Read Novel Full Chapter 1931 Like a Marionette
Chapter 1931 Like a Marionette
Valerian suddenly felt the seal placed around the spirit sea vanish.
His heart skipped a beat, and he quickly got ready to act. He had been in the dark for almost a week now, not knowing what Adam was going through in the outside world.
From time to time, Adam's voice would echo inside the spirit sea, letting Valerian know that he was fine and also telling him about the plan.
The plan was simple enough.
Now, when Valerian heard his big brother's call, he quickly slipped out of the spirit sea.
The world around him spun, and in the blink of an eye, he had suddenly arrived in a dimly lit dungeon. The stench of blood, rusted iron, sweat, and feces hung heavily in the air.
Valerian shuddered beneath the oppressive aura of suffering that permeated the room.
Then his gaze landed on Adam, and he froze.
Adam's naked figure knelt on the ground. It had only been a little less than a week, yet his body had withered dramatically. He had lost a considerable amount of muscle. He looked… small.
There were a thousand cuts and scars on his body. A bloodstained cloth was tightly wrapped around his stomach. His cheeks had hollowed from everything he had endured. His lips were cracked and dry. His hair had grown dry and lifeless.
Yet, despite it all, his tenebrous eyes gleamed with a sharp light.
Pearls of tears trickled from Valerian's eyes.
"Brother?"
For a brief moment, he couldn't identify the broken man kneeling before him. But the familiar connection undoubtedly pointed to him.
Adam's lips curled into a gentle smile.
"Yo… long time… no see… little Val."
"Brother!" Valerian dove into Adam's embrace. He cried in anguish, and his heart ached seeing his big brother in such a state.
"Calm down…" Adam murmured weakly. "We don't… have… much time."
Valerian suppressed the rage, the sorrow, the anguish, and the helplessness in his heart. As he separated from Adam, his gaze subconsciously drifted to Adam's missing right hand.
His topaz eyes widened. "B-Brother, y-your hand!!"
He knew well what it meant for a Magus to lose their hand. And to suddenly see Adam missing his right hand made Valerian's heart sink in terror. It felt as though he himself had lost the ability to cast magic.
"Don't worry about it…" Adam whispered. He tried hard not to lose consciousness at the moment.
"Focus… little Val," he continued. "We must… leave…"
Valerian strangled the storm of emotions threatening to burst inside of him. He remembered the plan. His big brother's life depended on him.
The little fellow's bones cracked, and his muscles squirmed. A few moments later, he had transformed into a giant, armored panther. Then his shoulder blades twisted, and in the next heartbeat, a pair of wings unfurled from his back.
"Cast… illusion…" Adam said weakly.
Valerian silently did as told, even as his yellow burned red with anger and grief.
He gently scooped up Adam into his palm, then cast an illusion spell to conceal them both.
Without another word, he climbed the stairs.
***
It was a scene of utter carnage inside the sun temple.
Drawn by the Brand of Evil, monsters poured into the building from every direction. Most burst through the windows, while others smashed through the sealed doors. Some even dropped through the cracked dome overhead.
However, without a doubt, all of these monsters fell to their deaths when the stone angels unsheathed their blades and committed slaughter in the name of their god.
The Antlered High Priest didn't even need to join the fray. He stood before the statue of the sun god, hands joined together in a silent prayer, as the angels killed monsters who tried desperately to move toward one of the doors — the left one — behind the god's statue.
However, none succeeded. They all died to the stone blades of the winged angels.
The more the high priest saw the wretched monster try to get to the human pinned below ground, the more he came to believe that the human was indeed the sacrificial lamb destined to appease the sun god and bring about dawn in this cursed world.
As the human had said, this was a test.
A trial from the sun god.
Why else would so many monsters try to breach the temple? They had not done so in over a thousand years.
This was a sign!
This was the sign he was praying for!
"Ah… praise… the… sun!" the werewolf whispered with supreme reverence.
Suddenly, he sensed something.
His eyes narrowed, and he sharply turned around, his gaze locking onto the cracked dome.
At the same time, one of the stone angels, who had been cutting down monsters with her sword, suddenly slowed.
Her movements turned sluggish. Her arms and head jerked at unnatural angles. Her body shuddered for a brief moment, before falling completely still, like a… like a marionette whose strings had been cut!
In the next moment, the stone angel moved again. Erratically.
She raised her sword and…
SLASH!
Attacked the nearest stone angel.
Similar to her, another stone angel started moving in a mechanical manner and then began slaughtering her own brethren.
A terrifying presence descended inside the sun temple, causing the monsters to whimper in fear. Yet no one could see it. They could only sense this hostile presence.
But the Antlered High Priest saw everything through his glassy eyes. He bared his fangs and growled in a threatening manner.
"Puppeteer!"
There was no response.
And then, the two stone angels that had turned on their own kind abruptly shifted their attention toward the werewolf. In the next instant, they shot toward him and struck him with their stone blades.
But with a simple swipe of his claws, the high priest utterly decimated the two marionettes.
Then he glared at a particular section of the temple and let out a bestial roar.
"How… dare… you!!"
The Antlered High Priest shot forward and began fighting an invisible enemy.
The battlefield turned even more chaotic. Despite losing two of their members, the stone angels still continued to butcher the invading monsters.
Meanwhile, the Bridal Puppeteer and the Antlered High Priest fought ferociously, their battle claiming dozens of monsters caught in the crossfire.
Suddenly, both Rank 2 monsters froze.
So did every other monster inside the temple.
They all looked up and saw a bloodied, severed hand soaring through the air. Despite the mangled flesh and the gaping wound at the wrist, the Brand of Evil was unmistakable.
They could all feel it!
"Im… Impossible!" the high priest gasped.
The Bridal Puppeteer seized the opportunity. Its invisible form shot toward the severed hand, snatched it out of the air, and escaped through the massive fissure that split the dome.
A brief second of stunned silence followed.
Then every monster that had broken into the temple rushed back out through the windows and doors. Guided by the pull of the Brand, they chased after the invisible Bridal Puppeteer.
The Antlered High Priest let out a deranged scream and ordered the stone angels to pursue them.
Amid the chaos, no one noticed that Valerian had rescued Adam and escaped.