Volume 13, 3: Project Black Hole

Volume 13, Chapter 3: Project Black Hole

This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, and StellarAshes.

The fireball was about to reach her, but Purity simply glanced at it, with her eyes saying “why is the fireball so close, it’s getting so hot here, I hate it,” without any sort for fear of the spell.

Idojin stared blankly at the strange girl. He felt something strange about all this; he thought perhaps this girl might think he wouldn’t dare to kill her?

But what happened in the seconds after proved Purity was not suicidal, nor did she doubt Idojin’s willingness to kill her, because Meinan’s protective shield protected her. When the smoke arose from the fireball’s explosion that covered her, a bolt pierced through the smoke, and shot straight towards Idojin.

The moment the bolt pierced Idojin’s shoulder, he yelled out, “How is that possible! The smoke was everywhere, how could she have seen me…”

The smoke cleared, unveiling Purity in the arena. When she saw the wound on Idojin, she did not seem a bit surprised, as if she already knew this would happen.

‘Of course she couldn’t see you!‘ Kaiser and Meinan both let out a crafty smile, but they were not stupid enough to tell their opponents how Purity was able to aim.

Truth was, Purity simply remembered where Idojin was. Having controlled Mechas for years, Purity could lock on to a target after a single lock, and hit accurately where the target was.

If it were not for the fact that Idojin’s levitation skills had not been mastered yet, and therefore he would drift slightly while stopping in air, this bolt could very well have pierced his heart. One must wonder, if Idojin knew the thing that saved his life was his inability to master levitation… what would he possibly think?

Idojin put his hand on the wound on his shoulder, used a small fire spell to disinfect the wound, and sealed it to stop the bleeding.

After being in disadvantageous situation several times, Idojin finally understood: despite lacking in Magic strength, these young children were full of evil ideas. Evidence proved these ideas also were quite dangerous. He would no longer underestimate them. He looked at Barbalis, and said, “If you aren’t willing to attack, then I will make Mizerui kill them.”

Barbalis face suddenly changed. He knew Mizerui would do exactly as Idojin says. Seeing Idojin about to give the command, he immediately yelled, “Stop!”

Idojin stared at him coldly. Barbalis sighed, looked at Kaiser and others, threw his hands helplessly, and began his attacks. Countless vaguely visible Magical ropes were thrown at Kaiser and others. If possible, he really wished this move would be enough to defeat them for he did not want to harm these kids.

“Meinan!”

Kaiser yelled loudly, and in that very instant, Meinan’s protective shields were raised. However, Barbalis was one step ahead. There were already a few strands of Magic ropes reaching Meinan. These ropes quickly wrapped themselves around Meinan’s body. After a few clapping sounds, Meinan grunted a few times. The protective shield was indeed raised, separating the two sides, and broke the Magic ropes between Barbalis and them.

“Ugh…” Meinan suddenly moaned a few times in pain.

“What’s wrong?”

Kaiser jumped up like a startled bird. He believed Barbalis would never kill Meinan, however, Barbalis would do anything in his power to make Meinan useless in battle. After all, both sides understood, without Meinan’s iron wall of a protective shield, they would be helpless.

Meinan’s importance was even more evident in the presence of Barbalis. Barbalis rarely used any spells, resulting in Kaiser and others being completely clueless at what kind of attacks Barbalis excelled in. The only clue were the words Qiusi had said: Barbalis’ power was unfathomably high, especially in his ability to control Magic!

In a situation where they did not know what the opponents may cast, having Meinan’s protective shield stopping all the spells would be the safest plan! Therefore, Meinan must not be too injured to cast the shield… Kaiser quickly jumped to Meinan’s side. Although he did not specialize in healing Magic, but if necessary, he would still try his best!

Meinan lowered his head with a hand over his face, while the other hand… held a gold-and-silver-plated baroque mirror. He looked in the mirror while he wept, “My face… how dare you hit my face!”

‘I knew it…’ Kaiser smacked Meinan’s head hard!

The knock on his head stunned Meinan briefly, and the shield warped a bit in the mean time. It was supposed to be a great opportunity for their opponent to strike… unfortunately Barbalis did not expect they would be fighting amongst themselves, and thereby missed this chance.

“These little runts, still playing while an archenemy is before them.” Barbalis shamelessly referred to himself as “archenemy”.

Meinan held his head in pain, while murmuring complaints, “Hitting my head again, you know I’m going to turn stupid because of it. Don’t you know… Barbalis is too fast (Meinan was especially quiet when he said this)… and my beautiful face is damaged, I want out… (whispers) and I think it wasn’t his max speed, I might not be able to stop it next time… Besides, it’s not like I have to fight.”

Kaiser screamed loudly, “Please! When things are like this, who the hell cares if your face gets damaged or disfigured… (whispers) think of something, we can’t just watch Mizerui die… Try not fighting, if you dare, I’ll turn your head into a pig head… (whispers) I think maybe if we toss Mizerui into a black hole?”

“Can you two stop fighting! We’re still in a match!” Purity looked like she was trying to mediate between the two, but if one was to listen carefully, they would notice she would always speak when the other two were whispering, to cover their “extra” conversation.

Meinan roared back, “Beat me, if you dare, you think my father won’t turn you into a bigger pig’s head than me… (whispers) but, where would the black hole send Mizerui?”

Kaiser showed a gangster look, and snapped, “Your father? He only knows to hide in his shield. He’d never come out to beat me… (whispers) at least better than death. Besides, so far, the chance of falling into another world is not high.”

“Then it’s decided.” The two spoke as they looked at Purity, whom blinked, to indicate she understood.

Purity took a deep breath, and screamed loudly enough to shake the entire stadium, “Stop fighting!”

Everyone was dazed from this piercing scream. Even when the echo of her voice had stopped, their heads were still filled with the words “stop fighting”. No one noticed, the three of them already began to attack: Kaiser covered the sky with fireballs, while Meinan surrounded himself with thick shields and charged at Barbalis with his dagger.

Barbalis had to fly up in the air, but Meinan also used Levitation to follow him and began launching melee attacks towards Barbalis. Barbalis did not want to use a strong Magic spell to attack Meinan, but the lesser Magic could not even scratch Meinan’s shield. So he had no choice but to dodge around. This demonstrated his accuracy of his Magic, and Meinan could not even touch him.

Nevertheless, hurting Barbalis was not his intent. Meinan was waiting for the opportunity, until he felt they were far enough to Idojin, then he said with a low voice, “We plan on throwing Mizerui into the black hole.”

Barbalis’s eyes glowed. Under Dragon Emperor and Idojin’s restraints, they could not take Mizerui away with teleport. However, with a black hole that could travel through vast time and space, it should not be a problem.

“I’ll help you control him.” Barbalis replied quietly.

Hearing this, Meinan was absolutely ecstatic. With Barbalis’ help, the plan was definitely viable.

Purity stood on the ground by herself with a bow in her hands. She began chanting, and a faint glow began emitting from the arrow. At a glance, it looked like she was enchanting her arrow with Magic, but it was just a cover up. Truth was, the spell Purity was casting was the black hole Magic.

Barbalis saw what Purity did, and he suddenly felt a sense of his children all growing up. Originally, he was still considering what he had to use to cover up the Magic fluctuation from the black hole spell, but he did not expect Purity to have already done so herself.

He then looked at Kaiser, who was attacking carelessly at Idojin, with the sole goal of distracting him. This little runt was as cunning as he always had been.

Barbalis thought to himself, ‘Mizerui, oh, Mizerui, wake up soon, so you can watch how the children we caught back then to play have grown.’

“Barbalis! Purity’s black hole is almost done casting.” Meinan quietly reminded.

Barbalis hurriedly put away his reminiscence, and said quietly, “Meinan, I have to attack you, to draw everyone’s attention.”

“Oh.” Meinan paused, then declared seriously, “As long as you don’t hit my face.”

A bright light appeared on Barbalis’ hand, and it concentrated into a ball of light. He threw it towards Meinan’s head. Unable to respond in time, Meinan was being pushed down towards the ground, even though his shield remained undamaged. Like a meteorite, Meinan collapsed into the ground and created a crater. Although the shield was still there, Meinan realized that, along with his shield, he was now locked onto the ground without the ability to move.

When he turned, he saw a pair of feet suddenly appeared. Meinan looked up, and sure enough they were Mizerui’s feet. Suddenly, Meinan began to struggle desperately, but it was not to break himself free. Instead, it was to make everything look more real. He also tried to obfuscate Barbalis’ Magic power, to cover up the fact that it was suppressing Mizerui’s power.

As planned, Idojin did not notice anything, but Mizerui, who was under control, turned slightly to look at Meinan. If he were his usual self, he would have already known Meinan was up to something, and he would not have fallen into such a simple trap. Unfortunately, he was now a muppet who did nothing but follow orders. Unless he was given an order or under attack, he would not do anything.

“Now!”

Purity shouted, and the arrow was unleashed. The black Magic on the arrow suddenly expanded, and pounced towards Mizerui like a mouth of a predator. Though he determined he was under attack and he should dodge, but the teleport spell he cast had fizzled, and when he wanted to move away using his feet, he realized he couldn’t even take one step away because there was a transparent wall around, stopping him.

The person stopping him, of course, was Barbalis.

When the black mouth was about to devour Mizerui, a giant wall of ice appeared just in time to stop the mouth. It was a spell Idojin had cast to block the black hole.

“Damn!”

Kaiser roared, and a Divine Fireball soared from his giant gun to break the wall, but it was knocked out of its trajectory by a series of ice bolts. It ended up breaking the protective shield. Luckily, it headed towards the sky, otherwise there might be a skewer of Knight meat as a result.

The giant mouth took some time to chew through the ice walls. In the mean time, Mizerui’s power surged, and struggled desperately against Barbalis’ constraint without caring for the consequences. Barbalis was afraid to keep pressuring because the Mizerui now would not care whether his body would be damaged in the process, nor would he care if his mind breaks down from overexerting his mana.

In fact, the last time when Mizerui was sent to attack the secret base, dire consequences almost happened due to his overexertion.

The giant mouth charged towards Mizerui, but in the last moment possible, Mizerui used a short range teleport to move to the black hole’s side. The black hole “took a big bite,” but other than the rocks on the arena, it gained nothing at all.

It failed… Panic filled everyone’s heart, especially Barbalis. He looked towards the Dragon Emperor, wondering if his betrayal would break the promise to let go of Mizerui if he won the fight.

The Dragon Emperor elegantly extended his index finger to gesture “1”, and Barbalis finally felt relaxed but heavy at the same time. He understood the Dragon Emperor meant he would have one more chance, and therefore he relaxed. However, this also meant he had no other choice but win this match.

But if Kaiser and others lost, what would happen to Liola? Barbalis couldn’t help but think. Before the match, Kaiser’s eyes glanced towards Liola as a hint. Liola looked like he would be fine, and that he had escaped the hypnosis, so what exactly still tied him back to the Dragon Emperor?

Barbalis’s eyes floated towards Liola, only to see Liola was staring blankly into the arena with his expression like he just saw the devil…

He could not resist looking in the direction of Liola’s eyes, until he saw the black hole. It was still completely dark, with nothing to be seen. Why would Liola look like he just saw a ghost?

Barbalis was too concentrated to analyzing Liola’s expressions, while the battle had already resumed next to him. Idojin already made Mizerui join the battle. Other than Meinan’s protective shield, no one could possibly stop Mizerui’s gravity magic. Suddenly, the three of them were forced to stand together, and Meinan desperately used his shield to protect everyone.

Although Barbalis was seriously slacking, Idojin and Mizerui would be enough to give Kaiser and others a serious headache. Albeit they had been advancing greatly, mana took time to build up. Mizerui was already a “centenarian” with hundreds of years under his belt, and never mind Idojin. No one knew what kind of artifact he would be to be following the Dragon Emperor for so long.

If nothing unexpected happened, the three of them were further and further away from victory.

“Kaiser?” Purity panickedly looked at Kaiser, not knowing what else they could do. They had already lost the first match, if they lost this match again, Liola would have to eat the Heart… and it was no different than dying.

‘We can’t lose!’

All three of them thought that, though they might feel helpless, they still could not afford to lose!

“Kaiser!”

Kaiser paused, ‘Who’s calling me? The voice sounds really familiar… but that person shouldn’t have such a panicked tone?’

“Kaiser!”

Yet another calling, and this call seemed even more panic than before. Kaiser turned towards the person he thought of with confusion — Liola.

Liola was using the “saw-a-ghost” tone of voice to call out to Kaiser.

“What! What the heck is wrong with your face?” Kaiser paused, and asked strangely.

Liola pointed towards black hole, and everyone’s gaze landed onto it. After all, there were very few things that could make Liola act as disgraceful as this, and it would be a shame not to see it. Thus, something strange happened in the stadium: the match was going half way, but everyone was staring blankly into a black hole.

“There’s nothing there?” Kaiser said skeptically. After looking for a long while, it was still as pitch black as before… Could Liola be afraid of the dark? That would be strange, considering he was always wearing black, so how could he be afraid of it?

No one saw anything, but Liola clearly “felt” it — the kind of oppressive terror from the only person whom Liola dared not to resist, there was only “him.” B-but, how could it be? It was just a black hole…

However, the only reason they ended up in an alien world was none other than the black hole…

Could it really be him? The person whose name would make people tremble in fear, the famous (infamous?) devil whose name went down in history?

“I say, what the hell are you guys doing? Throwing ice in one moment, and rocks in the next; do you think I run a trash bin?”

Barbalis, Kaiser, and Daylight all froze. The voice was far too familiar. It was one they wanted to forget but couldn’t!

“Why are you not talking? Are you ignoring me? Li?”

“AHHHH—”

Kaiser yelled loudly. He finally knew who it was. There was only one person who would call Liola like this! And this person was already something past what “terrifying” or “horrifying” could describe.

“Why are you screaming? Do you really have to yell like this when you see your own grandpa?”

The blackness of the black hole was suddenly erased, and shone like a bright light instead. In it, a person was lying lazily. The clothes this person was wearing was rather strange. It was similar to Mizerui’s long robe, but seemed more luxurious. He was looking at the people outside of the black hole as though he was somewhat curious in regards to what they were doing, but he also felt a bit annoyed, as if he did not want to bother with them.

“Devil Gle!” The Dragon Emperor suddenly stood up, and roared angrily.