Capítulo 2003: Back From The Dead Klaus’s gaze was cold, causing the Gnome to involuntarily shiver. Although Klaus was keeping a calm expression on his face, he was anything but calm. Had he not reacted quickly and also gotten lucky, he would have surely lost his life here from the Gnome’s attacks. When he noticed that his body had been heavily invaded by the darkness essence, he felt the aura of death all over him. There was barely any way for him to fight back, especially when he felt his strength being devoured by the darkness essence that had entered his body. At the moment when he was about to be fully drained, he sensed that he was close to breaking through, sadly, he did not have the luxury of time. Realizing that he was in a dangerous situation, he took a gamble that paid off. Using his own ice abilities, he not only froze his beating heart, but everything about him, his blood, life force, and even his mind. With all these frozen, he appeared dead both inside and outside. This was the reason even with the repeated probings of the silver robbed Gnome, he still ended up with the conclusion that Klaus was dead. The only thing that might have given him away was the silver robbed Gnome’s inability to refine him into a Puppet and his body silently sucking in essence. At the time, if the Gnome had decided to destroy his body after confirming he was dead, there would have been no way for him to block the attack and he would have truly died. Fortunately, the silver robbed Gnome was greedy and tried to refine him, giving his body the time he so dearly needed to make the breakthrough. So even though everything about him was frozen, there was no way for him to freeze time, which gave him the chance he wanted. Luckily for him, the Gnome was too focused on trying to refine him and failed to notice his body sneakily absorbing the world essence around him. It was only when his body had already sucked in enough essence that the Gnome sensed something was wrong and wanted to destroy it. Over his years of cultivating, he developed a somewhat innate ability that could block attacks for him unconsciously. It can only be used once when he is unconscious, and in this case, all he needed to do was block the Gnome’s first attack and he was able to regain consciousness and also make a breakthrough. The silver robbed Gnome could not comprehend how Klaus was able to come back to life, and even grow stronger in the process. He was a Ninth stage Sovereign, it was simply mind-blogging that a Seventh stage Sovereign was able to fake his death in front of him without him realizing it. His senses were sharper, so he found it hard to accept that Klaus did not die. Klaus opened his left palm, and a palm-sized snowflake appeared above it, pushing it forward, he murmured, “Go.” The temperature dropped the instant the snowflake appeared, and without hesitation, the silver robbed Gnome forcefully took back his domain before retreating at breakneck speed. There was a frightening aura radiating from the snowflake that terrified him. Klaus did not chase after him, snorting coldly, he made a flicking motion with his right hand, and a thin ice needle shot straight in the direction of the retreating silver robbed Gnome. The Gnome felt all his hairs standing on edge, roaring, a Puppet that was only in the Fifth stage of the Sovereign Plane appeared in front of him. Even with this Puppet, he still did not feel any sense of safety. Without hesitation, he set up layers upon layers of defensive shields in front of him, while also taking out the defensive artifact he had with him. Even though Elementalists barely make use of artifacts when fighting, defensive artifacts are something a lot of them possess and will only bring it out when they feel their lives are in fatal danger. The Gnome only saw Klaus flicking his hand, followed by a flash of silver glint streaking in his direction. If the snowflake frightened him, this small silver glint made him feel like he was staring at death itself. The silver streak struck the Puppet, easily passing through it like a hot knife through butter, heading straight for the Gnome. It pierced through the first layer of defensive shields the Gnome set up, shattering them one by one before getting to the defensive artifact the Gnome had in front of him. The artifact gave a bright orange glow, and as soon as it was struck by the ice thin needle, it flickered, and the glow reduced significantly. The Gnome heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that the thin needle had been stopped, only to see that the defensive artifact was starting to show signs of freezing over. Taking a look at the Puppet that was pierced through at the start, he realized that it had become completely frozen and was falling to the ground. As soon as the Puppet shattered the moment it slammed into the ground, scaring the Gnome greatly. That was a Puppet in the Fifth stage of the Sovereign Plane, yet it was destroyed with so much ease. Even though he was hasty while bringing it out to help block the attack, he still set up the best defense it could muster, yet it did not even manage to stop it. Before his eyes trailed from the shattered Puppet back to his artifact, his heart sank and his expression turned sour. The glow from the artifact had died down completely and the artifact was fully frozen. When he tried to touch it, the artifact fell apart like a snowball. ‘How can this be?’ The Gnome was almost petrified by fear. As he was still reeling from the shock, a cold energy wave swept in his direction. When he looked at the source of the energy wave, his eyes twitched repeatedly. It was shockingly from the snowflake Klaus released at the start. That snowflake contained a powerful freezing aura along with it, making it deadly. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎 Nonetheless, the Gnome was a veteran Sovereign, a Ninth stage Sovereign for that matter. This was not the first time he was engaging in combat, so after the initial shock, he was able to regain his composure and retaliate. He sent out a darkness orb to meet the energy wave, stopping it in its tracks. When Klaus saw that his plot was stopped, he could not help but give a wry smile, a Ninth stage Sovereign was indeed a Ninth stage Sovereign. It was impossible for him to kill him with just those two attacks if he did not get assistance from anyone else. The ice needle was one of his strongest attacks, and this particular one was condensed from the essence he used in breaking through some moments ago. When he released the snowflake, his aim was to use the ice needle to end the Gnome’s life once and for all. It was a shame the Gnome reacted in time and blocked the attack. Seeing that the ice needle was not going to achieve its purpose, he detonated the snowflake, hoping to catch the Gnome off-guard. Sadly, the Gnome was still able to block this attack as well. Sighing, he looked at his current state, his injuries from the battle with the Gnome were mostly healed and all the darkness essence in his body was purged out by the world essence when he was breaking through. At the thought of the danger he was in a moment ago, he shook slightly. The exchange between Klaus and the silver robbed Gnome drew the attention of everyone in the battlefield, with the exception of those below the Sovereign Plane. When Klaus’s aura disappeared, they all thought he was dead. Klaus’s companions tried to race towards him while the Gnomes tried to stop them from interfering with the process of the silver robbed Gnome refining him into a Puppet. A few minutes later, everyone sensed the aura that previously vanished reappeared again, growing stronger and stronger. At first the Gnomes thought the silver robbed Gnome had succeeded in his endeavors, it was only after the aura spiked to the Eighth stage did they notice something was wrong. The silver robbed Gnome’s darkness domain vanished less than three seconds ago, and in that short time, Klaus unleashed two devastating attacks. Even from their current locations, they could all feel the power behind the two attacks. The flustered silver robbed Gnome blocked the attack, but at the cost of some valuables. Of course, these things were not as important as his life, so it was within reason. What everyone could not understand was how did Klaus manage to come back from the dead? This was the question in the heads of the Gnomes and even Klaus’s companions. Reynolds and Alice could not hide their joy though as their eyes sparkled in delight.