Chapter 497 - Museum

Chapter 497: Museum

As Charles entered the Museum building, the door swiftly closed behind him and shut with a bang. No one followed him, and the only sound that could be heard was the sound of footsteps echoing on the multiple floors.

He soon arrived at a large hall and noticed that they had stored weapons, ornaments, crystals, and armors inside the sealed glass boxes all over the place.

After glancing at the Museum for a moment, he cast [Flame Teleportation] spell on himself and disappeared from there.

A moment later, he reappeared in the underground hall's fifth layer, observed the surroundings, and soon showed a thoughtful look on his face. Even though the darkness enveloped the whole underground hall, he saw everything clearly with minute details!

The underground hall was spacious, and it housed several rows of large and small storage vaults. A single row of dark stairways could be seen along the hall and several stone doors leading to other underground halls, rooms, and secret passages.

It was like a maze.

There were various paintings, statues, and columns all over the place. Some were big, some were small, and even several statues in the middle of the wide-open space.

It was originally a storage place, but it later transformed into a museum!

After observing for a moment, he turned his gaze towards a particular direction and headed there.

Before long, he appeared in front of a door and soon noticed that it was sealed using a complex lock. Also, unlike other rooms, this particular room was built using some unique black metal and appeared enclosed.

The door also seemed to be made of the same metal and shut with a complex lock system.

When he tried to teleport inside, an invisible power appeared out of nowhere and blocked him. No, it was the door and the metallic walls that nullified his fire-elemental energies and stopped his teleportation!

'What happened?' He tried to scan inside again through his wisdom power but soon realized that not even his wisdom power was passing through it!

A flash of surprise appeared on Charles's face. He instantly moved near the door and touched it.

The next instant, he felt his hand become weak all of a sudden! At that moment, he also noticed that all the fire-elemental energies in his right hand started to disperse into the surrounding environment!

"Interesting," Charles retracted his hand, conjured a ball of chaos flame, and created it into a flame sword. Following that, he slashed at the door and tried to cut it.

But just as he expected, although the chaos flame sword didn't get dispersed like normal fire, it only left a scar on the metallic door!

'The door is powerful enough to withstand a Rank-5 spell?' He paused in astonishment for a moment, released an invisible string, and tried to touch the door using it.

This time, his invisible string wasn't affected by the door at all!

'Heh, so this door only nullifies elemental energies, huh.' He nodded thoughtfully, released more invisible strings, and moved them into the complex lock system.

After that, he closed his eyes and focused full attention on unlocking the door.

...

While Charles was unlocking the door, a life and death battle had started in Melody's Nature Domain.

At that moment, Melody stood a few meters away from Bishop Victor and stared at him with a wary look on her face.

'I've to kill him here!' A strange sense of resolution appeared in the depths of her heart. Although she had been with Charles for only a year or two, she had learned many things from him and improved her strength constantly all this time.

'I'll not disappoint him.' She swore inside and got ready for any unexpected attacks.

In the meantime, Bishop Victor also finished observing the surroundings and nodded.

"A perfect domain indeed."

Saying so, he raised his hand, adjusted his bowler hat, and muttered.

"Let's begin."

Just as he finished his words, the bowler hat suddenly turned illusionary and disappeared from Melody's eyes.

The next instant, Victor's original consciousness had undergone some change due to an outside force and split into three consciousnesses!

It was the Bowler Hat's unique ability: Three Minds!

Simultaneously, Victor raised his wooden stick and pointed the top at Melody.

The next instant, a dense amount of ice-elemental energy came out from the pair of rings and gathered at the tip of the wooden stick like before.

As Melody saw this phenomenon, she suddenly recalled Irzoch's state and turned grim.

'I need to evade this spell!' She raised both of her hands and cast her Druidic spell.

"Shield of Creation!"

A dense amount of nature-elemental power came out of her body and soon formed into a greenish layer forcefield!

Just as her shield spell covered her body, an essence-filled snowball released from the wooden stick's tip and flew towards Melody at an unimaginable speed!

A moment later, the snowball collided with the greenish forcefield with a loud bang and released the strange ice essence in all directions.

The nearby trees, vines, even the ground turned into pure crystalline ice and started to break like glasses! What's more shocking was that Melody even saw her forcefield affected by the strange snow and widened her eyes in surprise.

But before she could think further, Victor suddenly disappeared and appeared in front of her!

Then, he casually raised his right hand, touched the greenish forcefield, and spoke in an icy voice.

"Chill Touch."

The next moment, her whole forcefield shook violently before turning into crystalline ice and soon broke into multiple pieces like glasses.

Upon seeing this, a look of horror appeared on Melody's face. Still, she gritted her teeth and cast another [Shield of Creation] spell in an instant.

Simultaneously, she covered the surrounding areas using her wisdom power and manipulated all the vines to attack the enemy!

Sharp poisonous vines slithered from all directions, released strange pollens, acid balls, and poisonous gases, and attacked Victor continuously.

As Victor was busy blocking the attacks, Melody used that opportunity and distanced herself from him.

'Thankfully, my spells are also strengthened inside the nature domain and could hold on like this forever.' She muttered inwardly but soon dismissed the idea of prolonging the battle. She knew that the opponent must have some other dangerous spells under his sleeves and decided to go offensive.

Without any delay, she locked her gaze on Victor and added coldly.

"Absolute Hypnosis!"

To her shock, not a single change appeared on Victor's face!

'My spell didn't have any effect on him?'

As if Victor had already read her mind, he smirked inwardly and shook his head.

"You have no idea who you are dealing with, woman."

While speaking, he opened his arms wide and muttered a strange word.

It was as if he was activating another artifact!

Two crystalline icy wings appeared behind him the next second and flapped all of a sudden before lifting him in the air.

At the same time, an unimaginable amount of ice elemental energy oozed out of his unique rings and started freezing everything.

"Let me kill you with my own hands then."

Saying so, Victor gathered ice-elemental energies before creating a large sword out of it, flapped his newly formed icy wings, and shot towards Melody at full speed.

Meanwhile, Melody stepped back hurriedly, looked at the surrounding trees, and cast another Druidic spell.

"Mist of Illusions!"

The next instant, she turned illusionary and disappeared from there.

On the other hand, Victor flapped his wings twice, suspended in mid-air, and soon looked in a particular direction.

Although Melody created an illusionary atmosphere to hide in the ice-filled forest, Victor saw through her illusions in an instant and changed his direction!

It was due to his mysterious mask.

Not only could it block any prying force from probing his body, but it could also help him scan the surrounding atmosphere. Although it wasn't as strong as some Light spells, it was more than enough for him to guess the other party's location.

In a blink, he arrived in front of Melody, thrust the icy sword at greenish forcefield, and broke it in an instant.

At that moment, the illusion also broke and revealed her to Victor's eyes.

"I got you now!" Victor flapped his icy wings again and thrust the ice sword towards Melody.

The ice sword tore through the air a second later, arrived in front of her chest, and pierced inside.

The next instant, the icy sword appeared on the other side and almost pushed her to the ground!