Chapter 269: The Greatsword of Crimson Lotus and Saul's Remnant Soul
The Blightfire Domain was vast, with many branching paths and numerous hidden areas that could only be accessed by activating mechanisms with special items.
As members of the Darkness Clan directly under Dareth, while Kisyugar and his group enjoyed many privileges, there were still some areas where they, like outsiders, had to follow the rules.
Only Saba, who had personally participated in the Black Tower's ritual to capture the temple and whose magic was deeply bound to the Black Tower, possessed true flight capabilities; the pair of demon sword user siblings could not.
But interestingly, in terms of familiarity with the terrain configuration of the Blightfire Domain's internal scenes, they collectively couldn't compare to Cheng Mouren, who was essentially cheating.
A more unique point was that Cheng Tian, in addition to the deep-water adaptability provided by his breastplate, also possessed lava environment adaptability. This meant he could step into lava environments without harm, becoming a stepping stone for others to reach special scene terrains, thereby bypassing obstacles and arriving early at places that normally couldn't be easily accessed.
Kisyugar, who had already undergone demonization and become a berserker Asura, naturally wouldn't let Cheng Tian go. The seemingly sixty Silver Raiders didn't actually manage to hold them back for very long.
As a sorcerer and a demon sword user, they both possessed powerful wide-area spells. The Silver Raider knights were quickly discovered to be able to withstand a maximum of three hits before dying on the spot. Kisyugar's Arctic Hell Ice Spear + Ebony's Flare Rush + Saba's Ice-Fire Breath almost wiped out most of the knights in one wave.
However, after clearing out all of Cheng Tian's summoned creatures, Saba silently retracted her ice-fire twin heads and immediately used spatial transfer to leave.
Finding a new set of clothes to cover herself was a higher priority for her than pursuing and tearing Cheng Tian's group apart.
Originally, Saba still wanted to continue the pursuit, already feeling a bit reckless, but the female spearman Ebony, also a woman, carelessly blurted out a remark.
"Aren't the members of the Goddess Exploration Team arriving soon as well?"
It was this sentence that made Saba's body tremble slightly, and then she made the decision to leave.
She couldn't be seen by any more people!
Meanwhile, the spearman's brother had already shouldered his battle-axe and chased after Cheng Tian and the others without looking back.
Watching her brother disappear into the distance and her colleague vanish, Ebony, who was in some ways the most normal member of the Darkness Clan, couldn't help but scratch her head. After a moment of hesitation, she chased after her brother, but without demonization, she was quickly left far behind and out of sight by him within a few breaths.
Thus, the situation where Cheng Tian and his group originally had to fight three bosses simultaneously was directly re-split into three parts, becoming a state where they only needed to face Kisyugar at most.
Of course, Cheng Tian, who had already fled, only knew that his Silver Guard had been quickly annihilated and was unaware that the boss trio had been separated.
It's worth noting that when Kisyugar entered his demonized state, his human signal disappeared from the Ten Commandments radar. This indirectly proved that demonized humans no longer belonged to the human race, temporarily switching to a demon or monster racial classification.
But without the Ten Commandments radar, Cheng Tian still had the Goddess radar to use.
Kisyugar's utterly undisguised ice magic, killing intent, and rage were all being released wildly without reservation, detectable by the Goddess from a great distance. However, at this moment, Kisyugar's mind was devoid of any other thoughts besides wanting to slay Cheng Tian, this despicable coward who fled without a fight.
He was incredibly fixated.
"The female sorcerer's aura is gone. The girl with the trident doesn't seem to have followed. Only that deeply demonized man is pursuing."
The Goddess Fina, maintaining her drone form, put her additional functions to use.
But no sooner had she spoken than she involuntarily froze, as an extremely familiar aura entered her Perception range.
Following her senses forward, at the end of the path was an altar. On the altar, a colossal red sword, seemingly carved from a single piece of red crystal, rested quietly. Cheng Tian, who was leading the way, had already arrived below the altar and was examining the red greatsword.
Fina instinctively clutched her chest, her face filled with sorrow, for she had recognized what it was.
The lineage of the Six Divine Priests, the Divine Priest of Power, the inherited divine artifact of the Tobah family—the Greatsword of Crimson Lotus.
It was also the exclusive weapon of "Saul Tobah," the captain of the Temple Knights who had bravely sacrificed himself by staying on the ground to block the invading demon army and buy time for the temple to ascend into the sky.
Clearly, after Saul's death, this greatsword was locked on the altar in the Blightfire Domain, its power absorbed, becoming one of the sources for the generation of lava in the current area.
Seeing the relic of an old friend treated in such a way, Fina's mood was naturally filled with sorrow and heaviness.
"...Fina... Your Excellency...?"
But at that very moment, a voice resonating directly from the mind was simultaneously transmitted into the minds of everyone present.
What followed was the apparition of a middle-aged man's phantom emerging from the Greatsword of Crimson Lotus. He was clad in intricate knight's armor, with an X-shaped scar in the center of his forehead. Just by his appearance, one could sense a series of qualities synonymous with a holy knight: dignity, benevolence, righteousness, and sincerity.
"Saul! Is that Captain Saul!?"
Flapping her wings several times, Fina landed in front of the man, tears welling in her eyes.
"Your Excellency Fina... you shouldn't risk entering such a dangerous place..."
Captain Saul of the Temple Knights wore a helpless expression, yet there was nothing he could do.
For now, he was merely a wisp of a remnant soul residing within the Greatsword of Crimson Lotus. Maintaining self-awareness and seeing the Goddess arrive was the limit of what he could achieve.
"I'm sorry..."
Fina, who had already realized her own problems during Cheng Tian's earlier verbal assault, couldn't offer a more constructive answer when facing Saul, who was reduced to a soul yet still showed helplessness.
The remnant soul Saul's gaze moved back and forth between the Goddess's waist and Bazett's waist. The thought of "Disrespect! Utter disrespect!" only flashed for a moment before being suppressed.
After all, he was already dead, and clinging to such illusory things now was indeed meaningless.
However, when his gaze shifted to Cheng Tian, who had already exited his Oni-Humanization state, his eyes first showed confusion, then quickly turned to surprise, and finally transformed into an unbelievable joy.
Because he, a mere remnant soul, saw a possibility in Cheng Tian!
A possibility that even as a remnant soul, he could still protect the Goddess's safety!