Chapter 1633: Grand Shaman Malak (2)
Kent was left dumbfounded and utterly terrified when the voice spoke to him.
First, being in a statue pose wasn’t exactly eye candy, especially when it resembled curses manifested in reality and entangled to form a calamity, perhaps an abomination.
It looked like a horrifying fusion of a cosmic shaman, corpse deity, and primordial nightmare. His skull resembled an ancient deer skull fused with black divine metal. Twelve broken abyssal horns extended backwards like a corrupted crown. The horns constantly leaked dark-red spiritual flames. Ancient evil runes glowed beneath the bone surface.
Kent chose to focus only on the head, since the rest of its body terrified him even more.
Its voice was also far from pleasant.
It was like he had heard the voice of the most dangerous thing in the entire universe. Even if he knew the one speaking to him was the Grand Shaman, that didn’t calm him down, not even for a moment.
He was terrified, and that said a lot for someone who had seen his fair share of terror.
"I see you don’t have your memories back, huh? Allow me to fix that..."
Suddenly, a blue orb flew from the statue and merged with Kent’s forehead. In that instant, memories flooded into his mind.
Inside those memories, he saw the moment the Ruthless Bandit stepped into the Trial of Evil to try to become a True Evil. When he arrived at the trial, he entered a role-playing session in which he was the son of a marquis.
One thing led to another, and his father was betrayed, leading to an overnight massacre. He survived because he sleepwalked out of their estate that night.
When he regained his senses and saw what had happened, he sought revenge, and for three days, he killed so many people that the entire world shed tears of anguish. As part of the trial, he was supposed to lose all his cultivation and start anew.
However, when he saw what had happened to his family, something broke inside him, and the trial couldn’t stop him. So he killed and kept killing until they appeared before him, 24 of them.
They introduced themselves as the 24 Grand Shamans. They said they had been banished and had spent years searching for a master to bring them back into the Universe, any Universe.
The Trial of Evil was their creation, meant to find someone worthy of becoming their master.
They never succeeded until they met the Ruthless Bandit.
So they took him in, and for years, they taught him how to harness the power of True Evil. However, he was incomplete, so they told him to go back, and that one day, when he reincarnated, they would come to him.
What the Ruthless Bandit lacked back then was goodness. He possessed all the evil and none of the good, so he couldn’t reach the stage they never could.
Even Ancient evils knew evil can’t do away with goodness. So Kent was their only chance, per what they said to him before letting him go back to the infinity universe.
At least, that was what Kent remembered.
Now, Kent had returned as a complete True Evil, and with his memories restored, all fear he felt toward the being had washed away.
"Big Brother Malak, that wasn’t cool. You nearly scared me to death," Kent said with a pout as he turned his back to the statue of the Ancient Evil.
For a moment, no voice came. Then, suddenly, a whooshing sound echoed out, and a man spoke, "Relax, Little Brother. I merely wanted to tease you."
Kent smiled and turned back, meeting the gaze of one of his big brothers. Back in that trial, all 24 Ancient Evils took him in as their little brother and made sure he finally came to terms with his trauma.
It was because of them that after the Ruthless Bandit left the Star Realm, he chose to fight for the Universe rather than destroy it.
The trauma that turned him into the Ruthless Bandit was finally handled by the 24 Grand Shamans. In a way, the universe owes them for that.
Kent spent a moment examining his First Big Brother, Malak.
He possessed extremely long black hair mixed with crimson strands. Pale grey skin resembling cold marble. Deep, sharp cheekbones, a narrow jawline, and ancient curse markings spread from his neck to his temples.
Kent blinked a few times before meeting Malak’s gaze. He knew the kind of horror this big brother of his was, so he chose to be cautious.
Malak had crimson eyes with black concentric rings. His pupils resembled ritual symbols, the kind that would make anyone who stares too long feel spiritual pressure crushing their soul.
He was tall and lean, clad in layered black-and-dark-red shamanic robes. Thousands of tiny cursed talismans hung from his sleeves.
As for accessories, Malak wore bone earrings forged from Supreme Beasts. Chains wrapped around both arms. Finger bones were worn as rings.
"You haven’t changed a day, Big Brother." Kent walked forward and hugged him.
If people knew the man Kent was hugging was someone with authority over curses, blood sacrifice, ancient spirits, and corruption, they would probably freak out.
"Well, you don’t look too bad yourself, Little Brother." After breaking the hug, Malak opened his eyes and scanned Kent for a moment before nodding.
"Not bad. I see you have made so much progress early this time around." He paused and narrowed his eyes. A few seconds later, he moved and sniffed Kent’s hair.
"Oh, interesting. Have you met the Nine First Undead?"
Kent’s eyes widened. "How... how did you know?"
Malak laughed. "I can smell them on you, Lil Bro. I hope they didn’t make things hard for you."
Kent was dumbfounded. "Big Brother, do you know them?"
"I sure do, we created them."
"What?" Kent nearly lost his balance, but Malak steadied him with his staff.
"No need to be in shock. We had just been banished from our universe and were looking for a home. We found their universe and chose to settle there until we found a master. However, it didn’t take long for that universe to be attacked by one of the Corrupted Kings.
"We watched them all become corrupted, except for nine brave souls who chose death over corruption. In that instant, someone we had no idea who they were appeared and temporarily freed us.
"The person said nothing and just left. So we debated what to do, and I suggested we create the first kind of warriors that could neither die nor become corrupted. Their mission was to counter the Corrupted Kings.
"So we created them, and after they defeated the Corrupted King, we let them drift around like us."
Malak sighed, and then he looked at Kent with a serious expression.
"If they are here and so are we, then I am afraid the corruption is coming, and this universe will be swept over like a tide. We must prepare, Little Brother, because like it or not, you are the only one who can put an end to all this."
Kent nodded and smiled. "Rest assured, Big Brother, I have no plans on letting even a single soul in this universe become corrupted."
"That is the spirit." Malak laughed. "Now, allow me to announce my awakening to the entire world."
"As you wish, Big Brother."
Kent opened his eyes on the outside, and at the same time, the lid on the coffin opened, and Malak sat up. Then he stood up and stepped out of the coffin.
He nodded at Kent and his horrified beast companions before his bone-chilling laughter spread across the entire Tormented Chaos Abyss.
Every beast, be it the weakest or the strongest, felt cold sweat break out across their backs. No threat was heard, but they all felt it.
A Real Evil had arrived in their domain.
