Chapter 139 - Darkened State
[Barrier Turtle (Darkened State)
A State brought upon by consuming the Mad Stone that was made from the bones of 100 mad Beasts and by sacrificing a 100 people together with the Beasts.
A stone that if consumed, will make its user become stronger for a short period of time in exchange for their sanity.
It has been banned since ancient times as it torments the mind of the user and the Summon.
Mad Stone can be consumed by the Summoner and the same effect will occur to the Summoned Monsters.
...
]
The knowledge regarding the Mad Stone and the Darkened State that Tori was in was immediately injected inside Ban\'s head. He was able to comprehend it almost instantly and he now fully understood how it works.
In short, it was an evil stone that can be produced by killing 100 people. In order to make it, one would need to refine the 100 people alongside the bones
of 100 mad Beasts.
It was a cruel method to gain temporary strength, hence the reason it was banned.
Ban finally believed that Delo was indeed a member of the Dark Guild. Because aside from them, he no longer knew anyone who will use such a method just to gain strength, and temporarily at that.
However, the situation just led to Ban to firmly decide that he should really eliminate him, there was no other option.
If a person or Summoner that had consumed the Mad Stone could not be stopped right away, they would continue to become stronger until their body could no longer take it and burst due to the madness.
The strength increases depending on the one who consumed the Mad Stone. The stronger you were at the beginning, the stronger the effect was. It was madness.
According to the Book of Techniques, since ancient times, no person managed to escape the fate of losing their mind after consuming the stone. It was a sure way to hell, in short.
Things had become heavier for Ban. Even with the Wrath State active, he doesn\'t feel confident confronting the Darkened State Tori and Delo who consumed the Mad Stone.
Belle was not in the right condition to fight. Her Summon has been injured with broken wings and could not participate anymore.
He doesn\'t know if Belle knew how to fight either. Even so, she was only an X-Mortal Rank Summoner, even lower than him, so he was sure that she wouldn\'t be able to do anything either.
Even still, he decided to confirm it, "Can you fight?"
Belle hesitated for a moment before she took a long sword from her Storage Pouch. Based on the design alone, Ban could tell that it was also a Ranked Weapon.
However, seeing its length, and then Belle\'s height…
"Never mind, just give me that cloak again and move as far away as possible…" Ban said in a calm manner with the voice produced by the Ant Mask.
Hearing that, Belle was suddenly confused. Nevertheless, as it was requested by the Gold Rank Adventurer, Leon, she followed it without any question.
Ban donned the Noble Moth Cloak again after Belle handed it to him. Belle then moved away from them with the injured Red Falcon in her hands.
Ban observed Delo and Tori and it looks like they still haven\'t finished with the process. He wanted to interrupt them so badly but according to the Book of Techniques, it would only do him more harm than good. He could only calmly wait for them to finish developing into the Darkened State.
However, Ban did not wait that long. As at the same time Belle got far away from them, it was also the exact moment that Delo and Tori moved.
Swoosh!
They both moved at the same time towards Ban swiftly, almost like their body became blurry in Ban\'s eyes.
Ban did not expect their speed to be like that so he was taken aback for a second. However, he recovered almost instantly and a moment later, Dark Tori arrived near him first.
Dark Barrier Blast!
The Dark Tori instantly used his new skill gained from the Darkened State. It was an improved version of his Barrier Blast earlier so Ban did not dare to underestimate it.
A dark and glass-like dark ball the size of a fist materializes on Dark Tori\'s mouth.
Swoosh!
Without a warning, Dark Tori immediately launched that Dark Barrier Blast towards Ban.
Ba already experienced its strength before when it still hasn\'t strengthened yet, so he could already imagine just how strong this attack that Dark Tori launched just now.
He did not dare to face it head on as he knew that even if the Ant Mask and the Noble Moth Cloak could protect him as they were indestructible within the current realm, they could still not prevent the shock from affecting him.
In fact, the arm he used to block the attack earlier was still feeling numb.
This time, he wanted to block it using the Twin Baton instead of blocking it with his arm and the Noble Moth Cloak.
Ban prepared himself and merged the two batons together. And with great precision, he struck the Dark Barrier Blast away successfully.
Another reason why he did not dare to block it like earlier was due to the fact that the Dark Barrier Blast would immediately explode upon contact with anything hard.
Fortunately, the Dark Barrier Blast did not explode upon contact yet, as Ban made sure to just hit it at the right time. The material used on the Twin Baton also helped, it was made from the Rubber Snake so it actually helped to bounce the Dark Barrier Blast away.
The Dark Barrier Blast that he flung away landed not far away from where Belle seated earlier.
Boom!
A huge explosion occurred from that area, blowing the sand away,creating a small cloud of dust in the process.
When the sand and the dust settled, a small crater could actually be seen in the area where it landed.
Seeing that, Belle from afar nervously gulped a mouthful of saliva while feeling grateful to Leon for telling her to move away.. Else, she could imagine herself being hit by that blast.