Chapter 412: Voidfire (2/2)

This had happened a few times before during the climb, generally when the quest called for delivering or protecting an item. Perhaps it was a method for the System to disallow the climbers from completely circumventing the trials by stashing away the quest items.

“Just carry it with you,” Ogras said, but he looked a bit pressured.

“What’s wrong?” Zac asked as he fastened the massive crystal like a backpack.

“The quest still isn’t complete,” the demon answered with a sour face, making Zac’s brows rise in realization.

“Is this the wrong item?” Zac asked.

This was the problem with the quests on the higher floors. Things weren’t as clear-cut as before, and it often took some trial and error before they could figure out what needed to be done. The fact that they needed to do so in the middle of an epic battle-field this time increased the pressure to another tier though.

“It might be only a piece of the puzzle,” Galau mused, his face deathly pale.

“Look around for any-“ the demon said, but was interrupted by a massive roar as one of the enormous devils looked straight at them.

It was the titan that the squad of array masters was heading toward. Did it want revenge because they stole its array?

A humanoid squad hurried over though, and they summoned a massive warrior in the sky with the help of a War Array, and the projection released a terrifying beam of energy that slammed into the chest of the titan.

But the air around the titan suddenly cracked as the devil shuddered, creating a shockwave that blew all the weaker warriors in the area far away. It also made a few of the soldiers managing the array lose their footing, which interrupted the War Array for long enough for the Titan to swing its massive hammer at them. The soldiers only managed to hastily erect a shield at the last second, saving themselves from being annihilated.

“Shit, those guys won’t be able to defend for long,” Ogras muttered.

“Hooded guys fleeing over there!” Zac said as he pointed in the distance in another direction.

It was a group that resembled the array masters they had killed just now, except they had no warbeast accompanying them. One of them was instead carrying a massive backpack, and six large spikes protruded out of it.

“It might be them,” the demon muttered. “It’s only…”

Zac understood what he was getting at. The group of array masters was running straight toward the backlines of the devil army. If they pursued then they would put themselves even deeper in enemy lines. There might not be another squad available to run interference in case they got targeted again.

“It’s okay,” Zac shrugged. “If worse comes to worst and it’s the wrong target we’ll simply have to fight our way back to our side. There’s no way we’ll be expected to fight those big things for more than a second or two.”

“Fair enough,” the demon nodded. “It’s still only the 28th level, after all. It shouldn’t be too convoluted. We have the core crystal, and those are the array flags. We’ll snatch them and teleport out.”

“Let’s go,” Zac said after looking back at the furious titan that was still being held back by the War Array.

The golden projection of the warrior was already starting to dim, meaning that the squad would probably only be able to keep the titan at bay for another 30 seconds or so. But that was enough for Zac and he grabbed Galau again, and the three created a straight line of carnage in their all-out pursuit.

One fractal blade after another carved a path through the devils as Zac kept swinging his axe. Ogras had already taken off his cast, and a twenty-meter long arm crushed any devil that came too close. Zac noted that the demons who Ogras killed oddly enough looked a bit paler after they got killed, like the hand was made out of bleach rather than shadows.

The array masters who carried the six flags soon noticed their approach, and they screeched as they quickly slammed down the six spikes into the ground and started to infuse energy into them. A group of devils also came forward to buy some time, each of them recently evolved judging by their auras.

But that wasn’t enough to noticeably impede the trio, and they fell by the droves as Zac unleashed a barrage of fractal blades. Soon enough they were upon the array masters, only to be met with a wave of illusory flames the devils had managed to bring forth even without the array core.

Zac frowned and activated [Nature’s Barrier] and infused it with the Dao of Sanctuary, creating a canopy to protect the three. But the flames passed straight through the leaves and fell onto their bodies.

“Netherblasted soulflames,” Ogras growled as a condensed lance of shadows completely obliterated the torso of one of the array devils. “That hurt you scum.”

Zac growled from the pain as well, but his soul was strong enough to handle something like this after being assaulted by the splinter for months. He immediately spread the Seed of Trees through his body as well to help douse the soul-eating flames, and he felt a soothing warmth almost immediately.

Since they didn’t possess the array core the power of the flames was no doubt extremely weakened, and with one step with [Loamwalker] Zac was upon them with murder in his eyes. Space split apart as the remaining devils fell apart into neat chunks of flesh as [Verun's Bite] roared with glee, and Zac started ripping the array flags out of the ground before the dead array masters even had time to fall apart.

Forcibly taking the flags out like that released another burst of voidflames straight into Zac’s face, but he withstood the pain as he snatched them one by one.

“It’s here,” Ogras muttered, pointing to an array forming in blood from the fallen devils. “And just in time.”

“Am I supposed to carry around these huge things?” Zac muttered as he had his arms full with the huge spikes.

“They are bound to someone here,” Galau said. “But the connection will break when we leave this world which will allow you to stow them away. And I think we should hurry.”

Zac looked back and saw that the massive titan was running toward them with surprising speed going by its bulky frame. A few warriors tried to intercept, but the massive hammer in its hands swung back and forth like a pendulum, turning devils and men alike into goop in its fury.

“Let’s hope not all the floors are like this,” Zac said as they stepped onto the teleportation array.

“Don’t jinx it,” Ogras sighed just as they were teleported away.