Chapter 1164: Ghost Under the Lava (2)

Even though Rhode was mentally prepared, his expressionless face turned ice-cold after witnessing the revolting rows of ‘nourishment cabins’ lined up before him. All of them were filled with a mysterious, turbid liquid that seemed to be mixed from knocked-over dyes. Submerged in the liquid were humans who looked like the primitive men that Rhode met before. However, they seemed weird as their bodies and limbs were as though some kind of biochemical, mutant specimens. If it weren’t for their chests undulating slightly, Rhode would have thought that they were dead. But… even if they were alive, perhaps they weren’t any different from the dead.

According to that young man, the reason why they captured the primitive men was so they could use the powers of the ‘Saint’ and modify them, turning them into loyal slaves. Rhode also did an experiment on him and discovered that the so-called ‘power’ in most of them was only stronger and faster in terms of strength, speed, and recovery rate. He also sensed an unusual presence in them. In the Dragon Soul Continent, this stage was only the initial symptoms of being infected by Chaos. Rhode couldn’t help but lament that Earth was indeed just an ordinary world. If they were in the Dragon Soul Continent, they would be beaten to death by others with this little amount of power. Even if one were able to lift up a truck, a low-level mage could easily crush one powerlessly to the ground. And now, these guys hadn’t figured out the characteristics of Chaos and were even dreaming of conquering the world? Did they really think that they would turn into Superman after surviving a jump from 60 floors?

Of course, not everyone had such ordinary abilities. According to the young man, the elders of Heaven’s Law had much stronger powers. Not only could they listen to the teachings of the Saint, but they could also summon the Saint’s apostles to battle as their stead, such as the massive shadowy creature lurking underneath the lava lake. Although the young man was unsure of its exact presence, according to him, that shadowy creature was summoned by the elders to assist them in accomplishing their mission.

“I heard you mentioning a woman who Chaos couldn’t erode. What is that all about?”

All of a sudden, Rhode recalled about it and asked. Upon hearing his question, the man was taken aback and hesitated for a few seconds. But after shifting his attention to the blade pressing against his neck, he sucked in a breath of cold air and told Rhode everything he knew. That woman wasn’t a native of this place, but was a spoil of war instead. They coincidentally discovered her when wiping out a tribe. Back then, she was sealed inside an ice crystal and looked seemingly dead. The elders sensed a powerful strength in her. They sent out men to dig her out of the ice crystal, brought her here and injected the ‘sacred power’ inside her. But what was strange was that unlike natives, even though they had injected the power of Chaos into her more than once, she didn’t have any reactions. Other natives who were injected with the power of Chaos several times had mutated. But that woman was unaffected at all. Not only that, but even with the Saint doing it himself, he also couldn’t affect her in any way. It was due to this reason that this woman was treated as a top secret. And now, they injected the power of Chaos into her at specific timings to observe her responses. What astonished them the most was that even though the woman seemed to be dead, her vital signs didn’t disappear.

“Where is that woman now?”

After hearing the young man’s description, Rhode swirled his eyes and asked. The young man swallowed his saliva and said in lingering fear.

“Experimental Subject Zero… is inside the restricted zone below the core central area. Only the three supervisors have access to that place…”

“Thanks for your cooperation.”

Slash.

After getting the information he needed, Rhode slashed the throat of that unfortunate fellow before releasing a ball of black flame to devour him completely. Rhode narrowed his eyes and moved forward, disregarding the strange specimens around him. What he was most mindful and curious about now was the woman who resisted the power of Chaos. After all, no matter in which world, no such person capable of doing that had appeared before and even someone as powerful as Lydia had to flee from Chaos. But now, a woman actually defied the erosion of Chaos? That was something truly worthy of his attention.

Kacha…

Shortly after, Rhode reached the end of the ‘specimen lab’, tidied his clothes, and retrieved the ID card of that earlier young man. After allowing the sensor to scan the ID card, the large doors slid open silently. Rhode took advantage of this opportunity and accessed the room.

What presented before him was a wide, spacious, and circular room, which seemed to be the core area of this tower. Hiding in the shadows, Rhode spotted heavily-armored and weapon-wielding soldiers everywhere. Above the podium in the middle, there were three men clad in strange outfits. They discussed softly amongst themselves. They weren’t donned in clothes from Earth, but the clothes were more like robes worn by spell casters in the Dragon Soul Continent.

“…”

Looking at this scene, Rhode stooped over and blended into another patch of shadows nearby without making a sound. He was certain that they weren’t ‘cosplaying’ out of boredom because he clearly felt magical energy waves exuding from them. Despite that, their energy waves were different from that of spell casters in the Dragon Soul Continent. In the Dragon Soul Continent, the energy waves of spell casters were much more obvious. For instance, Mini Bubble Gum’s energy waves were based on ‘light’, while Canary’s was based on ‘fire’ and ‘wind’. As long as one paid attention, one would sense the pure elemental aura coalesced around them. On the contrary, the magical aura around these people was impure. Drawing an analogy, it was as though they were the turbid sewage from industrial factories. Rhode investigated their aura further and was almost choked to death as though he were standing by an excessively polluted water source. It was apparent that these guys were on a higher level than those newbies earlier and in the Legendary Stage, at the very least. Rhode just didn’t know if they were as masterful as spell casters in the Dragon Soul Continent in terms of spell usage…

Rhode pondered in silence. He had the intention of dragging this out, but he received news from Gracier and Madaras that everything was going well. Up until this point, these guys didn’t realize anything fishy, which meant that the situation was also fine for Erin and Lydia.

But if this continues, we will be discovered by the enemies sooner or later…

At this thought, Rhode twitched his brows, took a step back, and leaned against the steel wall. Then, he merged into the darkness of the wall in a flash.

Using the advantage of the shadows, Rhode concealed himself in the darkness and successfully headed to his destination through blending into different patches of shadows. He went closer to the three men and they seemed to be having a fierce debate. However, Rhode couldn’t understand their language at all. They were speaking a language that didn’t belong to Earth or the Dragon Soul Continent. The language made the speaker sound like his throat was being smothered by flames and smoke, which sounded rather similar to the language of devils.

Could they be true Chaos beings?

Upon hearing their unknown language, Rhode puckered his brows. Chaos beings were the hardest enemies to deal with. Or perhaps, he should say that they were the toughest bunch to face. Even when dealing with devils, Rhode was able to read their moves to a certain extent, but Chaos beings were as though some sort of big-headed aliens. And now, these Chaos beings were essentially different from the ones he met earlier. For some unknown reason, he felt like these Chaos beings were much more bothersome to deal with than those in the game and the Dragon Soul Continent.

“…!”

At that moment, the debate between the trio became fiercer. When Rhode approached them silently, all of a sudden one of them seemed to detect something as he swept a glance toward Rhode’s direction. Then, his expression changed instantly!

Sh*t!

Rhode was startled as soon as he saw the change in that man’s expression. At that moment, he no longer cared about concealing himself. He leaped up and shuttled out of the shadows, swinging Succubus in his hand abruptly and scattering massive, scorching black flames at them. At the same time, he swung his left arm to the side, where a white trace of light traveled along his fingers and flew out of his fingertips. Then, a dazzling, holy light exploded. Celia emerged, raising her sword in a battle stance. She grunted and the sword in her hands metamorphosed into blinding thunders that struck at the enemies.

“…!”

Facing this ambush from Rhode, the trio was stunned. The man who seemed to be their leader widened his mouth and yelled, before pointing his finger forward. Shortly after, a transparent barrier appeared before them, stopping Rhode’s attack forcefully. But it was a pity that Rhode had anticipated this response from them, which was why he released the black flames instantly. His blade ,tangled with black flames, slammed into the barrier heavily. At the next moment, the sturdy barrier shattered like glass instantly. Not only did it fail to resist Rhode’s attack, but the magical power in it also lit up in black flames like fuel. In the blink of an eye, the barrier that protected them turned into their own death trap. Like a monster snapping its jaw open, the scorching black flames swallowed the trio entirely. Blood-curdling screeches resounded from within.

It seemed like the unfortunate trio didn’t survive this attack.

But Rhode didn’t slow down just yet. After dealing this attack, he rolled on the ground and flourished his black sword to the side immediately. At that moment, Rhode unleashed all of his strength. The black sword transformed into a pitch-black whip and erupted with twice its original strength. Black flames rolled and swept across the entire place.

Boom!

A deep explosion ruptured the room immediately. Before the guards reacted, they were sliced into half by that black whip and rushing black flames scattered to envelop the entire room.

“Phew…”

After the black flames dissipated like the receding tide, Rhode heaved a long sigh of relief, wiping away the beads of cold sweat on his forehead. He had unleashed all his strength on that earlier attack and yet, he wasn’t able to wipe them all out at once. Fortunately, Celia was around to slaughter the fish that escaped the net. If not, perhaps the emergency siren would sound off and reinforcements would arrive to give them a harder time…

Rhode shook his head. He had never felt this exhausted in a while. After all, his swordsmanship wasn’t geared toward facing multiple enemies. At that moment, he wished he were a spell caster instead. It was also a pity that he lacked spirit cards that could deal AOE attacks. If it were in the past, he would have used ‘Casali under the night sky’ to drag those people into another world. But after sacrificing it to demolish Agios of Chaos, he could only kill the enemies one at a time now.

Even though this attack from him was somewhat reckless, he discovered that due to some unknown reason, the soldiers scattered around the tower had all assembled in this place. No wonder Rhode felt like there were more soldiers here. Now that he thought about it, perhaps it was about this matter that the trio quarreled. However, he wasn’t sure of what they were fighting about. He put this matter aside and checked in with the rest using spiritual communication.

As expected, everything was perfect with Gracier and Madaras. As white elf assassins, this mission was simply made for them. Of course, their luck was also much better than Rhode’s as they didn’t face any mysterious and odd characters. It seemed like Rhode’s luck was on the down side. Out of all the towers, he chose the one with the strongest defenses, which was why he was so exhausted now.

Rhode dwindled his thoughts and commanded both of them to check in with Erin and Lydia after completing their task. If everything was normal, he would command Mini Bubble Gum to lead the rest away as quickly as possible.

After ensuring that everything was fine, Rhode turned around and headed to the middle of the hall.

As Rhode went all-out earlier, half of the hall was demolished. The large door and floors that were used to cover up the stairwell vanished, which was why Rhode spotted it easily. He couldn’t help but feel curious about the information he received from that young man. He wanted to see what kind of person was able to resist the invasion of Chaos. Shortly after, he descended the stairwell.

The secret room below wasn’t hard to find, especially after Rhode wreaked havoc above. He reached the bottom of the stairwell and saw an opened room with the woman he was looking for. Just like other primitive men, she was also imprisoned inside a nourishment cabin. The turbid aura was apparently much stronger than the rest. But what surprised Rhode was that this wasn’t just the power from that mysterious aura, but from the woman instead.

Rhode thought she was also a half-creature like other primitive men. But after seeing her for himself, he discovered that she was like a perfectly normal human. She had smooth, pitch-black long hair and a fair complexion. Her exquisite facial features weren’t any different from humans. At that moment, her eyes were closed as though she were dead. If it weren’t for her slightly undulating chest, perhaps Rhode would have thought she was just a corpse.

“Hmm?”

Shortly after, Rhode felt like something was amiss. He couldn’t help but twitch his brow curiously. Although the woman was right before him, Rhode couldn’t feel her aura at all. He felt the power of Chaos and the presence of elements around her, but just couldn’t sense her presence. It was as though a large hole was in the place she was in and apart from the feeling of nothingness, there was no other physical presence.

“What do you think about it?”

Rhode stretched out his arm, gazed at the woman, and said softly. Upon hearing his doubt, his younger sister let out a sigh.

“I don’t know, Big Brother. This situation is really rare. I’ve never seen anything like this… But I think she must be one of the survivors back then.”

“Oh?”

Upon hearing her response, Rhode twitched his brows. Just as he was about to question, Canary’s anxious voice sounded in his head all of a sudden.

“This is bad, Rhode, that creature is starting to move!”

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