Chapter 529: Asphodel (2/2)
Raven's ears twitched as he suddenly heard a hissing sound. His body immediately blurred and when he reappeared, he was already holding a corpse of a Devil.
The Devil was in a form of a snake. It was somewhere around 40-50 foot long and a foot thick. It has two fangs protruding out of its mouth dripping with acidic red fluid. Its skin was charred black and its pupils were crimson.
”Charred Devil Snake, huh. Not bad.” Raven murmured as he started harvesting it's skin, fangs and gall. These parts will fetch a good price of the market.
Asphodel is filled with different kinds of Devils, taking form of common animals and tainted with the Devil Emperor's Will.
The Charred Devil Snake didn't just contain a lethal poison, its fangs were sharp, it's movements are fast for its size and it could also release noxious fumes from it's mouth. Since its a predator, it possess some minor intelligence that will help it hunt its prey. Well, it was unfortunate that it met Raven.
Once Raven harvested its parts, he just threw the remains on ground. Once he did, it immediately caught on flames and became ashes in mere seconds - a good sign of how hot this place truly was.
After that little incident, Raven continued going North since that's the way towards his destination anyway.
Along the way, he tried to commit the image of the place to his memories while also remaining vigilant. Thanks to his evolved ocular technique, his vision was clear and unimpeded.
Raven encountered some more devils who tried to ambush him along the way. Most of them took form of predators such as snakes, tigers, lions, mantises, alligators, and so on.
Even though he was suppressing his aura, these devils still saw him and tried to hunt him down but none of them were able to even touch the hem of his uniform nor his cloak. Still, compared to Tartarus, this place is livelier. He's still within the outskirts and he's already been harassed multiple times.
Anyone who's careless enough to let their guard down will surely perish in this place.
Hour passed and since this place had no such thing as night and day, Raven specifically paid attention to how much time has passed. With a little effort, he deduced that it should already by night time so he decided to take a rest.
Raven already found a relatively inauspicious place to set up a camp. Once he decided, he took out an array disc from his spatial ring and started setting it up when Kyrie suddenly made her presence known.
”Young Lord…setting up a camp is…”
”I know.” Raven interjected. ”I specifically remember you telling me that setting up a camp here isn't wise since the temporary security will cause me to drop my guard - which in turn, will allow the Curse of Wrath to erode my consciousness. I am aware of this.”
Raven didn't add the fact of this place being incredibly hot as well since he's mostly unbothered by it anyway.
”So then why?”
”I wanna rest for a bit.” Raven stated but then realized that he needed to clarify his words so he added: ”By 'rest' I didn't mean sleeping or meditating. Simply resting my legs and observing this place a bit more.”
Kyrie hesitated but ultimately, she allowed Raven to do as he pleases. If he failed, then he'll learn his lesson the hard way. If nothing goes wrong, then maybe…just maybe, something will come out of this.
Raven eventually erected the formation, concealing him and Kyrie from the predators roaming around. Raven took out a table and some chairs made out of special materials which he could use to relax for a bit.
As for Kyrie, she's fine on her own. However, there's something that really bothers her as soon as the formation was erected but somehow it escapes her.
Raven seems to realize what she was feeling so he calmly said: ”Would you look at that…the curse is somehow nullified.”
And this words caused Kyrie to look at him with an incredulous expression.