159 Chapter 159

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At the moment, two of the strongest beings of their times were sitting before Gabriel, worrying about his safety. It had been a long time since Gabriel dropped to the ground. He hadn't woken up ever since.

Both Cylix and Novius knew that they needed to do something about it, but what could they even do? There was nothing that was in their control when it came to Gabriel's subconscious.

The Infernal King had also tried to use his flames to purify Gabriel's body from any toxic substance that could be inside his body, keeping him down. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case here either. Even his flames couldn't help Gabriel.

The situation was really chaotic. Inside the Temple, people were waiting for the return of Gabriel's consciousness, while outside the tower, the entire academy forces were waiting for Gabriel's return so they could capture him.

Just one entrance inside the tower changed everything from Gabriel. He was the star of the Academy, and many Teachers cared for him since he had the potential of being their star disciple. Lambard was also happy at him for recovering the treasures, and Lira was also not an enemy.

However, all it took was this tower, and everything changed. Now Lambard was quite upset at him. As for the Head Council Member, they wanted to capture him and possibly kill him. Even Lira wanted to hurt him.

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All the ones who were tilting to his side before were now against him, leaving him all alone. However, Cylix and Novius, whom he considered an enemy on the ninety-ninth floor that he had to defeat, were now caring for him.

His companions became his worst enemies, and his supposed enemies turned into his guardian. The human emotions were really fickle, changing at a moment's notice.

While so many people were waiting for him, Gabriel was still trapped in the shackles created by Lira.

Lira retracted her hand before taking a step back, creating half a meter of distance between the two.

'Come on! Let me cast one spell!' Gabriel had his fists clenched as he tried to force his elements to listen to him. Unfortunately, the elements were unresponsive. He couldn't even feel his elements in this place.

There were no natural energies in this place that could be used to cast a spell. There was only the element of darkness here which he had no affinity with.

Darkness started intensifying around Lira's hand, condensing. The darkness started taking a solid shape as that of a light sword that was one meter long and only five centimeters wide.

The sword was made purely of darkness which could be felt even by Gabriel.

Lira hadn't even brought the sword closer to him, and he could still feel the pressure and slight pain.

"You know what the biggest advantage of you being here in your Soul Form is for me?" Lira asked Gabriel; however, she didn't even wait for an answer. She answered herself. "It's that whatever pain I inflict on you here, you'll feel it a thousandfold since it's hurting your soul directly!"

"You're right. The pain is certainly fun. I'll make sure to have you experience it as well," Gabriel sarcastically answered.

"I don't think you can. For that, you have to leave this place first, which you never will. As long as you're here, I'm your goddess, and you're a traitor waiting for his punishment," Lira responded.

Even though there was a calm smile on her face, her eyes were filled with rage and anger, showing her real emotions.

"Let me ask you another question before you're in no condition to speak." she continued, seemingly not in any hurry, as if she wanted to take her sweet time. "You know what the biggest disadvantage of you being here in your Soul Form is for me?"

This time, Gabriel didn't let her answer her own question. He answered, "Is it that you can't watch me bleed?"

There were genuinely no disadvantages for Lira here that he could think of. He was weaker here and felt more pain. The only other difference he could think of was that he didn't bleed.

"Surprisingly, you're right." Lira was genuinely surprised to see Gabriel guess correctly. "If you could bleed, this next part would've been fun."

As soon as she finished speaking, she raised her sword and brought it down with great force, striking Gabriel's left arm.

The dark sword sliced through Gabriel's left arm, completely detaching it from his shoulder. Gabriel had already felt a lot of pain of his soul being hurt, but it was the first time a part of his soul was actually cut, and the pain was unbearable.

"Arghhh!"

Even Gabriel couldn't control his scream as he felt like he had died a thousand deaths in that one moment.

"I told you I'll let you experience true pain, right? This is just the beginning!" Lira coldly stated.

"These are the hands with which you tried to take my Ancestral Staff, didn't you? Let me take these hands so you can never do that again!"

She raised her dark sword once again, bringing it down.

However, just as her Sword was about to touch Gabriel's right arm, Gabriel's screaming stopped. The surroundings turned awfully silent.

Lira's sword also stopped in her place, barely a few inches away from Gabriel's arms. Her sword had frozen in place as if some power was holding it in its place... A Power that could overcome even the Darkness in the Realm of Darkness.

The mark of death which was on the back of Gabriel's hands, also started shining. It shone as bright as it never did.

"How? How is this possible? How can you use your Element here?!" Lira's complete attention was on Gabriel's hands. It was only when she saw her mark of Death and Necromancy shine that she raised her gaze in shock.

Unfortunately, as her gaze fell on Gabriel's face, her shock only increased. Gabriel's face was expressionless, and his eyes were completely emotionless.

His eyes, which were their usual color before, were slightly darker now. However, the strangest part was the strange symbol that had appeared on Gabriel's forehead.

The Symbol on his forehead was quite similar to the symbol on the back of his right hand, but it was also quite different.

The dark shackles that were keeping Gabriel captured in place started retreating slowly. His body slowly floated down, landing back on the ground, right before Lira.

Other than landing on the ground, Gabriel hadn't made a single movement... Yet.

For some reason, Lira could also see something that should've been impossible! Gabriel... He was in his spiritual form here, yet she could see blood! Tears of dark red blood were trickling down his cheeks, coming from his eyes.