Chapter 445: Underground Maze (VIII)

The clamorous central area square returned to silence.

Other than a thick billow of smoke rising above the bombarded square, there were no signs of piled-up undead creatures' corpses or bloodbath anywhere. These undead creatures were corpses that had been dead for a long time. After losing the source of energy which supplied powers to their body, they vanished into filthy dust instantly. However, it wasn't only due to this reason that these corpses had disappeared. If one were to step in at this instant, perhaps he wouldn't have expected that there were thousands of undead creatures just a while ago.

Rhode canceled the Taboo Halo. After all, the halo needed to consume his spiritual energy to sustain itself. Previously, Rhode used Taboo Halo to analyze the performance of his spirits and he was satisfied. Celia and Celestina under the influence of the buff possessed the strength of an Elite at its peak. While the Centaur Knight and Nether Tentacles did great too, the Spirit Bird... Rhode had given up on it. Perhaps in future, he would just summon it to confine the enemies' movements.

Rhode's spiritual energy was recovering steadily.

Although his spiritual energy was exhausted by summoning all his spirits and casting Taboo Halo, only one-fifth of his maximum spiritual energy capacity was consumed.

This proved just how insane the Legion Horn was. Rhode had leveled up the talents that increased his spiritual energy's capacity and lowered the amount of spiritual energy required to summon each spirit. If he summoned spirits normally, there wouldn't be much of a problem. However, he couldn't disregard the explosiveness of the Legion Horn...

But this wasn't the main point.

Although Rhode had canceled Taboo Halo, he retained the spirits and seized this excellent opportunity to test his other halo talent: Soul Territory.

Rhode cast Soul Territory. Soul Territory could absorb the spiritual energy of the undead creatures that he had annihilated to replenish his spiritual energy. Rhode was eager to witness the benefits that this Soul Territory would bring him.

And yes, Rhode was content with the results.

These low-level undead creatures had limited spiritual energy on them, and the Soul Territory could only absorb 30% of their spiritual energy. In other words, Rhode could only receive 20 to 30 spiritual energy from each Maze Zombie. However, the thousands of undead creatures replenished an alarming amount of spiritual energy.

Through this battle, Rhode acknowledged that the Nether Tentacles and Centaur Knight were great as main tankers while the Hell Hound, as a powerful attacker, left a dissatisfied expression after not self-destructing... As for the Spirit Bird, although its lightning skills weren't powerful enough, they worked fine as a support skill. Last but not least, Celia and Celestina's overwhelming prowesses were able to put a stop to the undead creatures' advancement swiftly.

Yes... I have main tankers, a supporter, and attackers. But I'm lacking a healer...

Rhode gestured and withdrew the Spirit Bird, Hell Hound, Nether Tentacles, and Centaur Knight into their cards respectively, leaving Celia and Celestina for safety's sake. After all, the reason why this battle was so successful was mainly due to this pair of sisters. It went without saying that a Battle Angel like Celia was a natural threat to undead creatures. Whereas, although Celestina was a Demon, the spell that she cast was apparently meant to deal with the undead. No one knew more than the Demons themselves when it came to evil magic spells.

Furthermore, these two Holy Sword Cards were Rhode's most powerful spirit cards. Any equal-level Spirit Swordsman could obtain spirits like the Hell Hound and Centaur Knight, but it would be too challenging for them to defeat that many undead creatures. Only with spirits with the standard of the Holy Sword Card Deck like Celia and Celestina, in addition to their unique race and techniques, could exterminate these undead creatures.

Rhode gazed at Gracier and Madaras hanging by his waist. He was anticipating the day when these two daggers would transform into spirits. After all, their attack attributes and base values weren't inferior to Succubus and Star Mark at all. If they could transform into spirits, they would definitely be a great help to Rhode.

However, if that were to happen, Rhode could no longer use these weapons conveniently and 'freely'... Well, he couldn't have things both ways...

Rhode shrugged his shoulders and turned to Anne. who was leading the group of mercenaries towards him. Strictly speaking, it didn't matter to Rhode if he rescued these mercenaries. Most importantly, he was curious as to why there was an Angel in the team. After all, not anyone could team up with a Battle Angel for no apparent reason and moreover, these people couldn't even be considered mercenaries, so how did they get involved with an Angel? And why were they here the first place?

These pitiful mercenaries didn't know that the reason they survived was all due to Rhode's curiosity. The young swordsman bowed deeply to Rhode with respect and gratitude. "Thank you very much for your help, respected Sir."

"You're welcome; it was just out of convenience anyway," Rhode gestured and sized up the young swordsman before him. He was clad in a decent light armor and although he appeared miserable from head to toe after the battle, he behaved rather earnestly. The young swordsman didn't respond to Rhode's comments; instead, he smiled slightly.

"No matter if it was out of convenience or any other reason, the fact that Sir has saved our lives can't be changed..." The young man paused before continuing with a bitter smile. "But, to be frank, it really surprised me to meet you here."

"Oh?" Rhode twitched his brows in surprise. He scanned the young swordsman once more and realized that he did seem rather familiar... But Rhode couldn't recall where he met this man before.

The young swordsman displayed an awkward smile. "You seem to have forgotten us, respected Sir. We met once in the Stone City..."

"It's you guys..." Rhode finally remembered who they were.

Back then, Rhode and Anne were heading to the Black Pine Ruins to retrieve the Sphere of Mystery. While they were in the nearby town, Rhode met a young mercenary in the pub who was recruiting members for his mercenary group for an adventure to the Black Pine Ruins. Furthermore, that mercenary gave his mercenary group an embarrassing name: the Divine Aegis mercenary group. Rhode secretly mocked that these mercenary groups with excellent names usually wouldn't make it far and threw this matter to the back of his head afterward. However, he never expected to meet them again, especially at this kind of place.

This piqued Rhode's curiosity as to why a small team of mercenaries would have the guts to come to this 5 Star Mission location. Also, why were they with an Angel?

Metzel quickly gave an answer to Rhode's doubts.

After failing to invite Rhode to their team, Metzel didn't give up. Instead, he managed to gather enough members to begin their adventures. A small mercenary group could only accept the lowest 1 Star Missions and Metzel and his companions were strong enough to deal with them. Furthermore, it was all an accident for them to be here: Metzel's group accepted a mission to escort a group of merchants to Eagle City. On their way there, they met the Battle Angel, Delno, and his companion, Wendy, who were traveling at that time.

Although Angels had great identities, these two Battle Angels were underaged. There existed a custom in the Angel race that before an Angel grew into adulthood, they must travel to the human world to exterminate evil and protect humans. This would affirm the Angels of who the enemies were, as well as who they needed to protect. After going through this training, they would mature and become a true Angel.

Without a doubt, most Angels were able to complete their traveling journey. However, a small portion of them was unable to accept the evil side of humans' greed. They gave up all hope in humans as well as their obligations.

Delno and Wendy joined Metzel's mercenary group with wishes to experience life in the human world.

However, an accident happened when they arrived at the Castel Plateau. Metzel's group didn't know the specific location of the Castel Plateau Ruins and they accidentally stumbled into the Necromancers' land. The Necromancers ambushed and captured Wendy, along with two of Metzel's companions. Therefore, in order to rescue them, Metzel's group and Delno tracked the Necromancers, which eventually led them to this square.

But they didn't know that they had entered a nightmare.