Holy Necromancer: Rebirth of the Strongest Mage

1047  Chapter 1047: A shadow for the king of shadows

With swaying feet, Karyk walked toward the person in the distance who was sitting on the ground. Despite the sound of his unstable footsteps, the person did not turn around, as if oblivious to the noise.

Karyk couldn't understand why Gabriel wasn't responding to his presence.

Although they had severed their souls, removing any connection between them and the ability to sense each other's presence, that still didn't diminish Gabriel's inhuman senses. "Are you not going to react?" Karyk called out, his voice barely above a whisper, but it carried the weight of all the time that felt like an eternity. For Karyk, not even a few years had passed since he separated from Gabriel in Elzeira. But for Gabriel, centuries had already passed. There was no response from Gabriel. A chilling sensation began to creep into Karyk's heart. He wiped the dried blood off his lips while closing the distance, with only a few meters of distance left between them. As he drew nearer, he could make out more of Gabriel's presence. His once vibrant figure seemed diminished, almost ethereal. The air around Gabriel was strange, tinged with an unnatural stillness that Karyk hadn't anticipated. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

It was definitely not like the Gabriel he had seen in the past who looked like he was enjoying his new life even in Karyk's absence. "Gabriel," he called again, louder this time, his voice breaking the oppressive silence. Still, Gabriel did not move. Karyk's concern grew. He quickened his pace, ignoring the pain that flared with each step. When he finally reached Gabriel, he reached out a trembling hand and placed it on Gabriel's shoulder. The moment his fingers made contact, Gabriel's body flickered, like a mirage, and then dissolved into shadowy wisps.

Karyk was taken aback. Why did Gabriel leave such an illusion behind for no reason? Something didn't add up. If this was not Gabriel, then where was he? What happened here? He extended his senses, searching for any trace of Gabriel or Zena around the mountain. The world felt hollow, devoid of the essence he had once known.

In the absence of the universal laws that were devoured by him, many worlds had lost their prosperity and fate. Still, no world should have become this barren with just the loss of the universal laws. While Karyk was lost in thoughts, he felt another presence. This time, it wasn't the presence of a person but the presence of a formation beneath his feet. Or rather, it was a formation that had covered the entire mountain. As he was distracted by Gabriel's presence, he had not noticed that formation but now, he could see it clearly. The formation had the familiar essence of death that Gabriel and Zena had mastered. "Did they make it?" he wondered while the formation was completely activated. In the blink of an eye, the entire mountain blew up. A barrage of destructive energy spread around, making the entire mountain disappear. A dark cloud of smoke rose up in the sky, almost appearing insignificant in front of the darkness of the abyss that already lorded over the skies. The entire grand mountain had disappeared, leaning behind only a giant crater where it used to be in the past. With this kind of explosion, it was impossible for even a god to survive as the explosion took help from the formation that was made with the essence of death that could easily gnaw at a person's divine energy. Despite that, one man still stood in the middle of the crater, right at the heart of the explosion. The man looked unharmed. Or rather, he wasn't harmed any more than he was already harmed before he arrived here. Karyk was weak at the moment, still not fully recovered. Still, he came out of this explosion unscathed. Strange and mysterious golden characters of unknown origin circled around his body akin to planets spinning around the sun. Even when he was weaker, he was still inside the universe devoured by the abyss. The Universal Laws that had disappeared from the universe were now a part of him. Even if he was weak, he could at least protect himself from this level of an attack. Compared to the injury he received in his life source thanks to his attempt of devouring the universe, this much was not even worth mentioning. Instead of being concerned about the attack on him, he was concerned about the source of this attack. Did Gabriel plan this attack? Then was that shadow of Gabriel a trap?

He wasn't sure if this trap was for him in the first place as it didn't make sense for Gabriel to plan a trap for him when he didn't even know that he was alive. 'Or did he know that I was alive?' he pondered, looking at the sky. Although the two had severed connection, but that didn't change the fact that the abyss was a part of him. If it was Gabriel, he might have realized who the source of the abyss covering the entire world was. 'Is this his rebellious phase?' he thought while patting his clothes as if trying to clear dust from the clothes that were already ruined thanks to the blood that mostly belonged to him. Tried, he increased his range, looking for Gabriel across the entire world. Fortunately, it didn't take him long to find the real Gabriel, who was almost on the other side of this same world. "There he is..."

He opened a Portal, stepping inside it, going straight for the new destination, not knowing it was actually Gabriel or another trap. Even for him, it was impossible to distinguish between a shadow and Gabriel as both of them had the same presence, intentionally. Even when the shadow was in front of him, Karyk hadn't noticed the difference. He wasn't sure if it was because such a long time had passed that Gabriel had made a lot of progress in his skills despite the limitations of the world. In the absence of the Universal Laws, a lot of the restrictions from the universe had also been removed.