Four Hundred Ninety-Four Cold Bodies
Within the hidden space of the Enlightenment Mark Temple, beneath the divine mark of the Judge of Heaven, Dorothy, who was originally sitting here to remotely control the situation and deal with Muhetar, encountered an unexpected situation at this moment.
Under the sky perspective granted by the temple system, Dorothy saw Muhetar being chased away in disarray by her lightning and directly escaping into a building near the palace garden to avoid the strikes. Without any hesitation, Dorothy ordered the zombie puppet to enter and search for her, providing her with a field of vision. The moment she discovered Muhetar, she immediately controlled the found zombie puppet to sh**t, but the instant she hit Muhetar, she herself felt an unprecedented sharp pain surge through her chest.
“Cough!!”
Her eyes wide open, Dorothy leaned forward and coughed out a large mouthful of bl**d. At this moment, she tightly held her chest, feeling the warmth and wetness of bl**d seeping through her clothes, flowing out profusely. She felt that her chest was already rotten, with countless holes piercing through from front to back, and the area behind her chest was completely decayed. The pain was so intense that it could cause her to faint, and before her eyes, there appeared a vast darkness.
“How can this be…”
Muttering with an unbelievable expression, Dorothy fell forward straight, collapsing on the ground. bl**d spread across the ground. Under extreme pain, Dorothy completely severed her control over the distant lightning and the zombie puppet. In Muhetar’s eyes, what he saw was a significant decrease in spiritual activity within the hidden space and the collapse of the meat puppets that were searching for him around the garden.
“Haha… You finally tasted the pain of punishment…”
Holding the wound just shot in his chest, Muhetar looked at the g*n-wielding meat puppet that had lost control and fallen to the ground, smiling. His gaze turned towards the garden outside the building, where he saw a familiar figure entering the building from the garden—a nun.
‘The most troublesome one is gone; now it’s time for the others…’
Thinking this, Muhetar gripped his curved sword tighter and took out another sigil and several storage items from his stone box, placing them on the blade. The blade began to emit a faint silvery glow. Then, Muhetar wielded the blade and moved towards other places. During this process, to conserve spiritual energy, he marked the weakening existence and other important targets in the distant hidden space, then closed his luminous eye, allowing his eyes to return to normal.
On the other side of the building, inside a long corridor, Vania was holding her sword and quickly advancing, intent on searching for Muhetar. While searching, she anxiously tried to contact Dorothy via information channels to guide her to find Muhetar, but to her surprise, no matter how she called out, Dorothy did not respond.
“Miss Dorothy… Miss Dorothy… Please guide me, where is Muhetar hiding now?
‘Miss Dorothy… Miss Dorothy, what happened to you? Please reply… Where is that heretic leader? What should I do next? I need your guidance…’
Running through the long corridor, Vania frequently communicated with the distant Dorothy via the information channel she had opened through prayer. However, instead of the usual quick response, she received prolonged silence. This naturally caused deep anxiety and even panic within Vania, emotions she hadn’t felt in a long time…
Throughout all crises, although Vania felt anxious, she never panicked. She knew that as long as she could contact Dorothy, as long as she was watching over her side and controlling the situation, everything would eventually be resolved. Therefore, regardless of any danger, as long as she could pray to Akka and still hear Dorothy’s voice, she always had a sense of security. She believed that no matter how bad the situation became, as long as Dorothy was behind her, everything would eventually turn around.
However, at this moment, she couldn’t contact Dorothy. Unable to hear the familiar guidance and voice, Vania suddenly felt a long-forgotten fear and helplessness. The last time she felt such emotions was last year in Prit, in Bishop Dickert’s tomb, when she had not yet encountered Akka or met Dorothy. Similarly, the threat she faced back then was also from the Savior’s Incarnation Sect.
The panic and helplessness Vania felt entwined with Shadi filled her mind, making her confused and worried. Just at this moment, Vania’s continuously open mind’s eye suddenly detected a crisis from behind. Her face turned serious, and she tightened her grip on the sword, turning around to block the sudden sneak attack. With a crisp sound, Vania blocked the attack from behind, and what she saw was Muhetar wielding a curved sword.
Seeing Muhetar appear again, Vania’s anxious expression instantly calmed, and she focused entirely on the battle. Muhetar, seeing Vania again, didn’t waste words and continued his fierce assault. Unable to retaliate, Vania, like before, began blocking passively, creating an impenetrable sword barrier to withstand Muhetar’s relentless attacks. The clashing sounds of swords echoed once more.
Continuous offense and constant defense, the battle scene that had appeared in the garden earlier was now replayed within the palace. Soon, Vania realized that the current battle was different from the previous ones. Her sword blade started showing tiny cracks as she blocked Muhetar’s attacks, and these cracks rapidly spread and expanded, covering the entire blade.
Having fought against the “Shadow” extraordinary beings multiple times, Vania understood this was the corrosion of the “Shadow” weapon! Muhetar had used a sigil to enchant his curved sword with the “Shadow.”
Since direct breakthrough of Vania’s skillful defenses was impossible, Muhetar planned to shatter the weapon, leaving her without anything to block with. Afterward, he would have free rein to k*ll. This was Muhetar’s strategy to counter Vania.
During the continuous clash of blades, the cracks on Vania’s sword kept spreading, quickly covering the entire blade. It seemed that with one or two more hits, the sword would be shattered. At that point, Vania would lose her defensive tool and would have to rely solely on her body to defend against Muhetar’s attacks.
Just at this moment, the window beside the long corridor suddenly shattered, and a concentrated icy cold stream rapidly sprayed toward Muhetar from outside, accurately hitting his body. Muhetar’s assault was interrupted by the icy wind, and his arm was soon covered in ice, hindering his movement.
Struck by the cold wind, Muhetar was startled. He knew this ice control ability belonged to Shadi’s ancient ghost. Shadi obtained the ability to control the cold by possessing the ghost, but using this ability to attack someone protected by commandments would harm Shadi tenfold. Did Shadi not fear this tenfold cold?
With this question in mind, Muhetar looked out the window and saw a strange figure far away.
The figure wore Shadi’s military uniform, but beneath the regular clothing was not a human body but a crystal-clear frost body, a meticulously carved ice sculpture resembling Shadi.
This frost-encased Shadi extended one arm and continuously sprayed frost while moving forward. Despite being made of ice, his mobility was unaffected, almost like a living ice sculpture.
“This is… Elemental Body!”
Seeing Shadi completely encased in ice, Muhetar muttered in disbelief. Now he understood why Shadi wasn’t affected by the counter-damage. That’s because even if affected, it made no difference at this moment.
Elemental Body was a capability that all elementalists gained upon reaching the Red Tier. They could temporarily transform their bodies into the elements they controlled, manipulating elements as part of themselves. In this form, Red Tier elementalists not only had strong physical resistance but also immunity to their own element damage.
In other words, Shadi was immune to the frost damage. When Shadi attacked Muhetar with frost, and Muhetar retaliated tenfold, Shadi still suffered frost damage. But since Shadi was immune to frost, it had no effect.
In simple terms, Shadi was dealing frost damage with 100% frost resistance. Even if Muhetar returned tenfold the frost damage, Shadi remained unaffected. This elemental body was a partial ability released by Shadi after his soul was synchronized with Setute.
As Shadi moved forward, he continuously released frost, attempting to completely freeze Muhetar. Unfortunately, although Shadi had the elemental body, the power of the frost wind was still limited to the White Chalk Tier, unable to instantly freeze Muhetar, giving Muhetar some leeway.
At the moment his body began to stiffen, Muhetar trembled and took out a sigil from his body. As soon as the sigil was taken out, his entire body was covered with frost, becoming extremely rigid. However, at this moment, a faint light started to emerge on the sigil, outlining a blazing sun symbol. Seeing the sigil, Vania initially wanted to grab it, but when she saw the sigil starting to glow, she immediately turned and ran. Behind her, a loud explosion echoed.
“Boom!!”
Suddenly, the sigil in Muhetar’s frost-covered hand burst into intense flames, followed by a powerful explosion. The explosion struck Vania as she fled, blowing her away and causing her to fall heavily to the ground. When she stood up again and turned around, she saw the long corridor had been turned into ruins and was burning. However, Muhetar was nowhere to be seen, clearly having escaped quickly after the explosion.
“Don’t let him get away! Chase him!”
Seeing Muhetar escape during the explosion, the ice-cold Shadi outside the corridor couldn’t help but shout loudly. Hearing Shadi’s words, Vania naturally understood that they couldn’t give the opponent any breathing room. She immediately held her longsword and continued running deeper into the building, with Shadi closely following. When he tried to run into the palace building, a sound came from behind.
“Mister Muhetar! Where are you? We’re here to help you!”
Hearing this voice, Shadi turned around and saw countless members of the Savior Faction rushing into the palace garden, charging straight towards them. Seeing this, Shadi’s heart tightened. He knew that with so many Savior Faction members appearing here, the situation on other battlefields within the palace might already be dire.
…
In the vast Baruk Palace, Vania ran through various corridors and rooms, searching for Muhetar. However, the massive palace resembled a maze, making it impossible for Vania to locate Muhetar. She wandered aimlessly through the palace, searching without direction.
“Go ahead… Turn right… Enter the collection hall and turn left…”
At this moment, a familiar voice long forgotten resounded in Vania’s heart. Listening to this voice, Vania’s previously despondent heart instantly lifted, and the gloom that had enveloped her mind dissipated significantly. She gripped her sword more firmly and followed the voice’s guidance, moving through the palace. Soon, she found the figure she was looking for.
In a grand hall, Vania discovered Muhetar, who was fleeing. His luxurious robe was burned and damaged, much of his thick hair was burnt off, and his entire body was charred black with extensive burn marks. Upon hearing Vania, he glared at her with a hateful expression.
“It’s you again…”
Seeing Muhetar covered in wounds, Vania’s expression tightened. She rushed forward, extending an unweaponed hand to grab Muhetar, seemingly wanting to stop him from escaping. Muhetar responded by slashing at Vania with his sword, and Vania raised her sword to block again.
Seeing Vania use her sword to block again, Muhetar felt a surge of satisfaction. After their recent battle, he already knew that Vania’s sword was on the verge of breaking. With just a few more hits, it would shatter completely. For Vania to still use her sword to block now was sheer folly!
“Clang!”
With Muhetar’s curved sword striking down, the clear sound of metal clashed echoed through the space. Under the heavy blow, Vania’s sword shattered.
However, what Muhetar didn’t expect was that after shattering the blade, his curved sword did not continue to strike Vania, cutting her in half. Instead, it struck a thick, red, and vibrant flesh tentacle, which was precisely what emerged from Vania’s broken sword. It was the resilient outer shell of the sword concealing something hidden within, the true secret of Vania’s sword.
Muhetar’s curved sword cut through the flexible flesh tentacle, drawing a lot of bl**d but failing to sever it. Instead, the tentacle twisted and wrapped around the entire blade due to its pain, restricting Muhetar’s movements.
In Muhetar’s perception, he indeed knew that this sword was a kind of “Cup” extraordinary item. However, since Vania hadn’t used the corresponding ability, Muhetar assumed the conditions for using the sword’s ability were stringent, thus he relaxed his guard. But he never expected the ability to be so bizarre!
Taking advantage of the tentacle entangling the opponent’s weapon, Vania attempted to reach out and touch Muhetar. Seeing this, Muhetar simply discarded his weapon and floated backward to distance himself from Vania. At this moment, something unusual happened around them.
In the luxurious grand hall of Baruk Palace, various metal candlesticks, metal utensils, metal armor, and metal weapons suddenly trembled. All metal objects in the hall levitated and flew straight towards Muhetar, sticking to his body and surrounding him completely.
These metal objects didn’t directly harm him but surrounded and obscured his vision, restricting his movements. Muhetar was thus interfered with and restricted by these metal objects, allowing Vania, who was chasing him, to catch up. At this moment, an orange-yellow glow appeared around Vania’s hand, representing the healing light of the Path of the Holy Mother.
With the assistance of countless metal objects, Vania finally managed to approach Muhetar. She reached out and touched Muhetar’s wounded body with the healing light.
