Chapter 301: Mask Collector
Chapter 301: Mask Collector
Leaving the dark basement behind, Adam and Alastor appeared on the rocky cliffs of crimson
ocean.
The crimson ocean was rageful as ever. Some of its waves were over ten meters tall, just crashing into the cliff with never-ending rage.
They left the memory land behind, as they had already seen enough of life during the Old World days.
"Take a seat by the cliff." Alastor said.
Adam sat down and stared out at the crashing waves below.
"Take out the spell scrolls you want to learn."
Adam took out the three legendary spell scrolls, and they suddenly flew out of his hand and started circling him like the crows around a dead body.
Alastor put his hands on Adam's shoulders and said. "This will hurt, but it will make you strong. We call this the Rebirth Ritual."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
"Rebirth Ritual?"
"Yes, it's a sacred ceremony that happens in the heavenly kingdom when a man or woman reaches adulthood.
"It is a ritual to shed your mortal shell and emerge as a new being.
"This is honestly the first time I've done this to a mortal before. While we do this usually to gods and demi-gods to shed their "mortal" selves, it's rare to do it to a human."
"Will I survive at least?" Adam asked.
"Hmm," Alastor thought about his answer.
That didn't give Adam the confidence he desperately needed.
"Are you serious?" Adam asked with a twitching eyebrow. "You know that if I die, you die, right? You should take this more seriously!"
"Relax; I think you will survive." Alastor said and shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe."
"W-wait!" Adam shouted. "Since this is dreamland, can you create anything here?"
"Yes."
"Then create plenty of Flasks of the Setting Sun and Rising Moon, please."
"Mortal healing instruments." Alastor shook his head. "I'll give you something stronger." With a snap of his fingers, in front of Adam, thousands of flasks appeared all around the cliff.
Those flasks had a strange kind of liquid. It looked transparent like water, but it was sparkling like diamonds.
"What is that?"
"Ambrosia!" Alastor said. "A drink of the gods. It has great healing capabilities, so drink it when you feel like you're about to die, okay?"
"Alright..." Adam took a deep breath and then said. "You may begin."
Within Alastor's hands, a powerful surge of energy flowed and pierced Adam's flesh around his shoulders.
Instantly, Adam's skin started peeling off like paint, revealing the bloody muscles and tendons underneath.
"What the fuck?!" Adam gritted his teeth. "ARGH!"
The skin peeled off his arms, then his chest, and finally his legs. The peeling ended with his face, showing the bloody skull underneath.
With his peeled, bloody hand, he grabbed one of the Ambrosia drinks and gulped it greedily down.
The skin returned immediately, and his health returned to him.
"Huff, huff!" Adam panted heavily. "The hell?!"
"Not bad," Alastor said. "Still gotta do that about a thousand times."
"W-wait, what?" Adam turned to him with wide eyes. "A-another thousand times?"
"Yeah, no worries, I will be quick with it." Alastor smirked almost sadistically. "We don't have all day, so I'll pick up the speed. Keep drinking Ambrosia; I don't want you to die, okay-" Within that second, all of Adam's flesh peeled off, and the blood spewed out like a fountain.
However, after drinking another Ambrosia drink, the flesh returned, but Adam could still feel the pain. It was hideously unbearable.
"W-wait."
"Nope." Alastor smirked.
Again, the flesh peeled off, and after drinking another bottle of Ambrosia, the flesh returned like a never-ending cycle of agony and torment.
This time, Alastor didn't wait for Adam to speak another word as again his flesh peeled off in a disgusting matter. Another second later, the flesh returned.
That kept happening.
Over and over again.
Pain.
More pain.
And even more.
However, without noticing it, his spell scrolls started to hum a strange divine song. Their percentage count was also slowly increasing.
Slowly, yet surely, he was learning all three of the spell scrolls at the same time!
That wasn't all.
He was nearing the next level.
[Percent: 36%]
[37%...]
[38%...]
[39%...]
[40%...]
With unbelievable speed, Adam started to inch closer and closer to the rank of Royal Prince, a level of strength that he never reached in his past life!
...
"Ice Trident!"
Within Sepheron's hand, an ice-made trident appeared, and he pierced through three of the Crazed Angels.
However, the Crazed Angels started burning from inside out and melted the ice trident into a
puddle of water.
However, within Sepheron's right hand, the ice-fire emerged, and when he reeled his fist back, he punched forward and shouted a mighty cry.
"Prometheus Wrath!"
Within Sepheron's right fist, the ice-fire shot out like a powerful beam, striking the angels
with devastating force.
The Crazed Angels first got encased in solid ice, but when they were inside the solid ice, they began to melt and burn simultaneously.
At first, they tried to just melt through the solid ice, but before they managed to do it, they
got burned into an ash.
While they had abilities related to the fire, they were able to get hurt by a fire.
The rest of the Crazed Angels saw what happened, and slowly, but surely, they started to
evolve even further.
They started to overcome Sepheron's new ability!
At that moment, Oldman's music started to traverse across the air, and Crazed Angels who heard the music turned blank-eyed for a moment before they all exploded!
It was a powerful strike!
However, most of the Crazed Angels still survived through the attack, and they turned their gazes over to Oldman, and shockingly enough, they also started to evolve to overcome Oldman's abilities!
To overcome Oldman's abilities, they had to increase their intelligence to understand the trick behind Oldman's abilities, and thus they did; they became smarter!
As soon as they turned smarter, they realized that only those who heard Oldman's music got
hurt. Thus, the solution was extremely simple!
The ears of the Crazed Angels slowly disappeared, one by one.
They decided to get rid of their ears so they wouldn't hear Oldman's music!
'They figured it out, huh.' Oldman clad his banjo with his Red Kraft. 'The music is not all I
have!'
A distance away, Lionel moved around the Crazed Angels and kept cutting through them like butter. However, he soon noticed something strange.
Their bodies were turning harder! 'They're also evolving to counter me...' Lionel thought to himself.
Just like he expected, the Crazed Angels bodies were turning more durable so that Lionel's
sword wouldn't be able to cut through them!
However, Lionel suddenly cracked a smile, and from his inventory, he picked up a mask. It was
a mask of a scared rabbit.
Through his body, something changed.
"Mode: Rabbit!"
With his enhanced leg muscles, he lunged past the Crazed Angels with a speed that was vastly
beyond his human self.
With his sword, he stabbed into the heart of one of the Crazed Angels. While they had turned
more durable, Lionel used his enhanced leg muscles to increase his momentum to deliver this
deadly blow!
The Crazed Angel coughed out blood, and his flesh started burning, hoping to push away
Lionel using those flames.
However, at that moment, Lionel removed his scared rabbit mask and put another mask on.
This time it was a mask of a ferocious lion.
"Mode: Lion!" "Predator Bite!" Lionel's lion mask opened up, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
With a large bite, Lionel sank his teeth into the flames and extinguished them with a roar.
With that bite, he ate the Crazed Angels head cleanly off.
The Crazed Angel collapsed on the ground.
With bloodied teeth, Lionel removed his lion mask and put on another mask.
This time it was a mask of a shapeshifter!
"Mode: Shapeshifter!" With the shapeshifting mask, he licked off the blood of the Crazed Angel off his lips and then
started to slowly transform.
His flesh turned pale, as if he were painted snow white, and then, from his back, feathery
wings sprouted out, growing larger and more magnificent with each passing second. When he licked the Crazed Angel's blood, he gained the ability to transform into one!
That's why he used Lion's predator bite previously to kill the Crazed Angel and left behind the
blood on his lips so that when he used the shapeshifting mask, it was easy for him to
transform into one!
That wasn't all.
He wasn't only Crazed Angel right now.
He was the evolved version!
'So, that's why Lionel waited.' Oldman chuckled. 'He waited for the Crazed Angels to evolve
on all of us before using his shapeshifting.'
However, Lionel had a slightly different evolved version. Unlike the other Crazed Angels, he
still had his ears left.
It was because he didn't have to hide his ears because Oldman was on his side!
'He is a mask collector.' Sepheron thought to himself. 'There're ancient masks that can give
powers of specific animals. However, there are some incredibly rare masks-legendary masks —that can give powers of mythical creatures.
'Such as the Shapeshifter!'
"An interesting ability." Rawkshawn crossed his arms and just laughed.
While everyone was occupied by Lionel's strange abilities, Nerezza's eyes slightly twitched,
and then slowly, she opened her eyes to see the destruction around her.
'I was so deep in the meditation that I didn't pay attention to anything happening around me.
They're still fighting them...'
At that moment, she saw many shadows overlapping with hers. When she looked up, her eyes
widened into shock as she saw a group of Crazed Angels looking down at her with their creepy
grins.
"Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead..."