Chapter 72: The Betrayer
"So this is the abyssal world behind the Abyss of Anos?"
Robzek was the first to recover. He and Loranda had previously used Holy Light to transform into two great wheels, helping the ark crash-land on this land. This kind of power consumption was nothing major for him, but it severely tested mental focus and control.
Like a warrior, he cautiously and seriously scanned his surroundings. Clearly, he had also seen the full scope of this abyssal plane from mid-air, so he couldn't help but say in a deep voice: "I've never seen an abyss like this before."
"Indeed, it's very different."
Joshua nodded. He had also been to the abyss many times before, and those places were completely different from this one.
Ordinary abyssal planes weren't much different from normal worlds, except that their air was filled with a terrifying aura of decay and destruction, where countless demons lived and killed each other. Aside from certain special environments, abyssal planes had nothing particularly unique about them—only the races living there and the environments differed.
But this plane... he sensed a strange aura, different from the abyss, different from chaos—a peculiar sense of holiness.
Regardless of what Robzek and the warrior thought, the others also recovered one after another from the previous bumpy impact.
And just at that moment, a sound like thunder suddenly rang out, accompanied by the trembling of the earth beneath their feet. This enormous sound spread throughout the entire empty floating mountain world, even causing the light emitted by the blood moon to flicker and waver.
Including Joshua, everyone was immediately drawn to the sound. They followed it and discovered it came from underground.
The underground sound was continuous like thunder, accompanied by the cracking noise of the earth being torn apart, as if some colossal creature was about to burst forth. In an instant, they all prepared for battle, ready to face any possible enemy.
But everything was different from what they imagined—it wasn't something breaking through the ground from below, but rather the entire massive floating island was violently shaking.
With this terrifying tremor, the silent, suspended, black-rock giant island began to slowly shift. It rose bit by bit, flying straight toward the deep red blood moon in the sky!
The enormous floating island, with a radius of at least nearly a hundred kilometers, was pushed by some colossal force like a falling meteor, constantly approaching the blood moon under its light. In less than half a minute, the entire floating island had already risen several thousand meters.
This speed had already exceeded a hundred meters per second, approaching the speed of sound. Fierce wind pressure pressed down from above, and at the bottom of the canyon was where countless winds converged. Everyone had no time to think as they resisted the impact. Faina even transformed into her dragon form, crouching down to protect the weaker Hill while stabilizing the damaged ark so it wouldn't be blown away by the hurricane.
"What's going on?!" The elven youth, who had just woken up, gasped. "Where are we now?"
"The abyss." The blonde paladin kindly answered. "We're being pulled toward that red moon? Who knows, but that's what's happening."
The distance between the blood moon and the floating island was surprisingly short. In the brief exchange among the group, within just a few minutes, the stone island approached the surface of the blood moon. It flipped 180 degrees and then slowly landed on it. Due to the moon's gravity, the people on the island didn't fall into the endless void beneath this plane.
Joshua frowned. He exchanged a glance with Robzek, then flew into the sky, leaping out of the great canyon to overlook the entire surface of the blood moon from above.
Then, the warrior saw a black-red ocean.
This ocean stretched endlessly without a horizon. On the surface of the blood moon, there were no craters, no depressions, no land or mountains, no life or smoke. There was only a filthy expanse of black-red seawater, as if formed from countless turbid pools of blood, gently undulating. It emitted a dim light, illuminating the fragmented pieces of land in mid-air.
After the black stone island landed on the blood moon, it stirred up endless waves on this blood sea. It slowly sank, swallowed by the sea. Soon after, three streams of Holy Light combined to lift a massive ark from the stone island that was about to be devoured by the blood sea, placing it on the water's surface.
Although its exterior was battered and broken, the Time Vessel, having lost most of its external structure, still floated on the water. A thin film of light enveloped its shell, preventing the abyss's aura from eroding its interior.
Just as Loranda and Robzek were about to fly up and discuss with Joshua what was happening, another loud crash sounded from within the blood sea not far away.
"What now?!"
Everyone looked toward the source of the sound. In the distant, turbid blood sea, thick waves churned as if something massive was moving beneath and about to break through the surface. Ten seconds later, a colossal, twisted chaotic rune condensed from the black-red seawater and floated straight upward.
This rune was so huge that even those thousands of meters away could clearly see every detail. It was composed of bloody seawater mixed with countless peculiar crystal patterns, flowing with a filthy and strange aura. It constantly shifted and changed, yet gave off a peculiar sense of stillness.
As it rose, the rune gradually faded, as if about to pass through to another world. But no one would sit by and let it disappear. Joshua and Robzek weren't fools—in an instant, they thought of where the chaotic rune that had suddenly appeared above the Abyss of Anos came from.
Some entity was using the materials of this abyssal world to create massive chaotic runes, then projecting them onto the Mycroft Continent, gradually transforming a part of that world into the likeness of this abyss!
The Sea Sword Dragon, having reverted to its original form, launched the first attack. Faina's cyan dragon pupils flashed with lightning. Vast thunder mana gathered on her horn, forming a cyan-blue electric sphere. As the dragon layered magnetic fields and accelerated currents, this condensed electric sphere shot out, instantly reaching over ten times the speed of sound, about to hit the chaotic rune.
As the Sea Sword Dragon's ultimate move, if this thunder sphere struck true, even a mountain peak would collapse. The violent thunder mana combined with powerful impact was enough to shatter a stone mountain base—a fierce strike capable of leveling a small city and creating a tsunami, the power of a Gold Peak level.
But that was only if it could hit.
Just a ten-thousandth of a second before the sphere was about to hit the chaotic rune, a semi-transparent grid-like shield suddenly appeared. It was indestructible, blocking the sphere's advance. A few seconds later, the thunder mana could no longer maintain its condensed structure, collapsing into hundreds of cyan plasma spheres, finally releasing large arcs of electricity into the air.
The chaotic rune then disappeared, projected to another world by some force, causing the subsequent Holy Light and crimson battle qi to strike empty air.
"I didn't expect you to actually make it here."
After the rune disappeared, a faint, aged voice suddenly sounded, echoing across the blood sea: "None of the traps I left outside could stop you. Truly impressive."
The voice spoke in Dragon Tongue, with complex and special tones that could never be produced by human vocal cords, yet everyone present could understand it, because the voice didn't just transmit through the material world but also echoed in the spiritual realm.
"Sea beasts, giant waves, storms."
The voice continued to echo, containing no emotion, as cold as the echo of metal: "Evil dragons, monsters, great maelstroms."
"For an exploration team from the Church of the Seven Gods to easily break through so many obstacles, you truly live up to the name of the continent's strongest force..."
"It's stalling for time."
Joshua interrupted, having no interest in listening to the voice's nonsense. He had already noticed another floating island rapidly ascending, approaching the blood moon. The warrior said coldly: "That was the thirteenth rune. The ritual is more than half complete. We need to find the enemy's true body as quickly as possible!"
Although he wasn't very familiar with the current situation, stopping the ritual was undoubtedly the top priority—even destroying the abyssal rift had become secondary. Everyone present was an elite. With Joshua's reminder, they immediately reacted and each used their own methods to explore this blood sea.
The straightforward Faina even taunted: "This old-fashioned stalling tactic of explaining things hasn't been used in decades!"
Natural divine arts, Holy Light, and Dragon Tongue magic produced ripples that instantly spread, covering dozens of square kilometers with exploration spells precise to the millimeter level.
But nothing was found. Aside from the turbid blood sea, no trace of the voice was discovered.
However, Saya was an exception. With her eyes that could see energy channels, even emotions, minds, and other special traces, the High Sister frowned. She seemed to have caught the enemy's tail through a thread of information transmitted by that cold voice.
A moment later, she immediately raised her hand, pointing to the endless void thousands of meters above the blood moon: "Joshua, Robzek, there! It's hiding in the spatial gaps of this broken plane!"
As she spoke, she used mental communication to transmit the specific coordinates to the minds of the two Ultimate-rank experts.
The exploration team sent by the Church of the Seven Gods was exceptionally well-rounded in terms of high-end combat power. There was an Ocean Druid and a Sea Sword Dragon with extremely strong combat power in the sea, a High Sister who could easily detect every clue, and two Paladins who were complete in both defense and offense. Such a team could easily handle most special incidents below the Legendary rank. With the warrior added, the spear for offense became even sharper.
"Good!"
With the information, the warrior in mid-air decisively bent his knees. The next instant, mountain-shattering power gathered and exploded beneath his feet.
Boom! Boom!!!
Using his own battle qi as a springboard, the warrior disappeared like a cannonball in an instant. Only a trail of white air could be seen, rapidly approaching the void Saya had pointed to. The thin air in the high altitude of the abyssal plane couldn't offer much resistance to Joshua, only causing a huge roar as he broke through it.
Facing an enemy hidden in a spatial crack, completely invisible, the warrior made no unnecessary moves. Already knowing how to fight such opponents, he adjusted the circulation of battle qi within his body, causing this life energy to resonate with the free energy outside, wrapping around his hand. Then, Joshua raised this iron fist, wreathed in black-red light, and smashed it down from above toward that void.
Crack!
This wild, rough punch created a ripple on the broken abyssal plane, producing a crisp shattering sound. Starting from where Joshua struck empty air, black cracks spread, and space began to collapse.
This place's space is surprisingly fragile!
This thought flashed through his mind. Then, the warrior saw the entity revealed by the spatial cracks.
It was a terrifying, ferocious monster. It had a body similar to a dragon, covered in dark crystal exoskeleton armor. Sharp crystal fragments, like scales, layered densely over its vital points. Its head was wrapped in a pale bone outer armor, with only a pair of dragon pupils glowing with gray light visible behind it.
The tail of this black crystal dragon was like a centipede, composed of countless segments. Vast chaotic power flowed within the dark crystal, releasing an Ultimate-rank aura.
But Joshua didn't care about any of that. Taking advantage of the moment space shattered, he punched the creature right in the head.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
A thunderclap sounded in mid-air, accompanied by layers of air explosions. The entire body of this crystal giant dragon was sent spinning backward like a meteor, crashing toward the blood sea.
But before it could fall, two trails of Holy Light—one gray, one silver—shot upward. Robzek and Loranda soared into the air. They condensed two Holy Light cross-hammers in mid-air, gripped their weapons, and swung them upward from below at the crystal dragon.
At this moment, there was no such thing as single combat. The air waves, tinged with a hint of silver, exploded with a roar, sending the crystal dragon airborne again. The heavy hammers, infused with Holy Light power, shattered the monster's exoskeleton armor with one blow. Countless spiderweb-like cracks spread along the two deep hammer marks.
This crystal dragon's body was massive—at least sixty meters tall, not counting its tail. According to normal physics, such a huge monster couldn't possibly be batted up and down like a fly by beings the size of a warrior and a paladin. But battle qi and Holy Light were convenient like that—they could form invisible force fields, condensing into extremely tiny points or expanding into vast surfaces.
Next came the combined attack of Saya and Faina. Black also reverted to dragon form, using dragon breath to assist. Holy Light, thunder, and flame struck the crystal dragon in a three-stage combo. The powerful energy flow even pierced through its body, bursting out from its back.
After suffering continuous attacks, the crystal dragon exploded in mid-air like fireworks, showering countless crystal fragments like rain. But the vigilance in everyone's hearts didn't disappear. They didn't feel the creature's death, and an Ultimate-rank monster being killed so easily—even a fool wouldn't believe it with their knees.
And indeed, as they thought, the crystal dragon, beaten into a shower of sparks by their combined attack, didn't die. Countless crystal fragments, as if alive, spontaneously condensed. In an instant, a dragon head composed of dark crystal was complete, and the faint voice, like the echo of steel, sounded again.
"You are indeed strong. One round of attacks destroyed 9.25% of my body."
It took very little time to reconstitute its body, and it was extremely far from everyone. Even Joshua couldn't reach it in time, could only listen as it continued in Dragon Tongue: "If this continues, I will be completely destroyed before the ritual is complete."
Its body was reassembled. At this point, the crystal dragon was indeed slightly smaller than before. Gray light shot from its dragon pupils—a color devoid of emotion. "One of my few friends was also an Ultimate-rank dragon. It should have died by your hands. Although my power is stronger than its, I still cannot face you head-on."
"So."
Facing the warriors and paladins rushing toward it at several times the speed of sound, it said coldly: "I can only ask you to die here."
The moment the words fell, a sharp pain struck everyone's minds. Whether it was Robzek, Loranda, Saya, Faina, Hill, or Black—even Joshua showed a pained expression. Their minds couldn't concentrate at all. The battle qi maintaining his forward speed rapidly dissipated, and he couldn't continue attacking.
Slap!
The warrior fell from the sky into the red sea. His feet stepped onto the viscous blood water, and the remaining battle qi isolated these turbid liquids.
But what puzzled Joshua was that these blood waters didn't smell foul like they looked. They were basically odorless, without even the common saltiness of seawater, and even had a strange, faint fragrance.
But now wasn't the time to perceive these things.
Intense pain pierced his entire body, but the source was his head. The warrior pressed his forehead with one hand. A faint wriggling sensation came through. He was shocked to find that something inside his skull was devouring his brain and nerves, releasing large amounts of nerve-paralyzing toxins.
This toxin was also very familiar to him. It had a certain stimulant effect and could block pain—exactly the same as the toxin found in the body of the giant mammoth he had killed in the Black Forest Fortress two years ago.
That was the toxin of a Deep Sea Derivative! But when... how...
His thinking ability rapidly declined. His neck and head began to stiffen. Endless hallucinations even began to appear before his eyes. Joshua could only raise his battle qi, condense it in his head, and suppress the entity suspected to be a Deep Sea Derivative. The effect was immediate—the sharp pain and hallucinations disappeared in an instant, leaving only a slight numbness. But this also meant he couldn't attack and could only stay put.
The others were the same. Robzek, Loranda, and Saya all had prominent Holy Light patterns on their foreheads. They used divine arts to suppress the strange parasites in their brains, either calmly or seriously.
But Faina, Hill, and Black, lacking effective means to suppress the foreign objects in their bodies or being weaker, had no resistance and fell unconscious, floating on the viscous blood sea, their bodies drifting with the waves.
Fortunately, the blood sea's density was high enough to provide buoyancy; otherwise, given the dragon's size and weight, it would be hard not to sink.
"...What happened?"
This time, it was Joshua's group's turn to stall for time. The warrior frowned, using battle qi to suppress the wriggling foreign object in his brain. He asked the crystal dragon in a deep voice: "When did this thing parasitize us?"
The ferocious dragon head made of dark crystal didn't move at all. The crystal dragon just indifferently watched the group stuck in place, unable to approach it. Its eyes showed neither joy nor sorrow, neither excitement nor anger. It simply cast its spell again, slipping into the spatial cracks to control the ritual.
Beneath the blood moon, the massive floating mountain peak, with a rumbling roar, was pulled to the blood sea and then swallowed. Absorbing vast amounts of abyssal material, a huge rune emerged from the blood sea and was projected to the other side of the world.
And just then, faint footsteps came from the broken cabin of the Time Vessel. The sound was almost inaudible, but to the four remaining experts, it was as clear as day. Even while diverting significant power to suppress the parasites in their heads, they still had extraordinary senses.
Everyone turned their heads in unison, looking toward the cabin.
And Saya was the first to let out a cry of surprise: "Nono?!"