Mystical Journey

Garen did not seem surprised.

Once the City Troll had appeared, the appearance of other mythical creatures was no longer a surprise. However, the fact that the mythical creatures that once appeared in the Secret Technique world were apparently appearing in the Totem world now, was the thing that he felt was truly strange.

He looked at the black horse carriage in front of him. Suddenly, the name of the creature floated up clearly in Garen’s mind.

"Underworld Carriage."

He squinted both of his eyes.

"According to the Grindor myths, this horse carriage is able to take living people into the land of the dead. It is also extremely fierce, and eats two meat meals and the souls of fifteen sinners every day."

He began to walk circles around the Underworld Carriage slowly.

The black horse turned around in the same direction as him, while it’s large horse eyes became more and more bloodshot.

Tch!

Two gusts of white air shot out of its nostrils again.

Mars!!

A scream that sounded almost like a human’s cry came out of the black horse’s mouth. The loud noise shook up the surroundings and made a whooshing noise as a large amount of dust and rubble fell off the ceiling, as if it was a layer of dusty rain.

The Underworld Carriage charged forward suddenly as both of its hooves dragged the carriage wheels furiously towards Garen. A cloud of thick yellow fog escaped from the body of the horse carriage and appeared at Garen’s side suddenly, as if it was alive, and covered him wholly.

The speed of the black horse increased rapidly until it quickly seemed like a black line that was charging towards Garen furiously.

Garen’s eyes widened. He was completely unable to react in time, and could only feel a powerful force crashing into his body at full force.

He felt as if his arms and legs were completely bound by a strange force, causing his reflexes to become unusually slow. Meanwhile, his opponent’s speed became frighteningly stron in the blink of an eye.

Bang!!!

The black horse carriage crashed against the front of Garen’s body violently.

The black horse and the man crashed into each other and flew outside backwards. They floated in the air for a while, before crashing into the library wall behind them with a ‘bang’.

The wall lit up and a layer of transparent ripples appeared suddenly, blocking the man and the horse completely. It was different from a normal window, as the wall seemed to be covered with a layer of an unknown defensive force field that did not allow any attacks that would harm the main body of the library building.

Garen and the black horse crashed into the wall together, shaking up a large pile of dust and gravel. It seemed as if they had crashed into an ashen sea, as the dust and sand resembled a splash of water that gushed out through the wall and splattered everywhere, as if it was pouring down on them like rain.

At once, loud crashing noises began to echo throughout the library continuously.

Mars!!

The Underworld Carriage screamed again, before it passed through Garen completely, merging into the wall, as if it had changed from a solid object into a virtual object immediately, instantly transforming into an invisible state, before gradually disappearing.

Garen was stuck in the middle of the deep pit in the wall with his arms and legs spread open, shaking his head, before he broke away and released himself, bringing down a pile of rubble with him.

The sound of falling grains of sand could be heard, as well as the noise of Garen spitting out the dirt and sand from his mouth. The ground below his feet was illuminated with a glossy black gleam, before his entire body fell from midair suddenly.

"Sure enough... it’s pretty strange." With a ‘plop’, Garen landed on the floor steadily. Transparent defense ripples were constantly permeating off Garen’s entire body. It came from the Salamander’s giant mouth that was used to resist the attack earlier.

"But its strength was nothing special," he commented indifferently.

At this moment, the silver-faced man was hiding behind the large silver sphere. He saw that Garen had gotten hit, but still managed to nonchalantly comment on how the black horse carriage’s strength was no big deal, causing his heart to feel completely aghast.

When he was hit earlier, he suffered serious injuries immediately. The Totem Light surrounding his body had just healed slightly, before it was completely scrapped. Meanwhile, his Core Totem suffered even worse damages, while his Silver Totems suffered heavy injuries for the second time consecutively.

However, the force inflicted upon Garen during the hit was even stronger than what he suffered, as the black horse had only struck him once, while Garen suffered a hit that caused him to be stuck in the wall, but apparently was not making the slightest fuss about it.

Shh!!

The Underworld Carriage passed through the wall in front of Garen again, as if it was emerging out of water. From its unreal, translucent state, it solidified immediately, and transformed into a physical object. It seemed like it knew that the opponent in front of it was no longer easy to defeat. Thus, it began to cautiously turn circles around Garen.

The wheels of the black horse carriage made noises as they rolled on the ground, which then melded with the crisp horse hoof trotting noises, sounding unusually clear.

Once again, the carriage of the Underworld Carriage begin emitting a large amount of yellow fog again. The yellow fog floated less than a meter’s distance away from the carriage, before appearing at Garen’s side in the blink of an eye.

It seemed to have a life force of its own when it covered the Totem Light on Garen’s body completely.

"It’s here again!!" Garen knew clearly now. "This kind of smoke seems to be extracting my speed and giving it to the Underworld Carriage." He could clearly feel the changes on his body now, and noticed that his four limbs had become heavier, while his reactions had become much slower.

Meanwhile, the movements of the black horse on the opposite side of him were now more agile, and much faster.

"So it’s like this! It extracts its opponents speed and adds it to its own body. No wonder its speed was much faster compared to how it was before. Apparently, all of this was the state of my own speed," Garen pondered seriously.

This was extremely tricky. Garen knew his own speed clearly. At his current 6 point agility, most speed-type Totems could not even match his speed. However, his speed had been extracted by the Underworld Carriage, one increased while the other decreased, causing the speeds of both parties to undergo extreme changes suddenly.

"According to the myths, the Underworld Carriage was smashed alive by the herculean Boerger. As Boerger had received the chaos Warhammer from the Earth Mother, he became immensely powerful, but suffered slow movements in return. This made it impossible for the Underworld Carriage to sap his speed, as he was already slow enough. It made no difference whether his speed was extracted or not," thought Garen as he remembered the story of the myth. "Its unknown whether this story is a myth or not, and the supposed Boerger is historically just a deified human being that loved to boast about his own legendary feats, and whether or not this encounter truly happened, was something that we do not know yet," thought Garen deeply as a train of thought flashed through his mind. However, he still could not think of a way to face the Underworld Carriage.

"The dumbest method would be to wait until the moment before he charges at me, before I fight back harder." Garen became more vigilant, and stared at the Underworld Carriage in front of him. "Who knows, maybe after I’ve understood this thing better, I could even ride it into the mythical underworld and look around. This is the mystical carriage that can take living beings into the underworld after all."

Regarding the underworld in the Grindor myths, Garen had been longing for it for a long time.

Mars!!!

Finally, the Underworld Carriage could not take it anymore, so it bent its head downwards, and charged violently towards Garen. Its body was surrounded by yellow fog, and its speed was frighteningly fast.

Inside the hall, the only thing that could be seen was the horse carriage charging rapidly until it just looked like a yellow line that was crashing into Garen who was still standing in the same spot. The black and yellow creature let out a fearsome crashing noise and a large cloud of yellow fog spread out towards all four corners.

Crash!!!

Hiss!!

Garen sunk both of his feet deep into the ground, drawing two long black scratches on the floor, as his back crashed into the wall once again.

The horse’s head that was extremely close to him was now pressed against his arms, and he could clearly see the black mane behind the horse’s head that seemed like waves that were constantly moving. Its smooth satiny skin was unusually glossy, and its strong muscular profile moved along with its large tendons.

"Now!"

Garen’s forehead was suddenly lit up with three red dots, before a large red Eight Headed Dragon floated out behind him slowly.

Roar!!!!

The eight heads of the Eight Headed Dragon turned towards the sky and roared loudly in unison.

Terrifying sound waves began to quake. After a ‘bang’, the air seemed as if it had exploded, as shrouds of white gas began to spread out in all four directions. The interior of the entire library was filled with the continuous echoes of countless humming noises.

The large silver sphere rolled unto the floor because of the vibrations caused by the loud roars, and was almost smashed by the silver-faced man.

Most of the engraved stone patterns on the wall also loosened, causing broken pieces to fall off.

Initially, the silver-faced man’s Totem Light had already become extremely weak, but now it had been shaken up badly, making it hard for him to draw breaths, as his chest was pressed down and in an extremely uncomfortable manner, making him want to vomit even though he could not.

He dared not waste any more time, so he followed the corners of the wall and limped out of the library hall, before falling in front of the main doorway. Both of his eyes were seeing stars, and he was in a numb, blurry state, unable to see anything.

The strange thing was that the moment he exited the library, the noises behind him became much softer suddenly.

A few seconds later, and with much difficulty, the silver-faced man finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing his own humiliated state, a little while later, he began to cry, before hitting himself in the thigh angrily.

"Did it have to be a deviant...."

Feeling that his tears were about to spill out, he buried his head angrily in his sleeve.

I’m an Elemental General, and I cannot cry! I cannot cry!!

He wiped his tears away angrily.

"To think I would encounter such a deviant! I can’t take it anymore!! Whoever truly loves him can take my place!!" He leapt up immediately and tore the badge off his chest furiously, before turning around to walk away.

Roar!!

Suddenly, the sound of a roar echoed from behind him.

The silver-faced man froze at once, as he remembered his current situation, and realized that he was no longer a free man, because he had become Garen’s prisoner.

"For a civilian to be able to kill another civilian, that was the only thing that allowed me to turn from a criminal to a general!" He mumbled softly to himself, before he placed his backside on the floor of the main doorway, as his hands rummaged inside his pockets and took out a smashed grey cigarette that he struck against the floor. The cigarette lit up immediately, and he took a delicious puff.

"Almost 23 deviants, two left in Obscuro, and three with the Royal Alliance of Luminarists." He arched his head upwards and looked at the bright sunlight in the sky. "The whole world is a deviant, and in this deviant world, normal people like me should always just remain as civilians and call it a day."

After spewing out a string of curses, his mood seemed as if it had lightened significantly. Hence, he just sat here and waited for the outcome of the incident that was happening in the library right now.

It was not as if he had never thought of escaping. On the contrary, he knew that no matter where he ran, his opponent would be able to find him at any moment. This infinite loop of ‘yesterdays’ was already becoming too much for him, and he was tired. After all, he was not a professional combat member.

****************

Both of Garen’s eyes gleamed with a dim red light, as he glared at the Underworld Carriage on the opposite side of him coldly.

The incomparably loud dragon roars apparently had no effect on its opponent, as the Underworld Carriage had merely moved a short distance backwards, while of the surrounding sound waves had been completely blocked off by the yellow fog around its body.

Garen detected the Eight Headed Dragon. Its eight heads were taking turns to fight, and for the Eight Headed Dragon with terrifying regenerative powers, this was no big deal at all.

The man and the horse stood beside the large silver sphere together, as the situation seemed as if it had come to a standstill.

Garen was also out of moves, and did not know how to face his opponent.

His speed had been extracted, and he was a moment away from being sapped completely of it to the point where he would not be able to fight at all. The Eight Headed Dragon’s attacks were also completely ineffective towards it, including using its dragon’s mouth to bite it directly, as it was completely blocked off by the yellow fog.

Meanwhile, the Underworld Carriage struck Garen relentlessly from the wall, the floor, and the ceiling. It charged towards him from various strange angles, hitting it continuously, but ineffectively.