Chapter 480: Misled (VI)

Sssh... Everyone sucked in a deep breath as the ground fell apart and a tall silhouette of about 30 meters emerged in the pitch-black flames. The flames clustered around its body and two glaring lights emanated in the position of its eyes as though announcing the descent of a King.

Oh, Lord.

Corina stared with widened eyes at this unprecedented scene while Rhode let out a heavy sigh. He could sense the slightest trace of nervousness in Di's prideful, shrinking pupil.

Bam! Thunder roared and the dense bolts of lightning connected to the ground instantly. The horrified screams below them were silenced immediately and a massive lightning cage was formed. In an instant, Rhode felt as though he were the only one left in this silenced world.

The dark giant lifted its head and neglected Rhode's group, as well as those ants scattering in all directions by its feet. These humans weren't the slightest bit worthy of its concern. The dark giant raised its arm and bellowed furiously. "—!"

The black flames dispersed and agglutinated on its enormous palm before exploding towards the sky. The flame column reached the horizon and erupted a dark halo that spread across the sky.

As the halo flit across them, Rhode felt a gentle breeze against his body. However, it seemed to have a much more dramatic effect on Corina and Di as Rhode gazed at them strangely like they had been possessed. Moreover, the Undead Knight serving as an armor model beside the Vampire began to feel fretful. Before Rhode could question, Corina spoke with pale and shaky lips.

"What's going on? My strength..."

Strength?

Rhode gazed blankly for a moment before responding. "Miss Corina, has your strength been weakened?"

"..." The Moon Elf pondered for a while before turning towards Di who was standing silently and nodded to Rhode. At this moment, Rhode felt some tingles on his scalp. He couldn't be clearer than the cause of this effect. It was the powers of the Chaos Realm.

As the symbol of chaos, the Duke Fiend possessed an insane halo effect and that was the 'Chaos Realm'. This halo allowed the Duke Fiend to connect with the Bottomless Abyss using its own powers and through this connection, it could transmit the powers of Chaos into this world. All the creatures of Order within its halo would go through a round of evaluation and those that failed would be dropped by one stage!

In other words, almost all the presences in the Legendary Stage within the halo would be forced back down to the Master Stage if they didn't pass its evaluation. This was why it was as though the end of the world for Corina and even Di seemed perplexed.

"Don't worry, this is the effect of the Duke Fiend's halo and the powers of Order within it will be suppressed. That goes for you and Mr. Di," Rhode glanced at the Vampire purposely as he spoke. Rhode calmed the Elf Knight as he noticed her wary attitude towards Di previously and Di's half-dead manner had left Corina bewildered. As expected, Di let out a snort while the tension eased on Corina's face.

I say, this Moon Elf lady wouldn't be this unsophisticated, right?

Rhode knew that the Elves had longevity and their nature seldom had many changes. In Miss Corina's case, she was a powerful being in the Legendary Stage and she would be the Elf Knight of the Moon Elf Guards in the future. Surely she wouldn't fluster over this Undead, right? Rhode was also sure that this event in Soraka Mountain didn't happen in the game. Otherwise, these future talents would be completely wiped out before they had a chance to live.

However, Rhode was somewhat suspicious because resisting the evaluation of the Chaos Realm had nothing to do with constitution and willpower. Only one with a power of Order stronger than the caster of the Chaos Realm could pass the evaluation. In other words, one had to be stronger than the Duke Fiend in terms of level. But Rhode was currently just above level 30 and no matter his level or strength, he only possessed about half of Corina and Di's strength. But why didn't the Chaos Realm affect him at all? Rhode was aware of the Duke Fiend's Chaos Realm, but he didn't expect that he could resist it successfully.

"What do the two of you intend to do next?" There wasn't much time to waste as the earth was crumbling as if the entire world was about to be destroyed. Rhode gazed towards both of them and before he was answered, there was a sudden, loud bang.

However, it didn't ring in their ears. Instead, the 'sound' blasted into their heads directly. Corina shrieked in horror as she cupped her ears and squatted down. Meanwhile, Di lost his sense of balance and fortunately for him, the Undead Knight moved forward and lent him an arm immediately. As for Rhode, he felt as though someone struck a hammer at the back of his head. His vision blurred suddenly and his entire world was spinning. Rhode shook his head with might and attempted to refocus his attention towards the sky.

The pitch-black halo was continuing to spread and the protection of the Dark and Light Dragon Souls were shattering like fragile glass. Meanwhile, the land of Order was retreating as Chaos continued to devour chunk by chunk.

"I have to go," Di said as he revealed a grave expression for the first time. As one of the Country of Darkness, he knew better than those civilians brainwashed by the Country of Light's Parliament the importance of protecting the Dragon Souls. He bowed towards Rhode and turned around.

"I would advise you to not summon and leave by the Shadow Channel, Mr. Di. This piece of land has turned into pure Chaos and I can't guarantee that you will be transported elsewhere even if you summon it."

"Oh?" The Vampire turned and gazed at Rhode with his blood-red, ice-cold pupils. "Since you know about this, am I right to say that you have another solution?"

"There indeed is another way... That perhaps can resolve this whole trouble," Rhode nodded before pointing at the Duke Fiend. At this moment, the gigantic figure had straightened its body fully and dark flames and thunderbolts were revolving around it recklessly as though it were the King of the world. However, Rhode sharply detected some oddities in its response. Although Devils were chaotic in nature and had no regular patterns in their releasing of skills, it definitely wasn't normal for a Devil to 'display a pose' laxly after casting a Chaos Realm. Rhode gained an answer from this observation.

"Its seal wasn't fully unlocked and this is our final chance. We have to find the seal and take it away immediately. This way, we can lure that fellow away from this place and if we can bring it into a land of Order, it will be much easier to deal with." Rhode spoke in a single breath and gripped the daggers by his waist. The Dark and Light Dragon could be disregarded for now. Their Dragon Souls were a part of their bodies and given that the Chaos Realm had smashed the Dragon Souls, the Dragon Soul successors must be in incomparable pain. Also, no one knew how long it would take for these two Creator Dragon Souls to arrive at the scene. The Dark Dragon was reliable in these situations, but Rhode couldn't rely on the Light Dragon at all. In the game, there were no signs of the Light Dragon when the Country of Light was about to be destroyed and based on this, Rhode knew that the Light Dragon had become the puppet of the Country of Light's Parliament.

Initially, the Judgement & Ruling Twin Dragons would be a great solution to this disaster. However, the delay by Miss Corina left them with no way to escape. Although there would definitely be a successor of the Creator Dragon Souls stepping out to annihilate this monster, Rhode wasn't sure if he could control the situation until the successor arrived. The protagonist in the science fiction movies would eventually defeat the invaders. But before that, there were also many unimportant characters who died from withstanding the brutality of the aggressors and Rhode had no intentions of playing a small role. He had a sudden crazy idea after realizing that the Duke Fiend wasn't in its perfect form.

"I need help from the both of you," Rhode stared at both of them and said sternly. Although the black mask had concealed his expression, Corina and Di could sense the importance of his request. They nodded without the slightest hesitation.

"I stayed to see if there's anything I can help with. If you have a solution, I will definitely do my part," Corina was the first to respond.

Meanwhile, Di shrugged his shoulders. "I hope your solution will work. This way, we have a chance to survive and claim our rewards, Mr. Representative-from-the-Munn Kingdom. But I have to put this up front that if there is anything wrong afterward, I will leave immediately. I hope for your understanding."

This isn't about being understanding or not. I have no high hopes on you, anyway.

Rhode gazed at the Vampire who was smiling insincerely and criticized him secretly. He nodded in acknowledgment and unsheathed his twin daggers. "Let's go."

The dark flames were blazing wildly as the earth continued to shake. Lightning bolts descended from the sky and penetrated the crumbling ground. At this moment, there were no survivors and their corpses were all around the Duke Fiend. As far as Rhode's eyes could see, death, ruins, and burning corpses had as though formed the entire world.

In the interweaving blaze and lightning bolts, there were five figures flying forward.

Corina led the charge while Di and the Undead Knight followed closely. They passed through the wreckage and headed towards the deepest of the ruins. Behind them were Rhode and the Elderly Mage, Damon, who pursued closely. Just a while ago, Damon regained consciousness and Rhode explained the current situation to him. He accepted Rhode's request quickly and even though his current strength was somewhat close to Rhode now, Rhode valued his experience and he was clear of what knowledge and powers this Mage from the Order Alliance possessed. Moreover, the more manpower the better. Besides, there would be one more layer of meat shield for Rhode.

"Turn left and there will be a Rock Shrine!" Rhode yelled out.

"It collapsed!" Corina shrieked frantically.

"Blast it!" Rhode dodged the dark flames whizzing from the large crack skillfully. He landed abruptly and turned around to face the entrance of the once magnificent Rock Shrine that had collapsed entirely. The boulders had blocked its entrance and the steps were piled with corpses that failed to escape. Gazing at this scene, Corina let out a deep sigh. On the other hand, Rhode yelled out and Di squinted his eyes before snapping his fingers.

"My Dear," Di called out to the Undead Knight gently. The Undead Knight lifted her long sword and struck a fierce, powerful gale towards the buried entrance. In the blink of an eye, the large boulders were shattered thoroughly and a pitch-dark, endless cave revealed itself.

"Let's go," Rhode gazed at the Undead Knight with some lingering fear. Then, he charged into the Rock Shrine that seemed to be on the verge of collapsing again.

There was a reason why Rhode had chosen this location. In the game, he had been to Soraka Mountain multiple times. However, this Rock Shrine had always been out of bounds to everyone and the players couldn't find ways to sneak into it. As for other locations, Rhode couldn't recall any memories regarding the Duke Fiend. Therefore, if it was something related to the sealing of the Devil, it must be in this Rock Shrine.

Inside, the Rock Shrine was completely dark and they didn't know if they were surrounded by collapsed rocks or fresh, bloody corpses. This Rock Shrine seemed to be in a rather good condition. Although the darkness was oddly dense, it was nothing of a hindrance for them. The Vampire could see through darkness naturally and the Moon Elf had great eyesight, which made them the best archers in dense, dark forests. Moreover, the Elderly Mage illuminated the entire hall with a bright radiance gleaming from the tip of his staff.

I was right.

Under the bright magical radiance, carved murals on the walls presented before them distinctly. Although most of them were destroyed by the earthquakes and disaster, Rhode recognized that they recorded the battle between Order and Chaos. Such murals would only appear in the Dragon Soul Hall and it was self-evident that it had emerged in an isolated and small temple like this one.

Rhode scanned the walls above and he could see the entirety of this Rock Shrine. Apart from the anteroom before them, there was also a courtyard and palace hall. This temple wasn't a place for worship and the chances for sealed items to be in this hidden place were low. At this crucial moment, Rhode could only move forward and hope for the best. However, they met an unexpected character upon entering the courtyard.

"This area is strictly prohibited. All of you should know this rule... I guess." The Angel stood in the middle of the courtyard quietly with her eyes closed. Her wings were folded and a small Copper Mirror was in her hands. She lifted her head and turned towards the entrance of the courtyard.

"Sorry for violating the rule, Supervisor," Corina stepped forward and bowed respectfully. "But I guess you have also seen that devastating monster of Chaos out there. In order to annihilate this evil, threatening presence of this world, we came here to search for a solution."

"Oh?" The brows of the Angel twitched slightly. "Why would you search for it here?"

"We..." Corina turned towards Rhode for answers, but to her surprise, the black-haired young man was glaring at the Angel tenaciously.

It's this feeling again.

Rhode didn't answer. He was suppressing his murderous intentions with all his mental strength. Rhode felt like he was unable to hold back any longer as soon as he met this Angel and heard her voice once again. He couldn't wait to pounce forward with his daggers to slice her belly, cut off her hands and legs, slash her throat, and use the cruelest method to kill her entirely.

Where did all this hatred come from?

Rhode couldn't figure it out. But he felt that his reactions were absolutely unusual. This hatred wasn't based on logic or any cause-effect relationship. Instead, it was completely instinctual. The natural feeling of rejection and loathe were as though he had no other desires apart from obliterating this person from this world.

"It was the suggestion of this representative from the Munn Kingdom." Unlike Corina, Di was adept in betraying his teammates. "He thinks that we can perhaps find some clues here. It seems that..." Di squinted his eyes slightly. "This Representative was right."

"..." Corina gazed at the Supervisor once more. However, with more vigilance this time. It felt really strange though. Chaos was wreaking havoc right now and as the emissary of Light, this Angel was hiding in this little temple without a care in the world. There must be something wrong. Or perhaps, something terribly wrong.

"... Miss Supervisor, the Copper Mirror in your hands is the seal of the Duke Fiend, right?" Rhode finally spoke and he articulated each and every word as if he was expending a lot of strength. "We need it to defeat the evil presence of Chaos. Can we seek your cooperation?"

"... Of course," the Angel remained silent for a few moments and extended her arms with a kind smile. Corina stepped forward and reached out for the Copper Mirror.

However, Rhode's voice sounded suddenly. "Back off, Miss Corina!"

Eh?

Corina shrunk her fingers subconsciously. At the same time, surging dark flames emerged and brushed her fingertips. Then, the flames transformed into a huge viper-like presence.

Rhode burst forward with his unsheathed twin daggers.