Book 9, Chapter 110 (1/2)

The Final Path

Arbidis was a strange place, its laws so powerful that they almost completely suppressed everything Richard knew. His black hole wasn’t even able to break a small section of the area, leaving the origin energy of the plane entirely unaffected. After a few pulses that devoured everything in sight, it was drained of energy and withered away.

He spent two entire hours processing the devil archlord’s corpse, only then able to store it in his spatial equipment. This was the first complete spoils of war he had, and were it placed on the altar of the Eternal Dragon it would likely be traded for a lesser rank 1 blessing.

With the loot taken care of, Richard led his now-small party into the depths of Arbidis. His bloodline finally showed its value, frightening away devil and demon alike to the point that only lesser lords even had the gall to engage him. His followers seemed like beings of the abyss as well, allowing them to avoid more than half the potential battles they would have faced. Richard could even command the weaker demons at times, giving them support in battle.

However, this was still the Eternal Battlefield, a vast land of death and bloodshed with no end in sight. The group journeyed downwards for three straight months but didn’t feel any closer; the ground beneath them still sloped downwards, and there were demons and devils engaged in battle all around. Richard couldn’t even sense the passage they had come through any more, but he couldn’t sense an exit either.

There were also many battles that one simply couldn’t avoid. Even Richard didn’t know just when a portal would appear around him, and near the end of the third month he found himself facing a powerful level 30 devil with a full army behind. More than half of the broodmother’s worms died in that battle, leaving only three alive. Outside of Nasia, all of his followers were hurt in some fashion. He himself sustained the most damage of them all, having relied on his own ability to decapitate the hardy archlord.

Richard’s injuries in that battle were very severe, but it was difficult to activate the power of the green moon in the abyss. Left with no choice, he dug out the lord’s core and dug in. While the core was larger than his own body, it turned into pure energy as he bit down, flowing in and healing his injuries. He even buffed up significantly, having jumped to level 27 immediately and used the energy on his physique. He could no longer place himself as a mage or warrior in terms of battle style.

The injured followers consumed the cores of the lesser lords as well, silently chomping down as they used the excess energy to heal themselves. Zealor was the most averse to it, instinctively spitting whenever he took a bite, but summoning a burst of courage he shoved as much as he could down his throat before blocking it off with a stone.

After a full day of rest, Richard and his followers were back in optimal condition. However, Richard couldn’t relax at all as he realised that there was now a trace of poison in his body, having fused with his energy and become extremely difficult to expel. The rest of his followers would certainly find it impossible to get it out of their system.

Once Richard’s party left, the devil corpses littered all over the ground attracted a horde of demons. Those that managed to get at the lesser lords started to form bloody cocoons right where they stood, beginning an evolutionary phase.

Witnessing the scene from hundreds of kilometres away, Richard suddenly had a revelation about the true purpose of the Eternal Battlefield. Both devils and demons came here solely to consume the flesh of their eternal foes, using that energy to evolve into their most powerful forms. Only a handful of the archlords here actually came from the hells or the abyss; most evolved out of the lucky few.

This place was simply a furnace designed to turn ordinary demons and devils into lords! Countless battles over billions of years had made for a system where the lives of the many were sacrificed for the strength of the few!

He suddenly bent down, grabbing a handful of dirt off the ground and grinding apart so he could get a better look. The mud was greasy and dark, smelling strangely like something that had been burnt. Hidden amongst it were countless fine grains of crystal, containing the power of order and chaos.