The Blades of Fulgrim whipped through the air with terrifying speed, slicing, smashing, and obliterating everything in their path.
Stones that served as practice dummies toppled from the base of the tree trunks embedded in the forest clearing. Sotis the trunks groaned under Adam’s relentless attacks, while others shattered entirely.
Sitting on the branch of a tree outside the clearing, rene watched Adam’s dance of chains and blades as he transford the forest clearing into a storm of tal. His movent was unpredictable, yet eerily beautiful.
What fascinated her the most, however, was that despite losing his eyesight, Adam was able to accurately pinpoint the targets and deal with them. It was a beautiful dance of madness and mayhem.
In the blink of an eye, the storm of chains dissipated, and the Blades of Fulgrim returned to Adam’s hands. He inhaled deeply as he extended his Sphere of Resonance. He noticed that out of the dozen targets, he had only managed to hit eight of them. Though the rest were destroyed, so were the tree trunks beneath them.
This caused a frown to appear on his ghastly face, and he couldn’t help but mutter, "Not good enough."
What the white-robed Adam had said to him the other day still stuck with him, and he wouldn’t be satisfied until he was able to take out all dozen targets with unnerving precision.
Suddenly, rene’s lodious voice drifted into his ears:
"Aren’t you blind?"
Adam turned to the source of the voice and scoffed, "Are you making fun of ?"
rene shook her head, taking a bite of the apple in her hand. "I’m serious. How can you hit your targets when you can’t even see?"
Adam remained silent for a few monts, then answered:
"...There are other ways to see."
rene looked at him like he was so madman. It was besides the point that he was truly a madman. She sighed helplessly, shaking her head. She took another bite of the apple, then asked:
"By the way, where did you get those blades? And the cloak and the boots? I won’t lie, I was very tempted to take them off your corpse... after I killed you, of course."
Adam was flabbergasted. "How can you say those things so casually? Are you crazy?!"
"No." The elf shook her head. "But you are..."
Adam was even more taken aback. Could this elf truly be crazier than him? That couldn’t be possible... right?
With a suspicious look on his face, he asked, "Then why didn’t you kill ? Surely, these artifacts are more valuable than the life of a complete stranger."
rene turned her head and glanced at the blue sky. Her gaze settled on a distant cloud, the only cloud in her sight. A long ti later, she answered, her voice soft and tinged with a bit of loneliness:
"Sotis fellowship can be more valuable than treasures..."
Hearing her response, Adam slipped into silence. A faint smile found its way to his charred lips, and he whispered, "Yeah..."
rene couldn’t help but smile as well. She turned to Adam, but the next mont, her smile froze.
"Adam, please don’t smile. It’s ugly. And scary."
"You little..." Adam gritted his teeth but gave up in the end. "Fine, whatever. It’s not like I can help it."
He dropped the blades, then lay down on the ground. Still, he couldn’t stop smiling. He had been feeling the dreadful weight of loneliness for the past year.
It was true that the whispers of the Laughing God were driving him to the edge of madness, but so was loneliness. That was why he was so imnsely happy to find soone else on this island.
"I found these artifacts in Ivory City, by the way," he said at last.
rene frowned. "Ivory City? There’s no place like that on this land. Did you make up that word?"
Adam snorted. "All words are made up, fool."
rene’s frown deepened further, and she whispered, "Crazy bastard..."
"I can hear you!" Adam yelled. His lips curled into an unnatural grin, and he couldn’t help but break into a fit of mad laughter.
And so, he laughed and laughed and laughed.
Hearing his deranged laughter, rene felt her skin crawl, and she found herself involuntarily hugging herself. Her eyes flashed with hints of dread even.
Adam’s laughter ca to an abrupt halt, and he said, "It’s the city that was ruled by the elven Artificer."
"Elven Artificer..." rene murmured, her brows knitting into a frown. But then, her eyes gradually widened in shock. "Do you an Magus Luro?! That Artificer?!"
"Luro?" Adam arched a brow. "I don’t know his na, but that city is close to the edge of this continent. To be more precise, it’s towards the northern edge. All the ruined structures seed to be made of marble, hence the na Ivory City."
"Yes, that is Magus Luro!" rene’s eyes widened in shock.
"He was a renowned artificer from five thousand years ago! But more importantly, those ruins are swarming with magical beasts, and it’s said a powerful golem guards Luro’s workshop itself! How in the world did you get past all of that?!"
Adam’s lips curled into a wide grin, and he leapt to his feet in a graceful arc. "Oh, that steel golem with strength equivalent to a Mana Core Magus?" He asked, radiating comical smugness.
"Yeah, I just compelled all the beasts in the city to fight the golem for . And while they were tearing each other apart, I slipped into the armory and stole these artifacts. It was glorious, really. You should have seen it."
"Compelled the beasts?" rene frowned. "What are you? An Enchanter?"
Adam placed his hand on his chest and gave a slight bow. "I’m just a humble Herbalist."
"...So is the golem dead?" rene asked, her tone dubious.
"Of course, not!" Adam scoffed. "Do you think a Mana Core-level entity is so easy to kill?"
The next mont, he puffed out his chest and added with a smirk, "Although I have helped kill a Mana Core Magus before, and also directly killed a Mana Seed Magus, I might add. In fact, I’ve even survived an encounter with a Transcendent entity—"
rene suddenly interrupted him, her voice filled with disbelief. "You... how do you know about those arcane titles?! Didn’t you say you were a human from Ulier? Or perhaps... did you find an inheritance left behind by those who journeyed to the Greater Universe?"
Adam froze. He turned towards the elf and asked in a low voice, "How do you know about the Greater Universe?"
rene answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We are in Mabi. There are ruins filled with lost knowledge about the Greater Universe here. What’s more surprising is... how do you know about them?"
"Ruins... filled with... lost knowledge?" Adam’s breathing turned heavy. "Can you take there?!"
rene was taken aback by the youth’s sudden reaction. But soon, her lips curled into a smirk. "Ah, who knows? Maybe?"
"Quit playing with , woman!" Adam stomped towards the tree. "Will you take there or not?"
rene chuckled slyly. "Oh, I wonder, I wonder..."
anwhile, the mimic was utterly dumbfounded as it stood at the edge of the clearing, listening in on the conversation. It had never been more confused than it was at the mont.
"Gege..."
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