Chapter 754: Skeleton Again

[TL Note: This chapter is a 2-in-1 chapter and should be split into 4, but it is a bit shorter, so we split it into 3.]

Just like how [One Sword] was possessed by that golden skeleton, Buckingham was undergoing the same process. In addition, this red mist was very evil and was almost identical to the one that [One Sword] had. It looked like a devil from hell escaped and was roaring and unleashing its power inside Buckingham’s body.

Fei thought about it and punched out, sending a golden energy fist in Buckingham’s direction.

Boom! Boom!

The demonized Buckingham didn’t even try to dodge and let the golden energy fist land on his body.

However, this fist that was enough to crush a mountain didn’t do any damage to Buckingham. As if it struck a metal plate, a crisp, ringing noise sounded.

Buckingham was sent flying for hundreds of meters, but he quickly stopped his body. Even though a lot of his armor was shattered, it didn’t seem like he was harmed.

As red light flashed in his eyes, Buckingham roared liked an angry beast and dashed back toward Fei with a faster speed while the red mist trailed behind him.

Boom!

Demonized Buckingham punched out, and an indescribable energy was unleashed. The red demonic energy created many terrifying illusions such as bone dragons and skeletons, and ear-piercing, headache-inducing noises sounded as well. As if it were doomsday, all kinds of monsters surrounded Fei and enveloped him in the red mist.

Instantly, the entire blue sky turned red.

Even the thin, white fog that was on the ocean got dyed red, and it seemed like blood vapor was permeating the air.

The incident taking place in the sky instantly attracted the attention of the soldiers on both sides.

Leonians cheered and quickly tried to escape from this situation. On the other hand, Chambordians and Byzantinians looked at the cloud of blood mist in the sky in worry.

The blood mist now enveloped both Fei and Buckingham, and no one could tell what was happening inside there.

However, this terrifying and strange red mist continued to expand outward as if there were no limit to it, and it quickly filled the space between the sky and the ocean.

Even the two blond archers, Akinfeev and Torres, who were standing on [King Alexander] looked worried. As Moon-Class Elites, they were really sensitive to auras and energies compared to ordinary soldiers. Therefore, they could tell how evil and powerful that thick blood mist was in the sky.

Time passed by quickly.

The blood mist in the sky got thicker and thicker, and hoarse roars and shouts sounded.

Hiss! Roar!

The only thing that calmed the minds of the Chambordians and Byzantinians was that a series of crisp, metal-colliding noises sounded. It meant that the King of Chambord wasn’t in danger, and the two of them were still fighting each other fiercely in the bloody mist.

Soon, more than half an hour passed.

-On the sea surface-

The battleships of Leon already moved more than 500 meters away, and the formation was completely re-adjusted. All the arrays and mechanisms on the battleships were activated, and they were ready to raise sails and dash away. After a short moment of preparation, these ships could accelerate quickly. In fact, these ships contained the elite advancements of the magic civilization, and they could travel more than 10,000 kilometers a day with ease.

However, the battle in the sky made the Leonians who were ready to escape stay behind a little. They felt like their head commander had the upper hand, and they didn’t retreat as soon as they were ready.

Chambordians and Byzantinians stopped chasing as well.

Tens of thousands of soldiers in the area all looked up at the cloud of thick, red mist in the sky.

Right now, everyone knew that the key factor which would determine the outcome of the battle today lay in the combat of the two super powerful masters.

Time passed by quickly.

Just as people felt like their necks were so sore that they were about to break, a series of laughter sounded within the thick, red mist.

“Ahahaha! I finally figured it out! So, it is like that. Great! That is enough!” It was the King of Chambord’s voice.

As soon as he finished, dashes of golden lights pierced through that thick, red mist. Like burning flames, these golden lights instantly evaporated the red mist as soon as they met.

Hiss!

After a series of hissing noises, the red mist disappeared, revealing the blue-crystal-like sky.

This scene terrified the soldiers of Leon.

Knowing that they were close to doom, they all quickly initiated the magic cruising arrays on the battleships. As cyan and blue magic energy flames flashed, the battleships dashed forward like arrows that were shot out of strong bows. They reached a high speed within seconds, and they left many white trails behind them on the ocean.

The battleships of Leon all turned into dashes of light, quickly disappearing into the horizon.

At the same time, all the blood mist in the sky finally dissipated.

In the clear sky, the King of Chambord stood still as his long black hair fluttered like a waterfall. With a wild and invincible aura on him, he grabbed King Buckingham in his hand. This man already fainted, but he was struggling and fighting back subconsciously.

As he continued to move and struggle to get free, his handsome, white face already turned vicious and reddish-black. As if he were cast from black iron, he no longer looked human. It was hard to distinguish between his irises and eyes, and terrifying red lights dashed out as black blood leaked out of his mouth. His teeth also turned white and sharp, looking like knives.

The aura on him still told others that he was a Sun-Class Lord.

However, it didn’t matter how hard he struggled; that slender and white hand which clutched his neck had even more power. Even though it was only holding his neck lightly, all of Buckingham’s efforts went to waste. In the end, he didn’t have the energy to fight back anymore.

The characteristics of his demonized body got kept, and it seemed like something scary was inside his body, trying to escape. A bulge that was about the size of a fist continued to appear all over his body, but a dash of golden light would press it down every time it was about to break through Buckingham’s skin!

…

Fei grabbed King Buckingham, and he felt like he obtained some understanding through this battle.

After he looked down, he saw the fleet of Leon escaping rapidly. Out of close to 200 battleships, almost 100 of them already disappeared into the horizon, and it would be hard to chase and hunt them down.

Buckingham’s sacrifice wasn’t meaningless. In the end, he bought time for the navy of Leon to escape. If the soldiers and commanders of Leon didn’t act too optimistically and stuck around, all the battleships of Leon that survived the initial battle would have disappeared.

Fei dashed forward and appeared in front of the battleships of Leon that hadn’t gotten the chance to escape.

He pressed his hands down, and a thick beam of golden light shot out of his hands and struck the calm surface of the water. Sea waves that were more than ten meters tall appeared, and they instantly disrupted the formation of the rest of the battleships, of which there were about 60 to 70 of them. As the ships moved around violently, the soldiers on the deck fell and rolled around messily.

Fei punched out more than a dozen times, and the golden light turned the sea almost upside-down.

The battleships of Leon that didn’t get away were pushed around by the huge waves, and the Leonians on the ships were lost. Although the waves hadn’t flipped the ships yet, it was no longer the peaceful environment that the magic cruising arrays on the ships required to be activated. The speed of these ships instantly slowed down.

It would take about five to six minutes for the magic arrays to be re-activated again after everything calmed down; there wasn’t enough time for them to get away.

Facing a Sun-Class Lord, the fates of these damaged ships and anxious navy soldiers could be easily guessed.

…

Fei didn’t get involved in the rest of the battle.

With Moon-Class Elites like Torres and Akinfeev and other powerful masters like King Constantine of Byzantine and saint seiyas of Chambord, even though the Leonians still had the numbers advantage, they started to crack and fall apart without high morale. The battle continued from morning until noon, and the Leonians lost just as predicted.

Fei didn’t return to [King Alexander] nor the surface of the sea.

With King Buckingham of Leon in his hand, he flew more than 10,000 meters into the sky where the wind was too strong for ordinary masters to resist.

Then, he summoned [The Throne of Chaos]. Under his will, the bottom stair started to expand and grow until it became a platform that was about 40 square meters.

Fei took out the unique shackles made by the Mad Scientists’ Laboratory and put them on Buckingham’s wrists, ankles, waist, and neck, sealing his power.

Then, the king started to think about some questions.

Although the battle looked 50-50, Fei won it easily.

Even though demonized Buckingham reached the Sun-Class Realm, he was still far less powerful than Fei. The king was no longer that same Sun-Class Lord who couldn’t use his power efficiently. Right now, the king’s strength overpowered Buckingham’s, and he had more battle experience.

Although he was enveloped in that red mist at the beginning, Fei didn’t move and wasn’t affected. If he unleashed his full strength from the start, he would have won that battle in three strikes.

Fei had his reasons for dragging out this battle.

His instinct told him that this kind of terrifying demonization would happen more and more frequently on the Continent, and an evil yet powerful dark force was somehow pushing the changes. This force should be new and growing rapidly in stealth, and that was why the masters on the Continent hadn’t noticed it. However, this dark force already started to control and move some influential figures, trying to plan and execute something.

This was a serious warning.

Fei got in touch with this dark force very early, and he already sensed the amount of threat that it posed. Therefore, Fei wanted to get to know this force before it matured.

While battling Buckingham in the last half an hour, Fei had been observing and trying to understand this mythical yet evil energy. He was trying to figure out the origin of this force, its weakness, and how to identify masters who had demonic seeds in them but were not demonized yet.

Now, Fei already got some of the answers to his questions.

The king was sure that the demonic seed inside Buckingham’s body wasn’t that golden skeleton which possessed [One Sword] before. Although this demonic seed in Buckingham’s body and that golden skeleton had similar evil energy, they were a bit different in their cores.

“Hiss… Hiss…” Buckingham was completely turned into a beast. With red lights flashing in his eyes, he tried to struggle and fight back violently.

Without the suppression coming from Fei’s golden energy, that terrifying and powerful energy inside his body started to dash around. His muscles bulged one after another, and it seemed like a monster was about to pierce through the constraint of his skin and muscles and break free.

Tink! Tink! Tink!

In the next moment, a series of sparks appeared on Buckingham’s wrists and ankles where the special shackles were placed. Then, a series of ear-piercing noises sounded, and the shackles at these places broken.

After that, he grabbed onto the shackles on his neck and waist. With a light pull, the metal shackles that were empowered by magic runes were broken apart as if they were made from paper.

In the next moment, Buckingham roared and dashed toward Fei.

“Humph!” Fei snorted as he sat on [The Throne of Chaos], leaned against the back, and rested his chin on his right hand. He didn’t even move.

Suddenly, a mighty suction force appeared on the white tiles of the platform, pulling Buckingham back down onto the floor. Even though Buckingham dashed forward like a flash of lightning a second ago, his limbs were now sucked to the ground, and he couldn’t even raise his head. It seemed like he was in a painful state.

On this platform which was created by [The Throne of Chaos], Fei controlled everything within eight steps of him. He was invincible in this small space, and he could easily defeat his opponents in many ways.

“Monster, why don’t you show yourself?” Fei shouted majestically as golden flames dashed out of his eyes.

In the next moment, a series of demonic red lights appeared on Buckingham’s body, and his body turned translucent as if it lost its texture. Through that red light, Fei saw two sets of skeletons in his body.

One of them belonged to Buckingham as it was born with him.

However, the other one…

That skeleton was thick, and it wasn’t white but strangely red. Like a soft gel, it was wiggling slowly in between Buckingham’s bones and muscles. It looked terrifying as if it were a giant worm that swallowed Buckingham’s skeleton, and it was trying to merge into Buckingham’s natural skeleton slowly.

It was a terrifying scene.