Primordial Sage: Plight of Immortality

While Aziro was still contemplating whether to dispose of his disloyal subordinates, Illyan was already far away. At first, he planned to leave the town secretly while chaos was ensuing and return later on when everything calmed down.

Unfortunately, with the baggage he carried around, namely the robed man’s body and Caleb, he would have problems leaving quietly without anyone noticing.

In the end, he decided to enter one of the abandoned houses where he hid for a moment. He checked out with his spiritual perception if someone was tailing him, and when he realized that he was not, he sighed in relief.

He put both the body and Caleb in one of the rooms and put their equipment away, especially Caleb's sword and armor, since he was just unconscious and not dead.

Fortunately, the robed man had already prepared sleeping powder for the troll, so Illyan just took a really small dosage and sprinkled it on the unaware man.

Then, he looked through the robed man’s things for something useful. He saw some scrolls, vials, books, and other materials but didn’t know any of that. That was good news since it meant he got something mysterious, but for the current him, the dull sword and armor of the knight were more important.

The sword was a two-handed longsword with a bluish hue on its blade. The quality was completely different from other weapons that he saw. The Bakur Tribe always had extremely durable and sharp weapons, but that was only thanks to the baptism of cold energy and not the technique of forging.

He was also pleasantly surprised to find a bag with a set of throwing knives hidden at his belt. With a quick count, there were twelve of them.

Satisfied, Illyan tried wielding the sword and swung it with the sound of slashing air. While the sword could be used with two hands, he was much stronger and taller than the original user and could easily use it with one hand. The sword was not exactly heavy either.

However, he saw the advantage of using two hands when doing some more difficult sword moves and was intrigued.

But for now, he didn’t have time for that as he put his eyes on the armor. While he took it off Caleb, he already knew how the straps and everything else worked, so he quickly donned the chestplate himself, hiding it inside the robe.

The armor was small for him, so he had the straps looser than Caleb, but he still felt that it was useful. He didn’t take any other parts of the armor on himself as he felt it would impede his dexterity and decided to just put them away for the moment.

When he was finally prepared, he thought about leaving for now and retrieving the bodies later on. Even if he couldn’t do so in the end, he was already satisfied with the robbed man’s belongings.

Just when he wanted to walk out, his ears trembled a little, like those of wild animals. He froze and stopped moving and even breathing. Instead, he pondered whether to use the [Nature Breath Method] to try to dilute his presence. He was aware that it was useless but he still wanted to try.

But soon, he threw the idea away. He knew the enemy was already aware of him. If he did this, he would also know that Illyan knew of him, giving away a precious advantage.

‘Haah… I feared that this would be the case… I really can’t avoid it, can I?’ Illyan’s theory of ‘Fate Trials’ was once again validated as he felt like prey in front of a predator.

While he was aware of the enemy, he wasn’t complacent as he already knew that this would not be an easy fight.

Carefully, he distanced himself from the two bodies while his muscles tensed up.

He listened carefully, not even daring to use his spiritual perception while trying to play clueless.

It was then when the wall burst out, and the dust covered the entire place when two gigantic blades were coming for him at high speed.

Illyan knew that he would not be able to dodge this attack. He lowered his body into a horse stance and held the sword with his two hands to deflect one of the mantis blades while letting the other one graze his ribs.

Fortunately, Illyan already had the armor, which protected him from deep wounds. Albeit with a price, as the relatively new armor was already cut through. However, the preparation was worth it.

Seeing that the mantis blade wanted to move again, he quickly let go of the sword with his one hand and put the mantis blade under his armpit in an effort to try to stop it.

He held the blade with bare hands, which made them bleed but managed to hold both of the mantis blades off.

However, the blade he held with his hand was suddenly devoured by the darkness and was slowly coming for him. Illyan felt that it gained more power and the blade itself felt sharper. Slowly, the blade was slipping through his palm. His hand was in jeopardy, but he didn’t let go even as he felt his fingers fall one by one.

This all happened in but a second as another wave of attacks ensued. There was a subtle disturbance of the dust in front of him, and he immediately knew it was some kind of projectile.

This time, he could only try to dodge some that were targeting his vital organs while taking on the others. Some of them were deflected by the armor, but most of them lodged inside as if it was made out of mud. Thankfully, it mitigated a lot of damage done to him.

“You are quite daring to try schemes against someone at the third stage… I thought you were some kind of hidden expert with that life force of yours, but it seems I have been mistaken.”

When the dust finally settled, Illyan finally found the old man named Ezekiel staring at him with resentment in his red eyes. He seemed to be in bad shape, with several purple and blackish wounds covering his body.

Illyan also noticed his new monstrous visage and was horrified when he saw the sweeping of the big red stinger right at his head.

He loosened his arm with the sword, letting it fall down as he quickly crouched, dodging both the stinger and mantis blade that was held off with the sword before he caught the sword again only to swing it at Ezekiel's unprotected body.

“Hmph…” Ezekiel snorted as he waved his arms, which were free the entire time. The unblemished palm of his started to distort as several teeth grew out of it and opened to show a bottomless mouth.

And from that mouth, a black tendril came out. It wasn’t something solid. It was the same thing that covered Ezekiel’s body but just in a different shape.

Illyan would be intrigued at any other time if that was also just aura or something completely different, but he couldn’t now as he had to fight for his life.

After exchanging several blows, he felt the danger of death creeping on him when he fought the man in front of him.

‘Why is he here?’ Illyan’s thoughts were filled with questions as he was running around. He threw all the furniture at the man, trying to stop him without any success. Once they exchanged several more blows, Illyan ran out of the hole Ezekiel created.

“Because of you, my plan almost got ruined and I got heavily injured. But taking your life force should suffice as compensation, hihihihe. If I will not use that delicious life force of yours to the fullest potential, it would be a very heavy crime against the god…”

At one time calm and charismatic, and at another, a quietly calculative killer.

The more Illyan saw Ezekiel, the more he felt this man didn’t have it right in his head. And now, when he saw his delirious state with mumbling about gods, he felt he was right.

‘Are all gods’ believers crazy?!’ Thinking about Blood Crow worshippers, he felt as if the images of both overlapped. The difference was that Ezekiel was strong and monstrous to the point where even Illyan didn’t know how to fight against him.

‘Also, was the leader of the robed man killed? Why isn’t he showing up?’ Illyan, who didn’t watch the entire fight, was a little confused as he hoped for them to battle it out until they took each other’s lives. Unfortunately, what he didn’t know was that Ezekiel didn’t plan to battle it out with Aziro at all, let alone kill him, which would jeopardize his safe haven here.

Illyan was attacked from five angles in close combat because of Ezekiel’s hands, mantis blades, and his tail stinger, and whenever he distanced from Ezekiel, a volley of barbs showered him from a distance.

This created a highly bad situation for Illyan. He couldn’t run, but he couldn’t fight back properly either. Fingers could regrow at a fairly high speed, but if he lost a limb or was heavily harmed in a different place, then his fighting prowess would fall even more and he would be killed easily in the end.

Not to mention, the only weapon that wouldn’t get destroyed while clashing against the mantis blades was the longsword he wasn’t well-versed in, which was displayed as he got endowed with many injuries while trying to either block or parry the attacks.

The only reason he didn’t completely crumble was because of [The Way of the Body], thanks to which he instinctively moved the sword in the best way his anatomy allowed.

As a result, Illyan did whatever he could to fight back with the help of the environment and things around them. He hid behind the carts and stalls, running inside the buildings through the windows trying to use confined space to his advantage.

Of course, Ezekiel

was like a natural disaster and destroyed everything that appeared in front of him, but he still slowed down a little, and Illyan finally got some respite.

There was no one around them at the moment as all of the people had already evacuated long ago, but he still heard screams from the surroundings. But he didn’t care.

What he cared for now was survival.

Right at the moment, Illyan climbed all the way up to the roof of one building and was prepared to jump to another.

“Ah, I don’t have time for this…” However, Ezekiel, who was chasing after him thinking he was just an easy target, started to get exasperated.

The dark flames that Illyan identified as aura converged on mantis blades, merging with the already dark substance covering them, and swung them at a speed he couldn’t perceive.

It was as if time stopped as the wind got calm. However, Illyan’s heart got many times louder as its beating sound resounded in his ears.

The two blades of darkness flew at him at high speed, where he didn’t have time to think things over. He only trusted his instincts and jumped to the side down the building.

A loud boom that was almost deafening resounded out behind him as the bits of rubble prickled his back and even hit his head.

When he turned his body mid-air, he noticed that five buildings in a row got sliced through as they now crumbled down. It was a total catastrophe.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end. Ezekiel didn’t do that move just for the sake of it.

Just as Illyan was a few meters above the ground, he heard another crumbling sound as he saw Ezekiel grinning at him. His tail, which was several meters long, coiled behind him like a spring and used the roof as leverage.

His mantis blades were also directed straight at Illyan, who was now helpless.

The building literally burst out as Ezekiel jumped with such strength that demolished it to the ground.

Ezekiel, even normally, was much faster than Illyan, which made it hard for him to dodge or retaliate. But now, it was completely impossible to do so.

He was aiming at Illyan at such speed that Illyan didn’t have time to fall on the ground and could only watch as the mantis blades were coming for him….

‘If I live long enough, will I be able to get as strong as this?’ At this moment, there was no fear on Illyan's face but only awe. He thought he was careful and that he prepared enough for this, but he was sorely mistaken.

It was not the difference in skills that awed him. In truth, he felt that when it came to battle instincts, he was on par with the dark elf. However, the raw power of his body and the energy he used to fight completely overpowered Illyan. The only way he could compete was with his regeneration.

The desire to get stronger burned deep down within him. He didn’t want to die here.

He wouldn’t allow it…