329 Chapter 246: Revelations From The Messenger
Adryan's world turned upside down, his head ached and his vision became blurry and turbulent. A constant hammering in his mind made it hard to think and a sense of emptiness was all he could feel.
He could have sworn Flora was saying something but in his current state, she was nothing more than the wind rushing past his ear.
Through his blurred vision and dazed mind, Adryan could see with some difficulty how he was moving through what appeared to be a door of white light.
This door was moving through a strange world; although it was unknown to him, he knew what it was.
The Spirit World.
A place full of mysteries, where information from the past, present and future was and even interacted with each other. Where directions were indistinguishable from each other.
Where the gray fog reached far beyond what any eye could see and completely covered this world, like an endless ocean that contained the secrets of this world. At the 'top'- although here directions didn't matter as one could not be guided by the logic of the physical world- where one would think was the ceiling as above it was just more of the mysterious and almost omnipresent gray mist were seven rays of light consisting of red, orange, yellow, blue, green, indigo and violet. Rays that went beyond what the eye could see.
His messenger was grabbing his arm and dragging him through this world. Because of her position, he could not see her expression, all he could see was her raven black hair moving slightly.
The next second and in front of them he saw a door of bright light form.
Suddenly, as if it had all been an illusion in a desert, everything returned to normal and Adryan found himself looking back at the familiar rocky wall. It seemed that they were still in the cave system from before...
For a second, Adryan felt his vision blur.
"Princess what's wrong?! Are you alright?! What the fuck is wrong with you talk!" Flora's roar of fury and concern rumbled in his mind and Adryan finally realized he was on his knees, his hands on the ground.
"Huh?" The redhead muttered completely stunned, his jaw quivering and it wasn't just that, his whole body was the same, shaking violently, covered in sweat, and extremely pale, as if he was experiencing the worst of colds.
His mind was barely processing his surroundings but he could feel a huge hand on his back and how someone was kneeling beside him. He could feel a gaze on him, sure to be from his messenger.
Opening his mouth but failing to find the words to say something at the same time he was unable to say anything, he could only close it again and tried to catch his breath.
But Adryan no matter how much he wanted to breathe he could not, his body did not respond and a horrible feeling of absolute terror gripped him completely as an anaconda choked and crushed its prey by suffocating them with its massive body.
His mind threatened to follow his body but his will kept it there.
'What's wrong with me... What is this...' Thinking those words took a lot more work than he thought possible. His skin slowly began to release a little steam as light flames began to dance in his fingers.
"Princess go into Cogitation! If you continue like this you will lose control!" Flora's strong but at the same time soft voice pierced the darkness that was clouding his judgment and Adryan barely gave a very weak, almost imperceptible, nod of his head.
Closing his eyes, he tried to empty his mind and slowly began to form the sphere of light. Like grains falling from an hourglass, Adryan felt the control of his body slowly return.
The hand on his back just stayed there, it did not move or try to comfort him but stayed there as a companion trying to say 'I am here'.
After 2 minutes the redhead opened his eyes again and let out a very long sigh and fell lying on the floor.
"What the fuck was that?" Adryan asked no one, Chicho who had sat next to him tilted his head to the side slightly.
"You tell me you useless-! How can you almost lose control by traveling through the Spirit World?!" Flora was in complete disbelief, she couldn't believe what she had seen.
A guy who keeps moving through the shadows while listening to the True Creator's ravings as if they were an Opera has a panic attack from using the Journey?
That's ridiculous!
Flora wanted to say more but found herself unable to speak. The eyes and expression the red-haired man had had upon leaving the Spirit World...
It was an expression she never thought she saw on his face and Flora could only describe it with...
'Absolute Horror and Fear' The Jacob thought as she watched the redhead getting up from the ground as he shook the dirt off of him.
"Next let me know when you're going to do something like that yeah?" Adryan asked the giantess who gave a rough nod as she slowly stood up.
"It may have been for my soul. Upon resurrection, my soul is in a really sensitive state so traveling in the Spirit World was like an overdose of sugar and caffeine..." The red-haired man explained to the air calmly.
"Your soul..." Flora mumbled not quite believing what the redhead was saying but she then remembered something.
When she tried to parasitize the princess she was moving through a space full of cracks. That was supposed to be one's spiritual body and thus a mirror to the soul!
'That makes sense... With such a broken spirit body it's not uncommon that traveling through the Spirit World could be overwhelming...'
Adryan for his part couldn't help but remember his recreational time with the Interrogator, the redhead was inclined to accept that theory. His soul upon revival was something... Super sensitive, the slightest touch would have him on his knees drooling and groggy.
Shaking his head, Adryan licked his dry lips as he clenched his fist tightly to stop his trembling. The episode earlier had him somewhat tense but he had no time to dwell on that now.
Looking into Chicho's pearl eyes, Adryan's expression became expressionless, his eyes shining, "While I appreciate your help Chicho. Why did you come for me? I don't remember ringing the bell."
'Bell that right now is resting in my Chest of Calamities.' Adryan added in his heart as he waited for the giantess' response.
Looking deeply into her contractor's eyes, Chicho lowered her head slightly and spoke in a somewhat low voice," The situation in Backlund is horrible... If I could have gotten there sooner but I couldn't find you..."
'So if I'm in Backlund... That's good news and bad news' Adryan wasn't too surprised that Chicho knew it was Backlund, a messenger had to know her terrain after all and she had already sent several messages through the city, it was the norm.
The redhead was quite glad that he had been wrong about where he was and that he sent a little warning to his team. But he was also extremely pissed that the ritual in which he had been the final ingredient was done right here.
'I overestimated too much how far that Charm could have taken me... Tch'.
Burying his annoyance and disappointment inwardly, Adryan frowned and looked deeply into the gray eyes of his messenger, " What do you mean the situation in Backlund is horrible? I've been a bit 'indisposed' so I'm not aware of what's going on outside."
Chicho nodded and instead of answering she extended her hand to her right side. There where she was pointing white bones quickly began to rise up forming another door.
As the classic bird skull embedded itself in the middle it opened and Adryan found himself unable to breathe and paling. His eyes clouded over and the same whispers he heard when he first saw the Doctor flared up again and this time with much more force than before.
(BURNBURNBURNBURNBURNBURNBURN-)
"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!!!!" Flora's disbelieving roar echoed in his head snapping him out of his trance.
Inside the door was an extremely vivid image of an outside view of Backlund. With a starless pitch-black sky and a titanic crimson tree that made something deep inside Adryan burn with fury and irritation.
The crimson color and that bloody glow it expelled. Not to mention the sheer disgust at the sight of it. The redhead knew they were in serious trouble.
Long columns of smoke and forests of fire stretched all over Backlund, the area where he was having the worst time was the place from where the Blood Tree seemed to have emerged...
And that was East Borough.
'So that's what I woke up with my death huh...' Adryan thought feeling strangely empty. Maybe it was because he still wasn't processing what he was seeing well or because he was processing it too well.
He knew that there were only 2 things capable of making a Tree of those magnitudes and he was sure that one of those things was on Earth's side.
Now that he was seeing the consequences of being caught, Adfyan finally got an idea of what the Rose School wanted to accomplish.
'That pillar maybe was sealing that, keeping it at bay. So Rose School used the people of East Borough as a sacrifice to weaken the bastard's seal. Then they used my death to destroy it completely and release that thing...'
'Or could it be that the Bastard hid that thing in that pillar so that it could be used later as a trap card? To give the world a check and facilitate and hasten the demise of this one?'
The redhead thought he had gotten an idea of what the Bastard that brought him here was like, but with the possibility that at some point they might have saved this planet... He felt he didn't really know anything.
'If we are still alive then that should mean that the Gods were able to contain this disaster. But why I'm not seeing an army of Angels destroying that thing is beyond me.' Adryan thought emotionlessly as he looked at the image on the door.
At least he could tell that the Church of the Angry Pigeon was doing something, if the thunder shower in the treetop was anything to go by...
Honestly, Adryan wasn't surprised by what he was seeing. He would even say that it was about time something like this happened.
With all the despair, hatred, evil, depravity, pain, etc. That was there, he was just surprised it hadn't happened sooner. He would even say it was a miracle it took so long.
'The inability and uselessness of the Three Churches finally combined and created the mother of all consequences.' Adryan thought with empty eyes as he looked at the massive tree.
His icy eyes moved to Chicho," What did you mean by getting me out of here?"
Chicho's already cold expression turned icy to the point that Adryan felt as if his soul was freezing.
After a few seconds, the messenger replied.
"The Gods have sealed Backlund."
Taken by surprise by this, Adryan didn't take a second to express his disbelief.
"What?!"
"What does that bouncer mean by that!!!!! Adryan?!!!" Flora was panicking and if she had his body she was sure she would be hyperventilating.
Gods sealing a city! That just meant that whatever that Tree was it was bad enough to make the usually inactive Gods move together!
Ignoring his companion who was going into a muttering, panicked episode. Adryan looked dumbfounded at his messenger.
"Explain yourself."
If she was annoyed by the bluntness, Chicho hid it like a master, and her already rather expressionless face only added that. Lowering her head slightly, she explained in a soft but deep elvish. Like that of an experienced warrior telling stories of her battles.
"Backlund was sealed off from the outside world. Not even angels are allowed to enter. The Gods made it so that if they failed to contain the corruption that was released here they could more easily purify it."
"... Hey..." The red-haired man's voice descended into dark tones. What Chicho just revealed hit him like a meteorite would a planet.
"Purify?! But it's a whole city! Don't you know how many would die in that?!!!" Flora screamed in disbelief, what the Gods wanted to do was genocide!
Backlund according to the most recent studies had a population of more than 30 million people!
'Purify a city of millions of people...' Such a large number made Flora's mind cloud over. She had read events of a similar scale in the family library books but those were numbers that only appeared in the 4 Epoch!
In the 5th Epoch, there were no war events that came close to touching even the shadow of the millions, even up to billions in some other books, of dead in the previous Epoch.
Not even the Battle of the Vilated Oath, and that war claimed 5 million lives!
Adryan also shared those thoughts but much deeper, the information he had as a Transmigrator was showing him the big picture and the consequences that a 'purification' on that scale could bring.
'Purify is a nice word for when the children ask their parents about why there is a huge bottomless hole in the North Continent and they can say that the Gods did a cleanup.'
'The best way, and the correct way, to call it would be Complete Annihilation. Leave not even the ashes of whatever that Tree has touched and miles beyond to ensure its complete destruction and that its foul root has spread no further.' Adryan narrowed his eyes at this.
"I would understand if it were the God of Combat and the Eternal Blazing Sun, they would gain much advantage from this disaster, perhaps a little of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom but I refuse to accept that Earth Mother, the Evernight Goddess, the Lord of Storms and the God of Steam and Machinery would allow that."
"Because the former's whole being is about valuing and protecting life and that amount of lives lost would be ridiculous for her to accept, it would go against who she is. But the last ones are the ones who have the most to lose. Do you seriously think they will be able to sacrifice so many anchors?" At this point, Adryan sent the honorifics to the Gods to hell, if they had a problem with him not doing the 57 shitty dances to show respect then send him a bolt of lightning because right now that could go right to hell.
'From sequence 2 onwards one needs 'anchors' to stabilize one's mental condition. The insanity that comes with becoming a Full Mythic Creature and acquiring so much divinity makes one have no choice but to have anchors to maintain their Self.'
'There are Pathways that can do a bit of 'cheating' for this. Like for example, the Error Pathway can use the clones of themselves that they can create from Sequence 2 as 'anchors' or even steal them from others in higher sequences by impersonating another being's identity.'
'But even a Pathway that was focused on stealing, cheating and manipulating bugs has to have 'Anchors.' Even the Raven wasn't spared from that.
'And it only gets worse each time one moves further into the sequences...'
'The True Gods are Sequence 0, hence they need a large amount of anchors to maintain their sanity. With Backlund's population and with how rare it is to be a non-believer in this time...' Adryan could only compare what would happen to the gods to someone cutting off the legs and arms of a mountaineer in the middle of climbing Everest.
'They would quickly fall into the abyss and their only salvation would be the harness of the other believers in other parts of the world... But of course, even if they managed to stop their fall into the abyss that would still leave them in a highly vulnerable state not only against the Evil Gods on Earth, who would no doubt take the opportunity to finish them off, but to the hungry wolves waiting beyond the barrier protecting this planet...' His eyes widened slightly, his eyebrows rising in realization.
Adryan could see how the pieces of the puzzle were quickly beginning to fit together, how what had once had him confused was now being shown to him in its true form.
'This is what the Rose School wanted!'
'An extreme situation that would leave the Gods in a horrible state, no matter what they did to avoid it that would always be the end result. With that, they would only have to worry about the Angels and Grade 0 Artifacts trying to control the situation but at that point, they would have the advantage in numbers. They would have won...'
'And the Apocalypse would come much faster than in the original story!'
Adryan felt that he had finally seen Rose School's true plans and he could only shiver from the chills it caused him and clench his fists in fury.
Chicho looked deeply into Adryan's icy scarlet eyes. Her expression was just as vacant as a statue.
"They will have no choice." His messenger's words were ice water to Adryan, like the final nail that only finished off his theory.
He gritted his teeth followed by a deep growl. The red-haired man brought a hand to his face and let out a heavy sigh, after a few seconds he replied.
"...I know."
"WHAT?!" Flora was incredulous. The big hero was fine with letting 30 MILLION people be purified?! Bullshit!
"Adryan think about what you're saying?! It's crazy! Are you seriously agreeing to this?!"
Not wanting to cause any misunderstanding or confusion, Adryan allowed himself to give a short explanation, not caring that his messenger was watching him talking to himself.
"Flora believe me when I say that I am repulsed by what the Gods plan to do but trust me. If you knew what was really going on you would know that even though it is extreme, it is the only option."
"The only option?! What could be worse than killing millions-
"The End of the World. That would be worse." Adryan cut the games short and went for the atomic bomb.
Stunned, Flora could only blurt out a stuttering, disbelieving, " W-what?"
Closing his eyes, Adryan thought for about 3 seconds about his next words.
"I can't explain due to this information being the worst corruption but believe me when I tell you. The purification they plan to do may be the only way to stop the End of the World."
Being a 200-year-old demigod, adding that she was part of an ancient angel family like the Jacobs. Flora immediately understood what the red-haired man was trying to explain.
A loud shuddering sigh sounded inside her head, Adryan could hear and feel how it carried the experience of a long life.
"Is this what the Scarlet Monarch was referring to? Your goal of preparing a team?"
At the question, Adryan shook his head," No, I'm preparing them for something worse. This thing that's happening now... It doesn't even touch the horizon of what's coming." When he said that Flora did not respond, she remained quiet processing what had just been said.
Jacob's mind drifted back to the night when the red-haired man introduced the female-named bug to his team and the Scarlet Monarch's objective.
After a long 3 minutes of silence, Flora finally said "Worse things are coming, aren't they?"
Instead of answering and taking a chance at corrupting his little worm, Adryan just nodded.
"..."
Doubting that his companion would say anything again, the red-haired man returned his attention to his messenger. His expression turned serious and his eyes took on a dangerous gleam.
"What is your plan Chicho? If you wanted to get me out of Backlund you would have done it by now, you're after something else."
Did she trust what Chicho had shown him? 100%, that primal instinct assured him that it was really happening.
Did he trust Chicho's motives? No.
He was confident that she wouldn't hurt him because if she had wanted to, she would have already done it. Besides, she had revealed information that made him not take it as a game. Not that he hadn't taken her seriously before but that little revelation made his messenger move up several notches of danger in his book.
"You're not a Demigod are you?" Adryan asked directly and Chicho just looked at him.
"Only an Angel or receiving the direct protection of a God would you be able to withstand the corruption of information you seem to possess. So that leads me to believe that you are one, am I correct Your Excellency?"
That information brought out Flora who stared blankly at the 5+ meter giantess. So much information revealed in such a short time was making it hard for her to keep up, if she was in her normal state this wouldn't be a problem but her state was still horrible so even this amount of information was proving to be too much for her.
'The Princess's messenger is an Angel?!'
"And not only that... You're part of 2 Pathways" The redhead added oblivious to the state of his corpsmate.
Flora for her part simply turned to stone.
Adryan was certain that Chicho was part of the Death Pathway, the bone gate, and how the temperature always dropped with her arrival was more than enough proof in his books. But the way she moved through the spirit world and that door of light?
Of course, he knew that from sequence 5 the Beyonders of the Death Pathway could move through the Spirit World but the way Chicho had done it was nothing like the way the Beyonders of that Pathway did it!
Those were unique to the Door Pathway!
'As far as I know, the Death Pathway cannot copy the abilities of other pathways... Not only that, there was a point in history when the Death Pathway and the Door Pathway were together...'
Finally, many things made sense, like how she always found the place to deliver the letters or packages despite vague descriptions or even the way she sealed Creeping Hunger with that strange seal!
It all pointed to the same being! The same Old God!
'The Ancient God of Death of the Second Epoch, The Ancestor of the Phoenix, Gregrace!'
'But she fell when the Ancient Sun God emerged so there's no way it's her, surely it's a descendant of her race...'
'Not to mention that she has no mutations or any malformations expected of a being whose times one would swallow any Beyonder ingredient. Not to mention that she seems to retain her sanity quite well... That alone lends further weight to her being only an extremely distant descendant.'
'And most likely the last of the Phoenix...'
Squinting at his messenger, Adryan asked in a serious voice.
"What does a descendant of the Phoenix want with me?"
Snapping out of her stupor a bit, Flora aside from being stunned, disbelieving, stunned, and mentally blocked, also found herself confused.
'Phoenix? Like the legendary immortal firebirds?'
At no time since he started speaking did Chicho's expression change, she just looked at him with a calm and expressionless face as was usual of her.
After a long and choking 5 minutes of silence, the supposed Phoenix let out a slight sigh and her expression softened. Her lips lifted into a resigned smile.
"I had hoped to keep this hidden a little longer... But I'm not disappointed, if anyone could find out who I was that someone was you... Herald." In a gentle voice and perfect Elvish, Chicho responded by bowing Her head slightly with a small lift of Her lips.
Gone was the strong nod or the inability to show emotion.
The change was so brutal that Adryan felt he was seeing 2 completely different people!
Recovering, Adryan snorted, "It was all an act then?"
"Partly yes and partly no. I love chocolate much more these days" Chicho replied with a subtle smile.
"At least your sugar addiction is real." Adryan said mockingly as he snorted to the side. Looking back at his messenger, he added, "You didn't answer my question."
"I am your messenger, Herald. I seek neither to harm you nor to wrong you." Chicho said with a serious face, eyebrows furrowed slightly and one hand on Her chest.
"And what I seek... I'm sorry but you're still too weak to know."
"Hmp I guessed as much. It's never the easy way right?" Adryan rolled his shoulders already having expected that answer.
Chicho tilted Her head slightly, looking at him curiously, " You're taking this better than I expected Herald."
Cracking his neck with a resounding plop, Adryan shook his head, "Meh, sooner or later I'll end up learning it. If you don't want to tell me now it's not because of corruption. You know more about me than I expected."
"huhu Every great existence that has been on this planet long enough knows about the Heralds. The Gods are no exception" Chicho commented with a slight chuckle.
Clicking his tongue with slight annoyance, Adryan complained, "Call me Adryan, you calling me by that title at this point is a bit pointless don't you think?"
"If that is your wish Lord Adryan. Then I hope you keep calling like you did before." Chicho gave a somewhat deep bow as a sign of respect.
'If it were a better time I would be sure to find out everything you know about the Heralds but now is not the time.' Knowing that every second was worth more than gold as it was one more life lost and he had already gotten the most important thing out of the way, he already faced the main problem.
"Why didn't you get me out of here if you know how important I am?"
Chicho's soft expression turned hard," That's why I didn't take you out of here. Because you're a Herald."
Without waiting for the question she could already come up with, Chicho continued as she pointed to the door still showing the image of the Tree.
"At this rate, it's only a matter of time before the Gods level Backlund. We cannot allow that. The consequences will be worse than the current situation."
His head tilted slightly to one side and he also raised an eyebrow," And how do you want me to deal with that? I'm only sequence 7 I don't have anything in my arsenal that can damage a Tree of that size. Besides aren't you an Angel? The only one in Backlund like you said? Why don't you go help or are you afraid? I didn't know my messenger was a coward".
'My most powerful attack is the Plasma Beam but that one takes a long time to charge. Now with the digested potion I can charge it in 15 seconds but it's still a long time! And the noise caused by compressing it would make it impossible to sneak attack...'
Despite his harsh words, Adryan wanted to help but he wasn't an imbecile. The redhead knew when he was outmatched.
So why not pass the problem to hands much more capable than his own? Like, for example, an Angel?
"You just insulted an Angel, you crazy bastard! Do you want to die so badly?!!!" Flora was completely frozen with terror. And it showed in her voice that came out more like a hurt puppy squeal than a scream.
Chicho's eye twitched for an instant, clearly not having expected that response. Recovering quickly, she shook her head with her lips showing the tiniest shadows of a smile.
But it only lasted a second before her face immediately became serious again, she replied in a deep voice laden with disappointment and helplessness itself.
"That Tree is as if the Moon were walking on the earth. The nucleus at its root is like the Blood Moon, the mere fact that I even come a little close to it would make my fate no different from that of The Gate to a Thousand Worlds. I've already risked too much by withdrawing you from there, I can't do more than this."
"And that's just talking about the core. If I go outside I wouldn't last a second before being wiped out by the Night or fulminated by lightning. The Phoenix are not welcome in this new era."
Hearing the new information, Adryan looked with a flat face at Chicho, after a few seconds, he gave voice to his softer thoughts as the harsher ones were buried.
"...Are you telling me that at this instant you are just as useful as a comb to a bald man?"
"Princess! For once in your life could you try not to provoke someone!!!" Flora roared trembling.
Chicho on her side pursed his lips and gave a weak nod.
"That would be the best way of comparing it. Yes."
"Do you at least have a plan?" Adryan asked as he put a hand to his face in exasperation, time was running out and here they were wasting it.
Chicho nodded with a serious face, her posture taking on a more dignified and uplifted tone, Adryan unconsciously straightened his back.
"To finish off that Tree it is necessary to destroy the core. I can't get close but you can!"
"Wait wait wait! Are you forgetting that I'm only Sequence 7?! I don't have any attacks strong enough to destroy a core!" Adryan raised a hand and cut off his messenger, his brow furrowing in restrained annoyance.
"Cores aren't as strong as the tree and you don't need to destroy it either. You only need to weaken it. That will give the window to the Gods so They can purify it without leveling the city." Chicho quickly explained as the image on the door changed to being a single projection of the tree.
This projection went down to its roots, in that projection showed a complex system of caves at the same time as a small red dot where the trunk and root were located, juxtaposed by the huge dome Adryan assumed it was where the Pillar once stood. Much farther away from this, almost on the other side, there was also a white dot.
"This is us." Chicho pointed to the white dots," This is as close as I can get without being in danger I can't control."
'If this is to scale then we are 10 kilometers from the dot...' Adryan made a quick mental estimate.
"...And this is the core." The messenger taped the red dot," This is the weak point of the Tree, if anything happens to it, no matter how small a small crack is enough, the whole structure of it will begin to fail. And it will be able to be purified without risking Backlund."
Staring at the red dot, Adryan frowned noting the most obvious of problems.
"Then that core will be more protected than a nun's sanctity. How am I going to get close enough to damage it if I'm busy being demolished by the full force of Rose School?"
At his clear doubt, Chicho smiled sideways.
"You won't have to worry about it. It may be impossible for me to get close but that doesn't mean I can't move you." The white dot flickered off only to reappear in the huge corridor that connected to the core.
"Is this as close as you can get me?"
"Closest wit-"
"Yes yes, I know." That she would be corrupted, he already got it right the first time she didn't need to repeat it.
"...You have a huge death wish." Flora commented after watching a Beyonder of Sequence 7 cut off an Angel.
Ignoring his worm companion, Adryan looked seriously at the core.
"How many demigods and angels can I expect in there? Will you be able to get me out of there once I do my part?"
"There won't be any demigods or angels."
His head whipped toward the giantess in something of a daze.
"That core is like the Blood Moon. Its light makes the divinity of the saints and angels 'bring life'." Chicho explained while touching her belly at the same time she drew a huge belly in the air with her hands.
"Once the divinity is infected, it is impossible to remove. You will spend every day, every second of your existence giving birth to new beings. That is until all your characteristics are inherited and you are left only as a broken incubator."
"And not just Beyonders. Artifacts after being long exposed to light will start to fail and after 3 minutes they will break and go back to being characteristics."
'Giving birth? But that's more on the side of the Divine Whore not the Overdeveloped Bush...'
Adryan looked stunned at this, then realization shone on his face as he realized a big problem.
"I refuse to go! Adryan! Get me out of here! I refuse to be a human incubator!" Flora Jacob, The Parasite from Sequence 4, A Demigod, began to cry from fear of her possible fate if she went there.
And Adryan also refused to have baby worms moving inside him... But in this situation, there was nothing he could do about it.
'Flora isn't able to parasitize me completely at the same time as she can't leave my body. I know Hunters Hallow acted when she first entered and made her like this... But couldn't that also mean that she unwittingly relies on a bit of its protection as well? The robe has shown to possess a conscience so they can easily assume that letting Flora get hurt will mean that I will get hurt so it will protect her?' This was a mere theory with almost no foundation, the only way to check it would be on-site...
Letting out a slight sigh, Adryan looked seriously at Chicho.
"That there aren't going to be any demigods would mean that beyonders below Sequence 4 can move around there without a problem. How many will I have to deal with once I'm inside?"
"Most of their forces are above but the cave system is still full of them. In the entire cave system, there are exactly 315 enemies, all varying from normal humans and Beyonders from sequence 9 to a single sequence 2 angel. The angel and demigods are all on the far end so you won't have to worry about them."
"Last time I checked, a few minutes before I rescued you, I saw 5 go way down the tunnel to the core. I can't see past that without risking infection."
Squinting, Adryan clicked his tongue in annoyance at such a number. His mind already jumping to some suspects, "Don't worry. I think I know who they are..."
'A foul-smelling dog, an anemic bat-murderer, Gasparin's ugly cousin, the brainiac, and the evil version of Dr. Chaplin...'
'Yep! My current self doesn't stand a chance, I can't hurt the ghost and a single hit from the bat will knock me out... Not to mention if it possesses me I'm dead again, not to mention the Doctor's ridiculous healing ability and the brainiac has a very hard body that will be difficult if not impossible for me to break with my current strength...'
'The neutered dog won't be much of a problem, the headache is those 4... Not to mention there may be more than them...' Adryan's mind began to plot every possible move but they all ended in the same thing.
Failure.
His current self wouldn't stand a chance, even if he could take Tauk Millennium and Hangover Time his chances wouldn't grow much.
Again, he was only Sequence 7, what could he hope to accomplish being so weak?
'But if I was Sequence 6 I might have a chance to do this...' His eyes flashed, a crazy idea forming quickly in him.
'Yeah... It could work!'
Chicho said nothing and just tilted her head to the other side somewhat confused, the motion very similar to how a bird would do when it sees something curious.
Ignoring his messenger, Adryan walked to the wall.
"No one can hear us right?" He asked calmly as his fist burst into flames illuminating the dark cavern and making his scarlet eyes glow.
"Princess. What stupid thing are you planning to do now?" Flora asked accusingly and with enormous suspicion, she knew that tone very well!
That was the tone the Princess used before doing something crazy!
"I locked the door. Even if someone walked by they wouldn't see or hear us." Chicho replied curiously.
Adryan's smile sharpened as he raised his fist, "Excellent!"
Bang!
The wall shattered under the power of the blow and chunks of rock flew everywhere but before they could go too far they disappeared after crossing a certain point behind the giantess' back.
Chicho looked curiously at her contractor who now carried a particularly sharp rock.
"What do you plan to do Lord Adryan?"
" Isn't it obvious?" the red-haired man's feral grin grew as he made a long cut on his hand from which warm crimson blood began to drip.
"I plan to do something incredibly stupid!"
