Journey Of A Legend

Chapter 278: Final Key

The whole Nether Canyon trembled with visible tremor as the darkness moved and shrunk with such a rapid speed that it was distinct to the bare eye. It was almost like the darkness inside the canyon was no longer a dense group of shadows but rather thick water with a shade of abyss black color.

"What is happening?" mumbled Eliana but her shock instantly turned worried as Zane on her side started to cough up more and more blood; his complexion paled even more as this happened.

"..." Eliana pondered for a small while and her eyes turned sharp while a gold coin appeared in her hand, right between her slim fingers.

"Let's hope it will work." murmured quietly and without a second thought threw the coin into the distance.

1 second... 2 seconds... 3 seconds... 10 seconds... 45 seconds... 1 minute...

After waiting an entire whole minute patiently in silence, Eliana's narrow eyebrows furrowed together, revealing deep worry in her eyes.

"What should I do? Think Eliana, think!" mumbled in a kind of angry tone of voice as she held Zane's sheet white physique in her hands; both his complexion and vitality were rapidly worsening.

But it was this very moment as Zane's shadow slightly moved and slowly a figure emerged bit by bit, turning Eliana's eyes to brighten up with hope.

Looking at the strong body structure, the dragon tattoo on the left arm with the katana on his side, Eliana sighed with relief and smiled, "I thought you would never come... Kuragari."

"..." Kuragari who was protecting the Altar's entrance all this time looked at Eliana who summoned him then at Zane's figure on the ground. Just a glance at his terrifyingly white complexion told Kuragari in an instant what happened and he clicked his tongue with dissatisfaction.

"That moron... Why did he use Soul Sacrifice? Did he forget once he uses that Taboo Art he will be on the verge of dying?!" groaned with surpassed anger Kuragari but his eyes told his true feelings; he was worried too and he couldn't hide that fact.

He and Zane may be rivals for centuries and had smaller and bigger quarrels during their life, which one of them almost ended in one of their death, but at the end of the day, they were still friends, almost like a family together with Eliana. They knew each other since childhood and fought together hundreds of battles if not thousands; they pushed each other forward toward the summit by their pure rivalry.

However, not in his entire life would he think Zane will be bold enough to use such a terrifying and dangerous Taboo Art as the Soul Sacrifice.

Soul Sacrifice was a kind of ability that not everyone knew about but even if they did it was extremely hard to utilize. Its concept was quite simple; for a decent amount of life energy, one could summon their Soul Guardian's full potential and power for a limited amount of time. The longer the Guardian was summoned the more and faster one's life was depleted.

It was this simple.

That is why whoever knew about Soul Sacrifice and was able to utilize it without any single difficulty, they left this ability only to the worst-case scenario; when there was nothing left to lose.

Kuragari and Eliana naturally knew about Soul Sacrifice but they would have never believed that Zane would be able to use it.

This was something that neither of them come to see; it was totally unexpected.

"What happened?" asked Kuragari, visibly not in a hurry. Maybe once one used Soul Sacrifice that resulted in ending up in a dire condition, almost very close to death's door, there were still loads of ways to save one's life from that. But sadly, those attempts came with a price too.

Eliana knew that Kuragari would help her and save Zane, so sighed deeply with relief and wanted to talk, but suddenly a huge earthquake appeared and interrupted her.

*TREMBLE!!!*

As the earth formed huge cracks because of the quake, a huge shockwave appeared and swept through the whole desert. As this happened, a massively huge and thick pillar with dense darkness swirling inside it pierced toward the clouds above from the bottom of Nether Canyon, turning Kuragari's face to confusion.

"Care to explain?" asked Kuragari as he raised his eyebrow toward Eliana after seeing this sight.

"Greg is down there obtaining the final key as I told you once. It seems he succeeded in obtaining it but as a result, a chain reaction was formed in the surroundings too. Luckily we are far away from the canyon so we won't get affected by the changes in and around of Nether Canyon."

"..." turning his eyes from Eliana at the huge abyss pillar in the far distance once again, Kuragari sighed and looked at Zane.

"Let's heal him then."

"How?" Eliana was pleased by what Kuragari said, but at the same time confused. She knew that there were ways to save someone from dying after they used Soul Sacrifice but she never did and never seen someone using those methods.

"It's easy. I will give him a portion of my life force. Like that, it will be enough to save him and bring him back from death's door."

"!?"

Eliana who looked worried all this time suddenly turned flabbergasted and grabbed Kuragari's wrist firmly, "Did you go crazy? Do you want to lose your life force? Do you know what you are trying to do? There are more ways you ca-"

"There is no other way."

"!?"

What? No other way? You just said there were loads of ways to save him after he used Soul Sacrifice but now you suddenly say there was only one? How?

While these thoughts emerged inside Eliana's head, Kuragari touched her hand that held his wrist and looked deep into her eyes.

"Yes, there are numerous ways to save him, but only if he used that power once. But it seems he already used it not once, but several more times in the past without our knowledge! There is only one thing that would help him now and this is the only way!"

"..."

Eliana's pupils instantly shrunk to the size of a needle as she realized what Kuragari said and her hold softened around his wrist; to use Soul Sacrifice several times without her awareness... Just why did he do that? Was he that obsessed to surpass the God rank that he tried to use such a Taboo Art? Did he go insane!?

"But don't worry." said Kuragari with a smile, his eyes holding passion toward Eliana, "I will only lend him a portion of my life force, meaning I will just lose around 15 or 20 years of my lifespan in total. To save one of my friend's life, that is just a small sacrifice. And also... I want you to be happy. You can't lose him right now."

"!?"

As his voice fell, Kuragari didn't waste any more time and ignored Eliana. Crouching down next to Zane's body he put both of his palms on his chest and closed his eyes.

"..." taking in a mouthful of fresh air, suddenly a gentle blue light enveloped his body and slowly flowed toward Zane's body.

That blue light was the so-called life force...

Eliana who was still sitting on the side without moving, watched Kuragari's life force slowly flowing and seeping from his body right into Zane's.

Currently, her brain was in both turmoil and worry; she didn't know what she should do.

Ever since the fight between the two, she didn't know which men she should choose; she loved both but at the same time knew it was a mistake. If she chose one then the other one would get hurt and she didn't want that. But now that she watched Kuragari save Zane... She no longer knew what was the right thing to feel.

*BOOM!*

As Kuragari was pouring his life force inside Zane, suddenly the abyss pillar in the distance exploded, sending another shock wave toward their way, then vanished.

The Nether Canyon that put fear and terror into one's heart was no longer filled with darkness but turned into a normal and peaceful canyon.

"He succeeded!" thought Eliana but there was not an ounce of happiness on her face; her worry toward Zane was way bigger than to get happy about something like Greg obtaining the key.

*Swish!*

As she watched Kuragari and Zane in silence, suddenly a white light flashed on her side and a figure emerged next to them.

It was Greg, enveloped by a white light.

"What happened?" asked Greg and tilted his sharp gaze at Kuragari and Zane. The moment he started to consume the void inside the canyon he heard a huge explosion that shook the whole world around him. Or it would be better to say he has seen it than heard it. He was almost killed by the explosion; a massively huge crimson beam that passed by a few meters away from his face and melted the ground around it to a boiling mass.

If it weren't for the fact he could use several other elements at the same time and use his fire element to repel the heat that the attack radiated, he would have been dead long ago.