Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 459: Obsidian Crystals

Ezra places his hand on the crystal’s surface, feeling the energy ripple through his fingertips.

The moment he makes contact, the whispers cease.

Instead, a single, chilling voice echoes in his mind.

"Who dares touch the Heart of Perdition?"

Ezra’s hand snaps back instinctively.

The crystal flares to life, its crimson veins glowing with an intensity that bathes the chamber in an ominous red hue.

"Well, that can’t be good," he mutters, retreating a step.

The blackness encasing the crystal withdrew before gathering at the center, where it then made out the shape of a head, before parting in certain places to showcase orifices such as the eyes and a mouth.

Ezra watches as this happens, which took a span of five seconds.

Upon completion, the blackness shakes and squirms as though coming alive, before suddenly settling.

And then...

"Who might you be?"

Like a lie, the voice Ezra heard just moments before resounds from the dark silhouette.

Ezra stands motionless, his instincts screaming.

Yet, he resists the urge to act rashly.

The silhouette ripples unnaturally, its vague humanoid features shifting with every movement, like a distorted shadow.

Ezra narrows his eyes, masking his unease with a sharp smirk.

"Who I am doesn’t really matter, does it? The better question is, what is this... thing?"

He gestures toward the crystal, subtly moving his scythe into a defensive position.

The silhouette chuckles, a deep, hollow sound that reverberates in the chamber.

"Ah, arrogance. A common trait among fools who stumble into places they should never tread.

This ’thing,’ as you so ignorantly call it, is a fragment of perfection—a culmination of knowledge and power that your insignificant mind cannot begin to fathom"

Ezra arches an eyebrow.

"You know, for someone waxing poetic about perfection, you seem awfully invested in hiding behind shadows and relics."

He taps Skyfall lightly against the ground, the faint hum of energy coursing through the weapon a not-so-subtle warning.

The silhouette’s form shivers, and its voice turns cold.

"Bold words, little worm. Do you truly understand the weight of your insolence? Or shall I educate you?"

The crimson veins in the crystal pulse violently, sending shockwaves through the chamber.

Ezra steadies himself as the ground trembles beneath him, cracks spidering outward from the crystal’s base.

’Great’ Ezra thought, tightening his grip on Skyfall.

"More theatrics. Let me guess, is the part where you try to scare me off or monologue about how I’ve ruined your grand plan?"

The silhouette tilts its head, almost amused.

"Ruined? No, not yet. Though I admit, your meddling has... complicated matters."

Without his smirk faltering, Ezra’s eyes narrow.

"Complicated how?"

"....."

The silhouette stares at Ezra incredulously before bursting into loud jest, laughing hysterically for almost half a minute before coming to a tear jerking stop.

"Ignorant whelp" the silhouette says, its tone laced with mockery and amusement. "Why would I tell you that?"

Ezra’s smirk grows thin at the silhouette’s mocking tone, but he remains composed.

"Fair enough" Ezra replies, his voice tinged with dry sarcasm. "Though I’d say laughing like a lunatic isn’t exactly helping your ’all-knowing’ image"

Whilst saying this, Ezra gently crawls towards the exit.

The silhouette’s form shifts again, the edges of its humanoid outline flickering like a dying flame.

Its hollow eyes flare crimson, locking onto Ezra with unsettling intensity.

The shadow’s eyes narrow, full of malice. "You mock me now, but you will come to regret crossing my path, just like all those before you"

"With how much you’re talking, I guess this crystal must be more important than you make it seem, but it won’t take me much to destroy it"

The silhouette burst into chuckles before coming to a sudden stop. "Ignorant jokes aren’t funny when done too many times. Although, you’re very much welcome to try"

And with that, the silhouette dissipates, and the blackness spreads to all corners of the crystal once more.

A second later, the annoying and grating voices return.

"...Save...us..."

"....Help...us..."

"...Release...us..."

With the entity gone, Ezra gives the crystal a long hard stare, considering his options while increasing his crawling speed.

[Ezra, think carefully. To openly taunt you like such, he’s either confident you won’t be able to break it. Or—

Ezra finishes the sentence. "He deliberately wants me to break it"

<Neither option seems like a good option> Viprus chips in.

Ezra nods in response.

[Just send it to the sovereign universe then. I would like to research what kind of artifact it is]

To this, Ezra remembers that he had such an option on hand and throws it into the sovereign universe, reaching the entrance to the next section in little.

—-------

Elsewhere, within a hidden cove, a pale man sat cross-legged on an obsidian dais, his skinny frame cloaked in a black robe.

The chamber around him lay suffused with an eerie, pulsating light, emanating from countless dark crystals embedded into the cavern walls.

Each crystal throbs faintly in unison, as though part of some grotesque, unnatural heartbeat.

The man’s face is gaunt and sickly, with deep-set, sunken eyes that glowed faintly red.

His right arm was grotesquely twisted, resembling a claw more than a human limb, and his left was little more than bone, encased in a webbing of pulsing black veins.

Around his neck hung a chain of jagged, blood-red shards, each one engraved with unholy symbols.

Suddenly, his eyes shot open, glowing brighter than the crystals surrounding him.

A deep scowl marrs his already unfriendly face, wiping the smirk that had been there seconds before.

"No..." he hisses, his voice echoing unnaturally.

He reached out, clawed fingers extending into the air as though grasping for something unseen.

There was nothing. No connection. No presence.

The faint hum of energy that had always tethered him to the Heart of Perdition was gone.

"Impossible." His voice rose, a blend of fury and disbelief. "How dare he sever my link?! Did he destroy the crystal?!"

The crystals in the chamber brightened, reacting to the surge of rage that poured off him.

Shadows writhed at his feet, coiling and twisting like living things.

His clawed hand clenches, and the light dim slightly, the darkness encasing the entire room is pulled towards him just like with the crystal.

The darkness looks like moving ink, squirming and shaking.

"BUT HOW?!" He screams, his voice resounding and his mind racing. "I certainly checked his strength! He doesn’t have the strength to destroy my masterpiece! So what in the world is going on here?!"

He stands abruptly, his form towering yet sickly, his robes billowing as though caught in the wind.

"You.BASTARD!" he roars, the sound reverberating through the chamber like the wail of damned souls.

His fury reaches a crescendo with the dark crystals around him shattering into fragments as waves of malice pulsed outward.

"You insignificant worm! I will rend your soul apart for this insolence!"

—------

Ezra was only halfway through the exit door when a tremor rattled through the cavern.

A faint glow of crimson pulses in the distance behind him, dimming almost as quickly as it had appeared.

"I doubt that’s a good sign" he mutters, glancing over his shoulder.

Despite his better judgment, Ezra couldn’t ignore the ominous presence that seemed to loom just beyond the shadows.

His hand tightens in face of such a sensation, but Ezra presses forward regardless.

The moment he appears in the next section of the secret realm, Ezra’s expression hardens.

The section lay vastly different from the one before it, this much Ezra knew almost instantaneously.

The air here was heavier, oppressive, and it carried a strong metallic scent of blood.

Black crystals jutted out from the ground and walls at odd angles, their surfaces jagged and irregular, like shards of broken glass.

They glowed faintly, but unlike the heart of Per...whatever it was called, their light was weak, flickering erratically as though on the verge of dying.

Ezra glances around cautiously, his instincts on high alert.

"Well, this is cozy," he mutters under his breath, his voice low while his eyes continuously scan his environment.

He taps Skyfall against the ground, its resonance cutting through the oppressive silence.

There was no response, no sudden attack, but the unease in his gut refuses to subside.

[These crystals weren’t originally like this] says Zydrax. [The energy here is fragmented and distorted, be careful]

Ezra nods, keeping his weapon raised as he moves deeper into the cove.

The further he ventures, the more twisted the crystals become.

Some are cracked, leaking faint wisps of dark smoke, while others glow at irregular intervals, as though waiting to explode at any moment...

Ezra exhales sharply, his gaze narrowing as he steps deeper into the strange chamber.

His feet crunches against loose shards of crystal, each step echoing faintly through the stillness.

The oppressive air clings to him like a second skin, growing thicker with every step.

"Fragmented, distorted... I get that" Ezra mutters, his voice breaking the silence as much for himself as for his companions. "But what I don’t get is why this whole place feels like it’s waiting for me to make a mistake"

[It might be] Zydrax’s voice not only held zero tension but also lay tinged with amusement. [Be ready for anything]

As if on cue, the crystals around him tremble faintly, emitting a low hum—like a chorus of voices just beyond hearing.

Ezra freezes mid-step.

Slowly, his eyes scan his surroundings, noting how the glow of the black crystals seems to intensify and wane as though responding to his presence.

A sudden chill permeates the atmosphere, and a distant, guttural sound echoes through the darkness. freёweɓnovel.com

Ezra tightens his grip on Skyfall, his instincts flaring.

"That’s annoying" his voice steady despite the gnawing unease.

He takes another step forward—and the ground shifts.

A violent tremor ripples through the chamber as the crystal shards pulse one final time.

From the darkness, something begins to move.