Abyssal Chronicles

Chapter 544 - 545: Anxiety [1/2]

"Difficult, indeed," Anfrere sighed, hands on hips.

Upon hearing this, Ophelia, who was beside him and had just chugged down three or four bottles of potion to restore her energy, glanced at him disdainfully.

"It’s not like it’s solely up to us to take action. We have the Soul-Devouring Demon. We can just assist."

"Ah, true" Anfrere agreed, putting on his robe and nodding. His eyes then locked onto the big, scary creature in front of them. It was giving off a creepy vibe and seemed really mad. For a second, he looked really surprised.

The Soul-Devouring Demon was a special creature nurtured by Void Spirit Tower, using the corpse of a former demon king. It gains strength by consuming other spirits and absorbing their characteristics. Theoretically, it’s a monster capable of infinite growth.

After the Supreme Mage Heretia passed away, the Tower was divided into three sections. Among these, the conflicts between the Red Moon Tower and the Void Spirit Tower had been extremely intense. Whether it was due to Void Spirit Tower constantly undermining Red Moon Tower, or their interest in the Soul-Devouring Demon, Youlan had, after becoming the Tower Master, instigated Sword Demon to attack Void Spirit Tower.

Eventually, by setting others against each other, Red Moon Tower had eliminated a major competitor and had captured the Soul-Devouring Demon for further cultivation. Since then, Lady Youlan had been feeding it all sorts of creatures—monsters, humans, summoned entities, even dragons, and abyssal demons.

Anfrere vividly remembered when Youlan first dragged the black creature, which was only the size of a horse cart, back to Red Moon Tower. After years of feeding, the monster had grown to an enormous size, blocking out the sky and sun.

Due to parts of the Soul-Devouring Demon still being buried underground, Anfrere couldn’t ascertain its actual size. Not only had it grown massive in size, its strength had become unfathomable as well.

If he had to guess, he’d say it was about as strong as an eighth-level creature. But it seemed even stronger than that, like it was off the charts.

"Truly incredible," Anfrere muttered, watching as the dark monster regenerated instantly after being shattered repeatedly by attacks from the Crimson Shadows. "It can withstand so many attacks from that lady? Truly durable."

"No surprise" Ophelia added.

"Thanks to the protection and power transfer from the mage group just now, the Soul-Devouring Demon hiding at the base of the tower has already absorbed a significant amount of that Lady’s power. It’s also developed some resistance. If it couldn’t withstand this, our plan would be ruined from the get-go. Since it has held up, let’s continue."

As she spoke, she cast a sharp sidelong glance at Anfrere beside her. The elven girl didn’t say more, but Anfrere got the hint. Smiling slightly, he activated the short-distance spatial teleportation circle that had long been prepared.

In an instant, their surroundings underwent a dramatic change. They found themselves at the top of Red Moon Tower, covered in a nauseating black muck generated by the Soul-Devouring Demon. Under the bombardment of external forces, the barrier was repeatedly blasted open, and crimson light poured out. But the barrier quickly reformed, blocking out the red light.

Facing this pitch-black world before them, Anfrere’s eyes flickered with a serious and determined light. "Let’s start"

"Mm."

Together, they started to chant spells at high speed. Accompanied by the wave of holy energy and reddish-yellow magic, powerful energy fluctuations spread rapidly from them, sketching out one high-level magic circle after another beside them.

"High-Level Magic—Herman’s Attack Amplification!"

"High-Level Magic—Virdora’s Defensive Barrier Armor!"

"Holy Magic—Triple Body Shield!"

"Holy Magic—Life Surge!"

...

...

"High-Level Magic—Energy Transmission!"

"Holy Magic—Rapid Amplification!"

As the two of them shouted the final phrases, more than thirty amplification spells instantly took effect on the body of the Soul-Devouring Demon. Not only that, thanks to the high-level magic—Energy Transmission, Ophelia smoothly channeled all the vast energy stored within Red Moon Tower into the body of the Soul-Devouring Demon.

With the injection of energy and various amplification spells, the massive body of the Soul-Devouring Demon began to expand even further. It displaced the surrounding mountains, its towering figure clearly visible even from miles away, and its swirling bloody red claws were starkly evident. The terrifying force even dragged the surrounding small countries into chaos.

The powered-up demon let out a loud roar. It looked like a bunch of faces of dead people were showing up on it, all of them grinning in a scary way.

The next moment, its terrifyingly large mouth, resembling seven gills, opened again. A dark red beam of destructive light gathered and shot out, targeting the black-haired girl in the sky. For a moment, dark red light covered the sky and earth.

...

...

As the red beam dispersed, silence returned to the world. Yet, the dark-haired girl who was directly hit by the dark red beam remained emotionless, floating high in the sky, coldly watching the hideous and ferocious monster below.

Yumo fell silent, casting a glance at her arm, the primary point of impact from the beam. Unlike before, her arm now showed minor burn marks. Although the damage was minimal and quickly healed, it was enough to confirm her suspicion.

’This monster had become stronger’

"Was the magical fluctuation just now from the Red Moon Tower? Did those mages amplify this monster’s abilities?" she thought, biting her lip. She was already worried about Yuan’er, and this made her even more stressed.

For Yumo, the increasing attack power of the monster was irrelevant. Even if it could hurt her, the injuries would only be minor, even if its attacks were imbued with divine and holy energy. What truly annoyed her was the monster’s incredible defensive and regenerative capabilities. After enduring countless Crimson Bullets and even several blasts of some serious firepower, the creature was as vigorous as ever. It could regenerate in an instant, even if more than half of its body was obliterated by her. Among all the powerful beings Yumo had encountered since entering this world, this monster’s vitality and healing were the most absurd.

To eliminate it entirely, it seemed she would have to obliterate its entire body in one go. Yet, the monster appeared to have some resistance to her powers. On top of that, its body enveloped the entire Red Moon Tower, making Yumo hesitate to use her full power for fear of affecting Yuan’er. Now that it had been further strengthened by the mages from Red Moon Tower, its regenerative and defensive capabilities were sure to increase.

Destroying it in one fell swoop would not be easy.

After coming to this world, Yumo’s combat experience was basically zero. She had not met anyone she could consider an ’enemy.’ And even if there were, she would wipe them out with a wave of her hand.

From the start, Yumo viewed herself as a ’super XP pack.’ She didn’t care about cultivation or honing her combat skills. Therefore, the techniques or attack methods she had mastered could be counted on one hand. These were just basic skills like the Shadow Beam or Crimson Bullet, which were usually enough.

However, neither these techniques nor her default attack could solve the problem of the monster before her. The Shadow Beam had good penetration but could only be used on the monster’s fringes. Yumo was afraid to aim it at the core, in case she impacted the Red Moon Tower within the creature.

She had considered blasting through the monster to take advantage of the brief window during its regeneration to rescue people from the Red Moon Tower. However after several attempts, this plan was far from successful. Her hesitant attacks could not pierce the creature’s thick, mud-like barrier.

Considering this, Yumo displayed a troubled expression. For the first time, she felt what it was like to be ’in a bind,’ and a fire of ’anxiety’ began to grow and spread wildly within her.

As her attacks kept failing, she felt even more stressed. She held her head and thought loudly to herself, "Damn it... what... what should I do? What to do? This is driving me crazy!"

"Maybe... I should just kill them all."

Unknowingly, a terrifying thought popped into Yumo’s mind, and her originally vibrant, crimson eyes dimmed, losing their original shine..