Chapter 26: An Open Plot

Chapter 26: An Open Plot

Facing the angel’s embrace, Colin Iliad showed no astonishment. His expression remained calm as he accepted everything, as though he had long since prepared himself.

The ritual began.

He stepped forward, picked up the bottle of Silver Knight potion, and poured it into his mouth.

Silently, the Demon Hunter’s body expanded, turning into a giant several meters tall. Its base color was grayish blue, with bluish-black muscles knotted across it, and a pitch-black fissure in its forehead.

Every inch of this giant’s body contained indescribable mystery and vast, terrifying power. Aside from its head, which still retained a human appearance, the rest was already close to a mythical creature, emitting a strange mental influence.

The next second, Colin Iliad’s head seemed to suffer from softening of the bones. It sank completely inward, slowly writhing around that pitch-black fissure as its core, as though it were about to form a nebular vortex.

Such pain made even this Chief of the City of Silver, this Demon Hunter who had slain many powerful creatures, unable to suppress himself. He let out roars that would make the heads of ordinary living beings nearly split apart and their minds descend into extreme chaos.

If Colin Iliad had not evacuated the round tower in advance, leaving only the demigod elder Waite Chirmont to stand guard against accidents, many Beyonders would certainly have lost control on the spot.

The remains of the six powerful creatures in different positions of the ritual floated up under the pull of an invisible force. They circled around the transforming Colin Iliad, using some mysterious connection to awaken part of this top-tier Demon Hunter’s memories.

There was the experience of hunting a Devil. There was the attack with which he personally ended the previous Chief’s pain. There was the life of defeating powerful monster after powerful monster.

These memories manifested within the altar as though they were paintings. At times, they merged into Colin Iliad; at times, they separated. They helped him locate himself, allowing him to maintain a certain degree of clarity amid extreme pain and change.

Only now did Colin Iliad understand what the essence of the ritual was.

As a Sequence 4 Demon Hunter, every hunt of a powerful creature had been a battle of baptism infused with intense spirit, leaving deep marks upon his life.

Only with the help of those marks left by intense spirit could he locate himself after consuming the potion and avoid becoming lost in pain and madness.

This made Colin Iliad recall a term recorded in some of the City of Silver’s ancient texts:

Anchors!

Upon reaching Sequence 3, one was, in a certain sense, already a godlike being, capable of responding to prayers within a limited range, and therefore required a certain amount of anchors.

Because it was still not yet the angel level, those anchors did not necessarily need to be believers. They could be replaced by other things, such as distinct, mystically meaningful marks left within one’s life.

Within the awakened memories, Colin Iliad recovered his self-awareness bit by bit, once again feeling his body and grasping its changes.

Immediately afterward, layered wings made of illusory light grew from his back. They combined with the surrounding “paintings” and continuously contracted inward, collapsing upon Colin Iliad’s surface into a sturdy, gorgeous silver armor that had no weight.

After a Demon Hunter advanced to Silver Knight, minor differences would arise depending on the god who bestowed the blessing. The previous leader of the Court Hunters, Light Slayer Murskogan, had received the Giant King’s blessing, so every aspect of his Silver Knight domain was stronger.

Colin Iliad, by contrast, could occasionally make the silver-white rapier he condensed—one capable of Teleportation—show random, preferred, and unpredictable changes during attacks.

Additionally, when he mercuryfied, he could also obtain…