Throne of Magical Arcana
chapter-678

Chapter 678: Clues

The sun that was shining through the bloody dust seemed dim and cold, but it was in fact even more scorching than the sun in the main material world. The river of lava that flowed at the bottom of the plain added to the heat of the area, making the temperature above sixty degrees all year around. Normal human beings could not survive in such an environment at all even without the many curses and toxins.

A silver light flashed and slashed out in the shape of a crescent moon, before it vanished into thin air, leaving the illusionary and terrifying gap that seemed to be piercing through the abyss on this level.

The hundreds of demons, led by a six-armed snake-like monster, came to an abrupt halt, as if somebody had cast ‘Time Stop’ upon them. One second later, their bodies suddenly exploded into a spring of blood. The pieces of their bodies hit the ground like raindrops, tiny and neat.

“Your control over the power of the legendary ‘Sword of Truth’ is better and better.” Witnessing the scene, Lucien did not hesitate to compliment. Natasha was not holding the legendary longsword ‘Sword of Truth’ but ‘Pale Justice’. She was practicing the delicate control over her blood power by executing demons.

Natasha was in a high mood. “I am not a knight with only brawn. I have always been a great controller of my strength. During the three years I spent in the abbey after I became a radiant knight, I was able to really grasp my will and my body…”

She accepted Lucien’s praise without any embarrassment. Then she said regretfully, “It’s a pity that we’ve met nothing more than senior-rank demons on our way. We didn’t even see Demon Dukes, not to mention Demon Lords. I cannot carry out my full strength and look for places where I can make improvement.”

“Each level of the abyss can support only one Demon Lord at most. That is to say, if a Demon Duke cannot control most of the territory in his plane, he cannot receive the feedback of the abyss and be promoted into a legendary lord at all.” Lucien explained it to Natasha with a smile. Although she had picked up a lot of knowledge about abyss before the mission, it was still far from Lucien’s expertise. The studies on demons were a basic subject for every sorcerer. “Therefore, unless there is any joint operation, we can see nothing but the Sovereign of Blood at most on the Scarlet Plain.”

In the abyss, except for the Lord of Spectres, the Demogorgon of Darkness and few other special demons, most of the demon monarchs did not have names but only the titles that the experts of the main material world made up for them.

A lot of monarchs of the abyss had been known. There were eighteen of them, three times more than the nine-floored hell. However, just like nobody knew how many floors the abyss had, nobody could tell how many legendary demons there were exactly. Even Rhine, as a vampire prince who had lived tens of thousands of years, wasn’t sure about the answer. It certainly deserved to be called ‘Abyssal Maw’.

However, because of the chaotic slaughter amongst themselves, and since they had to advance by defeating and absorbing other monarchs, the abyss was not even as powerful as the hell where there were only nine Devil Dukes in general. After Tiphotidis, the Ice Duke and the Master of Argent, completely perished, a new legendary devil had grown up in the Silent Hell in recent years and was appointed by the Lord of Hell as the ‘New Ice Duke’.

Having been approved by the Lord of Hell, he had received the feedback and enhancement of the demiplane, thereby improving from level one of legendary to level two quickly.

It was said that the new ‘Ice Duke’ was particularly cunning and deceptive. He was known as ‘Lord of Mysteries’.

“Hehe. It will be good enough if we can encounter the Sovereign of Blood!” Although she craved battle, Natasha did not want herself and her husband to be caught in the danger of a joint operation of the demon monarchs.

Malfurion was enshrouded in green light, as if countless plants were growing from him. Refreshing and enjoyable, it was a major contrast to the terrible environment. He observed the environment attentively in case of an ambush from the demon monarchs, overlooking Natasha and Lucien’s jolly talk as if they were on a trip in the suburb.

According to the feedback of his astrology and the Mirror of Fate, Lucien altered his direction now and then. Suddenly, the picture inside the crystal ball became clear!

Inside a gigantic circle of white rocks, bloody mud rose weirdly into what seemed to be a mysterious altar!

The bloody wall around the altar was fully engraved with complicated, cubic patterns. Whoever saw them would immediately be grasped by the lust for killing. Those patterns spread out from the top of the altar and seemed to be connected to the whole Scarlet Plain. Above the altar, however, vigorous green was oozing, as if the world inside was a natural environment like the Stroop forest.

Outside of the circle of rocks was a bloody fortress whose tough wall was piled up by the corpses of different races. Hearts, intestines, heads and other body parts could be vaguely found.

It was exactly the Sovereign of Blood’s ‘Fortress of Flesh’!

“This truly seems to be the source of things…” Looking at the crystal ball, Lucien was more or less surprised. “Things are going on too well, aren’t they?”

After locating the source of the expansion of the abyssal gap, Malfurion was no longer as silent as when he entered the land hesitantly. He looked at the crystal ball thoughtfully and said, “Let’s go over and investigate it first. We’ll try to take care of them if we can, but if the enemy is too formidable for us, we will retreat and summon enough legends.”

“They may be ambushing us. It’s too simple and smooth…” Natasha’s delightful smile after the battle was gone as she said very solemnly.

However, it did befit the demons’ characteristic that they weren’t capable of complicated schemes.

……

The muddy mound that seemed to be an altar was very spacious inside. The dense, flourishing forest was letting out fresh air. At the center of the trees was a green object surrounded by green spots of light, which fluctuated and brought a strong sense of vigor.

Next to the green object, a giant demon who had tiny bloody scales all over his body was pacing back and forth anxiously, with bloody, scorching brilliance emanating from the wings on his back.

The most special thing about the demon was that he had two heads. One of them looked like a dog’s head, except that it had two horns like those of a sheep, whereas the other head looked like a human-faced goat.

“I said that I hate such environments most! Damn it, I’m going to destroy it!” The dog head roared, its gold eyes full of chaos and destruction.

The human-faced goat head chuckled. “You cannot even endure such a short moment without losing the ability of thinking. No wonder you are suppressed by me all the time.”

“One day, I will take you down!” The dog head jerked forward and opened its mouth, baring the creepy tusks and biting the other head.

The goat head turned around and dodged it, as if it had already been used to such ‘self-brutalization’. “You brainless moron, are you trying to sabotage our plan? Do you want to be punished?”

The dog head suddenly stopped. Fuming, it roared, “How does a plan help anything? We might as well press forward directly!”

It did not create any further mess. Obedience to those who were more powerful was a common behavior of the demons. If the powerful were unable to suppress the demons lesser to them, those demons wouldn’t mind betrayals and assassinations at all. As a matter of fact, when they were most befuddled, they often attempted to overthrow those more powerful than them without considering the gap of their strength.

“Why would I bother to explain the plan to you? Can you understand it?” The human-faced goat scorned. “All in all, we have to wait here for the investigators of the Congress of Magic and the elves. Then, we will have a ‘fierce battle’ with them, before we ‘fail’ and flee, leaving this place as well as the ‘clues’ to them.”

“We don’t kill them?” The dog head found it impossible to understand. “What’s the point?”

On the Scarlet Plain, it felt that it was capable of dealing with Malfurion. As to exactly whom the Congress of Magic had sent, it simply did not care!

“The bottom line is, we have to fail!” The human-faced goat was too lazy to argue with the idiot. It had been tens of thousands of years that it could not make any progress because of the idiot.

But it also believed that on the Scarlet Plain, where they were enhanced and the enemy was weakened, they would be able to escape even if Douglas or Aglaea arrived in person. Nobody except the few minorities in the abyss was fond of intelligence collection. Their demigod had set up a good example for them and they certainly had followed him well.