'Surprisingly, the kingdoms resisted the invasion of the golems. It took around three days to fully take over the lands.' Zick thought while walking deeper into the forest.
A cave appeared in Zick's sight as he walked deeper alongside Yuriel.
"Hmm...." Zick could feel it, the frenzied energy flowing below his feet. This energy was like a fire that was trying to burn everything, it gave an intense feeling of hatred.
'Even Aeiron had a hard time fighting the kid who ate the blood fiend. Even cutting the head off wasn't enough....' Zick tried remembering the information about this matter correctly, but it still appeared pretty blurry in his memory.
'Sigh...I guess it was just too long ago. I was not going to try absorbing the blood fiend before cause I would just turn into a mindless monster, but now with Yuriel's help, it would be different.'
Zick and Yuriel began walking deeper into the dark cave. The whole area was already taken over by the golems, there wasn't anything dangerous in this place.
The deeper they walked, the darker it got. At one point, it fully turned dark, however, Zick and Yuriel had no problem and moved even deeper.
The smell of blood, similar to rust, flowed in the air.
Zick's brow rose, feeling the blood smell to be fresh. Shortly, a pit with dim red rays coming out of it entered their sight.
"It's here, Sir Zick." Yuriel moved aside to let Zick enter first.
Looking into the pit for a second, Zick jumped into it without any hesitation. Yuriel followed behind him.
SWOOSH~
Zick landed on his two legs upon dozens of red flowers. Petal left the flower buds with a simple touch, the red petal flew around Zick and Yuriel.
The smell of blood was being released by this flower. They shone in a dazzling red glow, illuminating the underground.
As far as Zick could see, only these red flowers entered his sight. The sight looked beutiful beyond words, but the smell of blood gave a sense of goosebumps to the onlookers.
Zick's brow furrowed, he felt as if he was stepping on a dead body for some reason. Ignoring this sensation, he started moving forward.
The deeper Zick walked, the denser the red flowers appeared.
At one point, the ground wasn't even visible anymore.
In the middle of these red flowers, a brownish coffin was laid straight. There was a glistening red stone on it, the blood fiend. An ominous wave of energy was being released by it intensively.
Yuriel spoke at that instant: "By investigating the red jewel, we have found out it's the sole reason for all these blood flowers to grow. The origin of this stone is still unknown though..."
"Even the coffin is empty, there is no remaining left behind to investigate further."
There was no information regarding such a weird stone even in the secret lab. This made Yuriel very interested, hence she investigated seriously.
But the result of almost two months of the investigation was that its origin was still unknown, only its capability was found out in this process.
Yuriel continued: "A huge war once occurred in this land, that's one thing we have confirmed."
Zick pondered silently hearing this. There was a huge forest in this area right at the moment, thus it was apparent that many years had already passed by since this war occurred.
"How many years back was it?" Zick asked while still examining the coffin with his eyes.
"It should be around 20,000 years," Yuriel answered seriously.
'Was it when the mist barrier was made?' Zick put it aside for now, there was no point digging deeper into it.
Walking before the blood fiend, Zick held a tranquility potion in his left hand.
'According to Yuriel, As long as I can get past the stage of absorbing it, I should be able to keep my sanity intact with no problem.' Zick dug out the blood fiend easily with his left hand.
Breathing in deeply, Zick placed it in his mouth and gulped down the red stone, which was the same size as a human pinky finger.
Immediately, Zick tried chugging down the tranquility potion, but suddenly his body froze.
"Haaaaaa!!!!" An ear-rendering voice left Zick's mouth. Red rays of light were released from every part of his body.
The tranquility potion in his hand was destroyed in no time.
Multiple voices rang out in Zick's mind, it was like the screaming of humans, but at the same time felt like whispers and screeches. These voices were directly echoing within Zick's head.
"I'll kill you!"
"I'll kill every last one of you!"
"The children,"
"The man,"
"The women,"
"The noble,"
"The old and the Peasant!"
"I'll kill everyone! Everyone who threatens the kingdom's peace!!"
"Haaaa!!!"
The voices took turns speaking, echoing from every direction.
Images of many soldiers fighting in the middle of the battlefield appeared before Zick. The scene of people dying kept passing his eyes.
Zick wanted to calm down, but some kind of force kept influencing him more and more.
"Ahahahahhahahah" Zick laughed crazily.
Another pricing sound rang into Zick: "That's right, let the smoldering flame of battle reform you! Let the flames that burn even the soul to ash flow into your veins! Hahaha!"
Seeing this, Yuriel did not stay quiet. Zick had already ordered in case something happened to him.
Yuriel's hand appeared on Zick's throat instantly, holding him down on the ground. Zick's left eye, which turned fully red, entered her sight as she did so.
"Urgh!!" Zick resisted while baring his teeth, his peach-black aura started ravaging the surrounding. However, Yuriel's hand did not budge even an inch.
BOOM!
The ground below Zick caved in with him resisting ferociously. The red petals danced around him as if attracted by something.
At that instant, a purple hue left Yuriel's hand and covered Zick, fully suppressing his aura within the body.
Another tranquility potion appeared in Yuriel's hand. She immediately took it near Zick's mouth, but at that moment, a dazzling red light left his body.
With the strengthening of this red frenzied energy, Zick was actually able to push Yuriel's hand by a few centimeters. His hand which became immobilized because of Yuriel's higher form of energy too regained its mobility.
Zick started moving his limbs crazily again destroying the surrounding.
With no other choice, Yuriel got above Zick, holding him down. Using one hand she tried opening his tightly clenched mouth.
Then, Zick suddenly extended both of his hands and directly tried to strangle Yuriel. But it was useless, she was a golem therefore strangling did not affect her.
Opening Zick's mouth, Yuriel poured the tranquility potion into it.
"Guuh!! You dare!" An unknown voice left Zick's mouth.
But the very next moment, the ravaging red energy subsided into Zick's body.
Yuriel felt relieved seeing this, she got up from above him.
Getting back his sanity, Zick opened his eyes that had returned to normal: 'That was close, I did not expect there to be such a weird phenomenon....'
Just as Zick was rejoicing, the red energy within his body started rising again, the effect of the tranquillity potion could not hold it down!
Zick's normal eyes turned red again.
Another piercing voice entered his mind. This time the images that appeared before him were different.
"I'll destroy them all!"
"I can still fight!"
"Rip my body apart, but I can still fight!"
"Pierce me with a hail of bullets, But I won't fall here!"
"Even though I will die here...I can still destroy all these scrapheads!!"
The images of the golems that he created appeared before Zick. The golems killed anything that entered their sight, moving from one place to another swiftly.
The images of a golem with dozens of guns in it also entered his sight.
A red flame engulfed Zick's whole body, trying to erode his consciousness.
'Damn it! At this rate, I will lose myself!' Zick frantically started thinking of a way to get out of this predicament.
However, the moment this red flame began corroding Zick's consciousness. The regretful necklace in his chest gave out a blinding glow.
The flame which covered Zick's soul vanished like it never appeared to begin with.
Seeing this process, Zick's eyes jolted open, and his eye patch was destroyed — exposing the demonic eye.
The sight of the regretful necklace ceasing to shine entered his sight.
'This thing had the power to nullify soul attack...?' It was the first time Zick got to experience its ability.
"I'll kill you!"
"Destroy them!"
"Protect his highness!"
Piercing voices entered Zick's head, but this time there was no effect on his mind.
Pondering for a while, Zick deduced the reason: 'I see, so that's it. My body is being protected by the tranquility potion and my soul is also protected by the regretful necklace.'
The ominous red energy flowed around Zick's body slowly being absorbed into him.
Zick's head turned to Yuriel who was already standing ready with another tranquility potion.
'The reason Yuriel did not find out about such an effect must be because her knowledge regarding souls is low.'
Zick felt fear after thinking about what just happened. It was thanks to a stroke of luck that he survived this time.
'I can't even imagine what might have happened if I lost my sanity. There truly are traps in every step of life, a little carelessness and death Is all that awaits me.'
Seeing Zick having signs of reasoning in his eyes, Yuriel did not move.
The voices of different people in his head did not bother him. The cursing and suffering of other people did not move him in the slightest. Instead, he savored the weird feeling in his body.
It was very soothing, it was like he was being embraced by something warm. This red energy did not strengthen his body in any way. It changed the nature of his body instead, in the process, his pale skin became a little lively too.