Chapter 148: Exchanged Words

Chapter 148: Exchanged Words

The sound of war raged on. Metal clanged with metal. Bone met bone. Yet Astrid, the two other kings, and the masked haloed man were in a stalemate.

They had quickly realised that the first to make a move underwent the biggest risk. No-one here had had a modicum of honour. It was the survival of the fittest. And their prize was almost upon them.

Time remaining until the birth of the evolution stone: 04:99



“Astrid Sinwen.” The masked haloed man's words came out as if forced against their will. “It seems it’s your destiny to be within the dungeons. Perhaps I should make it permanent?”

Astrid bared her fangs at the words. “You know, I’m really beginning to hate your incessant use of masks. You must have a face only a mother would love? I’m right, huh?”

“You really are just a child.” He sighed.

Astrid swirled the liquid mana around her mana container. The mana within the air surged at her command, as if she was the centre of the storm. Then, the two eyes at her shoulder began rotating around in a circle at her back.

A deep purple that could easily be mistaken for a pitch black, if not for the sun's light illuminating the colour–covered her skin in a seamless armour. Then, multiple barriers formed around her body.

Her clone levitated by her side as the same occurred with the other body. It was as if they were identical twins in every single metric.

Finally, she finished by placing Mind Armour around her clone, granting it a bonus to its magic power.

“What makes you different?” His once clear eyes were spoiled by a trail of blood that trickled from within–down the corner of his eye–and disappeared behind the golden white mask. “To perfectly assimilate with not one, but two symbiotes as if they were one. What is the secret?”

“I’m a Sinwen,” Astrid said with pride dripping from her words.

Of course, she had no idea what the reason was. Was it because of the Eye Queen from the book, or was it something else? Whatever it was, the man in front couldn’t answer the question. Only by opening the book could she uncover the secrets of her body.

Astrid snarled. If everyone was too scared to make the first move, then she had no problem in being the vanguard.

She hesitated in using her dark matter attack. After all, it drained an incredible amount of mana. Mana that she needed for the next fights. Astrid estimated she had mana left for three more of her dark matter attacks

Besides, she was wary of the attack being wasted. They had to be used carefully–when she was certain they couldn’t dodge them.

It was also important to make sure she was the one to kill the other two kings. She wanted a clean sweep of all the rewards. Only after obtaining more power did she have the right to read more pages in the book. That was her goal.

Without waiting any longer, she attacked.

With the increase to her Wisdom, she connected to the matter and [Crashed] it. Or she would have done, but at the last second, the mana surged within the air, and a gaseous cloud interrupted her control.

Then, it swept forward–carried by the air–and unlike her matter control, it moved on its own whim as another formed to the side of it. It carried forward, attempting to swarm her on all sides.

But Astrid connected to the cloud, and finally was able to [Crash] it. An explosion rocked the earth, but it was different to her usual [Crash]. Unlike the usual colourless detonation, it underwent a green mutation.

Presumably from the masked man’s Skill.

The containers struck the ground but instead of stopping, or exploding, they sped up, and bounced. Their movement was unpredictable, and it made it extremely difficult to explode them with a long distance [Crash].

Instead, Astrid formed an enormous wall with Psych Warp. The containers clashed against the wall. She only heard a click of a finger before the entire wall exploded in a mess of mangled metal. Fragments flew in all directions.

It looked like the leader not only had one person to amplify his abilities, but two, maybe even three.

Astrid gazed at the others by his side. In total, there were six of them.

Is it three, four, or five of them working together? Astrid groaned at the annoying powers.

However many there were, it didn’t matter as the kings were making their way towards the pillar on the hill. She quickly checked the time.

Time remaining until the birth of the evolution stone: 02:31



Astrid grit her teeth, then flew toward the hill. She would make it first, then the others would be forced to come to her. All at once. Just the thought of having them all focused on her caused her blood to boil, but she was ready.

She just had to turn the situation on its head to her advantage.

Flying through the air, she [Crashed] the matter at the bypassing kings and took her spot on the hill. Being close to the pillar, she could hear it grinding through the earth to make its appearance. Even now, the stone was emerging from the hardened rock to display its grandeur.

It was just like a gem, an iridescent, polished stone that caused her eyes to sparkle. It was to be hers.

But first she had to defeat the enemies that threatened to take it away.

The monster kings seemed to realise that Astrid wanted it all for herself, and sensing the lack of time left, they were forced to attack in fear of their evolution being stolen away from them.

Astrid welcomed it.

The bird king took to the skies, but its wing was clearly injured from her first surprise attack. Yet it displayed its powerful vigour and flew despite the injuries.

Whereas the mountain golem’s transformed into a boulder. Its momentum continued, then the ground underneath it moved to its command. The once solid dirt and rock floor moved as if it was part of an ocean's wave. It increased the speed of the golem as it shot forward, toward the pillar where Astrid stood.

Of course, the haloed man also made his move. His gaseous cloud transformed into a thicker state, to the point he was able to ride on it without falling through.

His team member who controlled the air stood at the back of the cloud and propelled them forward.

Astrid smirked and opened her Void Storage. Within it, she threw out the incredibly durable wire and controlled it with Psychokinesis toward the skies–where the bird king was approaching.

Of course, she wasn’t finished. She connected to the ground and enormous spikes of Psych Warped metal shot out from the ground.

It wasn’t her intent to kill the golem with the attack, but stop the incoming movement. After all, she wanted both of them dead. One after the other.

The spikes stopped the golem’s wave-like Skill, then she focused all her attention on the incoming bird.