A Sorcerer’s Journey

Chapter 1183: Chapter 1184: The Terrifying Black Sphere

This little black ball, this unknown lifeform, seemed to have gone still and silent in midair because someone had trespassed into its territory. That abrupt, bizarre sense of oppression made Green, the Invisible Cyclops, the Gourd Monster, and the Cactus Monster all shudder in unison, their bodies rigid to the extreme.

The pupils in Green’s Three-Colored Light Eyes shrank to the size of needlepoints in an instant as he stared in disbelief at this tiny thing no bigger than his own palm, every cell in his body trembling.

This—!

This was an ancient aura seeping out of that uncanny thing, even older than many of the bones scattered here.

No one knew whether it was an old monster that had lain dormant here for countless eras, or whether, when it had been sealed into this deepest layer of illusion, it had already been such a terrifying lifeform.

This pitch-black creature from head to toe, in Green’s eyes, was like a black hole.

Perhaps this wasn’t a lifeform at all, but an unknown rift linking to another Illusory World, which had even evolved into a rule-based lifeform, whose innate nature was a formidable Space-Time Sealing Technique!

Gulp...

Green could vaguely hear the sound of the Cyclops Creature swallowing ahead. Under this eerily fallen silence of the sky, the four of them seemed instantly frozen; no one dared to move.

The Colossal Octopus Monster in pursuit behind them was not fast on land and had to constantly avoid Temporal Faults. At this moment, only the faint ”splash, splash” could be heard as it reached the edge of the mire.

”Idiot.”

Green cursed inwardly at this Colossal Octopus Monster that had been relentlessly tailing them. It seemed to be a lifeform recently exiled here, still ignorant of the true horror of the Dimensional Esophagus.

All of a sudden, in the originally silent sky, the Cactus Monster—the largest of the four—let out a shriek, abandoned its struggle over the silver goblet, and unleashed its Symbiotic Insects and golden thorns in a sky-filling barrage that surged toward the black ball, while its own body, soul almost fleeing its shell, bolted in the opposite direction.

As a higher lifeform gifted with will-sense probing, the Cactus Monster was the first to detect the disturbance of this unknown lifeform. It struck first and fled first.

Sss—

It sounded like sucking up noodles. All of the Cactus Monster’s attacks, along with the very Space in its escape direction, began to twist.

Then, a shocking scene unfolded.

All of the Cactus Monster’s attacks were drawn into the little black ball, and though it was fleeing through Space toward the distance, the space around it on all sides seemed to fold and compress. It was like rowing upstream—despite frantically working the oars, it still kept drifting backward. Its body shrank smaller and smaller, until, by the time it reached the side of the black hole, it was nothing but a faint mote of light, like a plankton, swallowed into the palm-sized black ball.

In that moment, Green felt his own shuddering—that instinctive reaction of horror and dread; a layer of cold sweat had long since spread across his back.

And after this little black ball’s first strike, it clearly had no intention of stopping. Its sights immediately locked onto the Gourd Monster. Layer after layer of black grit sprayed frantically out of the Gourd Monster’s body, only to be continuously devoured by the black ball, as if within it lay an endless, bottomless Space.

The Cyclops Creature, which had been secretly tailing Green all along, turned and fled at once, flying straight toward Green at an astonishing speed.

Seeing the Gourd Monster growing smaller and smaller, drawing ever closer to the black ball, Green reacted instantly. With a wave of his hand, a majestic wave of Repulsion surged out, followed by a crackling flash as the Arc of Oblivion flared and vanished.

In its panicked flight, the Cyclops Creature never imagined there was another terrifying stalker behind it. First it was checked by the vast Repulsion, then, in its flustered attempt to dodge the Arc of Oblivion, it was still struck. A hole was annihilated through its tattered invisibility cloak; with a muffled groan, blood flowed, and the cloak’s invisibility power failed.

Despair, fury, terror!

The Cyclops Creature still did not discover Green’s location, yet behind it the Gourd Monster had already been completely swallowed by the black ball. Immediately after, a constricting pressure of Space-Time lock descended.

”No—”

Its roar could not penetrate the Space-Time restraints around it. No matter how it struggled, it was dragged away in that same silent, inexorable manner.

Hatred blazing in its eye, the Cyclops Creature glared around at the empty, gray sky. Who was it!

On the other side, beneath the Robe of Appearances, Green’s breath came fast as he fled at full speed, brushing past the Colossal Octopus Monster roaming through the mire.

This Octopus Monster was strong, but at most on the level of an elite tricky crystal terminator—perhaps even a bit inferior. Compared to that bizarre black ball Green sensed, the difference was simply too great.

Crash, crash!

The Octopus Monster seemed utterly unaware of the upheaval ahead, still foolishly giving chase. Its colorful tattoos looked beautiful, but in biological evolution they represented a silent warning: the brighter the colors, the more dangerous the creature.

Right now, Green practically wished this octopus were dangerous to the absolute limit—ideally to fight that black ball in a desperate life-and-death struggle.

However, Green’s wish was clearly nothing but a fantasy.

He had barely escaped tens of thousands of meters—without even bothering to avoid any potential Temporal Faults—when he glanced back. Once again, all was silent. The hundreds-of-meters-long Colossal Octopus Monster, its hundreds of colorful tentacles thrashing with all their might, had activated its true body and was expanding, yet its rate of expansion was still not as fast as the black ball’s Twisted Space absorption. It was relentlessly dragged in.

Suddenly, an icy chill bristled every hair on Green’s body, as if countless cold little hands had brushed against him. His body jolted!

It found me!

The Robe of Appearances had been completely useless; it had long since noticed him. The massive Space-Time distortion, compression, and squeezing all around told Green that he was now just like the other monsters before—being devoured!

Everything unfolded so naturally. In Green’s eyes, as the distance shrank, the black ball grew larger and larger—from a coal lump the size of a palm into a sky-piercing behemoth, still expanding.

Green knew it was he himself who was shrinking.

Vaguely, Green seemed to see countless tiny things squirming on the surface of the black ball, like two-dimensional lifeforms crawling along its outer layer. Having lost the higher sense of dimension, they would never escape this black ball.

No—

It can’t go on like this. I absolutely cannot be bound to its body, turned into a part of it!

”Wild Instinct Level 6 transformation—Ancient Giant Chi Demon True Body, activate!”

His muscles swelled madly, Bone Spikes and bone plates thrusting out one after another. A giant a kilometer tall gradually took form. Immediately after, black flames roared to life across Green’s body surface. Three hundred Black Flame Soul Bird Heads howled over one another.