Chapter 163
“Now close your eyes and focus.”
Sigfor’s voice came out as Oliver closed his eyes and started to concentrate.
The air around him seemed to hum with energy as his surroundings blurred and transformed. A sensation of weightlessness enveloped him, and he knew he had entered the spirit realm.
The moment Oliver closed his eyes, his surroundings changed. He was instantly connected to the spirit realm—matching the speed Evelyn had displayed earlier, maybe a bit faster.
A faint hum resonated in his ears, the energy of the spirit realm enveloping him.
“Is this the spirit realm?” he opened his eyes and thought.
Opening his eyes, he was met with a mesmerizing sight. Countless colorful lights floated in the hazy expanse, each one pulsating with a life of its own. ‘Are they spirits?’ he wondered, feeling a mix of awe and trepidation.
He wondered.
‘Should I reach out to them?’
Hesitation gripped him for a moment, but curiosity and determination pushed it aside.
He looked at the countless lights, he was not sure how to attract them towards him, the elder said to do what he felt was right.
He stretched his hand towards the brilliant lights and he paused as a huge blue colored ball was speeding towards him.
No… not one but…
But a tsunami of blue colored balls of light were speeding towards him.
A massive blue orb hurtled towards him, followed by a wave of similar orbs.
His eyes widened as he subconsciously took a step back.
Was this the normal setting?
Wait, was it even safe in the first place.
As he felt the countless balls of blue lights approaching him, he weighted his choices to whether run away from them or stay still and let them approach him.
In the end, he stood rooted on the spot and let the spirits approach him.
However, something unexpected happened as soon as they came in one meter radius of him.
To his surprise, the blue lights halted just before reaching him, then scattered as if repelled.
“???”
He looked at the scene confusedly, wondering what was wrong with these spirits?
Weren’t they quite excited to approach him a second ago, so why were they running away now as if they had seen a ghost?
He looked around but there seemed to be nothing around.
‘What’s going on?’ he thought as he walked up to the nearest cluster of colorful brilliant lights.
He observed closely as he walked towards the cluster of lights, he could see it shifting away—backing out from him as soon as he was close to them.
“What…?” he let out a small voice as he reached up to more clusters but the result remained the same.
He tried approaching spirits of ice element, but still the same result.
He even tried reaching out to the other elemental spirits but the end output remained similar—all of them backed away as soon as he neared them.
A vein popped on his forehead as took in the disrespect from these balls of light.
Confusion clouded his mind. ‘Why are they avoiding me?’ he thought, approaching another cluster, only to watch them retreat as well.
If this continued, wouldn’t he have to return without summoning a spirit?
No, he can’t have that.
If they won’t come to him then he would go to them.
If they won’t follow him obediently then he could only resort to force.
“So be it…!”
He said as he sped up towards a nearby cluster, the cluster of balls seemingly afraid of something tried to run away too however it was too late, Oliver had already reached up to them using his enhanced speed.
He instantly stretched out his hand up to the spirits, grasping them within his palms.
However, the spirits simply slipped through his fingers like water taking him off guard.
‘How do I catch them!?’ he groaned and thought, frustration was welling up inside him.
His eyes narrowed; it looked like he should use ‘that.’
A dark thought crossed his mind. ‘If I can’t summon them, I’ll force them.’
He grabbed onto another fleeting energy as a reddish-black aura began to ooze from his hand. Instantly, all the spirits in proximity trembled as the abyssal energy was released.
The air around him grew colder, the very essence of darkness seeping into the atmosphere.
He felt the spirit in his grasp struggle frantically, trying to escape, but the abyssal energy held it firmly. It struggled in vain, and soon it was completely devoured by the darkness. A faint, echoing scream was swallowed by the abyss, leaving only silence in its wake.
As he wondered what might change, something happened when he finished devouring the spirit. It was as if the spirit was a trigger…
An influx of unknown knowledge that he could not decode revealed itself, displaying a torrent of information.
Symbols and ancient runes flashed before his eyes, each one burning into his mind with searing clarity.
He stood motionless, eyes fixed on the ceiling, as he processed the new insights. Time seemed to stretch endlessly until, finally, he tilted his head back and looked down at his hand.
The reddish-black aura still lingered, pulsing gently like a heartbeat.
“So it’s like this,” he muttered.
According to the information he had received, he would not be able to summon a spirit ever due to being the circuit of Abyss.
Spirits were nothing but nourishment for him at this point.
But something else had also unlocked for him in exchange for not being able to summon spirits.
Anti-spirits!
Anti-spirits are entities born from the Abyss, designed to counter and destroy regular spirits. They are manifestations of dark energy—a representation of death.
Their forms were shadows, flickering and shifting, filled with a cold, consuming hunger.
Unlike regular spirits, anti-spirits are tethered to his will, making them extensions of his power.