Mystical Journey

“The situation is not good…” Xander muttered while hiding behind the truck door. The special heavy truck’s doors were strong enough to block the normal bullets flying around.

In this situation, not even he dared to charge in and start a killing spree. He could sense it if there were people aiming at him but if it was a stray bullet, he could not sense it whatsoever. In that case, he would not even know how he died.

Without anyone noticing, two black shadows flashed by and quickly dived into the back of a truck in the middle of the line.

Inside the dark truck was two slender figures.

“Is it here?”

“There is no mistake. Let’s see what kind of secret the Combat Club is protecting that these people would chase after them so tirelessly,” a man chuckled and reached his hand out to touch the box with a hole.

At the instance when he touched the box.

Boom!!!!!

A horrifying presence burst out from the box.

No! It was like an eruption had occurred, as if a volcano had spontaneously erupted at his touch. It was as though there was a being that could not wait to squeeze out this box.

“Take off the mask….I will give you an unimaginable power and wealth…” a voice in the man’s mind crooned to him.

“Take off…take off…take off…” the voice kept echoing inside the man’s mind.

“Mudin!”

A woman’s shout sounded beside his ear but the voice seemed as though it came from a place very far away.

His whole body trembled as his fingertips touched a thin and somewhat coarse mask. The mask seemed to be full of little holes.

The voice tempting him echoed in his mind and brought him a sense of pleasure.

“Mudin! What happened to you?!” a woman’s voice sounded anxiously beside his ear.

The man was tugged from behind and his hand broke its contact with the box.

He came back to his senses.

“I…I was nearly controlled!!!”

This…What was this thing!!??

He took a few steps back with his eyes full of fear while staring at the box.

A pair of blood-shot giant red eyes slowly emerged from the dark within the truck. The eyes were incomparably tempting and dream-like. It did not have pupils that a human would have and had slightly golden vertical pupils instead.

“Come… Cute little fellow… Take off the mask and I shall bestow upon you power beyond anything that you can imagine…” a voice crossed over the space and echoed directly inside the minds of two Blood Breeds.

At this time, even the female Blood Breed had gone pale, and her body trembled unconsciously while she tried to break free from the terrifying power that controlled them. They did not know how, but the blood inside their bodies was boiling and out of their control.

“Go!!!”

A circle of blood lines spread out beside the woman and sent both of them flying away. They slammed into the side of the truck’s door and crashed on to the dark road before they took off.

“No!!! Come back!! Come back here!!!”

Only the two Blood Breeds could hear the ferocious roar. They could feel the huge temptation behind them as if it was their fate and destiny.

“Don’t look back!! Damn it! What the hell is that!!?” the male Blood Breed’s eyes and nose were bleeding. He did not dare to turn back and madly dashed away with the female Blood Breed, leaving afterimages behind.

****************

Inside the underground palace in the distant.

Garen narrowed his eyes.

“Someone touched the mask…”

‘Never mind that, that thing is getting more and more troublesome. Even if the mask is suppressing it, as long as someone approached it rashly, they would be contaminated by the curses of the Void Creatures that you hunted down. Once the curse activated, a number of people must die before it stops. Taking away the mask is just asking for trouble,’ Black Sethe sounded as though he couldn’t care less.

Garen nodded slightly and continued to walk.

Somehow, there was a strange presence moving in front and the smell of blood drifted in the rough passage.

“Looks like I have to hurry up and leave this place. I need to collect all the masks and handle the problems here as soon as possible,” Garen said.

‘That sounds about right.’

Garen sped up his pace. Although the speed of his pace seemed slow, each of his steps crossed a distance of more than ten meters. His speed was comparable to a speeding sports car. There was no sign of him crashing into the passage despite his lightning speed.

*******************

Inside a hall full of magma-filled cracks.

In an inconspicuous stone passage, AG walked in slowly with his cane and scanned the hall with a passionate and feverish gaze.

When he saw the huge round garden in the middle of the hall, the light in his eyes became brighter and his throat trembled visibly a few times.

Behind him, Nasira and Manasi walked out. Both of them seemed much better after temporarily stabilizing their injuries through some means.

“Where are those people from just now?” Nasira asked in a low voice.

“Right here, beside the garden,” AG whispered, “They should be trapped in here too. They can’t get out but if they can avoid the danger effectively, they can depend on the food in the garden to survive. Seems like they used this method to survive.”

Following AG’s line of sight, Manasi pointed in the air with one of his hands. A red light spread out into a triangular mirror, revealing the situation of the three people beside the garden.

Those three covered their faces but the black clothes on their body were ragged and their white hair was exposed. Apparently, they were not young people. However, at this time, their eyes were closed and they were murmuring as though they were praying for something while facing the garden.

The garden was just like a normal garden, with red and blue flowers and green leaves. The only weird part was that the sizes of the garden’s plants were much too big to be normal.

A common blue flower in there spanned a few meters in diameter. Slightly larger ones were seven or eight meters in diameter, big enough to shelter more than ten people.

Other than that, the greenery of the whole garden seemed out of place on the dense, magma-filled cracks on the ground, as though it was not affected by the horrifyingly high temperature and the poisonous fumes.

Boom!!

Suddenly, AG leaped forward, avoiding a black tentacle that was as thick as a barrel.

The tentacle was full of mouth-like suckers that were constantly sucking, giving off a horrifying feeling.

The tentacle swept to the side and mercilessly smashed into Manasi, who did not manage to evade in time.

Manasi had only managed to take out a short knife and block in front of his body, but the knife was broken by the tentacle without it suffering the smallest scratch. With a huge force, the tentacle smashed against his body.

The huge force slammed him directly into the stone wall and formed a crater.

Manasi’s forte was his strength and defense but at this moment, it was useless when facing the tentacle. He was just like a toy that had been sent flying.

AG’s eyes revealed a sharp glint. He was nearly attacked by this thing previously from the back and hurt his body. Now, this tentacle came after him again.

His cane moved slightly.

“Slow!”

A twisted transparent force fell on the tentacle, making its speed slow down until Nasira could catch up with it.

“Burn!”

AG shouted again.

In an instant, the surface of the tentacle was covered in dark bloody blisters, as though it had been burnt.

AG lifted his cane again.

“Corrosion!!” Veins stood out on his face as he shouted; he was using all of his strength to cast so many skills.

The top of the cane shone with black light and immediately dissipated.

On the other side, as his voice fell, the tentacle began to rot and melt like a candle, dripping black liquid on the ground.

The tentacle immediately released Manasi and intended to shrink back but to no avail. Nasira at the side took the opportunity to chop down and directly split the tentacle into two. The first half of the tentacle melted completely into black liquid and flowed down into the cracks on the ground before evaporating into black smoke and disappeared.

Both of them finally heaved a sigh of relief.

AG held his cane expressionlessly and ordered: “You guys go to the side of the garden and help me search for a flower with sharp petals. The flower has a layer of red and a layer of blue. If you guys find it, notify me immediately…”

Before he finished speaking, two shadows rushed out from the hole behind them with a speed that the naked eye could not follow and appeared instantly behind AG.

With the red light from the magma, both Nasira and Manasi could clearly see that it was two more tentacles that were darker than the previous one.

The snake-like tentacles bound AG viciously and tightened.

Kacha!

The sound of broken bones came from inside AG’s body, as he opened his mouth and screamed. Black light shone again on top of the cane, spreading a huge shockwave outwards and causing the two tentacles to become loose. He took the opportunity to escape but there was blood leaking from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

“Go!!” He shouted. Black light shone all over his body and covered both Nasira and Manasi and then the trio morphed into a black light arrow speeding towards the garden.

When the light arrow was mid-flight, another tentacle caught up and mercilessly crashed into the tail of the arrow.

The light arrow came crashing down to the ground at the side of the garden and turned back into AG, Nasira, and Manasi. Just as he stood up, AG threw up a mouthful of blood.

“So strong!! If not for the ability to turn into light, we’ll be in big trouble this time!” he frowned. His old face became older and more wrinkled.

“Be careful, the garden is not totally safe. I’ve done some research on this place. Anil’s Garden should have three terrifying existences, the Scavenger, Gatekeeper, and Gardener. The ones we met should be the Scavengers but as long as we don’t go too deep, we should not encounter the other two monsters. If my judgment is correct, this place should be our opportunity to get out of here.”

“Opportunity?” Nasira’s mouth twitched while looking at AG throwing up mouthful after mouthful of blood. She was afraid that AG might actually die from throwing up so much blood. “You… Are you okay?”

“I won’t die…” AG said while nodding, “We can’t wait for Garen anymore. We’ll start right away and find that flower. That’s the key to getting out of here.”