Chapter 25

Theodore broke into a large bunker-like room with bright lights shining from above, the area was mostly empty apart from a giant machine located in the middle, just behind where Lawrence was being held.

It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, it has a big rectangular base with stairs leading up to a circular structure built on top of the foundation, behind and beside it were multiple thick wires leading to what seemed to be giant power generators near the walls.

Without fear, Theodore made his way from the doorway towards his father, after seeing his condition, his blood boiled with rage, but he kept himself calm for now and focused on healing the wounds.

In almost an instant, Lawrence's body started glowing a soft green, and soon his injuries would start to disappear one by one, until eventually, the man's eyes flung open. He lifted his head and looked at his son, a mixture of confusion and disbelief etched on his tired expression. "…Theodore?"

Theodore smiled. "You did great, I'm here now." He grabbed the manacles that bound the old man to the chair and crushed it in his hands, the other two people within the room could only watch with wariness as he broke his father out of his confinements.

Lawrence stood up from the bloody chair and rubbed his wrist. "We need to talk about 'this' later, let's get out of here."

"Hey now," Suddenly, Gabriel spoke up with his hands extended in front of him, while the man was still being cautious, he wasn't going to just let his prey escape that easily. "I won't let you leave unscathed."

Theodore glanced at his father then back at Gabriel. "So? How about I kill you right now?"

The man let out a burst of laughter. "Oh, child, you can't defeat me."

Theodore narrowed his eyes and activated 'Gaze of Wisdom'.

<<Name: Gabriel Griffins

HP: 600,000/600,000

Status Condition: None. Healthy.

Species: Awakened Human

Age: 52

Rank: S

Class: Alchemist

Specialty: Great strategist. Alchemist master.

Equipment: [Can be unlocked through visual exposure.]

Elements: [Can be unlocked through visual exposure.]

[Level of the attribute 'Gaze of Wisdom' is still too low to view the other informations.]>>

Theodore huffed with a shake of his head. "No wonder you're confident, that's quite a big secret to keep from the world as an S rank."

Gabriel didn't seem surprised. "So it's true, you have a dragon's gaze, but my source also told me you're supposed to be a very big snake?"

"I have my circumstances." Theo grabbed the Ophiuchus' Staff with two hands and began to pull something out of the pole, at first it came in the form of green light but when it's fully been parted from the staff, the silhouette began to shape itself into something new.

In only a few seconds, a sword had manifested.

<<Ophiuchus' Sword

Rarity: S

Durability: Nigh unbreakable.

Type: Long Blade

Source: Eternal Purgatory [Domain Reward]

Stats:

[+50 Magic]

[+50 Attack]

[+50% Mana Recovery]

Passive Skills:

[Serpent's Tenacity]

Skills:

[Serpent Bearer's Venom]

[One of the Same]

Description: A blade created from uncertainty, the Ophiuchus' myths had been mixed and told through different mouths, the many stories had caused his weapon to manifest aside its other half: Ophiuchus' Staff.>>

Theodore skimmed through its description and saw that there weren't any major differences between the two weapons, although the staff gave him speed points instead of attack, but other than that the rest of the information was similar.

He wasn't a swordsman, so automatically, this weapon wouldn't be of use to him.

Instead, he handed it to Lawrence. "A welcome back gift."

His father took it with a bright smile, admiring its design, it seemed to be made of identical materials as the Ophiuchus' Staff, it has a black blade, the grip wrapped in dark-green leather, and its cross guard has a green eye-like stone embedded into it.

"Thanks! I sort of lost your other sword so this is perfect!"

Theodore turned to look at Gabriel. "I don't care about you, I only want Rhys." He pointed his staff towards the tanned young man, who glared at him from beside his father. "Let's trade, I'll spare your life if you hand him over."

This proposal only made Rhys even more angry. "Don't be so full of yourself! Father would never die by your hands! He's several times stronger than me!"

"That doesn't say a lot." Theodore snorted. "Zero times whatever is still zero."

Rhys' face became redder than any tomato anyone has ever seen, but he didn't get another chance to speak because Gabriel spoke first. "You won't be speaking like that for long."

Theodore frowned, smiling mockingly. "And why is that?"

Gabriel pointed towards something behind him, it was the large machine. "I built that thing for another purpose, but now that you're here, how about a little trip?"

"Trip?"

Gabriel snapped his figures and suddenly the sounds of roaring engines filled up the room. Theodore instinctively turned around and saw that something had appeared in the middle of the circular frame.

After a single glance, he could tell it was getting bigger.

It didn't take long until a powerful force began to tug at every inch of his body, as if trying to pull him towards the machine, the gravitational force growing stronger and stronger by the seconds.

The first object that got sucked into the machine was the bloody metal chair, and after seeing what it could do, it shouldn't take a genius to tell what that dark swirling thing was.

"Hahaha!" Gabriel spreaded his hands to the side, looking proud of his creation, a soft purple glow surrounded his body and it seemed to be protecting him from the strong pull. "Behold! The pinnacle of science and magic! Let's see how you can escape the most powerful force in the universe!"

Theodore's eyes widened with surprise and the first thing that came to mind was his father. He looked at him in a rush. "Dad! Get out of here now!"

"Wha—What?" Lawrence didn't need anyone to tell him that the machine seemed to be bad news, but he just couldn't understand why. "I can't leave you here! I'll fight with you!"

But Theo's new words immediately made him shut up.

"Fight? You're going to fight a black hole!?"

Lawrence's mouth fell open, but no words came out, Theodore grabbed his arm and pushed him towards the door. "Just leave!"

"But…!"

"Theo!" Merlin's voice came from the hole where a door was once at and soon two figures would emerge from it.

The ginger's eyes instantly landed on the swirling, black orb and a look of dread crept up his face.

Eugene in his werewolf form pushed through, his battleaxe strapped against his back, but he was more rational and turned his attention towards Theodore.

He immediately took this as a chance. "Eugene! Take both of them and run!"

Rhys grabbed his sword and suddenly charged towards the werewolf. "I won't let you save them!"

Merlin's reaction speed was even more terrifying than the sneak attack, he turned his entire body to face Rhys in only a second and use the body of his bow to block the sword, the rarity difference of the two weapons immediately caused Rhys to stumble backwards from the force, his blade knocked out of his hand and it instantly got sucked into the black hole.

"Eugene! Go get Mister Varon!"

"On it!"

Lawrence seemed hesitant, he looked at his son worryingly. "Please come back to us."

Theodore just chuckled and pushed him closer towards Eugene, who grabbed his arm and slightly struggled to pull him closer because of the intense force. "Don't worry even if it takes me another five years, I'll come back."

Merlin was starting to get pulled, but Eugene grabbed him with his free hand and made his way towards the door. "You better not die again!" With one last shout, the three of them pushed their way through and disappeared from the room.

The gravity had gotten stronger and stronger, by now the black hole had already expanded until it became as large as the circular encasement surrounding it, which seemed to have stopped its growth, Theodore could now feel that he was slipping and he used his staff to anchor himself to the floor.

He turned to face Gabriel, drawing a magic circle and tried to attack him with his ice magic, but when the ice chains emerged from the center, it was simply sucked into the black hole behind him. "F*ck! Fight me like a man, you coward!"

Gabriel shrugged, a satisfied smile on his lips. "I'm an alchemist, fighting isn't really my thing."

Rhys laughed. "See? I told you that my dad won't ever be killed by you! You're far too weak!"

Theodore frowned in anger, still fighting against the increasing gravity. "Then you're coming with me too!"

"Coming with you?"

It seemed that he didn't take Oliver's reports very seriously, since Rhys seemed to have forgotten about one thing.

Without a hint of a warning, Theodore unsummoned his staff and transformed himself back into his 'original' form.

A thirty-meter-long serpent appeared in his place and instantly snapped towards Rhys, his mouth opened wide.

The tanned young man must've gotten a heart attack from that, he screamed and tried to run in a panic, but the gravity of the black hole only caused him to lose balance and he flew straight into the snake's mouth. "WHAT THE F*CK!?!?"

Theodore snapped his jaw closed just in time before Rhys could fall down his throat, he didn't want to kill him just yet and instead kept hanging onto him with his fangs.

Now that Theodore had nothing to hold onto, the black hole could easily lift him from the ground and pull him and the thrashing Rhys into it.

In only three seconds, Gabriel was the only person remaining inside the room, he let out an amused huff before snapping his fingers again and the black hole slowly shrunk until nothing was left.

"Are you pleased with the results?" The man spoke out loud despite there being no one else inside the room.

[…]

A rough, yet manly voice of someone rang out from beside Gabriel.

[You did well, mortal.]

.

.

.

Theodore had made his decision, although he was annoyed that he couldn't make Rhys suffer just like how he did, at the very least, he'd fulfilled his goal: He managed to drag him down with him.

'…' But for some reason, he felt that he was missing something. 'Wait, I'm still alive?'

The darkness in his eyes parted and he could now see his surroundings, he seemed to be in some sort of cave. The walls were made of reddish stone and there was a small opening above his head, the scene reminded him of the time when he'd first reincarnated.

He perked his head up slightly, feeling his neck ache as the sting ran down his entire body. 'I really am alive.' He thought to himself, surprised that somehow he was still breathing.

He noticed a little later that something was inside his mouth. 'What the f*ck is this?'

It was still quite dark inside the cave despite there being some light seeping through the hole above, so he pressed down on it softly to feel what it was, but then a quiet groan sounded out, startling him and it caused him to drop whatever he was holding.

It made a loud 'thud' as it fell onto the hard, rocky floor, causing the 'thing' to cry out in pain. "F*ck!"

'Oh, how could I've forgotten?' Theodore looked down on Rhys, who seemed to have hit his head on the ground since he was clutching the back of his head, his 'Thermal Vision' finally showed what had been between his fangs this entire time.

"Rhys."

"What…What?" The tanned man looked up at him with one eye.

"Where are we?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

Theodore smacked his tail against the wall, causing the entire cave to shake violently, Rhys slightly retreated as he spoke. "Of course you would know, it's your family's secret weapon."

Rhys swallowed nervously, his brave attitude earlier was nowhere to be seen, it seemed that he was reminded of who's the stronger one here. "I really don't know. Father never told me anything."

[The Skill 'Lord of Souls' has peered into Rhys Griffins' soul.]

[His words are confirmed as 'TRUTH']

"Guess he just doesn't love you."

"Probably," Theodore expected Rhys to get angry, but instead he sounded disheartened. "He keeps so many secrets, I was just barely able to know that father wanted you dead."

Theodore huffed. "Don't even think about trying to gain my pity."

"Yeah, I know." Rhys rolled his eyes as he slowly got up from the floor. "So what are you gonna do? Kill me?"

He stared down at the blonde, not saying anything for way longer than he'd anticipated. "Not yet, ending you now would be mercy."

"Oh, so you're going to torture me, right." Rhys threw his hands in the air. "But what if I do know where this is? You might lose your only chance at getting out of here."

Theodore let out a mocking laugh. "Idiot, I can tell if you're lying or not."

"…F*ck."

"Don't worry," Theo leaned his head closer to Rhys, making him back away with fear. "You still have your use, 'this' in itself is enough of a torture."

He wasn't going to let it end that easily, then what would be the point of him struggling to get this strong?

He needed to be creative with this.

'First things first: Where am I?' He lifted his head up and stared at the only exit in the cave.

Theodore turned into his human form and climbed out the small hole, in which Rhys would have little choice but to follow him out as well, not wanting to be left alone in an unknown environment.

Their surroundings looked as if they were no longer on Earth, the ground was dark red and the sky seemed to be stuck in a permanent sunset, dyeing the atmosphere a shade of orange and purple.

Theodore knelt down and ran his hand along the floor, picking up the dirt just to let it fall back down. "…It feels just like dirt."

He thought it would be more similar to sand, but the size of the particles clearly said otherwise, there were also some small pebbles and dry vegetation stuck to it too.

Rhys nervously looked around before walking over to a nearby tree, its trunk were pure black and the leaves were white, the veins on them gleamed a ruby red, as if they were made from blood. "What the hell…What sort of forest is this?"

The creepy thing was the fact that those trees were all growing around them, making it seemed like the entire forest was watching their every movement.

Despite being strong, Theodore didn't like how he didn't know anything about this place, there could be monsters much more powerful than anything he'd faced so far considering that they needed a 'black hole' to get there.

"This could be a dungeon."

"Dungeon? This big?" Rhys was doubtful.

It was true that monster dungeons usually don't grow to a world-replicating size, but anything could be possible at the current moment, so Theodore wasn't letting his guard down just yet. "Maybe, or…"

He turned his head towards somewhere in front of him, while he wasn't in his snake form, the skill 'Tongue Receptor' seemed to be working even without a snake's tongue.

Though even if the range and efficiency had decreased, he was still able to hear the sound of flowing water coming from the distance.

He started walking towards it, not caring if Rhys decided to follow him or not.

"Wait!" The blonde frantically scurried over.

They would emerge from between the trees to find a large lake in front of them, the water reflected the color of the sky, hinting that it was extremely clear.

Theodore stared at his own reflection while activating 'Gaze of Wisdom'.

[Warning! The level of the skill is too low!]

[Would you like to spend 199 Skill Points to fully upgrade 'Gaze of Wisdom?']

'…Okay.'

[You can spend 299 Skill Points to Evolve 'Gaze of Wisdom' to its final form.]

'Okay fine! Use them!'

<<Gaze of Wisdom (Lvl.7) —> Gaze of Wisdom (Lvl.MAX)>>

<<Gaze of Wisdom (Lvl.MAX) —> True Dragon Eyes (Lvl.MAX)>>

[The Personal Attribute 'True Dragon Eyes' is showing you the world's truth!]

<<Lake of Rage

Location: Hell, Lust's Domain.

Owner: Asmodeus, Demon King of Lechery.

Inhabitants: [More than five species detected, will bring up the information when asked of.]

Description: Once within the domain of Wrath, the war between the two demon kings had caused this lake to fall into the hands of Lust, this landmark is considered to be extremely important due to its position and creatures that lurked within the lake's waters. The demons of the Lake of Rage will only follow those they acknowledge the strength of, and due to their sheer numbers, many kings covet over the possibility of strengthening their army by the thousands.>>

['True Dragon Eyes' is asking if you want to know more information?]

'…' Theodore was surprised, he was expecting to get a lot of useful things when he upgraded Gaze of Wisdom, but he didn't think that it could give him more if he wanted it. 'Can I fight the demons here?'

[Lake of Rage's inhabitants are around A+ rank.]

It won't be an easy fight, but at the very least he now knew that they weren't stronger than him individually.

"Seems like I was right."

Rhys was startled when Theodore suddenly decided to speak. "How can you tell just by looking at the water?"

"A little bird told me," He didn't bother explaining that it was a skill, he turned to face Rhys and spoke. "We're currently in hell."

The blonde looked at him as if he was crazy. "Hell? This place looks scary but I don't think—"

Theodore instinctively whipped his head back towards the lake and casted a spell. Black mist rose from the ground in front of him and shielded both he and Rhys from a powerful wave that'd suddenly erupted from the water.

[Dark Veil]

"Huh, isn't that Lucifer's spell?"

A feminine voice spoke as Theodore lowered the shield, staring down at them was a woman dressed in a beautiful black dress that barely covered her knees, two blood-red bat wings sprouted from her back and golden goat-like horns were on either side of her head. She was twirling her fingers between her long, dark red hair as she sat cross-legged on top of a large sea serpent's head, letting her high-heels dangle off of its side.

[Warning! A large amount of demonic energy has been detected!]

[You're currently facing the Demon King of Lechery: Asmodeus.]