When A Mage Revolts

Oh geez...

That scene gave both Benjamin and Dick a shock.

That was exactly a human figure, which seemed like it was still alive and moving. As Benjamin moved closer to it cautiously, he found that that person had shut his eyes tight, as if he had fallen into some sort of coma, seemingly unconscious.

Moreover, based on his outfit, was he a mercenary?

Benjamin felt that it was unimaginably odd.

They entered the bottom of the abyss inadvertently, saw spirits and the space rift, how could they possibly bump into a mercenary flying out from the rifts as well? Was it just a coincidence? Or it was a common thing that happened all the time in this ghostly place?

The System immediately mentioned the results of his probe.

"Judging from the badge that he’s wearing, he’s certainly a mercenary. He came from Ferelden, his weapons were made by a smith in Gealorre, his magic potions came from Mage Vinci’s chain store - these are all good pieces of evidence about his identity."

After hearing that, Benjamin felt even more outrageous.

Why would an ordinary mercenary from Ferelden suddenly appear from within the space rifts at the abyss?

However, while Benjamin was still crazed about it, the spirits around him started moving.

They fluttered around with their translucent bodies, and "swam" toward the mercenary who was in a coma. In just a blink of an eye, more than ten spirits surrounded the mercenary and wrapped him completely, as if forming a gigantic capsule, with a faint white light shining out from within.

Through the translucent outer shell of that gigantic capsule, Benjamin could see that the face of that mercenary suddenly showed an odd happiness, it looked so happy that it was kind of creepy.

After that, the mercenary’s face started aging, which could be seen through the naked eye. His dark brown hair slowly turned white, and wrinkles started forming on his face. Under the thick leather he was wearing, his built body started shriveling bit by bit as well, soon he became no different from an old man in his seventies or eighties.

Those spirits... seemed to be engulfing his youth.

Benjamin was flabbergasted by what he saw.

"Tsk tsk tsk, so this is how spirits consume their food, it looks really yummy." The System watched with relish instead and exclaimed.

"..."

As he listened to the System, Benjamin snapped out of his state and shook his head helplessly.

Looking at that mercenary was like falling into hallucination. Therefrom, he could not help but associate it with weird singing and a dreamland. Although they were in an absolutely soundproof ice ball and could not hear any movements outside, he guessed that the "singing" must be extremely loud at that time.

It was the spirits who created all the hallucination.

Similar to the sound of a beast growling, it was probably the sound that spirits would make. They must have used that sound to create hallucinations, trapped other creatures that were alive, then engulfed the vitality of their preys.

As he thought about that, Benjamin could not help but shudder.

He was not sure if his magic would work against those spirits, but if he stayed too long on the "Skyfall Mountains", he would be dragged slowly into the rift’s attraction and might end up trapped in a really dangerous situation too.

"Those spirits... what are they doing?"

Dick, who was beside him, almost fainted from all the fear.

Benjamin took a deep breath and answered, "They’re consuming food."

"Then... Will they eat us up as well?"

"Don’t think so." Benjamin thought for a while then said, "I think... these spirits perceive other living things through hallucination. Just like spiders, only when a prey falls into their web will they realize its existence. Since we’re still conscious, they won’t be able to ‘see’ us."

Dick was so balled up, but at least he seemed quite relieved after hearing that.

Nevertheless, Benjamin still had many doubts.

If the purpose of the hallucination was for hunting, what was the existence of the "Skyfall Mountain" for? If the hallucination was fascinating and attracted more people into the abyss, wouldn’t that provide more food source for the spirits?

Or... could the spirits not actually control the contents of the hallucination?

If so, what would decide the contents of the hallucination? What was it that caused the legend of the "Skyfall Mountain" to be verified each time someone entered the place?

Benjamin was starting to get a headache.

Nonetheless, his consciousness was still safe, he was still able to summon some ice blades and shoot them toward the spirits in his attempt to save that pitiful mercenary.

However, the ice blades shot through the spirits without causing any impact.

"The spirits don’t even have an entity, how can anything clustered from the elements hurt them?" The System said sarcastically, "Maybe if you find some overseas sacrificial offering, you’ll be able to handle them."

"... Alright."

Benjamin could only give up on the rescue and watched as the mercenary kept aging under the wrapping by the spirits. After just a while, he had almost turned into a mummy.

After some thoughts again, he summoned another ice blade.

A bold idea crossed his mind, what would happen if... During the engulfing of the spirits, he killed the mercenary in one slice?

Through his findings, he knew that the spiritual energies of the spirits were just normal, they did not have an independent and clear consciousness, and were not powerful undead creatures. Thus, after some hesitation, Benjamin still decided to do so.

Whoosh! The ice blade pierced through the spirit’s wrapping and slit through the mercenary’s throat.

As fresh blood spewed out, the only life that remained in the mercenary’s body started slipping away even quicker. Followed by that, the spirits that were eating suddenly shivered. They separated abruptly then danced crazily and angrily beside the mercenary as if the feast in their mouths suddenly disappeared, the energy waves emitted were manic yet lost.

"Be careful, the roaring outside became louder, you can’t let the sound pierce through the ice ball." The System reminded.

Benjamin nodded and reinforced the ice ball, blocking any sound from the outside and ensured that the spirits would never notice their existence.

Until then, he still could not understand how the spirits existed. If they were just souls, how could they make such a sound that could cause physical vibrations?

Nonetheless... He roughly realized the connection of the valley of the abyss and this place.

The mercenary that was thrown out from the space rift was most likely doing a mission in the valley of the abyss. Similar to what Benjamin had experienced before, the "singing" of the spirits made him hallucinate, but he could not see through it and was delivered through the space rift to become the spirits’ food.

In other words, if he penetrated through those rifts, he would possibly be transferred to Ferelden.

That was a rather convenient shortcut, where they could perfectly avoid the blockades from the Church. Furthermore, with the ice ball that was absolutely soundproof, the threat from the spirits would be almost zero.

So... Should he really be crossing over like that?