Mystical Journey

“Wait!” the Corpse-Hound Maffey yelled by the side, “Kratos is right. Technically, there’s still a White Dragon out there and three humans. There seems to be the scent of Blasphemy Knights.”

He sniffed with his sensitive nose and revealed a look of greed. “Such perfectly strong flesh, if I’m able to eat it, perhaps I can safely pass the next Bottleneck.”

The movements of the red clouds that were swooping downward immediately stopped.

Bakiloa turned and looked at Maffey.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course!” Maffey glanced at him with dissatisfaction. “Are you doubting my sense of smell?”

Bakiloa did not respond, instead, he set his steely gaze on Kratos, withdrawing the big clumps of clouds that retracted back to the sky.

“From what you’ve said, he probably hasn’t gotten far, maybe nearby here that we can catch up. Can you confirm which direction he headed off to?”

Maffey continued sniffling.

“Should be that direction…” He raised his head and suddenly began running in a direction.

Bakiloa and Kratos then followed behind hurriedly.

*******************

Garen continued flying, the frequency of his wings flapping had reached an astonishing speed.

A large area of the Abyss’ ground swept under him. A steel fortress at his right side shot out a large number of black smoke pillars that were surrounded by large blood-red runes. It was clearly a sort of spell.

Garen could vaguely recognize the style of this fortress. The Devil and Demon’s Fortress were different. The Devil’s Fortress was extremely orderly and beautiful with a hint of grimness.

As for the Demon’s, it was just messy. Moreover, they were too lazy to even bother with all the repairs to the insignificant places. Because of the brutal fights and battles that often damaged the internal structures of the building and the surrounding walls of the fortress, they never bothered maintaining it anymore.

“It’s the Demon’s Fortress.” Garen simply identified the soldiers below.

Somewhere beneath the fortress and the big gate on the ground, a ruthless battle was happening right at that moment. Devil Soldiers that had horns on their heads were battling against chaotic strong Demons. Green, blue, and red blood scattered everywhere.

Several tall Balor Demons were entangled among the troops, fighting the giant beasts and giant squids.

Garen swept across the sky and attracted the attention of some of the creatures below. However, the war was getting heated up, nobody could turn their attention away.

As for Garen, he sensed a strong aura that was closing in on him.

“He actually caught up.” It bothered him that after drilling a hole underground and escaping from another place, not long after he was away, he could see the place in where he originally lived being surrounded by a large array of spells. He could also sense Kratos’ indistinct aura.

He instantly knew that Kratos had definitely brought trouble upon him.

Fortunately, he escaped right on time.

“This is Kaqiu Plains, we can’t fly anymore. There are flight restrictions here, time can’t stop over two Magic Points on the battlefield. Otherwise, the Thane of Fortress will kill us!”

The male Knight that was clutched in Garen’s claws started shouting.

“Thane of Fortress? What level of a powerhouse is the general Thane of Fortress?” Garen asked casually.

“Generally it’s the peak level, Level Fourteen,” the Knight answered honestly, “We can’t fight against the Thane of Fortress’ prestige. They still have many men of below Level Nine. If they work together on a spell, they can easily imprison or even kill a being of Level Ten and above,” Irene, the female Knight, continued.

“Level Fourteen…” Garen shivered. He once witnessed the power of a Level Fourteen, the speaker back in Snow City, who was also the father of Dragon Master. By just casting a spell far away, he was already able to suppress all the Wizards that were present in the area. If he was to cast a spell close-ranged, perhaps the power would be more than doubled. He was not an existence he could fight against at the moment.

“Let’s go down first and we’ll see.” He then flew lower toward the battlefield.

Behind him, he could vaguely see the large clumps of red clouds almost chasing up.

Kratos’ aura was getting closer and closer already, there was also a mixture of two inexplicable, unfamiliar force fields.

“He indeed found people to help.” Garen sneered and looked back at the red clouds behind him.

“We can’t actually help you with anything, so can you let us go?” Irene was the most naive one among the three Knights. After noticing the people chasing behind them, her face paled and she began pleading Garen.

“Let all of you go?” Garen smiled and glanced at the trio. “You guys were the ones who wanted to kill me in the first place, it’s not going to be that easy for me to just let all of you off the hook. Come on, let’s join this Blood War. We can avoid those three fellows behind too.

The bloody atmosphere and extremely broad battlefield was just the right place for him to hide his trail.

Garen rushed straight toward the battlefield, where a mess of massacre was all over the place.

A Gnoll in black armor swung a hammer toward Garen’s back.

With a swipe of Garen’s tail, he immediately smashed the spell barrier that was emitted from the Gnoll with a bang. The Gnoll flew on impact and was broken into half by the waist mid-air, both halves of its corpse fell onto the two Devils who were battling.

The Fiery Devils lingered in the flames and smoke. They wore blood-red robes and held long barbed whips. One of them slashed the whip toward Garen’s head.

“Die!”

With a smack, Garen caught the whip in his claws and pulled hard, pulling the Fiery Devil over and exhaled a breath of Dragon Breath.

The icy Dragon Breath was mixed with a cold toxin, and the Fiery Devil instantly froze into a block of ice.

There were all just creatures that were no higher than Level Six, they stood no chance against Garen at all. He could simply wipe out the entire space with just a mere swipe of his tail, or just a simple stretch of his claws.

He was basically a war machine in this sort of low-level battlefield.

His claws were already covered with flesh and armor fragments after just a few minutes.

Roar!

All of a sudden, a green fat Bullhorn Devil stared at him.

This fellow was carrying an enormous mace that was at least five meters wide. It had a long tail much like that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex’s. The tail resembled his third leg, supporting his bulky body as he walked towards Garen shakily.

The monster was almost two heads taller than Garen, looking down at Garen from his height.

The monster suddenly opened its mouth and spat, spewing out large black worms that flew toward Garen’s body. At the same time, the mace on his shoulder slammed down like a phantom.

Bang!

As Garen’s wings blocked before him, seven black-red stars flashed on his wings. It was hard, and the strength was unusually terrifying. The seven stars suddenly grew brighter. Garen immediately felt a steady stream of strength surged through his wings, increasing his strength by more than half.

With this strength, he gently moved his wings and firmly blocked the monster’s wings.

He was originally as powerful as this guy already. However, after this enhancement, he surpassed the other person. The fat devil had a great fall and soon, fearless Demons swarmed forward and started biting crazily.

Garen did not care much but just went forward and lashed his tail ferociously.

With a loud rumble, the fat Devil exploded straight away and turned into black bugs that flew around.

The surrounding Demons cheered.

“You’ve crossed the border! Dragon Race Mercenaries!” A Devil leader shrieked.

“So what if I’ve crossed the border?” Garen was too lazy to even bother. He was surrounded by Demons and Devils. Most of the Demons here were Gnolls, Fiery Devils and fat Devils like the one just now.

The Devil Leader screamed as he drove the large crowd of Fiery Devils toward Garen. As for he himself, he retreated back. The Devils that were being driven away had reddish eyes, they were clearly under some sort of stimulation.

The atmosphere everywhere was hectic.

Demons screamed in an insane manner as they darted out from Garen’s side, heading toward the Devils.

They then exploded to death, row by row, by the group of Warlocks’ spells. Yet, there was no sign of retreat.

Flames, strong acid, huge rolling stones, and magma bombs fell from the sky one by one onto the groups of Demons and Devils. Blood and the shattering sounds of Souls could be heard among the screams.

Garen stood on the battlefield with three of the Blasphemy Knights. In this battlefield, Garen could just open his wings and he was able to block and flames, rolling stones, and even strong acid. If he simply exerted a little bit more strength, he would be able to smash the crowded Devils into death.

His body scent was perfectly hidden in the bloodshed of this battlefield.

Gnolls were constantly torn into pieces by him and at the same time, he vaguely felt that a surge of evil yet distorted strength slowly seeping into his body in the process of killing.

This strength then proceeded in nourishing his body, accelerating the evolution of his body.

“So this is the Power of Abyss huh?” Garen immediately understood. The creatures that were involved in the Blood Wars would cause the increase of creatures killed, which would then gain the reward of the Abyss’ Will, thus gaining more powerful strength. This strength consisted a natural effect of creating chaos in one’s mind and if it was not stably digested, if this chaotic essence was not suppressed, one would eventually become extremely chaotic, turning into a war machine that could only kill. One could ultimately die on the battlefield.

Hiss!

With just one claw, Garen beat the Fiery Devil into ashes and he instantly felt his back loosen up. It was as if his back finally broke through something that was bound around him, piercing through his scales and releasing them all out.

He heard the exclamation of the three Knights behind him and turned around to look at his back.

Only then did he realize, at right that moment, his back was covered with rows of black venomous snakes.

His back that was originally like a Stegosaurus, full of spikes, was now full of soft venomous snakes. These venomous snakes looked ferocious with black spikes all over their heads. They looked just like sharp whips.

“Is the evolution finally over?”

Garen quickly glanced at his Status Pane. (TL Note: The author’s original script wrote something along the lines of “his IDE Status Pane”, this is probably a typo.)

As expected, there had been new changes in his status. Just right below his Attribute Pane, there was a new row of status.

‘Status: White Dragon Level 2 Evolutionary Body — Snakeback White Dragon. Spellcraft talent, Poisonous Eye.’

Garen then only discovered that his eyes seemed to be filled with a new kind of power. This power was like the liquid compressed within the eyelids; it was flowing around, yet it did not affect his vision. He felt that he could just use this strength and unleash it out at any time.

So he found a Devil that rushed before him, a slightly icy Devil, a white-skinned man that was wrapped in a white chilly fog.

With two subtle slurps, two rays of white-blue Light Beams shot out from Garen’s eyes and hit the icy Devil as quickly as a sudden clap of thunder.

Ah!

The Devil suddenly let out a scream and melted like a candle, turning into a gooey solution in less than two seconds flat.