Chapter 438: The Forbidden One?
Cerberus was right. Roy either did not attack, or he had to teach these whip demons a profound lesson.
These mutated demons really made him feel vexed. They did not know respect nor fear, and their hunting instincts far exceeded their rationality. If he had not encountered such demons, he would have let them be. But now, not only did he encounter them, but they also blocked his path. This was their sin.
There were tens of millions of them, and it was impossible for Roy to use magic power to fight them from beginning to end, so his method should naturally be sharper.
The plague viruses that Roy used now did not mean that he carried these viruses in his body but that he could use magic power to transform them.
Since magic power transformed these viruses, it naturally consumed the least amount of magic power to transform a single virus. This was why he did not use a plague storm like the one he sealed in Sareth’s scythe. A plague storm required too much magic power, and it was impossible to use it to eliminate tens of millions of demons.
Since the rabies virus had an astounding effect on these whip demons, Roy would keep making this virus to spread. Although the rabies virus did not spread through the air, he could use wind magic to spread these rabies viruses forcibly. Now, the hurricane blowing in the rift valley was full of these viruses that scattered with the wind. When the viruses transformed from magic power came into contact with any wounds or bodily fluids on these whip demons, they would immediately be absorbed into them. They did not even need an incubation period before immediately flaring up in them.
One spread to ten, ten spread to a hundred… The whip demon lair welcomed a disaster. They could no longer care about attacking the intruders. When most of their kind fell into chaos, the rest would naturally be dragged into this chaotic vortex.
In the entire canyon, it began to rain corpses. Whip demons bitten to death by their own kind fell into the abyss of the rift valley one after another. Every whip demon’s corpse was incomplete, and some had even been split into dozens of pieces. The strong stench of the blood of these whip demons permeated throughout the entire canyon, forcing Dante and the others to cover their noses with their clothes.
Amid this tragic epidemic disaster, Roy slowly descended with everyone. A high-speed rotating hurricane surrounded everyone. Not only did it send the fish that escaped the net flying, but it also separated everyone from the disaster scene outside, as though they were two different worlds.
Although there were heavy casualties, the number of whip demons did not decrease noticeably because more and more whip demons kept rus.h.i.+ng out from the depths of the rift valley and joined in on the killing of their own kind. Most of these new whip demons were already infected with the rabies virus because they had swallowed the corpses of their own kind before flying up…
When Dante, Nero, and the others saw this scene, they were dumbfounded. Even though they knew that there were more than ten million whip demons, they did not have any direct concept of this number before. Only after seeing it with their own eyes did they understand how terrifying this lair was. If they were to come alone, they would probably be unable to move an inch in this rift valley.
And now, Demon Osiris’s ability to create plagues and natural disasters was the key to ensuring that everyone could move forward in this whip demon lair.
“To be honest, if Sparda is really in this rift valley, I can’t believe that he’s still alive!” Benia said. “Not every demon lord has Osiris’s ability. No matter how powerful Sparda is, it won’t work. These whip demons are simply a nightmare.”
Benia was not the only one doubtful about this, but Roy was also. This number of whip demons simply made them an overlord-level existence in this rift valley, and no one would dare to provoke them easily.
“It’s also possible that Sparda used his spatial ability to enter here. Like this, he can avoid the whip demons…” Roy pondered. “But generally speaking, if you want to go to a certain place through a spatial channel, the first thing you have to do is familiarize yourself with the place. At least, you should know the approximate spatial coordinates of the place. So unless Sparda has been to the bottom of this rift valley before, it’s impossible to connect to here through a spatial channel.”
Cerberus nodded. “That’s indeed possible. Sparda has been in the Demon World for much longer than me. Perhaps he came here before these whip demons appeared and occupied this rift valley.”
“In any case, we’ll know when we go down!” Benia concluded.
Thus, the group continued to descend slowly in this rift valley, accompanied by the b.l.o.o.d.y rain and the crazy screams of the whip demons, embarking on this journey to h.e.l.l.
The s.p.a.ce under the rift valley became bigger and bigger. This place gave people the feeling that it was like a flask. It had a small mouth but a big stomach. The farther down they went, the more whip demon nests they could see. These mutated demons really seemed to have hollowed out the rift valley. Looking around, all the rock walls were full of dense pits. Anyone with trypophobia would suffer here.
But what was most surprising was the depth of the rift valley. Nero was holding an instrument that Nico had given him and measuring the depth of their position. They had been descending for an hour and had reached a depth of ten kilometers in the rift valley, but they still could not see the bottom of the rift valley below, and it was still dark.
After more than an hour, the number of whip demons clearly decreased. This was good news. But the bad news was that they were already more than twenty kilometers underground.
“d.a.m.n it. How deep is this rift valley?” Dante could not help but complain. “Hey, Osiris, can we speed up? It’s been too long!”
Roy looked around and nodded. “Okay, speed up!”
After receiving Roy’s order, Fat Tiger carried everyone and accelerated the descent. When they arrived more than forty kilometers underground, the surrounding environment finally changed.
A scarlet light appeared at the bottom of the rift valley, which should be the light emitted by the magma flowing deep underground. When they saw this light, their hearts shook, and they accelerated their descent again and rushed toward the light.
Then they saw a gigantic magma lake.
This magma lake was very wide, and they could not even see the end at a glance. But what was strange was that this magma lake was not the spout of an underground volcano but formed by the convergence of several magma rivers flowing out from the surrounding rock walls. Under the high temperature, the magma still maintained its energy, constantly bubbling and bursting.
The corpses of whip demons kept falling from above. After falling into the magma lake, they made sizzling sounds and then quickly burned. While sinking into the magma, the corpses entirely turned into charcoal.
Not only was this magma lake gigantic, but it was also likely very deep. So many whip demon corpses had fallen from above, but they had not filled the lake. It was conceivable how deep the lake was.
With the demise of the corpses, the souls of the whip demons gradually emerged. These souls floated above the magma lake, neither rising nor sinking. Instead, they slowly condensed. When Roy and the others arrived, they could already see several large soul cl.u.s.ters appearing.
“Huh? This is an unexpected surprise!” Roy was stunned for a moment before immediately taking out a Soul Attracting Flag. Under the power of the Soul Attracting Flag, the souls above the magma lake floated like fireflies and converged into a stream of souls that flowed into the Soul Attracting Flag. At the same time, the number of souls Roy had in the system s.p.a.ce was rapidly increasing.
Cerberus looked at Roy with envy. During her descent, she had actually seen a small number of souls floating, but with Demon Lord Osiris here, she did not dare to have any ideas about these souls.
Needless to say, the souls of these whip demons were all pitch-black demon souls. After collecting almost all of them, Roy found that he had more than nine million souls. In other words, more than nine million whip demons had died in the rabies storm.
And whip demon corpses were still falling from above one after another. Although the density had decreased a lot, it was still continuing. Therefore, he did not put away the Soul Attracting Flag but handed it to one of Fat Tiger’s heads and got him to stay here to continue collecting souls.
Roy himself spread his wings and flew toward the magma lake. He held Sparda’s soul in his hand and followed the direction that Sparda’s soul projection was pointing.
Seeing Roy leave, Dante could not help but mutter in a low voice to Vergil, “Could the old man be buried under the magma lake?”
“We’ll know later…” Vergil did not want to say much, but he was actually very concerned deep down.
In fact, Roy thought so at first. This magma lake was so huge. Since it appeared at the bottom of the rift valley, it might really be where Sparda was buried. However, when Roy flew a few kilometers following Sparda’s soul projection, he saw a towering pillar in the magma lake!
It was an enormous rock pillar that extended out of the lake. This rock pillar was around five meters above the magma lake, and the top was very neat and smooth, as though it had been cut by a sharp blade.
On the top of the rock pillar, Roy saw a large pentagram magic formation. This magic formation emitted a faint light, and it was clearly in operation. But in the center of the pentagram was something that stunned Roy.
It was… the arm of a demon!
What the h.e.l.l?! Roy flew over in bewilderment and doubt. He found that he was not mistaken. It was a black demon arm, and judging from the shape of the fingers and claws, it was a left arm. There was still black armor on this arm, and the wrist had strange chains of light tightly tied to it, but the other ends sank into the magic formation.
Roy looked at this arm in astonishment and then down at Sparda’s soul projection in his hand. He found that the soul projection was pointing at the demon arm!
Is this… Sparda’s left arm? Roy was a little confused because he did not expect to find only one part of Sparda.
Roy slowly landed, bent down, and wanted to pick up this arm. But as soon as he picked it up, he felt immense resistance. The ends of the chains of light that bound the arm to the magic formation suddenly tightened, and the light of the magic formation became much brighter.
“Is this a seal?” Roy immediately understood. He looked at the chained arm and could not help but lampoon. “What is this?! Exodia the Forbidden One?!”