I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1323: The Dawn of Worldly Wounds [part 3]

Bairan scratched his head, brow furrowed. He was looking at Revant, who returned his gaze with a scathing glare. One would think they were at odds.

Well, when were the two of them not at odds? Not that Bairan usually did anything to deserve it.

Right now, their Master had commanded that Revant—along with Jeci, Lynus, and every other soul interested in coming—should be on their way to Ryugan. He had also commanded them to pick up Mr. Fluffy along the route.

Bairan had never felt so envious in his existence. Because while everyone else was heading to Ryugan to have fun with the Great Master, he was to stay back and ensure the Great Master’s sister did not leave Stelia.

This meant there were high chances he would have to engage her in battle.

The only reason the lady had not already left was because of Lady Henai—the poor woman wanted to stay and see to the recovery of her brother.

The Emperor of Luinngard was getting better. Not well enough to step out into the open, but he was growing stronger each day.

Everyone was preparing now, and the Tower of Trammel had taken the shape of a ship, with Revant himself commanding it.

It was so sad.

’The bastard even gets to command a ship. All I get is to fight someone without the intention of losing or winning.’ Bairan exhaled through his nose. ’What kind of assignment is that?’

He was also wise enough to know he couldn’t possibly make the young lady suspect that something was wrong. One slip, one tell, and she’d bolt—leaving him to explain his failure to Northern.

Finally, Revant couldn’t silently endure the stare any longer.

”What is it?”

Bairan kept his voice perfectly civil. Pleasant, even.

”Are you sure you don’t want to switch roles? Surely, a Luminary for you will be easy... or don’t tell me it’ll be difficult?” He tilted his head, letting a slow smile spread across his face. ”Hmm, now that I think about it, it really may be beyond you. Perhaps that is why my liege had bestowed it upon me—since I can be trusted with such a task and you cannot.”

Revant chuckled dryly. His jaw tightened, the muscles in his neck tensing for just a moment before smoothing out again. He looked like he was struggling to suppress something violent.

”Go ahead and think whatever you want to think, you useless fossil. I’m not going to fall for it. I have better things to do than dance around your tongue.”

Revant stood from the round table where they sat. They had just concluded a major meeting that decided everybody’s role—the people that would stay and those that were leaving.

”Have fun here.” He straightened his coat, movements sharp and deliberate. ”Rot here for all I care. And who knows—get careless and let a Luminary outsmart you.”

A coy smile appeared on Bairan’s face. ”In my carelessness, even you can’t outsmart me, Despair.”

Revant’s expression darkened. ”Don’t call me that.”

Bairan leaned forward, his smile growing insidiously poisonous. ”Are you going to get angry and attack me? Come on. Throw a punch.”

Revant was silent. He shook his head slowly, clicked his tongue in pity, and turned toward the door.

”How lowly the great has fallen. Heard you were from the first civilization, when the Echo Realm was intact, and you were that vile thing’s teacher.” He paused at the threshold, glancing back. ”Honestly, looking at how childish you are, it’s difficult to believe.”

Bairan’s expression went flat. The playfulness drained from his features, leaving something ancient and hard beneath.

”What do you mean?”

It was understandable that Revant knew things Bairan did not. After all, he had a third eye that linked his mind directly to Northern’s.

Northern had not yet discovered the magnitude of that ability—not since Revant became a complete Tyrant. In fact, Revant hoped he would never discover it. Otherwise, he would become a puppet. Northern could simply remember things that Revant had lived, without permission, without warning.

It was quite ironic. He was the one out of all of Northern’s army of souls who wanted to have nothing to do with him at all, and yet he was the one who had everything to do with him. They basically dwelled in each other’s minds.

And that strange, annoying bond had only strengthened since Revant became an Echo.

While Revant sighed and was about to say something, something massive shook the entire place. The ruins of the room they occupied—a chamber in the harbor that had survived the worst of the battle—trembled violently, dust cascading from the rafters.

Revant and Bairan’s expressions darkened in unison. Both of them vanished and reappeared amidst the vastness of the port.

Different makeshift homes had been built along the harbor, so the place was flooded with people—survivors from the battle with Kryos. Many were almost fully healed now. Those who had died... many bodies had been burnt to ashes, so there was no real chance to bury them.

Both of them glanced up, staring at the rolling sky.

It was dark. Pitch black, like a liquid sea of darkness swallowing the heavens. Everything beyond that darkness was shaking, as if the void itself was tearing apart the ground and the sky simultaneously.

A terrible sound rolled across the expanse—like the groaning of some vast beast stirring from an eon of slumber.

Both of them stared for a long moment. Then Revant finally turned to Bairan, studied his face, and suddenly started laughing.

Bairan, meanwhile, just stood there staring at the sky with a dark, slightly pained expression.

The sky above Stelia had transformed the continent into something that finally earned its name. A true dark continent, for once.

There was no doubt about it. The depth of essence he was feeling—that pressure settling into his bones like cold water seeping through cracks—he was sensing a Titan. At least a Calamitous one.

Multiple, in fact.

It was just one rift that seemed to have shattered so far, but there were still several more hiding in the depths of that strange darkness. Waiting. Or perhaps already moving.

If before he had any plans of using schemes to ditch the dark continent and find something more interesting to do, all those plans just went bonkers.

’Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.’