Chapter 295 - The Crucible Of War 8
The ruin in the desert Part 3
/*unedited*/
The wide and spacious hall blinded the seven people of its elegance and beauty. The decorations and the structure could not keep everyone from having their jaws almost fall to the ground.
However, when they heard the voice echoing all over the hall, everyone's attention was taken back from their stunned state and became vigilant.
"I am the master of this place, the ruler and the most powerful being in this land. Those who had intruded in this Lord's domain had already died…" the voice said with authority.
Then suddenly four T-Rex-like creature walks out from the four corners of the hall blocking the only paths.
"… but I found that one of you is very interesting, hence I will give you a chance to survive. Now, show me what you can do?... humans…"
Then a flick of a finger can be heard echoing all over the place.
"Wait! Wait a minute! What are you talking about? We just want to go out of this place!" suddenly the young cat man called Lie Si shouted.
But his words just echoed through the hall as it suddenly became empty. The beautiful stuff and rich design suddenly vanished and a dilapidated ruin is now in front of the group.
GRROWWLLL!!!
The loud sound of the four monstrous beasts in the four corners of the room boomed.
Everyone immediately converges in the center in a defensive formation. They knew that they are in for a life and death battle.
"This is madness… How can I fight against those things without my real strength?" Agnes grumbled as her eyes turn to Shin Jiao with an angry look on them.
She was actually against entering this place, but Shin Jiao convinced her that there is no need to worry about anything. Hence she trusted him for some reason.
Now, she is a bit regretting that decision she made.
"You… you must protect me!" Agnes said while slowly extending her hand towards Shin Jiao's arm.
Agnes was too reliant with her powerful strength and magic that she neglected the basic hand-to-hand combat, hence she was defeated in the coup lead by the traitorous demon general Belfast.
When Shin Jiao felt her soft hand touching his arm and her plump bosom squeezing on his bicep, his heart immediately began racing. As a man, Shin Jiao could not help but feel a bit excited at this time. Plus he is actually not worried about facing those four T-Rex creatures.
When one of the T-Rex moved and took a step, Shin Jiao didn't hesitate and immediately extended his hand and the long rifle appears in his hand.
Without a second thought, he immediately squeezes the trigger after marking one of the eyes of the beast.
Peng!
A rain of blood burst forth as the bullet enters the creature's brain.
Then its huge body slowly staggered and then fall to the ground with a loud bang.
Everyone was stunned and a complete silence engulfs the hall. But this didn't stop Shin Jiao from pulling the trigger and shooting the other three creatures. Why would he stop when each of these creatures has two unique cores inside of them? Since he can earn eight unique cores, then he would not shyly decline but instead accept them with open arms.
In fact, he is praying that the one who owns that voice would send more of these types of creatures. That way his earnings would be worth it.
When Shin Jiao touched the gel-like core of the creature, he actually discovered that it contains an extreme concentration of mana. This means that these things are able to move because of mana. However, what he didn't understand is how can a ruin like this exist in this continent?
But who cares, if he can get more of these things then his spheres can reach up to 50. And when that happens, he can get rid of these bags on his waist and the many rings on his fingers.
After Shin Jiao easily gets rid of the creatures, he also moved and gets the cores. And now he already has ten of those unique cores.
"Haha… This Lord didn't expect that you can have such an artifact. However, do you think you can still escape this place with just that? Let me show you my power and my kingdom."
After the voice said that, the whole place suddenly shook and the entire hall began to crack.
"Run! We have to escape this place," shouted Lie Si as he suddenly ran towards a door.
Shin Jiao didn't move at this time and just pointed the muzzle of the rifle towards a wall. He then charges the bullet with both Qi and mana until the tip turned blue.
After pulling the trigger, the wall was blasted wide open and a clear area can be seen right outside of that wall.
Lie Si's companions didn't follow him through the door but instead followed Shin Jiao as they rushed through the large opening in the wall.
Right after they pass through the entire hall immediately crumbled in a loud crash as dust rose up in the air.
Then the group heard a horrified and painful cry from inside the rumble.
"Because of his cowardice, he lost his life. What a shame." Agnes snorted.
As the dust died down, the group saw something that made them stupefied. They didn't expect to see something so terrifying that it made their hearts tremble in fear.
Each of them has seen and experienced a lot of things in their lives, yet they have never encountered anything as dangerous to this degree. And now no matter what happens, it is already impossible for them to survive this encounter.
"Hahaha… Foolish humans… You have entered my lair and now will face my army." A figure slowly floated from the air towards the middle of a wide field.
And on that field lays hundreds of thousands of beasts.
When Shin Jiao and his group saw the figure floating in the air, they all gasp in disbelief.
"That… that's a demon! We… we are surrounded by a demon army?!" exclaimed Ming Si in horror.
"How did we enter the demon army camp? Don't… don't tell me that this old ruin is a demon army camp?"
"We are screwed… We… We should have run back and escaped this place back then." Wuji Jiao muttered as his face also showed fear.
Shin Jiao can feel the fear in each of the people's eyes and they could not even stop their hands from trembling. This is also true to little Jinyu Ji who is now hiding behind him while shaking.
The expression of Agnes is a complex mix of disbelief, anger, and fear. She can see the almost endless number of demons in the field surrounded by the tall walls of the ruined city. From the looks of it, the demons in this place were reared in this place by the demon, which is known to her only in the legends.
According to the legend a few hundreds of years ago, there was a great demon that has the ability to create golems. His work was an abomination to demonkind because he had sacrificed hundreds of thousands of demons just to create a few weak golems.
In anger, the demon king banished him to the endless sea and was never seen again.
However, the reason why his name became a legend is that within the vast and endless sea his golems began appearing. And it began to affect the mages in the continent and he was hunted for it.
A great war erupted between his army of sea creature golems and the mages in the continent. Before he was defeated, he said that everything is because of the demon king. And from his dying words before vanishing once again to the endless sea, a great war erupted in that continent which has lasted for hundreds of years and consumed millions of lives of both demons and mages.
He became a legend because he was the crucible for tipping the frail balance between the demons and the mages in the continent.
Upon seeing his appearance in this place, Agnes can clearly see the distinct resemblance of that demon from the portraits and the books.
"That demon is bad news… he… he is the cause of the great war. If we don't stop him, another great war would once again start in this continent." Agnes muttered in a low voice.
"What do you mean? You know that guy?" Shin Jiao whispered.
"Yes, he is… he is a very dangerous demon, one of the most dangerous demons according to the history… he is the great demon Azmodiaz, the golem lord."
"I see… Well, since we are already here we might as well fight this to end." Shin Jiao muttered as he looks at his companions.
"You guys should know that if these demons are freed from this place, the entire Beastia would be in great danger, right?"
"But… but senior, how can we fight against such number? Even if we are at the peak of our strength, I don't know if we can win against them?" Ming Si said in helplessness.
"Whether we fight or not, either way, we would still die. So why not go down fighting?" Kie Jo said.
Although he too was afraid, yet he didn't want to live a life of a coward, so he decided to give it his all.
"Don't worry, I don't want you to defeat them all. I want you to stall for time. Give me at least two hours. In two hours I will try my best for us to survive." Shin Jiao said.
The truth is he can use teleportation scroll to escape this place after breaking the restriction which he has already located. But if he did that, then the war would surely be lost.
With the power of these creatures, and their dual-core, even an infant soul realm cultivator would have a hard time facing them.
Hence he has a plan to end everything in just one stroke. And hopefully, it would truly be effective.
If not, then all would be lost.
Shin Jiao clenched his fists as his eyes are now filled with determination. He didn't want to create this stuff in this land, but desperate time's calls for desperate measures.
Hence it's time…