Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Actually, Abel wasn’t all that worried about the three spiritual guardian knights. The King of Darkness was not going to just break through their bodies and the Duriel armor that easily. He had all the time he needed to use up the full recovery potion, so the goal was to just keep providing back support until the opponent went down. He had used three bottles of the full recovery potion in a couple of seconds. Such expenditure was only possible with Abel’s Horadric Cube.
In a place that’s further away, nine spiritual guardian wizards continued to cast their aggressive spells at the King of Darkness.
“Lightning chain.” Blizzard.” Firewall.”
Since the lightning attacks didn’t work against the committee members, Abel decided to use them outside the range of the “sacred freezing” just to make sure that it was safe.
Every time “fist of fire flower-Brem” and the other two members of the committee unleashed a “nine-headed sea serpents,” there would be one spiritual guardian knight that went to crash against the red light that was flying in midair. This way, neither one of its enemies could manage to deal much damage to it. In terms of speed, while Brem was clearly buffed with the “special speed enhancement,” the fact that the spiritual guardian knights could use its own “flash” technique just meant that it was impossible to gain any sort of advantage through speed.
And no, Abel wasn’t going to let his three dire wolves rush to the front. He didn’t know what more danger was ahead, so he needed all the fighting forces he had to ensure the safety of the central continent elves. The dire wolves were technically immortal, but a lot of time was needed to heal them if they entered into a state of exhaustion or fatigue. Well, not that it mattered for the five “undead crows.” They just kept flying around and pecked at Brem and the other two committee members with their beaks. The chance of success for blinding was not that high, but it was good enough to stall their targets.
Speaking of which, the “claystone monsters” were doing quite fine, too. Right now, since Abel’s mastered the passive spell “control stone monster,” the claystone monster had a higher chance to survive, which made it much better at slowing down the hell creatures.
As all these things did their part to keep Brem trapped, all that the poor man could do was struggle helplessly. After blocking another one of the “nine-headed sea serpents,” Abel ordered Black Wind to accelerate, which created a huge discrepancy in their speed.
After being endlessly circled, Brem became a lot slower in his response. Yet, due to his status of being a dark-golden quality hell creature, he still had the ability to counter the attack. As Abel switched into his “steel” sword and his “Vow of the Ancient” shield, he managed to deflect the slash with his own fists.
Unlike before, Abel’s attack did leave its mark. Brem’s body had a long streak of wound slashed right open. The 50% tear had just worked. Abel was using his power of the Rule, and it didn’t matter if the target was a dark-golden quality hell creature or not. The ability was just that broken.
After Brem let out a sad, desperate howl, Abel readied his shield and slammed a “shield attack” rune right onto him. The fainting effect would usually last for two seconds, but that duration was reduced to one, given how Brem was. Nevertheless, that still gave Abel enough to unleash his ultimate attack. He switched quickly to his “leaf” rune weapon, which he used to cast the “firewall” and “meteor” spell with both of his hands.
Soon after that, the two committee members were the first ones to die in this fight. Brem quickly followed after that as his entire body was lit on fire. He howled and rolled and the ground. Followed by that, a freezing halo exploded from the inside of its body. Abel was lucky that he had his world stone fragment on. Because of it, he managed to call his spiritual guardian knights and spiritual guardian wizards away before they got caught up in the explosion. Same for himself. He would’ve been gravely injured if he didn’t use the “instantaneous movement” on himself in time.
He couldn’t do much for the claystone monster, though. Despite being strengthened multiple times with his potions and buff spells, the hit still smashed it into pits of ice fragments. Five undead crows were also hit. However, they just flew again as nothing happened to them after they shook off the ice frost on their bodies. Grey shadows and golden shadows started flying out of them, and they were all absorbed by the Horadric Cube.
Abel turned back to look at the dark golden King of Darkness. Very surprisingly, it actually knew how to use the teleportation technique. It didn’t escape the fight because the spiritual guardian knights had their “flash” technique. Not a lot of problems were prolonged, and Abel’s participation quickly ended the fight. Without a way to attack from a long distance, the King of Darkness could only use its “sacred freezing” to attack the enemies around it, and apart from the three spiritual guardian knights that were at the front, Abel and the other spiritual guardian wizards simply continued their offense from over a distance.
Soon very quickly, the King of Darkness let out a great howl as a light flashed across its dark, long robe. The robe looked like it was floating in the air before it dropped to the ground. The King of Darkness’s grey soul and golden ability then flew into the Horadric Cube.
“Nice,” Abel looked in satisfaction at the two “ability potions” that were inside the Horadric Cube. He didn’t have a lot in stock. The only potions he currently had were the ones that might have spiritual qi buff on them, and he wasn’t planning on using them immediately. Out of the two bottles he had, one of them was an “ability potion” he got from Brem. Since it wasn’t infused with the spiritual qi buff, it was alright to use it directly to his summon creatures.
Anyways, he was planning on moving to the next area. He remembered that there were just two dark-golden quality hell creatures here, so he was confident enough to bring his summoned creatures straight across the pathway. It was the right call. When he went to the other side, he saw many Kings of Darkness, but he couldn’t spot any dark-golden quality leader among them.
Again, as they were all too close to each other, these Kings of Darkness had no real ways of unleashing their long-ranged attacks. After a few rounds of the “corpse explosion,” the Kings of Darkness all became pieces of corpses that laid still on the ground. It became a lot easier for Abel to observe the place after that. This place was literally a “stream of blood.” In the middle of this area, a pool filled with blood had divided the entire floor into four. Apart from where he stood, there were two rooms on both the left and right sides. Right across the pool, he guessed, was Mephistopheles. Perhaps he just needed to cast one “instantaneous movement” to get there.
Well, not before he finished cleaning the hell creatures on either side. He wanted to make sure that this boss fight was as clean as it could get. In the middle of the pool of blood, there was a teleportation gate that was built right in the center. The teleportation gate was not activated at this moment. He decided to first pick the room on the leftmost side. Again, he did this very carefully. He had one spiritual guardian knight closing it step by step, and when it saw a member of the committee moving very fast towards it, he quickly called it back.
“Dragon Hand Muffle.” That’s the name he read from the member of the committee. So this one was supposed to be a key member of the Sakarum Church. A real dark golden quality hell creature, in every sense. He wasn’t too worried, though. As long as there weren’t too many spawns that he had to deal with simultaneously, he was not afraid to handle a dark golden quality hell creature on his own.
Immediately, he switched on the world stone fragment to ready for the upcoming combat. He could feel the world around him becoming slower. It became very easy to see “Dragon Hand Muffle’s” every movement. It was the same, even if it was using the “speed enhancement” technique.
Very quickly, the outcome of this fight was decided when the spiritual guardian blocked the “nine-headed sea serpent” technique. All of Abel’s summon creatures started ganging up on it.
“Spiritual qi enhancement.”Specialized ballista strengthening.”Special speed enhancement.”Lightning enhancement.”
After ten minutes of what was basically a non-stop bullying of the committee member, Muffle went down after letting out a loud, terrible cry. It did create a “lightning strengthening” explosion as it fell, but Abel had the world stone fragment switched on the whole time, which prevented damage from taking place in the first place.
Pretty soon, Abel went into the room on the left side. He didn’t find more hell creatures this time. This was where “Dragon Hand Muffle” lived, so it seemed. On the right, after multiple searches of one of his spiritual guardian knights, he realized another member of the committee.
“Finger of hollowness- Wien.” Another member of the committee that became a powerful dark-golden quality hell creature surrendered itself to the forces of hell. It was immune to lightning and freezing element spells, but Abel and the other summon creatures still managed to swarm them up and beat them to death. This time, he gained another “ability potion” that did not have the spiritual qi buff. That being said, the variety of the potions were still very much in place.
“Mana burning.” Teleportation.”Freezing Enhancement.”Skin hardening.”
“There’s just so much here!” he said with a wide grin as he looked towards the four potions. His eyes fixed towards his final target. Not today, though. He wasn’t planning on fighting Mephistopheles immediately after using up so much energy in his world stone fragment. He wasn’t really planning on starting this fight unless he knew he knew he was in full condition.
Speaking of which, it had only been five days since he’s fought inside the dark world. He could do things a lot slower than what he’s currently at. With that in mind, he opened a teleportation gate and headed straight back to Port Kurast. As he arrived, he decided not to waste any time crafting the “lite healing potion.”
As for today, since he’s already expended so much of the “full recovery potion,” he needed to replenish the stock he’s used up. At night, he spent one-hour training whilst holding an advanced light stone in his hand. Followed by that, he practiced the “blue dragon ice crystal breathing technique” on his bed. Only then would he finish his entire day’s work. He was preparing himself for tomorrow’s fight, so he slept as well as he could inside Ankara’s tent.
He woke up naturally on the second day. Due to the reduction in the number of the hell creatures, the air smelt a lot more refreshing around Port Kurast. He came to the second floor of the Durance of Hate very quickly after using a nearby waypoint. After arriving, he opened up a map that was inside of his brain. The map included a lot more detail this time since he had cleared off the area already. All the paths were showing up in three-dimension. His brain recreated a simulation of the whole place that he could just look at to not get lost.
Every time he went back after opening the teleportation gate, he had to head to the nearest waypoint to get to his last location. He’s saving a lot more effort with this new technique. When everything was ready, he switched up his “instantaneous movement” and moved all the summon creatures to his point of destination. He felt like he’s got everything in control here. The only thing in the way, it seemed, was Mephistopheles itself. He just needed to get rid of it to become the owner of this realm.
The third floor was filled with the disgusting smell of blood. Only hell creatures, perhaps, would enjoy the environment around here. He went to the room on the right side. It was not that far from Mephistopheles now. He could almost hear the sound of the lightning arc that was up at the front. He didn’t let his “spiritual guardian knights” do the scouting work this time. Doing that seemed to serve no purpose. He wasn’t not going to sacrifice his spiritual guardian knight just to die.
Given Mephistopheles’ power, he needed everything in his arsenal: “energy shield, Freezing armor, White bone armor, and Tornado armor.” He put on all his defensive gears at the same time. Meanwhile, he had the “full recovery potion, poison antidote potion, and the melting potion” in his belt, ready to be used at any point.
As for his summoned creatures, he only brought the “claystone guard” and the five undead crows. He was not going to waste anyone for this upcoming fight.
