165 Chapter 165

Since the Prison of Darkness was inside the Grimoire of Darkness, the Grimoire took the brunt of the attack. The Prison of Darkness was destroyed, but that wasn't the extent of all the damage.

Gabriel's attack didn't just destroy all the Darkness in the Prison of Darkness but also destroyed most of the Dark Energy that the Grimoire of Darkness had gathered throughout the centuries, weakening the Grimoire even further.

Since Lira was connected to the Grimoire of Darkness, she also took the damage. Her spiritual strength suffered heavy losses. She was an Advanced Mage before she went against Gabriel, but her spiritual strength went down to a mid-tier mage's level because of all the damage!

Even though she avoided the attack by escaping in time, Her Spiritual Strength couldn't avoid it. She had managed to save her life, but in the process, she lost a lot more.

Lira kept coughing out blood as her face went pale.

"Cough... Cough..." She kept coughing, unable to stop. She walked to the nearest pond to have some water and to clean the blood.

As she walked to the Pond, she didn't realize that there was a new mark on her left shoulder... A Mark of Location. Gabriel's subconscious had marked her body. No matter where she went, through the mark, he could know where she was!

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The Prison of Darkness was destroyed by Gabriel, who dealt as much damage as he could.

Grimoires were Holy Treasures of the gods, which contained their divine strength, so being able to damage one was almost impossible! Still, Gabriel was able to achieve it for some reason. He didn't just damage the Grimoire of Darkness, but he did a lot more!

After the Prison of Darkness was destroyed, Gabriel's soul was free to return to his real body. However, there was still one problem. The soul was inflicted with all the Darkness that had infiltrated it and now causing chaos inside the soul.

Since the Soul of Gabriel had no other choice, it was back inside the body, bringing all the darkness with it. Gabriel's body's veins started turning black, which was visible even from a distance.

Cylix and Novius were hurt by the aura explosion from before, but they still managed to recover after the sudden explosion of the aura stopped.

They stood on their feet, but they didn't get closer to Gabriel again. They didn't know what was happening to him at the moment. At first, his life force was weak, but it started recovering, followed by the aura explosion, and now his veins were turning black?

Unlike Cylix and Novius, who were observing Gabriel from a distance, the Infernal King walked closer to him again, despite being hurt the last time.

He stood right beside Gabriel again, observing the changes in his body, especially the dark aura that could suddenly be felt inside his body. For now, he actually looked like he was poisoned, but it was different at the same time.

The Mark of Binding on the Staff of Darkness that was flickering out of existence in the past, as if it was about to fail, had also stabilized again. Strangely enough, the mark hadn't just stabilized, but it also started getting stronger.

With Gabriel's attack right at the core of the Grimoire of Darkness, Lira was hurt, and the Grimoire of Darkness was also much weaker. That, in turn, also weakened the Ancestral Staff of Darkness and its resistance to the binding.

****

Gabriel's Spirit was overwhelmed by the darkness that was trying to destroy his soul. If it were anyone else's soul, it would've already been destroyed by now. Somehow, his soul was still able to resist. Not only was his soul resisting, but it was also doing something that should've been impossible.

To resist the darkness, there was only one way… to increase their affinity with the Darkness. It was similar to using poison to counter poison.

Lira had forced the entire darkness of her Dark Prison inside Gabriel's soul, but he was using that darkness to his own advantage.

Instead of letting the darkness destroy the soul, Gabriel's soul started absorbing that darkness to increase its affinity with the Darkness. It also started compressing all the darkness into a single point...

Something about Gabriel's body had started changing. The more that darkness inside the soul was compressed, the more his affinity with darkness increased, almost reaching a natural point as a mark started appearing on his body.

On the back of Gabriel's left hand, there was a Sacred Mark of Element of Light. However, right above that Mark of Light, another mark started appearing... A Mark which was much darker.

"How... is... this... possible...?"

Novius saw the mark taking shape, recognizing it right away. He had seen that mark more than a thousand times before as it was a mark that he had as well! It was the same mark that he had on the back of his left hand: Sacred Mark of Element of Darkness!

Gabriel was awakening his Elemental affinity with another Element? This time it was the Element of Darkness!

"Element of Light, and Element of Darkness... Both inside the same body? Three Elements? Just how could this be...?" Cylix knew that Gabriel was special since he had an element that was never seen before. However, this had surpassed the limits of being special at the moment! This was outright within the limit of being impossible!

The Infernal King didn't know the complete significance of these marks and how incredible it was to have more than one of them since he wasn't training in the way of the living mages. Instead, he was more concerned with the veins of Gabriel that were turning black.

Fortunately, his veins started returning to normal as the new mark on his left hand became more and more real with time.

The Mark of Binding on the Ancestral Staff of Darkness also kept getting stronger since Gabriel finally had more affinity with the Darkness.

In the end, the Ancestral Staff of Darkness actually gave in, submitting before the strength of the Mark. The Ancestral Staff was finally bound to Gabriel who had created the Mark of Binding.