Ch. 312 - The Pursuit (1)
Mage AdamThis chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
Notes
Hope Adam brings Sandy during the next exploration. Such an interesting person.
This chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
Hope Adam brings Sandy during the next exploration. Such an interesting person.
Sandy was a bit taken aback. She had expected Adam to use powerful magic to break straight through the earth's crust. Instead, Adam chose to manipulate the shifting tectonic plates to create a path to the underground.
The Diluses living in this area had no inherited memories. Also, they had been living peacefully for so long that they didn't react right away to the sudden changes.
Even more strangely, even as some of their companions were crushed by the collapsing earth and falling meteors, they didn't try to escape. They just kept transporting resources along their usual routes.
Seeing this, Sandy waved her hand, amplifying Adam's magic.
The falling meteors turned into flaming fireballs, and more allies began to appear around them.
The void storms that had only raged on the surface of the plane were now under Sandy's control, slipping through cracks and drilling into the underground.
Together, they swept through the area, wiping out a large number of low-level Diluses in just one round of attacks.
Adam paused his spellcasting and summoned Sophia in her combat form, instructing her and Garfield to enter the underground and attack at will.
He then turned to Sandy and said, "They are very weak, just like what we expected. However, there's a transcendent-level presence in the nest, and it's starting to wake up."
The elemental spirits around Sandy rushed into the underground. She continued casting elemental summoning spells, and massive elemental Titans appeared out of thin air, each as strong as a level four being.
The power of an elemental mage was fully on display; Sandy didn't even need to move to control the battlefield.
She reached out and grabbed a few ordinary Diluses, dissecting them after removing their skulls. After comparing and examining them, she said, "These ordinary Diluses seem to have no souls. They only follow preset commands."
Adam did the same and agreed, "Yes, the transcendent parent has stripped them of their ability to think, using them merely as slaves to sustain itself. The low-level ones can be destroyed directly; they're worthless."
As he spoke, Adam stomped his foot, and a wide-area railgun magic array rose from the ground.
The electric field spread over a vast area, precisely targeting each enemy, speeding up the slaughter alongside Sandy.
The enemies were weak and lacked resources. The only valuable things on this shattered plane were the cluster of Original Flames belonging to the Titan God, which seemed on the verge of extinction, and the transcendent Diluses in the nest.
The battle was too easy---so easy that it didn't stir any emotions.
Adam was now much stronger than before, and Sandy was even more powerful. Together, they were unstoppable.
After an hour of magical bombardment, there wasn't a single Dilus left alive or capable of moving in the underground.
"You know more about the Titans. I'll leave the Original Flames to you. I'm going to deal with the transcendent Diluses," Sandy said before leaving.
When Adam approached the Original Flames, he frowned. The situation was worse than he had imagined.
Adam had already analyzed the Original Flames before. Now, these flames appeared as pure information to him, stripped of their fiery appearance. But this cluster of flames had no complete stream of information left. It was broken and full of contradictions.
In theory, this should be the energy core of a level nine being. However, its energy seemed even weaker than the Flames of the wounded Lord Svorsi.
Adam called for Garfield and instructed him to try merging with the flames.
Even Garfield seemed repulsed by the task, but he couldn't refuse his master's orders.
With a reluctant expression, Garfield pinched his nose and let a small flame of his own merge with the Original Flames.
After a few moments, Garfield stumbled back, crouching down and holding his head as if in pain. It took him a moment to recover before he muttered, "Master, it's nothing but garbage."
Adam tapped into Garfield's thoughts and realized he was right. The information within the flames was so fragmented that it couldn't even convey the simplest messages.
There were no clues about the enemy the Titan God had faced, how they had perished together, or how the transcendent Diluses had escaped.
Seeing this, Adam quickly sealed the flames in place, planning to leave them for the army that would arrive later to analyze.
Meanwhile, Sandy had revealed her Elemental Trueself.
Wielding a massive hammer, she struck the nests with force, cracking them open like walnuts and dragging out the parental bodies inside.
She instantly crushed any below level five and used a drill in her other hand to pierce the skulls of those above level five, roughly extracting their souls and memories.
Adam winced, deciding it was safer to keep his distance from Sandy at that moment.
From afar, he said, "The Original Flames are completely ruined, worthless."
Sandy continued smashing nests as she replied, "Same here. The minds of these Diluses are just mush. All they think about is eating."
"No clues about where to go next?"
"None. These idiots couldn't possibly find the real colony," she said, crushing another Dilus into a cloud of blood.
Sandy was growing frustrated. Each time she read a soul, she was flooded with useless, disgusting information. The sensation was far worse than a bad taste; it felt like she was chewing on garbage.
Adam frowned. "That doesn't make sense. The Devourer... That's it! The Devourer!"
Suddenly, Adam stopped Sandy. "Leave a few of them alive. I think I know what to do!"
Dragging the remaining nests over to Adam, Sandy asked, "What did you figure out?"
"In Titania, the Devourer evolved after consuming Flame energy and gaining its legacy. If I'm right, these things might work the same way. We need to keep a few alive, feed them energy, and help them evolve."
Sandy, eager to be done with the revolting soul-reading, didn't hesitate. Confident that increasing the enemy's strength wouldn't pose a danger, she grabbed a few Diluses and tossed them to Adam. "They're all yours."
As Adam expected, after injecting them with enough pure magic, the Diluses' minds cleared up. They became more cunning. They immediately tried to attack and kill Adam.
BANG! BANG!
With a few quick blows, they were dead. Sandy stomped on the last one, pinning it under her foot.
Then she tore open a scroll, and with a chaotic glow swirling around her hand, she plunged it into the Dilus's head.
The Dilus became dazed and, like a puppet on strings, began flying towards the void.
Sandy used her magic to leave a giant arrow on the plane's surface to guide the army, then teleported herself and Adam back to their craft to pursue it.
"Is that really all we need to do? It feels a bit too simple," Adam remarked.
Sandy patted him on the shoulder with a smile. "You've got a knack for this. That makes things much easier. Don't worry, command will understand my message. I've done this before---I know what I'm doing. It'll be fine!"