Three days later…
The location where Eye Devil was sealed.
By the edge of the dark red plain, Angele was standing in a small red bush, staring at the black buildings.
The red clouds were boiling in the dark sky and illuminated the whole land.
A large black platform was built on the right of Eye Devil's body and there was a black vortex floating above the platform.
The floating vortex was releasing a strong force that was pulling all the translucent souls to it. The souls were like rain drops that were flying into the vortex.
Behind Angele was the wooden house he built a while ago. The woman in black was also staring at Eye Devil.
"Souls are everywhere… It started last afternoon," the woman muttered. "Where did you get all those souls?"
Angele remained calm, he was absorbing the black smoke coming from the woman.
"You don't need to know. Do you agree to my offer?"
"Well, I got my talent ability by luck and I don't think you can recreate it." The woman shook her head. "I fear light because of this ability and that's why I'm wearing black."
Angele looked at the woman. "No worries, we have a lot of time."
He had not practiced the Molten Core River for a long time and focused on the modified Book of Fear. He followed the method mentioned in the book and absorbed the negative emotions while practicing the Sound of the Knell.
The Book of Fear had three chapters: Prologue, Funeral Oration, Epilogue.
Angele removed the poems from the Erin's Funeral Oration since they were useless.
The prologue of the book could help him improve his bloodline power.
The funeral oration would help him purify his bloodline power and also explained how to create his true form and refined true form. The epilogue explained how the special weapons or armor were crafted. There were also some secret techniques, including the Sound of the Knell and the way to create the second or third life using the negative emotions other than fear.
Angele watched the translucent souls fly to the black ball beside Eye Devil and took out a red notebook from the mirror. He opened the notebook—it was full of incomplete formulas and some theories that were not validated yet.
He turned to the second last page, it seemed like he was excited.
A black rune circle was drawn on the leather paper of the notebook. There were complicated rune circles in the large rune circle. It looked like a well-designed pocket watch that was full of gears.
Strangely, the small rune circles were all rotating and making some strange noises.
"The Ritual of Black Death…" Angele rubbed the rune circle carefully.
He modified the rune circle slightly and there were five empty slots. He wanted to use them for something else.
"I only need to put the five emotion beads into those slots and I'll be able to create my refined true form; however, it'll take years…" Angele closed the notebook and handed it to the woman. "Hold this."
"What's this?" The woman was confused.
"This book will help me absorb the negative energy around your body so you can have some nice dreams during the night. I forced you to leave your hometown, this is some compensation," Angele responded in a calm tone. "I'll check the negative energy absorbed by the book later. You can stay here—Eye Devil's servants will deliver food to you—or you can stay around Eye Devil's body. However, you must stay here until I finish my business."
"How long will it take?" The woman was not anxious at all. "I was sealed for a long time and I don't care if I have to stay here for a bit longer."
"I'm not sure, it depends on how many souls they collect…" Angele sighed and looked at Eye Devil.
"It won't be too long…" he muttered.
For some reason, the woman suddenly felt fear toward the man she was staring at.
"Go now… I'll be leaving…" Angele turned around and disappeared into a ball of flames.
The woman checked the notebook and remained silent. She had a general idea of what Angele was about to do. There was only one way to collect souls, which was to kill more living beings.
Four years later…
The main world.
On top of a mountain between the Molten River and the Tarry River.
The blue sky was reflected on the surface of the mirror-like volcano lake.
The area around the lake was surrounded by random stone pieces that varied in shape and some vibrant green trees.
There were birds twittering and beasts roaring in the forest.
It was noon. A group of people wearing black robes with red badges on their chests were waiting quietly by the lake. They stood there quietly, staring at the sky.
In the front, there were two old men with messy hair and long beards, and there were four black robes standing behind them.
"It's almost the time," one of the old men spoke. He turned his head around and looked at a female black robe—a young woman wearing pearl earrings.
"Isabel, where is your grandfather?"
She chuckled and responded, "He'll be here in half an hourglass."
"Is that so?" The old man nodded.
"Don't worry, the First Elder is the strongest wizard of the Elemental Hand. He'll be here on time," the other old man said. "We had an agreement with the alliance and we've already decided to face the chaos together."
"True. With the First Elder helping us, everything will be alright." The two old men started a random conversation.
Behind the four black robes, there was a group of wizards with mermaid-shaped badges on their chests—there were about ten of them. In the center of the group, a young man with a pale face was waiting patiently and a middle-aged man was talking to him.
The middle-aged man smiled and said, "Green, happy, right? You mother is finally back."
"Yeah, I'm happy, but I'm surprised that it took her so long to complete the mission…" Angele smiled as well.
"Of course it took a while… She's one of the elders, even the rank 3 wizards spend years on their experiments. Just like me, I'm the head of the Human Resource department in Mermaid's Song and I have a lot of resources, but I lost ten years of effort in the recent lab accident…" The man looked depressed. "Ten years, Green. All my efforts turned to ashes. I'd break down mentally if I'm a weak man. A wizard's life can be hard too…"
"True. I'm on the same boat as master Brum." A middle-aged woman on the side joined the conversation. She had a pair of shapely eyes and a serious expression on the face. It was Masha, she communicated with Angele a lot after the tomb exploration.
"Master Masha, there was an accident in your lab too?" Brum questioned in a low voice.
"Well, yeah, when I was at the northern ice plain…"
Angele smiled as he listened to Masha and Brum's conversation.
They were here to welcome the army back. The two old men were heads of the Eagle Eye School and War School.
The four black robes behind the heads were representatives of the organizations that worked for Elemental Hands: The Wind Valley, the Wandering Farm, and the Gold River. The granddaughter of the First Elder, Miss Isabel, was also here—she was also one of the new Energy Retrievers.
The people with strong backgrounds were all here, the only reason that Angele was in the team was that he was the only son of Elder Vivian.
Angele glanced at Isabel. They met once during the party held by Shozo and he knew that the girl was the second granddaughter. The people around Isabel were probably also inheritors of the elders.
He stood in the team and waited patiently. Couple minutes later, he heard thunder rumbling in the sky and the noise was approaching.
In the blue sky, a group of pink light dots appeared, flying to the welcome team.
"They're here." One of the old men put on a pair of glasses and arranged his long robe.
"Urartian, you or me?" He looked at the other old man.
"I'll do it." Urartian stepped forward and took out a short black wand. He held the wand in hand and pointed at the sky.
A water beam spurted out of the lake and flew toward the pink dost in the sky.
*KA*
The water beam froze and turned into a wide ice lance as they left the lake. The surface of the lake started freezing as well.
The ice shreds splashed in the air and the top of the wide ice lance turned into a large smooth platform—it could easily fit dozens of flying mounts.
A long staircase appeared on the surface of the ice lance, leading to the frozen surface of the lake.
A simple parking platform was quickly created.
Urartian lowered his wand and nodded slightly with his right hand on the beard.
"Dandy, what do you think? This is a new ice spell that I modified recently."
"Well, not bad, but mine is still better." Dandy chuckled.
Urartian glared at Dandy and looked at the sky.
All the people at the scene raised their heads and looked at the sky.