CHAPTER 425 THE FALL

It felt as though time had stopped in this space. In his current state, Darren could only feel strands of

warmth next to him while the rest was ice cold.

"Hey, are you okay?"

From somewhere in the darkness, a hand reached forward and grabbed Darren's arm.

Darren shivered when he felt how cold the hand was. Without looking, he knew that the hand belonged

to the beautiful girl with a pale face. As for his two companions, Timothy and Abelard, they had fainted

earlier. They had been unconscious ever since.

"I am fine," Darren answered softly. He felt quite frail at the moment.

"I never thought that we would die together so soon." Hailey's voice was filled with bitterness and

frustration.

Darren's heart twitched when he heard Hailey. After a brief pause, he said, "Every time we meet, you

speak of fate and inevitability. Why is that? And what do you mean by saying that we would die

together so soon? You sounded like we would die together sooner or later."

"Are you sure that you want to know?"

"Yes, I want to know. Please do enlighten me."

There was nothing but dead silence as Darren's voice faded. Hailey's and Darren's breaths were the

only audible sounds.

"It is so cold," Hailey said after a while.

"Tell me why. I need to know." Darren pushed with the hope that Hailey would give him a straight

answer.

"Have you seen the well?" Hailey did not answer his question. On the contrary, she asked Darren a

question.

"Well? What well?"

"The well where you can see the future. Elsa must have seen it." Hailey's voice was getting weaker and

shakier because of the low temperature.

"Elsa has seen it? Hold on a second! What are you talking about?" Darren grew even more curious

when Hailey mentioned Elsa.

"I don't know what she saw. I only saw yours and my future. I even saw what would happen to the

people in this world. I cannot share how it ends because everything will change if I tell you."

"Suit yourself." Darren's response was curt. After a brief hesitation, he continued, "We are dying now.

Do you think that talking about fate will change anything? If not, then what is the point?"

His rationale helped persuade Hailey.

It suddenly struck her that Darren might actually be right. Her master had once said that the end could

only be seen under the perfect circumstances. If anything happened before, then the end would be

reset, and everything else would become meaningless.

"I can only tell you one thing. Demons from outer space will return and the world as we know it will be

on the verge of destruction," Hailey said after a few moments of contemplation.

Darren's heart twitched again at this new piece of information. He recalled the mural that he had seen

at the forbidden area, which depicted an epic story about atonement, where numerous heroes stood up

and fought for the protection of ordinary people.

And what made everything worse was the fact that the demons had not been eliminated yet. They had

simply been sealed in several forbidden areas.

"I have been to a forbidden area before. I saw many witchers there. The demons were, indeed, sealed

and suppressed in the Holy Lands. But even if it is resurrected, what does it have to do with what

happened between us the other day?" Darren could not understand the connection Hailey was trying to

hint at subtly.

"Are you playing dumb? In dark times, someone has to step up so that the world can be saved.

And I am that person. Ha-ha! It is me!"

Her bitter laughter echoed in the darkness. Darren could feel drops of Hailey's tears that had turned

into ice, fall on his palm. The sheer sorrow and desperation he heard in her voice made Darren's heart

twinge.

"Then my part was to free you from the Heavenly Repression, am I right?"

"Of course."

"I also practice conflicting martial arts skills, just like you. How come I am not the one who makes a

sacrifice to save the world? Why does it have to be you?" Darren asked softly.

"Who knows? That is why I blame fate as it is something that I have no control over. Can you please

tell me what do you feel when you have to do things that you don't want to, knowing that you will

eventually die?" Hailey began to cry.

Darren felt heartbroken at Hailey's distress. He understood how frustrated and desperate she had been

all this while.

There was no comforting answer to Hailey's question. After what felt like a decade, Darren could only

squeeze out a few words in a barely audible voice, "I am sorry."

"Thank you for talking to me about this." Her voice was also soft and tender.

"Watch out!" At this moment, Hailey, who had been weak and frail, suddenly lit a rune in her palm and

blasted it toward something behind Darren.

"What?" Darren stepped sideways before turning to look.

A ferocious and scarred face that morphed from a giant bloody head was heading for Darren until

Hailey hit it with her palm attack that was fused with the power of the rune.

"Ha-ha! Ha-ha!"

"Ha-ha!"

The darkness around Darren and Hailey came to life with the sounds of wicked laughter. All of a

sudden, more noises and movement filled the empty space around them. Several pairs of glowing eyes

fixed on the four bodies that were still warm. Furious glares, vicious laughter, and resentful cries were

all that Darren and Hailey could hear and see now.

"They are revenants!"

Darren grabbed Timothy and Abelard, who were unconscious, with one hand. Simultaneously, he

caught Hailey and pushed her behind him.

Only at this moment did Darren realize that during the fall, he did not feel any discomfort besides cold

and dark. However, the other three had become critically fragile.NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.

"What the hell is going on?" Darren was a little confused. So, he released his spiritual sense to inspect

their surroundings. A similar image surfaced in his brain, and he felt a sense of familiarity.

All kinds of revenants, from a half-bodied variant beast to a headless man with his gut sliding mid-air,

floated before Darren.

This scene reminded Darren of when he had been trapped in a dark domain. The only difference was

that the spirits here were mostly beasts.

More and more ghastly spirits appeared from the dark. They swooped in on the dead bodies that were

falling, like hungry dogs. When they sensed fresh meat, they flocked to Darren and his companions as

they preferred to devour fresh flesh to corpses.

Some of the stronger beast revenants shifted their eyes to the bodies that were giving out heat

signatures. The fresher, the better!

The revenants surrounded Darren and his companions. Many strong ones eyed them with the

malicious intent of turning them into food. The situation looked bleak for Darren and his friends.

Wave after wave of grey smoke began to spread around them, and, slowly but surely, the smoke

enveloped them. There was no opening through which to escape!

Darren realized that the situation was getting from bad to worse. He took several deep breaths to

remain calm. After moments of contemplation, Darren removed the broken black armor from his Space

Ring and put it on.

What happened next was just as Darren had anticipated! Runes began to glow on the black armor that

he was wearing, and the evil spirits shrieked and shrank back as if they had seen the most horrifying

thing ever.

It dawned on Darren that these revenants had begun to devour their life energy from the moment he

and his friends had fallen into this giant tripod. Because Darren had a unique aura that protected him

from erosion by these spirits, he had not been weakened.

After the runic power emitted by Darren repelled these spirits, he began to assimilate the spiritual

energy from the demonic core of the demonic monsters that he had collected and transferred the

power to his companions, who were still unconscious.

A while after the transfusion of energy, their bodies began to warm up, and gradually, it reached their

normal temperature.

"Where...where am I?" Timothy and Abelard woke, one by one. They moaned as they were still quite

disorientated. Hailey, who had only been dizzy, was now alert.

"Holy shit!"

Abelard noticed the revenants and jumped out of fear.

"Do not move! Stay close to me so that I can protect you!" Abelard nearly broke away from Darren's

protective circle with the sudden movement. If it hadn't been for Darren quickly grabbing him, Abelard

would have left the protection circle of the runes on Darren. Then, the revenants would have consumed

him within seconds.

"Darren, are we in that big tripod?" Timothy, who was a little bit calmer than Abelard, asked in a flat

tone.

"Yes, we are. I still do not know how this will end, but if we stick together, they will not be able to harm

us. The protection of the runes should buy us some time to figure out a way to escape!"

"The runes on your armor look unique. I have never felt such a powerful and special rune before. Not

once." Hailey had been the first to sense the presence of the revenants. She had been certain that the

revenants would kill them all. To her surprise, they were still alive. Given her deep understanding of rule

cultivation, Hailey was also the first to notice that it was the runic power of the black armor on Darren

that had repulsed the revenants.

She was pleasantly surprised, and, at the same time, harbored an instinctive fear of the black armor as

only she could fully appreciate its true strength.

The four friends were still falling through the darkness as if there were no bottom to the tripod. They

gathered around Darren and tried not to move for fear of being pulled out of the safe zone. However, at

this moment, Darren suddenly felt anxiety course through him. At first, he could not pinpoint the reason,

but he knew that something was off.

A few moments later, he realized that the turmoil he felt was coming from the Ancient Void Battlefield.

"This does not feel good. Could it be from that weird kid?" Darren's heart sank at the thought.