Chapter 60: Abyssal Being

"A mere attendant making his princess wait so long, I thought you'd been eaten up!"

Fischl had her arms crossed, her golden hair cascading down to lightly cover her snow-white back.

Although she had witnessed Nolan's formidable stealth skills, facing such a powerful monster she still couldn't help but worry somewhat.

"Well, just to be safe I had to lead the Lawachurl farther away," Nolan said with a slight smile.

He was worried the Lawachurl would discover the two hiding nearby, and wasn't sure he could provide support in time.

"Let's head down quickly, or that fearsome guy will be back soon," Bennett said, seeming to have already glimpsed the Lawachurl's domineering silhouette striding arrogantly in the distance.

"Uh-huh."

The three followed the winding stairs down. Every so often there would be wooden scaffolding with braziers on top, with burning firewood inside lighting up the surrounding area.

It felt like exploring some uninhabited dungeon, with nothing but their footsteps and breathing echoing in the silence around them.

Princess Fischl took out the treasured artifact "Anchor of Temporal Wheel", and clicked open the bright silver lid sealing away the power of timespace.

Through this artifact, Fischl could observe the passage of time that it anchored in this world at any time.

Nolan glanced over... hmm, it was 3pm now.

Click, the pocket watch was closed.

"Very good, this princess feels we're close to our destination!"

Fischl slightly tightened her grip on the pocket watch, which instantly turned into a point of light and dissipated, withdrew into her Vision.

Seemingly confirming Fischl's words, not long after, the three in the group stepped onto a somewhat dark but solid ground.

The ground's dark hue seemed as if some dye had accidentally spilled on paper, seeping into the interior, giving an ominous feeling.

"The environment here on the third layer seems to be polluted by some kind of power?" Bennett thought for a bit and said uncertainly.

"Mn, it might be that Demon God's remains," Nolan nodded and guessed in response.

"There's some power here that can cause mental confusion, we can't stay too long. We need to quickly find and eliminate the Demon God's remains, then get out of here!"

Bennett's Vision gave him much keener perception of energies compared to Nolan.

"It does seem that way!"

Nolan tried to recall and answer a math problem from elementary school, realizing that his mental agility was indeed somewhat diminished.

If Bennett hadn't mentioned some strange energy affecting them, Nolan wouldn't have noticed anything himself.

As they continued forward, they saw wisps of dark mist floating in the air, unabashedly drifting in a specific direction.

The three exchanged glances, nodded, and jogged to catch up.

Before long, the group arrived at a place filled with dark mist. The mist continuously converged from all directions, forming a huge dark mist ball.

"Look over there!"

Bennett pointed at the condensed ball of dark mist. On its surface could be indistinctly seen a huge scaly tail of some creature standing on two legs and roaring at them.

Looking closely at its face, there seemed to be three horizontal black eyes, giving a deeply horrifying feeling.

Meeting its gaze, one's thoughts seemed to be suddenly stirred into chaos, with various fragmented memories and ideas surfacing without knowing which to focus on, truly messy beyond compare.

Fortunately the situation wasn't too severe, and Nolan and the others quickly averted their eyes.

"This kind of chaotic power doesn't seem to match any famous Archon's abilities. Moreover, this kind of chaos... somewhat resembles the description of the Abyss in the ancient texts."

Oz, who was flapping his night-colored wings, was not around for the time being, and Her Royal Highness, Ruler of the Ashen Darkness, who looked a bit lonely, looked at the roaring Demon God for a while before shifting her gaze away.

"Princess, are you saying that it's actually an Archon from the Abyss?" Nolan asked with confusion.

"Maybe."

Even the Ruler of the Ashen Darkness had things she didn't understand.

"This monster has been absorbing the dark mist continuously, and it seems to have solidified quite a bit!"

Nolan remembered the Cryo Abyss Mage had said this was a grudge left behind by the fallen god's remnants.

As a phantom grudge, it naturally had no physical form. But now, In this situation, was it trying to forcefully condense a form to obtain a portion of the main body's power?

To achieve this, even if the Demon God's grudge accelerated its own wear and tear, it would still be impossible.

Certainly, the assistance provided by the Abyss Order was indispensable. Perhaps the absorbed dark mist played a role in this.

"My attendant, dispose of it. This princess does not wish to linger in such a fallen place!" Fischl felt the eerie environment here made her deeply uncomfortable.

After Fischl spoke, she directly condensed an arrow of Electro energy and shot it towards the Demon God's remnant. The Electro energy collided with the dark misty spherical entity, causing a considerable dispersion of the dark mist.

"I'll help too!"

Bennett rushed at the remnants with his sword, jumping up to use his Elemental Skill "Passion Overload" to strike the dark fog. The attached Electro reacted in an Overload explosion, blowing away and dispersing even more mist.

Facing the attacks, the lingering grudge could only roar helplessly, unable to retaliate at all.

It should have perished long ago. While absorbing the dark mists in an attempt to revive itself, it was also restricted by them. No wonder that Lawachurl guarded the entrance.

Before the Demon God's Remains successfully completed its "awakening", it was unable to resist at all.

Bennett's Elemental Skill continued to attack, and Fischl used Electro Arrow to cooperate, causing even greater damage with Overload reactions. Nolan also didn't stand idle and attacked the Demon God's remains.

He used his Fire-infused arrows one by one, continuously hitting the grudge left by the Demon God.

When he just took out the last Fire-infused arrow, a notification sound from the character panel rang out:

[Defeated A Powerful Enemy, Obtained 121 Adventure EXP]

Nolan was dumbfounded, looking to where the remnants had been. The dark mists were long gone, with no trace left of the grudge.

Was it weakened to such an extent? Was it even weaker than a Hilichurl?

Looking at the last Pyro-Infused arrow in hand, Nolan was speechless, feeling he had lost 10 billion Mora.

Once the arrowheads infused with Pyro are triggered, these Pyro arrows have no further use. All those arrows just to gain 121 Adventure EXP, less than a single Hilichurl?!

What kind of garbage Demon God is this?! For a moment Nolan's mood was incredibly complicated.

He had thought, as the remnants of a Demon God, no matter how far it had fallen it was still part of a god. With such high status, defeating it should have given at least several thousand Adventure EXP to match its identity.

He never expected it to actually lose him, Mora. Nolan felt genuinely wounded by this, a scar upon his soul!

(End of Chapter)

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T/N: I did try to find some artifact that matches 'Anchor of Temporal Wheel' and found some like Orichalceous Time-Dial or Timepiece of the Lost Path, but their description is either not clear or do not match what Author-sama wrote. So maybe- just maybe it's Original like Pyro Elemental Ore? Dunno!

Also, Demon God == Archon, okay? Don't be Confused!

Note: In Genshin Impact, the term "archon" is the English localization of the Chinese word "demon god". In Chinese, "demon god" is used for gods who lived before the Seven. In the game, however, Decarabian is referred to as an Archon.

So in short, I will Use 'Demon God' for Old 'Gods' before the current Seven. And Use Archon to refer to The Seven.

Make Sense, right?