Abe the Wizard

The world stone fragments inside Mephistopheles’s eyes started to flash very brightly before they finally extinguished. It became this beast that looked like it just woke up from hibernation. It let out a terrifying shriek towards the sky. Its eyes became red, and its body dashed forward with “lightning” spells generated in both of its hands.

Abel’s power of the Will continued to be fixated on Mephistopheles. In his detection, Mephistopheles was the very same as a beast with no intelligence. He decided to retaliate in a befitting manner. “Bone cage.” As the spell runes flashed across his hands, a pile of bone walls appeared right next to Mephistopheles, trapping it in the center. It became much easier to get this right now that the world stone fragments disappeared.

While Mephistopheles struggled to release itself by hitting the cages frantically, Abel generated an “aging” curse spell rune in his left hand. A “blizzard” was generated in his right hand. The curse was cast on top of Mephistopheles’s head. It could move at a very rapid pace, but it was not going to get out of the curse’s range when it was inside the cage. It managed to get out of the cage with just three hits, but the white light of curse was already on its head, making it move a lot slower.

As it fell from the sky, Mephistopheles let out a terrible, terrible cry as it was continuously attacked by the falling snowflakes. Having lost the world stone fragments’ support, it had no choice but to rely on its own instincts. Abel, on the other hand, was rational the whole time. He continued to place the “bone cage” spell, simultaneously unleashing his aggressive spells one by one. He even had the chance to practice switching into different types of spells, now that his enemy just became this giant target that he was going to hit no matter what.

Of course, it wasn’t like he was going to be less careful. He had been keeping a safe distance, enough so that he could attack Mephistopheles without having to worry about being attacked. The summoned creatures couldn’t help in this situation, though. None of them possessed the capability to attack with such long-range as he could.

A lot of mana was spent to keep up with this. It reminded him of the time he was about to leave the Holy Continent. He made himself an “observation” giant long rune ax. The rank seventeen “meditation” spiritual qi halo was just enough to get him to recharge his mana. Using his power of the Will, he called for the spiritual guardian knight caption to come to his side. He threw the “observation” giant long ax for it to catch. White fog started to rise from his feet. His mana started increasing very rapidly. It was spiking up even though he was not stopping to cast his advanced level spell at any given point. This kept going until his mana capacity reached the max. From then on, every time he cast another spell, the amount expended would always recover in just one or two seconds.

But there was just no end to Mephistopheles’s insanity, so it seemed. Its body continued to attack the bone cage around it. Its hands started shooting spells in random directions in a random manner. It was not giving up, even though it had already entered into a state of complete lack of control over its own self. The world stone fragments were really crucial in strengthening its overall combat ability, so it seemed.

Slowly, Mephistopheles began to move a lot slower. The hell demon’s body did not feel any fatigue, but just being attacked endlessly by spells got countless wounds on its body.

“Ow!”

It suddenly stopped moving after letting out a long shout. The world stone fragments inside its eyes suddenly flew right towards the spot between Abel’s eyes. It was like these pieces that ran out of energy were looking for their new owner, and they merged into Abel’s psyche almost flawlessly. Abel could feel a divine presence as the fragments went inside him. He felt a strange connection to the land he was standing on. He felt like he had a better understanding of this world in general. In this very movement, he just became the owner of this area.

That was when a second change happened to Mephistopheles. Large numbers of grey souls started flying out of its body. In an instance, many, many grey souls started emerging in this underground space. They seemed to have been liberated from their millennium of imprisonment, given how they were dancing so joyfully in midair. They didn’t seem to forget Abel. They started flying around him.

Abel wasn’t going to better them. Anyone would want to dance a little after being trapped in the same miserable spot for so long. Nothing could feel worse than having to supply their own life force to the enemy they hated the most. Soon, they all stopped flying in midair and turned to Abel. They bowed towards him, bowed to the savior that just gave them a new doorway. The gratitude they displayed transpired their appearance from grey to pure white.

The light started flashing about. Abel could see visions of old people, middle-aged people, children, boys, girls, warriors, farmers, royals, merchants, and many others alike. They were all so pure with the smiles they had on their faces. He began to appreciate the purity that was displayed. It was very relieving for him. Soon, as this light of life started to dim down, he began hearing a song that he was very familiar with—the song of life.

“May your souls find rest,” he bowed to the shadows that were vanishing. The shadows started disappearing, which made the room look different. The pool of blood became a pool that was clear and translucent. It’s like these diminished souls just cleansed the whole room. The sacred patterns on the floor and wall started returning to their former glory. The blood and filth all disappeared.

Abel looked towards Mephistopheles’s corpse. He saw that it was wearing this dark-golden necklace. After grabbing it over with his “telekinesis” spell, he started examining the labels with his world stone fragment.

Mara’s kaleidoscope

+2 to all ability

+5 transforming to all element

All resistance +30

“A divine item? Great!” he called out in amazement. This necklace might be the best in the entire dark world. He quickly started wearing it, which made all his traits and spells increase. It wasn’t just the wizard spells. His priest, druid, and the only barbarian technique, “Battlecry,” were also elevated by two ranks. The increase in his resistance to attacks just made his future exploration a lot safer. He was already in another league now, now that he had a 30 increase in resistance.

Before he went on, he took another look at Mephistopheles’s corpse. Since he’s lost his spiritual guardian knight, he needed to cast a “resurrection skeleton” to make up for the loss. That’s when Mephistopheles’s corpse started wiggling. With a loud boom, its body exploded, and a skeleton in mist walked right out.

“Another mutate skeleton!”

Perhaps that’s just how things worked. Mutate skeletons could only be summoned out of the corpse of top-level hell leaders.

He smiled after thinking for a bit, “Guess I’ll call you Laomo now.”

The skeleton called “Laomo” started waking about, not even carrying a weapon in its hands. A lot of different spells can be seen in its soul fire: “Lightning, “Charged bolts, “Poisonous newborn star, “Skeleton shot, “Frost newborn star,” and “Blizzard.” It’s kind of weird seeing all these packed up in the same spot. The spell runes should be overfilled, but they just stayed inside Laomo’s soul flame.

As for the mist that was appearing around it, it was basically the same as the “meditation” spiritual qi created by his “observation” rune. The qi seemed to work only on Laomo itself, though.

By the way, it was really strange like a physical attack-type skeleton could possess so many aggressive spells. That served as inspiration, however. If all these spell runes can be packed together into one soul, perhaps it was possible that he could try the same on his nine “spiritual guardian wizards.” Of course, future research would have to wait at another time. Right now, his priority was to keep settling businesses here.

While Abel was heading to the space that he hadn’t explored over behind Mephistopheles, he realized that there was a gemstone glowing amidst the shattered pieces of flesh that were lying on the ground. He grabbed it with his “telekinesis” spell, and the gemstone appeared in his hand under white light.

“Mephistopheles’s soul stone.” That’s the name he gave to this gemstone. This was the stone that was supposed to keep Mephistopheles trapped in this. Well, that’s what would’ve happened if Mephistopheles hadn’t, took control of it, and killed the leaders of Sakarum Church. Abel could feel the infinite souls that were wailing as they were trapped inside. It’s almost like the stone itself was a miniature version of hell.

He placed the stone on the ground, reached out for his “steel” sword, and began clashing onto it.

Clang.

The sword bounced back without doing any damage to the “Mephistopheles’s soul stone.” He started trying all sorts of other methods. He even used his Horadric Malus, but he couldn’t free the souls that were trapped inside.

“I’ll have to find the inferno furnace for this,” he said to himself. That’s what his memory of his previous life was telling him. The inferno furnace was the only thing that could break this stone. Having made up his mind, he put the stone into his Valaya’s ring and began searching for the inferno furnace. He wasn’t sure how long it would take to find it.

Before actually moving on, he did another scan of Mephistopheles to see that he wasn’t missing anything. After that, he went into the deeper part of the platform. He immediately fought the few kings of darkness who, without knowing that their leader was already killed, immediately threw “meteor” spells towards him. Not that it was going to work, of course. Very quickly, the “spiritual guardian knights” and the “spiritual guardian wizards” overwhelmed these kings of darkness. The number was just too much to handle.

Abel didn’t care for a fight that he knew he was going to win. His goal was the treasure chest that was up ahead. He went forward, meanwhile activating his “telekinesis” spell once more. He reached for the treasure chest that was showing the time inside. He could do it with his hands, but he was smarter than to expose himself to a potential trap.

Again, he was very lucky to find himself another ring. He became very, very pleased to see this. It was very difficult to find a dark golden ring. His “telekinesis” activated to put the ring on his finger. The world stone fragment quickly gave out this ring’s name.

Wind of Rotten Flesh

A 10% changer to cast a 10 poisonous newborn star once hit

8% chance to cast a 13 small tornado upon hitting an opponent

9% life steal upon being hit

+160 defense against long-distanced attack

Poison resistance +55%

Transforming 10% of life being lost into mana

Rank 21 poisonous ivy (15/15 qi gathering)

Abel couldn’t really tell if this ring was really good or not. Whatever the case was, it was definitely much better than the Bahamut apprentice’s ring he was currently wearing, given how there were just so many odd features and skills in it.