Chapter 823: The Truth Behind The Split
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Elrond stared at the blood left on his right hand. Greed and excitement filled his eyes. He howled, stuck his hand into his mouth and started sucking attentively.
But the next instant, his expression changed. He started vomiting out a black substance. When his vomit sprayed onto the earth, it corroded the soil with a loud hissing noise.
Sheyan’s blood contained a large amount of A-Viruses. Despite Pestilence Monarch not being that strong and being unable to infect enemies yet, if the enemy drank Sheyan’s blood, it could still give the enemy stomach ulcers or even gastric perforation.
Taking advantage of this, Sheyan dashed in front of Melody to shield her from Elrond. Sheyan wasn’t in a rush to attack. Reef was still recovering, so the best move right now was to stall for time.
Melody stared at Sheyan’s strong body with a dazed expression. Her eyes were once again filled with tears.
“I knew you would come, my protector. Whenever I was in danger, you would always appear in front of me!”
Elrond, who was done throwing up, once again emitted a weird cry. He surged towards Sheyan with his arms outstretched, looking just like a demon from hell.
Sheyan felt something was weird looking at Elrond totally abandoning his strength in magic and initiating a physical fight instead. Since Elrond had lost all rationality and was merely relying on his primal instinct to fight, why did Reef look like he had totally given up and had even forbade Sheyan from coming?
Honestly speaking, the way Elrond fought right now posed no threat to Sheyan. His moves were made without any underlying intent or order to them. It wasn’t hard for a battle-hardened person like Sheyan to parry Elrond’s attacks. Coupled with a formidable HP of 3000, he could persist for a long time.
It didn’t take long for Reef to escape his critical condition under Sheyan’s deliberate attempt to buy time. After Sheyan signalled to him to show that he could still hang on, he started to slowly consume some food to further recover his HP. Reef took a deep breath and sighed.
“Boss, you shouldn’t have come here.”
Sheyan lifted his brows and said.
“Why do you say that? This guy isn’t that strong. I feel that even if I’m not a Reserve-duty Growth-Hunter, we could still take him down if we gang up on him.”
Reef’s facial muscles twitched and indignantly exclaimed.
“That’s what I thought at first. But when Elrond’s HP dropped to a certain level, he became really terrifying.”
One of the lucky surviving Elven mage added in a shaky voice.
“That’s right. In order to survive, the dastardly Elrond casted a Splitting Spell on himself.”
“A Splitting Spell? What is that?” asked Sheyan curiously. After hearing what they said, Sheyan started focusing entirely on evading and parrying Elrond’s attack without attacking back.
The mage replied in anger.
“You should know that Elrond is a ‘messy-skinned’ (a derogatory term for Peredhil, the half elves of LOTR). When he realized that he had no hope of reaching the Undying Lands, he used a Splitting Spell to split himself in half, separating into a part with Elven blood and another part with human blood. The Elrond with Elven blood inherited the magic power that he had cultivated for thousands of years, along with the horrifying injury caused by the Witch-king of Angmar. It violently self-destructed when it was in a critical condition. The force from the destruction was so devastating that it heavily injured 3 Nazgûls and killed 5 followers of the high-god.”
This piece of news was a pleasant surprise for Sheyan. He had already killed off a few people from the Stockholm Party. Add Elrond’s kamikaze on top of that and the damage to the Stockholm Party was staggering. Considering the time they had left, they wouldn’t be able to mess with him anymore.
He deflected a blow from Elrond and said.
“What happened afterwards? Does that mean that the Elrond in front of us is a pure-blooded human?”
The Elven mage said.
“He is, but this Elrond is in a heavily deformed state. He was originally a ‘messy-skinned’, so his body has a natural tendency to maintain the balance between the Elven blood and the human blood in him. After his Elven bloodline was eliminated, it was impossible for his half-elven body to become purely human. The only reason he is still alive is due to the immense power of the divine art of Splitting Spell, but he is reduced to a strange, berserked state and he won’t have long to live. If he wants to continue staying alive, he will need to re-construct the other half of his Elven bloodline within his body!”
Sheyan now vaguely understood the truth of the matter. When he could no longer avoid Elrond’s attack, he hacked down on Elrond’s chest to force him back and said.
“Is that why he was chasing after your group and consuming your flesh?!”
“That’s right,” answered the Elven mage with a wild, painful expression. “His ultimate target is Lady Melody. Only with the flesh essence of a Twilight Elf can his newly constructed Elven bloodline maintain a balance with his human bloodline. But don’t worry; he will not touch Lady Melody before consuming us. Consuming the flesh essence of Lady Melody is not a simple matter. He needs to absorb as much flesh essence of other elves as possible to lay down the foundation, in order to increase his success rate.”
“I understand.” Sheyan kicked back the charging Elrond, and asked another question. “This garbage is pretty weak. How did he incur such heavy casualties before?”
This time, it was Reef who replied.
“Due to Elrond’s inner workings losing its balance and the human bloodline taking complete control, his soul has to cooperate with the Splitting Spell and suppress the Elven side. If not, he will lose control of his energy and his physical body will collapse. Therefore, his body is merely fighting out of instinct. He sees us as nothing but prey.”
“However, when his HP drops, it would mean his human bloodline is weakened. After dropping to about 50%, the Splitting Spell can already suppress the body by itself and no longer requires the soul’s help. Elrond will then regain the clarity of his mind. An Elrond with a clear mind full of battle experience is simply a nightmare. He would then burst forth with terrifying strength, showcasing astonishing battle techniques, and drag away an elf to absorb the elf’s flesh essence. A few minutes later, he would repeat the cycle!”
“More importantly, the first time we met Elrond, he only regained control of his body when his HP dropped below 30%. But after absorbing all these flesh essences, his soul can already take control of his body at 55% HP.”
“Why don’t we just drag the fight on without injuring him further, and maintain the situation at a standstill?” asked Sheyan.
Reef could only force a bitter smile as he answered.
“First of all, we can’t afford to. The Elrond who is relying on primal instinct would only attack without defending. His damage is really high. Even if both of us cooperate, how long can we hold out for? Half an hour at most! While the duration of the Splitting Spell is 24 hours! Secondly, Elrond’s body is in a terrible condition. His HP will drop even if we don’t attack him.”
“I understand,” replied Sheyan with a nod of his head. “Wasn’t the seal on Melody released? Why hasn’t she made a move?”
The Elven mage dejectedly said.
“Elrond has apparently planned this for a long time. He marked Lady Melody’s body with a spell. More importantly, he even borrowed the power of the Elven Ring, Vilya to directly seal Lady Melody this time. The seal is a hundred times stronger than the double seal from before!”
Sheyan released a groan. Because he looked away for a moment to steal a glance of the ring on Melody’s finger, he suffered a heavy blow to his head. Even though he had various abilities suppressing the explosive hit rate he receives, he still suffered an explosive damage. His head was instantly covered in blood.
Melody immediately cried out in alarm with tears streaming down her face. Sheyan gritted his teeth and asked.
“Is there no way to break the seal?”
The other surviving Elven mage replied in a tearful voice.
“My lover, Saya Redmarks, is the most proficient sorcerer in Rivendell in breaking seals. He tried to unravel the seal but unfortunately, he failed. Even though Vilya had expended almost all its energy in continuously healing Elrond, the backlash was still extremely terrifying. When Saya had removed Vilya up to the 2nd joint of Lady Melody’s finger, he was instantly frozen into an ice statue.”
Sheyan suddenly squinted and asked.
“Does that mean that all I have to do is remove the ring from Melody’s finger?”
The Elven mage wiped away her tears and replied.
“Yes, theoretically speaking, that is all that needs to be done. But as soon as you exert force on the ring to remove it, you will be instantly frozen solid!”
Sheyan took a deep breath and glanced at the two surviving elves with guilt-ridden eyes. He stepped aside to avoid Elrond’s strike, stabbed his blade into Elrond’s abdomen, and twisted ruthlessly!
Elrond released a painful groan. He was about to counter attack, but right at that moment, he inexplicably sneezed. Sheyan immediately took a step forward and headbutted Elrond’s nose with his forehead, followed by knees and kicks. Sheyan took an attack from Elrond, then activated ‘Zergling Rush’ to land 3 consecutive slashes on Elrond’s neck. The blade emitted a terrifying sound as it cut into muscles and bones!
Elrond’s clothes were instantly soaked in blood. He bellowed out in pain and rolled away. After reaching a safer place, he appeared to be stunned for half a second before slowly reaching out to his neck and lifting his eyes up. In this moment, the feeling of madness, greed and brutality that enveloped his body only a moment ago disappeared without a trace. His eyes were firm and cold; filled with the confidence of having victory within his grasp!
