Chapter 174: An old friend.

Chapter 173: An Old Friend

"Tennyson... Is that you?"

An old, inhuman voice resounded through the tower, like the cries of hundreds of souls, screaming in agony.

"No, not quite... But I’m sure you remember me. We worked together to kill Ben Tennyson once, a long time ago."

"Ah, the imposter... I would say this is a pleasant surprise, but that would be a lie."

Albedo chuckled, at the same time he took a step forward.

"Your tongue is still as annoying as ever. How about you come closer and let me cut it off? It’ll save us both a lot of trouble."

Hex’s expression did not change, as his dark gaze loomed over Albedo and Revel.

"You seem to have made new friends... Ones that smell of war and beast, no less. Very impressive, demoness. " He said to Revel, before turning his attention back to Albedo. "To think you managed to survive the fall of our realm as well, how treacherous..."

Albedo gave him an odd look under the visor of his helmet.

"Treacherous? Me? Old man, in case you haven’t realized, you’re the one drowning in corruption, not me... If anything, you’re the one who betrayed everything that’s untouched by profanity, and the people you swore to protect, as well."

Hex did not seem angry at those words.

"I swore to protect no one, Albedo. I simply used the fake primus as a means of survival, for a time, that is. My loyalty did not matter, anyway, as I was banished for my methods by the people of beast."

He gave Albedo a meaningful look, and at the same time both Albedo and Revel felt creeped out by the situation.

A talking abomination was one thing, but an abomination with this much sanity was almost unheard of.

"Do you know what it feels like? To walk the dream realm alone, surrounded by only creatures of the void?"

’So he was banished...’

Unlike Albedo, who had frozen himself in a pod and shot it into space, Hex seemed to have escaped the fall of the beast realm in a much simpler way.

He joined the fake primus, and was later on banished from it.

Albedo knew what Ben Tennyson had done to ensure the survival of his people, after all their connection was not completely gone and so he could still sense his existence and the consequences of his actions.

The fake primus had its own absolute laws, separate from the outside world and so, time worked differently there.

That meant that when Hex was banished, he ended up walking the world during an unknown era.

Perhaps he had been active during the time of the heart realm, the storm realm or the shadow realm. Or perhaps he walked it during a time where they were all dead and the

’No matter, this bastard had gone and ended up getting corrupted... I wonder, did he achieve supremacy and then become a great one, or did he become a corrupted beast and later on rise in ranks?’

Wanting to gain more information, Albedo answered Hex’s previous question.

"No, I do not. However, what I do know is that great beasts aren’t as sentient as you are. How come your mind is not consumed by corruption?"

From what Albedo knew, Hex’s aspect gave him a great affinity for sorcery and curses. It did not give his mind any type of protection, so his aspect couldn’t be the cause.

"So brilliant yet so narrow minded. Your view on the corrupted is limited, Albedo. Just because they are touched by the void does not mean they are all mad. I merely learned to contain my madness and accept my new state of self."

Albedo was smiling under his visor, but Hex probably could tell. He had figured out what Hex had actually done.

Any fool who knew this old man well enough would have realized it by now.

"Right... You totally did not use your sacrificial sorcery to preserve your mind, or anything of the sort. And you’re definitely not thinking of killing us and consuming our souls, right?"

Hex’s lips curved into a smile, and suddenly his malevolent will spread through the room, falling on top of Albedo and Revel.

"Consume you? No, but you shall serve as sacrifices to my god. Now, I’m sorry, but you two must die."

Hundreds of ethereal crimson chains manifested from Hex’s body, each and every one of them carrying a sinister incantation that would burn their soul and infect them with corruption.

But before they could reach them, Revel called upon the power of her aspect and unleashed a flood of elemental darkness that spread across the entire chamber, drowning the castle in darkness and swallowing the chains completely.

Hex got up from his meditative position, but he had remained floating, surrounded by a crimson aura.

His senses were nearly gone, and his eyesight was especially affected by the tide of darkness.

"Drowning my senses? Really? Transcendants and corrupted beings might fall victim to such a trick but it has no real effects on demigods like me."

A blade of darkness moved towards him, aiming to cut the sinister demigod’s throat.

Hex caught the blade with one hand and used his sinister will to part a small portion of the darkness, revealing Albedo, who was still in his stone saint form.

Before the clever Galvan could do anything else, Hex’s palm found its way to his chest, shattering his breastplate and sending him flying into the darkness once more.

Hex turned around and used his will to clear more of the darkness, attempting to find the other one.

But just then, dark blood suddenly dripped from his mouth...

Looking down, Hex saw a tachi protruding from his chest, causing unbearable pain to spread through his body.

Glancing behind him, Hex saw a demoness twisting her blade through his guts. She had not been there a moment ago, which suggested that she had an ability that allowed her to fuse with elemental darkness or teleport through it.

Her blade also paralyzed Hex, giving her enough time to drive her blade further through his abdomen and cut him in half.

"Foolish child."

Hex’s upper and lower body floated together in the air and merged together as if he was made of clay...

All of that happened in a second.

Revel tried to transform into elemental darkness once again, but she suddenly found herself unable to.

Her bat like wings had been caught by the crimson chains, which weakened her body a great deal. At the same time, she felt her soul essence being siphoned by the chains.

Hex’s hands shot forward to grab Revel’s head and crush her jaw, but before he could, something crashed into him from the side, ramming into him like a rhino and slamming him into the walls of the castle, shattering them and sending both Hex and Albedo tumbling outside.

Albedo used the innate ability of the stone saints to make his body as light as a feather, and then he grabbed Hex and launched vicious blows at the fallen demigod while the two of them were airborne.

His vambrace met Hex’s face, delivering blow after blow with the power of a Transcendent Titan.

Eventually the two crashed into the ground, falling into a savage struggle and as they did, Hex grabbed both of Albedo’s hands with his own, stopping the rain of punches.

Hex head-butted Albedo, breaking a part of his visor. He proceeded to grab the onyx saint by his throat and fly him upward like a missile.

Albedo tried to escape his grasp but found himself momentarily trapped. At that moment, Hex moved towards the peak of the tower, and ran Albedo through it.

The stone making up the tower was destroyed as Albedo’s face passed through it.

As a Transcendent Titan, this did not cause him much damage, but it did the job of hurting him well enough.

Albedo raised his arm and manifested darkness from his heart, then he shaped it into a knife and drove it into Hex’s abdomen while he was getting run through the tower.

Though the great beast did not seem to be affected that much.

The old sorcerer stopped in the sky, holding Albedo by the neck.

"You have not changed at all, Albedo. In the end, you are exactly like Ben Tennyson, no matter how much you deny it. You are arrogant, egotistical and foolish. Did you really think you could defeat me, when you can’t even wield your will properly?"

Albedo took a deep breath and tried to stab Hex again, but the sorcerer stopped the blade inches from his skin using will.

"N-no, not really. But hey, it was a good distraction."

As he said those words, an arrow found its way to Hex’s head, causing the sorcerer to groan in pain and drop Albedo.

Albedo quickly manifested wings of true darkness and floated down, as he did, he shot spears of true darkness at Hex, attempting to pierce his body once again.

He felt the pain that the arrow had caused him, which meant that he was not invincible.

’His will is animating his body... But it’s also covering most of his body.’

That meant that Hex could not keep all of his body safe at all times... But it made Albedo wonder about something.

How was he not getting affected by their attacks? Was it through some sorcery, a hex, or a power he had gained from the path of profanity?

His will should not be enough to negate the damage done to his body.

Hex pulled off the arrow, and unleashed several more crimson chains, covering his body with them and using them like tendrils to stop the projectiles.

On the ground, Lightslayer dismissed her bow memory and flapped her wings, rising to the sky to battle with the great beast once again.

She had not received any fatal wounds yet, so her defeat was not yet near.

Hex, seeing this, used his will to transform one of his chains into a blade and descended to meet the demoness in martial combat.

The two of them clashed in the sky, exchanging terrible slashes and cuts.

Revel’s Transcendent battle art was built on the principle of overpowering her opponent and oppressing them, similar to the nature of true darkness.

Her tachi struck dozens of times in a single moment, leaving Hex no chance to gain any ground. Not that there was one anyway.

Her battle art was split into three distinct styles, each made for a specific situation.

The ground style, which was one she used when she was on the ground, in her human form. This one was built on the principle of what her mother had taught her a long time ago. Confrontation meant defeat and so, it relied on delivering fatal blows and using stealth to her advantage instead of fighting head-on.

Her darkness style, which she used when her enemies were trapped in the flood of elemental darkness that she summoned. This style had failed against this beast, so she had used her final and most agile style.

Her Aerial style, which was the one she used while flying in her Transcendent form. This one focused on using her spatial ability to move around quickly and deal fatal blows to the enemy, which was exactly what she was doing right now.

Each cut she made on Hex’s skin inflicted paralysis and poison on him, weakening his body; however, the great beast was capable of animating his body forcefully using his will.

It was how he had stitched his broken body together, as well.

’His physical body is just like mother’s... Dead...’

It was disturbing how close her mother was to a great beast, but Revel chose not to think about it in the moment.

’Could it be that he’s controlling the body from somewhere else... No, that can’t be the case.’

It could be that he was transferring most of the damage done to him to somewhere else instead of controlling this body from somewhere else.

’No matter... Even if he only takes a small amount of damage each time, it should wear him out after a while.’

Her tachi clashed with the chain blade once again, and at the same time she and Hex flew through the sky like missiles, leaving sonic booms in their wake.

From the perspective of a mundane, they would’ve been moving too fast for the eye to see, in fact even Awakened and Masters would not be able to react to them.

Revel was a powerful Transcendent; however, she was still not as strong as a fully sentient great beast, especially not when she was outside of her darkness.

Hex’s will pressed down on her body, turning the world itself against her. Every cut she made became shallow no matter how skillful it was, and every swing he made was infinitely more effective.

Moreover, Hex’s dark abilities, which include dark incantations and curses, further weakened her body.

Eventually, she managed to break the chain blade, but just then, a punch to the face sent the dark dancer flying through the citadel and causing her to slam into the great walls.

Hex looked down and searched for Albedo, but before he could, a spear of elemental darkness pierced Hex’s skin.

Then another, and another...

In mere moments, Hex’s body was torn apart by the spears.

The dark sorcerer gritted his teeth in anger and then, dark crimson energy exploded from his body and the spears were all disintegrated, as if they were mundane weapons.

At the same time, Albedo, who had been shooting the projectiles from the ground, was forced to bury his feet into the ground and increase his weight to not be launched backwards.

He also created a shield of darkness to protect himself from the attack.

The crimson aura Hex was unleashing was a fusion of his will and aspect ability, no doubt. It caused everything it hit to be consumed by curses and dark hexes, which made his shield of darkness decay and weaken in a few seconds.

Despite being assaulted by such a powerful attack, albedo couldn’t help but think about something.

’His will... how come it’s so oppressive yet so weak at the same time?’

His question was paradoxical by nature, but the same could be said for hex’s will. Compared to the will of other great and supreme beings, it was extremely limited, almost as if it was being suppressed.

But that was not the case. Ki song had not interfered in this battle and albedo could not feel her presence anywhere nearby.

After a few moments, hex’s attack finally stopped, giving albedo a chance to do something.

If the darkness of the stone saints had not worked, then it was about time he tried something else.

A brilliant red light engulfed the world, and suddenly Hex was pulled to the ground by an irresistible gravitational force.