Chapter 343: Astral Being

On a bright sunny day, a big-bellied red human in his late 30s flew above the rocky region filled with red sand and embers and soon stopped as he saw a large settlement at the farther end of the desert-like place.

Two red wings made of fire flapped on their own and made him hover up in the sky.

'Flamebind City… It is one of the ten biggest settlements in the Twilight Land, and a Rank-5 Efreet is the one who rules this place. This Efreet race is said to be the descendants of the True Ruler of this plane and is worshiping a Flame Bird. They are pride creatures, loathe slavery, and would constantly wage war against the tyrannical rulers.' Charles thought to himself, flew towards the ground, and landed near the settlement.

Then, he entered the settlement after paying a strange red gem as payment and started looking for the Red Human child.

Unfortunately, he found no clue about such a child!

After some time, he left the settlement and moved towards his next destination.

For the next few days, he stayed in the Twilight Land and almost searched most places. If he were in Edhen World, he would have used the Book of Secrets and found some clue about the target.

Unfortunately, the constellations in the Fire-Elemental Plane were different from the Edhen World.

If he wants to create another book, he had to start from scratch!

'But I have no time.' Charles muttered under his breath as he stood at the edge of the cliff and looked at the large valley filled with reddish mists and rocks.

Even though he stood at the summit of the Twilight Land plateau, he still couldn't see the other end!

Only red mist and rocks covered the valley.

No, there was even spatial crack that appeared in many areas and seemed to be breaking the space itself.

'The space…. No, the whole Twilight Land seemed to be sealed by some higher power. Even if I walked in, the spatial crack might open next to me at any minute and tear my body into shreds. But that is the last thing I need to worry about.' As he muttered, his gaze moved towards the spatial vortex in the crimson sky.

Although he couldn't see what was on the other side of the vortex, he vaguely sensed the presence of Chaos Power!

'Abyss? That spatial crack seems to have some connection with the Abyss or some other Chaos Plane. Hmm, there is a high chance some Abyssal life forms lurking in this valley.' He thought for a moment and soon took out the red-colored leaf.

He then conjured a ball of flame and bathed the leaf in it. In seconds, the red-colored leaf started to change and soon formed into emerald-green.

After that, Charles linked his mind with the Twin Leaf, erased the previous chanting, and replaced it with a simple word 'Return.'

Then, he cast the [Fallen Angel's Wings] spell on himself and jumped from the cliff.

But just as he started flapping those wings, some elemental disturbance appeared around him and made his fly spell to go ineffective!

Charles's eyes shrunk abruptly!

Without any delay, he used his wisdom power and managed to stop the momentum.

After that, he scanned the surroundings and then descended slowly.

After a few minutes of flying, Charles finally landed on the rocky ground and then looked at the red mists surrounding him.

Simultaneously, he noticed the strange mists started to enter his body and frowned.

'Poison?' Without any hesitation, he placed his hand over his chest and cast [Sun's Shield] spell on himself.

The next instant, a sunshine layer appeared around his body and completely blocked the red mists from nearing him!

Charles breathed out a sigh of relief and started walking towards the other side of the valley.

But within a few seconds, buzzing noises came from the sky, causing him to halt his footsteps.

He hurriedly looked up and saw thousands of red mosquitoes with sharp needles!

Blood Mosquitoes!

But what made him turn nervous was that each of them appeared as big as a human's head and was flying towards him at a fast speed.

'They look like an upgraded version of the normal mosquitoes.' Charles raised his eyebrows, zeroed his gaze on a single Blood Mosquito, and started searching for weakness using the [Arcane Eyes] skill.

Simultaneously, he conjured a few fireballs and tossed them towards the sky.

To his shock, those mosquitoes voluntarily moved forward and absorbed into the fireballs.

But just as the fireballs were about to explode, the mosquitoes' abdomens shone in red light and started sucking the surrounding fires.

The next second, all the fireballs started to turn into pure fire elemental energies. Meanwhile, the mosquitoes made buzzing noises and absorbed those fire-elemental energies!

Upon seeing this, Charles's expression stiffened.

But he didn't lose his calm, though. Instead, he raised his hand, cast [Sleight of Mystery Hand], and send thousands of invisible strings towards the sky.

Each of the strings soon tangled with one another and formed into a net in the sky!

Charles continued to create more invisible strings and soon created a dome-shaped net around him.

Meanwhile, the thousands of Blood Mosquitoes stuck in those nets and tried to squeeze in.

But none managed to slip through!

A smile crept on Charles's face as he saw this.

'As I thought, these mosquitoes are only absorbing the fire-elemental energy as food. If that is the case, I think I can kill them without any problem.' He casually raised both of his hands and conjured invisible flames around him.

Then, he closed his eyes and started to manipulate the other elements with the help of the false flames.

'There is only a little water elemental energy in this plane. I can only use this flame to manipulate the wind and earth elements. But the power in those spells would be less than 30 percent of my original spell. Moreover, casting such spells would drain my mental energy faster.' While thinking, he raised both hands and made some hand gestures.

The next instant, the rocks began to rise from the group, split into small pieces, and finally flew in all directions at a fast speed.

A moment later, all those small rocks collided with the Blood Mosquitoes and killed them instantly!

Even Charles got stunned by the result.

Then, he retracted the invisible strings and continued to walk.

Whenever he met a group of Blood Mosquitoes, he used the same method and exterminated them one by one.

Two hours later, he finally reached the center and finally saw the land on the other side.

'If I'm not right, that should be the entrance to the Domain of the Lava Giants. Then, Ember Castle and the City of Red. It's my next destination.' He nodded inwardly and was about to take a step forward but soon froze.

At that moment, his [Fore-Warning] skill triggered on its own and gave him a warning.

Simultaneously, Charles also sensed an anomaly in the future vision.

Instead of any future images, what he saw were blank images!

'What does this mean?' He instantly thought of using the Twin Leaf and return to the Edhen World.

But soon, he dismissed the idea.

'Each of my actions in this world causes countless variations in my fates and even my destiny. There is one more problem. What if my Twin Leaf suddenly sucked up into any of these spatial rifts? That would ruin my whole plan. I might not even be able to evade my death.' He muttered inwardly, got ready for any unexpected accidents, and continued to walk.

Just as he walked 50 meters on the hot land, the space above him suddenly made a creaky noise.

Without any hesitation, Charles backed away while avoiding the nearby spatial tears and looked up at the sky.

At that moment, a small crack appeared in the space and soon expanded.

Simultaneously, an eerie ball of black smoke came out from the spatial crack and entered the elemental plane.

Then, the black smoke started to enlarge, descended from the sky, and landed on the rocky ground filled with embers!

After that, the black smoke started to rise and formed into a strange humanoid creature.

No, only the upper half of its body appeared humanoid while its lower half appeared more ghostly black smokes.

But what made Charles raise his eyebrows was that he saw a strange black scythe made of pure smoke appeared in its hands!

'What the hell is this thing?' Charles widened his eyes in surprise.

Without any hesitation, he used the [Arcane Eyes] skill and started analyzing it.

But soon, he noticed that only the racial name appeared on the blue screen.

'An Astral Being? Smog Phantom?'

Without any delay, he raised his hand, pointed his forefinger at the creepy humanoid creature, and cast the [Finger of Destruction] spell.

The next instant, a dense amount of fire-elemental energy gathered at his fingertip, formed into a reddish bullet, moved towards the Smog Phantom, and almost arrived in front of it.

But just as the bullet was about to pierce into the Smog Phantom, a dense ray of light came out from the humanoid being's head and froze the bullet's movement!

Not only the crimson bullet, but the Smog Phantom's surrounding reddish mists, a few mosquitoes, and even the flying specks of dust got frozen!