Chapter 1793: Chapter 1792: The Death of Des
The purple light permeates the universe, and He Ao’s hand gently stretches forward, slowly grasping the void.
Fine gray-purple light spills from his fingertips, and the dim void begins to tremble slightly with his movements.
The dense surging darkness violently rises at this moment, not only covering Medala but also sweeping towards He Ao, like tides covering the heavens and earth.
However, He Ao merely pulls his hand back gently, and radiant purple light emerges suddenly in the void, forming a massive purple network.
These are runes and lines, intertwined like an illusory net, encompassing every direction and deeply embedded in the surrounding dense darkness.
He Ao grasps this purple net, pulling forcefully.
The twisted darkness shakes violently at this moment.
A terrifying and twisted aura surges from the darkness, and a face emerging from it quivers slightly, "You’re courting death!"
Purple light streams out from the darkness, sweeping the world’s depths and across where He Ao stands.
An invisible and terrifying aura brushes past, surrounding everything.
Small, dense black spots appear on He Ao’s flame-wrapped bones, quickly expanding and spreading.
An aged and decayed aura emerges from these spots as well.
The tall bones seem to decay and dissipate rapidly, like bones buried in earth.
"No one escapes death; it’s the eternal end for all," speaks the face in darkness, its voice like the wind, hoarse and devout, "even bones share this fate."
With these words, the black spots flow and extend like spilled ink, swiftly spreading over He Ao’s ribs and further outward.
The bell of death seems to toll at this moment, and within the dim shadows, He Ao can even hear the rushing waters, a path to the Netherworld opening now.
The face within the darkness seems to finally go mad, activating the deepest high-tier power to attempt utterly to kill He Ao.
Yet, at this moment, He Ao’s actions and face remain unchanged, still gently gripping the glowing network in the void, waving a bone hand dotted with black spots, slowly pulling back.
Gray-purple light ignites completely around him, merging into the flames beside him.
These lights suppress the rapidly spreading black spots, hindering their further spread.
The Ains security net is blocked, meaning He Ao’s use of angel-tier power here will not be detected by Boris or other angels of Ains.
Boom—
A violent tremor rings through the darkness, countless lines pulled from the void, halting the rapid spread of black spots abruptly.
Then, that giant purple net begins to slowly retract like a net pulled from rushing waters.
Simultaneously, the vast network trembles fiercely, like a ferocious fish struggling in the darkness, attempting to break free of the net’s control.
No matter how much the network trembles, He Ao’s actions remain steady.
Like an experienced fisherman, he lightly grips the net, steadily pulling upward.
With his pulling, the net’s trembling grows more intense and frightening.
The surrounding surging darkness also begins shaking madly.
The black dots spread over He Ao’s figure, surging like tides, assaulting the gray-purple light barrier, quickly extending outward.
The gray-purple light suddenly brightens, suppressing the spreading black dots.
Yet He Ao’s movements do not pause.
As he pulls, the enormous purple network begins slowly retracting inward, as if the ’big fish’ trapped within is about to be dragged out of the ’water.’
The surging darkness oscillates like a tsunami, blowing like a storm against He Ao’s body.
Yet He Ao stands steadfast like a boulder amidst this tsunami, continuing to pull up the net slowly.
The marking created by the Church of the Grim Reaper’s greatest advantage is retaining the position of Divine Grace; it’s a setup led by the Divine Power.
Essentially, it sacrifices humans into the ’Extraordinary Items,’ ensuring mortals can wield the powerful Divine Power.
But equally, it imprisons the user in these Extraordinary Items.
Against enemies marked with this, the best strategy is not to counter their wielded Divine Grace with one’s power but to use Divine Grace’s limitations to capture them.
In other words, adopt a strategy against ’Extraordinary Items’ rather than individuals.
This Extraordinary Item has two cores.
One is Divine Grace, and the other is the imprint restricting Divine Grace.
No matter how intricate the imprint, ultimately it’s just a mystic magic.
In the past, breaking this magic’s difficulty for He Ao might have rivaled the force of Divine Grace, finding flaws in Divine Grace’s power.
But now things are different; with the Secret Wizard’s blessing, for He Ao, breaking magical mysticism is much easier.
Even if He Ao lacks deeper mystical knowledge and soul degrees, it does not prevent him from using existing mysticism knowledge, analyzing parts of the Array he understands, finding some breakthrough points.
Basic computer operations and instruction modifications don’t necessarily require understanding hardware system construction and operating system from the ground up.
During previous attempts to enter this space, He Ao made some ’operations’ on this imprint Array.
While pondering about Elijah, he also observed the state of the imprint Array.
Through his wisdom and ’a bit’ of insight from the Secret Wizard, he soon discovered a ’flaw’ in the Array.
This ’flaw’ itself poses no issue; it’s a reinforcement net assisting to constrain Divine Grace power, able at necessary moments to segment Divine Grace power, letting other structures suppress Divine Grace power.
And now, this reinforcement net equally confines the user entering the imprint.
Finally, in He Ao’s grasp, the network has been pulled to its limit.
He Ao suddenly exerted force, pulling outward sharply.
The face in the sky abruptly disappears; a shadow engulfed in a network spills from the darkness, wrapped and falling in front of He Ao.
It was a fragmented shadow, part of it extending into the darkness, while the other part was enveloped by the purple web of light, appearing before He Ao.
The surrounding dark space trembled violently.
The shadow lifted its head, revealing a blurred visage. It gazed at He Ao, its indistinct features showing clear bewilderment, "What have you done to me?"
He Ao stared at it, casually saying, "Have you ever heard the saying, ’Knowledge is power’."
The shadow tried to merge its body with the darkness, but was firmly trapped by the purple web of light, unable to remain in front of He Ao, unable to move.
The dark tsunami around grew fiercer, and He Ao quietly approached the shadow ensnared by the web of light.
The purple web shimmered, illuminating He Ao’s face.
He Ao utilized the ’cutting’ mechanism of the web to separate the main soul of the gaunt man from the Divine Grace.
This operation was not complicated; it only required initiating some protective mechanisms of the web and disguising oneself as a kind of ’similar’.
He Ao hadn’t even deeply tapped into his own power but instead used the power of the imprint itself to drag the gaunt man’s soul out.
"What exactly do you want?" The gaunt man stared at He Ao, fierce dark power surging around him like a tsunami, battering the surroundings, yet this terrifying force still didn’t drag him into the darkness. His blurred visage fixed intensely on He Ao, "What have you done."
The power of the imprint remained under his control, and he didn’t make the slightest error, while the terrifying aura of Divine Grace flitted faintly in the air.
He could still manipulate that vast power, but at this moment, he was entangled by his own power, brought before the enemy.
If he were the architect of this imprint, he could very easily discern which loophole He Ao utilized, even mend the flaw instantly and use He Ao’s extended power to pull He Ao into the control of the imprint.
But he was not; he was merely a simple user.
Until now, he didn’t know how He Ao pulled him out from the imprint.
However, He Ao had no intention to continue explaining to him, as a skeletal hand wrapped in flames reached out directly and pressed onto the shadow’s body.
In an instant, the roaring flame power enveloped the shadow, burning its body.
Simultaneously, under the flames, streaks of purple glow permeated into the shadow, exploiting the gaps and flaws in the Divine Grace power to delve into the depths of its soul.
Fragments of vague memories unfolded within He Ao’s perception.
"Wait—" In that moment, the shadow seemed to sense something through He Ao’s intrusion, lifting its head in shock to look at He Ao, "Your power, you, no—"
But before it could finish its words, the surging flames thoroughly enveloped its body, scorching its entire shadow.
Amidst the fierce howling, He Ao released his hand.
The blurred shadow completely dissipated, and the dense darkness around collapsed at once.
Terrifying and twisted power contracted inward, swallowing the remnant soul lingering in the darkness.
Immediately afterward, that power suddenly converged, attempting to leave this space and return to its true master.
At that moment, faint flames and gray-purple glow followed the remnant soul, entering into the darkness. He raised his hand, grasping the void.
The twisted purple web of light lit up again, and the terrifying and distorted dark power gathered under this web, held by He Ao.
"What happened—" Medala, somewhat bewildered, lifted her head and looked ahead.
What met her eyes was a skeleton wrapped in flames, gripping the void like a net, trapping a massive dark force.
This shocking and terrifying scene caused Medala to pause, her words losing sound entirely.
And as she paused, a gray-purple glow descended from her surroundings and merged into the remaining darkness.
Finally, as Medala gazed around, the massive dark force quickly converged and restrained within He Ao’s hand.
The dense darkness gradually faded, revealing streaks of purple glow.
Gentle light cascaded from the sky, with the previously obscured firmament finally revealing its form, bright sunlight casting over a land like ruins.
At last, the darkness in the sky completely receded, and those glows gathered together, forming a purple sphere of light, converging into He Ao’s hand.
He Ao gazed at the light sphere, falling into a momentary silence.
This light sphere was precisely the imprint containing Divine Grace.
He Ao had just exploited a flaw in this imprint, deceitfully immersing his own power into the incomplete soul of the gaunt man, thus fabricating the presence form of the gaunt man’s soul, preventing the imprint’s self-destruction, returning the power to the Grim Reaper.
But he could only achieve this step.
The fabricated presence of the gaunt man could only prevent the imprint from collapsing but couldn’t thereby manipulate the power of Divine Grace within the imprint.
If he attempted to control the Divine Grace, he might instead alert the Grim Reaper of something amiss.
However, the imprint also didn’t possess a tangible form, and He Ao couldn’t directly attach the imprint onto his own body.
Maintaining control of the imprint continuously would place a significant burden on his body.
Perhaps he could let the imprint remain in some kind of ’dormant’ state? Through some special ’influence’? The incomplete soul of the gaunt man was currently in some kind of special ’agitation’.
After a brief contemplation, He Ao drew a triangular badge from his pocket, which he had brought out from the Church of the Grim Reaper headquarters.
The imprint approached the badge, flickering, with the Divine Grace power inside beginning to show unstable signs.
He Ao put away the triangular badge and took out the Illusion Badge.
Upon approaching this Illusion Badge, the Divine Grace power in the imprint continued to leap, but seemingly some vague soul power was flooding into the imprint.
During contemplation, He Ao connected this soul power to the incomplete soul of the gaunt man, beginning to soothe and calm this soul’s agitation.
As the soul’s agitation calmed, the imprint’s glow gradually dimmed.
He Ao guided the power of the imprint closer to the Illusion Badge, eventually completely overlapping with the badge.
It was only then that he slightly exhaled, placing the Illusion Badge into his pocket.
Then he looked at the flabbergasted Medala, the surging flame converged inward, revealing aged white hair.
In the depths of the twilight firmament, dim shadows started to emerge.
