Lord of The Karmic Armada
Chapter 63: The Calm Before The Storm

Chapter 63: The Calm Before The Storm

In the dim twilight of the shadow mountains peak a human stood with an indifferent expression and chillingly blood red eyes that glowed in the barely visible surrounding filled with shadows. A crucible stood tall in front of him, a crucible made of pure darkness in which a demon made of shadow was tied up.

That was not all, as pure darkness is the ultimate nemesis of shadow and light, a dark blue flame called ’Eternal Dark Fire’ was burning the shadow demon alive as it howled in pain for an unknown amount of time. Its haunting cries and pain reverberated throughout the entire western part of the forest which was governed by the element of shadow.

Yet its haunting screams did not manage to change the expression of the human in front of him, as it only looked at it with unreadable expression. The fire continued to burn the demon alive slowly, in the most optimal manner causing the demon the greatest amount of pain. Eventually the shadow was burned to cinders, not even its ashes remained in this world.

Right when the existence of the shadow demon had vanished, countless steps of various people could be heard by Valtar’s ears. But he did not turn around or change his expression. He simply kept looking at the crucible in which the dark fire was burning.

The fire that was burning on the cross-shaped crucible suddenly turned as small as the fist of a human and started floating towards him, just as it touched his open palm, it simply went back inside of his body.

A small crystal appeared on Valtar’s palm. He looked at it intently, it was similar to the dark crystal he got from Hansel’s body but was also quite different. Of course, it was the shadow crystal.

The sounds of footsteps grew louder and louder behind as well as a constant rustling sound could be heard as if something large was slithering through the grounds coming towards the peak. Eventually, 38 deadly dark silhouettes stood right behind Valtar. All their eyes glowed red in the darkness. The most sinister looking was the snake with its large slit pupils. Only now did Valtar slightly turn his head back and glanced at the large Snake, these beings were obviously the ghostbounds.

The Snake lowered its head again bowing towards with master with utmost respect, Valtar nodded towards it with an expressionless face, only then did the snake straighten its posture.

Valtar then paid no more attention to it and the ghostbounds, he looked at the Shadow crystal. Unlike the Dark Crystal which gave a chilling feeling of abyss like cold. This thing instead gave him a serene and comfortable feeling almost like he had connected with another part of him that he did not have a connection to before this. He could feel a soothing feeling in his soul as he continued to touch it.

The Dark Crystal was a pure dense mass of darkness that was extremely solid to the touch. However, this one did not feel solid to the touch. Seemed a bit soft but he was unable to change its shape despite putting a lot of force into it. It was a fully gray-looking crystal that seemed like a swirling tornado of shadows, similar to how the eyes of the Shadow Demon looked.

He brought the crystal towards his mouth, put it in his mouth, and simply swallowed it without much fanfare. Then something similar to what happened in the Elven tribes area happened this time as well.

Suddenly, thinking of something Valtar immediately ordered his ghostbounds to go and spread out throughout the shadow grounds and get all the cores of the 2nd or 3rd stage beasts that would die in the next minutes or so.

He specifically ordered Zolthar and the Shadow snake to go and check if the border between this area and the Fae folks area is dissolved while maintaining a 500-meter distance.

The moment Valtar swallowed the Shadow Crystal all the shadows in this section of the forest stirred as if it was alive. Even the above clouds made of Shadows began to break down and fall from the skies on the peak of the shadow mountain. It looked as if someone was pouring gray ink onto the Shadow Mountain.

All the Shadow inside the Shadow grounds turned into waves and started heading towards the shadow mountain. A tornado of shadow formed around Valtar, he’s body began to float slightly above the ground. Shadows rushed into his body like a tidal wave.

With every pour of his body, Shadows began to be absorbed with an astonishing speed far faster than how he absorbed all the darkness in the Elven tribes ground. The size of the tornado eventually grew bigger and bigger until the size of the tornado reached approximately 1 kilometer in height and its width covered the entirety of the shadow mountain.

Thankfully no more ghostbounds were here anymore otherwise their bodies would’ve been torn to shreds without a single piece remaining. In fact the same goes for Valtar himself, if it was real tornado that is, the difference being that the maelstrom of shadows was being absorbed into him, its intention was never to harm him in the first place.

Valtar could feel his entire existence being somewhat becoming in sync with shadows. It was a weird feeling. Eventually after 7-8 minutes posing like Shah-Rukh-Khan while floating in the peak of the shadow mountain and finishing absorbing all the shadows. His feet touched the ground again.

He took a deep breath and looked at everything. The air felt so much fresh now that all the shadows were gone. He looked high in the sky, in an inaudible sigh he could not help but say looking at the 4 shining moons in the sky, "So beautiful."

He could see miles and miles ahead everything now being illuminated by the brightness of the moon. He looked more intently on the grounds beneath, unlike when he absorbed all the darkness in elves area and as a result all the trees and animals had died.

This time it was not the same, most of the trees did not die, and the place did not look like a barren dead land. Though he could see most of the small animals or insects dying at a visible speed. Even many awakened beasts would die, this was also the reason he sent out all of his ghostbounds to collect the cores, even if it did not give them too much boost at this time, every little increase in strength mattered at this point.

Honestly, he was stumped, except for preparing as best as he could and gaining as much as strength as possible, he had no solid plan to fight against the Fae folks, nothing seem to come to his mind.

Unlike the dark elves The Fae’s would know everything about him most likely, nor would they underestimate him and give him any chance to pull any tricks from the very second he entered their area. He let out another tired sigh.

As if waiting for this very moment, the system barraged him with notifications.

[Congratulations! You have obtained the 3/4th part of the Hidden Forests Legacy.]

[You are only one step away from your desired freedom]

[You have Acquired the concept of Shadows]

[You have gained 2000 Karma Energy]

[You have gained 30 Positive Karma]

[You have gained the skill ’Shadow Construction’]

[You have gained 35 unallocated stats]

[Your skill ’Killing Intent’ has been transformed to ’Murderous Intent’]

[Your skill ’Suppressed Emotions’ has been transformed to ’Emotional Balance’]

Valtar was a bit surprised by the first 2 comments of the system, he sneered, "As if freedom could be so simple?"

After a few seconds of silence he added in a defeated tone, "But it is the freedom I desire for now."

He skimmed through the rest and commanded the system to show the details of the new skill and the 2 transformed skills.

[Shadow Construction - You can manifest constructs made of shadow, mystic energy will be consumed according to the level of construct you create.]

[Murderous Intent - Your killing intent has reached a higher level.]

[Emotional Balance - Your emotions stay on a balanced scale.]

The skill descriptions doesn’t seem to have too much details in them, it seems he himself needs to test these things out and see what they can do and what they cannot do.

Looking at the bottom of the Shadow Mountain, he scratched his head for a moment. Actually, could this mountain be even called ’Shadow Mountain’ anymore?

Unfortunately, no one was there to answer his questions.

At the bottom of the mountain, all the ghostbounds have come back. They were waiting for him. The Snake also came back. He stood up, dusted his clothes slightly. When he reached the bottom, first his eyes turned towards the Shadow Snake.

It silently sent him a message.

"So, the barrier has indeed been broken?" said Valtar aloud.

The shadow snake nodded obediently hearing his words.

His eyes pierced the long distance as he stared intently toward the area of Fae Folks.

He chuckled and said in a murderous tone, "Well, since that’s the case lets not keep our hosts waiting too long shall we? They have already waited long enough I suppose. Time to bring down this gruesome forest to its knees and erase its existence."

He signaled towards the Shadow Snake, it tilted its large head slightly as if expressing its confusion for a moment, then suddenly understanding its master’s intent, it lowered its head to the ground. Valtar stepped onto its head and comfortably sat down on its head in a lotus position. Then they all began moving towards their destination.

To be continued.......