Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Mausoleum

After setting up a goal for himself, Lucas finally took the time to calmly observe his surroundings.

Although the place was quite dark, the eyes of a body refiner like him could see just clearly. 

Dark green moss enraptured the land, and placed throughout it were lifeless flowers that held no vitality. 

Chilling, cold wind calmly blew—as though the graze of death itself—fluttering the pale, colorless flowers in silence.

And though there was no sound or the slightest movement, the disquieting silence reverberated through the land like a cacophony of melancholy.

All over the terrain, tall, shattered pillars barely stood—cracked like a broken shell, ready to completely collapse at any given time.

Underneath the huge pillars, human skeletons lay in silence.

The skeletons were covered with cobwebs and dust, giving an ancient primeval feeling. It was unknown who they once were and how long they had remained dead without a burial, only that they were never discovered even until now.

Lingering around the whole place was an atmosphere of decay and abandonment, remnant grief and regret.

One could imagine its former state—a sight of beautiful flowers, masterfully sculpted pillars and festive living inhabitants. However, like any other… the whole place was eventually destroyed from the corrosion of time.

From heaven to the underworld. 

Before him was a world of silence emanating the chilling ambience of death.

Lucas observed indifferently, as though nothing about it was something to be concerned about.

“The layout of the place looks like a ruin of some kind.”

Lucas commented. He wasn’t exactly unfamiliar with ruins; he experienced going through it several times in his past life.

Ruins were often filled with traps, wild beasts and ancient relics. 

They were tricky, but along with the difficulty was a bountiful reward. While underground ruins differ from one another, it was a constant that there were remnant items or techniques left out by the past founders.

Thinking about this, he turned on Voidshadow Iris and surveyed the place in case he missed something important.

On an unrelated note, he only had two paths to choose to explore, to go forward or to go back from the narrow hole he hid from earlier.

Although he had gained some strength since he first woke up at this place, he was still not confident enough to face whatever lay beyond the narrow path.

For that reason, going forward and following the path beyond seemed to be his only choice. 

Thankfully, the most logical one too.

To explore the land more efficiently, he decided to start walking around while keeping an eye over his surroundings.

***

While he was exploring, something he saw made him pause his steps in curiosity.

From a distance, a large, white mausoleum covered with moss and fallen debris was situated. 

However, the mausoleum wasn’t the one that took his attention away—it was the faint, translucent aura that emitted around it.

Through Voidshadow Iris, he could see a pale, formless energy that swirled around the mausoleum quietly.

Lucas raised his brows, intrigued. Shaping a sword with his aura, he cautiously approached the mausoleum.

As he got nearer and closer, the formless aura coming from the mausoleum seemed to shine more clearer and brighter than ever before.

Soon, he arrived in front of the mausoleum. Slightly raising his sword in caution, he pushed open the door.

Creak…

Ready to attack possibly anything that might assault him, Lucas stopped and echoed a relieved sigh.

Contrary to his expectations, there was no beast nor trap inside. Debris and moss infiltrated the place, while in the middle, dozens of unidentifiable minerals lay.

Just as he was about to go inside it…

Woosh—!

A black shadow suddenly appeared behind him, with fangs as sharp as knives and fur darker than anything.

‘You took your time.’

Lucas thought before he turned his back and swung his sword in a graceful arc without pause. 

Just in time, before the black shadow could touch him, his sword reflected them away.

“Cre..!”

The shadow growled in pain. A thud loudly resounded as its body fell and revealed its true form.

The black shadow was a four-limbed beast with a lithe body—its piercing, sharp eyes glaring at Lucas in anger while its long tail spun behind it.

“Hm? A leopard this time?”

Lucas raised his brows, intrigued. It seemed that the Corrupted Rhino was just a variation among many. That made sense by how weak the Oversoul System evaluated it.

The Corrupted Leopard glared at him and warily retreated slightly.

“Are you surprised?”

Lucas suddenly asked with a nonchalant smile. In truth, he had already expected a hostile entity when he was approaching the mausoleum—and exactly how?

Simple. Claw marks. On the walls of the mausoleum, although blurry and faint, he could see marks of a sharp claw.

The problem was that he didn’t know where the wild beast was hiding, thus he lowered his guard and acted as an ignorant prey.

You are reading story Supreme Warlock: Oathbreaker at novel35.com

Although it sounded risky as there was a chance that the wild beast could be something beyond what he can currently fight, he had had Void Plunge to save him from such a scenario irregardless.

“I hope you show me more than the Rhinoceros from earlier,”

Lucas narrowed his eyes. He was 90% sure that the energy used in soul techniques and what energy these corrupted beings are the same, or at the very least, similar.

Observing how they attack and use that energy would help him use the otherworldly miracle energy he temporarily called magic.

The Corrupted Leopard bared its fangs, as though accepting Lucas’ provocation. Without a moment of pause, it leaped towards Lucas.

Woosh—!

At that moment, the Corrupted Leopard suddenly disappeared mid air—turning into a faint shadow as it reappeared behind Lucas.

‘What? An ability like Void Plunge?’

Lucas, realizing his predicament, instantly swung his sword to his back—however, the Corrupted Leopard dodged and merely flashed towards a different blind spot again.

Knowing his attempts at hitting the Corrupted Leopard would be futile, Lucas abruptly gathered aura around the edge of the aura-forged sword and strongly stabbed it to the ground.

Boom—!

An abrupt explosion erupted, blowing away the Corrupted Leopard to a distance. However, Lucas’ state wasn’t so good either.

His clothes were in a tattered mess while his shoulder had a small surface wound from the Corrupted Leopard’s claws.

Although he reacted just perfectly, the Corrupted Leopard was undoubtedly faster than him. 

Lucas lightly stared at his wound on the shoulder. It was the first time something had wounded him since he came here. 

Woosh—!

Not giving him any time to relax, the Corrupted Leopard started its assault again. But this time, he was able to counter perfectly.

However, in front of the Corrupted Leopard’s superior speed, it simply flashed to another spot when it realized that it was countered.

And before Lucas could deflect the Corrupted Leopard away, its sharp claws were able to mark  skin, pouring out blood.

From a different perspective, it seemed like a hopeless fight where Lucas struggles to even graze the beast while the leopard easily desecrates him slowly.

However, that wasn’t true at all. He was learning as the fight progressed—little by little. Even if the Corrupted Leopard was faster than him, he could gradually predict where it would attack.

…But he wasn’t in a hurry to end things yet. He wanted to learn more about the beast's ability. Thus, despite being wounded throughout his body, his expression never changed.

In truth, midway through the fight, if he had focused he could have easily deflected the Corrupted Leopard’s attacks. But he was slowed down because he wanted to see how the Corrupted Leopard uses its energy.

When the Corrupted Leopard leaped into the air and transformed into a flash of a shadow, through the Voidshadow Iris, he could see the dark energy that covered the Corrupted Leopard move.

He was studying it—how it moved, operated and affected the Corrupted Leopard’s movements.

To others, that feat might be impossible simply because the Corrupted Leopard moves too fast. It was impossible to observe the movement of its energy when only a blur appeared.

But to Lucas—it was not a problem. Even for a second. As long as it appeared before him, he would remember it and take note of it inside his mind.

By doing that, slowly but surely, he was understanding the concept of magic and how the Corrupted Leopard uses it.

After a while, Lucas’ body was already full of wounds and claw marks. To any other eye, he already looked like a dead man.

Perhaps he would be one as the Corrupted Leopard has lost its patience. It raised its claws and bared its fangs, preparing for one last big attack, it flashed towards Lucas.

However, Lucas’ aura-forged sword, seemingly able to read the future, suddenly swung to where the Corrupted Leopard would appear.

At first it seemed like a coincidence, however the result was the same the second time. The third time. The fourth..

Then the Corrupted Leopard realized its attacks were no longer being a threat. Without a moment of hesitation, it vanished and retreated to the back.

Lucas, seemingly distracted by something else entirely, chose to ignore it and merely stood with a bated breath.

“..Hm, so that’s how it is. I understand now.”

Lucas muttered while he closed his eyes and nodded to himself.

“It’s similar to aura, but it isn’t aura. How needlessly complicated. Let’s try then.”

Without pause—inside him, the dormant pure, dark magical energy moved from its hibernation. Under his control, he manipulated it similar to how the Corrupted Leopard’s own energy operated.

However, a major difference was that Lucas was also activating Void Plunge throughout the whole process, effectively raising the technique to a new level.

The Corrupted Leopard from a distance suddenly felt its hair stand. It backed off slightly, ready to escape at any moment from the scene unfolding before its eyes.

Woosh—!

However, before the Corrupted Leopard could even move away, a formless sword suddenly came crashing down on its body, smashing it to the ground.

Boom—!

The Corrupted Leopard couldn’t even react—a shadow darker than its fur and speed superior to its own.

As though the grim reaper itself, a formless blade came from the shadow’s hand and descended to its body.

“So this is how you use ‘magic’, huh? It feels unfair to only know about it now,”

The shadow figure—Lucas, chuckled with a wide ecstatic smirk.

“What an amazing ability!”

You can find story with these keywords: Supreme Warlock: Oathbreaker, Read Supreme Warlock: Oathbreaker, Supreme Warlock: Oathbreaker novel, Supreme Warlock: Oathbreaker book, Supreme Warlock: Oathbreaker story, Supreme Warlock: Oathbreaker full, Supreme Warlock: Oathbreaker Latest Chapter