Darcel and Aniela pulled their bright green scimitars out of the corpses of the green robe men. Slowly their bodies slumped down the wall, leaving a blood trail in their wake.
Darcel and Aniela only indifferently looked on at the men's corpses and had then deactivated their bloodline state.
Upon doing so, however, Darcel and Aniela went entirely rigid.
Now that adrenaline wasn't pumping their veins, Darcel and Aniela felt the sweat pour down their brows. They were abruptly assaulted with a slightly tiring winded feeling.
"Fuuu….all these breakthroughs and new powers….combining it with our bloodline state is kind of draining. Reminds me of days when we first awaken our bloodline." Aniela breathed out in small little pants.
Although Darcel didn't find it as extreme as those days, he couldn't deny her words on it being a bit draining.
Nodding at Aniela, Darcel had told her, "I think we're going to need to revisit one of those Elemental rooms for training. For now, however….we have some bigger cases to solve."
Once finished talking, Darcel unhesitatingly crouched down to one of the green robe man's corpses. Dawning the man's ring finger was one blue spatial ring that he hadn't even had a chance to use in their fight.
Darcel had no qualms in messing with the dead and boldly took the man's blue spatial ring off from him.
Looking down on the spatial ring in his palm, Darcel proceeded to interject a small portion of his Nascent Qi and began erasing the green robe man's leftover aura.
At the same time, Aniela had also taken off the blue spatial ring from the other green robe man's corpse. She, too, had no qualms with corpse robbing and began erasing the man's leftover aura from the blue spatial ring.
It was a simple process for Darcel and Aniela. They at first were using purely Nascent Qi but to hasten this process, the duo decided to interject a small wisp of black flames inside the blue spatial ring.
Immediately then, the men's aura in the ring was swiftly erased.
"Oh, by the way, Aniela, you do still have that map you took from the Wrathful Clan, right?"
Darcel spoke up and asked as he just got done with making the spatial ring his and shoving it in his pocket.
Aniela stuffed the blue spatial ring into her pocket and then flashed her original purple spatial ring. She had fished out the original map that led her and Darcel on their long journey.
"Already right here! And I think I already know what plans you have brewing inside that cute head Darcy~." Aniela spoke with a magnetic allure that sent small electrifying shivers down Darcel's spine.
"Hm, I'm glad we're always on the same wavelength airhead. It's time to hunt some troublesome ghosts."
A slight chilling glint glazed over Darcel's eyes as he peered into the Darkness of the Demesne Grave.
….
Two bright, beautiful black Fire trails blazed through the profound Darkness of the Necropolis Woods. The black Fire trails quickly seared through the ground molting deep into soil under the dirt.
And the ones who made such beautiful black Fire trails were Darcel and Aniela, swiftly running through the Woods.
Though Darcel and Aniela didn't feel any faster while running, they did felt warmer, and the air speeding past them became more toasty.
They had been running on this set trail for a few minutes now, making remarkable progress since no Spirit Monster could catch up to them.
Although, on this path, Darcel and Aniela were catching a slight irregularity with these Spirit Monsters.
As one would expect from venturing in deep into the Necropolis Woods, you would expect to find stronger and powerful Spirit Monsters roaming the area.
And yet, Darcel and Aniela were finding this to be the opposite.
As they inched closer to the Ravenous Void Clan, the Nascent Core Spirit Monsters and True Soul Core Spirit Monsters cease popping up.
Certainly, this was too odd since, just before, Darcel and Aniela ran into plenty of Spirit Monsters while traversing to the Demesne Grave.
But besides this oddity, a bigger question brewed was brewing in Aniela's mind. Her mind recalls one specific aspect of what those Ravenous Void Clan men talked about, and it stuck out to her the most.
"Darcy….those guys….could they be under that horrid creature? Them specifically saying "that horrid thing" is just raising several, no, numerous alarms in me." Aniela wearily spoke up her concerns.
Darcel wore an inquisitive expression about Aniela's concerns.
"Maybe, it's possible. But it doesn't quite add up to how for weeks that creature could evade the senses of the whole ci-Ah?"
"Ah?!"
Both Darcel and Aniela abruptly stopped moving and squeaked out surprise yelps. Almost instinctively, their heads snapped towards a plain glossy black cave as their souls began frantically writhing.
The duo immediately spread their Spirit Sense directly into this cave, expecting to sense something extraordinary!
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Only….their senses picked up on….absolutely nothing.
Darcel and Aniela's face became a mess of puzzlement as they genuinely couldn't sense any presence inside that cave.
And unlike most other youths their age, Darcel and Aniela can sense down to the tiniest speck of life!
However, while their Spirit Sense came about nothing, their souls nearly made the duo want to jump directly into this cave. Their souls were restlessly swirling, almost as if they just encountered a familiar being.
Instead of being overly wary of this, Aniela's face had split into a vast, curious grin. "You know we just have to check this out now, Darcy! Maybe our luck will hit a home run tonight."
"Indeed, it's too frantic for us to simply ignore this. But we'll sneak around this cave first, just to be safe."
Darcel actually had a small hope that Aniela would be right and their luck would strike out again.
The duo carefully and steadily approaches the black glossy cave, their Spirit Senses on full blast.
Still, as they inched closer, nothing popped into their senses, but the writhing of their souls was steadily increasing.
Only with a few more steps, Darcel and Aniela would reach the black glossy cave entrance.
But from mere inches between them and the cave, Darcel and Aniela abruptly dashed to their right.
They both jumped right into the same large bush, and Darcel fished out a concealing talisman from the Ravenous Void Clan man spatial ring. Without hesitation, Darcel quickly crushed the talisman as several people were abruptly walking out of the cave.
It was only until the very last second that Darcel and Aniela managed to sense several beings just merely several feet between them.
And when the duo's eyes saw just who came out, they were a bit taken aback.
One tall, imposing man wearing the Ravenous Void Clan's green robes was the first to come out. He stood firmly at the tenth layer link of the True Soul Core realm, the absolute peak of the realm!
And what followed behind the man is what really caused Darcel and Aniela's surprise.
Four charming look youths, all wearing bright orange Roc design robes and all exuding the aura of a sixth layer link True Soul Core prowess.
Four disciples from the Quicksilver Roc sect teaming up with the Ravenous Void Clan people? Now Darcel and Aniela were feeling the situation becoming a bit more complicated than they initially thought.
"Heh, I thought I sensed something to test myself on out here, but oh well. I never thought I would get a body back, especially not at the hands of some grotesque being, but here we are."
One of the males from the Quicksilver Roc group spoke in this slightly distorted tone, giving off an ominous vibe.
He and all other Quicksilver Roc youths spouted this eerie bloodthirsty smile and chilling blue tinted eyes.
The Ravenous Void Clan man also could've sworn he sensed something just mere feet between them. But as it quickly vanishes, the man pushed down those thoughts for now and told the Quicksilver Roc youths,
"Don't forget your new orders now. And we must move quickly; apparently, we're on swift time now."
The Quicksilver Roc youths only had a slight annoyance expression hearing the man.
"Yea, Yea, kill those Zakira rats and lure the stronger peskier one to come, we got it. I'm mainly just glad we can finally unleash our resentment and have some fun~." One of the girls in the group ominously stated.
The Ravenous Void Clan man didn't share any more words and simply nodded to the four.
He had then split off to the left side of the woods while the four Quicksilver Roc youths split off their right.
From the direction they were heading towards, Darcel and Aniela could tell those youths were heading directly to the Necropolis Woods entrance area.
Though, the duo didn't chase and remained seated in their hiding spot.
Eventually, once they were out of their Spirit Sense range, Darcel and Aniela jumped out of the bush and rushed right back to the black glossy cave entrance.
They both shared a similar serious expression after that big revelation.
"Who would've thought that the Ravenous Void Clan would be so sneaky enough to plot against both the Zakira Academy and the Quicksilver Roc sect. And down here….it has to be it!" Aniela assuredly stated.
For a moment, Darcel contemplated their options. But the magnetic pull from their souls was only growing more abundant for him and Aniela.
"When we first grabbed our scimitars, our souls had immediately protected us. If our souls are calling for us to act again, let's put our faith in it one more time."
After Darcel finished talking, neither he nor Aniela moved for a split second.
They had then stared into each other eyes, and determinedly nodded. With no hesitation and immense courage, Darcel and Aniela began cautiously walking into the dark cave.
Their nerves were steadily growing with each step they took.
But it wasn't until they made it a meter into the cave where Darcel and Aniela felt it.
A familiar horrifying sensation overtook their minds and bodies!
Immediate cold sweat dribbled down Darcel and Aniela's face. This sensation….how could they ever forget it? It is too similar to that horrid red creature from the Black Dungeon Labyrinth!
And yet….there were still several things off about this situation.
For starters, Darcel and Aniela still couldn't sense any presence inside this cave. Yet, their gut feelings indeed told them about the upcoming creature.
However, the biggest confusion was coming from their souls.
Undoubtedly, what was down this cave is what their souls are frantically alluring them to.
But….this couldn't be right.
Their souls shouldn't be leading them to impending danger!
Though Darcel and Aniela wanted a few seconds to contemplate this situation, Aniela had suddenly perked up.
"Looks like we don't need to go over our options; I feel it coming towards us!"
"Don't hold anything back!' Darcel decided to trust his soul and fight against the creature.
He and Aniela fished out of their bright green scimitars and fully unleashed their bloodline state!
And upon doing so, Darcel swiftly swiped his scimitar at bright purple hue charging straight at him with immense speeds!
'Chi!'
Darcel and Aniela's eyes widened a bit as what Darcel struck against was a horrid purple tongue.
The tongue clashed right against the tip of Darcel's scimitar, and oddly enough, Aniela had first noticed the tongue appeared to be trembling in fear?!
Aniela couldn't understand why, but she wasn't going to let this prime opportunity leave her grasp.
She erupted her bright green scimitar in beautiful black flames and swiped her sword straight on to the horrid purple tongue.
At the same time Aniela stuck the horrid purple tongue, Darcel as well erupted his scimitar in raging black flames!
'Sssch!!'
"Keah!!'
A surprised yelp of pain boomed into Darcel and Aniela's ears as the horrid purple tongue quickly retracted from them.
Darcel and Aniela turned to look down the cave, now more visible because of their raging black flames.
And what appeared in their sights was a familiar and yet wholly different spine-chilling creature.