Chapter 975: Dark Demon’s Fairy Tale Animal · Kitten (16k)
The creatures dwelling in this environment naturally possessed unique traits. Aurora and Lucy saw many things along their journey.
Observing those things from a safe standpoint felt entirely different compared to when they were in danger.
Their journey was filled with more laughter between them.
The 【Chariot of the Moon Goddess】 did not encounter any overly powerful enemies; in half an hour, they only faced two waves of attacks. One wave was a flock of birds on their path, and the other was winged lizards racing against them for reasons unknown.
Both groups were driven away by Aurora and Lucy, and the 【Chariot of the Moon Goddess】 accelerated, quickly leaving them behind.
After hearing their account, Dark turned his gaze calmly towards the door. A sudden flash of light leaped into the sky, appearing from the direction the carriage was speeding towards.
Dark’s eyelids twitched, and he immediately got up and walked out of the carriage.
Following closely, Aurora and Lucy also saw the beams of light leaping into the sky one after another.
These beams shot out from the twelve corners of the giant city, eventually converging above the central city.
Thus, a massive halo appeared in the city’s sky. This halo had twelve colors, emitting captivating light. It resembled an angel’s halo, hanging directly above the central city, slowly rotating and releasing waves of different colors.
No matter which corner of the 【Heavenly Realm】 one was in, just stepping outdoors and looking in that direction would clearly reveal the existence of that halo.
Dark narrowed his eyes, recalling the giant elephant shadow that could penetrate the mist and be seen by humans on the 【Mountain of Gods】.
This ability to focus people’s gaze, making them involuntarily look and see, seemed to be a power naturally possessed by divine beings.
Deities gathered hearts and spread the gospel, possibly utilizing this ability.
However, the appearance of that halo now might not be a bad thing. It meant that events happening within the 【Heavenly Realm】 were progressing to the next phase.
The幕后黑手who brought them to the 【Heavenly Realm】 used the halo to guide the twelve individuals scattered throughout the realm towards its location, guiding everyone to converge there.
Fortunately, it wasn’t in a direction opposite to Angrey’s prophesied location. The 【Chariot of the Moon Goddess】 continued forward.
With a fierce gaze, Dark whispered, “It’s time to reclaim the third gold medal!”
The 【Black Mist Beast】 had already recovered to its peak state. Wherever it passed, everything turned desolate, and the remaining vitality on the earth was completely plundered.
At this moment of full recovery, the distance between it and the 【Chariot of the Moon Goddess】 gradually narrowed.
The current form of the 【Black Mist Beast】 was bloated, with even greater total energy than before.
As long as it avoided being hit by ultimate skills like the 【Two-dimensional Explosion Slash】, it had confidence in its revenge.
—The fleeing 【Black Mist Beast】 did not witness what happened to the great eagle.
Its impression of the three humans was still stuck in the most beautiful moment.
Consequently, when it suddenly found one human appearing before it, it instead revealed a vicious grin akin to a sheep entering a tiger’s den.
Holding the 【Flight Spell】, Dark used 【Instant Teleportation】 under the 【Demon Beast】’s carry to appear before the 【Black Mist Beast】.
On each shoulder, he had a ten-star magic golem 【Shenmi】 and a twelve-star magic golem 【Demon King·Eldridge】.
A faint floral fragrance spread outward with his arrival, and the barren land around seemed to show signs of recovering vitality.
The 【Black Mist Beast】 detested this scent immensely. Even without the influence of the will etched in its soul, it would attack without hesitation.
Its physical body was concealed in thick black mist, with withered black hands raised to its chest, forming special spell seals, grinning wickedly at unprotected humans.
The 【Absolute Fortress】 of the 【Steel God Soldier】 provided too much protection, preventing the full exertion of the abilities of the 【Lion-Headed Snake-Bodied Beast】 and the 【Black Mist Beast】.
Now that Dark stepped out of the barrier’s protection, the 【Black Mist Beast】 finally unleashed its most malicious ultimate skill—【Black Curse】!
Those struck by the 【Black Curse】 would have their blood turn into black mist seeping out through their pores.
Eventually, hair would fall out, the body would dry up, and the skin would turn black—becoming identical to the 【Black Mist Beast】’s true form!
Though the human wouldn’t die, they would suffer more than death! The 【Black Mist Beast】 loved spreading pain, making all living beings feel the pain it once endured!
“Transform, Fairy Tale Animal · Kitten.”
—These were the last words of a human the 【Black Mist Beast】 heard.
Devouring and counter-devouring.
Due to having the same ability, the 【Demon King·Eldridge】 fundamentally couldn’t be devoured by the 【Black Mist Beast】.
Even if the beast’s stomach was empty, it couldn’t swallow it.
And within sixty seconds after activating its 【Steel Body】, the 【Demon King·Eldridge】’s defense skyrocketed to 23,000 points, making it impossible for the 【Black Mist Beast】 to inflict even a scratch.
After being slapped by flesh claws several times, it roared and designated the 【Demon King·Eldridge】 as its replication target.
Then, it discovered that with its own energy, it could only replicate the 【Demon King·Eldridge】’s form—most of the time, it could only do this, but it always gained attributes superior to those of the opponent.
But this time, it found that it couldn’t fully replicate even the basic attributes, let alone the size.
In its howling, it was kneaded into a ball of fur by the 【Demon King·Eldridge】, then repeatedly smacked onto the ground.
From afar, it looked like a kitten playing with a ball, but each time the ball fell, the earth trembled, creating huge craters. The 【Black Mist Beast】 convulsed, spewing black mist, utterly disoriented. Born in the wilderness, even when encountering stronger beings, it could usually escape without much trouble. Today was its first major defeat.
But what it feared most wasn’t this first defeat, but the possibility of it becoming its last!
At this moment, it clearly realized the gap in strength, but it was too late.
—It didn’t notice that its clear consciousness was gradually increasing amidst the “mew” sounds.
When transforming into the 【Devouring Beast of Gods】, the 【Demon King·Eldridge】 retained memories from its second incarnation. Although Dark used command chains to prevent it from using any spells, it could freely apply its mastered abilities.
The 【Despair Lion Roar】 skill was adapted into its mewing calls, causing the 【Black Mist Beast】 to unknowingly fall into artificially created despair illusions.
Originally, although there was a disparity in strength, it wasn’t to the extent of one-sided dominance.
But with the erosion of despair, the beast lost the will to resist, unable to utilize even a fraction of its strength, naturally being toyed with by the 【Demon King·Eldridge】.
As the erosion of despair deepened, the 【Black Mist Beast】 even lost the courage to escape.
Its ability to scatter into countless pieces of black mist and flee became useless.
When its life was weakened to a certain degree, the 【Demon King·Eldridge】 suddenly opened its massive mouth and used the ultimate skill—【Devourer】.
The 【Black Mist Beast】, centered around its devouring ability, ultimately died from being devoured.
After two minutes, the 【Demon King·Eldridge】 absorbed and digested the last bit of the 【Black Mist Beast】’s life force, obtaining the third gold medal.
Spitting out the medal, it rapidly shrank back into the form of a kitten.
Dark caught it, gently rubbing its head as a reward, then looked down at the medal.
The front of the medal depicted the agricultural, grain, harvest, and earth goddess Demeter holding a scythe, reaping wheat.
“The third gold medal is in hand.”
Dark put the third gold medal into his bag, then grabbed the 【Demon Beast】’s arm, commanding it to use 【Instant Teleportation】.
In an instant, Dark returned outside the carriage of the 【Chariot of the Moon Goddess】. He put away the 【Flight Spell】 and landed lightly, signaling the 【Fairy Tale Animal·Rabbit】 to drive.
The 【Chariot of the Moon Goddess】 set off again towards the CD direction. Meanwhile, Dark obtained information about the new absorbed ultimate skill from the magic golem card of the 【Demon King·Eldridge】.
That was the ultimate skill of the 【Black Mist Beast】—【Devour】!
【Devour: Swallow the target into the belly, absorb and transform into one’s own strength.
Under normal circumstances, the ability to consume can be used to restore one’s own life force and mana. When activated, the consumption ability can swallow the target into a special stomach bag, where the target’s abilities can be slowly absorbed through digestion.
The additional ultimate skill is the Metaverse Stomach Bag.
In summary, this ultimate skill belongs to the same category as the “Devourer” of the Demon King · Eldridge, but its rank is much lower than that of the Devourer. The advantage is that it can recover by consuming weaker creatures, but if too many creatures are consumed at once, it can cause a jumble of energy that hinders growth.
The active consumption ability can basically be ignored. Without threshold judgment, the consumption ability means that the target swallowed could break through from the inside.
Although it uses the Metaverse Stomach Bag to imprison the target, creatures with superpower attributes can actually sense space and have the potential to destroy the Metaverse Stomach Bag.
Moreover, its effect is clearly inferior to the Devourer.
However, the Metaverse Stomach Bag attached to the consumption ability is quite a good minor skill.
This means that the Demon King · Eldridge has obtained a portable alternate space. Even if it is not used to digest prey, it can also be used for storage.
However, Dark’s focus remains on the normal effect of consumption. “It can recover its life force and mana by consuming weaker units… isn’t that eating?”
The mana consumption of the golem is calculated in seconds, but under sufficient mana, it can last quite a long time.
The Demon King · Eldridge’s normal mana is 9,500 points, consuming 12 points per second, which allows it to sustain itself for over 13 minutes.
If it could maintain a frequency of feeding every 13 minutes… forget it, that would be too difficult for it!
Dark shook his head and abandoned this impractical idea. Then, he continued to inject mana into the Demon King · Eldridge’s magic card and received information feedback about another ultimate skill — the Sin Fire!
Since being summoned, the Demon King · Eldridge has killed three creatures.
Each of these three creatures had their souls transformed into Sin Seeds.
Using the Sin Seed can ignite the Sin Fire to burn the target.
However, the Sin Fire does not have a fixed power; its damage depends on the quality of the Sin Seed, which is the strength of the deceased’s soul, as well as their pain and fear.
But the latter is the main condition.
While burning the enemy, the Sin Fire can also make the enemy feel the pain and fear of the deceased.
Therefore, although the three creatures killed by the Demon King · Eldridge were very powerful, only the Sin Seed derived from the Black Fog Beast’s soul had extremely high quality.
Of course, Eldridge can also recover a certain amount of mana by consuming the Sin Fire.
In summary, the power of the Demon King · Eldridge has been further enhanced.
Dark had a measure in his heart.
He had been in the Heavenly Court for nearly an hour, but there was still no news from the professors.
This basically means that the professors encountered difficulties in the passage and might not be able to enter the Heavenly Court in the short term.
If he could find the latest entrant, Olivia, he might gain more information.
And at present, when the professors cannot enter the Heavenly Court in time, he indeed needs to continue increasing combat power.
Although cultivating the Demon King · Eldridge inevitably involves risks, it doesn’t matter so much at this point.
Only by making the Demon King · Eldridge stronger can future explorations proceed more smoothly.
After enduring this, he will thoroughly cleanse it, turning it back into a harmless kitten.
Thinking of this, Dark picked up the kitten and continued to knead its paw.
Returning to the carriage, Dark temporarily recalled unnecessary golems into the magic card, leaving only the Demon King · Eldridge, Shenmi, Magical Beast: Destroyer God, Magical Beast: Goddess of Heartful Eyes, and the Imp Beast lying on the ground refusing to move.
He estimated the time, leaning against the window to observe the scenery along the way.
The appearance of the giant halo in the sky would undoubtedly guide those entering the Heavenly Court towards that direction.
At that time, he might not need the Lost Prophecy to find Angrey or Olivia.
Of course, he wouldn’t place his hope in such an uncertain possibility.
So after the cooldown of an hour, he immediately made the Magical Beast: Destroyer God use the Lost Prophecy to reconfirm Angrey’s location.
Indeed, both the direction and distance had changed.
Firstly, the direction.
Compared to the previous prophecy, it was clear that Angrey was moving closer to the position where the halo hung.
With both parties moving, the distance decreased from 300 kilometers to 130 kilometers.
The predicted time was five minutes later.
Although this distance was still far, since Angrey’s movement tendency was now clear, it was possible to adjust coordinates and reach the calculated destination.
Dark pondered slightly and assisted the Fairy Tale Animal: Small Rabbit to complete the direction adjustment.
Then he stood outside the carriage, frowning as he looked at the sky where the giant halo floated.
In the direction of the halo, the outlines of city ruins were faintly visible.
The Chariot of the Moon Goddess continuously ascended under his instructions, making the outline of the city appear clearer.
After a few minutes, he finally saw the entire city plan.
The city’s layout seemed to be divided into twelve sections, with white being the predominant color—originally it should have been.
But now, the entire city was completely black.
Solidified black pollutants were everywhere, and ruins of collapsed buildings were scattered throughout.
The floating black mist above the city seemed to narrate the great calamity it had experienced.
The heaviness felt when reading the four characters “Ragnarok” in the documents was as light as a feather compared to this moment.
Even if the twelve gods of Mount Parnassus truly survived the Ragnarok, what heavy burdens would they carry?
It was unimaginable.
Even seeing the ruins of the city, it was still unimaginable.
The Chariot of the Moon Goddess continued to fly, revealing more details.
First to approach was the territory of a god’s kingdom, a walled city surrounded by a moat left by dried-up water.
The terrain within the Heavenly Court had remained unchanged for thousands of years, and the river surrounding the city was still recognizable.
The Chariot of the Moon Goddess entered the walled area.
Dark instantly sensed a residual divine aura, similar to what he felt outside the palace earlier.
But once the Chariot of the Moon Goddess passed through the walled area, that divine aura vanished completely.
Dark narrowed his eyes and suddenly noticed a huge footprint. This footprint was imprinted in the center of the city, as if a giant leg from the clouds had stepped down, turning the central area of the city into a basin.
At the center of this terrifying footprint, countless black substances gathered into a mountain, emitting a foul stench.
Dark tested the pollutant and immediately saw that the quality of this pollutant far exceeded the samples made in the laboratory.
If this mountain of pollutants were to be activated, merely the poison gas it released could cause instant death to all living beings in the city.
Yes, there were living beings in this city.
Dark slowed down the Fairy Tale Animal: Small Rabbit, descending slowly, his golden eyes carefully observing the city.
Black shadows wandered the streets of this ruined city.
They walked upright, but were not human-like, with half of their blob-like outlines dragging on the ground. They moved aimlessly.
Dark witnessed black shadows colliding on a road, but neither stopped moving until one was pushed aside by the other, and they continued forward, changing their direction.
These black shadows wandered aimlessly among the empty ruins, exuding a chilling loneliness.
The entire city was silent.
These black shadows did not make any sound.
It was unclear when they began appearing and how long they had been wandering these streets.
Dark observed for a long time, but besides these shadows, he couldn’t see any other signs of life, much less any other magical beasts.
】Creature.
He circled the city’s sky for a great distance, but ultimately did not see a single person.
However, the [Magical Beast: Goddess of Heartful Eyes] behind him saw the flow of divine energy.
In this city, there were numerous buildings or items that emitted a divine aura.
Those buildings or items were extremely resilient, enduring years of pollution yet still retaining their divine essence.
After careful consideration, Dark chose to land! Time and opportunity were fleeting.
The [Fossil Wing Dragon], after transforming due to the power of the [Mountain Giant’s Sword], required an even higher level of [Ancient Power].
If he left the [Celestial Court], it would be difficult for him to find ancient artifacts capable of advancing the collection progress of [Ancient Power].
“I’m not going further inside?” Lucia Artemis questioned doubtfully. Dark replied, “I have something to do and need to stay in this city for some time.”
Lucia Artemis, after weighing it in her mind, gave up on the idea of leaving the group to search for other elementals.
Immediately afterward, the three of them descended into the city using the [Chariot of the Moon Goddess].
Dark first chose a location very close to the giant footprint. That was the center of the city; although heavily damaged, many divine relics remained around it.
“In the name of Dark DiMont, Mana Summoning — [Gabumon]!” Gabumon raised its head and immediately understood Dark’s intention from his gaze, sighing deeply.
As expected, Dark used [Greed i3i] on him after the three-second cooldown.
In the light of [Greed], Gabumon evolved into a five-star [Drilldramon].
“Where?” It directly asked.
Next to it, Lucia Artemis had become numb to the sight of the magical beast speaking like a human.
Dark instructed the [Magical Beast: Goddess of Heartful Eyes] to guide [Drilldramon] to the location.
[Drilldramon] immediately used [Dig], burrowing underground beneath the ruins.
Less than two minutes later, [Drilldramon] returned from underground, holding what looked like a seal-like object in its hand.
Dark was not interested in its use and directly took out the [Fossil Wing Dragon]’s mana card, instructing it to identify [Ancient Power].
Indeed, this seal, which retained a divine aura, contained high-quality [Ancient Power].
Upon smelling it, [Fossil Wing Dragon] eagerly emerged from the card, sucking in the gray mist from the seal, which was then completely absorbed by the dragon.
Dark checked the mana card and noticed that the progress had advanced another notch to 59%.
He couldn’t help but sigh; the seal had lost its divine aura, and the result was worse than the previous lantern.
“Next.”
Dark DiMont transformed entirely into an unfeeling divine relic scavenger. Fifteen minutes later.
[Drilldramon] regressed back into [Gabumon].
After Dark recalled it, he glanced at the [Fossil Wing Dragon]’s mana card. The [Ancient Power] progress had risen from 59% to 67%.
It was quite fortunate; two divine relics provided a significant amount of [Ancient Power].
Dark boarded the [Chariot of the Moon Goddess] again and continued searching.
During the “treasure hunt,” he summoned a one-star [Magical Beast: Ibut] without sentience, instructing it to actively interact with the shadows wandering the streets.
As a result, after colliding, the shadow briefly transformed into an Ibut-shaped shadow.
And the [Magical Beast: Ibut] itself turned into a mass of shadow! Dark was shocked and immediately recalled it into the mana card.
However, the card of [Magical Beast: Ibut] remained a mass of shadow, with the attribute column changing to Dark, and all other data becoming blurred.
Dark immediately showed the mana card to Aurora and Lucia. Both were astonished and warned themselves mentally never to let the mana beasts casually dispel these unknown shadows.
That shadow, which had taken the shape of Ibut, reverted to a blob after taking a few steps forward.
Dark and the others finally understood why there were no other [Celestial Court] creatures in this city.
Because they all turned into shadows upon entering!
Afterward, Dark did not touch any more shadows.
He did not want to use a higher-level mana card for experiments, as the cost of making the card useless was too great.
These strange entities should be avoided if possible.
Without [Drilldramon], Dark’s treasure-hunting efficiency decreased slightly. He did not excavate all the divine relics in the entire city; after advancing the [Fossil Wing Dragon]’s [Ancient Power] to 80%, he chose to leave.
Because he had spent too much time in this city. Boarding the [Chariot of the Moon Goddess], the three continued moving forward.
After exiting the city, walking straight down the hundred-meter-wide avenue would lead to the central city of this massive metropolis.
This was once the most prosperous area of the [Celestial Court], the hub where twelve divine city-states exchanged.
Zeus of [Mount Olympus] resided in the central city, hosting various activities and feasts.
Many of the rumors about the twelve gods of Mount Olympus originated from there.
For example, holding a beauty contest but excluding [Goddess of Beauty] Aphrodite.
Or hosting a chess tournament but not allowing [Goddess of Wisdom] Athena to participate.
Ultimately leading to the [Celestial Court]’s beauty rankings lacking [Goddess of Beauty] and wise rankings lacking [Goddess of Wisdom].
In short, while Zeus of this world was not as chaotic in personal life as the mythological Zeus, he was still a troublesome figure.
He always said, “Give me some face,” causing the gods he played tricks on to have no way to express their grievances.
After all, Mr. Zeus had been the big brother among the twelve gods for thousands of years, doing a lot for them.
That face could be very significant.
The twelve gods of Mount Olympus, whether in the holy scriptures of the Church of Saints or in the academy’s library, belonged to the order side of deities.
They were truly unique existences among the gods known for their spontaneity.
Even some gods had romantic relationships with humans.
The goodwill left over from those historical myths meant that humans entering the [Celestial Court] did not speculate on Hermes’ intentions in darker directions.
Apart from that city, no more shadows appeared.
The avenue leading to the central city was cut off in the middle, with piles of pollutants everywhere.
The [Celestial Court] creatures seen in the wilderness reappeared around the avenue.
Halfway through, one could see a huge lake filled with pollutants on the left side of the avenue.
Unlike the piles of residual pollutants, the pollutants in that lake… were flowing!
Just flying over it, one could feel the suffocating stench of filth.
There seemed to be fish-like creatures swimming in that polluted lake.
These creatures were clearly not species from the Abyss, but had adapted to the pollution with their powerful vitality.
There were many such creatures, each a terrifyingly powerful existence.
Dark reined in his desire for further investigation and boarded the [Chariot of the Moon Goddess], crossing the avenue and finally entering the range of the central city.
At this point, he could clearly see the enormous ring of twelve colors directly above the center of this central city.
Faint glows could also be vaguely seen emanating from the surrounding twelve cities, merging into the ring.
Underneath the ring, a tall tower rose from the heart of this central city.
The tower was extremely tall and thin.
From the edge of the city, only a thin line slicing the world in half could be seen.
Farther away, it was completely invisible.
“If I remember correctly, that should be the legendary Endymion Tower.”
“The [Divine Son] Endymion built a tower reaching the sky in the heart of the Celestial Court, seeking love from Artemis residing on the moon, ultimately… ending in failure.”
In short, it was a story with mostly fictional elements, but the Endymion Tower indeed existed.
But how could such a shaped tower survive the cataclysm of Ragnarök?
Dark couldn’t help but feel doubtful.
…
[Sixteen thousand words! In the last few hours of the month, brothers, please give me a hand and cast your votes for the Moon Ticket. Sniff sniff! Is it possible to push even higher? Sniff sniff.]
