The three specters under the command of the Pope of Bacalon floated in the skies above the cave where Jhon had entered. Their bodies were nothing but bones covered in wrinkled skin, and they had cold, bluish eyes that watched without blinking the two possible entrances and exits of the place, while waiting for their prey to appear.
As high-level soul-type creatures and also those who had received the greatest blessings from their God, the specters possessed a high level of power, as well as an incredible ability to sense danger.
Suddenly, all three took their eyes off the cave, and their gazes turned in the same direction in the sky.
Before they could react, one of the specters disappeared, followed by the second specter just 2 seconds later.
The third specter, sensing that his two companions had died in a matter of seconds, noticed the source of the danger and flew in the opposite direction. He contacted the Pope, who wasn't far away, in a frightened tone:
"My Lord, we are being attacked—"
But before he could explain what was happening, the third specter's body also disappeared from the sky.
The Pope of Bacalon, who was still calmly seated in the middle of the frozen lake, stood up and looked towards the cave. Feeling the connection with his servants fading, he floated and flew towards the location, thinking the attack had come from Jhon.
But just like the specters, the moment the Pope flew less than 3 meters above the ground, he felt immense danger; his body was attacked from all directions by some invisible creature.
A horrifying, icy energy emanated from his body as he flew even higher, causing several "grains of sand" around him to freeze, but this only lasted 3 seconds. After that, in another 3 seconds, the Pope's body also disappeared, as did those of the specters.
The only two things that remained of his body were a fragmented, icy blue sphere that flew at high speeds back to Asshai and a strange necklace that was around his neck. The necklace had a peculiar shape and could hardly be called a "key," since it was incomplete.
The "key" fell slowly from the sky after its bearer disappeared, but before hitting the ground, it was devoured by one of the many human shadows that emerged from Stygai and now spread throughout the Shadowlands...
***
Back in Asshai, in the secret area of the Temple of Bacalon. A dozen specters were kneeling in front of a statue of a child. The statue appeared human, and if you gazed at it for too long, you would feel a strange, icy sensation of morbid tranquility. It was made of white stone and emitted a freezing aura that chilled the surrounding ground. Atop the statue's head was a ghostly blue crown.
The statue's face was featureless, completely white and smooth, just like the rock used to construct it. Suddenly, the ghostly crown emitted a powerful light as a frigid blue fragment flew back into the Temple and stopped in front of the statue, then fell upon one of the specters venerating it.
All the specters reacted excessively, this time turning and prostrating themselves before the specter that had received the frigid blue fragment from the crown. One of the specters quickly stopped venerating it and ran to a nearby chest, retrieving a luxurious blue robe worn only by the Pope and helping him to put it on.
Only after donning the beautiful cloak did a distorted childlike voice emerge from the mouth of the specter dressed as a Pope:
"The Calamity of Souls has spread throughout the Shadowlands… Eternal King… What kind of blasphemy are you planning?"
***
Two kilometers away from the Sleeping Dragon, a battle was drawing to a close…
Katya, who had transformed into a kind of human dragon and attacked Old Daran in an uncontrolled and savage manner, was now extremely weak and beginning to revert to her "human" form.
As they watched, Old Daran finally breathed his last after being impaled and killed by a massive ice spear.
Flying through the skies, Omar, who had constantly supported Katya, healing her and disorienting his enemy, finally sighed in relief. He saw Katya revert to human form and fall unconscious to the ground.
He descended from the sky and threw an alchemical powder onto Old Daran's corpse, burning it completely.
He didn't know how he was alive, but this time, he wouldn't make it easy for him, not allowing any kind of resurrection.
Looking around at the dark alleys and streets of Asshai, there was ice everywhere, and a cold mist swirled around the region after their fight.
This battle was only easily won by them because this time Omar didn't make the same mistakes as in their previous fight... When Omar told Rafael about Daran's appearance and his fight in the Beast Garden laboratory, his friend said that this type of creature should be weak in places with low temperatures…
After causing a flood in the region using the Ash River and making the fight favorable for him and Katya, Omar began to freeze everything with constant basic ice spells. He immediately noticed how Old Daran had become much more rigid. Proving that Rafael's theory was correct and ice was the weakness of his new serpentine race.
After picking up the unconscious Katya from the ground, Omar heard a commotion nearby and decided to go and investigate.
Seeing three frightened apprentices near one of the branches of the Ash River, he asked:
"What happened?"
"Sir, there's a terrible monster in the water; it killed our companion as soon as we got too close to the shore."
Omar summoned his Shadow Wolf, laying Katya on top of it, and approached the riverbank. Using his newfound innate spell, he controlled a large amount of the river's water, raising it like a wave and hurling it toward the streets.
When the water diluted among the black stones, a creature with a fish tail and human arms was revealed. It had scales all over its body and appeared to have no gender. Its arms looked human, but its hands had red claws nearly 40 centimeters long each. Its head had long, green hair resembling seaweed, but its face was completely rotten as if it were no longer alive.
As soon as it ran out of water, the creature began to breathe with difficulty, its claws easily tearing through the black stone floor as it tried to crawl back into the Ash River.
But before it could do so, Omar decapitated it with his Valyrian Steel sword, causing smoke to rise from the spot where the cut was made. He kept its corpse to study it later. Then his eyes changed into a draconic form, a blue light shone in them, and he gazed into the river's arm, seeing through the phosphorescent water, spotting thousands of these creatures swimming in the depths as far as his eyes could see.
It wasn't difficult to deduce that the entire Ash River must be teeming with these strange, lethal new monsters, and judging by their rotting faces and the smoke after contact with Valyrian steel, it was obvious they were undead creatures…
At the same time, he also noticed something and murmured:
"It should already be dawn, but Asshai remains completely dark…"
Ignoring the frightened apprentices, he mounted his wolf and quickly returned to the Tower of Distortion. Such a strange situation had to be reported immediately, as it could be the beginning of a new Calamity.
As Omar returned, he saw something even more sinister happen. In the distant sky, two mages in black robes floated, conversing. It was likely they had already noticed the anomaly in the sun or the Ash River and were exchanging information.
But what Omar saw next made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and he swallowed hard in disbelief.
In less than 3 seconds, the bodies of the two floating mages were completely obliterated by an invisible force, leaving only a few of their personal belongings that fell from the sky...
Omar reacted by making his wolf run even faster to leave the streets before any of these strange phenomena could harm him.
In his mind, while trying to imagine what had happened to the two men in the sky, a memory from decades ago surfaced; it was information they had learned through a letter from Zhang:
"Did you know, Omar? In Stygai, flying in the skies is forbidden! Whoever flies will die…"
Trying to prove his theory, Omar immediately summoned a Blood Crow messenger and made it fly towards the sky.
After flying to a height that barely exceeded 4 meters, the crow disappeared, and only its beak and "metallic" claws remained.
"Sigh"
After sighing in terror, Omar hugged Katya and said: "It is undoubtedly the beginning of the Sixth Calamity…"
****
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