Boom.
There was a loud bang from the Horadric Malus when it made contact with Wizard Malon’s body. Abel had Malon in the blacksmith workshop as he created countless sparks over the runes on his body. The Horadric Malus was a tool blessed with the power to enhance and manipulate all sorts of metals’ properties. It was not meant for attacking someone at all, but this was Wizard Malon that Abel was fighting here.
Abel made sure of something when he saw the countless sparks that were on the Horadric Malus. There was only one way to deal any damage to Wizard Malus, and that was to make sure that there wasn’t a trace of energy supplied to it.
Meanwhile, Wizard Malon kept the same sneer on his face. He’s been through countless troubles to get this body that he had now, and if anything, he was feeling delighted that he had the chance to show what it was capable of. Most of the time, he kept it a secret. He never allowed anyone to visit the underground training spot at Frost City, where he normally was. The only way anyone could reach him was through the contact circle, and even then, he would only call back depending on his mood.
Abel checked the “ice angel statue” inside of his pineal glands. There was a lot of golden energy that was being drained. He thought about dropping Wizard Malon into the ocean instead of hitting him more, but there was no way of making sure that he would actually be dead. The most he could do was to keep Wizard Malon trapped in a place, and he was feeling more helpless the more he thought about it.
So he tried to think through all the summon creatures that he had. None of them, he figured, could do anything in this particular situation. There was just too much of a difference in power for him to do anything to Wizard Malon. He couldn’t even waste more energy that was inside Wizard Malon’s body.
While Abel felt like he was out of ideas, he thought about the one partner. It was both his strongest and weakest partner at the same time. It was his oak tree, a plant with not even a soul of its own. It was a plant, yes, but it had the power to resist heaven and earth.
Having made up his mind, Abel grabbed Wizard Malon to move elsewhere. Wizard Malon didn’t seem to be treated like this at all. He was a law-defying wizard, not some tool to be carried around. He’s lost interest in playing around with Abel at this point, actually. Once he was out of his shackles, the first thing he was ready to do was to kill Abel where he stood.
Abel teleported several times as he grabbed Wizard Malon around. He went beside his oak tree. As he did so, he threw Wizard Malon to the tree’s base and placed his hand on the bark. He activated his soulspeaker’s ability to send a “kill Wizard Malon” command to the oak tree. After shaking its branches for a bit, the oak tree responded by reaching out its giant roots from the bottom, which had WIzard Malon curled up in very parts. The branches had smaller tendrils that reached for Wizard Malon.
The runes on WIzard Malon started flashing out more light as Abel widened his eyes as much as he could. As far as he was concerned, this was really his last chance to kill Wizard Malon here. As he was spectating, the essence inside of the oak tree spread outward. He could feel a wave of energy sent in all directions. There was a rattling noise coming from different directions. More and more blue howling rabbits started rushing towards the tree. As they came, they bowed on the ground like faithful worshippers to their god. The tree was their god, from what it looked like. The blue howling rabbits deployed their energy to the oak tree, which, while he didn’t know what it was before, he could now identify as the energy of faith, something born out of the prayers of the worshippers.
Large numbers of green runes started emerging from the tree roots that were wrapped around Wizard Malon. From what Abel could sense, the oak tree became this divine spirit capable of controlling life force. The roots couldn’t reach inside of WIzard Malon’s body, but his life force was still constantly drained by the roots. A
Wizard Malon looked terrified. He didn’t think that there was another divine creature here to fight him. More surprisingly, it was not like Abel. It had its own worshippers to gain powers from instead of the world stone fragment. While it was just yet born, it had broken through the life cycle and instantly became a special oak tree. Its divine nature allowed it to manage the blue howling rabbits by forming a beginner-level spirit bond with them. It had several centuries to do this, by the way. While it’s only been a few years in the world outside, time flew faster here. It had several centuries of prayers joined into one place. If these blue howling rabbits were truly a species of intelligence, then the oak tree would only gain much more power at this moment. There was a problem with that, however, and that was that the faith of truly intelligent beings was harder to attain. The blue howling rabbits were meek, but their collective nature and spirituality created the oak tree that was standing here. As for Abel, he had no way of really identifying what the oak tree really was. He wasn’t sure if he should call it a spirit or some monster or something. As far as he knew, his knowledge just wasn’t enough to identify what it really was.
Whatever the case was, Wizard Malon was clearly wrong here. He said that only other law-defying wizards could hurt him, but from what it looked like, divine beings could also do the same thing. Abel could sense it through his own power of the Will. Wizard Malon was starting to become weaker. His vital energy continued to remain firm, but it wasn’t like he could hold much onto the life-draining ability of the oak tree branches. As for Abel, he just wasn’t sure what the green runes on the branches were. He just knew that it had something to do with the power of rule or something equivalent in power to that of the power of rule.
Time went by as Wizard Malon’s essence started to grow weaker. Eventually, the thin tendrils of the oak tree’s roots reached through Wizard Malon’s body. The runes flashing on his metallic body disappeared at the same time. This was when the oak tree started to move on its own. Its movements were subtle before, but all of a sudden, Abel could feel flood-like energy that was swarmed into the oak tree’s body. He could tell that it was Wizard Malon’s wizard energy. This was Wizard Malon’s last line of defense, and he would have to break through here if he was really ready to make any attacks.
After absorbing this energy, the oak tree’s trunk started growing thicker at a visible speed to the eyes. Abel’s hand never left the trunk. He could feel Wizard Malon’s energy as it was being transferred into something that the oak tree could suburb and feed to the oak tree. As the oak tree grew, it sucked the wizard energy on Wizard Malon like some nutrition source. This was nothing short of a miracle, perhaps, from the oak tree’s perspective. This was probably the first time that any plant could suck whatever amount of energy from a law-defying wizard that couldn’t move at all.
The day grew dark. Abel didn’t leave the oak tree. He wanted to know what the end was for Wizard Malon. There was just no way for him to feel at ease if he didn’t do this. The amount of energy inside Wizard Malon was just too plentiful for him to comprehend. He waited as the energy inside of Wizard Malon was drained away at a quite stable rate. Eventually, he realized that the golden energy inside of his “crystal angel statue” became empty from night to the next dawn.
Luckily for him, Wizard Malon had no way of resisting now. Most of his life force had been drained. He only had enough to keep him breathing. Right now, his entire body was being wrapped around by tree roots which had smaller tendrils containing enough power of the rule for him not to be able to move even his fingers. Right now, the only thing he could move was his mouth.
Wizard Malon spoke powerlessly, “Please, Wizard… Abel… spare me, I, I can swear my… loyalty to you.”
The longer one lived, the more afraid one would be of dying. This was exactly the kind of person Wizard Malon was. It was clearly evident from how he tried to prolong his life by merging himself with the puppet.
Abel spoke in a taunting voice, “So you still think you can live?”
Abel didn’t think that he could let Wizard Malon live. No, he already knew about the dark world, one of the biggest secrets that no one else had discovered. Abel was lucky that he didn’t lose anything this time. Otherwise, he’s going to have to face a lot of pressure from having to risk having everything taken away from him.
Wizard Malon pleaded regardless, “I’m wel-wealthy, Wizard Abel! If you spare me… I, I can give you everything!”
Instead of listening to any more words coming out of Wizard Malon’s mouth, he started searching with his power of the Will and found four portal bags. Wizard Malon had no way of protecting his secrets now. He had lost the protection of his spell runes.
Abel found even more secrets when he looked into the four portal bags. For instance, there was just Wizard Malon’s brain kept inside the puppet’s body, whereas other body parts were joined together with all sorts of strange ingredients. No wonder the “steel” rune sword never identified him as a living creature. Wizard Malon was more than a pile of metals than he was any living thing. Since the brain was a complex part that contained the power of the Will and the wizard’s crystal body, anything connected to the power of a wizard became the only part that was still intact.
Abel became more perplexed the more he looked. He didn’t think that living longer would mean much if it meant living inside a body like this.
Wizard Malon tried to feed off Abel’s curiosity, “You see my bodily structure, Wizard Abel? If you spare me, I am willing to teach you all about it.”
Abel sneered at the proposal, “You think I need this?”
Instead of responding to any more of Wizard Malon’s deceitful offers, Abel decided to ignore him and went on with the original plan. Nothing was more important than his own secrets at this point, and playing around with law-defying wizards was certainly not in his own interests. He didn’t want to have to risk being killed as soon as Wizard Malon made a recovery.
Abel grabbed the portal bags as he tried to break through them with his power of Will. It was much stronger than what he first anticipated, so nothing really happened when he tried the first time. He tried harder a second time, but it was also useless.
Murderous intent started to rise in his mind, “Maybe this will open after I kill him.”
Wizard Malon halted Abel to stop, “Stop, stop! Wizard Abel! Just put the bag next to my head! I can open it for you!”
Abel replied coldly. There was no telling what sort of items were here, and he was certainly not going to give Wizard Malon any chance to make a slip. He still had to be very cautious here, in any case. There was no ounce of energy inside the world stone fragment, and the energy used to supply the crystal angel statue was all used. If Wizard Malon was free, he’s not going to have any more ways to retaliate.
Abel chuckled, “Enjoy your last minutes, Wizard Malon. I’m not in a rush. The bags will open when you are dead.”
Wizard Malon screamed maniacally, “I’ll curse you in hell, Wizard Abel!”
An interesting statement to make. Actually, Abel became confused after hearing that. This was the dark world that they were in. There was no real telling where Wizard Malon’s spirit would go after he was dead. There was even the chance of him becoming a hell creature, all things considered.
