Chapter 780 Second Armor Piece
On the sixth day of Michael's heavenly tribulation, Adelia was flying about an endless ocean alone. The horizon seemed to be stitched with a silver line. The sea beneath her murmured with hypnotic waves. The palpitating pulse of the sea was steady and peaceful. It soothed her soul to hear the rhythmic songs the waves and the wind composed. A warm, tangy smell came from the sea as she flew. The dazzling moon glowed as much as the sun. Suddenly, she dived down into the ocean. As soon as her body touched the water, she transformed herself into her snake form. In her snake form, she was a monstrous silver snake with diamond-like scales. Her silver scales reflected the light as she swam deeper into the ocean. The deep sea was a world of its own. It was littered with plant life and corals. They glimmered like jewels and diamonds in the sea. Swarms of fish brushed past Adelia without any fear. Adelia didn't even need a light source to navigate through the sea. Instead, she had the luminous stones to light her path. She wondered how a ruin could be in the sea. But she trusted the Dark Lord. Apparently, the second armor piece was hiding in ruin under the sea.
After swimming for a few minutes, Adelia noticed two corals the size of boulders next to each other. There was a crack between the two corals.
"That must be it," thought Adelia. She hastened her speed. For some reason, the closer she got to the boulders, the lighter she felt. She was surprised to see several runes glowing in the boulders. The runes created a beam of light that scanned Adelia from top to bottom. To her surprise, the silver light turned green as the two boulders slowly moved aside. As a result, the crack between them grew wider, revealing a path into the ground.
Adelia cautiously swam into the crack. Inside the crack, everything was dark. She had to rely on the distant light. For a few minutes, she was completely blind. Even her Naga eyes didn't help her see in the dark. The darkness around her was exactly like the darkness around the Dark Lord, except this was several times stronger than she felt. Of course, it was stronger because this place was built by the past Dark Lord who was on another level compared to the current Michael.
Finally, she saw the light at the end of the tunnel. She hastened her speed. When she reached the light, something pulled her into it. Suddenly, she was standing in a dungeon rather than in the deep sea. She looked around the place. Everywhere she turned, she could see nothing but dark walls. She took a step forward as a torch beside her lit up. One by one, torchers lit up, lighting the place.
The place creeped out Adelia. She almost regretted taking the task. At first, the Dark Lord considered sending Saber to retrieve the armor piece. However, Adelia asked the Dark Lord to give her the task because she wanted to clear her mind alone. Compared to searching for the god-killing arrows, retrieving the armor piece seemed like a walk in the park to her.
But her relief was short-lived. She noticed countless runes lit up in the walls. As soon as they started to glow, Adelia felt her cultivation being suppressed. Her power fell from the Half Immortal stage to the Fusion stage and then to the Body Refining stage. In a couple of seconds, she became powerless.
"Fucking hell," Adelia cursed the place. She tapped the device around her wrist as the device radiated a dim red light. Soon, her cultivation level rose up to the Body strengthening stage. The arch energy crystal within the device couldn't raise her power to the HAlf Immortal stage, but it was better than being powerless.
"Aren't you a treasure to have?" Adelia smiled at the device around her wrist. Despite its size and look, this device was the most powerful and valuable thing probably in the entire world. It enabled its wearer to cultivate even within the void line. She still couldn't believe the Dark Lord managed to build such a device all by himself. If it wasn't for this device, she would have been powerless by now.
But after seeing the place makes people powerless, Adelia didn't dare to underestimate it. She cautiously walked forward. On her way, she tried to contact Gaya through the earpiece, only to fail.
"Looks like I am alone," Adelia sighed.
Yet again, this was what she wanted. Some alone time from everyone, including her daughter. As much as she loved Gaya, she hated being nagged. Not a single day passed without Gaya asking about her father. Adelia even asked the Dark Lord not to ponder about Gaya's real father. That was something Adelid did not wish to discuss with anyone.
Adelia made herself forward with the silence being her companion. She thought about everything that happened in her life. But her train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a rustling noise. She halted her steps, focusing on the darkness before her. She could mildly hear some footsteps. Slowly, she placed her hand on the katana dangling on her waist. She flicked the sheath as the katana popped out with a clicking sound.
The air suddenly started to reek of blood and pungent rotting skin. Unfortunately, she was familiar with this smell. The last time she smelled something putrid was when she visited Dular's workshop on the undead island with Gaya. coupled with the slow footsteps and the smell, she had a good guess about what was approaching her. Soon, a grayish-skinned figure with dead eyes staggered toward Adelia. She could smell the toxic pong from their body odors. Their crazy, diseased eyes would terrify an oblivious man. To Adelia, they were nothing but annoyances. She took a step forward, keeping her hand on the katana's hilt. The undead tilted its head as it reached out toward Adelia. When it was just an arm's reach away, Adelia unsheathed her katana as the zombie's head flew away from its body.
The decapitation happened so quickly, like a flash of lightning. Her katana even formed a white line in the air. Even the Dark Lord was impressed by her sword skills, especially how she handled the katana. He used to call him the lady samurai. But Adelia had no idea why he called her that. The zombie staggered around without a head before falling down. Black goo oozed out of its neck as the pungent smell increased in the air. Adelia walked away from the corpse but not before taking a flesh sample from the corpse. It was not for Dular but for the Dark Lord.
As she moved forward, she faced a couple more undead. Regardless of the undead, she avoided using spells. She was under the sea, and the structure seemed ancient. She didn't want to risk destroying the place with her spells. Besides, she did not need spells to kill the undead. The further she went, the more undead she faced. But no matter how many undead were on her path, they all met the same fate. Each katana swing decapitated a zombie. Her moves were deadly and precise. After a while, the undead stopped appearing. Silence fell over the dungeon once again.
"Where were they coming from?" Adelia asked herself. The runes flowing in the walls seemed awfully similar to Elidyr's creations.
"This time travel thing fucks with my brain," Adelia kicked the wall. She wondered how this place would remain still if the previous Dark Lord reset the entire universe. The only explanation she had was the previous Dark Lord was powerful enough to leave some places untouched by the time-traveling array. Otherwise, the first energy and the armor pieces couldn't exist in the current timeline. 𝒃𝙚𝒅𝙣𝒐𝙫𝒆𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝙢
She continued to walk in utter silence for another thirty minutes. Luckily, she came across no undead. Still, she didn't feel relieved. On the contrary, the silence and the lack of undead creeped her out. If the past Dark Lord had built this place, she knew he must have placed traps and obstacles to stop outsiders from getting to the armor piece.
Her instincts were proven right when she heard a loud thud from several meters ahead of her. The ground started to shake as though something gigantic was approaching her. She halted her steps and waited for it to reveal itself. A few seconds later, she vaguely saw a giant bat-like creature walking on two legs toward her.
"GRRHHHHHHHH!" The creature roared at Adelia. It looked at her with eyes burning with rage. Suddenly, it pounded its chest like a gorilla.
"So the past Dular managed to create some fucked up creatures, huh," Adelia snickered. Judging by how ugly the creature was, she knew it must be one of Dular's creations. No one in the Dark Lord's army could create such an ugly abomination except for Dular. The creature slowly moved forward. Each of its claws looked as sharp as the katana in her hand. Despite its ugliness, the creature seemed to possess some intelligence. Otherwise, it would have dashed forward instead of slowly taking steps.
Since the path wasn't wide enough to move around, they had to face each other head-on. The creature growled as Adelia took a step forward. Adelia's grip around the hilt tightened. She looked ambler in front of the eight feet monster before her. It waited for Adelia to make the first move. She didn't disappoint the creature as she dashed forward.
At that moment, she had no idea this creature was one of the many obstacles created by the Dark Lord. To get the armor pieces, she had to overcome each and every obstacle.