Facing such an unfortunate event, Forus couldn't do anything other than to ignite his soul and used it as the emergency fuel to fight both the old man and the newcomer. His entire body visibly rotted away as the black flame burnt his body, emitting an unpleasant and disgusting smell.
His body couldn't move like natural because of the stain on his broken soul, causing him to be unable to dodge the piecing vines and got impaled by some of them that didn't disintegrate when came into contact with his black flame.
With one attack, Forus lost his ability to move steadily. Due to this, he had to change his offensive method. In an instant, Forus had thrown many bottles of liquid toward the young lady, aiming to obstruct her offence and to maintain himself.
The female stomped her foot lightly, creating a giant leaf beneath her feet. The leaflet quickly enveloped the girl and floated on the sky, evading the trajectory of the flying bottles, but the bottles exploded before it landed and managed to damage the leaflet, causing it to crash into the ground.
The female rolled backwards to avoid falling injury, but instead, a black ball of flame flew over and hit her left leg, devouring a part of her skin and caused her muscles to rot.
Screaming in pain, she triggered one of her treasure, creating a wild dome of plants that span over ten meters, trapping everything from coming and leaving. On the wall of the dome, many white flowers blossomed and released a faint fragrance that would loosen the mind of the enemies and healed the wounds of the user.
Before Forus could throw another series of potions, the mysterious old man inside his consciousness spread out his soul and tried to attack Forus' mind while creating pathways for the Death Aura to invade his soul, weakening both his physical body and mental mind. The action of the old man caused him to black out for a moment, losing the precious chance to stop the girl to maintain herself and heal her wounds.
Despite the searing pain, Forus forced himself to stand up on one remaining leg and jumped forwards towards the fallen lady, punching his rotten fist towards her. He couldn't waste any time dealing with her, as the more he ignited his soul, the worse his defence against the invading soul and foreign Death Aura. If he couldn't finish her off before time was up, either he died by her spells, or the old man would take over his soul.
Before his destructive punch could strike onto her fragile body, the vines hanging on the dome of plants shot themselves forward to restain the blow, weakening its momentum and absorbed the total damage that would otherwise seriously injured the woman.
"Die, you criminal!" Shouting angrily, little Florie pulled out her treasure, Staff of Green Flower. Her mentor had given it to her when she advanced to the second-layer sorcerer apprentice. Such was the benefit of having prominent and caring supporters. The advantage that Forus wouldn't be able to obtain.
The sorcery energy she channelled into her staff started to transform into wooden elemental power. If anyone used the elemental power according to its element, the power of the spell became explosively powerful, but the power would decrease if one used it on the opposing energy.
Little Florie was a wooden elemental sorcerer. She didn't need to use any others elemental spells, so the downside of the elemental power wouldn't cause her any inconvenient.
Countless spiked vines suddenly penetrated out of the ground, charging towards Forus. This time, the plants had a faint jelly layer that covered all of their bodies, radiating faint green light. The quality of the newly created vines far suppressed the previous set. Ordinary dagger and weak spells wouldn't do anything against the imposing wooden elemental spells.
The spiked vines grew until they blocked the sky, causing the darkness to reign over the forest. Many white petals that fell from the white flowers on the dome of plants moved orderly under the manipulation of Florie. They formed a deadly formation that would change from offence and defence easily, creating an artificial army of flowers.
While fighting and avoiding the fatal strikes of the floating petals, Forus needed to fortify his mind and soul to defend against the exotic soul and foreign Death Aura. The burning soul of his continued to wither away slowly, causing his concentration to drop steadily. The combined effect of everything caused his overall fighting power to drop down, making him unable to dodge some attacks, further weakening him again.
"The Snow of Remembrance shall cover all things!" The snow-like ring manifested itself from the Storage Ring, along with the mysterious chant, the ring faintly emitted pale light, creating many crystalized rays of light before turning them into transparent snow that drifted freely across the sky.
Little Florie tried to dodge and block the snowflakes but to her surprise, the floating snow would bypass and traverse through every defence that she could use, undeviatingly touching her white and smooth skin, upon the contact, the preserved memory of the old time started to construct itself inside her mind, causing her focus on the real world to loosen.
She sat onto the ground, crying silently without any tears. She was immersing inside her own memory, gaining Forus some precious time to strike back at the invading soul and cleaned up the issue of destructive Death Aura.
At the same time that Florie lost her sense and collapsed onto the ground, a wave of distorted information gushed into Forus' mind, forcing itself into his soul, causing him great pain that made the defence on the soul weaken, allowing the invading soul to slowly seep inside his soul.
A great power would always come at a great price. The Ring of Recollection was a powerful treasure that could cause the victim to fall into the boundary between reality and illusion, losing the sense of self and truth. However, the user must also have a strong mind that could withstand the overloaded information that rushed into his or her soul when he or she used the treasure.
The feeling of pain and depression came pushing into his mind, threatening to replace his memory and sense. Facing the thoughtless emotions were very easy for Forus to suppress, but when he had to scatter his focus to control many battlefronts at the same time, it would be very hard for him to divide more attention las everything would fall apart.
"Young man, you even had the treasure of Thought Domain. It seems that you have a very interesting story behind your adventure." Seeing the Ring of Recollection, the eyes of the old man flashed excitedly. He started to burn his soul to maximize the offence and tried his hardest to destroy the protection around Forus' soul.
Finally, Forus collapsed onto the ground, releasing an ever-expanding Death Aura that covered his body. The Death Aura condensed itself and became thicker as time pass. Everything that touched the strain of Death Aura would crumble into dust. His death was approaching nearer and nearer.
His eyes became cloudly as he heard a familiar footstep echoed around him. He was laying inside a huge dark torture chamber, waiting for the next experiment.
"Hello again, mortal. You have already successfully advanced into peak second-layer. Very interesting." Forus looked toward the source of the sound. He looked toward the source of his very first end.
A dignified man whose blue robe would occasionally sway with the wind walked toward Forus calmly, giving off the aura of supernatural and almighty being.
"Did you think that you could escape me?" A wicked smile spread across the blue-robed man's face, his bloody lip tore the skin off and extended further until it reached his deformed ears.
Forus shuddered uncontrollably, turning pale from fright and madness. He watched as countless dark chains moved to tear his body apart, trying to force out all the Death Aura inside his body. The day at the torture chamber began once more.
"Dear, are you all right?" A soft voice travelled into his ears, causing the pain to cease from his body. Meria walked toward Forus who was sitting on a table, gazing absent-mindedly toward the horizon.
"Sorry, Meria. I was spacing out for a moment. Let go see how our lovely daughter is doing." Forus smiled as he held his wife's hand and walked toward the backyard.
"Your hand is very cold. Meria, do you have a fever?" Forus asked his wife worriedly. Her hands were as cold as corpses.
"Matia! Where are you?" Forus paused for a moment when he saw a beautiful figure sitting on a platform that floated above the ground.
She wore a delicate green robe. Her beautiful face was out of the mortal's world, causing Forus to daze for a moment. Her greenish hair flew as the warm breeze passed her by.
"It had been so long..." The female sighed and looked at the ruined building before floating away with the vines platform, acting as if Forus and Meria were not real at all.
Feeling amiss, Forus looked at the ordinary house of his, only to find that the wooden floor had already rotten away and filled with grasses and mushrooms.
He panicked and held his wife in his arm, only to find that he was walking with a pale-face and lifeless body of Meria.
In his madness, he tightly held the skull of his loved one before running out of the backyard, rushing out into the direction of the city.
"May the string of destiny between the bride and the groom forever attached to each other. For they had vowed to always exist within other's soul." Forus opened the broken door, only to find himself surrounded by many people, cheering and blessing him and her to forever achieve happiness.
"Today, in the presence of the World Will, Forus Ander and Ocelia Coruscare had vowed to everlastingly pursue the truth for all mysteries, for all eternities!" The sound of happiness caused the hall to rumble, reaching far and wide, taking over the entire city.
Forus looked at his wife dazedly, immersing in her otherworldly beauty. Her short orange hair shone a faint light that could rival the beauty of the moon. He handed the rotten head of his former wife, now the magnificent red flowers, toward his lovely wife. She took it and caressed it gently, creating a harmony atmosphere that engulfed the lively hall.
"The two may announce their eternal bond by a gentle touch between their lips." Memorised by the beauty of his Ocelia, his face moved elegantly toward her, closer and closer. He could feel her breath quicken as their precious lips caressed each other.
Suddenly, a feeling of disgusted and hatred blossomed in his body, causing him to violently push his wife away, knocking her unconscious. In his hand, a trace of rotten flesh and blood of his true wife started to devour his body, causing him to scream in pain.
His handsome body began to break apart, causing his smooth skin to fall off on its own, revealing his true body. Looking at his rotten flesh, Forus discovered that there were many black tentacles growing out of his body, slowly turning him into a lunatic monster.
"How could this be?!" The blurry old man inside Forus' consciousness paled from terror as he witnessed the horror that was unfolding before him. Innumerable black tendrils stretched themselves infinitely out of the grey soul, devouring everything in its way.
The old man tried his best to get out of the consciousness, but the grey soul had already sealed the consciousness shut.
"Why is this thing here?" The old man' last question was never meant to be answered. The tendrils devoured him completely without any resistance.
"What are you?" Little Florie spoke while she struggled to stand up, her legs were shaking violently due to fear. The man before her suddenly twisted rapidly and there were many black tentacles growing out of him, turning him into a big mess of monster.
The echo of suffering and pain resounded throughout the forest, covering it with the sense of ominous.
