Chapter 508: Replica
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Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Everyone knew that the New Church of Horadrim and the Old Church of
Horadrim were organizations formed by powerful wizards summoned by Archangel Tyrael. Because of Tyrael’s existence, the significance of this organization in Sanctuary was extraordinary. It represented justice and the hope of the humans in Sanctuary.
The humans of Sanctuary were a very bitter group. On this land, they had experienced too many wars. There was the war between angels and demons, the war between humans and demons, and the wars between humans. The traumatized land was almost at its limit, and so was humanity.
But in order to survive, they could only grit their teeth and fight. After a long period of war, the humans of this world had some special qualifications—they could react extremely quickly in the face of crisis.
Therefore, when the New Church of Horadrim sent messengers, the various kingdoms of Sanctuary immediately took action. Large cities in the human world, such as Westmarch, Lut Gholein, and Kurast Docks, had immediately strengthened the defense of the cities, and the beacon towers at the borders were also on guard.
They gathered the civilians, h.o.a.rded war supplies, and summoned mercenaries to help defend the city. At the same time, they sent adventurer teams deep into the wilderness ravaged by demons to monitor their movements.
Under this intense plan, intelligence from all over the world gathered, and the effect quickly appeared.
An adventurer team formed by highly experienced nephalem discovered a strange phenomenon when they explored the edge of the Dreadlands. For some reason, the number of monsters and demons active on this land had decreased a lot. In the depths of the Dreadlands, they could even occasionally find some fleeing demons. These demons escaped from the depths of the Dreadlands in panic and fled toward the edge.
They seemed to be avoiding something terrifying..
This phenomenon attracted the attention of the adventurer team. After discussing, they decided to investigate.
The former name of the Dreadlands was the Northern Steppes. This place was the former barbarian highland. Because it was close to Mount Arreat when the Worldstone was destroyed, this place inevitably suffered. A large amount of contaminated volcanic dust drifted here with the wind, making this land unsuitable for survival. The barbarians who had once protected this land left, causing this land to become increasingly barren, and the name of the Dreadlands came from this.
Under these circ.u.mstances, the Dreadlands became a paradise for demons and monsters. The adventurer team carefully advanced on this land and tried their best to avoid encountering any monsters along the way. But occasionally, they encountered situations that they couldn’t avoid and could only break out bravely.
After an arduous journey all the way to the northern end of the Dreadlands, they suddenly found an empty and silent land.
There were no animals, no beasts, and no plants. Even the river flowed with poisonous liquids. Even demons and monsters were nowhere to be seen. Only a black tower stood on the empty plain, exuding the aura of death.
“Is it here? Is this where Demon King Osiris is hiding?”
The members of the adventurer team looked at each other, unsure if they should investigate.
The nephalem in this adventure team included a wizard, crusaders, barbarians, demon hunter, and even a witch doctor. But there were no necromancers, so they felt a headache facing this black tower exuding the aura of death. After all, they had limited numbers. If they accidentally disturbed the undead army, they might pay a heavy price here.
In the end, the wizard in the team said, “The s.p.a.ce here isn’t disturbed, and a portal can open here. Let’s go. If the situation is really bad, we can still use the portal to escape.”
These words strengthened everyone’s determination, causing them to continue investigating the tower.
However, three days later, a portal suddenly opened in a fortress, and the survivors of this adventurer team appeared. In the end, only three of the original eight-man team escaped. They were the wizard who opened the portal, the witch doctor, and one of the crusaders. The other five died in the black tower.
Even the three people who escaped were heavily injured and on the verge of death. The fortress guards quickly treated them and barely managed to save their lives.
After waking up, the three survivors reported what they had seen and heard to the defenders of the fortress. The black tower was not where Demon King Osiris was hiding, but it was… the habitat of a strange demon!
This demon looked different from the demons that had appeared in Sanctuary in the past. It was a huge black octopus without wings or claws, but it had countless tentacles. Scarlet demon eyes covered its entire head, and a strong death aura and various elemental powers permeated around its body.
This was an extremely terrifying and powerful demon. Not only did it devour humans, but it also devoured demons and monsters. The demons who escaped from the Dreadlands escaped precisely because of the death threat from this demon.
This huge octopus demon was entrenched in the interior of the black tower, and the tentacles extending out of its body were also filling the tower. During the exploration of the tower, the adventurers were fighting these tentacles most of the time. The tentacles’ powerful regenerative ability made them endless to kill. Before the adventurers found the octopus demon’s head, they had already consumed a large number of potions to heal themselves, so they had lost the final battle with the octopus demon. The demon hunter and three barbarians in the team were the first to be devoured, and one crusader took the initiative to stay behind to buy time for the others. In the end, five people died in the tower.
“It’s at least a lord-level demon!”
The last surviving crusader recalled that the heavy armor on his body had saved his life, but the octopus demon’s tentacles had torn off his left arm. He touched the broken wound and said with lingering fear, “But this isn’t the main point. Although lord-level demons are powerful, they aren’t unsolvable. The main point is that we realized that this powerful demon lord might be guarding something here! That’s why we went deep into the top of the tower to understand… There, we saw what the demon was guarding!”
“Kanai’s Cube! It’s Kanai’s Cube!” the crusader exclaimed loudly. Looking at his expression, even he didn’t believe what he had seen.
“Impossible!” His words caused everyone to exclaim. A nephalem wearing a hood said in surprise, “Wasn’t Kanai’s Cube placed in the core hall of the church?! How could it appear there?!”
“I know that Kanai’s Cube is a divine artifact forged by the sages of the Church of Horadrim. After the heroes found it, the church has always placed it there. There are solid layers of guards outside, so of course the demons can’t steal it!” the crusader said. “But… but what we saw in that tower really looked like Kanai’s Cube!”
Everyone knew that this devout crusader who believed in holy light would certainly not lie, but they still sought confirmation from the other two survivors. After knowing that they had also seen the thing suspected to be Kanai’s Cube, everyone couldn’t help but look solemn.
Kanai’s Cube was not a secret. At least, many nephalem in Sanctuary knew about it. This alchemy item created by the most powerful mages gathered by the sages of the Church of Horadrim was a legend that even the nephalem had heard.
However, although Kanai’s Cube had great power, this power was also very dangerous. Therefore, many years ago, the old Church of Horadrim didn’t use it directly but created a replica of it for use. This replica was the Horadric Cube, and they handed the true Kanai’s Cube to the barbarians of Mount Arreat to guard.
The unsealing of Kanai’s Cube happened not long after the collapse of the
Worldstone. The nephalem had gradually recovered their strength and found Kanai’s Cube again. They had placed it in the newly established Church of Horadrim. In the battle against Diablo, they had used the power of Kanai’s Cube to provide many powerful magic equipment for the nephalem, which was the key to their victory over Diablo.
This powerful and dangerous alchemy divine artifact was closely guarded by the New Church of Horadrim. They used it to strengthen the resistance and prevent its power from being abused. So when they heard that Kanai’s Cube had appeared in the black tower in the Dreadlands and was being guarded by a powerful demon, everyone was shocked.
The news was urgently sent back to the New Church of Horadrim. The people of the church quickly contacted Tyrael to confirm and check the situation of Kanai’s Cube. When they saw that it was still in the depths of the core hall, they heaved a sigh of relief.
After relaxing, the people of the church, including Tyrael, couldn’t help but become curious about the black tower in the Dreadlands because they had never heard of another replica of Kanai’s Cube.
Therefore, under these circ.u.mstances, a larger nephalem team was formed, and their mission was to go to the black tower again under the lead of the three survivors to kill the octopus demon and bring back Kanai’s Cube (suspected).
The team soon set off, but they didn’t know that all their actions were seen by Demon Eyes hidden in the air…