Chapter 89

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Episode 20 - Luminus Arcantel Valentina [1]

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Creatures of different sizes, deformed, indecipherable, and bizarre.

Some had dozens of eyes or mouths, long limbs twisted in unnatural ways, fat or thin bodies, and so on.

There were dozens upon dozens of those creatures.

"W-what the hell are those? I’ve never seen creatures with appearances like that in the academy’s books."

"I don’t know, I’m blind."

"...."

Pressing my back against Charlotte’s, we both maintained our combat stances.

At any moment, those creatures would be right in front of us, lunging like rabid dogs.

"What I mean is, from what I can sense, they only possess the Power of Chaos, so they’re probably Class 3 or 4 demons."

Judging by the energy they emitted and their appearances, they were not chimeras, but demons.

’According to my senses, there are at least three hundred of them within a five-hundred-meter radius.’

I was in the middle of a pine forest. Beneath my feet, the snow rose past my knees.

The temperature was low enough to freeze a human body within seconds.

And my Mana was constantly being consumed to maintain my body temperature.

I was clearly at a disadvantage in this place. Even so, we had to fight to find a safe location.

"If they get close, don’t let them bite you. Demons can erode an entire body almost instantly."

Charlotte nodded without saying anything. Shortly afterward, within seconds, the demons of different sizes rushed over one another like uncontrollable beasts.

Charlotte and I swung our swords.

The sensation of greasy flesh being sliced apart, hot and viscous blood falling onto the ground and melting the snow.

The demons’ bodies began to fall rapidly.

’I’ve already recovered most of my stamina, so let’s finish this quickly.’

Inverted Mana covered my entire body. The world around me became so slow that, at the same time, it seemed faster.

Second Form: Time.

My body vanished from its original position. In the next second, I swung my sword, and soon a dozen bodies of different sizes were cut into pieces.

The demons barely had time to let out grotesque roars.

Their bodies fell with a revolting sound.

Without stopping, I continued swinging my sword.

Bodies fell to the ground as I cleared the hallway in front of me.

Then I turned back and shouted.

"Follow me." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Charlotte, who was covered in blood and whose skin smelled burned, turned around and ran in my direction.

Then both of us started running toward the exit I had opened. Demons kept coming from every direction.

I continued swinging my sword, and from time to time, I used the First Form of Inverted Heaven.

I couldn’t use my attribute abilities because of the enormous Mana cost, so the two of us kept clearing a path while running.

Soon, a wall appeared in front of us. As I raised my head, my vision slowly traced its summit.

’A cliff.’

When I turned around, the presence of the hundreds of demons that had gathered in even greater numbers was coming after us.

I turned toward Charlotte and said:

"We have to climb."

"And what if there are more demons waiting for us up there?"

A smile formed on my face.

"What else can we do? Either we find Luminus or we die."

Charlotte let out the air from her lungs, and the next second, we started climbing.

Below us, the demons crashed against the cliff in a swarm, and a mountain of bodies began to form.

’Shit, this is just like that zombie movie.’

Snapping out of my thoughts, Charlotte and I kept climbing for the next several minutes until we finally reached the top.

Up there was a sort of field filled with ice formations.

Enormous ice spikes towered everywhere, along with massive fragments and chunks of ice, and sharp icicles protruding from the ground made entirely of ice.

There were even frozen flowers and a few pine trees, but aside from that, there was nothing else.

’How strange.’

I used my senses and confirmed that there were no living beings nearby.

At least not within a radius of a thousand meters.

"There doesn’t seem to be any danger."

"And beneath our feet?"

I used my senses once again, this time toward the ground, and soon shook my head.

"Same thing. There are no living beings near us. Well, except for the one in front of us."

The roars of the different demons behind us echoed with tremendous force.

Charlotte nodded without saying anything.

"Mhm, from the looks of it, if there aren’t any demons or other creatures around here, then there are only two possibilities."

My thoughts began searching for possible reasons, and soon I found two.

"First, there’s some entity powerful enough to keep this place as its domain, or second, someone already killed all the demons, or there’s some kind of villain base."

Charlotte tilted her head and said,

"If we’re here, that means there are villains hiding here. It’s probably that, right?"

"Or Luminus is nearby."

Objectively speaking, I know almost nothing about Chapter One.

The only thing I knew was that everyone died every time they entered Chapter One, or survived for a short period of time, but eventually ended up dying.

So yeah, I know absolutely nothing about this place.

’The villains from the real world should be here, or at least some of them. And if there are villains who are part of the story, then both sides could be working together.’

It was unlikely that the villains had moved on to Chapter Two.

Maybe some had already died, or maybe all of them were still alive, but if that were the case, it would mean they had accomplished their objective.

And their objective was only one thing.

To plant a <Seed of Chaos>, a creation of one of the Abyss Lords of the past, designed to destroy the Memory Gates.

Normally, it is planted in the final Chapter of a Memory Gate, since reaching that point is extremely difficult, almost impossible.

An example would be this Memory Gate. Just overcoming the prologue was already fucking difficult, and surviving Chapter One was nearly impossible for most people.

’So they’re probably here.’

Then, all that remained was to find Luminus first and work together with her to kill them before continuing the cleansing of the Memory Gate.

"Then let’s move."

I said as I took the first steps forward. Charlotte stopped observing the surroundings and began following me.

Along the way, the wind and the faint icy breeze suggested that a storm was approaching.

And as the minutes passed, the cold intensified slightly. The snow beneath my feet kept rising centimeter by centimeter.

I turned toward Charlotte and said:

"Let’s move faster. At this rate, we’ll end up buried under the snow and freeze to death."

A few seconds later, I remembered something, and two thick jackets made from the hide of some Wild Beast appeared in my hand.

I tossed one to Charlotte, and she stared at me with confused eyes.

"Wait, you had these the whole time?"

As I put on the thick jacket, I smiled faintly.

"Would you believe me if I said I forgot about them?"

I mean, I have a lot of things in my Inventory. I didn’t know whether I might need certain things someday.

So I stored a little bit of everything in my Inventory.

Charlotte’s voice was sharp and filled with killing intent as she said:

"Let me squeeze that neck of yours for a moment, will you?"

"But if you do that, you won’t survive very long on your own."

Charlotte gritted her teeth as a vein throbbed on her forehead.

Then the minutes passed, and the storm started growing stronger and stronger.

The ice spikes began to grow shorter.

The snow had already risen past my waist.

So I used one of my attribute skills. Then I jumped, and shortly afterward, I landed on the surface of the snow without sinking.

"Hey, wait, how did you do that?"

Charlotte, almost completely buried in the snow, looked at me in disbelief.

"Don’t you know how to use your attribute skills? I’m using a skill called Dark Void Step, which removes my weight and sound."

"What the hell, I still don’t know how to use my attribute skills. Damn it, help me, bastard, I’m getting buried down here."

I suddenly stopped for a second. Then I turned toward her and said in a mocking tone:

"Then say, ’Please help me,’ and I’ll carry you. Otherwise, I’ll leave you there and go on ahead."

"...."

Charlotte’s expression froze for a second before twisting. Her face contorted as several veins throbbed across it.

’How scary.’

Charlotte gritted her teeth and looked at me with intense killing intent.

"You... damn it, you bastard, just help me, okay?"

"Then say what I told you to say."

Charlotte stared at me with that terrifying expression. Then she opened her mouth while trembling with rage.

"Plea... please... Ugh... p-please, help me."

For a second, my expression froze before I slightly tilted my head and said:

"What did you say? I don’t think I heard you."

"Go to hell, you son of a bitch."

I burst out laughing for a few seconds before finally extending my hand.

Charlotte grabbed my hand, and soon I pulled her toward me. She leaned against my back, wrapped her legs around my waist, and draped her arms over my shoulders and neck.

"Oh, and don’t try to strangle me, alright?"

"That depends entirely on me."

Shortly afterward, I continued walking through the snow. The ice spikes naturally began to disappear, and to make matters worse, the cold only intensified even faster.

Even with my mana and the thick jacket, the cold slowly began to freeze me.

And on top of that, the sound of flapping wings coming from the sky reached my ears.

I used my senses and then my vision. White lines traced through the air as winged creatures, both small and colossal in size, appeared all across the sky.

"Shit, we’re in trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"The entire sky is full of monsters."

Charlotte lifted her head and looked upward. Even though the sky was far too dark because of the storm, her face paled as she said:

"You’ve got to be kidding me."

Then the creatures started flying in our direction.

I quickly began moving faster, but the creatures were already above us.

And just as they started descending to attack...

"These damn things again."

A woman’s voice. One I had heard a few hours earlier, before arriving here.

’Luminus.’

A woman who looked to be around twenty-five years old appeared in front of me, and when she swung her sword, every creature in the sky was torn to pieces.

Then she turned toward the two of us and said:

"What are two kids doing in a place like this?"