Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 536 Old Man!!!

The arrival of this 3rd Returning Traveler did not go unnoticed by the Crimson God and the Great TImeMaster.

These two, who were still about to unleash their attacks, could not help but pause as they both stared warily at their incoming guest.

"Swoosh."

The extreme disturbance around the Crimson God and the Great TimeMaster disappeared as they both withheld their auras. This was obviously done in face of the newcomer, who was around some kilometers away from them.

But even if their auras were gone, these two Returners did not stop on building up their powers inside their bodies, showing that if push comes to push, they will still continue the fight, even if it means including the newcomer inside it.

As for Alex and co., they only stayed still on their places, as the sudden change of events were too fast for them to comprehend.

"Alex... I feel another powerful aura incoming here. Is that... another Returning Traveler?" Alina, who was standing behind Alex, asked with worry as she kept her sword out.

She had an ashen look on her face due to the disturbances earlier, which appeared to get paler because of the newcomer.

"Yes, out of all the things that could happen here, that’s the scenario that we have." Alex replied stiffly. "But don’t be that worried. Who knows, this Returning Traveler could just be a spectator..."

"Spectator? Hmph, that’s the lamest excuse that I ever heard!" Beside Alex, the still bedraggled Delia shouted this reply, with her voice sounding extremely hoarse. She looked like she was fed up with Alex’s words, something that the others seemed to share.

"You think that a Returning Traveler just came here to watch? Traveler Alex, this is not a kid’s book! If a powerful person comes here, that person will be obviously here to fight!" Delia added. "Tsk, I could have already left this place if it weren’t for that time manipulating woman! Argh, even if she was your friend Traveler Alex, I still could not forgive her for botching my escape!"

"Try saying those words to the Great TimeMaster’s face later. I am sure that she will be delighted by that." Alex replied sarcastically as he ignored Delia. "Hmph, talking about escaping, isn’t there an Item that we can use to run away here? Don’t tell me that you forgot about it already, Delia?"

"Hm? What do you mean? Are you talking about-"

"The Keys, Delia. The keys for the Legacy Weapon!" Alex blurted out. "Don’t tell me you still haven’t tried using it?"

"The keys? Of course I tried using it earlier, but-"

"But what? You don’t want to use it here, because the Returning Travelers might covet it? Hmph, don’t worry about them. You heard what the cat said. As long as we don’t give the keys to others, then no one else can take over the Legacy Weapon!" This time, Alex gave this reply mentally, as he found that speaking will just make things slower. "So if you want to escape, just use your keys! There will be no harm from doing that..."

"Hmph, why are you pushing me to escape, when you look like you won’t? From what I can see, you don’t seem interested on running away from here..." Even though Alex’s words sounded both reassuring, Delia could still be seen frowning towards Alex. "Don’t tell me that you are plotting something here again?"

"What? I am not plotting anything!"

"Liar! Those two above us are about to fight, and you don’t look like you plan to run! And now that another Returning Traveler is about to come, you still look like you will stay here!" Delia said, as she gave Alex a gloating stare. "Tell me Traveler Alex, isn’t that just suspicious?"

"You..."

"Hmph, if you don’t plan on leaving, then I will leave now with my allies. Let’s just talk about your plans later." A flash of light then materialized around Delia’s hand, which quickly transformed, revealing an ornate key.

Once this key has appeared, Delia grabbed it tightly, as if she does not want it to even leave her hands. She then hunched down as she began crushing the key, creating metallic sounds that grated on Alex’s ears.

"Kura....~" Once this has happened, a powerful suction forced appeared all around Delia, which seemed to be attempting to drag Delia into another place. This suction force did not seem to suck anything else, as only Delia’s body along with her companions were the ones being dragged away.

"Glup!" Before Alex could even react to the sight in front of him, Delia and her companions suddenly disappeared, leaving only displaced air on their now empty space.

The trio were now gone, along with the key that Delia held earlier.

"...That woman must be really scared of Half-Step Transcendent Beings if she really used her Key here. Doesn’t she know that we can only use the Key for limited times? Man, if she uses her key frequently then her key might run out of fuel later..." Alex said in a small tone after seeing Delia’s disappearance.

He did not look irritated, as he seemed to be even pitying her.

"Well, if that’s how Delia wants it to do, then I will let her do that. But as for me, I will still stay here. Who knows, something interesting might happen..." Alex thought as he gave a small glance to Marcus, who was already unconscious at this point. "But if the incoming Retuning Traveler is indeed here to kill me too, then I guess using my Key will be for the best. Wait, why use the key, when I can just-"

"Karakathooom!"

Before Alex could continue making up contingencies for his current situation, a deep, rumbling sound forcefully broke him out of his stupor.

"Karakathoom!"

This rumbling sound, which came from afar, slowly got stronger and stronger as time passed by. Not only that, but its source seemed to come nearer too, something that perked up Alex.

"Karakathoom!"

But as fast as the sound appeared, it also quickly disappeared. One second earlier, the skies were full of rumblings. But now, they all disappeared, as if they had not existed at all.

Only a small disturbance remained, which turned out to be a tall, old man floating in the sky.

This old man, who was undoubtedly the source of the rumbling earlier, stood loftily on his place, with his rough, scraggly beard and dirty face staring down nonchalantly on the ground.

This old man seemed to be uninterested on the fight, with his body not even emitting any kind of aura or killing intent. Heck, even his body appeared to be a weak one, as only frailness and age could be felt from it!

The old man’s thin, bony arms and dropping eyes did not help at all, making him look like an old beggar who was just a day away from dying of starvation.

This old man just looked... really weak, that even just a small breeze can knock him out.

But even with that kind of appearance, those who saw this old man seemed to be greatly disturbed by him!

This can be said for the Crimson God and the Great TimeMaster, who were both staring at this old man with unrestrained hostility and wariness. Actually, most of the hostility came from the Crimson God, while most of the wariness came from the Great TimeMaster...

"You... why are you here, Old Man?" The Crimson God muttered, with his blazing eyes showing his direct contempt for the old man. "Didn’t you say that unless important things happen, you will never leave your house? How could you just-"

"Crimson God, whatever Old Man decides to do with his time is not something that you can dictate. He only stays in his house because he said that he’s ’too lazy to fight’. With that kind of carefree attitude, do you think that you can stop this person from doing what he wants?" The Great TimeMaster blurted out, which cut off the Crimson God’s insults. "Instead of questioning why he came here, I think we should just do our best to chase him off..."

"Hmph, I rarely agree with you, but I think that you are right this time, Great TimeMaster. Let’s make Old Man go away, and then we can resume our match!" The Crimson God said with a smile, as if the thought of beating up Old Man seemed to please him. "Hehehe, ever since I saw Old Man’s face, I really wanted to beat him up into a pulp! It’s too bad he’s too much of a coward to even leave his territory. But now that he’s here, hehehe, I can finally vent my frustrations on him!"

"I don’t think that Old Man is a coward. However, I am sure that he’s a pervert who likes ogling at girls’ tits and chests. Tsk, I can still feel Old Man’s slimy gaze on my body before..." The Great TimeMaster added. "Argh, now this also makes me want to beat him up!"

"Okay, so do you want to team up this time, Great TimeMaster?"

"I am fine with this, Crimson God. But once we beat Old Man up, we can go back to fighting with each other."

"Hmm, that’s good proposition! So, should we start now?"

"The earlier that we finish this, the better it will be for us, Crimson God!"

"....What the hell is this?" This is the only thing that Alina could say after witnessing the sudden change above her. Her eyes, which were filled with panic earlier, was now filled with confusion as the events above her continued to unfold. "How could the Crimson God and the Great TimeMaster team up agaist that old man? Shouldn’t the Crimson God and the Great TimeMaster be fighting each other too?"

The more that Alia pondered about what just happened, the more confused that she just became. "Argh, and here I thought that we can get rid of the Crimson God already! Why should it become like this again?"

With this confusion plaguing her mind, Alina was left with no choice but to ask Alex for his advice.

Alex, why is this-"

But before Alina could finish her question, her words died in her throat once she had seen Alex.

Whatever question that she had for him had now ceased to exist, as Alina found herself staring at Alex’s face, which bears an expression that was foreign even for her.

A pair of widely-opened eyes, dilated pupils, and an agape mouth that continued to stay open were the most prominent features of Alex’s face right now. Couple that with the sudden hasty breathing from him, and it is obvious to anyone that Alex was showing an expression of extreme surprise

"Alex, you..."

What was more concerning was the fact that Alex seemed to be frozen into this expression, as even when seconds passed by, he still continued to look extremely surprised...

It was only after 10 full seconds has passed by that Alex’s face has returned to normal. But at this point, he still looked pretty shaken, something that Alina could not just ignore.

"Alex, why did you act like that? Are you-"

"Alina, that’s him. That’s the guy who turned me into a Traveler." Alex said morosely, interrupting Alina with his now hoarse tone. "Holy mother of b******, why is he here? Shouldn’t he be somewhere else?"

"W-what did you just say, Alex? Did you just say that that man is-"

"I said, that guy is the one who turned me into a Traveler... I cannot be wrong about it. He and that guy in my memories are just the same person..." Alex replied to Alina quickly, with his posture becoming much tenser compared to before. "Sigh, I thought that I will eventually meet him in the future, but I never realized that it would be this early..."

"..."

Even though Alex looked like he was talking to Alina right now, the way that he reacted and moved showed that his attention was already placed somewhere else.

His eyes, which seemed to be unfocused earlier, was now looking intently at someone in the sky, as if the words that he just said were meant for this someone.

As for who this someone is, Alina realized who it was once she looked up too.

"...Alex, are you saying that Old Man is the one who turned you into a Traveler?" Alina asked with a tremor, as she saw that Alex’s eyes were unnaturally focused on the Old Man’s willowy silhouette. "Are you really sure about that?"

"Alina, I have no doubts about it. One of the Returning Travelers, the one who calls himself the Old Man, was the one who introduced me to this world." Alex said, with his voice now turning into a whisper. "Sigh, and here I thought that meeting the Great TimeMaster will be the greatest surprise here..."