Chapter 1031: Incredible
The colossal arm squeezed. The abomination that was once Rize was crushed into nothingness, its form dissolving into a cloud of pure faith energy, which the spectral arm then absorbed before retracting.
The turn of events had been so sudden, the conclusion so absolute, that Tangere thought it was all over. Then, a new voice slithered out from the surrounding forest—seductive, enchanting, and dripping with venom.
"My, my... what a powerful display. To kill a priest of the Black Tower so casually... so very casually..."
The voice echoed, and Tangere’s vision swam. The world dissolved around him as he fell into a trance.
"Awaken."
Orion’s voice, cold and sharp as splintered ice, detonated in Tangere’s sea of consciousness. The illusion shattered. Tangere gasped, his mind his own again. A cold dread washed over him. In those few short moments, he had broken out in a sweat so profuse it had soaked through his clothes.
That was too close. He knew with absolute certainty that if Orion hadn’t intervened, he would have been lost, his will broken and his body enslaved.
"Thank you," Tangere said, his voice filled with genuine gratitude as he addressed the phantom before him.
The Bestial Fang Talisman now hovered in the air, no longer a simple ornament but a shimmering, humanoid phantom. The will projection Orion had stored within the fang was too weak to manifest a full form on its own. But after absorbing the faith energy from Rize, it had been empowered enough to take shape.
"Stay put. Don’t move," the Orion phantom commanded. With those words, it shot forward, transforming into a streak of light that blazed into the dark forest. It moved so fast that by the time Tangere opened his mouth to reply, it was already gone.
"Incredible..." The sheer, casual power of an arch lord gave Tangere a chillingly clear perspective on the chasm that separated them.
Deep within the woods, Orion’s will projection slammed into a massive boulder with unrestrained force. The rock exploded into dust, revealing a black fiend serpent coiled beneath it. The serpent was instantly pulped, but its purpose had been served. A serpentine phantom, shimmering with ethereal light, erupted from the mangled corpse and lunged, jaws wide, at Orion’s projection.
The two wills collided. No blood was spilled; their attacks were a pure contest of power, each blow eroding the very substance of the other. They became a whirlwind of raw energy, tearing through the forest.
Within the vortex, Orion’s phantom seized the serpent’s neck with one hand while coalescing crackling lightning in the other, blasting away at its form. The serpent phantom, in turn, coiled its long tail around Orion’s waist and pummeled his body with six spectral arms.
The fact that the serpent could hold its own, even for a moment, told Orion everything he needed to know. The master of this projection was, at minimum, an arch lord at its peak.
Miles away, in the Black Tower, the Witch came to the exact same conclusion.
"Enough of this," Orion’s projection snarled.
It swelled in size, shifting into its Titan Form. Activating Titan’s Maw, its head expanded into a vortex of devouring energy. It bit down, swallowing the serpent phantom’s head, then its body, consuming the enemy will inch by agonizing inch until nothing was left.
The projection then streaked back to Tangere’s location.
"The enemy has an arch lord on the field. Fall back and assist Caesar with the search for the Wood Elf survivors. I’m taking over here."
As the voice faded, the will projection dissolved, reforming into the Bestial Fang Talisman and landing gently in Tangere’s hand. He closed his fist around it, knowing this small piece of bone was his ultimate guarantee of survival in this otherworldly war. He treasured it, carefully stowing it away. After one last glance at the slowly dissipating mist in the distance, he turned and headed back towards The Stillness without hesitation.
Beyond the Forest of Nature, the Black Tower stood as a monument to corruption, an endless stream of demonic monsters flowing in and out of its gates.
On the fifth floor, the Witch’s eyes snapped open. She shot up from her throne. She had been browsing for goods on the Survivor’s Platform when she felt the psychic backlash of her will projection being utterly destroyed.
An abyssal race that uses lightning? That aura... it’s familiar... where have I felt it before...?
Giants! Why would an Abyssal Giant be here? Has the location of the Silverwood Realm been leaked? Or did the Wood Elves open a passage to the Abyss themselves? Did they summon them? No... that’s not right... those zombie-like things, the lord himself... they have no Abyssal energy... Who is this enemy? Where did they come from?!
The Witch paced frantically before her throne, her mind racing. Having her will projection not just defeated but consumed was a catastrophic loss. It meant the arch lord in the Forest of Nature was her equal, or perhaps, even her superior. This six-armed serpent-demon avatar of hers was at the arch lord peak. While not invincible, it was rare to meet a true rival.
"So, something major really has happened in the Forest," she murmured, finally slumping back onto her throne. She rested her chin on her hand, her eyes narrowed in thought. "There’s not enough intel. I have no idea who I’m up against."
.....
Forest of Nature, The Stillness.
Inside the castle, Orion stood up abruptly. He had been monitoring the situation ever since Tangere first encountered the Mist Wraith.
Unlike the Witch, he was not surprised by the outcome of the psychic battle; he had expected to win. The enemy’s power level didn’t concern him either. He’d killed several arch lords at their peak.
What shocked him was the state of the Mist Wraith Rize after Tangere had defeated him. The way he had reformed from ash... Orion recognized the principles behind it.
It was a secret technique, akin to the Rite of the Three Idols—a forbidden ceremony through which lords could ascend as arch lords, weaving for themselves a vessel born of faith. Rize had endured only because he had already remade his flesh through that very rite.
And only a true, cross-dimensional superpower, a faction that spanned worlds, would possess a secret technique of that caliber.
The invaders were not some random demonic horde. They were a major power.
Realizing this, Orion took a deep breath and slowly sat back down in his chair.
"It seems," he said to the empty room, "that things are not as simple as I thought. The situation in the Silverwood Realm is becoming more complex... and far more interesting."