Lord of The Karmic Armada
Chapter 36: Scheme of the Mad Devil (3)

Chapter 36: Scheme of the Mad Devil (3)

Hansel’s mind went utterly blank as a chill crept up to his spine seeing this incomprehensible scene. What was going on? What? How? Who?

Countless questions rang in his mind, but there was none to answer. As someone who has been emotionless all his life, it was only natural for the Tribe leader to be frozen in the face of so many emotions invading his mind, rather than calmly trying to figure out what was going on.

Fear, confusion, horror, disbelief, rage all these emotions mixed into his mind, not only did they cloud his judgment and keep him from seeing the big picture and identifying the real culprit or swiftly taking care of him to avoid any other trouble. Rather these emotions of his only served to give his enemy more time and advantage which his enemy did not think he would receive.

Well, who would refuse a good opportunity served on a silver platter, no one. While the Tribe leader was frozen in fear of the dreadful situation, the perpetrator of this little game also had a smile on his face showing his bloody teeth, yet there was none gracious enough to pay him any attention.

Snap...snap.....

The Tribe leader finally broke out of his daze hearing the clear sound of 2 ropes snapping, he unknowingly glanced at the direction of the sound, and what he saw made his already fearful face turn as pale as a ghost. An even greater fear took place in his heart, his heart which only held boundless fury for the being who he was looking at right now.

The moment the deep blue eyes of the Tribe leader met the Blood red eyes of Valtar, he took another step back without even realizing it, his heartbeat became faster, and his breathing quickened.

He saw the half-dead human who was tied to the crucifix tightly now trying to break free. He already snapped the ropes that tied his right hand and now was trying to snap the other ropes and break out of it. There was a clear and visible smile on his face that showed his bloody teeth coupled with his body covered in blood, he was truly looking like the incarnation of the devil, if there ever was one in the first place. His smile was not happy, but rather a clear disdain and mockery towards the Tribe leader, and one could see his apparent disdain with a single glance.

However none of that was important, what truly caused fear to bloom in his heart was that the mangled fleshly body of the human was reverting, it was reverting to normal. He could not help but think in his head, ’No, no, no, impossible, absolutely impossible. This cannot be.’ ’It is not possible to heal from such wounds. Impossible. I don’t believe it. Even the Fae folks themselves do not possess such abilities let alone a mere human like him.’

Hansel was practically screaming in his mind at this point out of sheer disbelief. No, rather his emotions did not let him believe it. Because the ramifications of his enemy having such an ability were just too great for him to accept. Would it not mean that despite being on the brink of death, his enemy was scheming against him from the very start? Doesn’t that mean being brought here like this was his plan all along?

Hansel stared at the human in trepidation. In just two seconds, all his minor injuries had healed, because of Valtar’s constant bleeding from all the minor and major injuries till a moment ago, blood was dripping down nonstop which slid down from his body then to the crucifix and eventually gathered at the root of the structure.

Moments before, it looked like a large crucifix-like structure was pinned down in a small pool of blood, on the structure a bloody human was tied to it, who had been constantly dripping blood from his lethal wounds.

If a normal person were to see this, they would think that a sinister being was perhaps attempting some sacrificial ritual by making the human bleed to death while keeping him tied to the structure.

But if one looked more closely one would see The human had a smile on his face that was more sinister than the devil himself, despite the precarious situation, his smile only held mockery for his enemy and not an ounce of worry for himself.

The next moment the entire situation changed, the body of the human was healing itself out of nowhere at a monstrous speed, in just 2 seconds all his outer injuries were gone, and the blood that was all over his body began to be absorbed into his body.

As some semblance of strength returned to Valtar’s body, he put strength onto his right hand and the ropes snapped easily.

The small pool of blood that gathered right beneath started wriggling like a worm and started climbing in the structure upward towards Valtar like a snake. The blood itself proceeded to wrap around his body and then it entered inside through the large open wounds, the major wounds of his body started healing instantly thereafter.

When both perspectives were combined, it would make a scenario full of self-contradictions. Was it a human being sacrificed through some dark ritual or a devil possessing the human body and now the devil is coming for the one who summoned it?

What an irony, which was the truth, which was not? Or was both true or was neither?

This all happened in a few seconds and just as Hansel saw that Valtar was recovering from even his broken limbs at astonishing speed, he forcefully rejected all his emotions. Regardless of the setback, he was also a battle-hardened warrior who had faced countless hardships and perhaps an uncountable number of life-and-death situations.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He gave another look at the tribe members who had glowing red eyes, they were now stepping closer to him step by step and the only conjecture he could draw is that they were all possessed. As for the mastermind, it was also apparent, that Hansel had never seen a possession skill like that or any possession skill, no Fae had ever used it.

Then he looked back at the hateful human again and thought, "I must kill this wretch now before he heals completely and things get out of hand." Hansel looked into the eyes of the human and saw his contemptuous sneer directed at him, he ignored it, and just as he was about to dash forward disregarding all his instincts as well as emotions.

He heard an extremely painful scream behind him and froze in his tracks. Being overwhelmed by what was happening at the front, Hansel forgot about the First Elder. He has no choice but to stop and look back.

First Elder was writhing in the ground in pain while clutching his chest and there was some strange black smoke coming out of his body, making it seem as if his insides were burning as those black smoke were coming out.

Hansel’s mind was in disarray for a moment, not knowing what to do. First, the human was healing at a disgusting speed, at most he had 10 seconds till he broke free and then he would be back at his peak state. Second, there were his tribe members who all seemed to be possessed, likely being controlled by the human. So, going for the human and killing him is the best choice now but what if killing him doesn’t return them all to normal, rather it kills them as well? Third was the First Elder who is now writhing in pain, he is most likely fighting against whatever is trying to possess him.

If he went after the human now, in the meantime what if the First-Elder was possessed? What if there was no way back, what would he do then, what if all of them were lost? Hansel couldn’t help but feel lost, a part of him almost felt like perhaps it was already too late.

But that thought only lasted for a moment and then a flash of determination glimmered through his eyes. He made his decision, the First Elder was the person closest to Hansel, and he was his most trusted and capable companion throughout the years. He was his only friend, he must save him first no matter what.

What the Tribe leader does not realize is that If Hansel was in his previous emotionless state as before, he would have never made such decisions, he would’ve also noticed the strangeness in the tribe member’s behavior beforehand. He would have targeted the human before anything else disregarding all other variables. However, it would not have changed the outcome in the end.

Making his decision silently, he ran closer to the First Elder immediately. He accessed his dark element without further ado, a twisted grimace appeared on his face. There were obvious advantages and disadvantages to being the favored one of darkness.

The darkness granted him the emotional seal to suppress his emotions and made him the perfect carrier of it. On the flip side, if the seal were to break he would be slightly weakened for a week and a few days, and he would be unable to use the darkness element until the seal activates again.

However, that’s not the complete truth, he can still use the darkness element at that weakened period and even use his full strength but there is a price for it, he has to pay a considerable amount of lifespan in exchange for using the darkness and his full strength as well as deal with the great amounts pain in the process. After all, stripping away high amounts of lifespan from one being is unimaginably painful.

Hansel simply gritted his teeth and used the darkness element in large amounts, pushing it into the First-Elder’s body. First-Elder’s body began to tremble even more violently for a few seconds.

And then SNAP......Snap....

Two more clear snapping sounds were heard and this time Hansel was not surprised nor did he look back at the crucifix, he expected as much. The human had freed his other arm. Three more seconds and the human would be free to do as he pleases. He gritted his teeth so hard from the pain, anger, frustration, helplessness, and even a trace of hope as well as determination that his gums began to bleed without knowing.

Thankfully, right at the next second, a black smoke-like ethereal ghostly figure came out of the First Elder’s body and flew towards the Human. Hansel had no time to pay attention to that as he hurriedly helped the First Elder sit up straight and the elder was coughing badly.

First Elder after coughing a bit, said in a hoarse and regretful voice, "Hansel, you should not have done that."