The three Blood Forsakened were fighting in utter bloodshed.
The blinded bear was almost dead, and the huge serpent had deadly bite marks and large cuts all over its body.
The only one that didn't look like a zombie was the half blinded Blood Bear, who was in a decent condition. It only had a few bite marks over its body.
The Blood Serpent was gradually losing blood, causing its movements to slowly stagnate.
'Luckily, we had a chance to lure that snake here. Otherwise, we would have died in an instant.' Ciel thought
The only reason Ciel could lure the serpent was because it was fast asleep.
He had then stolen one of the eggs after entering its nest. That was only possible thanks to the Stone of Eternity.
After stealing the egg and getting far enough away from the nest, he alerted the sleeping Blood Serpent, and ran with all his might.
He then ran towards the point where Rein was supposed to be, entering her shadow and throwing the egg towards the Blood Bear.
This way, the Blood Serpent would target the Blood Bears instead of them. It hadn't seen who exactly had stolen the egg, therefore, it would likely attack the first thing it noticed.
The fact that the first thing it saw was it's smashed egg and the Blood Bears, it would undoubtedly target the bear duo.
They watched as the brutish battle continued in full force.
'Just a bit more damage needs to be done… then we'll release our best attack, hopefully killing them all.' He thought while watching the crazy fight
The Serpent was almost dead now, while the blind bear would be killed at any moment.
Soon, the blinded Blood Bear had died, and the Blood serpent was on the verge of death.
[ Now! ] Ciel said to Rein
She aimed the bow and arrow, which had a tip of Eternal Stone.
Before shooting, she imbued most of their Spirit Essence into the Eternal Stone.
The arrow tore through the air, landing in the center of the fight.
The Blood Forsakened had no time to react, or even know what was coming.
Less than a second later, a massive explosion occurred amidst the raging battle.
The human duo were momentarily blinded from the dark radiance of the explosion.
At the same time, they were hit by a tremendous shockwave that temporarily losing their awareness.
'Shit… we underestimated our attributes merged strength… we were dealt collateral damage through the shockwave.' Ciel thought
They had never tried merging the Void element with Eternal Stone before, since it would take too much Spirit Essence to actually destroy the Eternal Stone.
It was the only material they found that the Void element couldn't easily destroy.
After a minute, things calmed down and they regained their senses.
[ Do you think they could survive that? ] Rein asked
[ Probably not… but let's be careful. ] He replied
In front of them was a large crater, at least 15 metres in diameter.
There were 3 bloodied and mangled corpses that were at the center of the large crater.
"The battle probably gathered the attention of nearby Forsakened in this area. Let's take the corpses and get out of here." Rein said
Ciel nodded. He was in need of Forsaken Cores to increase the size of the Stone of Eternity, and their corpses would be a bonus.
Sadly, he couldn't just use Eternal Stone and strike at Soul Cores to win battles and increase its size, as the Soul Core had to belong to the deceased.
Ciel marked the body of the blinded Blood Bear and sent it into his Soul World.
"It takes too much Spirit Essence to mark them. We got enough meat, I'll just take their Forsaken Cores from here." Ciel said
It was not a good idea to be low on Spirit Essence, no matter how safe they were. Anything could happen at any moment.
They were also too low on it anyways, making it impossible to collect all the corpses.
He summoned his katana and started hacking the body of the Blood Serpent. If it wasn't for the opened wounds, he would need a stronger weapon for the dissection.
After a minute, he finally found the Forsaken Core. He summoned an arrow with a tip of Eternal Stone.
He then struck it into the Forsaken Core.
In an instant, the Forsaken Core was gone without a trace.
'The arrow didn't get any bigger. Maybe it only grows in the Soul World.'
'Also, I should be careful to keep the Cores i want to keep away from Eternal Stone. It would be a sad story if that was the way I lost my way to becoming rich.'
'As for how large the Stone of Eternity is now, I'll find out after we get out of here. As long as the Forsaken Core is gone, the Eternal Stone had should increased in size.' He thought
Before he could start hacking through the second, half blind Blood Bear, its body twitched.
[ It's alive! Get back! ] Rein warned in panic
He jumped back with all his might.
A second later, the ground he was standing on was cracked by the paw of the Blood Bear.
'What the fuck? How is that thing still alive? Did it avoid the explosion by standing behind the others?'
'It doesn't matter. We don't have enough Spirit Essence for another Void element attack. If it can still move, we have to run.' He evaluated
Then, the half blind Blood Bear stood up while covered with giant burn scars and a river of blood. It didn't even look alive.
Its one eye was filled with such intense malice that it sent shivers down their spines.
[ We gotta run! There's no way we're beating that thing in our condition. ] Rein said
Even though they were fine physically, they had no Spirit Essence to spare.
And even their physical strength was nothing compared to a Soul Tier 3 Forsakened – half dead or not.
They immediately started running away. The Blood Bear chased after them, but it was much slower than before.
After running at full speed for a half an hour, they reached the other edge of the cliff.
[ Maybe the bear will be even more weakened by now… Let's see if we stand a chance. ] Ciel said
Rein had entered his shadow a few minutes after they started running.
[ I don't think so. It feels like it has regenerated slightly… I think it ate the other eggs of the Blood Serpent. ] Rein replied
'Shit… I should have destroyed them all. Well, it's too late now. What should we do?' He thought
At that moment, Rein said something unexpected.
[ Move left. I can sense something strange… I have an idea of what it is. ]
Ciel nodded and started moving left.
After a minute, he was standing in front of a slightly withered tree. The tree had a huge hollow. Inside the hollow, it was shining with starlight.
[ Is this what I think it is? ] Ciel asked in slight shock
[ Yeah. I think so. ]
[ It's a Gate. A 4th Grade one at that. ] Rein replied with bewilderment
Gates were something that could be rarely found in this world.
They came in all shapes and sizes.
Some could be a hole in the ground, while another could be a regular closet in the middle of nowhere.
The only thing common with these Gates was that they sent the one who entered into a new sub-dimension.
That and the fact that they were always extremely dangerous.
Gate ranks were the same as Soul Tiers.
Soul Tier 4 would correspond to a 4th Grade Gate.
This was because all Gates were made by a Forsaken Core. They were the heart of a Gate.
But it was still unknown how a Forsaken Core could transform into a gate.
[ We could get 20 Gold if we just report the location of a Gate. That's how rare they are. ] Ciel said
[ You idiot, we're not reporting this to anyone. We might just have to enter this thing if we have no choice. ] Rein said sullenly
One common known fact about gates was that anyone could enter them, besides Forsakened.
Any number of humans could enter, but after the first human entered, the rest of the people would have to hurry, or else the Gate would close.
Therefore, there was a time frame needed to enter a Gate once the first person entered.
[ We don't even have much of a choice… the Blood Bear is going to catch up to us pretty soon. ]
[ There's no way we're beating that thing like this. There's also nowhere we can escape to right now. ] Rein said
[ But it's a 4th Grade Gate. It's a higher rank than the Blood Bear. ]
[ We won't stand a chance if we enter… ] Ciel said
[ That's not true. The way to defeat a Gate is to destroy the Forsaken Core. You have an advantage because the Stone of Eternity can eat the Forsaken Core from the inside. ]
[ All we have to do is sneak around to find the Forsaken Core, and we win. How hard can it be? ] Rein said
[ Quite hard. I think you just want to enter it to see what it's like. Well, I agree with your reasoning. We'll enter it. ] Ciel replied
.
.
Avadonn Palace, the throne room.
"So Ryker died... Was his body recovered?" The king said in a furious voice
Losing a Radiant Sorcerer was not a good look for the Royal Guards. They were too sparce in number to be disposed of so easily.
"I'm truly sorry, your majesty. We couldn't find his body anywhere, but his name has vanished from the Royal Guards' list."
"The list is a powerful artifact that keeps the loyalty of the Royal Guards in check. He couldn't have just escaped without permission." Oscar said
"Alright. Put a 100 Gold bounty on the man named Ciel. He has somehow managed to kill an entire team of our Awakened Soul Sorcerers."
"We can't afford to offend those people... Make this a priority." The king ordered
Oscar nodded and left the throne room to fulfill his task.