Cosmic Ruler - Chapter 199

Chapter 199: Purification III

Shelly and Serina gazed at the old man without much care, feeling bored by Aiden stretching out the encounter. They felt he should kill him quickly and move on to their next adventure, but it seemed Aiden was playing with him.

‘Don’t tell me this is the dark side of Aiden!’ Serina thought, her eyes widening with worry as she gazed at Aiden.

Aiden reached the old man and healed him. Raven, feeling his limbs restored, glanced at Aiden, confused.

“Well, you are quite good at your stuff, so I welcome you into my command,” Aiden smiled as he extended his hand toward him.

“Hahaha, I see, young master, this was a test… huh?” Raven laughed and grabbed Aiden’s hand as he extended it to him. But the next second, he felt weird as he saw Aiden holding a hand dripping with blood.

“Oops, it seems I used too much force to pull you up,” Aiden smiled innocently as he looked at his left side.

Raven looked at his left side and screamed at the top of his lungs as he saw his missing hand.

“Damn, so loud,” Aiden said as he waved his hand and cut off Raven’s lower jaw along with his tongue.

He bent down to him and said, “As I said, I accidentally used too much force, so will you SHUT UP!”

Raven nodded as tears streamed down his face. ‘Just let me go, and I will make sure to return all this pain a millionfold back to you,’ he thought viciously.

“Good, now let’s heal you back,” Aiden said, once again healing him. This time the old man stood up on his own, afraid Aiden might tear his hand off again.

Aiden looked at Raven with a cold smile. “You understand now, don’t you? You are under my command. Disobey me, and there will be consequences.”

Raven nodded, trembling. He knew he had no choice but to obey for now, but his mind was already plotting his revenge.

Shelly and Serina watched the scene unfold with mixed feelings. Shelly seemed indifferent, while Serina’s worry grew. Aiden’s actions were ruthless, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a deeper, darker side to him that she hadn’t fully understood until now.

“Let’s move on,” Aiden said, turning away from Raven. “We have more important things to do.”

He then turned back to Raven and handed him a few abyss crystals. “Here, use these to improve yourself.”

Raven hurriedly took the crystals, feeling the darkness within them. They felt so good that he almost forgot the earlier pain.

Shelly and Serina frowned, wanting to say something but refraining from speaking.

“Hahaha, thank you, young master. With these, I will reach the top of this realm and slay all your enemies,” he said, while thinking inwardly, ‘First, I will torture you and your relatives viciously. Don’t think I forgot what you did earlier just because you gave me this stuff.’

“Good, now die,” Aiden smiled and then patted his shoulder while igniting the hell flames.

The flames touched the old man, causing him to scream once again. He couldn’t help but look at Aiden, thinking it might be a prank again, but one look at his face was enough to tell this time it wasn’t.

“Arghhhhhhh! Why?” he asked amidst his screaming.

“Hmm, because of two things,” Aiden said as he stretched out two fingers.

“Firstly, because of him.” He patted Dullahan and continued, “I summoned him with the promise that I would kill you in the most despairing way. You might think he’s just a force servant, but no, I summoned him as a Spirit of Vengeance.”

Dullahan nodded as Aiden said this, staring at the old man as he continued screaming and listening to Aiden’s words.

“As for the second reason, it’s personal. You see, there’s a way to create a powerful undead named Skull Lord, Harbinger of Despair. To create it, I have to make a necromancer, a being like you, experience joy and despair at the same time, and then kill you. After that, I can summon a Harbinger of Despair,” Aiden explained as Raven thought, ‘I see… I never was going to be spared.’

“You know, since this is a cruel method with extreme conditions, I never used it before. But now, you—a scumbag, cruel bastard—are perfect for it,” Aiden said as he watched Raven die slowly.

It took ten minutes of torture for the hell flames to fully burn him to death.

Aiden then spread many black crystals around him and began to invoke incantations.

As Aiden spoke, Shelly and Serina felt like they were hearing the words of gods. The air around them vibrated with power, and a sense of reverence and fear washed over them. They couldn’t bear to hear the incantations, protecting themselves from his voice by covering their ears. Despite this, their eyes remained fixed on the scene unfolding before them.

A swirling vortex of black smoke began to rise from the ashes of the old man, gathering and condensing in front of Aiden. The smoke coalesced into a humanoid shape, gradually solidifying into a being of pure malevolence. It had the appearance of a lich, with a skeletal frame and a hideous smile stretched across its bony face. A pulsating red crown adorned its head, glowing with dark energy, while a golden scepter, encrusted with ominous runes, materialized in its hand.

{If you are curious about the appearance, then look at the book cover, the weird undead-looking beings behind him. Now imagine one of them wearing an expensive-looking robe, a crown, and holding a scepter.}

As the transformation completed, the newly formed entity raised its head, its hollow eye sockets emitting an eerie red light that seemed to pierce through the soul. The flames flickering within those sockets burned with an intensity that spoke of ancient power and unfulfilled vengeance.

And then…

“Hahahahahahah!”

The laughter echoed through the desolate area, filled with a mixture of triumph and madness.

“Hahahahaha!”

The sound grew louder, more manic, as if centuries of pent-up rage and insanity were being unleashed all at once.

“To think I will reach this state of no physical weakness this easily!” it laughed as it spoke.

“Magnificent!” it roared, the voice reverberating with an unnatural resonance. The lich-like being, now fully animated, bowed deeply to Aiden. “Ahh, my God, thank you for allowing this insect to reach the level he strived for,” it said, its tone dripping with a twisted kind of gratitude.

He clasped his bony dark hands together, praying to Aiden like a true fanatic. Flames trickled down his eye sockets, creating the illusion of tears streaming down his face.

Although it looked dramatic on the surface, to everyone present, the creature’s very presence exuded a chilling aura of despair and death, making the air feel heavy and oppressive. The Harbinger of Despair, as Aiden had called it, was a fearsome sight to behold, a true being worthy of the name.

Aiden’s lips twitched in a faint smile, a mixture of satisfaction and amusement playing on his face. He had successfully completed the ritual, turning Raven’s vile existence into something far more powerful, terrifying, and useful.

He looked back at Shelly and Serina, who were gazing at him with a mixture of astonishment and guilty. Never would they have thought the reason behind Aiden’s sadistic tendencies was to create this creature. Now, they feel bad for doubting him, especially after they learned the true purpose, for why he was torturing him.

Serina looking at Aiden back thought ‘ I will cook something delicious, to make up for him’ She thought as she began to ponder what to cook.

Shelly on the other hand, looked at the old man, who had now turned into this vile walking bag of bones. She couldn’t help but feel that the method Aiden used was similar to her Spirit Skills. The main difference was that her creations were always spectral without physical form, while Aiden’s were different. They required specific conditions to summon them, like the armored knight, whom Aiden called the Spirit of Vengeance, or this new Harbinger of Despair.

“My spirit skill is better in this regard,” Shelly thought, though she had to admit the effectiveness of Aiden’s methods in creating physically formidable beings.

“By the way, does he still have his Martial Spirit?” Shelly asked, as her Spectral servants still retained their martial spirits after all.

Aiden, hearing her, looked at the Skull Lord. “Do you still retain your Martial Spirit?”

The Skull Lord, who had been kneeling and praying, stood up and extended his hand. The scepter in his hand began to morph, transforming into a menacing triple-bladed scythe. Its handle was a polished, obsidian black, and the blades themselves were a grotesque fusion of metal and bone. The central blade was massive, cresent shaped , while two shorter blades flanked it on either side, all gleaming with a sinister sheen.

He showed it to Aiden and said, “As you see, my venerable God, not only do I retain my Scythe, but my Grade 3 farmer’s scythe has also been upgraded to a Heavenly Grade Three Soul Reaper Scythe,” he explained as he played with his scythe, twirling it effortlessly in his bony hands. The scythe seemed to pulse with a life of its own, the air around it shimmering with an eerie, dark light.