Chapter 718: Wrong Person to Brainwash

Along the frozen mountains, a layer of colorless white light slowly rose; as if a new dawn was beginning.

But this light had no warmth, and wherever it shone, the colors of the surroundings became weaker.

Gray stones appeared white, blue ice lost its color, and even the shadows around the cliffs slowly disappeared.

[ Dawn of the Nameless ]

Lian felt the first change when he tried to check the direction of the enemy’s movement.

For a fraction of a second, the name of the place where he was standing disappeared from his mind.

Hmm?

He knew this was a huge frozen plateau, he knew why he had come to this place, but its name had become unfamiliar for a moment.

Then an even stranger feeling appeared in his right hand, for several seconds, it felt as if the hand belonged to someone else.

He looked down.

’Identity Erasure?’

The white dawn continued to spread.

Within a few hundred meters around Roderick, the spiritual pressure was slowly increasing, but on the horizon, its white light appeared to cover a much larger area.

If White Oblivion had thousands of corrupted hosts, he could spread such corruption across an entire land and even destroy the order of a civilization across a continent.

But now he only had Roderick’s body, and he was forced to focus most of the skill’s pressure on a single target.

Lian.

At that moment, something deep within young Vorhelm’s soul reacted.

Golden Nine Dragons Soul.

Deep within his consciousness, the golden forms of dragons appeared, their huge bodies moved around the center of his soul and helped maintain the stability of his identity under the pressure of the dawn.

At the same time, his Calamity Devourer title increased his resistance against soul erosion and identity erasure.

Even so, the pressure did not disappear completely.

’So this is an active attack.’

Lian knew very well that his title only made him immune to the natural fear and suppression caused by Calamities.

His twenty-five percent resistance against identity erosion did not mean complete immunity either.

But that resistance, together with the strength of the Golden Nine Dragons Soul, was enough to prevent his consciousness from immediately collapsing.

Young Vorhelm slowly raised his head.

White Oblivion was standing about a hundred meters away, opening and closing his fingers, and the white light changed with his movements.

Lian took a short breath.

’So he’s the main source.’

[ Thunder Ashen Step ] activated.

He disappeared from his previous position and reduced the distance between himself and Roderick in a fraction of a second.

The Calamity immediately turned his head and focused the pressure of the dawn along Lian’s path.

But before the mental disturbance could become stronger, Lian approached from the left and struck Roderick’s chest with his right fist.

The sound of breaking bones echoed across the battlefield, and the man’s body was thrown backward at high speed and crashed into a thick wall of ice.

Deep cracks spread through the ice structure from the point of impact, and the white dawn weakened for a moment.

Lian took several steps forward and kept his eyes on the place where Roderick had crashed.

"Is that all?" He opened and closed the fingers of his right hand.

In fact, he was lucky that the thousands of Withered and the two Unholy no longer existed, and this meant that the maximum power of the Calamity’s current Vessel was limited to Roderick’s raw power.

The sound of breaking ice came from the damaged wall.

Roderick placed one hand against the stone and came out of the ruins, the front of his clothes was torn, and blood flowed down from the corner of his mouth.

But unlike what Lian had expected, White Oblivion did not immediately attack.

He looked at him for several seconds.

"Your soul..."

His gaze changed for a moment.

"It is much stronger than what a human should possess."

"I’ll take that as a compliment." Lian shrugged.

The creature did not answer and slowly placed his right hand on Roderick’s chest.

At that moment, the sound of the wind stopped, not completely; instead, it was as if the distance between Lian and the surrounding sounds had increased.

Then the sound of a quiet footstep came from behind him.

Young Vorhelm turned his head.

A human figure had appeared among the snow and ice, a man wearing unfamiliar clothes with a pale face, looking at him without moving.

A moment later, a second figure formed at a shorter distance.

A woman with tears on her face.

Then a child who opened and closed his mouth without making any sound.

[ Procession of Dead Memories ]

The procession of dead memories.

Within a short time, hundreds of figures appeared on both sides of the plateau.

They moved slowly, some passed through the ice walls, while others continued walking without paying attention to the cliffs.

Lian examined them through True Sequence.

’They don’t have physical bodies.’

The figures were not real summoned creatures, instead, they were forms of memories that White Oblivion had stolen from his victims.

And as the first figure approached, Lian noticed the main danger, a foreign memory struck his consciousness.

A street filled with corpses, a red sky, and fear so intense that for a moment, he felt as if he himself were standing in that street.

But before he could push the memory away, another experience entered his mind.

This time, he saw himself from the point of view of an unknown man who was searching for someone among the ruins with blood-covered hands.

He was shouting a name.

But Lian could not hear that name.

Then came the third memory, and it was not long before he saw the fourth, within a short time, dozens of foreign experiences entered his consciousness.

For a moment, his right knee bent.

Damn it.

This time, the enemy was not only trying to erase his memories.

He was forcing other people’s memories into him; if this process continued, Lian might no longer be able to tell the difference between his own life and hundreds of other lives.

At the same time, he was trying to break his mental defenses, he wanted to destroy the defenses of Lian’s mind by confusing him and creating chaos in his brain.

Deep within his soul, the golden forms of the Nine Dragons became clearer.

Their huge bodies moved around the center of his consciousness and created a boundary between the forced memories and his real identity.

But the pressure continued, even with the resistance of his Calamity Devourer title, he could not ignore all those experiences.

He clenched his teeth.

’So this is the true power of a Calamity.’

He had fought monsters that could destroy mountains, but White Oblivion did not need such power to defeat an enemy.

He only needed to pour so many foreign memories and emotions into the target’s soul that the original identity would disappear under the pressure.

Farther away, Roderick was standing motionless.

His eyes remained fixed on Lian.

’So all of them are being maintained by him.’

Unlike his first instinct, young Vorhelm did not try to destroy the figures one by one.

Even if he could destroy one of them, hundreds of other memories would remain.

Therefore, he looked directly at the source of the attack.

Roderick.

He activated [ Thunder Ashen Step ].

But this time, White Oblivion was waiting for his movement.

As Lian passed through the rows of figures, the creature took half a step to the right and sent a heavy punch toward the place where he expected Lian to appear.

Lian saw the strike, but a foreign memory struck his mind at the exact moment he was about to react.

His concentration was disturbed for a fraction of a second, and the fist struck the defensive section of his armor.

The sound of metal echoed across the battlefield, and his body was pushed several meters backward.

’So he’s studying my movements too.’

White Oblivion was no longer simply waiting for his spiritual power to work.

He was using the pressure on Lian’s consciousness to create opportunities during physical combat.

Young Vorhelm took a short breath and then moved once again, but this time, he did not choose a direct path.

He passed beside one of the ice pillars, made his second step shorter, and changed his direction to the left before reaching Roderick.

White Oblivion sent his next punch toward the position where he expected Lian to appear.

But at the last moment, young Vorhelm activated [ Thunder Ashen Step ], turned into a cloud of ash, and appeared at exactly the opposite angle.

[ Disaster Suppression Fist ]

The strike hit Roderick’s chest, and a huge amount of force was concentrated at the point of impact.

The bones in his chest broke, and the man’s body was thrown backward at high speed.

Farther away, a frozen cliff split apart when his body struck it, and its upper section collapsed.

At the same time, the rows of ghost-like figures became unstable.

Some disappeared in their positions, while others turned into faint particles before their memories could become complete.

Lian took several steps forward.

’So my guess was right.’

The spiritual attack depended on the Vessel’s concentration.

Even if the true nature of the power belonged to White Oblivion, it was being used in the physical world through Roderick, and Roderick could be injured.

He kept his eyes on the injured man.

"Those were interesting memories, but I’d rather continue living my own life."

White Oblivion rose from among the broken stones.

Part of Roderick’s chest had changed shape, but the creature managed to straighten his body again using mana pressure.

His gaze remained on Lian for several seconds, he was gradually realizing that this human was far too resistant to his attacks and seemed to have a very good understanding of his kind, the Calamities.

He was not stupid, it was not difficult to conclude that this human had definitely encountered another Calamity and had built many layers of protection for himself based on that experience.

And considering that the human was still alive, it meant he had managed to win his encounter with that Calamity.

"You relied on what you had seen, human. On the resistance of your soul, on your power, and on the knowledge you gained from facing a Calamity."

His gaze remained fixed on Lian for a moment.

"But your mistake is thinking that knowing one Calamity means knowing all Calamities."

He raised his right hand.

"Let me show you what oblivion really means."

And then he slowly raised his right hand.

This time, the sky did not turn white.

Instead, the first semi-transparent tablet appeared above the plateau, a large and bright tablet with unknown lines across its surface.

Then the second tablet appeared, followed by the third.

Within a short time, hundreds of tablets formed at different heights.