Chapter 226: The Floating Land
Bagot clearly knew something, though he hadn't said what. Ronaldo cut in abruptly, "You already knew the Holy Skull was here?"
"The Holy Skull?" He was visibly caught off guard for a moment, then burst out laughing. "So the Holy Skull is in this place. No wonder both factions of the Church came here — and that Bishop Auerbach never let slip a word of it. So that's how it is. It seems you two came in after the Holy Skull as well. My Gnostic Society has been hunting for that thing for years, and it was right under our noses the whole time."
Ronaldo, hearing this, was overcome with regret — of all things, his own big mouth had let that slip. He raised his greatsword with a great shout and charged forward.
"A mere knight, and not even a Great Knight, challenging me? Better I finish you off quickly." Bagot said this mildly, clearly not taking him seriously at all. He swept a hand forward, and a wall of earth shot up out of the ground.
A boom sounded, the earthen wall shattering. Ronaldo burst through it, white light flickering across his body, his greatsword swinging down in a cleaving arc. Bagot looked genuinely startled. "He actually broke through my wall." He stepped back slightly, and the greatsword cut through empty air.
Seeing Ronaldo's strike miss, a cruel smile crossed Bagot's face. Black light flared from his five fingers as he clawed at Ronaldo, the black radiance surging outward in an instant to reach four or five forearms in length. Ronaldo's greatsword swept in a circle, white light blazing, several dull thuds sounding as he blocked the attack, then stepped back and drew a rapier from behind his back with his left hand, white light flaring even brighter than before, moving too fast for the eye to follow — the Reverse Cross Blade unleashed.
Bagot cried out in pain, his figure flickering as though teleporting, retreating violently. A gash had opened across his abdomen, blood gushing out at once.
But as he retreated, the blood spilling from the wound flowed back into his body, and the wound healed almost instantly. "Damn you. You actually wounded me."
As he spoke, wings suddenly unfurled from his back, fangs extending from his mouth — he was a vampire after all. The moment his transformation completed, only a blur of afterimages remained visible; with a heavy thud, Ronaldo went flying backward, blood spraying from his mouth.
Bagot moved to press his advantage, but Evan flicked a finger, raising a wall of bone before Ronaldo. Bagot's figure shifted and he was already upon Evan, but Evan tilted his head up, and a beam of black light flashed out — Soul Drain — striking him directly. A thick surge of blood-energy burst from Bagot's body, and he staggered backward.
"So you've already turned into a vampire. Judging by your state, it wasn't long ago — if you hadn't already been a magus to begin with, you'd have been finished long before now," Evan said lightly, as though stating an obvious fact, his hands never idle even as he spoke. He drew a vial of healing potion from his ring and tossed it to Ronaldo.
"Much obliged!" Ronaldo caught the vial and threw his head back, draining it in one gulp.
"Do you two really think you can win here?" Bagot said, his bat wings beating gently behind him. His eyes narrowed, and Evan stepped forward — right where he'd been standing, a spike of earth suddenly shot upward. Black smoke billowed thick around Evan and coalesced into a shield before him — the Medusa Shield. Bagot's body blurred, and a sonic boom tore through the air as his speed broke past the sound barrier, but two beams of grayish-white light shot from the eyes of the Medusa on the shield and struck him square on.
The surface of his body began petrifying rapidly, but bloody light flickered across him, as though two forces were locked in struggle, and the petrification quickly receded. He let out a shriek and retreated at speed, spitting blood, his spirit visibly flagging.
He shouted, "Move already!"
The ground suddenly rippled like water, rolling into waves, and a shadow appeared, rapidly condensing into the wolf-headed, human-bodied, bat-winged creature. The instant it manifested, it lunged straight at Evan. A smile suddenly crossed Evan's face, and the scythe appeared once more, sweeping down toward the creature. The moment the scythe appeared, a deathly stillness abruptly filled the air around them, as though the very atmosphere had frozen solid. Terror flashed across the god-spawn's face; its body jerked, and suddenly it split into a second, identical shadow — though paler in color — which let out a shriek and turned to flee.
None of the three present had expected this development. In a flash, the shadow flickered and vanished. It darted desperately to one side, but too late — the scythe passed through it, and with a thin, agonized cry, it was drawn into the blade.
At that moment, Evan took a step forward. The instant his foot touched down, the ground let out a boom, and the surging waves of earth vanished at once.
Evan's scythe spun, transforming into a streak of black light shot through with a thread of silvery-gray radiance, and shot straight at Bagot.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Before the scythe could reach him, Bagot felt a chill run through his entire body. A scroll suddenly appeared in his hand — a magical decoy technique. He tore the scroll open, and a duplicate of Bagot appeared, taking the scythe's blow in his place; the scythe passed through it, and it dissolved into ash and vanished.
Bagot had already spread his wings and retreated violently, his body rising into the air, eyes fixed coldly on Evan, teeth grinding. "I'll drain every drop of your blood."
The scythe returned into Evan's body, but the information it carried was still meager — only that the shadow had been a god-spawn, and little else.
Hearing Bagot grind out his threat, Evan smiled. "You think we'll let you go?"
"I mean to leave, and the two of you can't stop me," Bagot said with a cold sneer.
Evan reached up and slipped the mala off his right wrist, singling out one bead that seemed to shine with golden light. With a flick of his finger, the bead shot forward, blazing up like a sun suddenly rising, carrying boundless heat. Black smoke began pouring off Bagot's body; he startled violently, beat his wings, and shot up into the sky, turning to flee.
His figure blurred into a string of afterimages streaking away into the distance. He moved with incredible speed, while that little sun seemed to drift toward him almost lazily. The difference in their speeds seemed enormous — and yet in the blink of an eye, the sun had already reached him. A single agonized scream rang out, and he burst into flame, burning away to ash. The sun, too, seemed spent, shrinking back into a bead that shattered into several pieces and fell to the ground.
"That's it? It's over already?" Ronaldo said, unable to believe it.
"Do you think a legendary item is something to be trifled with? Besides, he had the nerve to turn vampire and still couldn't withstand that miniature sun. Though I'll admit, that one god-spawn got away fast," Evan said. The sensation of being watched had entirely vanished by now.
"Too bad we didn't take him alive — we could have asked him what's really going on with the Gnostic Society," Ronaldo said.
"The Gnostic Society deserves to be wiped off the map at this point. Who'd have thought they'd go so far as to conspire with vampires — and this is probably only the tip of it. If their leader is here somewhere and I cross paths with him, there'll be no mercy," Evan said, his tone carrying a chill that raised the hair on the back of one's neck.
Evan looked around; the buildings and everything else had vanished entirely. Something struck him as odd, as though he were overlooking something. He looked up toward the mountain, its peak vanishing into the clouds. "Let's climb up. Maybe we'll see something from up there."
Ronaldo nodded. Something about this place defied all reason — climbing the peak seemed the only way to make sense of it. Earlier, when Evan had used his levitation spell, it had drawn the man-headed eagle down on them; neither of them had seen exactly how it had appeared. The sky had been empty one moment, and then it simply was there.
Evan was more cautious now. He had no wish to run into anything else unexpected, so he simply climbed the mountain on foot, one step at a time, keeping watch for whatever might be there.
Along the way, they saw no large trees, only low scrub, with the occasional small insect fluttering past. An idea struck Evan. Ever since gaining Bug Sorcery, he hadn't had the chance to practice it — no insects to be found in winter. Here, though, there were insects. Worth trying, perhaps. As he walked, he began building an abstract image of an insect in his mind, following the requirements of Bug Sorcery. After about five minutes, the image had fully formed in his mind. Spotting a small insect flitting past, he gave it a gentle push, and the phantom insect merged with the real one. His field of vision shifted at once — he began perceiving something indescribable, colors suddenly skewing toward violet, as though he'd stepped into a world washed entirely in purple.
Ultraviolet light — the concept surfaced in Evan's mind unbidden. Directing the insect, he looked up at the sky. Within the cloud layer, numerous shadowy shapes were flitting about. He understood now — that man-headed eagle from before had come from up there.
Looking down at the ground instead, it too appeared strange and shifting through the insect's eyes, countless traces of animal life showing themselves. So the ground wasn't lifeless after all — the creatures had simply been hiding somewhere he couldn't see.
Suddenly a tongue flashed into view, and the little insect was swallowed whole by a chameleon. Evan gave a wry chuckle and let the insect go.
They climbed into the cloud layer. The mountain was tall, and in an instant several strange birds swooped down at them. Evan struck the ground with his staff, and a whirlwind sprang up around him; amid a chorus of shrill whistling, the whirlwind sent wind blades flying out in every direction, sweeping the swarm around them completely clear. Ronaldo, meanwhile, swung his greatsword over his head. Fortunately, though the strange birds had come at them aggressively at first, the moment the two of them moved and the air around them churned like crashing waves, the birds scattered and fled in every direction.
The two exchanged a glance. They'd expected those man-headed eagles, along with the many other strangely shaped birds, to come at them in force — instead, the whole flock had simply scattered in a panic.
They paid the birds no more mind and continued climbing. Once they broke through the cloud layer, they found a dull, listless violet-red sun hanging in the sky above, giving off no warmth whatsoever, the clouds below tinted a deep violet-red.
A jolt of alarm went through Evan. Something occurred to him — could the ultraviolet radiation here be dangerously intense? He stopped and turned his attention inward, checking himself, and found that while ultraviolet light was indeed present, it remained within a normal range. He let out a breath of relief. Ronaldo, puzzled, asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. Just checking something. Everything's fine," Evan said, not sharing his concerns with Ronaldo — even if he had, there was no guarantee Ronaldo would have understood.
The two of them reached the summit and looked down. All around them stretched clouds washed in violet light. A gust of wind blew through, rippling the cloud layer, and the land below came into view. Evan and Ronaldo both stared, stunned speechless — because what they saw was this: the very ground beneath their feet was floating in midair, and beyond it, several more landmasses hung suspended in the sky as well.