Underground and Rescue
After preparing his backup plan, Leylin swished his robes and entered the arched door in mid-air. An icy membrane rippled as he passed through it. The moment he materialised, Leylin realised he’d stepped into another place.
A dark, frigid aura permeated the air, one that was specific to the subterranean world. The density of darkness and earth energy particles was even greater than in Twilight Zone.
“This is the other end of the spatial tunnel, huh?” Leylin swept his gaze across the surroundings. He was currently in a palace hall of sorts, where bizarrely styled sculptures were scattered around the vicinity.
Once the light in the spell formation subsided, a thick layer of dust could be observed in the area.
“Inextinguishable Flame!” Leylin pointed ahead and a bright and beautiful flame floated in front of him.
‘This place seems to have been deserted for a very long while. Is it the depths of an ancient ruin?’ Leylin scanned the surroundings with his soul force, before realising that the whole area seemed to be protected by a layer of mysterious energy. This mysterious energy even suppressed the soul force of a Magus.
However, given that his truesoul was at Half Moon, he could still cover a sizeable portion of the area. It wasn’t long before he discovered several passageways leading out.
‘I hope there aren’t any complex spell formations outside, this will become very troublesome.’ Leylin walked towards a large door, the unadorned yet aw-inspiring stone standing over ten metres tall. On the left of the doors was the sculpture of a devil, on the right that of a beautiful angel.
*Ka-cha!* *Ka-cha!*
Leylin stretched his hand forward as he pushed the door. Suddenly, two powerful streaks of lightning flashed and struck Leylin, but was repelled by Kemoyin Scales.
A pitch-black tunnel appeared in front of Leylin and without any hesitation, he stepped forward.
“I never expected that I would chance across some Magi on an expedition. This will save me loads of time!”
The corners of Leylin’s lips curled upwards as he blended in with the darkness, before moving at a speed that defied the logics of physics.
…..
On the other side, a group of adventurers were running for their lives, escaping from something in the tunnel.
“Quick! It’s catching up!”
This group of adventurers had a warrior adorning armour, an archer carrying a wooden bow, and the one that made up the most numbers were a group of Magi garbed in robes and carrying strange tools. This party composition was still rather decent. However, this small party now were scurrying away in fear from something behind them, their clothes torn and tattered. Traces of blood tainted their body, revealing profuse injuries.
*Dum dum! Dum dum!* Behind them, in the darkness, thuds of heavy footsteps were heard.
Upon hearing these noises, the people in the small party had their colour drained from their faces as they continued to flee at a faster speed.
*Crash!* A dark streak of light flashed, carrying a black long spear. It immediately penetrated the innate spell defense of one of the Magi, pinning him to the floor.
“Xander! Damn it!” The leader, a brown haired youth, turned back and saw his companion pinned to the ground with blood streaming out of his mouth. However, he gritted his teeth and continued fleeing.
“Run! Hurry and run!” His eyes turned bloodshot as he screamed at the top of his lungs.
At the same time, a blazing flame of unwillingness and regret gnawed at his soul bit by bit. “We were too careless! With our combined strength of three stars ranking, this vestige is way out of our league! Damn it! The danger level here is at least five stars! As long as I manage to make it out, I will definitely slay that damned asshole!”
“No! Xander! The female archer slinging the bow on her back halted immediately as she knelt beside the Magus pinned to the ground. She then took out a green vial of potion and poured it on his wounds.
“It’s no use!” The leader roared, but he never stopped running.
Tens of seconds later, that blood curdling scream of his female party member sounded. The leader’s face turned even more pale as he sped up.
*Dum dum! Dum dum!*
The footsteps sounded behind him, like that of a death god who had come to reap their souls. Although the footsteps were slow, the speed was extremely fast. Not long later, the youth heard several more wretched cries behind him.
It was only until now that he realised, to his astonishment, that not one of his companions had remained.
“No! I can’t die here! I have to be a five stars adventure and even the crowned King Adventurer! I have goals yet to be fulfilled, and to return the glory of my family, the revenge, and also my…”
Another beam of black light shot towards him and stopped his train of thoughts. Although the youth had attempted to maneuver out of the way, he was still grazed by that black light, causing him fall to the ground and cough out a pool of blood.
*Dum dum! Dum dum!* Along with the footsteps, a giant figure emerged from the darkness.
It was a giant that stood tall at over three metres, with two long shafts of spears slung on its back. Complex runes covered his body, giving off a metallic lustre.
There was a grim expression on its face, as if it belonged to a dead creature. Only two scarlet rays of light were projected from its pupils.
“It’s… It’s here….” The youth teeth clattered. This undead creature that stood in front of him was a defense mechanism of the vestige. Previously, when the group had broken through a tomb like room, it had started to chase them.
The undead giant had a powerful physical attack, with a high resistance to magic spells. It led the youth to despair; he could only watch on as his party members perished one by one under the hands of this giant. Ultimately, he was the only one left standing.
*Dum dum! Dum dum!* The giant walked over as he unsheathed one of the spears on his back.
“No! I don’t want to…. Please…” Tears poured from the youth’s eyes as he start to turn deranged.
*Whoosh!” The spear thrusted forward, but funnily enough, it remained hoisted in midair. The anticipated pain did not come, which caused the youth to reopen his eyes.
He saw a black shield protecting him at the front, engaging in a deadlock with the spear.
“I’m…I’m saved!” The youth collapsed weakly and laid on the ground, with tears of joy flowing from his eyes.
“Ahoooo!” The giant withdrew his spear and turned his body to the back, howling towards the darkness. Very soon, he staggered half a step backwards, as if some sort of ferocious predator was in front of it.
“Interesting!” ‘Although it seems to be a body made of flesh and blood, there seemed to be some modifications added to it. It’s rather akin to a metallic bodied demon right now huh? Even it consciousness was wiped out, with the only defense mechanism within it remaining…”
Leylin stepped forward from the shadows, blue light shining from his eyes as he scanned the giant in front of it.
“Moreover… These runes on the body, it seemed really similar to that of Branded Swordsmen…”
Leylin always held onto part of the Branded Swordsman’s inheritance, but it was extremely lacking of information. Even after the simulation and conjecture from the A.I. Chip, it could only reached the strength of a rank 1 Magus, which was not of much use.
Right now, after the A.I. Chip had upgraded several times and even added troves of information from the Great Library, it could raise the power of Branded Swordsman from rank 1 to 3. However, for Leylin who had the backing of the Ouroboros Clan and the Warlock Alliance, these Branded Swordsman were relatively useless to him. Hence, Leylin did not mass produce these Branded Swordsman cannon fodder.
However, at this moment, Leylin could clearly see the runes of Branded Swordsman on this giant.
Although the the style is slightly different, with modifications made on top of the original school of thought, this is no doubt the runes of Branded Swordsmen.
Just from looking at the runes and the energy that it radiated had gave Leylin many fresh ideas and inspiration about the Branded Swordsman.
Perhaps, after combining the knowledge found on the continent and in the subterranean world, the A.I. Chip might be able to produce runes which can create Morning Star Branded Swordsman.
“Arghhhhh!” Although the giant has discovered how powerful Leylin was, the defense mechanism inside its consciousness still made it reach out his hands.
Two black spears soared towards Leylin like two dragons.
*Peng!* *Pa!* A layer of black scales emerged from Leylin’s palms. As astonishing scene was created accompanied by sparks and screeching sounds.
The two black spears that the giant hurled had been caught firmly in Leylin’s palms.
“Hmm! The explosive power isn’t bad, with the strength at 50 degrees of so. It is rather similar to a rank 3 Magus attack!” Leylin nodded his head, but the youth at the side had his eyes bulging out.
During the escape earlier, he had seen many of his companions perish under the mighty black spear. Even magic defense spells proved to be no defense against it.
However, Leylin had managed to catch it in his hands.
“This Magus, is he a monster too?” The youth looked at Leylin’s appearance, garbed in luxurious black robes with a mask. Leylin gave off a regal yet mysterious aura, yet he did not seem to be a savage or tyrant.
“Groarrr!” The giant was stupefied momentarily before giving off a huge roar.
The sound waves involuntarily forced the youth to cover his ears. At the same time, black energy particles which could be seen by the naked eye surged towards the giant like water to a sponge, as the runes on the giant’s body began to flicker.
“Groarrrrr!’ With the howling noises made, a spell began to surface. The image of a dark creature’s head appeared, baring its razor sharp fangs as it was sent flying towards Leylin.
“Rank 3 spell — Darkness Crunch?” This spell seemed to be missing on the continent for thousands of years. Only the Great Library in Sky City had mentioned of this before.
Leylin rubbed his chin. A lost and forgotten spell need not necessarily meant that it was powerful. It could be due to not keeping up with the times and entered natural selection. He would definitely not make the assumption that anything ancient is powerful.
The blue light in Leylin’s eyes flashed and the A.I. Chip made its calculations.
Seconds later, the principle of this rank 3 spellcasting and even the spell model had been conjectured by the A.I. Chip.
“So this is how it works! Although this spell isn’t too bad, but it requires a huge amount of darkness elemental energy particles. No wonder the central continent had phased this spell out!”