Stray

Normally, the expedition army will only use six sets of magic circles for round trips. However, considering the unexpected situation, people built a seventh set of hidden magic circles near the bottom of the abyss - although the crusade battlefield is usually far away from the sixth set of magic circles, the Demon King will not hunt down the remnants of defeated soldiers from a distance. They are almost impossible to destroy. Just in case, the various races on the surface have made backup plans.

This pair of hidden circles is quite far from the sixth set of circles. They have not been officially used since they were fixed.

Across the scorching area in the middle of the abyss, the temperature is dropping rapidly as the reconnaissance team approaches the bottom of the abyss. Adrian's fingertips were cold, and the material of the metal bow in his hand seemed to be frozen.

Different from the lively scene before, the scene in front of him became more and more quiet, except for a few small groups of small fireflies that glowed blue in the dark, there were not many signs of other life.

Under the instruction of Commander Lugo, the reconnaissance team turned on a few more magic lights. The milky white halo illuminated the numb faces of the people, and the knight commander tilted his head slightly—Jesse, who was standing beside him, had blue-white lips, and the color was much lighter. Mr. Dylan's breath didn't even bring out much white vapor, and it was as cold as a corpse.

For half a day, the blond young man who used to be extremely noisy did not say a word. He moved forward unhappily, not even eating much.

But Adrian would not be surprised by this, the dry food distributed by the reconnaissance team was greasy and tasteless, with a faint fishy smell, and the taste was not good. Even Adrian himself, who was never picky, took a long time to fully accept this kind of marching ration.

Adrian pondered for a moment. He took out the honey candy cubes in his pocket to replenish his strength, and then pulled out a wooden cup from the back of the goat. The mixed spells flashed brightly, and a cup of sweet honey water was stuffed into Jesse's hands.

"I have a piece here too. The last two pieces, one for each person, is fair." Jesse held the cup in both hands and finally opened his mouth. His voice was a little hoarse, and he didn't mean to bow his head to drink.

"I know." Adrian said evenly, "I'm used to dry food, and I don't need sweetness to maintain hope."

Jessie chuckled and pursed her mouth slowly: "It's so sweet."

Adrian did not answer, nor did he hide the faint worry on his face.

"Never mind, it's almost over." Jesse continued.

Yes. Adrian looked ahead—a pale, hollow mountain-like object ahead. All they have to do is dive from the right path to reach the end of the journey.

But he always had a bad premonition. When the team actually set foot on the strange low mountain called "Pale Hive", Adrian glanced at the dry corpses lying on the edge of several caves, and the ominous feeling finally reached its peak.

As a former high-ranking member of the Rudd Cult, the former Judge Knight Commander was very familiar with the expedition-related knowledge. Adrian knew that they would go through the narrow and twisted passage all the way down to the natural stone platform engraved with the teleportation array in the hollow below the mountain.

The destination was so close, an unpleasant smell made his hair stand on end.

It's hard to tell what that feels like. After many battles and countless brushes with death, Adrian is particularly sensitive to the taste of malice and death. That's not pure intuition, there's definitely something here.

He did not hesitate, and sent a warning signal directly, and the team stopped obediently.

"What's going on?" Not finding any enemies who came to attack, he directed Lugo to narrow his eyes.

"Before entering the cave, please check the nearby magic power." Adrian suggested seriously. "Something is wrong here."

"There is indeed residual magic power here. As far as I feel, the residual strength is very normal, and there is nothing special to pay attention to."

Adrian didn't mean to answer his words, just watched the reaction of the props in the mage's hands.

The mage rolled his eyes, this time he performed an illusion to isolate the magic circle, and then began to examine it carefully: "...No problem, as I said, the residual strength is within the normal range ."

"Uh, uh. Keep going." Lugo circled the crystal ball filled with several liquids in the mage's hands.

"I suggest returning to the surface now, or reuniting with another team in advance. This will at least preserve the data of the fifth array." Adrian didn't move.

"Reason?" Lugo breathed impatiently, "That human's judgment is right, it's normal."

The destination of this boring journey is close at hand, and people's dissatisfaction is fully loaded in their eyes.

"First, the sand here does not leave traces of demons passing by."

Adrian leaned down, grabbed the fine white sand under his feet, and looked at the dwarf Lugo with his dark brown eyes.

"According to the records, there is very little demon activity in the Pale Beehive. Even if demons occasionally pass by, they are mostly for food, and their predation will definitely leave traces. Look, over there The corpses of the demons all retain the posture of fleeing, and the corpses are also very complete, and there is no trace of being eaten."

"I said, it's very close to the bottom of the abyss." The mage interjected unhappily, "Besides the dangerous monster we all know, there are many strange wanderers, who Know if there's any special species out there. Yes, you're right. But these corpses—"

The mage waved his hand, and several insect puppets for identification quickly flew back, showing the reaction of the spar placed in the abdomen.

"—the time of death was very close, within a few years. Whatever the danger was, it didn't continue. The cave was clean, weren't we here for this information? Is it, Lord Cross?"

The last "adult" was full of sarcasm.

"Secondly, the same weak magic fluctuations may be naturally attenuated, or may be leaked from the huge suppressed power." Adrian sighed, "I personally think that It's the latter."

"And you have no proof."

Indeed, at present, people can only detect the strength of the residual magic power, and the specific situation can only be determined by experience.

"I experienced it once. It was a dragon's breath stone vein that was artificially disguised and nearly exploded. Except for the different magical properties, it felt almost the same." Adrian took a deep breath, without hesitation Uncover your own scars.

"Dragon's Breath? The battle of Kandal that left you powerless? Also no one can prove Willard ever wanted to detonate the Dragon's Breath mine."

Seeing that the other party mentioned the humiliating history of the Rad Sect, the mage's voice became more and more cold.

"If you are still the 'day star of the glow', maybe we can trust you. But a despicable villain who made a pact with the devil, seduced to make friends and fell for power... Ha. The mage grinned, "I saw the blood on the back of your neck of your spirit sacrifice, and the companion used to draw strength is not in good condition. Are you afraid?"

Adrian lowered his eyes: "Anyway, this is my judgment."

"Hmm." Commanding Lugo pulling his beard, "then to be fair, let's vote. Tumbleweeds, please avoid suspicion - if anyone agrees with this gentleman, I believe we should give up at this juncture and return, please raise your hand."

Without a hand raised, the blue dragon also said nothing.

"According to Clos, this team could pay with their lives if they keep going. Those who are willing to take this risk and keep going, or who are not ready to believe, please raise your hand."

Adrian's eyes swept across the raised hands, and then closed his eyes: "I have nothing else to say."

"I, I agree with you." The line began to advance again, and the grey parrot leaned in with a leash around its neck. "But I can't say anything useful either. Usually there's something bad around and my tail twitches and tingles. I can't ever use my tail as proof, hey, Cross—"

"Thank you," the knight commander whispered, carefully continuing his **** work.

Jesse looked at him silently, and put the empty glass back into the bag on the sheep's back.

Including the tragedy of best friend Cahill, this is not the first time. It seems that Adrian Close will never learn to play dumb and fool around, even if he can anticipate the ending that awaits him.

How stupid.

Jesse held back the growing cramps in her internal organs and moved quietly through the twisting passage. It didn't take long before he stopped, not too surprised, and began to admire the faces full of fear in front of him.

It turns out that Adrian Close was right.

The moment they stepped on the stone platform, a chilling black magic tsunami rushed down, covering the entire stone platform. That power is extremely domineering and corrosive - Adrian almost immediately propped up the light shield, but the few scouts who were too far away were not moving fast enough, and they were eroded by the black magic in an instant.

The fresh flesh and blood were torn to shreds in front of his eyes, and then completely swallowed by the wriggling shadow, not even blood or ashes were left behind.

They didn't even have time to let out the last scream.

"Dylan, can you hold it?" Almost biting his lower lip, Adrian desperately strengthened the light shield, then turned his head to look at his magic provider - Jesse Dylan quietly Standing there, a weak smile still hung on the corner of his mouth.

"Call me Jesse and I'll hold it." As if all the misery in front of him had nothing to do with him, the blond youth responded with a chuckle.

"All mages be alert, push that force away!" Commander Lugo barely kept his composure. "I need to analyze this—"

"Composite array." Resisting the black magic power squeezed from all directions, Adrian immediately took the call. "I'm sure."

People looked at him in silence.

"Since the surface of the teleportation array is in a normal state, the teleportation array should not have been completely destroyed." The knight commander exhaled, his tone calm. "This attack magic was written by the caster himself, and it's more like a... temptation."

Or, a condescending temptation. Adrian swallowed this comment, and made up his own magic more or less in the style of a spellcaster. What's behind this magic is desperate.

The other party gave him the feeling that he was close to a child who just wanted to determine whether there were ants in the ant nest and poured water into it. If this power were to take another form, it would be enough to destroy them immediately. But it was actively dispersed by the caster, slowed down a bit, and left a few tiny loopholes and a cruel hope for them.

No malicious smell or normal warning.

The other party seems to be just curious about whether the visitor who came here specially "can handle it". Just like... no, hopefully that's his delusion.

Maybe he can try to unravel it.

Supporting the light shield with one hand, Adrian threw out the advanced spells of the Radhist religion one after another with the other hand, adding several self-made spells from time to time to adjust. He desperately felt the magical breath of the abyss that pierced through the darkness, and kept doing the deciphering calculations.

Sweat crawled across his forehead, through his eyelashes, and into his eyes, but he didn't dare to blink.

In theory, it may be possible, but the strength required is a bit…

When the catastrophe was approaching, the mages of the Rad and Muni did not dare to neglect, and countless white rays of light lit up, reflecting the pale beehive that was trembling frantically like daylight. Hamlin bares his arms and draws several blood marks representing spiritual sacrifices on them. The gray film on his eyeballs is extremely clear in the bright spell light.

Baggarmoru, whose attributes are exactly the same as the enemy, did not dare to act rashly, for fear of being a disservice, so he had to symbolically cover himself and the Fuller goat with abyss magic.

The blue dragon let out a roar that shook the sky and the earth, and the dragon's unique spells swayed round and round, hitting the darkness heavily. The two sides collided too violently, the stone platform floating in the air made an unpleasant cracking sound, and it was scratched and clucked by the abyss magic power that was madly spinning on the outside. The knights attached all the magic power to their shields, gritted their teeth and slowed down the advance of the shadows, buying more time for the casters behind them.

Unfortunately, the darkness did not intend to swallow them simply by squeezing.

As people's attack speed increased, the magic power of the abyss surrounding them began to disperse, forming attack spells to bounce back one by one. Gradually seeing the abyss spells that kept coming, the faces of the mages became blue—

The abyss magic that was bombarded back has a highly similar magic structure to the surface magic that they just threw out. It would be better to say that it self-improved the shortcomings in it, becoming more perfect and dangerous.

The darkness that was constantly pressing on the top of the head seemed to devour everything.

"Turn to defense!" Trying to maintain the most basic defensive formation, Dwarf Lugo was hoarse.

"Don't use standard spells!" Adrian raised his voice, "This magic circle has the ability to analyze, and you can interfere with it with self-made magic attacks. The greater the difference in attacks, the better!"

The one-eyed dwarf in command glared at him, but didn't say anything - the encirclement formed by the darkness was getting smaller and smaller, and many knights tried their best, and the shields that lost their spell protection were instantly corroded exhausted. There is not much time left for them.

It was a little bit more, the former Judge Knight Commander gritted his teeth. Just catch the last flaw in the magic circle that swims around in the dark...

"Jesse." In the chaos, Adrian's voice was very clear.

"Huh?"

People are backing away, huddling together. The darkness is getting closer, but it is also getting thinner and thinner under the frantic attack of Adrian Cross.

"I may not be able to focus on your situation next, I must concentrate and use the greatest strength to crack it."

"Whatever you want."

One after another self-made magic bombards the darkness, accurately hitting the weak point. Command Lugo to stop trying to interfere with that crazy warrior. This is completely beyond the scope of pre-calculation, and the former knight commander of the Rad Sect is more like reacting instantly with pure instinct.

"If you can't stand it, you can disconnect the mana supply. It's your freedom."

"Of course I know."

"Thank you."

The dazzling white light exploded instantly.

The white light was so intense that most of the reconnaissance team were briefly blinded for a few seconds at the same time, only to hear the tooth-piercing cracking sound.

The tremor stopped, and the magic lamp came on again, but no one dared to breathe loudly.

The oppressive darkness disappeared, and the dim teleportation station lay at their feet. All were exhausted, but at least most were alive. The young member of the choir had fainted from overdrawn magic.

On the originally flat and clean stone platform, there was only a mess left, and the survivors did not pay much attention to the heroes of this war—

Adrian Cross stood where he was, covered in bruises. Darkness apparently recognized the culprit who had done the most damage to himself, and launched a very targeted attack before the crack. The former knight commander of the Korad sect stood firmly, with no intention of falling. His blond companion sat quietly to one side, a hand on his forehead, his face buried in the shadows.

No one cheered.

No one spoke.

It stands to reason that they still have access to intelligence, and even more in this battle. It should be like this...

Commander Lu Ge let out a long sigh. The people here are all specially selected excellent fighters. They cannot choose to paralyze themselves and deceive themselves on the battlefield.

Adrian wiped the blood from his lips and gave a wry smile. Yeah, it's even quite plausible, in a sense - after seeing their limits, they're "no longer useful".

The moment he completely unlocked the huge and complicated attack spell, he realized this—

Everything makes sense, there is more than one spellcaster at work here.

The rich darkness full of superior aura is the handwriting of one of them. If I guessed correctly, the other only made two small changes on the basis of this terrifying spell.

First, another spellcaster hid the dark aura, allowing the scout team to walk onto the ominous floating stone platform.

Second, another caster added a little bit of chain spell. Once the dangerous circle is terminated, another seal will be opened automatically.

Adrian Cross threw down the metal bow that had been broken in two, raised his head, and looked at the strange low mountain called "Pale Hive" full of holes—

Including where they came from, every hole is now filled with giant demons. They poked their monstrous heads out of the holes and looked down at the exhausted procession.

The eyes are hungry and murderous.