Chapter 629: The Taste of Silence
The tremors made Adam’s fist appear crooked, bloated, then decrepit as if to herald the horrors contained in the sphere. Even if he was the conjuror, just clutching it made his skin tingle and hair bristle.
But the time wasn’t for memories. The puppet’s fiery tsunami approached, the fiery tongues roiling like waves and the heat licking his sweaty face like a ravenous beast.
Resisting the icy shudder, he hurled it as the ground parted beneath his feet. He fell two kilometers down, his breath ragged and his heart drumming in his ears. If he wasn’t on a flying island, he would have dug the ground deeper without hesitation; that’s how horrifying this technique was—even to him.
As he took refuge and the flames obscured the fist-sized sphere from the puppet, the emperor saw everything.
He frowned at first. Aside from the vibrations distorting space and the bright colors, it was plain compared to the previous light halberds, devastating solar beams, or the molten broadsword connecting the earth to the heavens like a celestial pillar.
Yet, his frown shifted to horror, and he leapt back as the flames engulfed the sphere. More than because of a flashy effect, it was a primal reaction mirrored by the abundant sweat marring his back: genuine fear.
And the puppet felt it twice as much, even though he didn’t know its source. Worse, he felt like millions of demonic bugs tore his flesh with their sharp mandibles.
Alarmed, he closed his beak and sprang up. His fingers dug into the broadsword’s mineral before he propelled himself to its tip as his eyes darted to find the source of this unsettling feeling.
Just as he searched, a ripple spread from the roaring fire. The vivid green turned gray before the phenomenon spread in a circle. The garden’s colors faded, sounds following as a deathly silence settled in the palace.
"Just what did this weakling do?" He muttered, feeling his life threatened for the first time in this battle.
Yet, even his words faded into the silence. No, a sound persisted. Was it a subtle sizzle? The noise of evaporating water? He snapped his gaze down, noticing a dark mist swirling into a chain of mocking skulls that made him realise something else: the overwhelming scents of molten minerals and sulfur had vanished, too.