Chapter 399: Shattered
Within Marcus's Inner World, the purple Charles (Burning Consciousness) opened his eyes and waved his hand.
A second later, thousands of Knowledge Seeker spell and Fire Seed spell came out of his purple fire body and spread in different directions like a plague.
Although Marcus's second and third consciousnesses tried to interfere, they stood no chance against the Nemesis of the Inner World!
Marcus sensed that his whole Inner World got invaded by some foreign force and got shocked.
He tried to think of casting his soul-related spell multiple times but failed miserably.
On the other hand, Charles endured the sharp pain from the constant cracking and restoration of his soul form and focused his full attention on erasing Marcus's soul!
Just as he was about to cast his [Black Inferno] spell, he heard a voice in his head and paused.
'Don't try to attack his soul, lad! It's a waste of time. If you want to destroy a soul, your spell must be Rank-7 or above Rankl! Instead of trying to do the impossible, why don't you focus on finding his physical body and destroy it…'
It was the Holem's Crown's voice!
A flash of surprise appeared on Charles's face.
Nodding inwardly, he changed his strategy and cast [Curse of the Overlord] spell on Marcus.
Then, he stopped casting [Burning Thoughts] spell and looked at the foggy soul form with an icy look on his face.
In the meantime, Marcus managed to regain his sense and tried to cast [Soul Enslavement] spell.
But at that moment, he heard an old man's voice.
"Why are you firm on killing me, Mr. Marcus? I have a better plan to resolve our conflict. Do you want to hear it?"
Marcus subconsciously stopped thinking about casting the [Soul Enslavement] spell and looked at him cautiously.
"What are you trying to do?" He asked.
At that moment, a strange sense of fear appeared in the depths of his consciousness.
Strangely, he felt that this Ancient Mage might be stronger than some Legend-Rank Mystics!
Meanwhile, Charles let out a chuckle and responded casually.
"In truth, I have ancient potion formulas, artifact blueprints, and even some Rank-7 defensive spell arrays. As long as you agree not to interfere in our business, I'm willing to share some with you. Even the Legend-Rank Mystics would fight for these things. How is it?"
His voice appeared more like a devil's one!
Upon hearing those tempting words, Marcus hesitated for a moment and soon agreed.
He was a practical guy. Although this mysterious Ancient Mage killed one of his descendants, it was not a big deal for him. The main reason he came here to attack the Rebirth Tower was purely to suppress the other party. At that moment, he also planned on enslaving this Ancient Mage's soul and gain complete control over the new Tower.
Unfortunately, he underestimated his enemy and already ended up in a bitter position. If this fight continued for a few more minutes, there was a high chance that he would lose some of his precious memories.
"Undo that memory-erasing spell. I'll return to the Iron Tower and send my disciples for the talking." He said in a solemn tone.
On the other hand, Charles breathed a sigh of relief and erased the Burning Consciousness from Marcus's mind.
"It's over," Charles said with a smile and flew backward.
In the meantime, Marcus cast [Astral Walk] spell, entered the Astral Plane, and soon flew towards the Iron Tower.
Unknown to him, a strange invisible string was attached to his soul!
Meanwhile, Marcus flew towards the Iron Tower quickly and soon reached the Tower's top floor. He passed through the concrete wall, arrived at the core room, and soon saw an old man resting next to the tower core.
It was his physical body!
"Finally!" He muttered under his breath and was about to fly towards the Core Room's center but stopped.
At that moment, he suddenly noticed that the space next to his body started to distort and soon formed into a bluish portal!
A second later, a white-haired old man walked out of the portal, turned his head towards his direction, and curled his lips upward.
Upon seeing this, a chill went up to Marcus's spine, even though he didn't have one!
He tried to move forward, but some strange invisible force stopped his movement all of a sudden!
In the meantime, Charles squatted down, pointed his finger at Marcus's sleeping body, and muttered.
"Finger of Destruction!"
A moment later, a dense ray of chaos fire came out from his fingertip, pierced into Marcus's forehead, and exploded. His head burst opened like watermelon while burning the brain matters in red flame!
But that was just a start, though. Charles also continued to conjure three balls of chaos flame and tossed onto the headless body.
"No!" A raging old man's voice echoed in the Astral Plane as he sensed that the connection between his soul and his body got severed!
"I'll kill you!" Marcus extended his foggy hands, created a sizeable dimensional crack, and pointed his finger at Charles.
Although some strange emotion interfered with his thoughts, he gritted his teeth and cast a new spell.
"Soul Jolt!" His voice turned abnormally eerie.
It was another Rank-5 necromancy spell!
But unlike the previous one, casting this spell would cause equivalent damage to his soul!
The main reason Marcus chose to cast this spell on Charles now was to shatter his soul completely.
Currently, hundreds of cracks appeared in Charles's soul form!
Although the green flame was doing its best to healing his soul, it wasn't powerful enough to completely restore his soul to its original state.
Even if the green flame completely heals his soul, Charles knew that the 'Love Curse' would release more death energy and shatter his soul at the end!
As Marcus tried to cast the [Soul Jolt] spell, Charles also received a warning in the form of vision and became grim.
"It seems this is the end." He raised his head, looked in the direction where Marcus's soul was hovering, and sighed heavily.
Simultaneously, an eerie black ray came out of Marcus's finger, crossed the Astral Plane through the dimensional gap, and soon landed on Charles's body.
The ray entered his soul in a blink, spread towards all other areas while suppressing the green flame, and started breaking his soul form.
At that moment, Charles felt a tearing pain from the depths of his soul and groaned.
'15 more seconds for my soul to shatter!' He also constantly received forewarnings and turned solemn.
He then thought of returning to a safe place and activate the heart!
Wasting no time, he used every bit of energy to cast the [Flame Teleportation] spell and disappeared from there.
He reappeared in the Rebirth Tower's 23rd layer and fell on the concrete floor a moment later.
Jessie, Rhea, and Noel got startled by the sudden noise and turned around in unison.
Alas, Charles didn't have any time even to say a word.
He silently entered his Inner World and soon noticed that spatial cracks and green fires appeared all over.
He also saw destroyed volcanic mountains, empty lava lakes, and empty lands with ashes of elemental trees and plants.
Instead of seven different types of lava pools, he saw empty craters.
Charles also saw some empty voids appeared in different parts of his Inner World and were sucking everything.
What shocked him most was that there were a few holes appeared in his illusionary form!
Letting out a deep sigh, he looked up at the sky, turned himself into a pure flame, and disappeared from there.
A second later, he reappeared in front of the Rebirth Spell model and looked at the heart inside the spell model.
Then, he opened his mouth and muttered.
"Birreth."
A second later, the spell model shone brightly for a moment and returned to normal.
After that, nothing happened at all!
Upon seeing this, Charles's face went stiff.
'W-What happened? Did the heart troll me?' He couldn't help but comment inwardly.
He then shifted his attention towards his Inner World and his soul but found no chances.
Panic surfaced on his face, followed by an absolute calmness.
When facing death, he felt no regret!
No, he felt a sense of pride and accomplishment. Although he was defeated by Goddess Sasha and the World's Will, he managed to forge a new path for his disciples!
'In the end, I accepted them as disciples instead of mere scapegoats.' He showed a radiant smile on his face.
Then, he descended towards his half-broken Inner World and soon landed in front of a half-split lava mountain.
Green fire sparks and lavas splashed all over the place and soon sucked into the black voids that appeared all over the areas.
Without minding the constant destructions, he closed his eyes and countdown the time.
"7…6…5…4…3…2…1!"
As he finished his counting, his soul trembled violently and then shattered!
…
