The bad news was that his teammate really had come carrying a Solar-Powered Battle Axe, and everything had blown up together. There was also another piece of good news, though. In the other party's impression, there seemed to be a familiar aura in a certain direction, likely belonging to that same teammate.
"At least they were not blown away together by me," Belial muttered. He let out a small sigh of relief and understood a bit more. It seemed that his teammate had come to this new map to secretly handle some business.
It was just that the strength gap was absurd. With that weak level, leaving everything else aside, they could not even beat the King Caesar he had seen earlier, so how did they dare come here? Maybe they had some reliance or backup plan, but Belial never believed such things mattered in front of absolute power.
He could more or less understand something else, though. That light, that young lady who seemed to be a Divine Emissary, or perhaps the god behind her, probably had some kind of connection with these dozens of old acquaintances that he did not understand. The only thing he was certain of was that they were all enemies.
Belial held grudges very firmly. From the beginning, when those hard-to-kill nuisances kept harassing him, to later trying to trick him into the Extra-Dimensional Space, every bit of it was remembered. "What I did not expect is that it really is this old routine. This Anguirus is probably one of the weaker ones among them."
Even with only a vague impression, Belial still felt cautious and narrowed his eyes slightly. These old acquaintances were not completely useless after all. Killing this one did not take much effort, but if dozens like this showed up, plus a few more at the level of that King Ghidorah, it would be extremely troublesome.
"It seems being careful is still the right choice," he said. "But this trip cannot be for nothing either." After all, this counted as a rare opportunity, so Belial first considered the backup he had left in Starter Village, as well as several Clone lurking in the dark.
As long as the opponents were not truly monster-class, there was no problem at all. Even Belial knew that every fight he got into caused far too much destruction. If he tried to kill all these old acquaintances outright, his own home would probably be flattened by the aftershocks halfway through.
More importantly, even adding himself up, he still did not have a teammate who could fight one-on-one with the other side. No matter how hard he carried, he could not manage it. But now things were different. This was someone else's territory, an empty and brand-new map where he could fight freely.
"Then I will see if I can take out a few more," he said. "That should reduce some pressure in the future." He grinned inwardly at the thought. "And if everyone has their own territory, that means I can have another good feast."
Belial's gaze locked onto a region deeper than the Abyss and the Void. It was even more blood-red and filled with vengeful souls, more chaotic than outer space, with almost none of the physical laws or common sense one would recognize.
He decided to fly toward the area that carried the familiar aura first. If he ran into anyone along the way, he would just keep killing. "It really is a coincidence. This old acquaintance happens to be one of the sponsors of that King Ghidorah. Let me see what the other sponsors look like."
A meteor-like mass of spiked Crystal began to accelerate again, pushing forward relentlessly. A thunderous crash followed, accompanied by panicked neighing from horses. The heavy carriage overturned, and Elvin immediately realized that the damn accident had truly happened.
She moved by instinct, following her uncle's training. One hand protected her head while she twisted her scabbard, using the wide blade to shield herself as she smashed through the other side of the carriage. Metal rang out as something struck her sword, and vibrations traveled up the hilt.
Blood sprayed along with screams, but Elvin had heard such sounds often enough in the past to stay calm. Even the pain from the unexplained wounds appearing on her body was something she forced herself to endure. Someone shouted in anger, demanding to know who dared attack the saintess of the Ventris family, before being cut off by a scream.
Cries of fear followed, and orders rang out to escort the candidate saintess and flee. From the shadows, blades and spears shot out like venomous snakes, tearing the convoy apart. Guards, white-clad clerics, and unlucky drivers fell into pools of blood.
"Where are the Holy Guard Knights? Protect the candidate saintess!" someone yelled. Another voice pointed toward Elvin, urging her to go protect the saintess. Elvin frowned, her expression turning ugly, and it was not because she cared about her own safety alone.
She had never even met that so-called candidate saintess. More importantly, the saintess's reputation was beyond terrible. Bullying others, committing all kinds of evils, being lazy and domineering were everyday behavior, and everyone knew how awful that girl from the Ventris family was.
She treated human lives like toys, and even her pet dog likely had several deaths on its account, not to mention her followers. Relying on family power, they committed every kind of wrongdoing. Elvin clearly remembered why her own family had been exiled to Demonkind, and it was all because of one careless remark from that girl.
Having almost crawled back from Hell, Elvin felt no goodwill toward her at all. As for the position of candidate saintess, it existed only because the girl had caused too much trouble. The family paid heavily to buy her a place, letting her lie low and polish a reputation that could never truly be cleaned.
But there was no choice. If Elvin wanted to revive her family, she had to climb using this connection and endure it for now. Once she entered the Church of Holy Light, she planned to use other ties to transfer into Daylight.
At that time, she would avenge the blood debt of the past and cleanse all the filth beneath Holy Light. Elvin scanned her surroundings, knowing she still had to find the saintess she had yet to see. A shrill laugh echoed through the chaos.
"Where do you think you are running?" a voice sneered. "Saintess? We are here to kill saintesses." Another ranted about unending wounds and cursed the false Holy Light, vowing to slaughter all under the secret of scars.
Amid strange screams and rampant Maniacal Laughter, a group of madmen rushed out. Their bodies were covered in scars, their robes tattered, and they wielded all kinds of weapons. Some even whipped themselves with spiked lashes while laughing, yet everyone present suddenly felt sharp pains as blood burst from their bodies.
"It is a cult attack!" someone shouted. The cultists roared back that they were the true faith, calling others thieves of light. A brutal melee broke out, but Elvin had no intention of joining it.
Her primary task from the Lord was exactly as they said, to protect that hateful saintess. Though only around sixteen years old, Elvin already had strength that was not weak even within Black Iron. As she prepared to leap out of the battlefield to search, a fast-moving black shadow suddenly lunged at her.
A tremendous force struck, sending her flying through more than ten trees. Her sword nearly left her grip. At the same time, her pale skin was torn open by Rend, more than ten wounds spreading as the pain rapidly intensified, forcing a sharp breath from her.
"Where do you think you are going?" a voice jeered. "You know where the saintess is, do you not?" A massive, grotesquely deformed scar cultist landed, grinning at Elvin. The familiar, dark, polluted Magic aura made her face turn pale as bad memories surfaced.
Without wasting words, Elvin adjusted her breathing and sprinted through the forest. The scar cultist laughed loudly behind her, charging like a war machine. Trees and obstacles were crushed aside like a bulldozer.
Elvin tried to strike back, but every wound she inflicted appeared equally on her own body, only making the monster behind her more excited. It was the same twisted, disgusting ability she had seen from Demonkind before. With no solution, she could only rely on speed and size to keep evading.
Then she caught a glimpse of white out of the corner of her eye. She pushed off the ground hard and lunged forward. "Danger!" she shouted.
A white-haired girl who had been running around foolishly and nearly crushed by a falling tree was grabbed and pulled along. She was startled at first, but when she looked up, she relaxed. "You finally came," she said, then quickly corrected herself. "I mean, thank you for your help."
A violent roar erupted behind them, followed by waves of sound and several strange blades made purely of flesh and bone. The white-haired girl raised her hand as if she had expected it, and a barrier of faint light formed, knocking all the blades away.