CHAPTER 24 - JOKER'S TRICK AND TEARS OF THE GODDESS

Mello immediately felt something was wrong. The second pill, it was not a siren's pearl, it was poison. A poison strong enough to affect him, a peak expert level cultivator half a step away from the world level.

Normally, Mello also has tricks up his sleeve, in a moment, his internal energy surged and worked to expel the poison.

However, what Mello didn't think was the moment he channeled his internal energy, a bottomless hole inside his body swallowed it at a terrifying speed.

"Nooo!" he shouted in anguish as he felt his cultivation level drop drastically.

But Mello was not to be underestimated. In fact what most people do not know is that he is not a normal cultivator, but a demonic cultivator that absorbs others' life force through their blood.

Demonic aura surged around his body, fighting whatever it is that's draining his power.

Mello's full attention has been taken by the poison and countering it. When he felt his method working and the suction force began to recede, before he was able to celebrate, danger came from his back and he reflexively dodged.

"I should've known" he coldly stared at his servant boy who now lost all trace of goofiness from his face.

"That wasn't the siren pearl, was it? You tricked me."

Tully didn't answer, he moved forward and raised his leg in a kick towards Mello.

Mello was no vegetarian either, he's been an expert level warrior for so many years. Dodging that kick is a child's game to him. Yet, when he moved, he found out that the poison reduced his peak expert level cultivation drastically.

"You bastard" red aura swirled around his body and his speed doubled. In an instant, he arrived behind Tully and sent an energy-packed punch to his back.

Tully managed to dodge, but not entirely as the punch still landed on his shoulder and sent him crashing towards the cave wall.

The moment the body contacted the wall, Tully's body started changing.in not time, his short scrawny figure morphed into one twice as tall as before, a creature Mello has never seen before, but was oh too familiar as it was the one he's been looking for left and right.

"To think the exhaust pill would only affect you this much" Sen wiped the blood from his mouth and said.

"So it's you," Mello furiously bellowed.

"I heard you're looking for me? Let me guess, you want this?" Sen smirked as he released the aura of fused energy.

After weeks of training, this is all he learned to do with the fused energy aside from powering his arts.

"So it's true, it really is true. That is the holy energy"

"Holy energy? I can that's what they call it, but fused energy is way cooler"

"Old man, you should take a look at your current state before coveting other people's stuff"

"Ha," Mello snorted, "indeed, your cheap trick made me lose half my cultivation. But it is still enough to kill you. After all, I am not a weak mage with no skill"

As he finished speaking he rushed dashed towards Sen.

Seeing the enemy moving toward him, he took a sword out of his void space and used it to parry the attacks. But the sword he randomly chose was of low quality. The energy covered attack shattered it in an instant.

Sen frowned.

'He is this strong even with the poison restraining his energy' he thought as he retreated.

Mello closed the distance with Sen. This time, Sen activated his battle art to the full. This time, he retrieved a short sword of relatively high rank, slashed it towards Mello's body after nimbly dodging the barrage of strikes coming his way.

"Slippery bastard!"

Mello moved once again. This time, energy covered his entire body and extended to a saber he got out of nowhere, coating it fully. Sen was able to feel that the saber suddenly became unbreakable.

'If only I could do that with fused energy'

Sen conjured a small ball of hellfire. He aimed it at Mello's head and released it.

"Magic?" Mello was once again bewildered before remembering that this creature is a holy energy user.

Mello with his high speed managed to dodge to the side, but the fire grazed by his shoulder before hitting thecae wall. It left a significant burn mark. Had it been his chest, he would already be dead.

Mello was angered. He furiously swiped his saber in front of Sen and the weapon released a transparent yellow light in the form of a crescent towards Sen.

'Swoosh'

'Crack'

The saber energy met with Sen's barrier which he conjured by crushing a barrier skill stone. The barrier was shattered in an instant when it contacted the slash.

He dashed towards Mello's back. Mello was now weakened by the hellfire attack so Sen assumed this was his opening.

Yet, Mello was surprisingly still alert. The moment Sen appeared behind him, he turned around and slashed with his saber as if expecting Sen would appear over there.

This time, Sen wasn't able to dodge. The saber left a gashing wound on his arm.

Mello's eyes brightened. An opening!

Making use of Sen's pain distraction, Mello delivered a kick towards his abdomen.

"I'm sure your blood would be the best thing I'll have in my entire life" he licked his lips while looking at Sen who was lying on the ground.

Sen quickly got up. He tried aiming his attack at the wound on Mello's shoulder, but suddenly the aura around Mello intensified and almost blew him away.

"Not good" Sen cursed, the poison's effect was waning. He had underestimated the old man.

But Sen wasn't about to go down without a fight. He created a distance between Mello and him.

Mello moved at a much faster speed. But when he approached Sen, he discovered his movement slowing down. He looked at his feet and found them encased in a very thin layer of ice.

Of course, this wasn't enough to stop Mello as he channeled his internal energy to his feet and the ice broke, though with a lot of effort.

However, in those few seconds, Sen did the same thing he did with Ebara. He forced the fused energy into submission. He called this the state of force. Where he would channel fused energy around his body like Mello just did but at the expense of his body.

Once Mello broke off of the ice, his body was sent flying.

"Great" Mello smirked. "The more you show me the holy energy, the more I want it for myself."

Mello took a quick breath before slashing left and right. Saber slashes flew all around the cave room. Sen had to use his speed to the max to not get hit by anyone.

The state of force increased his speed tremendously and he was able to dodge most of the slashes. Yet, one slash Mello deliberately sent towards the cave ceiling made a few big rocks crumbled and fall on Sen's head.

'Urgh'

He groaned in pain when his abdomen was pierced. The cave was too narrow and Sen knew that if he wanted to have any chance of defeating this person, he has to take the battle outside and get to the final stage of the plan.

"Running away?" Mello smirked when Sen ran full speed to the exit.

Mello sped up in the chase and finally caught up with Sen when they exited the cave. The two were perfectly standing on the glassy ground, looking at each other.

"It's time", Sen murmured.

Mello suddenly felt a tightness in his chest. This time it was greater than when he injected the poison pill. It also did not target his energy, but his internal organs specifically, his blood was drying up and he felt every last bit of it.

The pain caused him to spit up blood as he wrathfully glared at Sen. "what did you do to me"

Sen laughed it out, he pointed underneath Mello and said "you are one tough old man to kill. At first, I just wanted to disable you since you were in my way of getting to the Zacharias woman, but now I feel that you are just as rotten as Cassil and Ebara, shouldn't be left alive."

"Sen, trap setup complete" Nivera appeared from behind a boulder and announced.

"Good job" Sen commended.

This was the plan Sen thought of and spent two full weeks to make preparations. First, Sen would mimic himself as a Zacharias family servant. The servant is now peacefully tied up in a hut outside the city and guarded by Uncle Sama'l, Nivel, and Romeo who have nothing to do.

Sen then managed to find out what intrigues Mello the most so he created an incident to get his attention, successfully becoming his personal servant.

The siren pearl was an ancient pill that appeared only once in K'rasia kingdom and they knew Mello would drool over it.

But how could Sen have the siren pearl? Even if his space processes a lot of extraordinary items, a pill that makes one jump straight to the world level, he wouldn't have that in his space.

What he did have was the variety of miscellaneous skills orbs.

Whenever Mello suspected something, he would simply crush the cleansing orb which dispelled negative emotions.

The two pills, however, were from his space. The first one had the effect of temporarily boosting the internal energy amount within the body. While the second one, was a poison pill which had the effect of permanently depleting internal energy. Sen also had two similar pills for Mana.

As for how Sen managed to disguise the poison pill as the first pill, he used an item called Joker's trick, enabling him to make one item the exact same as the other in terms of appearance, and another item, called 'tears of the goddess', that bestowed an increase f power and aura upon a person or an item.

The Joker's trick does not last for long. In fact, it disappears just after a few hours, meaning that Mello had to take the poison pill a few hours after the Joker's trick did its job.

Mello, who was too focused on the pill at the time, did not notice that inside the coffin in the cave, was the young drow Leonas, who activated the Joker's trick right after the two entered the cave.

This is also the reason Sen urged Mello to take the pills fast.

Meanwhile, Risa had to scout the area while invisible, and Nivera had to prepare the vampire trap outside the cave for Sen to lead Mello into.

The vampire trap is also something Sen had in his space. Basically, it is a trap that sucks away the blood at an incredible speed. Mello normally would've been able to resist it, but he was simply too weak from the poison pill and thus easily succumbed to the trap suction force.

Sen and Nivera watched Mello who was dried up visibly and rapidly and both shivered at the sight.

When Risa arrived and Leonas finally left that suffocating coffin, they both gasped in horror as they expected Mello to be a vigorous man, but now looked like a dried potato.

"This trap is too horrifying," Risa said.

"Won't any strong enemy we meet die tragically if we use this trap every time?" Leonas added but Sen shook his head.

"This is a one-use item. I still have a few, but I'll only use them in desperate situations"

This plan cost Sen almost all of his cleanse orbs and a few miscellaneous ones he used to scout the Zacharias residence.

He suddenly realized that depending on his items is not a solid long term plan. He needs to know how to use the fused energy and fast.

"Umm, guys," Sen spoke all of a sudden and the three looked at him.

"Take me back to the camp," he said right before passing out. The effects of the state of force withdrawal finally caught up to him.

----Author's note:

power stones keep the work going. If you liked the chapter and have one or two to spare, click on that vote button ^.^