The Mountain Changes

Hen Sen watched the purple ground glow and stand still as something moved below the earth.

Inside the rock of the mountain, he could discern a shadow. What it was, he could not yet tell. It was human in shape, hovering horizontally as if it were lying down. It was a Lynchian sight; one that unnerved him.

As he stared down at the crystallized ground, he heard a katcha sound. Then, the crystal underfoot began to web with cracks. The cracks spread across the peak as if they were netting it, like the keen silkworks of a spider. Eventually, it all shattered and left a deep hole in the ground.

Only the tower remained firm and standing. Everywhere else was suddenly tossed into ruin and dusty chaos.

Han Sen and Little Angel had taken flight and watched the scene unfold from the sky.

The hole seemed bottomless, and what might have resided way down in the pitch black depths of that place, Han Sen could not tell. There was only one place they could see that was unaffected.

There was a floating purple platform perched above the black abyss that had just formed. Atop it stood a handsome man clad in purple armor. His eyelashes were very long, and he was a drop-dead gorgeous man to look upon.

Han Sen had seen many handsome shura and spirits in his time, but they all paled in comparison to this person. The strangest thing was the fact that Han Sen was detecting a human energy radiating from him.

"Is he human?" Han Sen asked himself, as he looked at him.

"Was he trapped here by the skeleton?" Han Sen continued to wonder.

The human opened his eyes to reveal black pits, painting him as an even more mystic and enticing person. The skeleton had stopped reading the scroll at this point. He put it away before walking forward to approach the man on the platform.

When the skeleton had nearly reached the platform, the man still hadn't moved. He still looked a little unconscious, lying down as if in peaceful slumber.

"He must have been trapped by the skeleton; he had to have been!" Han Sen unsheathed his swords and rushed forward to attack the skeleton. He didn't want the man to get hurt.

Little Angel and Disloyal Knight accompanied Han Sen in the assault. But when the skeleton saw them coming, it quickly re-opened the scroll and prohibited their advance.

Han Sen finally saw the scroll and what it contained when the skeleton used it again. The words upon the scroll were gold, and it was written in an ancient language of the Alliance.

He could recognize this due to his study of languages in his time away from the sanctuaries.

Dong!

The Phoenix Sword and Taia, the Angel Sword, and Disloyal Knight's fist were thrown forward to break the scroll, but none were effective. Following this, a fight erupted, and not even the combined might of the three had what it took to tackle the skeleton.

Han Sen was shocked, seeing how the scroll could block them all. Little Angel had ten gene locks open, which made her the strongest of the three. So, it was frightening to think what power the skeleton might have truly possessed if it was able to repel and subdue the trio.

The green flames that surged inside the skeleton's sockets raged, and they flared as if the skeleton was angry about their disturbance. It started to enshroud itself in a black smoke of sorts, and it didn't take long for the smoke to cover its entire body.

The smoke eventually took the form of armor, which suited up the skeleton. With the fire that followed it, the skeleton looked like the reaper geared up for war. The skeleton, in its dark armor, gave off a terrible, frightening aura. Sensing the power its scrawny body actually wielded, Han Sen's face turned grim.

Snowball was hidden in Bao'er's chest as this happened. Bao'er had already brought out the gourd, but for some reason, she did not yet use it.

Han Sen rarely encountered foes that filled him with such a sense of dread or that exuded such power. Such enemies were few and far in-between, but without a shadow of a doubt, the skeleton was one of that prestigious few. It was up there with the likes of Big Mara in the Ancient Devil Shelter, Xiang Yin who went to the Fourth God's Sanctuary, and Sky King of the Sky Tree.

They were beings that had opened ten gene locks, and this skeleton's energy was just like them. It was just as powerful.

Han Sen would have liked to run, but the area he was in had been cordoned off with the transparent, purple walls.

Seeing the skeleton now approach him, Han Sen planned to use his super king spirit mode to attempt an escape alongside Little Angel. But then, curiously, the skeleton stopped in its tracks.

The skeleton turned its attention back to the platform, as the person in slumber woke up.

The man yawned, as if he really had been roused from a long, deep sleep. After he stretched, he looked at Han Sen with much surprise.

Boom!

The black-armored skeleton ran to the purple platform. With its speed, it really must have been an emperor.

Han Sen shouted to the man, saying, "Watch out!"

What transpired in the next second, though, shook Han Sen to his very core. It left him speechless and motionless. He stared at the man on the platform in disbelief. He thought he must have been dreaming, to witness something such like that happen.

The skeleton in black armor did not try to attack the man, it just knelt before him like a knight in a king's service.

"Is he really a human?" Han Sen looked at the platform in deep contemplation.