between her fingers. Compared to the flame butterflies summoned by Eivass, these were larger— [+2x Spell Range: This spell’s range is doubled]. The students who were teleported back, disemboweled and covered in blood, were divided into male and female piles by Mathias. The two pure white flame butterflies flew above them respectively, then burst forth with radiant light—it was the true effect of the Butterfly of Paradox Flame, summoning flame butterflies with healing power! Their range increased, unleashing two powerful healing novas!
These two area-of-effect heals simultaneously covered all the injured, instantly restoring them to health. Even Alistair, the healer, felt satisfied. “This feels great! This kind of large-scale healing is perfectly utilized without any overflow, providing a sense of satisfaction that appeals to a perfectionist.”
At this time, Christina, who had just regained her vitality but was still weak, lay on the ground with her eyes wide open, looking at Alistair. Her blurry vision gradually focused, and she recognized the person who had saved her and her classmates. “I’ve been saved again…” she thought, and the Earthbound Spirit in her mind became excited, clamoring to come out. Meanwhile, Alistair, standing beside Principal Mathias, quietly asked, “Is that some kind of clone technique?”
“That is the Art of Creation—he has already touched upon the essence of the Origin River, just like me. If he can ascend to the Dream Realm, he can also become a Heavenly Envoy… However, I’ve never seen this move before; you’re the first person to push him this far,” the Lich floated in the air, its hollow voice echoing. “Pomanach splits and releases his soul… using others’ bodies as material to create ‘himself’. For years, he has been accustomed to absorbing his errant offspring through ‘familial discipline’ to bypass their immortality and grant them a swift death. In this way, he cultivates an image of authority that is not cruel but powerful. However, those souls still exist within him, merged with him. I warned Pomanach, and he seemed to enjoy it.”
“…Perhaps he thought it would stop him from being lonely,” Alistair said in a low voice. The Lich replied, “Evidently, he has not succeeded. The souls of the Children of the Moon cannot ascend to the Dream Realm, so those souls have merged with him. Yet, he has not ground down their consciousness… this will bring him an increasing burden. One day he will go mad and no longer be his original self. Now it seems… he probably had this planned for a long time. This is not a clone technique; each one is the main body—if any one of them escapes, it is equivalent to him escaping completely. And it would be extremely difficult to kill each of these ‘Pomanachs’; it would at least require killing six to ten times to deplete his blood energy.”
“…Escape?” Alistair caught Mathias’s meaning: “He’s going to escape?”
“After all, Pomanach’s personality is not very combative… he was a very rational person back then, an anomaly among the Children of the Moon. He probably doesn’t know you’re stalling for time. Judging by his reaction, he likely sensed that your Path of Love is at the same level as his, or even higher, so he is very cautious of you. Pomanach is feigning anger towards you; in reality, he wants to disrupt the situation and seize the opportunity to escape. He feels that fighting you in this environment is unfair… When he initiated the ‘attack’ on you, he merely threw something at you, which is proof. If you concentrate on preparing for battle with him, he will seize the opportunity to escape.”
The Lich, Grunewald, understood his old friend too well and directly pointed out Red Phase Pomanach’s true intentions. In fact, Alistair had also vaguely felt it—although the killing intent was strong, Pomanach did not sneak attack her. She had created the ice umbrella at that time specifically to provoke him. If she had created a shield, people would have become wary, but the beautiful ice umbrella would have made people subconsciously think she was showing off. And blocking anything thrown at her with the umbrella would have seemed natural. When Pomanach attacked the Star Ice, the Star Ice, released with five times the mana, dragged him into endless illusions!
“…It’s just that he actually managed to break free.”
“He died once; it was suicide.” The Lich, extremely sensitive to death, replied, “He used this method to quickly break free from the dream. Since then, he has been preparing to escape—perhaps the seal you placed on him with your [Forbidden] power made him wary of you. He probably thought it was power I gave you… As you said before, the power source of the Spirit Tower is the forbidden power of an Amber Heavenly Envoy. Although Pomanach rarely comes to the Spirit Tower, he can taste ‘me’ from it. I have long merged with the Spirit Tower and now wield forbidden power… He may not know what that power is called, but he knows it’s related to me.” The skeleton floated in the air, speaking leisurely. Unlike Pomanach, he seemed to be chatting with the person next to him while watching a movie… without any killing intent.
“It seems the Path of Forbidden is different from the Path of Power, and closer to the Path of the Beast…” Alistair chuckled, “Both are old paths that have been replaced and optimized, yet their traces remain quite a bit in the world.”
“Are you going to make a move? Those are sixty-six Fifth Tier individuals.”
“I want to try,” Alistair stated calmly. Principal Grunewald replied indifferently, “With me here, he can’t touch you; but if you kill him, I won’t intervene. And relying solely on the King of the Wild Hunt, you cannot kill him. It’s like trying to shatter an insect with one slap.”
“How will we know if we don’t try?” Alistair’s gaze was deep as she looked down at the scattering “Pomanachs,” murmuring. Behind her, the King of the Wild Hunt, standing quietly, let his mask fall with a clang. A dim yellow hue stained his white armor. The students watched in shock—even terror—at it all. All the students of the Spirit Tower were witnessing the grandest hunt ritual since the founding of Star Antinomy. As Alistair summoned, the Thunderclap Halberd also appeared in Helchin’s hand. Violent lightning shattered the windows, and a fierce wind surged in, engulfing them.
“The hunt has begun, Helchin!” Alistair still held the Book of Law in one hand, her voice cold and sharp, “Leave none behind—”
Above the sky, within the dark clouds. The King of the Wild Hunt Legion was gathering. Helchin, covered in a layer of frost, gripped the Thunderclap Halberd and let out a low, buzzing sound: “—Your will, Master. I have arrived by command.”
(End of Chapter)
