Chapter 674: Unexpected results (part 2)
Listening to Daimon’s words, the little tiger girl’s eyes sparkled for a second, she has grown fond of Arianna over the past months they had been together, so the possibility reuniting with her earlier than what she expected, made her smile and accelerate her pace while climbing up the mountain.
Something that Lyn couldn’t help but notice, which is why she turned to see Daimon to then ask.
"Is the one who owns that "sea emblem", someone from that little missy’s family perhaps?", resulting in Daimon shaking his head in response.
"No, Arianna is a disciple under the same master as me, which makes her my junior martial sister, though she is older than me", he said, to which Lyn frowned for a second.
"Martial sister you say... is your master perhaps one of those winged lizards?", she asked.
"She is a werewolf, just like Arianna", said Daimon, which made Lyn visibly let out a sigh of relief to then say with a confused voice.
"Though it’s good that she doesn’t appear to be related to those arrogant bastards from the Eastern Sky kingdom, it’s strange to see a werewolf using the terms "martial sister/brother", when those guys are known for considering every member of their clan, as a part of their family, regardless of blood, so they wouldn’t use such an ideology... wait, are you also a werewolf then?", to which Daimon cleared his throat as they were about to reach the peak of the mountain.
"No, but we can talk about my lineage later, we are already at our destination", he said.
With a slight nod, both Lyn and Daimon took one last leap and landed at the top of the mountain where the little tiger girl also reached a second later.
What lied at the other side of the mountain which wasn’t visible due to the height of it, was a large open area, which extended far into the distance, there was a shallow and narrow creek of black water that ended at the foot of the mountain, since it went underground past that point.
But what’s more important is where did the creek seemed to originate, there was a plateau ahead of them and near of it, geysers could be seen erupting black water from time to time.
The water that splashed all over that area then moved towards the mountain where Daimon and those two were positioned as of current, which is what formed the creek in question.
"That’s such an annoying landscape", said Lyn, the black water is detrimental for anyone that isn’t a nethereal, so one had to shield himself from it with energy, and the geysers created an area where it rained black water in the vicinity even if it was just for a few seconds.
"And yet, that’s where those guys headed to, not to mention that the black blood specters are going that way too", said Daimon as he pointed at some blur figures that could be seen moving through the initial area where the geysers started, to then change upwards where the bird type black blood specters were flying in the same direction.
"There must be something important there... but I don’t see sister Arianna’s ability, even from this distance it should be quite easy to spot", mumbled the little tiger girl to which Daimon pointed at the plateau.
"Don’t worry, now that the plateau is within my sight I can tell that the one those birds are chasing is Arianna, she is there, though I don’t know exactly where, because a certain someone doesn’t want to cooperate more than that", he said as he looked at his right pocket where the black sea emblem was resting.
"Mm", with a small nod, the little tiger girl smiled at Daimon before the three of them started descending down the mountain,
"Oh well, we have a convenient "purifier" on our side so it will be fine", ultimately said Lyn as she gazed at Daimon with curiosity in her eyes, it’s obvious that she really wanted to analyze how his silver light worked.
Leaving aside Daimon who was being looked at as if he was a mystical magic creature by that sky-blue haired girl, a group of six people with grayish skin tone could be seen moving through the geysers that surrounded the plateau.
Well, there were six people moving, but there was an extra figure being carried by one of them.
"Why the hell are we still carrying this baggage?", asked one of the six people, a guy that was carrying a battered man’s corpse which unlike them had a normal skin tone, well, the parts that weren’t stained with blood at least.
"What are you complaining for, you are only carrying it for the last part of the damn geyser area, I thought I was going to die since I went first and the geysers erupted more frequently back there", added another one, which started a discussion between the two of them, though it didn’t last long before the one leading the group stopped them.
"Enough you two, we almost met our orders to bring at least two new allies before returning to lord Ereth’s side, but that damn crazy woman not only had to kill the nethereal we released earlier, but she even destroyed the copy of the "Breaching Seal" we were bestowed, so if we return with nothing to show, lady Karla will use us as materials for her experiments".
The previous made the other five of the group shiver in fear for a second, as if they were reminded of something horrible.
"Luckily that nethereal was quite the talker and he mentioned that other guy which should be able to make up for the loses we incurred and in an even bigger strike of luck, we managed to keep his body, so we can use an alternate method to weaken the seal, if what he told us is right, then... our future new "friend" should be able to get out with just that", concluded the guy leading the group.
"At least the corpse is not being affected by the black water, and we are protected to a certain degree", mumbled another of the members of the group as they reached the plateau, to then start climbing using rocks that protruded from the wall of the plateau, as well as a black fluid energy to reinforce their hands.
That wasn’t nether, but the water element they possessed since they were members of the Blackfin family, which has been corrupted with darkness, after the process that Ereth used to make them his subordinates.
With that combination, it didn’t take them too much time to reach the flat top of the plateau, but what welcomed them wasn’t what they expected.
"What the hell, there is no water body here?", said the guy who was carrying the nethereal’s corpse, he felt like kicking the corpse to vent his anger, but was stopped by their team leader saying.
"Wait, all of you shut up for a second".
The team leader placed his hand next to his right ear and with a lot of difficulty managed to hear a "beat", making him rush in a specific direction, to then do the same thing a few dozens of times, and after running that way for around a kilometer, the group arrived at a fracture on the surface of the plateau, the separation was really small not being even as big as the size of an arm.
"Don’t tell me we have to go underground...", said one of the guys who had remained silent until now, to which the leader nodded in response.
"Yeah, there are sounds coming from this crack, so it should lead to where our target is sealed, hurry up and make the crack big enough for us to use it as an entrance", said the leader to the other four, since the one carrying the corpse was excused from other activities.
While he observed the others enlarge the crack on the surface, the team leader couldn’t help but frown to his insides.
’What’s up with this sensation of uneasiness I have been feeling since earlier, is it because of those blood specters that are painted of a different color which appeared since yesterday’s night... no, it’s not that, I feel like when lord Ereth executed those fools who failed to fulfill his orders, maybe I’m just apprehensive of returning empty handed’, thought the team leader.
Unfortunately, he had no more time to be lost in his thoughts, because the other members of his group had finished expanding the crack on the ground, revealing a black rock-solid tunnel which led to the inside of the plateau.
Of course, since the tunnel was black colored, and the light of the red sun only managed to illuminate the very few meters of it, the thing looked like a door to hell and the now noticeable rumbling sounds coming from deep into the tunnel, didn’t help at all.
"We are dead if we don’t go, so don’t overthink, it’s probably just that guy trying to break away from the seal", said the team leader as he jumped into the tunnel, before the others followed him.
Just in time for a masked silver haired youth, accompanied by two girls, one with sky-blue hair and another one with white hair and tiger ears and tail, to land on the flat peak of the plateau after taking one last leap.
"Phew, the black water of those geysers was not that far from how corrosive used to be the crater lake where I was sealed", said Lyndis as she dispelled the layer of blue light that was covering her body.
Dana was the same, with a slight tremble, the yellow lightning that was cladding her body and has been corroded by the black water erupted by the geysers, was dispelled.
"I don’t understand how did you cross all those damn geysers without actively protecting yourself from the black water", said Lyn as she saw Daimon who was perfectly fine even after passing next to the geysers, what’s more when they erupted, he stood in front of them, basically using his body to shield them the majority of the exposition to the drops of black water.
"It’s the silver light, the one I’m using is drawn from my body at the end of the day, it’s just that I don’t need a special way to apply it, at its normal state it already automatically protects me against the negative effects of the black water, while also reducing the cost of it".
"Speaking of which, here let me get rid of any negative affectation the black water might have caused on you two", said Daimon as he pointed his hands at Lyn and Dana to then release a stream of silver light towards each of them.
Seeing the stream of silver light pass through her body, taking out a few strands of black light which were then burned by the light of the red sun, Lyn couldn’t help but laugh.
"Had it not been for this crazy ability of yours, I would have believed you were nuts when you stopped our advance so that we could observe those guys without being discovered, which extended the time we were exposed to the eruptions of black water from the geysers you know", she said as she saw the black strands coming out from her body.
Of course, not all that was from this small period of time of exposition, it was mainly the leftovers that she would have had to spend more time and effort to eliminate from her body by herself.
"Speaking of which, could you confirm those guy’s identities?", asked Lyn as she stretched her body to which Daimon nodded in response.
"Yeah, they are Ereth’s minions, no doubt about it, but more importantly they mentioned some interesting things".
"Huh, what interesting, I couldn’t hear them unlike you two with your sharp ears, but I could read their lips to a certain extent and those bastards kept insulting me", retorted Lyn, only for her complains to be ignored by Daimon, who directly asked.
"They mentioned something called "Breaching Seal" and said you destroyed it, do you remember what it was?", to which Lyn shook her head in response.
"There was a black light they threw at that other guy, which I intercepted with the chains I could control, it broke one of the extremes I had cleaned from those guy’s nether, but that was it", she said as she shrugged.
After a few seconds of exposition to Daimon’s silver light, those two were ready to go, so Daimon beckoned and the remains of the silver light gathered, to then rotate around his body as if to protect him.
"That sure is convenient, what a shame only you can touch it without it losing effectiveness, which prevents you from using it to cover us", said Lyn.
The silver light passed through the bodies of others, taking out the strands of black light with it, and by doing so it consumed itself, this happened whether Daimon wished it or not, so long as there was contact, meaning that indeed Daimon couldn’t use it to protect others.
Because with the slightest touch, the silver light will get consumed, in comparison, Daimon could freely touch the silver light and manipulate it however he wanted.
’For now, at least’, thought Daimon to then change his focus to the now larger crack on the ground which could be seen from their current position.
Besides waiting to see if those fools gave away useful information since they had their guards down, Daimon delayed their arrival at the plateau to let the opponents do all the hard work, they expanded the entrance of the tunnel in their stead for example.
"Don’t get too far from me, there should be black water on the walls of the tunnel and probably an underground cavern with a river at the bottom or something like that", said Daimon as he placed his hands on those two’s right and left shoulders respectively to then jump into the tunnel which was slowly but surely getting covered by black soil again.
...
As they descended into the tunnel, Daimon was surprised to feel two different sensations of familiarity coming from somewhere deeper into the tunnel.
One came from the ritual he followed to become martial siblings with Arianna, which is something he expected, as that was basically a way to make their blood resonate and lineages had weight in this place.
The other sensation however came from an unexpected source, the passive skill he obtained thanks to his little game with Agrak, the "Corrupted Treasure Trove", it was telling him that there was something beneficial for it in the vicinity.
Just as Daimon was about to create a sphere with silver light to cover them, since he could hear some sounds coming from not too far below them, meaning their descend through the tunnel was about to end, they actually left the absolute darkness of the tunnel behind, to be welcomed by an open area with a small red sphere floating into the air, it looked like an imitation of the red sun.
But right now, it wasn’t the time to admire that second red sun which was illuminating this giant cave, because they were about to land in clear water?
Daimon turned to see those two, who nodded at him at the same time, resulting in Daimon not using the silver light to cover them, as they descended into the water, in any case it’s not like they would be in trouble by being exposed to the black water right away, they had a few minutes of tolerance even in that situation, so as expected nothing happened by landing in clear water.
"I didn’t even know that there were water bodies devoid of any nether in the Blood Prison realm...", mumbled Lyn as she got out of the water to then use her blue-sky colored energy to dry herself up, the little tiger girl did the same, but Daimon had to take a towel out of the inventory to get rid of the water on his clothes.
"Boooom!", just as they were preparing to advance through the waterless part of the cave, which led to a tunnel, a loud explosion reverberated though the cave, before fading almost instantly, apparently the walls of the cave were good at isolating sound.
Following the explosions, the group passed through a passage on one of the walls of the cave, which led them to what they originally expected to see, a black water body, with a small island on its center.
But that’s not what mattered, but the ones in that island, namely an almost eighty-meter-tall blood red wolf, which was fighting against a group of six on the rear, while clashing against larger than usual black chains emerging from the water surrounding the island.
Speaking of which, there was a giant black chain passing from one side of the cave to the other, which could be seen not too far high into the air.
"Awooooooo!", with a loud howl, the giant blood red wolf released a shockwave which blasted away the chains coming at it, alongside those guys, with the exception of the team leader who was behind of them all, making some kind of ritual using the corpse of the nethereal.
"Are you not done yet, we can’t hold that monster anymore!", screamed one of the other five guys, he was missing his right arm now, to which the team leader yelled back.
"It’s done so shut up!", the team leader threw the corpse which had some strange marks engraved on it into the water surrounding the island, resulting in cracking sounds coming from the black water the next second.
What happened next was different to what both those guys, the giant red wolf and even Daimon, expected, an arm of around two meters of length emerged from the black water, followed by a second... a third, fourth, fifth and lastly a sixth arm, all of the same length.
The arms held onto the ground of the island and with a lot of effort managed to pull the rest of "body" out, well it was an ample sphere of chains out of which six unusually big arms emerged.
"We did it!", exclaimed the group of Ereth’s subordinates, now they only needed to wait until the one inside the sphere of chains broke out of the seal, and then they could kill that monstrous blood red wolf which has been beating them up, and then reunite with their boss.
Or at least that’s what they thought until one of the arms tripled its size, reaching the guy who was carrying the corpse earlier, grabbing him to then start applying force on it.
"Aghhhhh!", with a miserable scream, the gray skinned guy turned into meat paste the next second, making Lyn shake her head.
"Fools, who received outdated information, to think they saved me the work of having to look for the sole nethereal that willingly defected to our side, as a way to thank Pheli for having killed the piece of trash that was using him as a slave", she said.