Chapter 57

The situation was getting worse and worse. More and more cracks were appearing on the pillar of light and from them, lesser abyssal horrors were floating out, their dark mist flowing everywhere.

I need to do something fast or the portal would attract larger creatures.

Noah thought, channelling his mana in his hands. He hadn't expected things to move like this.

Few monsters getting attracted by the ritual? Maybe even a few abyssal creatures trying to break through from the small portal he had originally created? That would have been expected, but right now, the portal was hijacked.

He could feel the volatile abyssal mana all around the chamber, getting pumped into the portal to make it bigger and bigger.

Cursing The Abyssal One for the nth time, Noah jumped back as a lesser abyssal horror shot up his tendril at him.

More and more tendrils came as the creature tried to bind him. Unfortunately for it, he wasn't in the mood for games as he clutched the tendrils and burned them to crisp.

The lesser abyssal horror cried out and before it could do anything else, Noah sent a fireball towards him. It engulfed him, ending the monster's life in a matter of seconds.

Notifications appeared in front of him, but the experience rewarded was too meagre for someone like him. Even if he killed a hundred of these, he doubted he would level up.

Shaking his head, he looked towards the pillar of light that was surging with energy. The magical dissonance seemed to be just increasing by the second.

“Try to hold these ugly things. I will try to stabilise the structure,” he said, looking towards Seth and Rebecca.

He walked towards the pillar of light, looking at the symbols. He knew destroying them would do nothing now as the ritual had already taken effect, but he could build a barrier around the pillar of light to contain the monsters and wait for the mana to run out from the portal.

Deciding on the course of action, he muttered the spell.

Barriers were one of the first things he had learned since losing his head was the last thing he wanted. They had served him well, but it would be the first time he would do something like this.

As mana waved between his hands, he wrapped it around the portal. A barrier appeared on the base of the ritual circle and he poured more mana into it, scaling it up until it covered the whole of it.

More cracks appeared and tendrils shot out of them, but with the barrier in place, they could simply whimper in defeat.

He used another barrier on top of it, trying to layer it up with added protection in case a stronger monster tried to break through.

Just then, he felt something tugging his heart.

He stopped, looking around, but suddenly the world went black. One moment he was standing in a cave and the next, he was floating up in a world filled with darkness.

He felt things floating around him, but there was no source of light. When he tried to use a spell, he realised he wasn't able to tap into his mana pool.

“What is going on?” He frowned, looking straight ahead. His eyes focused on one place in the darkness and they narrowed. “The Abyssal One.”

“A mortal found me out. Impressive.”

It spoke, opening up its eyes. Countless red eyes stared at Noah as chills ran down his spine. It's voice was something he had never heard before, like someone speaking a thousand languages at the same time. It was eerie and made him cover his ears, but he looked at the monster without any fear on his face.

He knew it wasn't real. The nothingness around him was manufactured, a vision to shake him.

“Look, I know you love me, but you don't have to show yourself like this when I'm busy.”

“You have a fool mouth, mortal. I don't expect anything else of your kind,” it said, the eyes moving all around Noah, surrounding him.

The world of darkness lit up from its presence, showing a fractured realm filled with things he didn't know where to start describing. It almost felt like a twisted nightmare.

He kept a check on its eyes as he replied, “You say that, but you still want to occupy the body of a mortal.”

“It won't be a mortal once I capture it. It would be something much more, a being that even that mortal would be proud of. If only you don't stand in my way.”

It looked at Noah, eyes boring into him. He understood what it meant to say. Why he had shown himself to him when it had never happened before in his fight against the Seven Seals.

It was desperate.

“I will always stand in your way. Do you think I will let you destroy my world?” He asked and the eyes stopped moving.

“I don't wish to destroy it. I wish to capture it. You don't understand the potential of Valera. I do. I can bring out it's potential under my rule, better than the gods and the World System. You can be one of my servants, help me out with my conquest. I can give you powers beyond what you desire.”

Noah almost felt like laughing. No, he laughed as the eyes floated right in front of his face. He stopped and felt like puking just by staring at them. It was like looking into a burning, dark world.

“I'm sorry, but you are too ugly. I would have given it more thought if you weren't a ball of hideous cosmic amalgamation.”

“A pity,” it said and tendrils shot out towards Noah. He flinched, but realised he couldn't move. Without the help of his mana, he was powerless here.

“Your world is just a cycle of war and suffering. I could have ended it all, under my reign. Unfortunately, you humans can't accept someone other than your kind ruling. Now, you are going to—”

“Stop this bullshit. You can't do anything,” Noah said, cutting him off. With one of his hands, he slapped away the tendrils. When he touched it, it vanished like it was never there. “You are still trapped in the abyss, looking over a vast dimension of unsightly creatures. A vision isn't enough to harm me.”

“You are insolent!”

More tendrils shot out at him, but Noah simply closed his eyes. He felt things passing through his body, but there was no pain.

Once he opened his eyes, a strange taste filled his mouth and his mind felt cloudy, but he was back to the cave.

That was something.

He frowned, looking around and gathering himself. The vision had left him in a state of exhaustion.

Darkness was removed and he stood just a few steps away from the surging pillar of light. He could see cracks already forming on his barrier as more and more lesser abyssal creatures broke out in between gaps.

It seemed like his meeting was The Abyssal One had taken too much time.

“Noah, why are you just standing there?” A voice called him out. Looking back, it was Rebecca who blocked a few monsters by her barrier.

“Sorry,” he said, then spoke in a whisper. “I was just talking to someone.”

Shaking his head, he steeled himself and decided to force the portal close first.

“Let me close the portal now.”

***

Tendrils lashed out at Seth as he poured abyssal mana into his dagger. He dodged one of them and slid back, before slashing.

A horizontal swing of the dagger cut a few tendrils as the monster cried out in a shrill voice.

Like before, he could harm the tendrils with his dagger. It was probably because of his abyssal mana, but that just made him the natural enemy of the lesser abyssal horrors as they aimed for him.

Several tendrils shot at him again. He cut a few of them, but one of them slid out of the length of his dagger and grasped his legs.

“Shit!”

Seth cried out as the monster pulled and he fell, a small rock twisting itself on his back.

He tried to stand up, but the tendrils were all out for him. There were more than twenty of them, aiming to twist his body and kill him. He swatted one of them, but another one hit him right in his shoulders, pushing him back down.

He decided to use Flickering Step to run away, but just then, a barrier covered him, protecting him from all the tendrils.

They tried to attack it as he glanced at Rebecca who was blocking two monsters with another one of her barriers.

“Seth, I will protect you,” she said, gritting her teeth. “Try to finish them off before my mana runs out.”

He nodded. With the protection of a shield, he hardly had anything to fear as he cut off more tendrils that lashed out at him.

Several of them fell on the ground with a swipe of his blade, but more and more of them came.

He noticed they were growing back again and the barrier had started to have cracks on it. A lesser abyssal horror screeched as it slammed onto the barrier, a big tear forming on it.

Its eyes looked at Seth with anger as his mind ran.

I need to think of a way to kill them. Just cutting the tendril won't do anything.

He focused and thought about what he knew of the creatures. He thought back to the battle of the abyssal horror and king centry. Immediately, he realised something as he looked at the eyes of the lesser abyssal horror that was almost biting off the barrier.

Not wasting any time, he stabbed his dagger surging with power into the monster's eye. It broke the barrier and the lesser abyssal horror cried out, squirming, but Seth dug deep until it was on the ground.

Tendrils flapped around, but soon it was dead as a notification rang out.

Ignoring, he looked at the rest of the creatures. Eight of them were left now.

“Rebecca, protect me from behind,” he shouted out and rushed at the monsters.

Tendrils flapped around him, trying to grab his arms and legs, but he cut through them, using Flickering Step to phase over large distances and appear right besides the lesser abyssal horror.

It wasn't able to react in time as his blade dug into its eyeballs, dark blood sprayed everywhere, but he didn't stop until the monster was dead.

There was no moment to rest as another tendril grabbed his leg. One more came from the side, but a barrier protected him.

Seth cut through the tendril holding him and jumped right at the monster.

Like that, he and Rebecca kept fighting off the creatures. Her barrier protected him several times, but he also got hurt due to the sheer number of them.

It seemed like each monster had more than five of these tendrils and with regeneration, it was truly a tough job to hold them all back.

Countless times he got hit on his back and shoulders. One monster even tried to twist his left arm. He managed to cut it off in time, saving his arm before killing off the monster.

“Noah, how much more time would it take?” He yelled at Noah with his back against a barrier and fighting three lesser abyssal horrors at the same time.

They were the last of the bunch and fortunately, more of them hadn't been able to pass through the portal.

“A minute more,” he said, blocking the pillar of light with his barriers and carving some sort of runes to seal it.

Seth frowned, using Savage Flurry. His blade swished at all the tendrils before digging itself in the eye of one of the creatures. Blood poured out as another tendril hit his cheeks.

Seth got pushed back and bit his lips, but he caught the tendril and pulled at the lesser abyssal horror, slamming its body against the barrier before stomping on its eye.

Sticky, dark blood made him wince as he splashed all over his legs. Seth ignored it and used Flickering Step for one last time, appearing right behind the last horror.

A tendril managed to lash his back. He flinched, but poured more mana into his blade and ended the life of the lesser abyssal horror.

Looking down at its death body, he took a sigh of relief. The barrier broke into pieces of translucent mana particles and he took one last look around the cave before flipping down on the ground.

“That was something,’’ he said, looking over his notifications and taking out a potion to heal himself. His back and shoulders stung due to the whips from the tendrils.

You have defeated a Level 25 Lesser Abyssal Horror!

You have gotten experience!

You have defeated a Level 23 Lesser Abyssal Horror!

You have gotten experience!

Like that, there were several of these notifications, but he only cared about what was there at the end of it.

You have reached Level 31. You have gotten the right to move to the next Rank. Do you want to evolve your class?

Yes/No

It seemed like the tussle with the lesser abyssal horrors had given him the push he needed to rank up. He had also gotten two levels instead of one.

After all, there was nothing more challenging than killing void beings for experience.

“Seth, are you okay?” Rebecca's voice called him out and looked up at her.

She didn't look particularly injured thanks to her barrier, but she looked pale. Her shoulders were hunched and she seemed to be panting.

It seemed like she had exhausted her mana pool.

“Yes, I'm. Did you level up too?”

“Yes, I did. Level 25 now.” She smiled despite the exhaustion.

“I ranked up—”

As he was speaking, his attention was taken away by the pillar of light surging in strength. Both of them looked over it as Noah supposedly carved patterns in the air and threw them against the portal.

Cracks were all around the barrier he had created to contain the void creatures from coming into this world.

With a flash of light, Seth noticed the pillar of light shrinking. Its energy was leaking in the whole chamber as it got smaller and weaker.

He heard the shrills of several lesser abyssal horrors before the pillar of light vanished, the patterns on its base losing its light.

“Finally, it's done!”

Noah said and turned around.