Chapter 560 A Different Variant

The clip clop of horse hooves was masked by the snow that stained the pathway, the only thing being heard being the movement of the large carriages, the clanging of armour and the low chatter among the escort Knights.

"You reckon we'll be rewarded for this unnecessarily long trip?"

"Not a chance. Even if we've been borrowed, the only thing we stand to gain is capital punishment if something bad happens that lustful blob and his company."

"Seriously? I'd rather be a Contract Knight if this continues. Or better yet, a Stray Knight."

The two Knights guarding the front most carriage said in hushed tones, the horses under them snorting as if in agreement.

From the carriage behind, a barely discernible moan was heard then the entire thing shook with feminine giggles coming out of it.

One of the two Knights rolled his eyes at this.

"Put me out of my misery. How am I supposed to keep my wood down if I'm hearing all the action from here?"

"Pipe down, will you? I for one am interested," the other Knight said with a smirk while cupping his hand and pulling it to his ear. "Let's enjoy it while it lasts. And mind your words, will you? You might jus--"

The Knight suddenly felt a blistering heat blast against his face, the sizzling of flesh and the fuming of it with thick smoke registering in his senses all at once before he could even express shock!

His comrade as well as his horse were turned into black char within a second!

The Knight quickly drew his sword and yelled, "Stop!"

This alerted the other Knights and coachman who stopped the vehicles in panic.

The Knight who had called for the emergency stop looked this way and that, trying to identify the enemy but he couldn't find him.

He disembarked from his horse and took steady steps in front of him, mana fiercely coating his body as he did.

"What happened? Explain yourself or you'll never hear the end of it!" another Knight on horseback, a man with two of the most beautiful satin grey eyes one could ever see hurried to his mate to inquire what happened with a strict, commanding tone.

Though this wasn't the time to focus on such things, the Knight wielding his sword in caution was annoyed by the tone used against him.

Explain yourself?

Only the captain had the right to speak to him with an authority like that. Who did this guy think he was?

"Desmont is dead, can't you see?" the Knight said pointing as his burnt comrade with a scowl.

Strangely, the Knight with sparkling grey eyes didn't turn to check. He merely nodded.

'What's wrong with this guy?'

Soon the other Knights came around with one who wore an extraneously designed armour coming forward and analysing the burnt corpse.

He was the captain.

"Hmmm," he hummed. Instead of asking questions he checked the ground for any strange traces of movement while sensing the air for unique mana signatures.

Nothing.

There was nothing.

"Spread out in groups of two," he said simply, to which the 22 Knights nodded, following his command.

The Knight who had been with the casualty jumped on his horse, the one with grey eyes joining him on a search to the left.

From the first carriage, the door was blasted open, a rather heavily built, half naked man wobbling out with sweat over his body.

Behind him, a nervous lady with a surprisingly delicate physique peeked, curious as to what was with the hold up.

"Captain! Why have we stopped?!" the fat man asked with a deep frown.

"Get back in your carriage!" the captain said, a burst of Aura shuttling out of him with a shocking intensity.

The large man gulped and slowly slipped back into his sheltered locomotive, his ego having been crushed under true might.

The captain was in no mood to entertain. He did the same with the others peeking from other carriages.

Somehow, he could feel it.

Something was wrong.

He had felt it from a minute or so ago.

The air had just suddenly... changed.

'We may need to setup camp. Moving about in a territory likely to be riddled with bandits would be...' the Knight began with his thoughts but...

He turned his head to the right and quickly drew his sword.

The six pairs of Knights and their horses who had gone to search in this direction had turned, their eyes strangely squinted and all looking straight at him.

The captain turned to his left.

Four pairs of Knights could be seen, one of them seemingly missing.

Apart from the Knight who had died, there were supposed to be 22 men!

Where was the other?

WHOOOSH!

Suddenly, all 21 Knights, all gazing at their captain with blank gazes activated their Full Body Auras and rushed at him with their steeds!

...!

The captain was shocked.

What was this all of a sudden?

Were these men possessed or what?!

Before a few seconds could pass, one of the Knights had already lunged at the captain, his sword clashing with his!

Then another and another!

"Bert! Ridge! What's wrong with you lot?!" the captain growled.

He couldn't bring himself to just cleave away at his men without trying to help but....

Even he, as a Master Stage expert would have trouble against 21 Advancement Stage Knights if he didn't take them seriously!

They didn't hold back at all and they showed no signs of struggling against whatever was plaguing them, which was terrifying!

Was this absolute?!

What more, he noticed that some of his men looked... dead!

Wait! Not some! All!

"Haaaa!" the captain roared as his Perfect Aura charged out of his body. He couldn't neglect his mission. His own life was in danger too!

With expert precision and skill, the captain clashed with and incapacitated ten of the Knights within a mere six seconds!

That hefty amount of time was divided between him fighting and also trying to figure out if there was something about his men that could lead him to a solution or at least to the cause of this.

While applying maximum effort in his inquisitive skill, the captain found something!

Barely visible silver strings could be spotted trailing from the back of his men's necks and leading away to a singular point!

The captain, followed the strings and was shocked to find them leading to a short distance on the pathway they had been following.

There, one of his Knights, presumably the one who was missing was riding his horse comfortably.

It was the Knight with the beautiful grey eyes!

His existence seemed fleeting, as if he wasn't there at all, making the captain suspicious of what exactly he was dealing with.

'Nomatter! If he's the source of this...' the captain said before he lunged at the Knight at full second, crossing the distance in half a breath. He was about to knock out this Knight with the bottom of his hilt when three of the men he had just zipped past just now, shot from the side, eclipsing him in speed and blocking his charge!

'What?! These men are only at the Advancement Stage! How are they faster than me suddenly?' the captain said as his figure was enveloped by the full earth shattering force of his Perfect Aura.

Was he going to have to kill after all?

The man narrowed his eyes and clenched his sword hilt tighter than before.

"Funny how the soul works, isn't it?"

A voice called from behind the Knights that were standing defensively around the one with the grey eyes. The one who seemed to be source of it.

This voice sounded like an amalgamation of three different voices mashed into one, its tone creating a mesmerising ring that caused something deep within the captain to react... positively.

...!

This Knight, as he rode his horse, smiled.

BAM!

A greatsword suddenly spawned from his hand and fell to the ground, sinking its tip into it. Bits of flame roared from it before vanishing, announcing to the captain that this... was the culprit behind the first charred victim.

"Who are you?" he asked with caution but his enemy didn't seem to have any intention of answering as he wanted.

"This power is fascinating. Instead of mana manipulation, I used the new skill my Apostle derived, [Dark Soul Bending] this time as the basis for which to create our fusion. It's a lot more complex and very... entertaining," the Knight said and pointed at the Knights remaining still behind the captain.

"These fodder aren't a match for you. However, if I draw upon the essence of the souls of these other Knights and feed it all to these three... The memory within the souls... the sheer power within... It might just give you a challenge."

As these words were said, the strings leading up to the 19 Knights left behind were cut off and they all fell down like dolls. The detached strings then stuck themselves to the three Knights before this man.

This Bringer of All hiding within the soul of another.

The three Knights' air suddenly changed. One of them quivered for a bit before his body exploded with strength, a storm of mana rising up into the air!

Without warning, he then dashed towards the captain who didn't even understand what was happening until his sword had clashed with an overbearing force, his body being pushed back slowly, trenching across the dirt.

The other two did the same, their bodies rushing to join in as they displayed a level of skill and power than transcended what they normally showed.

A fierce clash ensued.

No longer was the captain holding back as he had to use his full strength just to hold his own against all three of these Knights.

Confusion struck him.

Fear struck him.

For his real enemy though, only amusement could be seen on his stolen face.

Naturally, his enemy was Skullius.

No.

It was Ogwulf the Limitless.

However, his form was safely nesting within the soul of this Knight, allowing him to control everything about him.

Ogwulf wiggled his fingers, ensuring that the Knights gave it their all despite their bodies breaking apart from being unable to handle the surge in power.

"Hmm. It's quite imperfect. I can't even control a soul unless I've touched the body it inhabits. It's fairly easy with enough planning but... Tricks I really wanted to see in action, I regrettably can't spare the time..." he said to himself.

Five minutes was his current limit.

Ogwulf, after appearing, had silently inhabited the soul of this grey eyed Knight and established a connection with all the Knights by simple touch, which wasn't hard. After that, the rest was easy. While he couldn't control them with just a connection â€" the string â€" he could still cause harm to their souls, killing them instantly which allowed him full control of their bodies as their souls remained until he let them go.

As [Bringer of All]'s specialty, the skill upon which the variation was created, [Dark Soul Bending] would be expanded on, creating various skills that spawned from the one. One of these was the one Ogwulf was using now to temporarily boost the souls of the three Knights and henceforth their bodies.

Sadly, the soul was a very tough subject and Ogwulf couldn't quite crack everything yet, especially with the time crunch. That would be left for Ferex.

Speaking of time, a solid two minutes had passed with the four still clashing heavily, the damaged bodies of the Knights near rupturing gruesomely.

"I suppose this counts as a tough fight. I'm the one doing the fighting, after all," Ogwulf said before extending his hand forward.

It was time to end this.

[Serration Zone: Baneful Edge]

"Slash."

A horrid wave of turbulent Null Life Essence leaked from Ogwulf's hand, enveloping the Knights and the carriages in a heartbeat, suspending them in a sort of limbo for a moment, before horribly slicing them all apart!

All of them!

Cleanly sliced flesh chunks could be spotted everywhere along with pieces of the carriages that scattered on the noise!

The Knight's Perfect Aura couldn't guard against Null Life Essence and sadly for him, he hadn't even been able to divert his attention from the fight to see the attack coming.

Ogwulf lifted his hand and absorbed all the Null Life Essence.

Apparently, without releasing the soul, a body couldn't give Null Life Essence and it was only when Ogwulf was done with his mission that he could absorb it all, recovering the amount he had used just now.

With all that done, a fuming dark figure was expelled from the grey eyed Knight like a pillar of smoke, leaving the body to slump down lifelessly.

The image of Ogwulf, different from his mana variation appeared, its shape similar to Ferex's new form but with a transparent look bordering on ghost-like with undefined outlines.

In design, the only things that differed from Ferex's form were the sockets, the blinding four sockets on its face that arrogantly looked down on everything as it floated.

"There's still a good half a minute left before I revert back. Perhaps doing it in this state is much better since I have this this large pool of Null Life Essence," Ogwulf said with a chuckle.

What was the use in holding off on it?

In the [Bringer of All] form, not only did Ogwulf have access to Skullius' and Ferex's skills, he also had the combined pool of Null Life Essence from the two, which was 15,000.

Of course Skullius' pool was not full and neither was Ferex's but they still had a good 12,227 points.

Ogwulf touched his chest.

"Let's see what happens when [Unbound] is used on my mana."