NOVPUBSylvia and Evelyn took off their cloaks and ran with impressive speed. They broke through the waves of monsters and immediately targeted the powerful demons. 𝓃ℴ𝓋𝓹𝓊𝓫.𝒸𝓸𝓂
*Boom!* *Boom!*
Several clashes occurred, but Sylvia and Evelyn didn’t focus on fighting. They bound them and then kidnapped their target. After that, they went to another place after leaving a diversionary bait.
After kidnapping three kinds of evil creatures of different levels, Sylvia and Evelyn immediately left the chaotic battleground and secretly retreated.
They hid their presence, put on the shadow cloak, and returned to their hideout.
"Hmm?" Sylvia was drawn to something on her way back. She stopped and watched the spiritual trace with suspicion.
It was like a particular thing lured her to the nearby massive volcano.
She couldn’t peer deeper because the sulfur water vapour was so thick, but she could tell the hidden dangers in that hole.
"Forget it. I have a promise to be right back when the mission is over. You made me a little late, and Eve may have arrived before me. Curse you." Sylvia assumed it was a big monster trying to lure prey into a death trap.
She took out a highly explosive bomb and threw it high into the spot she thought was the source of the spiritual trace. After that, she fled swiftly from the scene like a wisp of mist.
"I’m back." Evelyn wiped off her sweat. She was a little out of breath because she went all out on her lightning movement to arrive before Sylvia. She was the first to return as she had expected.
"Welcome back." Ely had just welcomed Evelyn back, but a sudden violent explosion in the distance made her flinch in surprise.
*Kaboom!*
The volcano exploded, and an eruption occurred. Hot lava gushed out, and many rocks were thrown into the air. The rivers of lava overflowed, and the sea of fire expanded.
"I’m back. This is urgent! The volcano is erupting. Volcanic ash is coming. Seal the entrance." Sylvia returned in a panic. She pushed Evelyn into their cave hideout, then put a barrier at the entrance.
"Was that your doing? I mean, the volcano eruption." Yuuki tried to guess.
"Active vulcanoes can explode and erupt at any time. I only detonate a particular monster that tries to draw me closer." Sylvia shrugged her shoulders like she didn’t care.
Ely then used her purification of Evelyn and Sylvia to prove her previous conjecture. And, sure enough, she received some MP, SP, and VIT just by purifying the evil energy. It got converted, and she received the benefit.
It was a blessing in disguise. She could harvest tons of stat points in this Hell Trial!
Nevertheless, they urgently had to know how many hell’s evil creatures would be revived first.
Sylvia and Evelyn took out the evil creature. Their subjects for the experiment were six devils above 5th Rank.
Ely sealed the six evil creatures in several separate formation arrays and then asked several volunteers to periodically kill those evil creatures.
"Hahaha, perish!" Azrael became enthusiastic as he experimented to find the best method to kill the hell creature faster than anyone.
"..." Gabriella and the other disciples were at a loss for words. They glanced at their master and found their master didn’t say anything because of Azrael’s oddness.
"Is he still there? He has been affected by the evil energy corruption after killing the evil creature for the sixth time. That’s a 7th Rank demon." Sylvia raised her eyebrow when she found one of Ely’s disciples showing an oddity.
"It’s okay." Ely cast another purification for everyone.
Sylvia, Yuuki, and Evelyn were in charge of the three 8th Rank demons. And for the remaining three, Ely’s disciples take turns killing the evil creatures for their experiment.
"Hmm~" Sylvia burned the 8th Rank demon to ashes as soon as it got revived. It didn’t even have the chance to scream in agony or lament its fate.
The mindless demon in this Hell Trial had no awareness, just like a puppet that could only destroy and devour.
Ely observed it was the eleventh time those demons got revived.
Their revival speed became slower than before after passing the ninth revival.
Some stopped at the tenth revival, but the 8th Rank and above could reach thirteen revivals. The ashes of the experimental subjects even became particles and vanished, leaving nothing behind.
It might seem cruel and heartless, but they were dealing with the Hell Trial’s evil creatures. The Evil God’s minions.
"Thirteen, huh... That’s quite a lot." Ely muttered softly and checked her notes.
Depending on the demon’s aptitude, they could counter it with opposing elements. However, they would need holy elements to deal with super-effective damage.
If they ignored the enemies’ evil energy and multiple revivals, the Artificial Hell’s evil creatures would be like demons and demonic monsters in the outside world.
Mindless demons were immune to most spiritual attacks, but the desire amplifier skill effectively influenced them. The taunt skill could also force them to focus on attacking a particular thing. The berserk skill could also inflict rage on them.
However, Sylvia’s primal darkness was the most amazing new discovery. Sylvia could charm the hell creatures to regard her as an ally and then force them to attack its kin.
Even though it only lasted a few seconds, it was already impressive because Sylvia could force the enemies to stop their attacks and turn their backs on their kin.
"Wow, I didn’t know my pure spiritual darkness could be used like this... I’m still a blood dragon devil, not a charm demon, right?" Sylvia looked at her hands as she questioned the authenticity of her skills.
She tested it because she wanted to show off her dark magic mastery to impress Ely. However, the effect was far beyond her expectations. It was much more amazing and super effective against the hell creatures!
"You are probably a charm demon also. Please wait for my breakthrough and talent upgrade. I will surpass your charm." Jophiel muttered as if she had a great rival. She was a half-charm demon, but her technique was inferior to the devil with half-baked charm magic.
"You are still a demonic dragon. Superior darkness can influence them, too, huh... Perhaps, the evil energy controlling them is no more impressive than your darkness." Yuuki pondered it.
Sylvia’s darkness was effective, and Sylvia’s God-tier darkness spear was still there.
Ely’s dark sword could topple the Artificial Hell Realm into a playground! But that sword was so dangerous and hard to control...
"Let’s rest for a while, and we will continue to go to the sky-high tower." Ely took out some cooking utensils because she was already hungry. She was sure everyone felt that way too.
"Allow me to help you, Lady Ely." Kirara immediately came closer.
Gabriella and Rafaela soon joined.
Everyone then had dinner and rested for two hours. After that, they exited their hideout to continue their journey to conquer the Hell Trial.
"Our main focus is searching for the realm core. Tell me any discrepancies or possible clues in our surroundings. Even if it’s buried deep underground or hidden in the sky, we must find it." Ely announced her intentions to everyone. They would cheat their way out with it.
"Yes, master." The ten disciples answered in unison.
Everyone possessed such high morale. Their situation wasn’t so bad, and Artificial Hell wasn’t so scary anymore because they knew that their master already had a way of taking everyone out and then punishing the big evil. Not even the 10th Rank hell demons could scare them.
That was what everyone felt except for Ely. She was the only restless one and occasionally used her Sacred Vision to find the realm core.
She had never seen one before, but Yuuki told her the realm core was the secret realm’s origin.
Since she could see some faint primal spiritual flows in the sky like the tree roots, she only needed to trace them. It spread from the sky tower, and they were going in the right direction.
---
After sweeping away another monster horde, Ely’s group arrived in a valley near the abyss full of evil spirits and ghosts.
Several pillars of fire rose tens of meters into the sky periodically from within the abyss. They just arrived, and a group of powerful abyss demons suddenly ambushed them.
*Clang*
Ely parried the big abyss demon’s greatsword, then tilted her holy sword aside to deflect the enemy’s greatsword away. She then slashed the suppressed enemy in half.
Her Mortal Field suppressed the nearby evil demons to the lowest level, and she could easily kill them with her holy weapon.
The abyss demons were like mini-bosses and hard to beat with normal means. Unless they had weapons or artifacts with special effects that could suppress the enemy’s evil energy, it would be difficult to even injure the abyss demons.
Everyone had to simultaneously deal with several 7th Rank and above abyss demons, and everyone was pretty overwhelmed. It was supposed to be structured group battles, but the sudden ambush caused everyone to take action individually.
"Huh?" Ely took some distance to observe everyone’s situation and found Kirara was pushed back into the danger zone.
The abyss demons cornered the sword maiden. Kirara’s sword wasn’t strong enough to simultaneously take on three 7th Rank Abyss demons.
"Kirara, use my sword. Catch!" Ely attached a protective talisman to her holy sword, then sent it flying towards Kirara.
"!!!" Kirara deflected the demon’s shadow whips and immediately ran to catch Ely’s holy sword.
*Bam*
The abyss demon hit the ground. A huge explosion occurred, knocking the holy sword and Kirara away.
"I caught it!" Kirara manoeuvred in midair and caught Ely’s holy sword. She could slay her enemies effectively with a potent holy weapon in her hand.
She looked aside to counterattack but found she was already quite far from the ground. She looked down. It was a deep, dark abyss full of evil spirits and ghosts.
"Eh?" Kirara was stunned and fell into the abyss.
