Chapter 376: Chapter 246: Lie Down, or I’ll Take Your Life

His recent brave actions had earned him respect, and his actual standing in the hearts of the Mages had risen.

This was just a fleeting thought.

Fang Zhen immediately focused his attention on Balenzuo, who lay on the ground.

Fang Zhen looked at Balenzuo’s mangled, bloody remains and felt a sense of confusion.

The objective of this dungeon was to find the Demon Duke, learn his true name, and then kill him.

Fang Zhen didn’t know why the game required him to learn the Demon Duke’s true name, but he figured there had to be a reason.

But from the looks of it, Balenzuo was already dead. ’Does this mean I’ve failed the mission?’

Just as he was thinking about this, something strange suddenly happened!

Fang Zhen suddenly noticed a change occurring around Balenzuo’s demonic body up ahead.

A black energy vortex materialized out of thin air, four or five meters up.

At first, it was only the size of a teacup’s mouth, but it quickly grew larger. The black vortex spun continuously, expanding rapidly. In the span of a breath, it was the size of a basketball, then it swelled dramatically until it became a black-hole-like vortex two to three meters in diameter.

Fang Zhen’s heart went cold.

He stared intently at the black vortex, not knowing what was about to happen.

Just then, from within the Mage Corps not far from him, a Mage suddenly exclaimed, "It’s a Black Spot!"

"A Black Spot Vortex!"

Cries of alarm spread continuously through the Mage Corps, becoming a collective gasp.

Fang Zhen’s brow twitched slightly.

’From the sound of it, the Mages all recognize what this black vortex is?’

The soldiers, however, had no such knowledge.

But time was short, and Fang Zhen had no opportunity to ask the Mages what exactly this "Black Spot" was.

At that moment, continuous strands of black energy, like silken threads, suddenly emerged from Balenzuo’s body. They wrapped tightly around his fallen form, creating a black sphere of energy about two meters in diameter.

This black energy sphere looked very similar to the dark energy ball Balenzuo had fired from the air earlier.

It seemed this shadow energy was the life force that powered the Demon Duke.

From within the Black Spot Vortex in the sky, an arm suddenly extended.

Fang Zhen’s brow furrowed as he looked at the arm.

The arm looked like it belonged to a true demon, with sharp claws, each one like an Obsidian Blade.

The arm wasn’t particularly thick, but it looked incredibly powerful. It had no skin, only markings like burning lava that gave it an appearance of extreme durability.

At the same time, the smell of sulfur filled the air, like the toxic gas released near a volcano.

Fang Zhen was slightly startled. ’This shouldn’t be happening.’

He had never seen a situation like this before. Seeing the demonic arm emerge from the black vortex, he felt it was somewhat similar to the game’s Light Gate.

’Has some higher-level being descended upon this world?’

’Is the difficulty a bit off the charts?’

Fang Zhen’s brow twitched a couple of times.

He didn’t wait. He raised his assault rifle and fired a full clip at whatever was emerging from the black portal.

The bullets flew over but were mostly deflected by dark energy.

Soon, a demon’s body emerged from the black vortex.

However, this demonic body seemed to have no consciousness. It was merely a husk, its eyes closed and unmoving. It, too, was enveloped in black, dark energy, forming an energy sphere about two meters in diameter.

Fang Zhen’s bullets didn’t penetrate the dark sphere, only causing its glow to dim slightly.

Once the demon’s body had fully appeared in this world, the black vortex behind it shrank rapidly back to the size of a teacup before vanishing completely.

Before Fang Zhen’s eyes, Balenzuo’s shattered remains and the new demon body were now connected by black energy, looking like a dumbbell from a gym.

On either end of the black energy construct was a two-meter-diameter sphere of dark energy, with a channel of dark energy connecting them in the middle, strongly resembling a giant dumbbell.

This giant ’dumbbell’ floated up and began to rotate slowly. A dark red energy could be clearly seen flowing from Balenzuo’s remains toward the ’handle’ of the dumbbell, where it was then channeled into the new demon’s body.

Fang Zhen frowned.

He quickly took an energy gel from his King’s Belt, tossed it into his mouth, and swallowed. While reloading his assault rifle, he sprinted over to where his Red Hare Warhorse had turned into crystal bones and retrieved them.

He completed the series of tactical actions in one fluid motion.

After completing these actions, he stopped and watched the energy ’dumbbell’ floating in the air.

’Don’t tell me Balenzuo has a third phase?’

Fang Zhen thought to himself as he watched the transformation before him.

The black energy ’dumbbell’ didn’t hover in the air for very long, only for about six or seven seconds.

By now, Fang Zhen had recovered some of his stamina.

Holding the assault rifle in his left hand, he fired continuously in the direction of the energy ’dumbbell’.

He didn’t know what effect this would have on the transformation, but he had a feeling that disrupting this black energy ritual would be to his advantage.

The assault rifle’s bullets were deflected by the shadow energy as soon as they hit, seemingly having no effect.