Chapter 7: The Collapsed Barrier
Location: Atlantis Time: 11:00 AM
I looked at the person in front and suddenly felt that I might have eye cramps.
He shouldn't be here, right?
Earlier before, he even said that he's going to look for Chifuyu; it can't be that Chifuyu was also in the school!?
Even if he got lost, he couldn't have gotten lost to such an exaggerated extent, alright!?
"Yang~~You're so mean. This place is so fun and you actually didn't tell me about it." The illusion caused by eye cramps very realistically stood in front of me and even had an expression like I'm not his friend, "Good thing I'm so smart and thought of the idea to smuggle myself through. Ha~~Otherwise, if I really had to look for that nerd, I would've been bored to death."
"Smu, smuggle?" I was dumbstruck.
The five-colored rooster head raised his hand, and on his palm was a shallow scar. It still had a trace of red as if it just stopped bleeding, "If blood gets on a teleportation array and there's no specified location, you'll be sent to the area of the nearest blood relative."
Ah, that's right. Last time it was also because of this that Chifuyu and I were able to trespass into the Purple Dorm. But can this sort of method be used like this!?
That's simply cheating!
"As soon as I entered, I saw that you guys were using something interesting, so I just climbed in here from outside." The five-colored rooster head very proudly said, "There, I'm smart, huh!?"
In a way, I personally feel that you are selectively smart…
At the same time the five-colored rooster head was feeling extremely proud, a burst of noise came from the ground.
The completely ignored girl slowly climbed up, and countless butterflies appeared flying beside her, "You guys actually dared to do this to me…" The icy and furious tone immediately let us know that things weren't looking good.
The five-colored rooster head swung his beastclaw, "This guy looks pretty interesting. If you have anything to say, tell me later. You two can go up first; let me have some fun here."
"…We'll leave it to you." I looked at the five-colored rooster head, swallowed, and nodded.
A red light drew past in front of me and landed in my hand, "That's right, I almost forgot about this. This is what Prince Icy Flame wanted me to bring. I'll hand it to you now."
I looked at my hand. It was a small red crystal orb. I have no idea what it's used for.
"Mr. Chu, excuse me." Nile's beast claw grabbed my shoulder, and then he raised his head. White cotton filled the top, completely stuffing the path. Then, the palm of his other beast claw slowly opened upward, "Exploding Fire."
In that same instant, a golden-red pillar of flames abruptly sprang out of his palm, directly penetrating the entire ceiling.
More than half of the white cotton was immediately burned away, revealing the mechanical stairs that we saw earlier. Seizing the time, Nike pulled me as he directly jumped up. Not climbing over the mechanical stairs either, he destroyed the whole mechanical stairs with a strike.
The entire piece of iron and sawdust fell to the ground one by one, and a protest immediately sounded from below, "Are you guys trying to crush me to death!?"
The five-colored rooster head's voice stopped here and was immediately followed by a thunderous explosión sound. In just a few seconds, the ones below began fighting.
Not knowing whether it was because of Katherine, we arrived on the fifth floor without encountering any evil spirits, so smoothly that it made one feel as if it was a trick.
The spacious area was the same as when we saw it just now. It was only because the evil spirits wrecked it that the damage was even more severe.
We quickly found that large-scale ancient array from before.
"I just need to destroy a little piece of it and that's all?" Watching the still-rotating array, I looked at Nike beside me, a bit uncertain.
The situation was clearly critical just now, but now it made one feel relaxed instead. It felt like a mission that could just be completed casually.
Nile nodded.
I looked around for a while and reached out my hand, [The one who signed a contract with me, allow the adherent to witness your damage.] It didn't take long before Minas immediately appeared in my hand.
I just need to destroy a little piece of it, and everything will end.
And so, I fired a shot at that huge array, and water drops spread out before my eyes.
Strangely enough, that array that was supposed to have a piece broken off wasn't damaged at all. Instead, after it absorbed the bullet, it enlarged a bit.
I heard another strange sound coming from the array.
In that instant, the air turned frigid.
"Move back. Something's coming." Nile pushed me back, warily staring at the array in front of us that was emitting a black glow.
In that same second, the air pressure completely dropped. I almost had a nauseating sense of being compressed just by standing still.
The ground began shaking again, and little rocks continuously bounced up and down. Even the fractured pillars nearby had sand and stone falling from them in succession. It shook so much that I started to have an extremely bad feeling.
There was a shadow, slowly appearing in the array. One, that couldn't be any more familiar to me.
"Heh…I was wondering how a Spirit Door that hasn't been used in a long time would suddenly open on its own and came to have a look in curiosity. I never expected that it'd be connected to a pretty good place." I took a step back, shocked as I looked at the familiar person now in front of the array. A person that I didn't want to encounter again at all.
Nike was clearly stunned as well, but he still stood in front; it's just that he instantly tensed up.
Completely ignoring the tension in the two of us, the first expert of the Ghost King standing in front of the array crossed his arms and looked at us with a laid-back gaze, "Should this be called fate, or you delivering yourself right into our hands…?"
The one who appeared before our eyes, was the Ghost King's first expert.
Andellar.
"Relax, no need to be nervous."
Leisurely standing there, Andellar, who seemed as if he didn't have any intention of attacking, curved into a cold smile that made one nervous, "I'm currently too lazy to fight you guys, and at the moment, I haven't received an order to bring you back." He said, then swept a glance at me, "Right now, I'm on vacation."
My first thought was, the Ghost Tribe also has winter vacation…?
His gaze turned back, and landed on Nile, "How boring. Even if we fought, there wouldn't be any fun in it."
…Which means that if Senior was standing here right now, you would've gone straight to fighting with him?
"The Ghost Tribe shouldn't appear in this place. Please return to your world immediately." Nile wasn't as relaxed as him, one hand in front of me, ready to fight at any time.
Andellar looked at him and curved into an icy smile, "I have no interest in you. Don't try to provoke me."
Moving in an instant, I saw Andellar disappear from his spot. After blinking, he was already standing in front of me. I immediately took several steps back and saw Nile collapse behind him. I couldn't even tell when he had made his move.
Andellar walked a few steps forward, stopping right in front of me, "Aih? You feel kind of different." He narrowed his eyes as he looked me over, and abruptly revealed a smile, "So that's how it is. No wonder there's no ghosts chasing you."
What do you mean "no ghosts chasing me"!?
Me being chased by ghosts is very normal? Being chased shouldn't be normal, right!?
"So, you want to destroy the Spirit Door, right?" He lowered his head, meeting my eyes.
"I, of course I want to destroy the Spirit Door!" Taking a deep breath, I said out loud.
"Then alright, go ahead."
Andellar's straightforwardness made me freeze on the spot.
Then, he smiled again, "What, you don't believe me?" His piercing eyes stared straight at me, "You think we care about a little Spirit Door? That sort of thing, no matter how many of it you destroy, it wouldn't make a difference to us."
I know it wouldn't make a difference to you…but it matters a lot to me.
The Spirit Door was opened because of me, so I have to take responsibility and close it. I guess, Senior probably had the same thought too. Otherwise, if other people always had to handle the consequences for me every time, one day I'd definitely make even more and worse mistakes.
"Come on, take out that red bullet in your pocket. Shoot it directly at the Spirit Door, and it'll be destroyed." Raising a hand, Andellar snapped his fingers, and the red bead that was originally placed in my pocket immediately appeared floating above his palm, "Wasn't this thing prepared just to help you with it?"
I looked at that floating red bead. That's a bullet?
I thought Minas didn't need to be refilled with other bullets. Turns out I can actually use other things as reinforcement?
"Just what are you trying to do?" I don't believe the face-changing person would be so friendly. He always made me feel cold from head to toe, especially his eyes; they were terrifying.
Andellar lowered his head, smiling, "What I'm trying to do…You'll know very soon." He pulled my hand and put the ice-cold bead on my hand. Then, he took a few steps back, walking over to a wall, "That's right, I still want to invite you for some tea and have a chat. If you have time, you can come look for me."
He faced me as he slowly retreated into the wall.
"And also, watch out for that evil Ghost aristocrat downstairs. She's not as polite as I am."
Saying that, he simply disappeared into the wall like that.
Just what is he trying to do? I can't figure it out all, not even a little.
Why do we have to watch out for Katherine?
Wouldn't the five-colored rooster head be in danger then? She doesn't seem as strong as the one from last time though?
After the face-changing person left, Nile, who had collapsed on the ground, moved a little. I immediately ran over and crouched down beside him, "Are you okay?" I was afraid that Andellar would deal with him like how he dealt with Yido last time.
Nile sat up, shook his head, then pulled out a long sharp needle from the side of his neck, "Just paralyzed for a moment, no injuries." He was a little surprised, probably thought that he would be dead for sure too.
Looks like the words the face-changing person said just now should be true. He's not interested in us for the time being, so what other goal does he have?
Tremors came from the ground again, letting me know that I can't continue dragging it out. I immediately filled Minas' magazine with the red bead, firing a shot at the currently-rotating array.
After the smoke dispersed, an exploding sound suddenly came from the array's pattern. Then, it stopped, no longer glowing.
Waiting until the smoke from the explosion passed, I saw that the right corner of the large-scale array had broken off.
It's over like this?
I looked at the surroundings. Everything had gone quiet. I suddenly felt like it was unreal.
"First go down to help Mr. Ziray." Unlike me, Nile didn't think for a long time; he propped himself up and walked to the entrance of the passage. I followed right away as well.
The white cotton in the entrance no longer appeared.
This made me wonder if it was a product working in concert with the array, or the dorm's defense mechanism?
Because the mechanism below had more or less been blasted away, we made it downstairs very quickly. After passing the rope ladder, we could already see the full scene in the room below.
The five-colored rooster head was standing in the middle of the room.
"Hey hey, it can't be that all the experts of the Ghost King have the same level of ability as you, right?"
Ignoring his bleeding beast claw, the five-colored rooster head smiled arrogantly, looking at that little girl in front of him, who likewise didn't have it easy and was covered in wounds. He completely didn't pull any punches despite how she looked, "Not even a bit of a challenge at all, letting me down. Throwing limitless bombs, my big brother knows that too. Next time, want me to arrange a one-on-one for you bombers to see who has the most bombs?"
He really does like randomly provoking other people. I finally know why the Rogeria Clan's reputation is so bad. Turns out there's this bad apple that specializes in ruining the family name.
"You damn Beast Clan!" Successfully provoked, the girl's eyes widened, and the surrounding black butterflies increased, "Go to hell!" Just as her order fell, the entire group of butterflies immediately rushed toward the five-colored rooster head.
"Not going." Simply replying two words to her, the five-colored rooster head did a back flip, kicking the wall and jumping off to the side. Most of the butterflies that couldn't turn in time crashed into the wall. With a huge boom, they blasted away a wall of the bedroom, instantly ventilating it.
The strange wind pressure from outside swept into the room, and the entire room's sand and stone were blown until they were flying everywhere. The whole bedroom instantly turned gray, affecting our sight, "Mr. Ziray, the Spirit Door has been closed." Beside me, Nile grabbed my shoulder, preventing me from falling down under the wind pressure, and loudly said.
"Got it." The five-colored rooster head curved into a smile and turned his gaze to the raging girl, "This great sir has changed his mind. There will be no mercy for someone who goes against His Majesty! Today I will sentence you to immediate death so that you can regret it in hell!"
I really wanted to tell him that this wasn't the time to be playing around.
"You…" The girl's voice suddenly stopped.
The surrounding butterflies started to rapidly disappear one by one, causing the five-colored rooster head, who was standing in front of them, to also look baffled.
"Even if you can't beat me, crying for mercy won't work either." Alertly watching the girl slowly lower her head in front of him, the five-colored rooster head frowned, like he had no idea what kind of tricks she was up to.
She slowly raised her head and abruptly showed an extremely ferocious smile.
"Something's not right." Standing beside me, Nile pushed me back a bit, "Mr. Ziray, please leave that place immediately."
Stunned for a moment, the five-colored rooster head instantly jumped up to us.
Just as he jumped up, the entire room below suddenly emitted an intense black glaring light, followed by a very strong tremor and a strong exploding sound. The violent winds that rolled up almost pulled us down, and the whole room was filled with a large amount of dust and gravel.
A long time passed, before it slowly subsided.
For a moment, my whole ears were ringing and my vision was a little dark. I waited till the remainder of the explosion passed before slowly opening my eyes, and saw Nile shielding me in front, covered in a layer of dust.
"Bastatd, what the hell are you trying to do!?" Not far away, the five-colored rooster head coughed twice. He was also covered in dust and dirt from head to toe, cutting quite a sorry figure.
"The two of you aren't injured, right?" Patting off the dust on him, Nile took the lead to ask.
"Relax, this level of ability is nothing." The five-colored rooster head waved his hand and said.
"Nn."
It was only after all the commotions had gradually died down that we noticed the bottom. The entire room's walls were almost completely blasted away, leaving only the pillars still desolately existing.
"What the hell is that little imp trying to do?" Jumping into the middle of the room that only had ceiling's pillars and floor left, the five-colored rooster looked around in confusion.
Nile held my hand, and brought me to the ground together with him.
After going around in a circle, the five-colored rooster head suddenly stood at one of the edges.
"Mr. Ziray, don't stand too close there. You'll be blown down by the wind pressure." As soon as Nile saw him just standing at the edge of the building, he quickly warned in consideration.
"Don't worry, it's not like I haven't fallen before." The five-colored rooster head didn't turn his head, just beckoning to us, "Come quickly and look. Something's happening below."
Below? My eyelid suddenly twitched, and I had a very bad feeling.
Walking a couple of steps, the surrounding wind pressure immediately increased. It felt as if I would be instantly blown away.
Nile ran over from behind me, pulled me beside the five-colored rooster head, and stretched out his palm, "Calm Wind." Strange to say, the wind in the area immediately began to gradually slow down. It didn't feel difficult to stand anymore.
"Look at that." Following the five-colored rooster head's finger downward, we simultaneously saw that the little girl from now was already standing in the open space outside the Black Dorm's first floor. Everyone below was staring at her in surprise.
The girl standing on the ground shook a little, and suddenly she lifted her whole face. Her line of sight wasn't directed at us; instead, it was dull and unfocused.
A hand abruptly pierced through her forehead, slowly opening up from a fist. Long nails from five fingers slowly stretched out, stained with specks of scattered black blood.
The one with the quickest reaction was Nuelle, only to see her with no hesitation in her expression at all, as she picked up her huge hammer and directly smashed it down on the girl's head. Just as everyone believed that the girl would probably be hammered into a rotten meat patty like the evil spirits in front of us, Nuelle's movements suddenly stopped.
The slit in the girl's forehead had suddenly been torn even wider as if it was going to burst. The second palm that pulled out in an instant easily blocked Nuelle's weapon. Then, little by little, she was split into two halves from the middle, and black blood landed on the ground nonstop as if a light rain had started. The ground that received the blood immediately had many round holes melted into it as if it was corroded.
I felt a force that seemed like it was about to squash me flat.
At that time, during the competition, I also had the exact same feeling.
In that instant, as if she was being blasted apart by something, the girl's body suddenly burst open and spread all over the place. All the various internal organs and whatnot were scattered, scatteted over the large array of the entire dorm, then eroded downward.
There was a woman standing on the barrier's array.
The veil edged with golden-red spread out with the wind. In the wind, it continuously billowed out like waves, followed by red, blood-dull hair that cane loose underneath.
I saw her hand that blocked the weapon turning, and Nuelle was thrown back as if she was shaken by something. Following that, her Illusionary Weapon slipped out of her hand and suddenly fell heavily on the ground, with a deep handprint on the face of the hammer.
It was a woman around the same age as Senior and the others, with blood-red eyes and blood-red hair but with a beautiful and delicate face.
I looked down from high above. She didn't notice me but turned her gaze to Senior.
Then, she smiled.
That strange pain suddenly came into my mind again.
Another woman's figure appeared before me, overlapping with that woman below.
She was talking, but at the same time, she wasn't talking.
That woman in the illusion seemed to be talking to me, but I understood that she wasn't talking to me.
She opened her mouth, and a voice sounded, "Your friend has already begun attacking, what do you say?"
A sharp voice echoed in my mind, painful as if a knife was cutting across.
"Yang~~! Are you okay?" The five-colored rooster head's voice abruptly interrupted the voice in my mind, and in that moment, the surroundings became clear again. That woman's figure had already disappeared. Only the woman downstairs was still there.
I suddenly felt an inexplicable fear.
"Ziray! Hurry and find people to help!" I don't know why, but my whole body was was cold and trembling, as if something was about to immediately happen.
"There's people rushing over already." The five-colored rooster head probably also felt the surrounding atmosphere and nodded at me, "This time it's going to be interesting…The school's actually been invaded."
The woman simply stood upright at the same spot. Everyone watched her with high alert.
Her eyes looked straight at Senior opposite of her, without shifting at all, and a strange golden light flashed across her dull-blood-red eyes. Even I, who was looking from afar, had a strong sense of oppression.
Then, Senior spoke, "I knew you would come to find me." Logically speaking, since they're below the fifth floor, I shouldn't be able to hear their voices, but for some reason, it couldn't be any more clearer. Every single word reached my ears without leaving the slightest thing out, "It's just, I never thought it would be so soon."
The woman suddenly laughed, and her whole face immediately distorted, "The time is more or less right. It's time." She folded her arms and slightly floated off the ground for a distance, "From the children who inherited it from that time, this is a little starting gift for you guys." Just as her words finished, the entire ground instantly shook.
The barrier maintained by the four black robes actually broke on the spot like fragile glass. The light spheres that were originally above their hands simultaneously blew up. A crisp sound was heard, and everyone was shaken back several steps at the same time, kneeling on the ground.
"Master!" Standing beside me, Nile shouted, immediately jumping down from the fifth floor. A blink of an eye later, he had already appeared next to Randall helping him up.
The surroundings became cold, very cold, so cold that I couldn't stop shivering.
I know this person. I've seen her before.
"Very soon, the Ghost Tribe will be reborn." The woman walked up to Senior, coldly smiling, "You think you will be able to stop us again like that person?"
Senior stood up, likewise looking at her coldly, "If I can't, someone else will. Even if other people aren't able to, there will be more people who can. The times are moving forward. A new generation of young people continues to rise. This world won't always stay at the time where you believe you can rule over all."
The woman started to laugh arrogantly again, the sound grating as if it was scrapping back and forth on the nerves.
"Then you can just come and try it!"
"I will. Just you wait." Senior immediately opened his hand, and a black light moved between the two of them. The black spear that I've seen before instantly pierced through the woman's body.
"Evil Ghost King Bishen!"