Nobilis of War novel Chapter 46

"Ah!" Darren gave a cry of pain at the sensations claiming his body.

His insides screamed in agony. It was as if he would burst any second now. When he wielded the sword, the strong sword internal force was released along with it.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Dalton asked him, his tone edging on irritation. When he saw Darren's pained expression, he thought he was playing some kind of trick.

He charged at Darren with surefooted speed. A loud, metallic ring burst out when their weapons collided.

The impact sent a powerful recoil through Darren's body. Before he knew it, he had crashed into a wall, his back hitting the stone with a powerful thud. The same thing happened to Dalton. Like a kite that had snapped its thread, he flew with the wind- almost being thrown out of the cave.

He scarcely had time to process his shock. How could it be? Darren was a mere beginner of the Spirit Realm while he himself was at the ninth stage. There was a huge gap between them. He was a master, and Darren was a novice. How was it possible for him to possess such strength?

"Ow!" Darren cried out again.

He sensed the black smoke in his energy pathways inflated and spread out.

The next thing he knew was a stinging pain in his back, accompanied with a series of cracking noises, like the sound of branches snapping. .

It was then that he realized that his backbones were being broken by the black smoke as it travelled through his body. His face morphed into an expression of agony, magnified by his understanding of what was happening. All of a sudden, several black spikes stabbed out of the flesh of his back. His hands had turned dark in color, like the claws of a fiend.

His eyes widened in horror as he watched the changes in his body. "What on earth is going on? Is my body transforming?" Darren cried out in both fear and shock.

Everyone watched with disbelieving eyes as Darren transformed into something of a half human and half demon in front of them.

Darren felt his consciousness slipping away, and his senses were overtaken with an intense thirst for blood. Murder seemed to be such a delectable concept. He could almost taste the exquisite flavor on his tongue.

The sight had strewn panic among the onlookers. "Kill him!" a voice shouted, breaking the standstill.

The cultivators in the cave were all masters of at least the seventh-stage of the Spirit Realm. They rushed forward to kill Darren together.

"Hissss..." A sound similar to that of the bronze coffin came out from Darren.

The cultivators pressed forward and attacked him simultaneously. There was a tremendous energy released from their combined strikes.

Darren's eyes turned red at the face of such a heavy attacks. Nevertheless, he did not retreat. Raising his arms, he wielded his sword and went to the direction of his attackers. The black smoke mingled with the sword's power and shot forward, cutting two men in front of him.

"What monster is he?" one of the cultivators said aloud, his voice ringing with panic. .

The rest of the cultivators could only retreat and look at Darren in horror.

"Hissss…..".

At this moment, the bronze coffin outside the cave began to shake violently once more. Slowly, the coffin lid was lifted from inside, as if something wanted to come out.

A dense film of black smoke leaked out of the bronze coffin and drifted into the cave.

"Boom!"

There was a loud sound as golden runes blocked the miasma. Despite the barrier, the people inside the cave began coughing blood.

"Brother, let's work together to deal with this monster!" Dalton looked at a young cultivator who, like him, was at the ninth-stage of the Spirit Realm.

The young cultivator slightly nodded his head in agreement. All of a sudden, he charged forward and hit Darren with his fist. Dalton immediately followed and slashed with his knife.

Darren's first instinct was to resist the powerful attacks, but he was unable to match the strength of the two masters combined. Before long, he was thrown out of the cave from the volley of the attacks.

Dalton and the young cultivator were also backwards. They crashed into the stone wall, leaving two deep holes in its surface.

Darren felt weak after receiving blows from the two masters, but he attempted to return once more into the cave.

Meanwhile, the black smoke had not ceased from gushing out of the bronze coffin. Black waves sailed in the air, enveloping him in a thick smog. Before long, Darren could no longer see beyond the curtain of smoke.

"Breathe! Keep breathing!" Darren said to himself.

Sharp pain pricked his body all over. Holding on to the last traces of his consciousness, he assimilated the black smoke into his body.

He went on assimilating wave after wave of smoke as they flowed out from the bronze coffin.

Half an hour later, he felt as if his body was about to burst. He then directed the black smoke into his belly. The massive amount of smoke whirled around and around in his belly, compressing gradually until it finally formed into a pyramid-like form.

"Phew, phew!" The unknown thing in the bronze coffin seemed to get furious.

Suddenly, the sky had turned dark with gray clouds. A whirlpool appeared in the atmosphere - huge thunderbolts striking out from within.

The next moment, the thunderbolts struck the bronze coffin, coming down from the sky like a waterfall of electricity.

The deafening strikes were followed by a long period of silence.

"Kreeen!" The lid of the bronze coffin creaked, its opening growing wider and wider.

A figure in a black helmet and black armor slowly rose from the coffin.

When the creature had emerged out of the coffin completely, Darren could not believe his eyes. A young man stood, ethereal in his beauty. There was a forbiddingness about him - his eyes glowing silver and the air around him cold.

"How dare you steal my smoke? Damn you!"

A cold and ruthless voice sliced in the silence of Darren's mind. The next moment, an invisible spiritual energy shot out of the silver-white eyes of the fiend and darted at Darren.

Darren felt as if his skull was being pressed and crumpled. Something unknown had crept into his mind, and it was raging inside as if it wanted to crush him completely.

He was petrified with fear, and the ringing in his head went on and on. He gritted his teeth as he activated his own spiritual energy, which deflected the strange force away.

"Eugh!"

The fiend that came out of the coffin trembled violently and spat out black blood.

He let out an agonized scream, then looked up at the sky with a glare. Suddenly, he began running with the speed of an arrow.

"You dare try to escape, fiend?" a voice came from the sky.

Countless figures appeared in midair all at once. A terrifyingly powerful aura emanated from them.

"The masters of the Wonder Realm!"

"We are saved. We are finally saved!"

"They must have been sent from the Holy Land to kill the fiend."

The people began to rejoice at the appearance of the Wonder Realm masters.

The Wonder Realm was a realm only for the greatest. Only the strongest people in the entirety of the continent could reach this realm.

From the sky, at least a hundred Wonder Realm cultivators rushed forward to the fiend at the same time.

However, some of them fell down like dead comets the moment they were near the black fiend.

"Be careful, everyone! Let it go! It is still far too strong," their leader shouted.

The cultivators stopped their attacks immediately and the fiend quickly vanished to the distant sky.

"Go kill the other low grade fiends!" their leader ordered. A blinding halo of light formed from the masters of the Wonder Realm. Then, rays flew quickly in all directions.

"Awwwww!"

The sound of miserable screams from the fiends filled the air.

Soon enough, the low grade fiends were all beaten.

Darren's consciousness was gradually returning. However, the black spikes on his back seemed not to disappear.

"This is bad. With such an appearance, I'll be regarded as a fiend and be killed."

With this thought, Darren ran hurriedly, trying to look for somewhere to hide.

But in no time at all, his movements had caught the attention of a Wonder Realm master. A huge palm descended from the sky towards him.