Chapter 1075: The First Ones of Many? (Part 1)

Adam walked away from the lake where the mushroom eel remained. He had already killed two wing monsters on his way, but he knew it was too early to relax.

‘Hmm, there are still eighteen left… Do you think it’s possible that they’ll start fighting each other?’ Adam asked.

Silvana nodded weakly. ‘Sure. But not too many. A few of them at most, the rest will prefer to team up and kill you first and then split the Twilight Crystal.’

“Well…”

Adam scratched the back of his head, walking through the glowing archway, his thoughtful face reflected in the crystals.

“Even if I find myself in a difficult situation, it won’t mean my death. As long as I don’t lead them to the Twilight Crystal, then they won’t dare to kill me.”

‘True, but… You want to talk about something else, right?’

Adam glanced up. “Yeah… Saegar, he’s hiding something, and somehow I’m sure it’s not directly related to me. I don’t know when, but I think something will happen soo-”

TREMBLE. TREMBLE. TREMBLE.

At the same moment, the ground shook as the stalactites of the caves collapsed to the ground and dust covered Adam’s shoulders who struggled to keep his balance and stay on his feet.

It wasn’t like an earthquake, it was nothing short of a devastating explosion.

“What was that?” Adam gulped, slowly raising his gaze. “What the fuck is going on upstairs…?”

Did Adam want to find out?

Sure, but he didn’t even think about turning back. As soon as he realized that the Soaring Chain Islands were no longer a safe place, he rushed along the dark route.

‘I don’t know what it was, but I need to get out of here. If someone is fighting against Saegar, it’s someone incredibly powerful. I shouldn’t even be at the Dark Shore in the first place!’

Less than a minute later, footsteps echoed through the empty cave as Lexa stopped in front of a hole in the wall. Nearby lay the corpse of a man, while a mushroom eel continued to swirl in its shimmering lake.

Then, her eyes darted toward the crystal archway.

‘So you went that way, right? That’s no good… Catching up with him there is going to be a big problem.’ Lexa shook her head.

Unlike Adam and the other participants of the wing trial, she knew all these caves quite well. It wasn’t a requirement for every Saegar’s monster.

She just practiced in that gorge in her time.

In a way, Lexa was lucky that the First Star was guiding Adam here. It gave her an advantage the others didn’t have, and she was going to take advantage of it.

“Agh. I hope Mr. Saegar knows what he’s doing… Looks like the situation up there is going to get worse by the second.”

…

WHOOOOOOOOSH.

Cutting through the wind currents, the lightning spear slammed into Kenex’s chest in a black flash, nailing him to the ground with a deafening rumble.

Crackle.

As soon as Kenex’s back hit the ground, the surface broke into even blocks, then split into several circles, pushing deeper under the pressure.

At the last moment before the explosion, Kenex’s eyes dipped downward as his lance shone brightly.

All the energy that was in his Arc traveled towards Saegar’s spear, in an attempt to block the energy of the explosion.

BLAST!

Saegar’s eyes lowered as he stared at the wide black sphere that appeared at the moment of the explosion. From his height, hovering above the clouds, the explosion didn’t look as large as it was.

Everything around Kenex became a lifeless land devoid of bright colors and tall grass.

And… Kenex managed to stay alive.

“Agh… Agh… Agh…” Kenex was breathing heavily, looking at the bleeding wound on his stomach.

With wild pain, he channeled his energy into that point, stopping the bleeding. He was wounded and wasted a lot of energy, yet he stayed alive, which was the only important thing.

Tap.

Serra appeared beside him.

At the next flap of her wings, the two of them disappeared, heading towards Horon, waiting for them off to the side.

“Are you alright?” Serra asked, lowering him to the ground.

Kenex’s face contorted in pain as he hesitantly stood up. “Yeah… But, that was pretty damn close. If I’d delayed even a moment, there wouldn’t be a piece of me left.”

Serra nodded as she looked at Horon.

Due to the electrical discharges covering everything around him, he was unable to take off. Kenex was seriously injured and lost his Arc.

‘Damn, this is bad!’ Serra clenched her fists tightly as her eyes shone brightly.

In a white flash, leaving behind particles of light, Serra tore forward, approaching Saegar, who continued to soar above the clouds.

It seemed that his previous attack was nothing more than a demonstration of his strength and superiority over the three Earls.

Kenex had to sacrifice his combat potential to survive, and Horon had no way at all to influence the battle at the moment.

The only one left was Serra.

‘I have to do something! I have to bring that bastard down!’

Whooooooosh.

Serra’s wings opened wide as she rose in front of Saegar, facing his arrogant gaze.

“Maybe it’s not too late to escape?” Seagar asked with a slight wave of his hand.

In response, Serra only frowned.

“Don’t try to play these games with me. I’m well aware that after what we’ve done, you won’t let us go. Our only way out is for you to die!”

In fact, there was much more behind it.

Even if they could escape, at the Befallen Crown, they would be punished severely. It would hardly be death. There were a rather large number of Lords compared to the Second Rank Phantoms, but it was still the strongest level of monsters. Each of them was valuable, and the death of each Lord was a loss.

Saegar shrugged his shoulders.

“And? What are you going to do next? Do you think you can fight alone against me?”

Serra bit her lip.

Her nails dug into her palms until they bled while her energy traveled to her chest.

It was time for her circle to emerge.