Chapter 241: Awakening (1)

The surging magical powers coalesced and resounded in the entire space. Rafah raised both arms as an incomparably strong source of energy flowed within his body. The ground and walls cracked under the pressure. Lapis gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and turned away to avoid the strong gale.

"Ignorant humans, all of you will die here!"

The central control room could no longer be saved, but that didn't matter as long as Lapis was around and he had the powers...

A crimson ray of light flashed.

Rafah stopped moving and time seemed to have frozen at this second. He opened his eyes wide and glared at Rhode, who had mysteriously appeared before him. The black-haired young man maintained a stance as he slashed his sword down.

Rafah lowered his head. His body, which was made of light, had suffered a terrifying slash on its right shoulder.

Why?

Rafah couldn't understand how this man could have such amazing reflexes. Logically speaking, Rafah's teleportation should have negated Rhode's attacks, but how did he move so nimbly, even in this space?

Rhode stared at the figure of light without any emotions. This was an illogical situation to Rafah. However, Rhode had repeated these steps countless of times. When a boss's HP had reached a critical level, it would trigger a skill that would change the player's position and release an attack that damaged all players after a three-second summoning. However, to the players, the three seconds weren't for them to expect death.

From the start of the battle, Rhode had been on the alert for this ultimate move from Rafah.

After noticing the shift in his position, Rhode instinctively activated Shadow Flash and dashed toward Rafah's face. The Dead Soul Blade emerged in the air and sliced through Rafah's body and broke his spell...

"No—!"

Rafah let out a mourning scream.

The powers contained in his body gushed out like a flood and his body turned even brighter and sharper. He lifted his hands in the air helplessly. He couldn't believe that he failed. How? How did this man understand the Behermes and the central control room so much? Who exactly is this man?

Rafah didn't receive his answers.

Because, at this moment, a glaring magical radiance soared and devoured him instantly, and he disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Settled.

Rhode let out a sigh of relief. He lowered his sword and had decided to check on Lapis' condition. However, at this moment, a high pitched scream sounded.

"Ah—!!"

What happened?

Rhode turned his head toward the source of the voice and saw Lapis floating in midair. In the wake of Rafah's disappearance, the light chains binding onto her had also shattered, but the she still didn't fall to the ground. On the contrary, she stuck out her chest and the crystal shone even brighter. Not only that, the maiden also held her hands tightly to her chest while her face revealed an incomparably painful expression. Shortly after, the surrounding magical powers coalesced into her body. Rays of magical radiance merged into her body and the magical crystal shone increasingly brighter.

What was going on?

Rhode was puzzled. His experience in the game was effective in facing the dungeon boss, but he had never gone through this scenario before. In normal circumstances, the boss's magical energy would be gone after its death, but it seemed otherwise now.

"Gillian!"

No matter what, Lapis' painful expression definitely wasn't any good sign. Gillian swiftly made a few hand gestures and numerous flame walls emerged around Lapis. However, they failed to withstand the strong flow of magical powers. For the first time, Gillian's powerful flames appeared weak before the magical storm as they were extinguished almost immediately.

"Master, the flow of magical powers is too strong. They seemed to be attracted to Lapis' spirit crystal. I can't do anything about them!"

"How troublesome!"

Rhode frowned. He gripped his sword and observed the maiden, who was within the heart of the magical storm. At this moment, the devastating magical powers had already affected the surroundings and formed a huge hurricane that forced Rhode and Gillian away.

"Can't we drag her out by force?"

"I wouldn't suggest that, Master." Gillan maintained her expression, but said in a serious tone. "I'm not sure if Miss Lapis would be able to survive that. If you drag her out from it, I can guarantee that she will be dead. With the strong flow of magical powers flooding into her, it would definitely trigger a strong reaction in her. She will perish in the struggles of the magical powers and end up in the same predicament as that fellow... Master! Be careful, stay bac—!"

Before Gillian could finish her sentence, the pitch-black room once again shone brightly with magical radiance. At the same time, the roaring storm came to an abrupt halt with a beam of glaring light shining from above. Then, the solid ground cracked, collapsed, and enormous rocks fell right through the endless pit.

As Celia and the mercenaries rushed to the scene after hearing the commotion. The first thing they witnessed was the deep, black abyss.

Rhode and Gillian were nowhere to be found.

"What's going on?"

Kavos stared into the abyss under his feet. Previously, after Rhode and Gillian charged into this room, the other mercenaries were fighting against the Golem Guard's attacks. After losing their two most powerful attackers, Rhode and Gillian, the mercenaries had a hard time following up. However, they were lucky that Celia was around to help survive their ordeal. Just as they finally dealt with the Guard Golems, the strong trembles from the other side urged the mercenaries to hurriedly check on the situation. Then, they realised that the entire ground of this huge room had collapsed into an endless, pitch-black abyss.

"This is terrible."

Kavos gritted his teeth. This ex-mercenary group leader threw a flame torch down to check the depth of the abyss. However, the flames were completely devoured by the darkness, leaving them no clues.

Were Leader and Gillian defeated by the monster here?

Kavos was at a lost for words, not knowing what to do as he ran around in circles.

"Master is fine." Celia assured him. "He is still alive; I can guarantee that. There's no point in panicking. Go and gather the people at the back, and we shall wait for Master to return at the tall platform... I think, Master will be able to handle this situation."

Kavos hesitated, but eventually nodded. No matter what, Celia, an angel, wouldn't lie to humans. Not to mention, Rhode was also her master... Kavos turned around hurriedly and ordered the mercenaries to leave. But even so, he still felt extremely worried about his leader's whereabouts.

On the other side, even Rhode wasn't aware of the answer to their questions.

"Argh..."

Rhode shook the dizziness off from his head and stood up.

"Where in the world is this place?"

The place was entirely dark. Shortly after, a glaring flare brightened the area.

"Although I'm not sure where we are, I can confirm that this place is definitely not the place we came from, Master."

Gillian patted the soil off her body and stood on her feet. Numerous fireballs floated around her and illuminated the area.

Different from the man-made room in the previous ruins, this underground cave was definitely natural. Stalactite hung from above, and there were ice-cold reflections from the illumination of the fireballs. In the distance, there was a huge lake and above them, a huge tunnel leading to the top. However, it was pitch-black without any end in sight.

This is so weird.

Rhode had something more important to check on: Lapis, who was lying unconsciously beside them.