GDK 425 - Han Shuo's sudden change
Han Shuo understood that this was because he had been too greedy. However, with things reaching this point, he didn't have a good solution.
As his mind was connected with the Demonslayer Edge, with the chaotic negative negative energy within the Demonslayer Edge scattering everywhere, it gradually affected Han Shuo's calm frame of mind. An intention of slaughter unconsciously leaped into his mind. It was like a toxin enhancer, causing Han Shou's heartbeat to start increasing.
Not good! Han Shuo was alarmed.
This feeling had not appeared for a long time. Han Shuo knew that this is a sign of entering demonhood. The Demonslayer Edge was unfortunately still wildly absorbing the negative energy within Ossen City, while Han Shuo was absorbing the soaring killing intent through the vortex. Both of these energies required Han Shuo's manipulation and an error on one side will immediately affect the other.
Han Shuo's pupils started to gradually turn red. Blood-coloured light wound around his whole body and violent, sinister energy started emanating from Han Shuo. Sabakas and Karel, who were both inside the castle, immediately felt the changes to Han Shuo.
"What's going on?" Karel was terrified as he looked towards the roof that Han Shuo was on.
Bang, bang bang!
Just as Karel finished speaking, crackling sounds came from the direction he was looking toward. Rays of scarlet light shot out, causing the pile of rocks that used to be houses in that area to shatter and disintegrate.
Sabakas stared blankly for two seconds but soon after teleported to the area where Han Shuo sat cross-legged. He saw that Han Shuo's expression was distorted with malevolence, appearing extremely frightful. Strands of energy within the enormous vortex overhead formed rays of blood-colored light which flowed into Han Shuo's body like electric currents.
The sinister and ruthless energy suddenly erupted from Han Shuo's body. With Han Shuo at the center, the buildings surrounding him collapsed with a loud bang one after another. Some of the soldiers in the castle were caught off guard and were immediately affected by this formidable force. In a flash, almost a hundred soldiers were killed.
Space sacred magus Sabakas' expression changed dramatically. Without saying another word, he hurriedly deployed a defensive barrier and then concentrated his mental strength and shouted loudly at Han Shuo, "Bryan!"
The pupils of Han Shuo, who was on the verge of falling into demonhood, had become a frightful scarlet color. It was as though blood was flowing within his pupils and appeared extremely terrifying.
The loud shout made with Sabakas' condensed mental strength, pierced into Han Shuo's mind like a sharp needle. Han Shuo felt a slight headache and became clear-headed after a brief moment.
Han Shuo's eyes spun rapidly for a while before he suddenly raised his head and roared toward the sky. An enormous killing intent was mixed within the roar. While Sabakas was ineffably horrified, Han Shuo suddenly flew up toward the sky like a lightning bolt, vanished within the blood cloud.
The dreadful roar resounded across the entire northern city district like thunder. Many experts sensed the fearsome energy contained within the roar and looked toward the area where Han Shuo was, momentarily clueless about what had happened.
"What happened?" Sacred swordmaster Karel hastily asked the startled Sabakas as he was late to the scene, only seeing a red flash shooting into the sky.
"I don't know, I have no idea either!" Sabakas came to his senses, immediately shaking his head and answered frantically. He looked at the blood cloud which was amassing and becoming denser and said, "However, I have a bad feeling. A moment ago, Bryan looked somewhat terrifying. There's an extremely formidable energy in his body, so powerful that my heart rate quickened."
Karel was shocked as he knew Sabakas' true strength. When he heard Sabakas say that he felt terrified by the strength Han Shuo just revealed, Karel replied gravely, "I can sense soaring killing intent and evil within Bryan's roar. I think something is amiss."
"I'm also worried about that. Just a moment ago, his gaze looked extremely unfeeling and felt extremely unfamiliar. He was totally different from the Han Shuo we usually see. I'm certain that something we can't understand must have happened to his body." Sabakas was also feeling down as he replied Karel.
Karel suddenly shouted in alarm, "Look! The blood cloud in the sky is moving! Oh? It's actually moving in Ashburn's direction!"
"Guys, what's going on? What happened here?" Firenze had come over and asked calmly.
Amyes, Emily, and a few others had come along with Firenze. They had all heard the frightening roar originating from here, which filled their hearts with doubt and bafflement, and immediately came to investigate.
Fanny and Pheobe who were originally still on the second floor had also stopped their conversation and rushed over in a panic. They had no idea why Han Shuo would let out such a terrifying roar, causing them to be filled with worry and panic.
Sabakas didn't answer Firenze's question and instead creased his brows as he looked toward the sky.
The blood cloud had originally sat quietly in the sky above the castle, continuously absorbing negative energy from the entire northern city district. Although it grew in volume, it didn't move.
But now, the thick blood clouds had started to move!
The blood cloud's migration caused the weather to change drastically. An oppresive pressure carrying the weight of a mountain came crashing down. An enormous wicked aura gradually left the sky above the castle and headed toward the location of Ashburn and his allies.
"Emily, do you know what just happened?" Amyes creased his brows as he sought clarification from Emily.
Of the people present, Emily was the most familiar with Han Shuo. When Amyes completed his question, everyone turned their gazes toward to Emily, all of them curious and puzzled.
"This should be what Han Shuo referred to as entering demonhood. He mentioned that this state would cause him to go crazy and even he himself wouldn't be able to control his own actions. This terrifying state is extremely dangerous but will cause his strength to rise explosively. I don't really understand it either and that's all I have heard from him." Emily similarly creased her brows as she explained immediately.
As Emily explained, everyone saw the numerous houses that had collapsed and some of the castle guards who had died tragically, immediately acknowledging Emily's explanation. Even Sabakas and Karel, didn't dare to forcefully charge toward Ashburn's location. Yet, Han Shuo had condensed a thick blood cloud and headed over directly. Such a lunatic action was clearly something that he wouldn't do in normal situations.
"Oh no! This means Bryan is in great danger! That location is filled with powerful experts and he even lost his rationality. What should we do?" Karel said anxiously.
"Ai, we can only take it one step at a time. We have to constantly monitor his movements. If anything really goes wrong, we will have to find a way to save him!" Sabakas sighed and answered grudgingly.
As Sabakas spoke, a blue crystal ball the size of a human head materialized in his hand. He then chanted an incantation and the crystal ball suddenly shot out blue light. This blue light was like ripples created when a rock is thrown into a lake, constantly swaying.
As Sabakas continued to recite his spell, the wavering blue light within the crystal ball gradually calmed down. When Sabakas had completed his incantation, the crystal ball suddenly displayed a clear scene.
Within the crystal ball, Han Shuo's entire body was covered in blood-colored light, his pupils scarlet red. The Demonslayer Edge floated above his head and the surrounding layers of blood clouds churned as they moved toward Ashburn's location.
Sabakas moved his five fingers over the crystal ball, causing the image within to zoom in and change, revealing the appearances of Ashburn, eldest prince Charles, their allies. Among them were the sacred knight and earth sacred magus Dempus, all of them having shocked expressions as they looked nervously at the blood cloud inching toward them.
"This crystal ball was given to me by Madam Grace. Although it can't foresee the future, it can show scenes within a fixed area. We won't be able to hear any sound though." Sabakas explained.
"Hmph. You clearly have something good but have been hiding it all along. What a selfish fellow." Firenze remarked impolitely.
Sabakas cleared his throat, smiling bitterly as he explained, "This crystal ball consumes a lot of mental strength to operate, has a very limited range, and doesn't transmit sound. It's a far cry from Han Shuo's mystical powers. That's why I had kept it hidden, not because I was being selfish."
"Alright, alright, let's see if Bryan will meet with a mishap," Karel said impatiently to Firenze and turned his attention to the changing scenes within Sabakas's crystal ball.
While Sabakas and the others were watching the changes happening within the crystal ball attentively, some of the weaker nobles by Ashburn's side were in misery. The enormous pressure brought by the blood cloud caused them to start gasping for breath.
"Dammit, what the hell is happening? Why did red clouds suddenly float over!" Eldest prince Charles also felt his heart palpating. The pressure was like a mountain pressing onto his body, causing him to feel all over. He can't help but cuss as he looked toward the sky.
"Two esteem sacred rank experts, do you know what is happening?" Even though Ashburn was the Grand Duke of Lancelot Empire, he didn't train in either martial arts or magic. He felt the pressure even more clearly and actually had an urge to engage in crazed slaughter. To Ashburn who had to be calm to deal with all kinds of situations, this impulse was undoubtedly deadly. Thus, he hastily asked the sacred knight and Dempus.
The two sacred rank experts had grave expressions as they stared at the blood cloud in the sky. They could clearly sense the blood cloud accumulating more and more energy. Having absorbed the negative energy which contained the unyielding anger and dread of countless thousands of soldiers killed on the battlefield, the energy within the blood cloud far surpassed their imagination. This caused the two sacred rank experts to feel nervous.
"This is caused by that brat, Bryan. I can sense that he's inside the blood cloud!" sacred knight Blount said calmly as he looked toward the sky.
"It's him? Is that brat courting death? To actually dare to appear here!" Eldest prince Charles sneered.
In addition to two sacred rank masters, there were numerous great swordmasters and grand magi stationed along with a few thousand troops. Charles naturally believed that Han Shuo would definitely be killed.
However, both scared knight Blount and Dempus could faintly sense the formidability of the energy accumulated within the blood cloud. However, morale was extremely important at this moment. If Blount and Dempus told the truth, it would definitely cause the soldiers here to be filled with fear.
Blount and Dempus shot a glance at each other and Dempus suddenly began to chant a magic spell to deploy a barrier for Ashburn and the others, so as to avoid them being influenced by the energy within the blood cloud, so as to prevent them from feeling dread before the battle truly began.
"Wind magi, use tornados to sweep away that blood cloud." Sacred knight Blount ordered the magi beside him to immediately take action.
As the blood cloud grew bigger and denser, Blount could clearly feel that energy came from the negative energy condensed within the blood cloud. As Dempus was an earth magus, he was powerless against the blood cloud in the sky. Only wind magi were able to unleash their strength to the greatest degree.
At Blount's command, the wind magi on Ashburn's side began their incantations one after another. The essence of wind suddenly became denser as tornadoes and hurricanes of various sizes gradually formed and headed straight for the blood cloud that was about to reach them.
However, some things don't go as planned. The layers of dense blood cloud unexpectedly didn't disperse at all under the force of the different wind magic spells and instead continued along its original trajectory toward the location above Ashburn and the others.
While the wind magi were indescribably stunned, a magus with sharp vision suddenly shouted in fear while pointing at the blood cloud, "Look! There's someone's in the middle of the cloud!"
As the magus cried out in fear, others with sharp eyes all paid attention to the center of the blood cloud, spotting an imposing figure that was covered in a blood-colored light that interweaved around his body like lightning and looked as though he had the ability to control the blood cloud. All of a sudden, the figure roared wildly as he pressured downward like the blood cloud.
All of a sudden, terrifying wicked energy the weight of a mountain abruptly enveloped the entire area. An overbearing weapon wound around the thick blood cloud before suddenly striking downward like a meteor with red light trailing behind. The power within the rapidly descending weapon and the friction with the air produced a terrifying sharp screech.
In a split second, the entire sky was covered with red light. Blount and Dempus were both so terrified their faces paled.
"Retreat!" Dempus shouted, his hands grabbing onto Ashburn and eldest prince Charles and immediately using his levitation skills to hastily retreat into the distance.