Angrier Raymond

Lyla was having a hard time breathing as she inched closer to the centre. Her legs felt heavy and her mana was being sucked out without her consent.

'Just a few metres…' Lyla encouraged herself as she dragged her legs towards the Sacred Chamber. Her face darkened when the silhouette of a man flying became apparent in the sky.

Eldric landed on the other side of the World Tree. "Well, young lady… thanks for bringing her to me. I will take it from here." He said casually and increased the pressure on Lyla, making her lay prone on the ground along with Jasmine.

Following that, Eldric started to draw a mouth shape on the side of the World Tree with his blood. Typically, Treemen were the only monsters that could be evolved into Puppet Makers.

Eldric was quite confident that the ritual would be successful since the World Tree was considered the mother of all plants, trees, and monsters related to flora— not to mention the popular belief that all living beings came from her in the beginning.

He spared a glance at Vivian who was struggling on the ground as he finished drawing and a thick vine sprouted out of the ground that quickly wrapped itself around her waist before bringing her close to the World Tree.

With a few more strokes of his hand, Eldric etched a sophisticated triangle filled with weird symbols and placed Vivian in one corner. Celestia and Elder Clearmoon were placed in the remaining two corners subsequently.

"Look at you, already broken and so accepting of your fate…" Eldric shook his head at Celestia. She was perfectly capable of struggling against his magic, but she allowed herself to be placed in the ritual formation.

In a normal scenario, Celestia was stronger than both Eldric and Ronan. If not for his Phantom Shifter, he wouldn't have dared to enter the Inner Sanctum while the High Priestess was present.

"And now, behold the creation of my greatest puppet!" Eldric declared loudly and unashamedly, spreading his arms wide while infusing mana into the formation.

-Bzzt!

The formation lit up for a second and flickered out, indicating a malfunction.

"Huh?" Eldric frowned as he checked the ritual formation again and found no mistakes in the drawing. Then, his eyes landed on Elder Clearmoon.

'Is she not pure anymore?' He wondered. As far as he knew, Elder Clearmoon was chaste and unmarried, and so were Celestia and Vivian.

Eldric glared at the World Tree, it was definitely messing with his ritual, but he didn't know how.

"Cough! Cough!"

Ronan, who was about to pop a nerve on his forehead because of his helplessness and anger, suddenly choked on his saliva and started coughing violently.

It was so ridiculous! Ronan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He even felt like thanking Raymond. As soon as he thought of that, his face darkened. The last thing he wanted was to be grateful to the person who beguiled his Vivian.

"Hmm?" Eldric noticed Ronan's violent coughing. Even though he was having trouble breathing, the corners of his mouth were quirked up in a sneer which greatly infuriated Eldric.

He kicked Elder Clearmoon out of the formation and strode towards Ronan to teach him a lesson.

Ronan was ready to accept his death as Eldric got closer to him. It was at this point that he heard the sound of a door being violently kicked open and a faint smile appeared on his face thinking about Eldric's fate.

~~~

-Bang!

Raymond kicked open the door of the Sacred Chamber. In his ploy to take advantage of Galanor, he had overlooked the fact that he couldn't hear any sound from outside.

Had Galanor blocked the sound? Raymond could only guess as he stepped outside to be met with a bizarre scene of all the elves kissing the ground.

Some were unconscious with the white of their eyes showing, some were wriggling against the ground like worms, struggling to stay awake.

"Jasmine, Lyla…?" As though Raymond's voice renewed her spirit, Lyla looked up instantly and met his eyes. She nodded to signal that she and Jasmine were fine for now.

Raymond followed Lyla's eyes which were upturned and pointing at the sky.

He looked up.

Raymond felt like his head was being submerged in an icy pit. He was so incensed that his mind blanked out for a second.

"Argh!! My leaves!"

Then, as if the floodgates had been opened, Raymond let out a primal roar. His eyes flooded with white-hot rage and his body trembled in fury.

There was only one thought in his mind: Destroy the pyramid.

Eldric didn't like the sudden intrusion by some random guy coming out of the Sacred Chamber. Of course, he was disgusted with elves for allowing a human to enter the Sacred Chamber. He checked the human's cultivation to see what was so special about him.

It was pitifully low, only a Martial Minor.

"You vermin! Stay down!" Eldric jumped at Raymond, trying to stomp him down.

"Fuck off!" Raymond snarled and slapped him away without even looking.

-Slap!

"ARGH!"

Eldric's brain rattled against his skill as he was sent hurtling through the air and landed beside Ronan in a miserable shape. Ronan smirked at him.

In all his time spent observing Raymond, he had never seen the brat this angry.

Eldric was fucked.

As much as he wanted to be the one to end Eldric, Ronan felt a strange delight in seeing his megalomaniac nemesis being swatted away like a housefly.

-Boom!

The ground shook as a crater appeared on the place where Raymond was standing. He was already in the air, flying towards the pyramid in a straight line like a comet.

Raymond's eyes fell on the top of the World Tree, where once a dense foliage of mystical leaves bloomed was now barren with nothing but twisted branches.

The pain he felt was unbearable as if he had suddenly become bald after waking up one morning.

There were at least a million leaves! His heart would bleed if he tried to calculate his loss. He directed all of his anger towards the abomination floating above.

If he didn't destroy that thing, then his life was worthless. Raymond clenched his hand into a fist.

-BOOM!

Ripples spread out in the open sky as Raymond punched out at the pointy end and pierced through the pyramid like a hot knife through the butter.

His eyes bulged when he saw the interior of the pyramid. It was hollow and a giant white energy ball was in the centre which was greedily absorbing mana and the shredded leaves.

His body passed through the energy ball. The speed and the momentum of his jump were enough to disperse the energy.

~~~

"Who is he!?" Eldric was clutching his head while rolling in pain, but he still managed to ask Ronan.

"That's my grandson-in-law, alright." Ronan nodded sagely and whispered slowly. He would rather eat mud than say it out loud for others to hear.

His hatred towards Eldric was greater than his dislike for Raymond. So, just to spite him, Ronan called Raymond his family.

"You dog! Stop lying!" Eldric thundered.

"Why would I lie? Didn't you just fail to complete your so-called ritual to create a Puppet Maker?" Ronan raised his brow. Since his face was pressed to the ground sideways, he could only raise one eyebrow.

"Don't tell me!" Eldric lifted his head with effort and stared at Vivian.

"Yes, yes, although you were yapping about using her as a sacrifice, I kept my cool and pretended to be angry," said Ronan.

"What do you mean?"

"Hah, it was all a part of my plan to lure you in. How was my acting? Do you think I could become a great actor in the future?" Ronan asked with smug satisfaction.

Of course, he was lying to seem like he was having the last laugh in their age-old rivalry. Even if it wasn't true, he could have the pleasure of tormenting Eldric's afterlife with his false victory.

After all, a dead man wouldn't know what happens in the world of living. Eldric would forever think of himself as the loser.

-BOOM!

Eldric heard the sound of his doom and looked up.

"W-what?" His eyes widened as he witnessed something out of his imagination.

The human passed through the pyramid and appeared on the other side unharmed.

Little by little, spider web-like cracks spread on the surface of the pyramid and broke apart into large chunks of debris.

As the huge pieces of pyramid started raining down on the forest, Eldric knew it was his time to bolt before the elves could move and more specifically, before the human could descend.

Although he had Phantom Shifter, he was only confident enough to use it for his escape. Prior to this day, Eldric had absolute faith in his Innate Spirit.

He was even unafraid of the Lord Protector because of his ability to turn intangible.

However, after witnessing the Supreme grade artefact he had summoned by sacrificing thousands of souls getting destroyed by one punch, he wasn't so sure of his survival.

Eldric couldn't wrap his head around the fact that there was someone in this mortal world who could one-shot a Supreme-grade artefact.