Chapter 473: Ambush From Stellar Devils

Caelus crossed the stream and stopped beside the floating sphere. It was no larger than his fist, yet looking into it gave him a strange sense of depth.

Layers of brown light moved around its center. Each time they separated he caught a glimpse of what looked like land forming and breaking apart.

Caelus recognized it as a World Embryo. According to the explanation Bertram had given them outside, its brown color meant it was Low-Grade.

Caelus held out his hand and carefully lifted it from the hollow. The light shifted around his fingers without resisting him.

[World Embryo obtained.]

[Grade: Low.]

Freya came to stand beside him.

"Are you going to use that one?"

"Not yet. We’ll look for something better, but having one is better than leaving empty-handed."

"We’ve only just started looking. There’s no reason to settle for this one already."

"Exactly."

Caelus put the embryo away without trying to form a Primordial Core. Beyond their small clearing the fog remained thick enough to hide whatever waited a short distance ahead.

The dead creatures had opened up only this patch. They would have to keep finding their way through the rest.

A faint red light blinked between two rocks across the clearing.

Caelus noticed it just as the space beside his throat split open. A black blade thrust through the narrow tear toward his neck.

He jerked aside and the edge passed beneath his chin. A second attacker dropped from above with red light gathering around his claws.

[Skill Activated: Star King’s Sword Vault.]

Golden portals opened over Caelus and released a burst of swords. The falling attacker twisted away as the first blades struck his arms and drove him back.

BOOM!

He landed on the far bank hard enough to shatter a glowing rock. Beside him another devil stepped through the spatial tear with the black blade still in his hand.

Both wore the Stellar Devils’ red-star insignia.

A system panel displayed their strength. They all had similar power index as them.

Caelus’s expression became cold seeing them. These two belonged to the same early stage his companions had entered, yet they had attacked as though the group would be helpless.

The devil with the sword glanced toward the place Caelus had stored the embryo.

"Hand it over."

"You tried to cut my head off for a Low-Grade embryo?"

"Give us everything else you’re carrying too."

The second devil held a round metal device in his left hand. Its glass face showed moving lines and a red light that matched the one Caelus had noticed.

Caelus understood how they had approached through the fog without stumbling into the clearing.

"That’s a useful little thing you have there."

The sword-wielding devil swung again. His blade vanished into a tear in space and emerged behind Caelus’s back.

[Skill Activated: Origin Lock.]

The opening froze with the sword halfway through it. When the devil tried pulling his weapon free, Caelus stepped forward and drove his fist into the man’s chest.

CRACK!

The blow broke through his armor and hurled him into the rocks. Caelus closed the distance while the devil was still trying to raise his head and struck again.

The man’s chest collapsed against the stone.

His companion’s face changed. Red stars flared beneath his skin as his shoulders widened and a pair of black wings tore from his back.

He lunged at Sylvia instead of facing Caelus. His claws lengthened as he reached for her throat.

Sylvia stepped inside his reach with the Blood-Moon Sword in her hand.

"That was another bad choice."

She cut through his outstretched arm and drove her sword into his chest. Death power spread from the wound while the devil’s wings beat wildly against the ground.

He tried to retreat into the fog, but Himmel raised a stone wall behind him. The devil struck it just as Sylvia pulled her sword free and cut through his neck.

His head fell beside the metal device.

The entire exchange had taken only a few moments. Freya lowered the hand she had raised to help.

Caelus checked both bodies. Neither moved again.

"They really thought two of them would be enough?"

Caelus picked up the fallen device and turned it over. A red-star emblem was carved into its back while a narrow ring surrounded the glass face.

The display shifted as he moved it. Lines marked the nearby ground and two small shapes lay exactly where they had killed the fog creatures.

Farther ahead another line curved between several larger marks. Even with the clearing beginning to mist over at its edges, the route remained visible on the device.

"No wonder they could find us so easily."

Sylvia examined the route displayed on the glass.

"At least we won’t have to wander around blindly now."

Caelus moved the outer ring with his thumb. The view widened and a bright point suddenly appeared near the edge of the marked clearing.

[Ding! Powerful World Embryo detected nearby!]

His eyes widened at the message. According to the display, the embryo lay a short distance beyond the rocks where the devils had appeared.

They might have walked straight past it without ever knowing it was there.

"Look at this."

He held the device where Sylvia and the others could see it. Freya leaned closer as the bright point flashed again.

"That’s near us!"

"It is. Let’s go there before someone else gets to it."

Caelus was eager to see what the device had found. Still, he glanced at the two bodies before following the marked route.

"Give me a moment first."

The spatial attack had caught his interest as much as the device. Leaving behind the devils’ powers would be a waste.

Caelus approached the bodies and reached out with Endless Extraction.

[Ding! Endless Extraction has been activated.]

Power rose from the two fallen devils and flowed into him. The system notices appeared one after another.

[Ding! You obtained the authority of space!]

[Ding! You obtained Stellar Devil Transformation]