1270 Pursuit 2 (2/2)

His body stiffened abruptly, his body had somehow become completely frozen. He could barely even move his wings. His body began to fell straight down, toward the bottom of the crevice.

This time, they were too close together, so Garen could finally clearly see what the thing beside him was.

They were basically wisps of black smoke with human faces.

The black smoke swam quickly through the crevice like fish in water. It was thick and concentrated, and more currents of black smoke kept whooshing past Garen's body.

One hundred, two hundred? One thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand? A million?” Garen counted these wisps of black smoke until he lost count, and only then did he see that there was light here now!

His whole body stiffened, and he allowed gravity to drag him toward, into the depth of the crevice abyss.

In his night-vision dragon eyes, he could vaguely see a ball of transparent light, lighting up slowly at the bottom of the abyss. It looked like white light, but its source was that foggy transparent sphere.

That light source was still at least several kilometers away, and from a distance, he could see that there were countless black smoke faces surrounding that light source.

This all-encompassing black smoke seemed to have a life of its own, and it flew around the light source, staring with distorted hatred in its eyes.

The countless black smoke surrounded the light source, forming a giant tidal-like whirlpool. That colorless light source sat at the bottom of the whirlpool.

And Garen felt as though he was falling toward the bottom of the whirlpool. He was completely helpless, and it was like he was falling into hell.

”This place… what is it!!?” He heard the roar of a Suffering Knight behind him.

”Dosima, angelier… Silent flames of hell, eye of suffering, open up your arms, face the solidification of eternity…” He heard a deep voice singing a chant behind him.

Garen instantly felt a spine-chilling sense of threat surge forth from behind him.

His Soul Rings began to shake uncontrollably, as though it was encountering an unprecedented danger of the highest level. Many cracks appeared, one after the other, on the Soul Rings.

That illogical chant that also seemed to contain an unnatural magic power transcended the long distance and went straight into Garen's ears.

”...Final Battle to the Death!” When the last note ended, Garen saw light.

It was not the faint white light from beneath him. Instead, it was a blinding red light that blossomed from behind him, blood-like viscous red light!

That blood-like red color washed over him like countless waves, faster than he could imagine. Garen just felt as though the red light had appeared behind him in an instant, and was just about to touch his skin. A sense of weakness and helplessness, accompanied by suffering and despair, spread throughout his entire body.

”No!!”

He roared madly! The danger had come so quickly, and even if he had already mentally prepared himself a long time ago, when he felt that weakness all over his body, a deep-set terror still surged up from the bottom of his heart.

All his Soul Rings were trembling madly, many countless and tiny cracks appearing all over them. Even if he had to detonate all of his Soul Rings, he still refused to allow himself to fail without putting up a fight!

Garen's eyes began to shine with terrifying Soul Energy. If he lost his Soul Rings, he could still condense them again, but if he lost his soul, it was all over!

His eyes revealed an unprecedented brutal determination.

Ka-chak!

One of his Soul Rings exploded abruptly, turning into an immense wave of powerful Soul Energy that rushed about madly in his brain.

Each Demon-Lord-Level existence had, without exception, experienced countless challenges and growth before they reached the level they were at. Garen was no different.

In the history of Ancient Endor, there had never been an instance where a Demon Lord was abducted! Never!!

The first Soul Ring exploded, and Garen's strength, as well as his physical fitness, was forcefully doubled.

The second and third Soul Rings also abruptly exploded at the same time!

Countless soul shards scattered everywhere, and Garen's body expanded rapidly like a balloon being inflated. And he was still growing larger and vaster! He had grown into a mature White Dragon's body in almost an instant.

Finally, a small wound underneath his scales split apart.

Barroom!!!

At the bottom of the abyss, an unimaginable wave of heat sprayed out suddenly.

It was as though heaven and earth had frozen in an instant. Everything, all of it, seemed to freeze in time, held in place by the faint white light from the abyss below.

Inside the light source, a huge and terrifying golden eye opened slowly. A woman dressed in a black dress that was tight around her waist stood in the middle of the eye.

The woman opened her eyes slowly. Her skin was whiter than snow, her hair darker than the night, and her figure seemed to have been forged according to the most perfect golden proportions. She was completely flawless.

Although she had opened her eyes, there was no light or consciousness in them at all. As though she was still deeply asleep, she raised her left hand slowly, like a sleepwalker.

Her palm was aimed directly at Garen and the Suffering Knight.

Barroom!!!

There was another immense tremor.

A giant, unimaginable pressure traveled across several kilometers and instantly landed on Garen and the Suffering Knight.

Garen felt as though an entire giant mountain had fallen on top of him in an instant. That feeling was just like how he had felt when he flew toward the sun of the Mother Planet for the first time in the Mech World.

Heavy, immense, irresistible.

”...Draconic Aura!!” An agonized voice came from behind him. It was the Suffering Knight's voice.

That was the last thing Garen heard.

Time seemed to be flowing backward… His body shrunk rapidly, and he soon returned to his original Dragon Whelp body. The Soul Rings inside his body had also somehow naturally returned to their original Soul Ring state, even though they had already been blown to pieces. They looked almost completely undamaged.