My Soul card is a Reaper-Chapter 1006: Dreams of the Past: Marduk’s Dungeon (Part-1)

Rael drew his scythe as the temperature in the cavern began to rise.

Flames erupted from the walls, and the stench of burning sulfur filled the air.

From the flames, a massive demon emerged—its body wreathed in fiery tendrils that lashed out like whips. Its eyes glowed a bright red, and its skin was charred and cracked, revealing smoldering embers beneath.

This was the Blazing Demon, and it was clearly no pushover. As for how strong it was, there was no saying because it didn't have any soul energy reserves.

Rael rushed forward, his scythe cleaving through the air.

However, the demon moved faster than expected, its fiery tail swinging toward him. Rael barely managed to dodge, feeling the intense heat brush against his skin.

"Time freeze"

Eon, beside him, attempted to use her inborn ability to freeze the demon's movements for a moment, but it had no effect on the demon.

"This one's resistant to my inborn skills," Eon shouted, panic rising in her voice.

Rael nodded grimly. "Then we'll keep pushing forward!"

They attacked together, Rael using the scythe with deadly precision, attacking it head-on and gaining most of its attention while Eon used her ranged energy attacks, concentrated energy blasts at its feet from behind to slow down the demon's movements.

Despite their combined efforts, the Blazing Demon retaliated ferociously, lashing out with its flames, its body seemingly made of molten rock.

The battle stretched on for what felt like hours. Every time Rael and Eon thought they had the upper hand, the demon would escape, only to attack again with devastating power.

Finally, after a relentless back-and-forth, Rael concentrated all his soul energy into his scythe, allowing it to cut through the demon's fiery form, severing the flame from the demon's body. The creature let out a deafening roar before finally collapsing into a heap of ash.

As the last of the Blazing Demon's remains dissolved into the air, the walls around Rael and Eon seemed to close in, and a deep, eerie silence fell over them. At the same time, they were enveloped by a layer of light energy, which recovered their stamina, and soul energy reserves, and even reset the cooldown timer of his soul skills. It was a familiar feeling for them, just happened half a day ago.

They exchanged a glance and wondered aloud. "Riversis?"

Rael and Eon turned around.

"Artaigne?" Rael called her out. But there was no response. Rael furrowed his brows. "What's going on?"

Eon grabbed his hand and asked. "Should we consult Chronos?"

Rael turned serious as he looked around. "Not yet. Let's keep moving for now."

"Ok."

They moved just a few steps forward and without any warning, a demonic creature jumped out of the shadows, its glowing green eyes filled with bloodlust.

It was a massive wolf with razor-sharp fangs, a creature built for speed. Its form was sleek, and its fur bristled with poisonous thorns.

It leaped at them, not intending to give them any time to prepare.

Rael was quick to react, swinging his scythe toward the beast, but it dodged with impressive agility, its body flickering from side to side. Eon attempted to hit it with a concentrated energy blast, but the wolf was too fast, evading her attacks too.

"Dammit!" Rael growled, seeing his attack miss.

Eon quickly formulated a new strategy. "We need to lure it into a trap. Let's get it to charge at us and then use the environment to our advantage."

"How?" Rael asked.

Eon pointed her finger at the ceiling of the cavern, "Stalactites." Stalactites are formations that grow from the cave ceilings. While they don't look like much, they are quite heavy in number.

Eon summoned her hourglass and twisted it as the beast charged at them.

"Soul skill: Time Stop."

The time was frozen, this time without a problem, locking the creature into a momentary stasis. Rael swung his scythe at the wolf, but this time, he aimed for its vulnerable underbelly, slashing through its skin and making a deep cut into its flesh.

As the massive wolf flew in mid-air, Eon used the rest of her soul energy, creating a number of concentrated energy blasts aimed at the ceiling. Rael assisted her with a series of swings with the scythe, releasing concentrated energy arcs.

Meanwhile, the time was unfrozen and the beast let out an agonized howl from the earlier cut. But, before it made the landing, dozens of jagged rocks fell upon it while Rael made a run with Eon.

As the dust cleared, the beast was seen on the ground, barely alive, pierced by shards all over its body.

Both of them hurriedly took out their soul energy recovery potions, gulping it down with a shot. The beast slowly got onto its feet, its legs shivering with wounds over its body. Its eyes were deep red.

"Grr…" "Grr…"

Letting out a couple of growls, the beast collapsed to the floor, never to get up again. It slowly turned into specks of light and disappeared soon after.

The siblings let out a sigh of relief, collapsing to their butts. Meanwhile, the golden light returned and enveloped them, once again returning their stamina and soul energy to the peak stage. Their soul skills were available to use and all the wounds and injuries were healed instantly.

"Ok, I think the next opponent would be stronger, Eon. We need a better plan," Rael commented, sitting cross-legged and concentrating on his recovery.

"Yes." Eon nodded in agreement. "It's better if we just fuse." She said, clenching her fists in seriousness. "Only the Reaper's powers could now save us."

"No, I disagree." Rael shook his head. "We should save it for a worse situation."

"What do you mean, bro? We are already in a worse situation," said Eon. She furrowed her brows, trying to understand what her brother meant.

Rael replied. "From the moment we stepped inside this dungeon, I started getting this feeling that someone was observing us."

"Someone is observing us?" Eon was taken aback. She involuntarily looked around, only to find no one else.

Rael continued. "We took down a demon that has everything: good speed, high strength, good defenses, and even magical strength too, with our speed and teamwork, and then, the next beast we faced ended up becoming superior in speed and attack. As its defense is extremely weak, we took it down with the help of stalactites. I don't know if I'm thinking too much, but if my conjecture is right, we might be facing a monster that will have high defense or a monster that has even higher speed and flexibility, something like a serpent, for the next round."

Meanwhile, the dungeon lord smiled in amusement in the throne room, watching their conversation. "The boy is bright enough to grasp the concept in just two rounds. Well, they have enough rest. Let's go for the third round."

*Snap*

Back to the dungeon, Eon and Rael walked through a narrow pathway, going deeper into the cave. Unlike the earlier place, the pathway was almost pitch dark.

With their hands grabbing each other, the siblings cautiously walked for atleast twenty minutes straight, eventually reaching the end of the pathway and reaching another space, a giant Black tortoise resting in a magma pond opened its eyes.

"It's a defensive demonic beast." Eon cried out, ready with her hourglass.

"I knew it." Rael tightly gripped the handle of the scythe, "This isn't a simple dungeon filled with danger. It is a test. Someone is testing us."