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The sun had risen for nearly an hour now and as its beautiful golden rays shined down on the town below, many people were already going about their day. In the center of Jizhen, many had already sat up their stalls in the town square and began to hawk their goods and wares. From fresh vegetables and fruit to the miscellaneous such as tools and jewels, animals and trinkets and many more little things of convenience. A day just like any other. As the townspeople bustled about, a man at a stall could be heard bargaining with a customer.

"What, you want 3 for half the price, hahaha, no way, with such a deal I'll soon go broke. How about this instead."

The stall owner held up 2 fingers and the customer shook his head.

"You gotta be kidding me, for that price I minus well just go buy wholesale. How about you reduce it by a third if it's a third I can live with that. What do you say, deal."

The stall owners face became furious at this offer. his brows scrunched in anger as he roared.

"DEAL, NO WAY IN HELL!! I told you id go broke yet you still try to reduce the price, heh, over my dead body."

What cruel humor did the gods have, for at that moment, a demonic voice suddenly burst within this stall owners mind.

("FUCKING HUMANS, I'LL KILL THEM ALL!!!")

The stall owner heard this powerful voice within his mind and felt pain unlike any other he's ever experienced in his entire life. Just as he wanted to shout and grab his head in agony, his eyes suddenly rolled up into his head and his body fell forward collapsing on the ground at the customer's feet. The customer had no clue what had just happened. One minute he was fiercely haggling with the stall owner and the next, the owner's face twisted in pain and he collapsed in front of him. Before the customer could say anything, suddenly a shrill high pitched scream came from behind. The man thought that someone saw the stall owner on the ground and figured he had harmed him. Thinking he would be blamed, the man turned to the screaming woman behind him to try and explain but what he saw, utterly shocked him. A woman was hunched over on the ground in her arms she held the body of a man who lied there motionlessly. Looking at his eyes they had also rolled up into the man's head. The woman cried out and desperately tried to awaken the man but to no avail. Looking around, a horrifying scene displayed itself for all to see. A dozen guards here a few mercenaries there and even a few merchants, they all had collapsed to the ground with the same painful expression and rolled up eyes. With a quick count at least 100 of them were like this. The customer who had been haggling with the stall owner cautiously bent down and placed a few fingers just above the stall owners mouth. Holding them there for a bit, the customers face paled and he quickly fell backward on his ass. He felt no breath and saw no movement from the chest. The stall owner was dead. The customer looked around at all the other fallen people, they too were dead.

Screams, panic, and chaos, all of which ensued from the crowd around and everyone began to run away in terror. Some wondered where the town guards were but they two were dealing with the same situation all across the town.

In a large mansion, an old man had been sleeping peacefully when he was suddenly awoken by an abrupt scream.

"KYAHH!"

The old man sat up in a hurry and reached for his sword at the edge of his bed. Down the hall, he could hear the sound of metallic boots clanking closer and closer, indicating soldiers footsteps. The man thought he was under attack and hurriedly grabbed his shield as well and took up a defensive position next to his bed. As the steps came to be just outside of his door, the old man prepared to fight for his life.

*THUD*

"The door to his bedroom was suddenly flung open and several soldiers came bursting in. The old man seeing theses soldier became confused before his mood quickly switched to anger. With a contemptuous roar, the old man yelled at the soldier in front of him.

"Hanz, what is the meaning of this? How dare you, to barge into my private quarters like this. You had better have a good reason for this or your head will roll."

The man named Hanz, as well as the soldiers behind him all kneeled on the ground. Hanz gave a respectful salute and quickly gave a report.

"My lord, the town is in chaos, many soldiers have already died and some citizens as well."

The old man's expression again change.

"Who has attacked, how many are there?"

To this question, however, the guard called Hanz shook his head.

"My lord, I don't know who, nor do I know how many. There doesn't seem to be an army attacking either."

"What, what the hell do you mean by that?"

This old lord, even now he could still hear the chaos in the streets outside, so how could there possibly not be an army attacking. Before he had a chance to ask further, Hanz continued his report.

"My lord, there is no enemy soldiers within Jizhen but for some reason, many people have just collapsed and died. As to how and why we still don't know."

The old lord stood there in contemplation, he couldn't make heads or tails of the situation but if there was no army attacking, he could at least go and calm the situation down. Shaking his head in thought he asked.

"How many?"

Hanz gut wrenched and he said.

"321."

Hearing this number, the lord rubbed his temples in depression before he noticed the uncomfortable look on Hanz's face. He clearly was struggling with something.

"Hanz, what is?"

Hanz, however, remained quiet but his expression grew worse and worse. Once more the old lord spoke but with this bad news, the old lord grew angry and impatient.

"What is it? Just spit it out already."

Hanz seemed to squirm in place for a moment but he could not hold this news any longer or his old lord might suddenly spit blood.

"My lord, not only the soldiers and citizens, your son..."

Hearing Hanz mentioning his son, the old lord's heart felt as though it instantly dropped into his gut, as he could feel what was coming next.

"My son, what about him?"

"He.....he as well....has passed my lord."

The old lord's eyes widened in shock and before he knew it his legs grew weak and his knees buckled below him. Collapsing onto the floor, the old lord's hands shook and his body trembled uncontrollably. Grabbing the sides of his head, the old lord's voice became weak and a few barely audible words escaped his mouth.

"m...my son...is dead."

The old lord's own words entered his ears and it all suddenly became real to him. The old lord instantly spit up blood and coughed the hot red liquid out painfully before he collapsed to the ground and fainted.

---------------------------------------------------

After all of the remaining crystals had shattered and turned to dust, the rest of the light had now faded and the dome had now become pitch black. With Lowen's body having gone past the limits of a regular human as well as his earth sensing ability and even his new aura detecting ability, this pitch-black chamber, to Lowen, still looked as clear as day. Looking at Rize's crushed head, Lowen couldn't help but smile wearily. He had made a huge gamble and it thankfully paid off.

Rize was just too capable, whether it be his intelligence or even the way he used magic, this goblin was clearly above any other at his level. Lowen was literally faster and stronger but because he had no long-range capabilities, he was at a disadvantage during this entire fight. This fight, without the borrowed statues, Lowen would not have won. It was only due to Rize's misunderstanding of the statues that Lowen was able to finish things up.

Rize didn't know that the only way to completely stop the statues was either for them to run out of energy or for their cores to become damaged or destroyed. Lowen knew the only way he could win was to get close but every time he did, Rize would throw up a wall and expand them outward instantly. With that, he could only lure Rize to him. To do that, Lowen had to seem completely weak and defeated. So when the ice spear came at him he knew his statues couldn't block it but allowed them to be torn apart anyway and when it came at him Lowen threw out his last snake rock fist.

With his body embedded in the wall, it was time for him to do the most difficult part, allow himself to be stabbed repeatedly with Rize's ice shards. As they stabbed repeatedly into his body that's where the acting stopped. Feeling each and every shard of ice stabbing into his stomach, arms, legs, and hands, the pain Lowen felt was excruciating. Even in this weakened state, Lowen was still ready for action. If Lowen was an average person, those ice shards would have killed him from the cold alone. However, after each one had pierced him, Lowen, using his aura hid most of his body's energy, emitting the tiniest bit to seem even more weakened. Rize fell for this hook line and sinker. Rize then came face to face with Lowen and tried to take control of him. Waiting until Rize's concentration was at its utmost on Lowen, that's when the statue's hand attacked. With Rize's guard lowered as well as facing a backlash that's when Lowen used his final card.

Before Lowen had gone into the cave, Roland had given him something, that something was his precious amulet. After studying his amulet for more than 6 months, Roland had figured a few things out about his most prized position. Giving it to Lowen to use, Roland told him the different ways on how to activate it. The first time Lowen had used the amulet, he had faced a backlash and the amulet had hit him with an explosion. Now it was his turn to use that explosion for himself.

As Lowen stared at Rize's dead body, he couldn't help but laugh out in pain. As Lowen stayed pinned to the wall, he released his aura and began circulating his ki throughout his body. As he did, he started increasing his body's temperature and the shards of ice embedded in his body quickly began to melt and break away. With it, his body became unnailed and he slid down the wall, crashing hard into the floor. Lowen slowly sat up and sat in the meditative position. As the remaining shards finally finished melting, Lowen concentrated his energy and removed the last of Rize's energy from his wounds. Using his ki in conjunction with his earth energy, Lowen's body began to heal at a rapid rate. It would have healed even faster if he could have managed to get his hands on one of Rize's potions but in Rize's desperation he had gobbled every last one of them down. Lowen could only shake his head in regret at Rize's wasteful behavior.

While Lowen was thinking this, the three statues had finished putting themselves together and were heading over to Lowen. Standing in front of him the statues dropped a few objects in front of him. Looking at the objects in front of him, Lowen's eyes shined with greed. On the ground laid Lowen's family sword as well as Colt's semi-broken mace. Next to the weapons lay two magic tools, Colt's earth bracelet, and Rize's sapphire ring. Although Lowen was an earth mage, the first object he picked up was Rize's sapphire ring, holding it closely, Lowen was just about to inspect the intricate inscriptions when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.

Rize's body..... shockingly started moving.

Lowen seeing this was shocked. Lowen struggled to stand before he picked up his sword and once more readied himself for battle. Rize's body wriggled about creepily and Lowen rushed over and swung his blade down with everything he had but before his blade made contact, the rest of Rize's chest exploded outward.

*KRA-CRACK*

The explosion instantly pushed Lowen a few feet back and a bright purple light flashed out. The light was so bright and intense, that Lowen was forced to shut his eyes in pain. Lowen listened with his heightened senses and used his aura and earth sensing ability to locate his attacker but surprisingly he felt no life around him whatsoever nor could he feel anything moving using his earth sense. With no attack coming and sensing no life, Lowen slowly opened his eyes. What he saw before him, surprised him, to say the least. Looking closely, a rock, no a purple fragmented chunk of some sort floated silently in the air. Watching it cautiously Lowen could see that it was covered in inscriptions at first it seemed to be hundreds but the more Lowen looked at the amount seemed to instantly climb to a thousand, the inscriptions they were literally changing before his eyes. Lowen stepped back with a bit of trepidation. With no understanding as to what the object was and it having just come out of his enemy, Lowen decided it was best to keep far far away from it. With these thoughts, Lowen once more took another step back and was ready to turn and leave but this fragmented chunk as though it sensed Lowen's movements, instantly shot forward at a speed that even Lowen could keep up with. Still, Lowen couldn't just allow this object to crash into him. Raising his sword up, Lowen desperately tried to defend himself but unfortunately, this object was just too fast.

*THUD*

The object slipped past Lowen's defense and struck his chest throwing Lowen back with an incredible force, causing him to crash into the wall.

*BOOM*

Lowen looked down at his chest and the object began to glow brighter and brighter and with Lowen's eyes rolled up into his head....he was out.