Chương 242: Today, I Play The Role Of The Eruption

From the depths of the 'Voice Box Recorder', I emitted the loudest, most bone-shaking sound of unholiness I could muster–In my opinion, when it came to fabricating a scream perfect for causing fear when using 'Embodiment Of Negativity', this was my best one by far. Golden-Face didn't seem fazed by it at all. I didn't feel a lick of any form of negativity seep from him. Not only was he not scared at all, but to not emit a single ounce of negative emotion, he had to be someone with firm control over his own emotions.

It wasn't easy to keep things like this from me. They usually flowed toward me like moths to flames. To stop this from happening, one required a bit more than just the nerves of a pro poker player. … While the roar left him unimpressed, the same was not true for when I unleashed dozens upon dozens of spectral entities from within my Mindscape–I had never stopped trying to understand the secrets of shoving spirits, souls, and the like inside of a furnace to create something new.

As such, I had accumulated a rather ridiculous number of spectral servants. After all, the Nightmare Plague took many lives, and so had I by my own two hands. The number of souls I had reaped was enormous, so even if many of the 'materials' at my disposal weren't exactly top quality, the sheer quantity of them had allowed me to experiment a lot. Alas, the greater secrets of the Furnace and Press still remained elusive and out of reach.

Nonetheless, although I wouldn't call any of these spectral servants successes, they were true ghostly entities regardless, and they had basic abilities. Their main uses would be in specific places, like I had used them for in the past, inside of Louwoods, or right here, as a swarm. They were visible to the naked eye as they floated in all directions, moving like a mass of rats to surround the man in red and his summoned entities.

"Fascinating. So this is why you used to request haunted items and bottled spirits, huh? On top of an affinity for nightmares and dreams, you also bear a closeness to phantoms… Am I led to assume that you also possess a strong affinity for curses, since you requested those alongside the rest?" The fucker was slightly surprised, but still didn't seem to be feeling threatened in the least. Nara, he isn't as strong as Denaiel or something, right? I sort of showed up here with my chest puffed and all…

I even acted cool in front of Xlown… If I get my ass handed to me, it won't be a good look. Is that what you are worried about, Mara? I can not tell exactly how strong he is. He hides the flow of his inner energies too well for me to read a thing… But he is seemingly using blood magic, and he used it to summon several powerful creatures. Whether he already had them created and just brought them out, or if he manifested them on the spot, is unclear, but… …

These are living beings with flesh, blood, and all that business. If he created them at all, he can be considered a master of spellcasting–Of course, it depends on the methods he uses, but I can't exactly make any good judgment on this Listen, Big Sis… Be very careful, and don't hesitate to go all out. I know you prefer to keep your cards hidden for the chance of a quick takedown, but if you don't go hard, he might be the one who gets to perform a quick takedown… Right.

I probably would have preferred to avoid a fight, but this bastard was clearly able to track me down and even guess correctly where I would decide to emerge from, and despite this, he had decided to just stand here instead of taking the chance to attack me while I was climbing up. He was clearly competent, strong, and extremely confident. Even now that he saw me bring just about a hundred of misshapen, horrific ghosts–He isn't fazed. I had done this with no cost, too, which he should have noticed.

He should be well aware that these ghosts had come from a stock that was certainly still well-furnished, and that I had not need to use any spells for this manoeuvre, but he didn't feel the need to summon more of his own soldiers or to even use his blood magic for anything else. He simply stood his ground.

"Remember: Surrendering is always a choice you can make" With these words, he once again readjusted one of his leather gloves and sent his minions to attack. These guys were exact copies of the one I had encountered and slain in the forest–Speaking of which, this man can summon or create things that were capable of speech? What would possibly be his methods?

I directed my horrifically deformed spirits to attack as well, with a clap of his gloved hands, the man in red seemed to imbue the claws of his creations with his magic, allowing them to tear right through the spirits with ease, destroying them as their ethereal bodies were made unstable… Well, more unstable than they already were.

"This is a good trick, but unrefined. How about I hook you up with someone more knowledgeable in the domain of ghosts and the like? Would that convince you to join–Oh" He must have seen me as I jumped back down into the valley.

"Stop right here! You can't just say that you'll kill with so much certainty only to run away at the first occasion, that's disgraceful! Where are you even going? Did you set a trap for me somewhere?" The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. He recalled his creatures and took off after me, manifesting a sort of wave made from blood beneath his feet to carry him forward.

Once again, the trees turned out to be my best friend as I was able to move around the forest with more agility than he. He was faster than me to the point of being too fast for such a terrain, forcing him to suddenly slow down to not run straight into trees, at least until he decided that it wasn't worth the hassle and began throwing flying sickles of blood, slicing down trees in droves like some sort of mad lumberjack. Arriving near a mountain, I pulled a nice little trick that Annie had thought of.

I balanced myself on my right arm and, using the hydraulics, pushed myself off a fair distance up onto the mountain. The description had mentioned jumping in particular, after all, and nothing was stopping me from jumping by using an arm instead of my legs.

"And where do you think you're going, exactly?" He launched a blade of blood my way, which I bit down upon–I would have liked to keep this under wraps for longer, but this guy's projectiles are too damned fast for me to dodge reliably, and the only thing faster than my legs is the closing of my maw. I felt a little bit of confusion flow out from him. I had long noticed that my stomach, which did not exist, reacted to the blood he manifested in the same manner it reacted to regular blood.

Therefore, it was a valid target for my endless hunger, and it also meant that if I managed to start the process of consumption, the blood would be weakened in the same manner a ghost or curse would be completely overpowered when they fell in my grasp. A shame that this didn't apply to sacks of flesh, would make my life a whole lot easier…

"Fascinating…" His confusion was only brief.

"I did hear that you consumed flesh and blood as well, but to think that this blood would also be so easily overpowered… Listen, the more we interact, the less I want to kill you. Are you really certain you don't want to hand over the eye and come along?" I just continued running. I heard him sigh.

"Where in damnation are you even trying to go?" Without any trees in between us, he sped up and actually got in front of me, blocking the way as he stood upon his amorphous wave of blood.

"Here. I am–am at my des–desti–destination""What?" … Well, somewhat. Earlier, when I released all those ghosts of mine, I suddenly felt something here. It was as though the presence of so many spectres caused something to emit a signal outward. A signal that I felt and which told me that there was something my appetite would appreciate hidden somewhere beneath the rock of this particular mountain. I figured that this place would be a bit better as a battleground because of this.

There was a factor my opponent was unaware of, but that I knew existed. It wasn't much, but when it came to fighting to the death, not much was the difference between a flawless victory and your head rolling on the ground.

"I can't believe I have to do this, but since you insist… You leave me no other choice" He slightly lifted one hand, and a mass of blood formed, floating in the air above his shoulder. The blood rapidly shaped itself into bone, muscles, and skin. Transforming into a giant, severed hand akin to that of the creatures he had summoned previously. The fist came barrelling toward… My poor, stylish clothes… Part of the mountain beneath my feet was blasted to pieces as the air itself seemed to begin boiling.

My opponent raised his guard, his wave of blood pulling him back as the closest trees spontaneously caught fire.

"... Just what sort of entity did Azt Mastras sign a deal with…?" The giant fist had been caught in my larger hand, and without having to apply much force, my incandescent finger melted right through it, the blood making it up evaporated, the crimson fumes pulled toward my maw as I inhaled it all. …' Molten Steel Form'... It's been too long since I last used you. The amount of steel I can use to boost its size without making it unstable has increased a fair bit since the time I slaughtered that fat, fleshy bastard.

I roared again, and this time, it seemed to be quite painful on the ears of my adversary. Without waiting, I projected a violent stream of molten steel from my maw toward him. I drowned part of the forest in the searing matter, but the man in red accelerated quite dearly. He seemingly pushed up his seriousness as he began manifesting countless of those giant fists, throwing them at me without delay.

Unfortunately for him, this form was a mastodon in defence, and besides, he was using blunt force against my body, made nearly entirely from liquid steel. Only my arms, maw, and eyes weren't in a molten state. As such, most of his fists merely sank into me, as they scorched into charcoal in the blink of an eye. I struck down without regard for the environmental damage I was causing.

Blasting holes into the mountain and forests, setting everything alight with the slightest of my motions, while also puking dire amounts of molten steel all over the place. Mister Golden Mask was like an annoying fly, however, and he was managing to slip past all of my attacks, and not narrowly at that. He had quite a lot of room to dodge. Also, despite the physical closeness, his clothes and body weren't burning, and neither did the intense heat seem to weaken him. Nara, an analysis, perhaps?

He is no longer trying to hide his flow of mana–It seems like he is using a variant of the blood element, but he is clearly quite competent with it.

He has integrated the element into his own bloodflow, allowing him to use various enhancement spells at a much deeper level, with much greater ease, and at a far lesser cost than most His spells also flow in his clothes, which were clearly made with special fabric and enchanted to support his mana as well as his body can–He is actively regulating his body temperature by cooling himself down, all the while using several augmentative spells…

He seems to be actively channelling mana for more spells, however Be wary I must admit, it is a bit worrisome that for the first time, someone is actually standing up to one of my more powerful forms… Let's see how you do once I have flooded this entire damned place with molten steel! I bet this mask is quite the delicacy…