Legacy of the Dark Sage

"Tsk!"

The man behind Nolan was forced to jump back as the black spikes appeared.

"Ngrgh—!"

However, the man did not give up the idea of pulling out one of Nolan's internal organs and grudgingly pulled, spilling the latter's blood and flesh.

The light from the moon above fell on the man as he jumped down the tree Nolan had been hiding, revealing his appearance.

He was tall and lanky wearing a short-sleeved black hooded coat. Runes glowed all over his exposed arms giving off a very sinister aura.

Gritting his teeth to endure the pain, Nolan willed the black spikes to shatter. The black particles instantly circled him turning into a formless shield.

He knew the man's attack was not over and this was all he could do at the moment. He might be an essence, but his body was made from his original self and had the same composition as the real one. It goes without saying that, unlike his thoughts, the pain he felt would also be transmitted to his original self in real-time.

'Ergh… he f*cking took out a chunk of my heart.'

Knowing all this, Nolan resolved not to stay and racked his brains for a way to escape. He could not afford to suffer in the hands of this man or his original self would also suffer. As for his initial plan to infiltrate the camp and find out what they knew about the Conclave, he would have to think of another way.

If only his cloak was not a cheap trick to look like the original one, he would not have been this critically wounded. Even if others sneaked up on him, the cloak would have activated to protect him.

As Nolan expected, the man was indeed not done with his attack. The same moment that Nolan had shattered the black spikes and turned to a formless shield, black and red mist had burst out from the man's palms.

These mists turned converged and formed into six 30 meter sized strange-looking beasts, with the bodies of a tiger and eagle heads. Three had black colored bodies, while the other three had red. Multi-colored feathered wings also sprang out from their backs.

All six beasts cried shrilly as they flew and charged toward Nolan. Their eyes glowered with killing intent.

'Tsk,' Nolan gritted his teeth as he watched the strange-looking beasts charging at him.

Others might not be familiar with these beasts. Most likely they only knew a somewhat similar mythical beast that had the body of a horse, with head and wings of an eagle, the Gryffs.

However, Nolan knew these beasts, and they were called Gryphon. There was another kind with the body of a lion, instead of a tiger and they were called Griffins. Both kinds were a much inferior line of Gryffs but that did not make them less violent.  As a matter of fact, Gryffs were easier to deal with because they would only attack when threatened. Unlike the Griffins and Gryphons who would attack all outsider.

These beasts might only be created by the man's strange magic, but Nolan sensed their killing intent were very similar to the real ones. And if those beasts managed to land a hit, he would definitely be doomed.

Nolan took out a high-grade healing pill from his coat pocket and swallowed it down in an instant.

Without waiting for the beasts to arrive, he spread out his arms and summoned several black orbs.

The orbs burst out of the formless shield and turned into black short swords. These swords then whistled in the air to intercept the incoming beasts.

With a shrill cry, some of the gryphons flapped their wings and summoned a fierce wind to blow the swords away, while the rest summoned concentrated energy balls from their mouth and attacked.

The man's eyes narrowed as he watched the black short swords evaded his summons' attacks and relentlessly attacked them. His eyes glowed red from under the hood as he raised his right hand and pointed at the formless black shield.

Whoosh!

A black beam of energy shot out from the man's finger and went straight at the formless shield.

Before the beam of energy arrived near the formless shield, the shield churned and reformed into a solid pentagon-shaped black wall to block off the incoming beam.

However, the black wall seemed incapable of blocking the beam as it shattered so easily like thin glass.

BOOM!

A ten-meter wide explosion erupted that shook the whole forest.

All of the people at the nearby camp heard the noise and went on alert in an instant. They activated the camp's defensive shield and organized a group of High Masters to investigate.

Back on the explosion's site, a mixture of dust and smoke filled the air, instantly dropping the surrounding's visibility.

The man glowered at the spot where the formless shield that turned into a solid one had been.

That spot had a huge tree earlier, but now it had been reduced to nothing. A small crater also formed on the ground from the explosion.

However, even from all these destruction, there was no sign of a person getting blasted by the energy beam anywhere.

The man looked at his summons, which had just finished destroying some black short swords.

He looked at how these short swords were blasted and turned into black particles before dispersing into the air.

Suddenly, the man's eyes widened as he turned to look at the location where the some of these short swords had been blown away.

There were no short swords seen there. Not even a trace of these swords stabbing a tree or the ground.

A smile tugged at the corner of the man's lips as he muttered, "Well, that's quite clever. I wonder who that peeping-tom is?"

It appeared, his prey had managed to escape without him even noticing. And the trick he used were the short blades.

"He actually turned himself into one of those short blades. Most likely, when my beasts summoned the winds, he turned into one of the short blades that had been blown away. Nice. Very clever," the man guessed and chuckled in delight.

He waved his hand and his summoned beasts turned into black and red mists that flew back at his palms. As he closed his palms, he sneered and looked up at the brightly-lit moon.

"Humans are really interesting!" He exclaimed and laughed.

If Kyran had been here, he would have recognized the man's laughter.

Because that man was none other than another essence of the Sovereign of Ruin.

While the Sovereign of Ruin's essence were basking in his own delight of discovering another interesting human, Nolan had reappeared quite a distance away.

As the Sovereign of Ruin had guessed, Nolan did turn into one of the short blades.

After getting blown away, he masked his presence and before he turned into black particles, he had crushed a teleportation token to escape.

When he reappeared a few kilometers away, Nolan had crushed another token, and another until the feeling of danger had left him.

Leaning on one of the trees, Nolan touched his chest where the man's hand had pierced a while ago. The wound had now closed, but he could sense that the chunk of his heart had not fully reformed yet.

"That f*cking bastard. Who the f*ck is he?" He wondered.

He scowled as he realized that his revenge list had once again gain another name.

Err… not exactly a name cause he did not know the f*cking bastard's name, but for now he would name him f*cking bastard no. 4.

The truth, the people on his revenge list were mostly not from the human plane. The only one from here was Gael, and to be honest, his name had only been added because he could not kill the f*cking d*ckhead when they fought. He also had to hold back, or else who knew what kind of catastrophe it would envoke?

Kyran had been out of commision back then and even if he was not, he was not ready to face the result from Nolan and Gael's clash.

Pushing all irrelevant thoughts at the back of his mind, Nolan recalled everything about the man.

'That guy can summon beasts not native to the human plane. He's definitely not from here. He also said, 'also an essence.' This can mean two things, either he knew someone whose an essence, or he is also an essence. So far, apart from those who had entered the Tower of Tribulation, no one else knows about human essence creation.'

Thinking of this, Nolan's expression turned grim.

Someone turning evil after failing the Tower of Tribulation was not impossible.

If the man before had been there and became an evil mage, then that would explain a lot of things. If not, then it meant, the Human plane had once again been breached.

While the former was a possibility, Nolan knew the latter was the correct answer.

After all, the things his original self discovered at the Regis Estate Outer Walls was proof of that breach.

'These people are really with the Royal Family,' Nolan thought, his eyes narrowing. 'I have to let my original self know about this. If my guess is right, all those people in the camps are not from the Royal Army, nor are they the Royal Family's force. All of them came from that breach.

'I did not expect the Royal Family has already gathered this many people.'

He recalled the conversation his original self had with the Tower's warden. About the approaching 'real tribulation.'

It seemed, the real tribulation had already started in the Human plane.