NOVEL NEXT Chapter 512: A Living Mist
"Don't listen to any voices. This mist is alive," he said
"My son… where are you going? Come back to us…"
But Drael stood frozen. His eyes widened, and his lips trembled. The voice, it was one he hadn't heard in so long.
"Drael! Don't look—!" Daniel shouted.
But it was too late. Drael turned toward the sound.
The mist moved like a living thing and, in an instant, wrapped around him completely.
His scream echoed through the air, and then vanished.
Only silence remained. Silence… and a fog thicker than before.
Daniel stared at the spot where Drael had disappeared and sighed
Silence had swallowed everything. The mist surged through the canyon like a quiet ocean.
Daniel stood still and looked around. There was no sound except the slow beat of his heart and Vorak's heavy breathing.
He hadn't expected to see a living mist, how could mist even be alive? Then again, he had also seen stones turn into living creatures before.
Could it be the work of that same blood... or the buried god? Or at least something similar? Unfortunately, he didn't have enough information to reason it out.
"Stay here. Don't move until I get back," he said, placing his hand on the neck of his massive beast.
Vorak let out a low growl. Daniel didn't look back and walked straight into the mist.
His footsteps made faint sounds on the damp, uneven ground of the canyon. But with every step, the texture of the earth changed, sometimes rocky and solid, sometimes soft and covered with grass, and sometimes… bones, cracking under his feet with a harsh crunch.
The mist, breathing like something alive, swirled around him. Then the sounds began. At first faint, like a whisper in the wind. Then clearer… familiar voices.
A woman laughing. The clash of swords.
And then, his own voice, not from his mouth, but from within the mist, from a distance that didn't exist.
"Why are you still alive, Daniel?… The ones you killed are still waiting…"
Daniel chuckled and spread his spiritual senses. He couldn't help but laugh, was this stupid mist trying to trap him with such an old trick?
His mental control was exceptional; it was almost impossible for him to fall for a few lousy illusions.
He took another step, and the voices abruptly stopped. It was as if even the mist realized that such tricks wouldn't work on him, in fact, he could almost feel its frustration.
Then, the silence was shattered, by a scream. Drael's scream.
Without hesitation, Daniel rushed toward the sound. The mist parted as he ran, its shapes shifting. When he reached the spot, he saw Drael lying on the ground, gasping for breath, a deep wound slashed across his arm.
"I thought I was done for… thanks for coming," Drael said with a faint smile when he saw him.
Daniel just looked at him silently.
Drael slowly sat up, but there was something wrong in his eyes.
"Pretending to be a monster doesn't suit you," Daniel said mockingly.
"How did you know?" Drael's smile widened. His skin began to quiver.
It turned gray… then black. His flesh peeled away and dissolved into the mist. From within, a tall creature emerged, a body wrapped in vapor, a mouth made of shadow, and eyes burning with bloody fog.
"That bastard would never say thank you like that."
The mist trembled.
The creature, the Whisper Fiend, opened its mouth, and thousands of voices poured out.
Each voice formed an image. One was a battlefield Daniel had once triumphed in. Another, the face of a man who used to be his friend. Another, a child with hollow eyes staring at him in silence.
"An illusion? You should've figured out by now that it doesn't work on me," Daniel said, stepping forward.
He drew his sword. A dark aura burst from it. The Law of Death spiraled through the air, and the sound of shattering souls echoed through the mist.
The Fiend roared. From the mist, black living veins emerged, writhing and suffocating.
They wrapped around Daniel's body, but only for a moment. With one swing of his blade, he shattered them all in a blinding black light.
As the screams echoed in the air, the Whisper Fiend, using the last of its strength, dissolved and reformed from the bloody vapor
But this time, Daniel was ready.
His aura flared violently, activating the Everlasting Physique. His abdomen turned into a devouring black hole.
In an instant, the ground trembled. The skin of the surrounding mist, along with the Whisper Fiend itself, was sucked into the void.
The creature screamed, a chorus of a thousand human voices, before vanishing into absolute darkness.
The mist fell silent. The air stilled. Then… Daniel raised his sword and, with one swift motion, tore the mist apart.
Drael was lying on the ground, unconscious, but alive. In fact, perfectly fine, just drained of mana.
"This idiot keeps getting caught in these illusion traps," Daniel muttered, a bit irritated. Illusions about family were always this fool's weak spot.
Did he really still feel that much guilt and obsession over their deaths?
As Daniel was lost in thought, the remnants of the mist began to surge again, as if trying to devour everything once more.
He narrowed his eyes. In his hand, a black sphere of death energy began to form, the best way to kill the mist was, naturally, to kill it.
Before throwing it, he formed a mana barrier around himself and Drael.
Then he tossed the orb into the air.
The moment it touched the mist, a silent but devastating explosion erupted.
Black waves twisted through the air, consuming all the fog.
A few seconds later, the canyon was empty.
The mist was dead.
Daniel turned, lifted Drael onto his shoulder, and released a small shock of energy into his body to help him breathe again.
"Wha… what happened?" Drael coughed and looked around in confusion.
"Nothing, Just thinking maybe I should kill you." Daniel said calmly.