Chapter 48: Slipped Away
"Regardless, since things have come to this, we can't afford to be so relaxed."
Sighing, Baniel realized that the grim situation before them could no longer be changed. He raised his hand, slightly adjusting the collar of his robe. Then, this always neatly dressed old mage pulled a thick, black-covered, gold-embellished tome from his bosom. The ornately decorated grimoire, upon being taken out, detached itself from Baniel's hand, floated before his chest, opened automatically as if alive, and began flipping through its pages rapidly.
"An Abyss Lord and the avatar of a deity, William. How many years has it been since we last encountered such a dangerous situation?"
Standing atop the black firmament of the Sixth Abyss, Baniel did not look at the grimoire flipping through its pages before him, but instead gazed at the black clouds filled with the miasma of decay and poison. He habitually asked his old friend this question. At the same time, before him, streaks of dazzling rainbow light flowed from the pages. Countless brilliant runes, like stars, emerged and flickered around the Legendary Mage. Vaguely visible, the outline of a massive magic circle, spanning nearly ten kilometers, was rapidly taking shape as the rainbow light surged from the pages.
"Forty years? Fifty years? Who knows. Except for those few years of youthful arrogance, we've always acted cautiously, never putting ourselves in danger."
Beside him, the bard, who still looked like a young man, shrugged nonchalantly. Facing two powerful beings, surpassing the ordinary Legendary rank, who were constantly closing in, William showed no sign of worry. He too took out a perfectly pure crystal ball from his bosom. A deep blue light swirled like a vortex at its center. The Legendary Bard pressed it against his forehead and laughed easily, "Of course, no matter what, as long as you and I join forces, there is no danger in this world."
"I like that line of yours."
With their synchronized laughter, in an instant, a complex three-dimensional geometric structure composed of endless runes materialized above the Writhing Forest. Countless formation patterns made of deep blue triangles, circles, and prisms frantically devoured the surrounding mana like a void. In just a few breaths, all the elemental forces within a radius of dozens of kilometers were plundered by this massive formation, causing even space and time to warp visibly.
In the distance, the Abyss Lord, [Gluttony Demon King] Goliath, naturally noticed the sudden intense magical fluctuations in the distance. As its avatar placed in the Abyss, the massive burning eye immediately slowed its pace slightly.
It felt something was wrong and caught a whiff of a familiar scent.
This aura involuntarily brought back some memories of the past.
Greed and evil were not considered flaws in the Abyss; rather, humility and kindness were evils that had to be eradicated. In this wasteland without a future, even worms would compete with their own kind for the right to gnaw on rotting flesh. To survive, absolute selfishness and paranoia were essential qualities for all demons.
Goliath was one of them, and it was the greediest demon in the Sixth Abyss. This was an undeniable fact.
Appetite, greed. From the moment of its birth, boundless desire had consumed its body and mind. For Goliath, every soul it devoured could never satisfy its hunger, only making it hungrier. Every possession it had could never satisfy it, only fueling its possessiveness. Because of this insatiable greed, from the time it was a mere worm, it had frantically snatched food from its own kind, using its muscles, teeth, claws, innate spells, and every available force to plunder what could be plundered.
In the most brutal competition, the weak worm gradually grew into a powerful Winged Demon. It was as if the Abyss had birthed a natural-born Demon King through the wasteland, possessing a brutality and power that even demons feared. After a few easy challenges and massacres, the then-nameless Greater Demon had its first territory. Its twisted, rampant possessiveness drove it to simultaneously declare war on five surrounding Demon Lords to seize more land.
Admittedly, this was definitely not a good idea. Even a future Abyss Lord couldn't simultaneously defeat five Demon Lords of equal power. If not for the internal conflicts and grudges among those five lords, which prevented them from delivering a fatal blow to Goliath at the critical moment, the future landscape of the Abyss would have been drastically different. But regardless, the severely wounded Greater Demon could no longer stay in its territory. To escape its enemies' pursuit, it accepted a special 'summoning' while gravely injured and arrived in an unfamiliar world.
It was a peculiar world. There, forests expanded like monsters in response to the tides of mana. Dangerous magical beasts and dragonkind occupied every corner of the world. Facing endless waves of beast tides, the civilized races of that world used every possible method to defend themselves. They built fortresses, constructed cities, and exhaustively developed all techniques and spells for combat. They searched ancient ruins for weapons left over from a previous era—including spells for communicating with the Abyss and summoning demons for battle.
The mage who summoned the Greater Demon was a novice, and neither he nor his teacher, due to a lack of inherited knowledge, truly understood the nature of demons. They thought it was just a peculiar beast from another world, so they simply signed an ordinary partnership contract without adding any binding restrictions.
They were defenseless, allowing the Greater Demon to freely fight against the hordes of beasts. The severely wounded demon naturally wouldn't pass up this large group of healing delicacies. After displaying a bit of its power, it annihilated the incoming beast tide. For this, the young mage even excitedly named the Greater Demon Goliath—a name meaning a giant of immense strength. Then, after a few years when the beast tides temporarily subsided, he let it return to its own world.
Everything started from here.
From that day on, the demon had a name. It remembered this name, and it also remembered the name of this world. Mycroft—that was what the people of that world called the land beneath their feet. This name it could not forget even after hundreds of years. To this day, it could still recall fragments from that distant past—clean air, clear water, sweet flesh, and the unsuspecting, foolish yet kind races.
—I must possess all of this.
From that day on, an ordinary demon died, and an indescribable monster was reborn. After returning to the Abyss, the fire of desire in Goliath's heart, which had been nearly reborn, burned even brighter. It craved all of that, craved that comfortable and beautiful world, so completely different from the Abyss.
When a life has experienced the vastness of the starry sky, how can it bear the shackles of gravity? When boundless greed expands one's perspective, who knows to what extent it will swell?
Unlike other Demon Lords who made do with a cave or a mountain peak as their lair, Goliath, reappearing in the Sixth Abyss, began to drive lesser demons to imitate the construction of fortresses used to resist beast tides in that world. It even learned the methods of training armies from that world to train its own demons, willing to pay a huge price to forge armor and weapons. All this was observed by other Demon Lords. They mocked this foolishness, sneered at what they saw as meaningless behavior. The Demon Lords shook their heads, believing that Goliath, due to its great failure, had lost the greed and selfishness most important to a demon.
But they were wrong.
This was not abandoning greed; it was that Goliath's ambition had far surpassed this. A piece of territory, a plain, half the Abyss, even the entire Abyss could not catch its eye. To fuss over a bit of meaningless wealth here? Ridiculous. This decaying world could not arouse the slightest desire in it, let alone some boring metal!
Its goal was the other side beyond the void—that beautiful and vibrant other world, the boundless Multiverse!
Perhaps it was due to an instinctive thirst for flame, perhaps it was this unique purpose, or perhaps it was this immense greed that surpassed all other desires. It seemed that from that moment on, the will of the Sixth Abyss began to watch Goliath. Through centuries of slaughter and conquest, the Greater Demon became one of the few sovereigns in this Abyss and won the final battle for the position of the Abyss's supreme being. The long-waiting Abyss Will crowned its Demon King, making it the Supreme Lord of the Sixth Abyss. This lord did not disappoint the Abyss Will's expectations, immediately and without hesitation beginning to investigate and invade all surrounding worlds.
Now, Goliath smelled an aura it had never forgotten. It seemed to be the aura of that world. Just as the two old mages had noticed it, the Abyss Lord also noticed the two Legendary spellcasters at the center of the distant formation.
Three sovereigns joining forces, Goliath thought. If it hadn't descended its avatar back to the Abyss this time, even if the other sovereigns of the Sixth Abyss returned together, they would surely suffer heavy losses. It seemed that just as it had been spying on the Mycroft Continent for centuries, the Mycroft Continent had also been watching the Sixth Abyss.
This might be a trap.
The moment this thought appeared, the huge vertical pupil of the burning eye relaxed slightly. A silent, sneering laugh echoed in the souls of the many demons. Then, a hideous and terrifying Abyssal Flame began to scorch the void beside it. The Abyss Lord released a vast wave of corrupt energy. The deathly, corrupt power originating from the Abyss eroded this world, causing cracks like shattered glass to appear across half the sky. Chaotic space-time currents from the void began to pour out from these cracks, and following Goliath's guidance, they surged towards the direction of the warrior, the Black Dragon, and the two old mages!
"Then crush them."
With a single move, it unleashed the Legendary spell [Void Energy Stream], which could affect an area spanning thousands of kilometers. Under the attack of this wide-area, indiscriminate strategic magic, all elements and life within the world would suffer the most severe radiation damage. Any spell structure would collapse under the impact of high-energy rays. Any life with a soul would also suffer a severe shock, leading to death. However, this attack had no effect on inanimate, inorganic matter. It was a 'purification spell' specifically designed to annihilate life.
The Dragon God did not act, because this was Goliath's home ground. If it acted rashly, it might be seen as a provocation by the Abyss Lord and put on guard. Besides, in its view, the other party's move was more than sufficient.
Meanwhile, in mid-air, Joshua, who was like a low-flying meteor, finally found the Black Dragon running frantically on the ground. Of course, he also saw the massive magic circle slowly emerging in the distance.
"Finally showing up." The warrior breathed a sigh of relief. He had been wondering why, despite his fierce battle with that Eye Demon Lord, there had been no reaction. Now it seemed the two Legendary Mages had just been cautiously preparing their defensive measures, not rashly intervening.
As expected of veteran experts who had achieved Legendary status decades ago. Their style was indeed cautious.
With a burst of speed, Joshua arrived above the Black Dragon's head. He controlled his strength and gently landed on her head. At the same time, the Dragon Girl's slightly panicked voice echoed in the warrior's mind: "Master, you told me to run as far away as possible as soon as the fight started to avoid being caught in the crossfire—but why haven't I run out of the combat range yet?!"
"It's fine. Some unexpected things happened." Joshua patted the Black Dragon's horn. He was about to say more but noticed the massive phenomenon of Goliath tearing space in the sky, so he changed the subject to comfort her: "It's not your fault, Black. Now it's my turn to carry you and run."
"First, change back to human form."
Before he finished speaking, the warrior clapped his hands, commanding the Dragon Girl to transform into her human form. Due to instinct, Black immediately shapeshifted. Then, without a moment's hesitation, Joshua hoisted the girl onto his shoulder. With an aerial burst of speed, as the air crackled with electric arcs from the immense heat, he broke through fifteen times the speed of sound, racing towards the massive magic circle erected by the two Legendary Mages.
"Pfft—" The moment the Dragon Girl reacted, she instinctively wanted to protest—she was the mount; how could her master carry her? But before she could voice this, half her body was pressed against the warrior's shoulder by the immense acceleration of fifteen times the speed of sound. The impact of the Steel Force-forged armor, even against the Black Dragon's physique, was a bit hard to bear. She almost rolled her eyes and passed out. After she adapted slightly, a tearful wail followed: "Aaaahhh—Slow down, Master!"
How could Joshua possibly slow down? Noticing the Void Energy Stream surging behind them, he even accelerated further. Although this attack was useless against him, it was fatal for Black. The Dragon Girl's soul strength, having only gained wisdom a few years ago, was far inferior to that of an ordinary Gold-rank or even a resilient Silver-rank. Facing such a purification spell specifically targeting elements and souls, she absolutely couldn't last more than a second before being instantly erased.
If it weren't for this, he wouldn't have to exert himself flying so fast. He could have just stayed put, taken a few hits, waited for the two old mages to come and support him, and then return to the Mycroft Continent through a pre-prepared space-time coordinate.
The Void Energy Stream had no color or form. It was like air distorted by intense heat, descending from the sky with a hazy glow. Guided by the Abyss Lord, countless such distorted, hazy beams swept across the land, causing the souls of all life along their path to scatter. From the lowest Abyss worms to wild Greater Demons, all died in an instant. Their souls, under this radiation impact, turned into clusters of brilliant, luminous mist that drifted out of their bodies.
Seeing this, a thought flashed through Joshua's mind. A silver light bulged behind him. This cluster of shimmering sand, like stardust, formed a semi-circular shield, firmly covering Black, who was carried behind him. Clusters of distorted light swept past but were completely blocked by this shield of metallic-looking light dust, causing no effect.
Soon, the master and mount rapidly approached the magic circle erected by the two Legendary Mages in the northwest of the Abyss. Amidst the soul-light of exploding demons and Black's feeble cries of "Help!", Joshua charged into the range of the deep blue formation.
At this moment, under the joint manipulation of Baniel and William, massive arcs of mana traced one profound pattern after another in the void. Dazzling rune light appeared and vanished beside them. A humming sound, like the operation of some giant machine, accompanied by a deep blue light, now enveloped the entire Writhing Forest, causing all the living branches and leaves to tremble in fear. The vast void energy irradiated this formation, only able to destroy a few insignificant outer structures. Seeing this, the warrior, who had slowed down, couldn't help but nod in admiration: "As expected of two Legendary Mages joining forces! What immense power!" He sensed a vast energy rapidly condensing between them, causing even space to become visibly and extremely disordered. This was a phenomenon that hadn't even appeared when Nostradamus advanced to Legendary!
In his previous life, the two mysterious Legendary spellcasters, Baniel and William, had rarely acted. Even Joshua had never seen them fight. Now, they seemed to be going all out. Just how powerful were they? Even the warrior couldn't help but feel anticipation!
"This is not some great power!"
Hearing Joshua's praise, the neatly dressed old mage looked up at the burning eye in the sky. The grimoire before him continuously emitted streaks of bright, translucent light streams into the surroundings. Baniel laughed heartily: "This is wisdom and truth manifesting before you!"
"Hahahaha, with us old-timers around, how could it be your turn, the newcomer, to act?"
The other handsome, young-looking mage laughed with great spirit: "Everyone here?"
"Let's go!"
Before the words had even fallen, before the warrior, the Abyss Lord, and the Dragon God still at the other end of the sky could react, Baniel and William, the two Legendary Mages, acted simultaneously, officially activating the magic circle. The energy fluctuation enveloping the entire Writhing Forest flickered, twisting the world and reversing time and space. In an imperceptible instant, accompanied by a bright flash that illuminated the entire sky, before the Abyss Lord and the Five-Colored Dragon God could react, all the land and sky encompassed by the formation, as well as all matter and life, including the two mages and Joshua, vanished in an instant!
Joshua: "?!"