Volume 3: The Land of Mist Chapter 22: Drifting
Hobbes did not notice what was happening on the deck of the giant battleship. He continued to pretend to be relaxed and said to William:
"Mr. Yin Shima, you should go and help speed up the ship... As long as you ignore them, they are just illusions."
When he said the second half of the sentence, he tried to lower his voice.
But William did not respond, but continued to stare at the phantom that was raising the sword towards him.
He couldn't ignore the other person.
It was true that Terra Riel was just an illusion from eight hundred years ago, but his current body on the Whalebone was also an illusion woven by [Mirror Image].
Therefore, the other party did see him, and just like the black dragon before, the other party could actually attack him.
But that was just one of the reasons William couldn't ignore him.
The more important reason is that even if the other party is just an illusion, William doesn't want to let him go at all.
It should be noted that William actually had no objection to the fact that Terra Riel claimed to be his reincarnation and used this identity to unify the entire Vic continent.
It is a very common practice for rulers to give their origins a mysterious hue, not to mention in a different world where real gods and magic exist, even in William's previous world.
In this regard, he cannot make too many demands on future generations.
But the problem is, after gaining the highest power, what kind of shitty things did the other party do?
Just the two terrible things of promulgating the Star Law and establishing the Eighth Holy Spirit Worship were enough for William to lock him up in a dark cell and burn him with soul fire for eternity.
And now, even if the other party was just an illusion from the past, William had no intention of letting him go.
So William did not look away at all. The two of them traveled through more than 800 years of time and stared at each other across a distance of thousands of kilometers.
"Don't worry about it. The phantom has already noticed me."
Staring into Terra's eyes, William said slowly.
Upon hearing this, Hobbes followed William's gaze and glanced at the front deck of the warship, then immediately turned his head away.
"Stop looking at it now! If you keep looking at it, everyone on this ship will die with you!"
Seeing the man wearing a crown and looking like the founding emperor of the empire pointing a sword here, Hobbes hurriedly advised.
"No one will die on this ship. Just go ahead. I'll be back soon."
William said calmly.
"How do we get there? We are on the sea here!"
Hearing William's tone as if he was talking about what to eat today, Hobbs became a little anxious, and he spoke loudly into William's ear.
In his opinion, if they were targeted by this legendary phantom ship, unless a miracle happened and the fog dissipated immediately, they would definitely end up with the ship destroyed and everyone dead.
They couldn't even deal with the ordinary imperial warship before, and now they encounter this giant ship that is suspected to be the legendary Coronet. Do they still have any chance of escaping?
William did not explain, but took a step forward, and a silver magic circle floated on the deck. Then he kicked hard, and the whole person was instantly swept by a gust of wind and floated in the air.
This strong whirlwind not only lifted William into the air, but also blew out a cylindrical-shaped quiet area from the fog surrounding the Whalebone. The golden sunlight sprinkled onto the deck of the Whalebone through the dispersed fog, causing the people standing on the deck to raise their hands and half-cover their eyes.
Ignoring the screams from the ship, William waved his hand vigorously at the sails, and several spells were instantly constructed and launched. Multiple strong winds came from the void, blowing up the sails and pushing the Whalebone into the distance at a rapid speed.
And from beginning to end, William's eyes never left that person for a moment.
"How long can this last?"
William asked quietly.
This question was asked to Liz, who provided him with a magical channel connection.
"I don't know... but since this fog started, I feel like the energy consumption of maintaining the Witch Mist seems to have decreased a lot. If nothing unexpected happens, it can last at least ten minutes... But the prerequisite is, can you stop the wind first?"
While answering, Liz held William's shoulders tightly with both hands to prevent herself from being blown away by the strong wind.
“Sorry, sorry…”
William immediately cancelled the [Float] spell that was holding him up, and replaced it with the transformation spell [Extension Wing]. With a "swish", a pair of broad membrane wings grew out along his shoulder blades, then powerfully flapped the air, allowing him to hover in mid-air.
This time, it was William who looked down at Terra's phantom.
"I sense a familiar aura on you. Have we met before?"
Terra's phantom, who was standing on the deck and looking up at William, finally spoke.
Perhaps because of his ethereal nature, his voice had a hollow echo.
"You must have recognized the wrong person."
William slowly raised his hands as he spoke, and the sea water beneath his feet instantly began to boil and violently surge. A few seconds later, two waterspouts burst out from the sea like dragons, rolling up hundreds of thousands of tons of sea water and stirring around William.
"So you are the one who caused this storm? Are you trying to use this to stop me?"
Seeing the two dancing water tornadoes, Terra Phantom said with a serious expression on his face.
storm?
Upon hearing this, William glanced left and right at the two water tornadoes that were as thick as a man's arms.
Although the waterspout created by the [Tornado] is quite powerful, it has nothing to do with the word "big storm" in any way.
"But you and I were once partners, why did it have to come to this?"
Then the other party said this inexplicably.
"ha?"
William could only express his confusion by uttering this monosyllable.
"Well, maybe you won't believe it... but there's nothing I can do about it. I just hope you can understand that if I don't have to, I really don't want to fight with all of you."
The other party said this, holding the sword with a sad expression on his face.
William was about to ask something when a premonition of danger suddenly exploded in his mind. Without even thinking, he raised his hand to block the two water tornadoes in front of him.
The blood-red sword light flashed by, and the moment they made contact, the two water tornadoes seemed to have lost some kind of support, and instantly turned into a sky-high rainstorm that fell back onto the sea.
And in the rain, the phantom of Terra Riel, wearing a bronze crown and holding a ruby sword, just made a gesture to sheath the sword.
And the blood-red sword light just now came from the sword in his hand.
"I'm so sorry..."
"I'm sorry, mom."
First, he kept asking riddles, and then he suddenly attacked without any warning. The combination of these two points made William very angry.
A huge amount of magic power flowed into this body through the passage built by the witch's mist, and was then woven into a spell. In less than a second, dozens of gorgeous spell patterns appeared around Terra.
Before he could swing his sword to counter, a colorful spell instantly blasted him into a ball of carnival fireworks.
The deck at the bow was blown into pieces, and then it collapsed several layers downwards. The entire ship seemed to be pushed into the sea by an invisible hand, first sinking violently, and then it was pushed upward by the reaction of buoyancy, throwing out a large pile of broken wooden boards.
William let out a sigh of relief as he watched the cold air, the burning flames, the flashing lightning, and the rocks and soil splashing on the bow deck. This might not necessarily kill the other party, but it was quite stress-relieving.
Although these are some simple spells that can be cast instantly without the chanting process, with the support of William's powerful magic and the accumulation of sufficient numbers, even some high-level Moon Realm monsters will suffer directly if they eat up the spells and be exiled back to the Moon Realm on the spot.
On the deck of the ship, the air was filled with gunpowder smoke... no, it should be said that it was filled with various elements. This made William unable to see the target's current situation for a moment, so a faint white light appeared in his eyes.
Because the essence of Terra Riel probably originated from the phantom in the fog, William did not use [Life Detection], but instead used [Magic Detection] to try to find the other party's trace.
However, in William's field of vision, he could not find any trace of it at all.
The entire ship, including the surrounding fog, was sparkling with a faint magical light, but William did not see that person.
Could it be that the previous blow directly turned the opponent into powder and dissipated it?
William thought.
But as a founding monarch who maintained an empire for eight hundred years, he shouldn't be so weak even if he's just a phantom, right?
William looked at the explosion hole that was still emitting smoke and muttered to himself.
The premonition of danger just now appeared in William's mind again, and this time he flapped his wings and dodged to the side.
Almost at this moment, from the explosion crater that had been emitting thick smoke, a dark lightning and a blood-red sword light suddenly attacked him without warning, and they almost brushed past William's face.
Before this, William had always maintained the state of [Magic Detection], but until the two attacks passed by his face, he did not feel any magic fluctuations at all.
Isn't that magic?
Thinking of this possibility, William immediately cancelled his [Magic Detection] state, returning his vision to normal.
Then William happened to see the phantom of Terra walking out of the pit and walking in the air. It only took him a few breaths to stand in the air at the same height as William.
Behind that person, a shadowy figure wrapped in a cloak .
The phantom held a sword in one hand and a scepter in the other, and his face was completely hidden by the shadow of the hood.
Those in authority...
Whether it is being able to walk in the air without relying on transformation or storm-related spells, or having a powerful shadow appear behind them, these are important characteristics of the authority. When the authority exercises their power, there is no need to use magic. For them, they only need to give orders to things within their authority.
And when the tradition of ritual magic has almost been completely cut off, how could this founding emperor who claimed to be his own reincarnation be a person of authority?
"Do you have anything else that belongs to you?"
Seeing this, William asked directly.
"Not only was the name stolen, but even the power was stolen."
The other party did not answer William's words, but said in his hollow voice:
"I will not show mercy from now on."
"That's what I really want."
William said with a sneer.
While saying this, he was also wondering in his heart - which mythological character could be the one wielding the blood-red sword and pitch-black lightning?
William briefly recalled the powerful people he had dealt with before, and also roughly screened the myths and legends from various places in his mind, but after thinking about it, he seemed that he had never seen such a thing.
Terra crossed the staff and sword in her hands in front of her chest, and then the colors of blood red and pitch black continuously emerged from them and blended with each other, gradually forming the shape of a heart.
William simply spread out his hands, and a black sphere the size of a ping-pong ball appeared in the middle of his palm.
The moment this dark sphere appeared, the overload of magic power caused the iron plate on William's chest to shatter almost instantly. He quickly took out another iron plate and hung it up, and this iron plate also began to tremble slightly.
After swallowing up a huge amount of magic power, the dark sphere began to compress continuously, and a huge attraction began to appear. The surrounding thick fog was pulled into threads and attracted into the sphere, and the sea level surge.
As more and more magic power was injected, the black ball in William's hand became smaller and smaller, until finally only a black dot the size of a needle tip was left floating in his hand.
At this moment, the sea surface under his feet was even pulled into a shape like an inverted funnel.
The divine-level shadow spell [Black Hole] is a super powerful AOE that combines lethality and control.
At this moment, a red and black heart that kept beating appeared in Terra Phantom's hand.
"My position does not allow me to fail, so...please forgive me, former lady ranger."
He held the heart and looked at William and said so.
It wasn't until he heard the title Ms. Ranger that William finally reacted.
It turned out that the other party mistook himself for Remedios and was reenacting the "Battle of Drifting" that had taken place in this sea area eight hundred years ago. No wonder what he said before was completely inconsistent with his answer.
It's like a ghost can only repeat a few specific questions, or an uncontrolled zombie will only repeat what happened in life according to instinct.
In other words, the phantom of Terra in front of us was not a complete illusion, but more like some kind of necromancy.
The person before him was but a passing memory.
It also means that the person named Terra Riel, or at least someone who thought he was Terra Riel, died here.
In the "Wandering Battle" eight hundred years ago.
