Chad's memory was suddenly jogged, a spark of recognition ignited within him as he pieced together the mystery before them.
"I remember now! Those four-armed, three-eyed entities... they were connected to the Darkness Possession ritual…" He exclaimed, a look of revelation dawning on his face as he solved the cryptic connection.
In order to delve into the arts of the Dark Faction, one had to undergo the harrowing transformation brought about by the Darkness Possession Potion, a potent elixir that demanded a profound alignment with the Darkness. A lot of people, especially those ordinary people whose lineage doesn't belong to any Arcane Family, died because of this process. Vale knew about this very well.
Chad himself had braved this ritual, risking his life and sanity in his pursuit of mastery over the Dark Arts. Well, because of his family, the risk was certainly lowered a lot.
Nonetheless, the ritual of Darkness Possession was dangerous as there could always be an accident.
Then, after he survived and reached a ceiling in practicing the Dark Arts, he had to consume another Darkness Possession Potion to get stronger.
In the second potion, however, Chad remembered that he had almost failed to control it and had nearly become mad and possessed by the Darkness.
Thankfully, he managed to survive in the end. It was mainly because of the Anima Formation Art that Vale had previously shared with them before.
Nonetheless, during his critical moment, he felt these creatures of the Darkness trying to invade his mind! The image of the four-armed and three-eyed creatures had surely appeared there…
Now that he thinks about it, he saw several Forbidden Books with images of such creatures before!
"I think they're really connected to the Dark Arts…" Chad muttered as he felt his sweat sliding down his face.
Well, he somehow had an idea that these are the Creatures that brought Dark Arts to the Human Realm… Then, as humans with talent, they learned their methods of practicing this art and became Dark Arcanists!
His imagination started running wild because of the clues that he pieced together!
As Chad recounted his experiences, Odessa's expression shifted with a flicker of understanding, her knowledge of the origins of the Darkness Possession Potion shedding new light on the sinister origins of Dark Arts…
"The Vermont and Hoffman Families are renowned suppliers of the Darkness Possession Potion… This is interesting… They may hold the key to the essence of these creatures…" She muttered.
Well, she also had some ideas about this since she also completed the rituals of the Holy Arts Faction, which was the Sacred Blessing that involves angels.
The Mystic Arts Faction, on the other hand, had Mystic Law's Trial that involved fairies. Finally, the Rune Arts Faction's Rune Sanctification actually involves creatures of the earth or gnomes…
The Avatar's curiosity was certainly piqued by this revelation… It seemed that he was actually getting closer to the real origin of the Arcane Arts… It seemed that there was truly a reason why the Arcane Paths were separated instead of just one…
However, before he could delve deeper into this truth, a sudden movement in the distance drew everyone's attention… The presence that he felt just now had finally decided to show itself!
Everyone suddenly became cautious as they saw the figure similar to the corpses they had seen just now!
It had four arms, three eyes, dark skin, and was emitting a deep aura of Darkness…
"That one looked very strong…" Chad whispered.
"Should we kill that thing?" Odessa asked.
"We should probably capture him…" Jin commented.
"Can we just open a dialogue first? That creature might be open for a chat." Vale said…
As for Aurion, he just remained silent and was ready to fight at any moment.
Vale then took the lead and stepped forward.
Just like what he said, he sought to engage the creature in dialogue, recognizing the potential for understanding amidst the chaos.
Unfortunately, before he could even voice out what was in his mind, the creature's four arms surged with sinister energy, slowly conjuring forth four weapons forged of pure Darkness.
Needless to say, it was its silent proclamation of its hostile intent…
Even if that was the case, Chad and Vale actually felt impressed by the weapon that the creature had just created.
The first weapon materialized in a flash. It was a wicked scythe wreathed in ethereal black flames!
"I'll take him on…" Aurion said as he dashed forward.
"Try not to kill that thing…" Vale said.
"Understood…" Aurion replied.
The creature then arced towards Aurion, its scythe seemed to be hungry for blood!
Unworried about this weapon, the True Immortal met the attack head-on, his own blade gleamed with divine light as he used his own Divinity and parried the scythe's lethal arc!
The clash of steel resonated through the desolate landscape.
As the battle unfolded, a second weapon finally took form, a jagged spear of obsidian-like darkness that aimed to impale Aurion! Its razor-sharp tip aimed at his heart.
It happened too fast and Odessa felt her hands sweating as she felt nervous for the immortal. She knew she couldn't dodge this attack.
However, with a graceful twist of his body, Aurion sidestepped the lethal thrust! Then, he countered with three slashes of his blade, each strike was also filled with Divinity!
Aurion wasn't taking this battle lightly at all!
At this time, however, the third weapon had already formed—a double-edged sword seeking to slice Aurion into half!
Aurion had to back away as the other weapons also tried attacking him!
However, he still used his spear to appear behind the creature!
Unfortunately, the creature seemed to have an eye at the back of its head!
The True Immortal's sword met the double-edged sword!
At this time, the fourth weapon manifested in a burst of malevolent energy! It was a towering warhammer covered in black lightning! It caused a commotion as it thundered towards Aurion with bone-shattering force!