Myriad Devils-Chapter 100: Monster!

Hearing Seth’s suggestion, that was exactly what he attempted to do. A holographic box appeared before Anon, which he stuck his hand into. Taking out the pair of anklets, Anon observed the magic item with intrigue. Previously, the entire body of the treasure was night black, but now, it had a silvery glow with only droplets of black dots sprinkled onto it.

"These black droplets, they aren’t due to Bolan are they?" Anon looked to Seth and asked, though he was almost certain.

Nodding his head, Seth replied, "This transformation is caused by the Void Rain, but as you can see, the transformation isn’t even close to being completed."

There were only black droplets sprinkled throughout the body of the treasure, but the amount was very miniscule. It represented how close the Sky-grade magical item was to evolving, and very clearly, it wasn’t close whatsoever.

Hearing Seth’s affirmation, Anon’s eyes lit up with understanding.

If it was already an Arcane-grade treasure, it would be almost impossible for Anon to brand it due to his magical ability only being of the second world.

It would need, at the very least, a stellar fighter at the pinnacle of the second world, close to entering the third, to, after constant effort, finally refine the item.

Only a third world stellar fighter and higher could immediately brand an Arcane-grade magical item. With this knowledge, Anon understood that Seth wanted him to brand it now, because only whilst it was a Sky-grade item, could he refine it.

Still, it was slightly surprising to Anon, this type of suggesting coming from Seth.

"Do you not feel a desire for this? It’s a Sky-grade treasure well on its way to reaching the Arcane-grade. There are many stellar fighters in the second world willing to kill for such a life saving Sky-grade treasure you know." Anon said.

"There’s a great deal of misconceptions swirling around in your mind, dear Anon. You look down on me too much." Seth confidently smirked whilst looking at Anon.

"I have no need for this type of treasure." In his eyes, there was an arrogant light that glowed as he dismissed Anon’s thoughts.

"Is that so?" Anon slowly nodded before focusing on the ground beneath. The blood that pooled on the ground of the cave was omnipresent, and was as tall as ankle height.

Taking a seat, the anklets were on either palm of his hand. Shortly after, he closed his eyes, focusing intently as his spirit commanded stellar cosmic energies.

Seth silently observed Anon for a while.

Then, his gaze shifted to the surroundings. Besides the great amount of blood, the cave was relatively empty

"This isn’t blood... Though it has all the properties of blood, there’s no beast, injured. " Seth mused to himself, "Obviously, it’s Red Water, but is it that a beast is yet to cross paths with this place? We’ve come across Void Rain and Red Water, but only one had been found by a beast?"

Red Water, similar to Void Rain, was a natural treasure. The only difference being, obviously, one was a mystic treasure that humans could utilize, and the other being poisonous to humans, useful only to magical items and divine weapons.

Nonetheless, whether it be Red Water or Void Rain, if a beast general or a creature even stronger was to locate them, it would establish the place where it resided as its home. Seth closed his eyes and thought hard about this for some time.

Then, Seth glanced at the ground before stooping. He quickly assumed a mediative posture, soaking his pants in the process.

’It makes no sense to let Anon alone benefit from this.’ A grin played on his lips for a short time.

Closing his eyes, he controlled his breathing, and before long, he slowly emptied his mind.

Soon after, his breathing was even and his heartbeat began releasing a rhythmical sound. And whilst Seth began meditating, Anon was focused on branding the Sky-grade magical item.

His spirit commanded stellar cosmic energy to assist it as it drew out power from his principle. This power then entered the atmosphere, melding with the Sky-grade treasure.

The moment the golden light oozing from Anon’s palms met with the magical item, a dark aura exploded out of the item and spilled into the surroundings.

’Remnants of Bolan!’ Anon immediately identified what this was, frowning slightly.

But this aura only permeated the air for a few seconds before the golden light slowly but surely began to chip away at it.

And when all of Bolan’s aura was dispersed, the golden light began attaching itself to the Sky-grade anklets.

The silvery light it oozed subtly changed whilst the silver color on its body, decorated with black droplets, began shinning with a different color.

However, whilst Anon was focused on branding this treasure, and Seth was focused on meditating, a slight change was subtly taking place in their surroundings.

The calm surface of the red water began to tremble, a faint ripple spreading outward akin to the whispers of an impending storm.

Not originating from either of the stellar geniuses, this ripple met with another, causing more and more ripples to form in the red water.

Though they did not yet sense this, the red water became slightly more chaotic.

At first, it was barely noticeable, but some distance away resided a small eddy swirling lazily.

But as the current converged, Anon, who was focused on branding the magical item, had no choice but to hum with confusion and shoot open his eyes!

At that time, the red water began twisting and churning, drawing in the small pebbles and rocks in the surroundings, like a starved predator.

From the depths of the cave, a murky darkness began to seep out, contrasting sharply with the shimmering surface of the red water.

Forming from the gentle gurgles of the red water were low ominous sounds, hums, or growls.

Permeating the air of the cave was a crackling tension as the temperatures slowly dropped.

A chill ran down Anon’s spine.

He couldn’t help but click his tongue in annoyance.

As the small whirlpool some distance away began shaping up, it widened, the water curling inward with increasing ferocity. It almost appeared as if the water was bowing down, welcoming a foreign presence that was about to make an appearance from the forming whirlpool.

Anon glanced at Seth who was lost in a state of meditation, before then shifting his gaze toward the Sky-grade magical item in his hands which he was yet to fully brand. It was something that, at this current moment in time, was unusable for him.

At that time, though Bolan hadn’t branded it, his master would’ve prepared a means for it to be used when he was in danger. On the other hand, this was not a treasure given to Anon, so naturally, there was no higher power that had made it possible for him to utilize it before he refined it.

’So something like this really chose to happen when Seth enters meditation?’ Anon shook his head in disbelief.

The magical item in his hand transformed into two streams of blue light that flew into the bracelet wrapped around his wrist.

’Beast general?’ Anon sighed, ’If it’s a beast general, then I’ll be in one big mess. At the same time, it makes no sense attempting to escape.’ Anon thought this whilst glancing at the flood that he was basically in the center of.

Currently, him and Seth were in the ’domain’ of this creature, so running away truly made no sense.

’If this is that creature’s blood, then there’s no way that we can escape.’ Anon thought, ’And even if I could, what about him?’ Anon glanced at Seth.

Truthfully, abandoning Seth was something that he had thought of.

If a scenario where death was inevitable but there was a way of escape, then he, Anon, held no qualms in abandoning Seth.

Currently though, as much as things were setting up to be dark, so much so that escape seemed neigh impossible, it was because escape appeared improbable that Anon didn’t think it made sense attempting to abandon Seth.

’If a battle is already written down, destined, then what I need to do is; protect Seth for as long as possible. When he awakens, he’ll have to figure it out from there. Most probably, he’s already in the third layer, so if this truly is a beast general, then only he has a chance of defeating it, no matter how small that chance might be.’ Anon thought.

At the same time, from the center of the whirlpool, a shadowy figure slowly began taking shape.

At first, it was difficult to make out, with chaotic energies in the air causing debris, rubble, and red water to splash and swirl in the air, but eventually, the humanoid entity became more and more clear.

’Rather than defeat it, we have a chance of escaping when Seth awakens.’ Anon concluded. His gaze was fixated on the creature some distance away.

As the debris, rubble, and red water cleared and fell back into the flood, and the creature’s image became more visible, what appeared before Anon’s eyes was a crimson behemoth!

It was a towering, monstrous creature resembling a giant bear, with its body being composed of swirling blood and flesh.

Then,

"Roar!!!"

With a single roar, it caused the atmosphere to tremble.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the walls of the cave, their dark fissures snaking ominously as jagged pieces of the ceiling trembled violently.

A low, rumbling sound reverberated through the air, a powerful wave that seemed to resonate deep within the very stone.

With each pulse, fragments of rock shuddered, loose stones teetering precariously on the edge before finally giving way.

Blood trickled from Anon’s ears as his head buzzed. But he barely managed to retain his thinking capability, taking several steps back whilst evading falling pieces of rubble.

At the same time, the monster a distance away from him, took a single step forward...