Chapter 757 Moving Deeper: The Perilous Quest for the Enigmatic Artifact
The spirit suddenly lunged at the portal and his face got squashed against it. He stared at Reign with his face red in anger.
"I'm going to kill you, you little human, I shall kill you and everybody you care about." The spirit said as a warped smile appeared on his face which started bleeding slightly.
"Come to me, I can't wait for the few of you that survive to come to me, it will be then that I shall slaughter every single one of you, I shall keep your souls, find out every single person you love, and cherish and kill them as well before keeping their souls next to yours to be tortured for eons."
"I promise you that I shall do that you little bastard, you shall be begging to die soon."
As soon as the spirit said that, the portal disappeared.
"You're not the first that said such a thing to me, you won't be the last either." Reign said in a monotone voice as he turned around to face Siggurd and the others.
"Well, it's nice to see you guys again, let's go, we shouldn't waste time standing here."
They all nodded at Reign and started making their way deeper through the dungeon they were in, which was still a forest.
"Are you sure this was the correct thing to do?" Basred asked Reign who nodded his head.
"Those souls that are kept in the prison, I don't trust them." Reign said as he glanced at Liara who seemed a bit troubled.
"They barely spoke an ounce of truth when I met them, that is one of the reasons why I decided to come here, and not follow the path they were showing us through Liara."
"The artifact going out of control and being influenced by demonic energy might not have been something they had imagined would happen, but even with that, I don't trust whatever they had planned."
"This might work to our benefit, they had no idea that this separate space would open, one that could lead us directly to the artifact without it being able to do a thing, it's when we get there that we will need to figure out just what the hell we are going to do." Reign said with a slightly heavy expression.
"I don't know if Liara should try to take control of the artifact, the souls might try to take control instead and somehow get out of the prison, which could very well lead to her soul being fractured or even destroyed."
Reign's words made everybody show solemn expressions on their faces as they continued walking forward. Some monsters had appeared and attacked them, but were dealt with immediately as they were only Tier I, for such weaklings, a punch was still enough.
They moved forward, and Liara was unable to help them find their way anymore as not only did Reign not want to get help from the souls right now, but this place was separate from the dungeon they had been in before and there was no way of knowing if the souls could even be useful anymore.
Reign and the others were simply using their own strength to pummel their way through the areas and go deeper in, which turned out to be simpler and easier than expected. Contrary to the areas they had been in before, these all had light and were not as wide, but they were longer.
It was actually quite easy to find all the tunnels as they were at the end of each area. It was actually hard to lose yourself as the areas were quite simple and straightforward.
You just needed to get in, kill any monster that attacked you, and make it to the end, that was all.
After about half an hour, Reign and the others were fighting against Tier III monsters, albeit low-grade Tier III monsters.
The monsters were also forced to use physical strength like Reign and the others as they weren't able to control mana normally here, but that was actually an advantage for them.
Monsters were physically superior to humans after all. Their huge bodies and immense strength and defense made it almost impossible for a human to win against a monster of the same level without using their skills and abilities.
Even if they were only Tier III, the monsters were not that easy to kill. One needed to strike them multiple times in vital areas to kill them, and even Siggurd and Basred, the only two Tier V beings present, couldn't kill the monsters in one hit.
'We still have ways to go, the monsters are getting more and more powerful while we are losing stamina and strength.' Reign thought as he stared at the body of a dead monster.
"Yeah, it's lucky that you are able to use a portion of your true power though," Aethion said with a chuckle as Reign nodded his head.
Mana was indeed suppressed here, but compared to the others, Reign and Liara were able to utilize much more of it here, making it easier for the others.
That was not the only thing, however, as Reign was actually able to use soul power normally here. There was no suppression at all present, making him the most powerful person in their group right now.
With that, he was certain that even if they came across Tier V monsters, they would be able to win against them. Without mana, he doubted the monsters would be able to resist his soul attacks for long, and even then, Siggurd and Basred could deal with them while their souls were being attacked.
It was actually quite a good choice to come here as Reign was confident that they could pass without any of them dying.
"Have you made any sort of plan for the artifact?" Aethion asked Reign who shook his head before he sighed.
'The spirit shouldn't be too powerful, you said it yourself, the system wouldn't give us such a challenge if the spirit was beyond what we could deal with, if it used its full power, it's probably a Tier V existence, which is still dangerous, but if I use my transformation and fight together with Siggurd and Basred, I'm certain we can defeat it.'
'The only problem was that I don't want to use the transformation right here, the demons are not dumb, they will probably notice that multiple groups had suddenly disappeared, and without having our location, they would definitely figure out that we have found the artifact and are doing our best to get it without them noticing.'
Reign was doing his best to come up with multiple plans to go against the artifact and then the demons. He knew that although it seemed quite difficult for the demons to come here, there was no saying just what they had up their sleeves.
He wasn't willing to simply hope that everything would go perfectly.
The enemy was a crafty one, and they were the ones who knew about the artifact before the humans that lived here did, so there was no saying whether they had a way to find it after it was taken or not.
There was also the big possibility of the artifact giving the demons a signal of sorts, showing them where it was in order to foil the plans of Reign and the others.
It had said itself that it didn't want to be controlled, it wanted a demon to take it so that it could control the demon, making it free.
A spirit that had been twisted by demonic energy like the artifact's was not to be underestimated, and there was no telling what it might do when it was pushed against a wall.
'Since Liara was the one that had the fragments bound to her, she should be the one to get the artifact, the spirit doesn't wish that to happen, but it's obvious that something happened in the past, it was probably split in half, the original spirit tried to get rid of the demonic influence and split itself in order to do so, only to lose in the end.'
"You think that some part of the original spirit is still present in the artifact?" Aethion asked Reign who nodded inwardly.
'It could be possible.'
'But there's also the mission I was given, to take the artifact for myself.' Reign suddenly thought.
'Does that mean that anybody can take it and tame it?'
'That seems too unlikely, I might be able to do so because of the fragments of Lieara's soul that are in me, could that be the key?'
'Lieara's soul fragments are different from Liara's, but they are almost the same as the ones I saw in the prison, could they be more powerful, more pure?'
'Ahh, my head is seriously starting to hurt from all this thinking, why couldn't the system just give me a mission to kill a Tier V and be done with it, that would be so much simpler.' Reign complained as Aethion chuckled.
"That wouldn't be as challenging as this, I think the system gave you this challenge so that you might end up receiving an artifact, after all, something that a Saint had used is incredibly powerful and would make you almost undefeatable below the Saint realm."
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