Chapter 207 - Ivy
Chapter 207: Ivy
August 30th, Year 6400, Second Arcane Era.
It was around 8 P.M.
Charles stood in an underground basement hall and stared at a large cubical glass tank filled with strange bluish liquid.
The glass tank was actually an artificial womb filled with unique life nutrients and organic catalysts.
Inside the glassy tank, a white-haired human was floating in the bluish liquid. His face was wrinkled, and he appeared to be around 70-years-old. His eyes were shut entirely and remained motionless like a corpse.
But what made it unique about this body was strange reddish circles appeared all around it!
There were thousands of runal magic circles inscribed all over the clone's skin and appeared very mysterious.
Not only on the clone's body, but the glass artificial womb tank, the concrete floor, the surrounding walls, and even the entrance gate were inscribed with unique runal letters.
The whole underground basement appeared more like a mysterious altar room!
To create this clone, Charles had spent more than 200,000 gold coins and brought many rare elemental liquids, potions, ritual materials, and so on!
He and the Holem's Crown spent hundreds of nights in the basement and finally managed to create an upgraded version of the clone!
Not only would this clone have equal strength as Charles, but it would also live for more than three months!
It was a massive breakthrough in the realm of cloning.
The main reason for an extension of the clone's lifespan was their comparison with Charles's modern knowledge.
After countless nights of research, the Holem's Crown made some alterations in the formula and created an upgraded version of the artificial womb.
Charles glanced at the artificial clone for a moment and soon took out an eerie blackish card from his space ring.
It was Spirit Hex Curse card.
During the past three years, he deliberately chose to ignore it and didn't check the origin of this card.
No, he feared that simply checking this card's origin might cause great consequences.
A single leak of information could alter a change in fate and even alert the enemy!
"Mr. Runeth, let's check it.
" He said in a cold tone and glanced at the red gem-embedded bracelet on his wrist.
Meanwhile, a heavy old man's sigh leaked out of the bracelet, and soon the Holem's Crown cast its Elapsed Time skill, causing the surroundings started to freeze.
The next instant, the whole mysterious underground hall trembled for a moment and broke into millions of glasses.
A moment later, Charles noticed that he was standing in front of a large gloomy throne made of bones!
'Throne Hall?'
But what made him widen his eyes was that a total of twelve eerie black cards were placed on the crest rail area and appeared spooky.
He soon withdrew his gaze from the bone throne and looked around the surroundings.
Multiple pillars appeared in the throne hall, and the hall looked very majestic.
He even saw a few luxurious chairs placed on the sides and became very curious about the origin of this place.
At that moment, he noticed a black-robed humanoid shadow passed through his body from behind and started walking towards the Bone Throne.
Like a majestic emperor, the humanoid shadow stepped on the dais, appeared in front of the bone throne, turned around, and sat on it.
The next instant, Charles's eyes widened as he saw the shadowy figure's face was not a human's one but a skeleton skull!
Its eye sockets glowed in reddish color and resembled chaotic.
At that moment, he noticed that the time seemed to be moved faster than normal and got startled.
Meanwhile, many blurry humans and skeletons appeared in front of the raised platform, bowed their heads towards the robed skeleton, and left after exchanging few words.
After some time, a small 4-years old girl child in a black abaya dress appeared in front of the dais, stepped up towards the throne, and soon arrived in front of the black-robed skeleton.
Simultaneously, Charles noticed that the speeding time also slowed down and returned to normal.
"This loyal one greets Lord Reid.
" A childish voice echoed in the throne hall as she bowed her head and greeted the skeleton, causing Charles's eyebrows to rise.
He had clearly remembered that childish voice!
'Ivy...' That word came to his mind.
Meanwhile, the skeleton nodded his skull, took out an eerie black card, and gave it to her.
Then, he also took out a reddish-blue gem from its robe and passed it to Ivy.
After that, he didn't say anything and waved its bone hand.
A moment later, Charles noticed that the 'past' illusion began to break and soon returned to the underground basement hall.
'The skeleton gave her a reddish-blue gem... But the one that appeared in my Inner World is a greenish-blue gem. Something is not right.' A frown appeared on his face.
'It seems I need to look for Ivy first.'
Letting out a deep sigh, he removed the bracelet from his hand, tossed it towards the cubical glass tank, and made it hover in front of the glass.
"Are you ready, Mr. Runeth?
" Charles asked.
"Yes.
" The Holem's Crown responded in excitement.
Although the clone body would only be alive for 90 to 100 days, it was more than enough to let everyone know that Charles and Oswald were two different people.
Moreover, the Holem's Crown was very eager to feel the sense of taste!
Possession of one's body and acquiring an independent body were completely different things.
When possessing someone's body, it could only control another person's body by suppressing their soul.
But with this clone from the artificial womb, it could feel the body sensation and even smell and taste.
"Let's begin then.
" Saying so, Charles first took out the 'Books of Secrets' and checked if everything would be alright or not.
Once he confirmed that there would be no anomaly, he took another book, flipped it open, and started to chant an incantation.
Whenever he ends a recite, the nearby magic circles would glow one by one and then broke into pieces.
A few mystical energies would rise from the broken magic circles, move towards the glass cube, and soon submerge into the white-haired old man's body.
The chanting continued for another few minutes.
Charles patiently recited every word and finally ended it.
Just as he completed the chanting, the magic circles in the whole hall began to shine in bright red color and broke into millions of pure energies.
Then, all those mystical reddish energies moved towards the artificial womb and soon submerged into the white-haired old man's body.
Simultaneously, the Holem's Crown also turned into a streak of reddish light, pierced into the artificial womb, and directly entered into the white-haired old man's body.
In the meantime, Charles calmly stood opposite to the artificial womb and waited.
One minute, two minutes...
After ten minutes, the old man's eyelids started to twitch!
The next instant, he opened his amber eyes and curled his lips upward.