Neck of the Neck, Underground Ruins
"Who are you?"
The Death God's voice was tinged with coldness. Even though Marko knew he wouldn't be directly attacked, he still felt like he was being watched by an ancient beast.
However, Marko quickly suppressed the fear in his heart. He still had a chance. As long as he continued to level up, he would eventually be able to contend with the Death God and others, or even eliminate them directly.
At this moment, a golden light suddenly shone from Marko's body. This light brought him warmth and dispelled the fear in his heart. This was the effect of the Guardian Angel skill inherent in Marko's body.
Marko then turned his gaze to the phantom before him, a hint of wariness rising in his heart. He hadn't expected that a phantom with so little power would have such an impact on him.
However, recovering, Marko had regained his initial composure and confidence. He also had the desire to compete with the Death God.
"I am the master of this world, and in the future, I will eliminate your kind. The Ed People have made this world riddled with holes, and I am here to eliminate you scourges."
Marko stared at the phantom in front of him, speaking each word deliberately.
Behind Marko, a faint figure appeared. This was Marko's image as the God King in God's Kingdom, radiating boundless anger, as if it wanted to tear the Death God's phantom apart.
"You! You're only a little stronger than those ants. My incompetent people are enough to eliminate you. I'll watch you quietly. If you're lucky enough to survive, I'll take action myself and make your head a part of my collection."
After saying this, the Death God's phantom vanished before Marko's eyes, leaving no trace.
"Then we'll wait and see! Let's see who becomes the other's collection!"
Marko said to where the Death God had disappeared. This guy didn't even give Marko a chance to retort, and indeed seemed just as described: a strong and arrogant fellow.
However, these Ed People did have the capital to be arrogant. They had destroyed many civilizations and were now the masters of this world. In their eyes, the many life races of this world were just toys in their hands.
They had long been accustomed to feeling superior, and didn't worry about any existence that could threaten them. Because in their eyes, the final victor would only be them.
However, the more arrogant and treacherous the Ed People became, the more opportunities Marko would have to eliminate them. Pride and betrayal were ingrained in their very nature, deep within their consciousness. These traits would become their undoing in the future.
"Marko! What was that just now? I felt no life force around it. Are those the Ed gods you mentioned?"
Moon Shadow suddenly appeared beside Marko, taking his hand and asking gently. She could sense his strong emotional fluctuations.
Marko composed himself, turned, and looked at Moon Shadow and the women who had gathered around. He smiled and said:
"Don't worry about me. It's just that it was the first time I truly encountered these Ed gods. My emotions were disturbed by its power, and I was a little scared. I thought I was fearless, but I didn't expect that there would still be a day when I would feel fear."
Mu, however, was somewhat displeased. She instantly transformed into her Fallen Angel form and said to Marko:
"Marko! We will definitely eliminate these guys. They don't know what they are up against. These beings of chaos will ultimately die by the judgment of order!"
Then, Mu brandished her Sword of Judgement and cleaved the stone base of the altar in front of her in two. This altar was the medium the Death God had just used to reside in.
At this moment, Mu's entire body erupted with a terrifying aura. Powerful energy constantly expanded outwards. She spoke to the void with dissatisfaction:
"Damn Ed People! One day, I will find your true forms. I will extract your souls and make you suffer the eternal torment of hellfire. You have angered Mu, and I will make you regret your choices today."
Seeing Mu already in a berserk state, Marko quickly went over and embraced her. Her current situation was extremely dangerous; the power within her body was on the verge of being suppressed.
Marko had previously discovered that Mu also possessed a super-powerful force within her body, but she was simply unable to use it now. The world consciousness was completely controlled by the Ed Gods. Once the power within Mu went berserk, she would likely be expelled.
Under the control of the Ed Gods, the world consciousness would expel powerful individuals to the dimensions where they resided. This way, they could eliminate all nascent threats in their initial stages.
Meif also possessed this kind of power, though it wasn't as strong. Moreover, the light power within her body seemed to be close to the origin of this world. Aside from being unable to use it, there were basically no issues.
Under Marko's soothing, Mu's emotions gradually calmed down. She looked at Marko apologetically, and Marko shook his head, indicating that she shouldn't mind.
After that, Marko and the others began to descend to the lower levels of the ruins. There was nothing special in the first room; only some architectural remnants and murals remained.
This underground city had seven levels. The spaces got larger with each level down. However, it was strange. Marko and his group had descended layer by layer without encountering any problems. They hadn't even found the corrupted tribesmen and animal companions that Shali had mentioned.
Just as Marko was about to activate his perception, the Crystal Spiders exploring ahead sent out a series of hisses. During the previous battle, three of the ten Crystal Spiders Marko had summoned were killed.
The remaining seven were sent ahead as cannon fodder by Marko. These magical constructs possessed a simple form of consciousness. It was different from the sentience of elemental creatures; they seemed more like beasts.
Marko's "Understanding of All Things" skill allowed him to understand what they were saying. He knew they were calling for help and issuing a warning.
Following the Crystal Spiders' calls, Marko arrived at the entrance to the last level of the basement. The spiders were attacking a Crystal Giant Snake. Scattered on the ground were the corpses of four Crystal Spiders.
These corpses were broken and tattered, having lost their vitality. They seemed to have been strangled to death by the Crystal Giant Snake. Snakes were terrifying attackers; their prey was usually squeezed to death.
The giant snake was coiled at the entrance. Although it had killed four Crystal Spiders, its body was tightly bitten by the surviving Crystal Spiders.
Under Marko's guidance, the remaining three Crystal Spiders focused their attack on the Crystal Giant Snake's head. Dannie then cast a dark magic spell at the Crystal Giant Snake. The Crystal Giant Snake, whose abilities had been greatly reduced, lost its powerful strength and agile body.
Finally, under the siege of the Crystal Spiders, the Crystal Giant Snake had its head bitten off directly, and its body was then devoured by the Crystal Spiders.
These Crystal Spiders possessed the same devouring skill as the Crystal Flying Dragons, allowing them to grow by consuming crystals and their own kind. However, their vitality wasn't as robust as the Crystal Flying Dragons; often, they couldn't even survive long enough to grow and become strong.
After devouring their own kind and the giant snake's corpse, the three Crystal Spiders seemed to have grown a bit, and their bodies looked more agile. Then, Marko commanded them to smash through the entrance sealed by crystal.
After entering the last level of this underground relic, Marko and the others felt as though they had arrived in a crystal world. Everything inside was encased in crystal; the pillars, floors, and walls were almost entirely made of crystal.
Moreover, the crystal here seemed to emit a faint white light. Under the mutual reflection of the crystals, the light illuminated the underground space, making it bright and clear.
Cold gusts of wind blew, making everyone feel as if they had arrived in winter. The sand said that an underground river flowed here, and the giant roots of the fishbeam tree would draw water here.
The group continued forward and saw the large and small crystal pillars deep within the space. Upon closer inspection, they realized that they contained the Children of the Forest and some animals.
In the very center of these crystal pillars stood a huge crystal pillar, and inside it seemed to be a humanoid creature.
Marko sensed that many of the creatures inside seemed to still be alive, although their condition appeared to be somewhat weakened, as if their power had been drained.
"Boom... Crack..."
"Haha... I've finally found you! Let's see why the master values you so much! Human!"
Just as Marko and the others were feeling puzzled, the massive crystal pillar suddenly exploded, sending smoke billowing through the space.
Following that, everyone heard a burst of maniacal laughter. The speaker's Common Tongue was flawless, and the meaning was perfectly clear to them.
"Boom... Crack..."
Then, a blue sphere of light shot towards Marko and the others at an incredible speed. Everyone scrambled to dodge. After the blue sphere exploded, it transformed into a field of crystal spikes, resembling an irregular, spiky crystal ball with razor-sharp edges that glinted menacingly.
After the smoke cleared, a humanoid creature appeared in the center. Its entire body was covered in irregular crystal spikes, and it was about the same height as the sand. Its right hand was exceptionally gruesome and terrifying.
It was about the height of a Crystal Person, with vein-like protrusions running across its surface, and a faint, blue energy liquid flowing within.
The Crystal Person hovered in the air, seemingly surrounded by three, egg-sized crystals. Seeing its attack had failed, it launched another blue energy sphere towards Marko.
Just as Marko was preparing to retaliate with crystal magic, Meif directly swung her sword, cleaving the energy sphere in two. The holy flames on the Sword of Judgement instantly incinerated the crystal, preventing it from exploding.
The Crystal Person was slightly stunned to see its attack fail. Dannie seized the opportunity and used dark magic, hoping to reduce the Crystal Person's combat power and status.
However, the dark purple magic circle had no effect; it seemed to be blocked by some kind of energy field, similar to that of the Crystal Giant Snake.
Marko clearly felt that the force field was spherical, perfectly covering the Crystal Person's entire body, causing all the subsequent attacks from the women to miss.
This thing was incredibly fast, as if it possessed the skill of Teleportation. If it weren't for Marko's own decent speed, he would have been attacked.
The two sides were locked in a stalemate. In this space, because of the abundance of crystal pillars, the women were somewhat constrained, unable to fully utilize their abilities.
Marko also saw this, and slowly lured the Crystal Person away from the many crystal pillars. Although the Crystal Person was very powerful, its goal seemed to be to kill Marko. Many times, in order to kill Marko, it would even charge forward while withstanding attacks.
This time, the Crystal Person directly broke through Mu's attack and rushed in front of Marko, a terrifying power seemingly gathering in its massive right hand.
"Boom... Hiss..."
Just as the energy in the Crystal Person's hand was about to erupt, the ground suddenly exploded. Three Crystal Spiders sprang up from below, spitting out a thick, viscous crystal liquid from their mouths.
This liquid, like glue, enveloped the Crystal Person, sticking it and its spherical protective force field directly to the crystals on the ground. Then, Marko and the Crystal Spiders quickly fled this area together.
"Boom..."
Two consecutive fireballs directly attacked the bound Crystal Person. With a violent explosion, the Crystal Person, with the force field around its body, charged towards Marko's location.
Marko then pulled out more than twenty "Enchanted Crystals" from his pocket and threw them all at the charging Crystal Person. After completing this, Marko activated the light magic "Teleportation" and teleported to another place.
Marko's light magic had reached an advanced level, and his Teleportation was almost instantaneous. The Crystal Person lunged, but missed completely. Before it could react, a barrage of lightning attacks struck it.
The Crystal Person desperately maintained its force field, defending against the assault, unaware of the three women closing in. After the "Thunderbolt Lightning" attack ceased…
Mu swung the Sword of Judgement, unleashing a pure hellfire attack that shattered the force field. Dannie's Hydra Whip followed, then Meif's Sword of Judgement. The shield crumbled bit by bit under the three women's combined assault.
The force field resembled a rotating sphere. From the moment Mu broke through, its destruction was inevitable. As expected, it was gradually depleted by the subsequent attacks.
Seeing the force field collapse, Dannie cast a dark magic spell. As the dark magic curse took effect, the Crystal Person's speed slowed, and its overall capabilities diminished.
"Swish… Boom…"
Mu and Meif swung their swords from both sides, severing the Crystal Person's head and right hand, respectively. The Crystal Person didn't even have a chance to scream before collapsing to the ground.
The Crystal Spiders immediately swarmed forward, beginning to devour its body. However, as one Crystal Spider reached the severed hand, the hand suddenly came alive, pressing down on the spider's head.
Subsequently, the giant hand began to dissolve, flowing into the Crystal Spider's body like a night entity. Immediately afterward, the unfortunate Crystal Spider's body began to contract and contort.
The spider's body shrank bit by bit, its "crystal flesh" inching inward. Then, a strange creature, half-human, half-spider, appeared before Marko and the others.
It opened its mouth and roared, the terrifying sound waves echoing through the space. Marko and the others instinctively covered their ears; the sound seemed to possess a special kind of magic.
Even someone as powerful as Marko couldn't withstand it. Finally, Meif, fighting through the discomfort, threw her Sword of Judgement like a boomerang at the spider-man.
A force field wall reappeared in front of the spider-man, perfectly blocking the attack from the Sword of Judgement and interrupting its assault.
Marko then realized that the attack wasn't just to affect them; it was also to summon its comrades. At this moment, a large number of crystal monsters crawled out from the depths of the crystal pillars.
These crystal monsters were about 4 meters tall on average, making the ones in the neck region look like children in comparison.
"Whoosh... Crack... Boom... Crash..."
The Elemental People's magic circles appeared on the battlefield one after another, making the still roaring Crystal Spider feel a sense of threat. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Marko immediately summoned elemental creatures.
With the elemental creatures' attacks, everyone gained a moment of respite. The Crystal Spider's attacks seemed to be focused on sound; its eerie and terrifying roar was, in a sense, the bane of all soul-based life.
That terrifying sound, which pierced directly into the soul, could instantly…
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