SSS Awakening: All My Clones Have Divine Bloodlines!

Chapter 160: A Familiar Face

Evan ignored Lirien for the rest of the walk, which didn’t take more than a few minutes since they were already close to the clearing.

And when they finally arrived, Evan got to see the strange flower up close.

"Well, it’s definitely huge," he muttered, raising his head as his gaze followed the towering stalk more than fifty meters into the air.

It had long since outgrown the surrounding trees, looming above the entire forest. At the same time, it looked both magnificent and deeply unsettling. Its thick, sturdy stalk rose skyward before curving slightly, ending in what appeared to be a fully bloomed flower. From this distance, however, Evan couldn’t tell exactly what kind of flower it resembled.

Not that it mattered, because something else had already caught his attention.

’So this is an Avatar of an Abyss god,’ he thought, sensing an absurd amount of void energy coming off the plant.

It was dense, concentrated, probably the highest he’d ever felt.

He’d seen the Hollows during the BranLeaf incident, though back then he’d been too busy running to pay close attention, and he also remembered what he’d left behind at the Langthon manor in Lirath when he’d fled that place.

They’d all carried a high concentration of void energy. But this thing beat every single one of them without question.

But as he studied the massive structure in front of him, he felt a vague sense that something was watching him back.

’Is it the plant?’ he wondered. The sensation gave him a strange feeling, one he couldn’t quite place, uncomfortable on one hand, but not particularly bothersome on the other. He wasn’t sure why.

Just as he was deciding what to do next, Seraphine, standing beside him, spoke up, her tone strange.

"To think it would be her. Fate truly does have a twisted sense of humor," she murmured, sounding a little surprised, though Evan could tell there was more behind those words.

"Her?" Evan asked, noticing the way she’d referred to the plant.

He could tell she recognized this Avatar. Maybe even the Abyss God it originated from?

"Yes. Even though these things don’t truly have a gender... that bitch had the audacity to imitate me," Seraphine said without the slightest restraint.

Evan: "..."

He was used to her rather outspoken personality, but this was the first time he’d seen her curse someone directly, let alone an Abyss god.

He couldn’t help but wonder what kind of grudge she had with this plant.

’Imitate her?’ He wanted to ask more, but Seraphine, as if she’d read his mind, said,

"It’s a long story. I’ll tell you some other time. Right now, you should focus on the little problem headed our way."

Evan didn’t immediately understand what she meant, but he did a moment later, when he felt a powerful presence closing in on them fast.

He tensed instantly, looking back the way they’d come. There was nothing there, which confused him. Then he tilted his head upward, and finally spotted a dot growing bigger by the second.

Lirien, who was standing nearby, noticed him staring into the sky.

She’d been about to ask if something was wrong, but when she followed his gaze herself, she immediately noticed something falling toward them.

She immediately moved, shifting her position, sensing exactly where it was headed, and assumed the young man would do the same. But when she looked over at him, all she saw was that guy standing there, staring straight up, wearing what looked like a confused expression.

’What is he waiting for? Move! Do you want to get yourself killed?’ she thought, confused by his reaction, and was about to warn him, but the incoming thing reached the ground first, slamming down with a deafening impact, throwing up a wave of ice and freezing air, the ground shaking beneath it.

Lirien, perched on the branch of a nearby tree, flinched at the impact, her face twisting into panic as she immediately looked toward the point of impact, searching for the boy.

’Did that idiot really just let himself get hit without doing anything?’ she thought, frustrated by his reaction.

He was strong, that much she could tell, especially given how he commanded that strange being who’d saved her from those creatures more than once.

There was no way someone like him couldn’t have reacted in time.

Which only made everything even more confusing.

Just as she was deciding what to do, she heard a loud growl, not human, but something she assumed belonged to some kind of creature, followed by the curtain of snow that had formed at the point of impact suddenly burst apart, and a massive silhouette shot out from within at terrifying speed.

It slammed through several thick trees, destroying them all instantly, before finally crashing hard into one final tree, which managed to stop it.

Lirien was stunned. She immediately looked down to see what had happened, thinking it was the boy who’d just been sent flying, but the size of it was far too large to be him. So she shifted her gaze downward, and the scene finally came into focus.

The ground had cracked open, a small crater no more than 5 meters across had formed, shallow, and at its center stood the boy, still exactly where he’d been before, looking toward the spot where that figure had been sent flying, his expression confused.

Seeing that he was fine, Lirien let out a breath of relief. But curiosity quickly took over, and she looked toward where that figure had been sent flying.

She hadn’t gotten a good look at it, but it was obvious that it was the same thing that had fallen from the sky.

She wanted to see what kind of creature could cause this much destruction, but when her eyes finally found the thing, lying on the ground dozens of meters away, groaning, her expression changed.

It was massive, at least 4 meters tall, its features no longer human at all. It looked wrong, deformed, covered in layers of something she couldn’t quite identify, vines, maybe, or plants, she couldn’t tell. But she immediately connected it to what Adrian had become when he’d transformed into that strange creature.

That said, it clearly wasn’t Adrian, he’d already been killed. So who was this? Another servant of that plant?

Her gaze drifted to the creature’s face, or whatever it had become now. It was deformed in a way that turned her stomach, but some features had remained, features she recognized all too well.

Surprise spread across her face as she realized who it was.

"That’s... Percival?"