Mystical Journey

When Garen came to, there was a mixture of countless skeletons, flesh and blood everywhere. Crackling sounds were heard as they were ignited by the corrosive air, releasing a green smoke.

There were demons constantly rushing past him to the frontline. They were Tanar’ri’s little demons and elder demons. They were had long pointed tails, black bat wings on their backs, and horns on their heads. Their form was extremely distinct, which was the standard demonic form that humans had in mind.

Others were some oddly-shaped war machines; huge black turtles with sharp teeth, and giant cyclops with black scales all over their face.

There were also devil rays floating in midair, their whole body covered with huge stingers. Each one looked like a balloon, and they could burst out numerous stingers like arrows raining down.

In addition to the various kinds of demons, there were the mercenaries from each major Planes.

Humans and Humanoids had the most in numbers. Garen saw that most of those who rushed past him were Dog-Headed Humans. They were shouting an inflected Draconic Language and waving a chain or a hammer, while some of them had gleams of spells in their hands as the Will of the Abyss fanatically drove them to charge on.

The Blood War was about to come to an end, and the devil’s offense was further repelled. But overall, they still maintained their advantage. If it were not for the Demon Fortress releasing the last batch of huge demons into the battlefield, they probably would have directly stormed through the fortress gate.

“Respected Powerhouse, take out your military merit token. It’s time to reward you according to your accomplishments.” A Demon-Hag floated before Garen and spoke in a sharp voice.

“Lead the way.” Garen smugly glanced at her. Each different Demon Fortress was an independent kingdom. Any powerhouse could become the Thane of Fortress, regardless of race or standpoint. The general Fortress Master was the top powerhouse, at least Level Fourteen.

Level Fourteen and Fifteen were already the culmination of the mortal world, but they could only be the Thane of a small fortress here. This was the Abyss – a bloody land where the sun that was chained up shone upon.

There were even a few hidden demigods here, and there were some Evil Gods and Thanes of Abyss who lived in certain layers of the Abyss. These were the true Gods, not something the mortal existence could compete against.

One must be careful here.

Garen generally knew his own limitations. In the battle with the Devil Warlord, he had already understood that his overall strength should be at about Level Twelve. With the Soul Divine Weapon, Poisonous Eye and et cetera as his trump card, and as long as he was not caught off guard by the Space-Time Spell, he could rely on the fluctuation of spells to forcibly distort and interfere. In this way, he could still manage to reach an unbeaten level.

“Even if I raise both Agility and Intelligence to 180, it probably would be at about Level Thirteen. There’s a massive difference in strength for every level after Level Ten. It would be best to advance myself here and hunt for more devils as Potential Points.” Thoughts were running through Garen’s head.

He had shown his strength, and presumably the Thane of the Demon Fortress here would attach great importance to him.

Led by the Demon-Hag, Garen stepped out of the battlefield and stalked in from the fortress gate that was surrounded by spikes of white bones. Teams of crawling Abyss monsters were transporting the corpses from the battlefield into the fortress to fill up the damaged walls and the gaps in the building.

These giant demons’ form were like the enlarged version of the Skeleton Warriors, except that their bones were much thicker and their body was also five or six meters high. They were full of might.

The corpses were transported by black rays. They fanned their wide wings and dumped the piles of corpses, whether they were devil or demon.

Some black rays began to greedily chew on the corpses before they had finished dumping them.

Teams of well-equipped warriors with two sharp spurs on their backs patrolled inside the fortress. The spurs on their back formed a perfect ring behind their heads, and they looked well-disciplined.

The Demon-Hag took Garen all the way to the highest point of the Fortress.

They passed through an equipment production zone, and in it was full of dwarves, human blacksmiths. There were also many slaves who were cursed and forced to labor there.

They passed through a trade zone and a battle zone.

Very soon, they came to an enormous palace made up of white bones.

The guards were two white-silver statues of more than ten meters high. Leaning over, they studied Garen carefully. After that, they silently moved and let open the entrance.

A little demon with purple skin flew out and took over the task of leading the way for Garen.

“Please come with me, respected Powerhouse.” The Little Demon was a female with a beautiful face. Except for the wings on her back and a long spur-tail, all the other parts had grown into a human woman form.

As soon as he entered the palace, his heart panicked a little.

The Fortress Master at the highest place in the palace was a Skeleton Lich in a red robe. Her eyes flashed red and her hand held her chin to reveal a thoughtful look.

A few guests were seated below, and Kratos was actually among them!

“Welcome, our powerful White Dragon warrior.” Clap, clap, clap…

The Skeleton Lich clapped lightly and had the voice of a dignified and graceful lady.

“As a mercenary who joined the battle out of the blue, Master White Dragon, what kind of reward do you want to compensate your military merits this time?”

Garen glanced at Kratos, who glared at him fiercely from the left, and the two other weird creatures.

One was a black Dog-Headed Human who was discharging black gas all over, while the other had the skin of red clouds and looked like an elemental life form composed of red magma.

Both of these fellows showed a lot of hostility, greed, and bloodthirstiness.

Garen now had some faint understanding on what those above Level Ten centered on.

“Reward?” He withdrew his gaze and looked at the Fortress Master. Before the presence of a powerful Level Fourteen, these fellows should not dare to mess around.

“I want enough souls! High quality souls!”

Kratos’ pupils constricted from the side. The human form he had turned into was a miniature version of a giant beast, and the outer appearance was basically unchanged.

“This fellow is taking advantage of the fact that he has a Soul Divine Weapon that can purify the soul of its impurities. But he can’t directly absorb the soul, so what’s the use of wanting those souls?”

“In any case, capture this fellow first!” Bakiloa transmitted his voice coldly.

“High-quality soul?” The Fortress Master gently locked her white bone-hands together and gave it a thought.

“With your battle achievements, I can give you ten Level Ten-souls, mmm, complete Level-Ten souls, without any damage. In addition, your Level Ten-core was just formed right… It seems to be based on poisons. I will give you a White Bone Giant Pit, which can produce two White Bone Giant Demons every week. If you are willing to join me, I can endow you with your very own personal territory. How’s that? Slaves, wealth, treasure… Whatever is that that you want, you can have it all! I can also supply you with a vast army and let you return to the Primary Plane to take revenge against those enemies who once drove you into the Abyss!”

Garen instantly understood that the other party was recruiting himself.

Glancing at Bakiloa the trio’s surprised expression, his mind suddenly became clear. Obviously, the Fortress Master was using them as a threat and adding on other benefits to tempt him to join her.

He came here to kill and to upgrade himself anyway. It did not matter to him whether he joined the Blood Wars or not.

“Okay, I’m in.”

The Fortress Master giggled.

“How pleasant!” She rubbed her bony hands and began to look at the three fellows on the side with a malicious intent. Kratos’ face immediately turned white. Maffey was slightly nervous, and only Bakiloa was not bothered at all. He was confident that even if his Level-Thirteen strength could not resist the Fortress Master upfront, at most, he would only be seriously injured and could still escape.

But presumably, the Fortress Master would not kill them off just because of that.

It rolled its eyes and hit upon an idea, and it began to snigger too.

“Lady Vengeance, what if we join your Fortress together? Can you meet our conditions?”

“You guys?” Skeleton Lich seemed to feel funny and laughed out loud.

“Bakiloa, I have heard of your reputation long before. You’re capricious. Contract and terms are inherently meaningless to you. Even the Underworld River Contract couldn’t restrain you. Your character changes every Abyss month, who would dare to use you?

“And you, Maffey. Just your enemies alone are enough to give me a headache. Your strength is ordinary, but your fleeing skills are exceptional. Still, you just love to create trouble everywhere.”

She looked at Kratos.

“There’s still you, Kratos, The Thane of Wanku Fortress has already contacted me to send you back quickly. Having you stay here is impossible.”

She spread out her two hands.

“You see, in this way, what good do you guys still have for me? Master Garen, on the other hand, has actually killed numerous devils for me and has played a big role on the battlefield.

“In addition, not to mention the other relationship between him and me…”

Skeleton Lich remarked with some other implication.

“If that’s the case, then we won’t bother anymore.” Bakiloa saw that things could not work out and did not want to speak any nonsense. He was not strong enough to beat the other party, so he could only leave. His body exploded with a boom and disappeared from the same spot.

Maffey snickered and disappeared next. It was just their projection that was present. Which individual in the Abyss was not cunning and cautious?

Kratos gave a hateful look at Garen as he knew that there was no other way now. Having also feuded and made an enemy for no reason, he was feeling unusually frustrated and chose to leave as well.

Only the Skeleton Lich and Garen were left in the White Bone Grand Hall.

“Garen, is Ann doing well?” The Skeleton Lich suddenly opened her mouth and mentioned a name that somewhat stunned Garen.

“You! …?” He cautiously narrowed his eyes. “How do you know that I am associated with Ann?”

The Skeleton Lich suddenly laughed.

“How do I know? When I was studying the Arcane Technique with Ann, I’m afraid even your mother wasn’t born yet!”

This fellow’s aura suddenly changed and the entire body actually emitted a horrific aura as profound as that of a black hole.

This force enveloped the entire grand hall. It was even vaster than the ocean and more magnificent than the sky, and there were countless black smoky human-faces flying in it, which were exactly the same black smoky human-faces as those in Ann’s Abyss.

Seeing this, Garen believed immediately. This kind of black smoky human faces could only have come from Ann.

“Dragon of Disaster…” he murmured.

“Yes… This is just one of my incarnations.” The Skeleton Lich answered with a smile. “My real body is hidden in a certain dark layer of the Abyss, while I usually just use this identity to move around on the outside.”