Chapter 20.4 - Awaken
Madeline looked blankly around at her surroundings. The scene around her was extremely familiar. When her consciousness was restored, she knew that she was currently in Dark Red Castle. However, she didn’t know why she appeared here.
The surrounding space was full of frantic energy, but the nature of this energy made Madeline feel extremely cozy and relaxed. She bathed in this energy that could tear people apart as if she was taking a wonderful shower. She was just as fond of this energy as before, but for some reason, there seemed to now be a trace of unfamiliarity separating them.
It was as if she had slept for too long. Madeline’s movements felt extremely sluggish. She saw and felt many things, but she didn’t know what they were. She suddenly felt an extremely familiar energy, and as a result reached out her hand without taking the time to think. She expected an enormous sword to fly to her hands on its own.
However, after waiting for an entire second, she still didn’t feel anything in her hands. She was a bit shocked. When she turned her head towards the origin of the energy, sure enough, she saw an enormous sword half-inserted inside black stone. The crystals embedded within the sword’s body were dull and without radiance. There wasn’t even a trace of life force.
For Madeline, a second was already an extremely long time, but she still wasted several seconds. Only then did she remember the name of the sword, Death Prison.
Death Prison was extremely obedient, to the extent where it could already be considered to be an extension of her own body. What was wrong with it today? Madeline only felt as if her own mental state had entered a swamp, with every movement being extremely, extremely difficult. If Death Prison could be said to have its own intelligence before, then today, it was practically no different from a piece of stubborn steel. The energy it released from time to time was similar to the breaths of near death.
Madeline struggled to operate her thoughts as she walked over towards Death Prison. Her body instinctively only lightly tapped out with the tips of her toes, and then she slightly changed her thoughts. Her left hand than reached out to grab at the air. In her consciousness, this should already be enough to bring her to Death Prison’s side, as well as grab the sword’s handle. As for the amount of time it would take to travel the ten or so meters, that was completely negligible. At the very least, this amount of time was not enough for most enemies to even react.
As she willed it, her body did move, but it wasn’t to Death Prison’s side. Instead, she lost her balance, and then she fell from the side of the steel coffin. Her hand that was grasping outwards didn’t make contact with the sword hilt. By the cracked edges of the altar, the remains of the blue flame fiercely burned at her fingers, releasing light chi chi sounds.
Madeline’s left hand gently pressed down on the altar. Based on normal reasoning, even if she was under several times normal gravity, this bit of force should send her flying ten meters into the air. She would then float there to assess the surrounding situation. Only, things did not turn out as she wished. Her pressing motion was weak and powerless, completely unable to stop her own falling motion.
Madeline tumbled down from the five meter tall altar, slamming heavily towards the ground, moreover head first! The momentum made her continuously tumble about on the ground. During this process, she continuously tried to readjust her posture and stand back up, and the amount of force she used was greater and greater. However, her body felt entirely different from how it was in the past. Each time she tried to control her posture, it would only make her fall more severe.
She suddenly relaxed her body, and sure enough, after tumbling about two more times, she finally stopped. Madeline stood up, unexpectedly finding that her breathing was a bit hurried, and her heart rate was jumping quickly. The areas of her body that made contact with the ground had a sensation of pain. In the past, only when she was directly struck by seven levels of ability would she occasionally feel a bit of pain.
Madeline lowered her head and looked at her own body. She was not wearing a stitch of clothing, her well-rounded and fine white chest was currently rapidly rising and falling. The skin in front of her chest was a bit red, the traces of friction that appeared after she fell from the altar and landed on the rough and hard black stone.
When she saw the two tender and glistening red nipples in front of her chest, Madeline suddenly developed a thought that had never emerged in her mind before: if any men saw this kind of body, would they all regress into beasts that only act on instinct? No, one person might not. No, it wasn’t just ‘might’. He definitely wouldn’t become like that.
At the bottom of Madeline’s heart, Su’s appearance surfaced. What emerged together with him was also warm and gentle sunlight. Under the sunlight’s illumination, every strand of Su’s light blonde hair seemed to be radiating a faint radiance.
“Su… sigh, Su…” Her heart carried unspeakable emotions. She silently walked over to Death Prison and gripped the hilt, wishing to pull it up and bring it with her. However, the enormous sword that was almost weightless in her hands was now unmoving like a mountain. It instead made her fall down once again.
“Right, I am Madeline!” This fall finally returned her thoughts to its normal speed.
Madeline stood up again. She looked at her hands, and then looked at her body. She then closed her eyes before carefully experiencing the energy within her body. The power that previously raged about within her had completely disappeared without a trace, and what rested in its place was a bottomless emptiness, as well as an extreme thirst for power.
This type of feeling was not something unfamiliar for Madeline. She finally understood that she had completed another complete transformation, and she gradually remembered what happened before she fell into slumber.
At Death Prison’s side rested the heavy armor she was accustomed to wearing, only, she knew that since she couldn’t move Death Prison, then there was even less of a chance that she could wear the even heavier armor. Next to the armor was a set of ordinary female clothes. After some hesitation, she still decided to put on this clearly feminine style clothes. A t-shirt, short jacket, jeans, and sneakers; after putting these on, she then bound her gray hair behind her. Madeline looked just like a middle school student in the olden era. Where would one even see any sign of that imposing dark saint who was seated in the darkest center of the Town of Trials, whose will alone would send down a rain of blood?