“Four… four classes…?” Jack stammered.
“Knight, Warlock, Elementalist, Summoner. Those were the classes which skills he had used…” Peniel said.
While Jack was still mulling over this revelation, he heard a scream. Jack looked over and saw Heathcliffe had been fully engulfed by flame. His HP had been depleted.
“No! Heathcliffe…!!!” Jack shouted.
Too late. Heathcliffe had fallen. Jack was too shocked by Peniel’s revelation that he hadn’t paid attention to his companion. Jack would have sent Peniel to heal him otherwise. The companion token in his inventory crumbled to dust.
“You should know your place!” Jack again heard Master’s voice booming in his mind. The voice was so loud this time that his head hurt. Jack didn’t think it was just normal telepathic communication. This could be a skill as well.
Peniel confirmed his suspicion, ‘that was Mind Blast, a race skill when an Ethereal reached four months.’
‘Four months? That means this Master arrived in this world even earlier,’ Jack thought. There were still another two days for Jack to reach that age.
Master’s debilitating voice continued, “That lightning god blessing is never meant for you. It is meant for me, and me alone. I who was meant to stand above all the creations in this world…!!!”
Jack had suffered some slashes from the avatar for being unable to concentrate because of the voice.
“Screw you!” Jack yelled, forcing himself to focus. He used the twenty-four burst attack to beat the mannequin back. He didn’t dare use the forty-eight burst attack in fear of becoming fatigued. He couldn’t afford that at this time.
When the avatar was beaten back. Another spell formation was formed rapidly, Master’s casting speed was extremely inhuman. A black hammer came down at Jack from above. Jack blocked it with Magic Shield but the weight kept Jack from moving.
Jack had seen this spell before, Gridhacker had used it on him as well, but this one was clearly much higher in level.
“You brute who only used force is pathetic. You have no chance against my intellect!” Master exclaimed as he floated back down.
“You are also a Knight,” Jack countered.
“A Paladin,” Master corrected. “I only choose this brutish class for its HP and heavy armor utilization. My main classes are all magic-based. Are you going to play nice now? Or do I need to beat you more?”
“You will pay for what you have done to my companion!” Jack yelled as he used Liberty of Movement to null the oppressing weight.
Jack then sent Sword of Light and used Charge to approach Master while continued shooting ranged attacks.
The Sword of Light finally broke Master’s Barrier. Master used Magic Shield to block the ranged attacks that were coming at him. When Jack arrived, Elementalist’s Flame Shield erupted on Master’s body. The Fire Lizard who was fighting Heathcliffe before had now slithered back to aid its master. The avatar also came and attacked Jack from the other side.
“Be careful, that Flame Salamander touch can cause burn effect!” Peniel warned.
When the three converged, Jack jumped back. He wanted to deal with all of them at the same time. He activated Lightning God Barrage. Twenty lightning balls formed around him.
“How dare you lowly being used that divine art!” Master bellowed. Twenty green blades swirled around him.
“That… That is Wind God Blades!” Peniel exclaimed.
Jack sent the twenty lightning balls at Master while the green blades slashed forward and met the lightning balls. Numerous explosions with deadly elemental energies spread out.
When Master’s group was separated by those explosions, Jack turned around and ran. After the exchange, he didn’t think he could win against Master at this moment. He had to do something against that floating spell if he was to stand a chance. Long-range was not his forte. He swore he would avenge Heathcliffe.
But after only a few steps, a black hole tore the empty air in front of him and Master emerged from that hole. Before Jack could react, the ground around Jack erupted. Twenty large earth pillars came out surrounding Jack.
“This… This… Not possible… How can he has two inside him…?” Peniel stammered.
Jack had no time to ask what she meant by that. “Invulnerability!” He shouted at her.
But surprisingly, Peniel didn’t use the spell. “It’s useless,” she said.
The twenty pillars crammed all around Jack. Before he knew it, they pinned him down. He could not move an inch. The pillars even merged together and solidified. His body part that was spared some freedom was just his head, the rest of his body was submerged inside a lump of solid earth. He tried to struggle but he could not move at all, this earth prison was too solid.
In his current condition, Jack could now empathize with what Sun Wukong felt when he was imprisoned in the mountain.
A portion of the rock that locked Jack in place broke apart. Jack fell to the ground with his body still encased in a rock cocoon. Master then used a runic rope to tie the cocoon. The avatar came next to Jack. It sheathed its two sabers. Then as if lifting a light cushion, the avatar lifted the rock cocoon that encased Jack.
“Let’s leave,” Master said.
“Hey! Where do you want to take me?” Jack yelled.
“Put him down!” Peniel came before Master and scolded.
Master cast a spell and flame erupted on Peniel’s body, devouring her until nothing left but dust.
“Penieelll…!!!” Jack shouted.
‘No need to panic, I am fine,’ Jack heard Peniel’s voice. ‘I am in my hidden dimension. Unless by a divine being, a familiar is not killable so long as the partner is still alive.’
Master took something out of his bag. He activated the thing and a distortion appeared in front. The distortion soon transformed into a gate that looked similar to a dungeon entrance. Master gestured for his avatar to go in first. With Jack on its shoulder, the avatar stepped through the gate.
Jack couldn’t move, but he could see just fine. They went through a light tunnel similar to when entering a dungeon. They soon came out into another place. They were still outdoor. The sky here was red, Jack knew then that they were no longer in the Sangrod Empire. Nor was it the Themisphere country, he never saw a red sky such as this.
Jack observed that they were outside a very tall stone structure. But after better observation, they were not only outside, but on a balcony situated in the middle part of the structure. The ground was very far below. The surrounding landscape was very different than the one that he had seen either in Themisphere or Sangrod.
Several very narrow and tall mountains were seen in the far distance, they seemed as if a row of the downside teeth of a gargantuan creature hiding under the ground. Innumerous lava rivers were filling the landscape with some seemingly active volcanoes. The ground below was also filled with many jagged rock formations.
Master came out from the gate and it vanished after. There was a door for entering the tall structure, this door was guarded by level 40 basic ethereal natives. These ethereals bowed to Master when he appeared.
“Welcome to Liguritudum Realm,” Master said.
“What is this building?” Jack asked.
“This is Heaven-Piercing Tower. It was one of the forts in this country that has been occupied by my guild,” Master answered.
‘A fort?’ Jack heard Peniel’s voice. ‘If an outworlder’s guild is allowed to conquer a fort, that’s mean this country was in a state of war.’
The door that was guarded by the native ethereals opened and an ethereal woman with curly brown hair came out. She also had a God-eye monocle on her.
“Master, you are back. There is something that you might find interesting at the top of the tower. Wong had successfully brought his target back.”
Jack inspected the woman and found her to be called Motherboard, a level 37 Bard. The woman crossed her eyes with Jack and a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes.
“Congratulations, Master, for capturing another one. With Wong’s success, we are just two treasures short,” The woman said.
“He was already up there?” Master asked.
“Yes, our people are preparing the device as we speak,” Motherboard replied.
Master glanced at Jack, “it seemed that you can still hold onto that Lightning God Blessing for another day. Let’s go up, I will let you see what we will do to you tomorrow.”
“Oh, I can’t wait. How about you let me walk by myself? Save your avatar here from back pain,” Jack uttered.
“Interesting. You are still calm and can make jokes. Probably I will let you stay inside the torture room for a few months after we extract that Lightning God Blessing. See if you can still make jokes then.”
“Torture room. That does sound intimidating. Can I make requests on what not to torture me with?”
Master decided to not entertain Jack with another reply. He instead ordered his avatar who was still carrying Jack to follow him. There were circular stairs that went around the outside of the tower, going up to the top. They went up following these stairs. Jack could see more of the surrounding landscape as they went up. Motherboard also followed after them.
When they arrived at the top, Jack saw four people were already up there. One was an old man of the Orc race, he was garbed in a classic martial artist outfit. Two were players working on some sort of a device with two chairs. The last one was strapped to one of the chairs. Surprisingly, this man was someone Jack knew.. The vampire player, Leavemealone.
