CHAPTER 207: ENTERING THE SHADOW REALM

Thousands of chains lunged at the flying corrupted as they effortlessly destroyed all the attacks thrown at Stefan. Even when the Corrupted tried to release their will field, they found to their despair that their mana was being actively sucked by the thick gigantic chains, causing none of their will field to manifest. The Red core corrupted died without offering any form of resistance, with only the orange core and above being the only ones who could destroy the chains.

TA! TA! TA! TA! TA! TA! TA! TA! TA!

Stefan's feet tapped lightly on the black chains as his body turned into a blur. Because the gigantic chains covered the skies, there was not enough space to fly and move around, limiting the movements of the Corrupted.

But as for him?

The black chains parted like the red sea before Moses every time they blocked his path, with some actively moving towards his feet anything time he didn't have any surface to step on.

Like this, Stefan flashed before the still resisting Orange core corrupted before reaping their lives with a single punch from his crimson gauntlet-covered fists.

Just when he killed the tenth orange core corrupted, and was about to dash in another's direction, a feeling of death suddenly engulfed him.

"ROOOOOOOOOOAR!" The angry bellow of an enraged red wyvern shook the surroundings.

'Shit. That red-haired elder.'

He had planned to take out the weaker corrupted and leave the strongest red-haired elder for the last. Of course, he didn't dismiss his presence and had commanded a great portion of his chains to keep the elder occupied. But it seemed he had greatly underestimated the prowess of an orange core mage.

From the side of his eye, his already dashing figure was just barely able to make out the sight of a fifty-meter-long red wyvern opening its mouth wide to release a fire breath at him. Despite the attack still building up within the wyvern's outstretched jaws, Stefan could tell that it would only take an instant for the fire breath to reach him.

Just when Stefan thought we would die without any doubt, the voice of the human boy whom he had recently started to feel displeased with suddenly pierced the skies.

"KONG'S STAFF!"

The skies already covered by the terrifying hundreds of thousands of gigantic thick chains suddenly darkened further.

Stefan and the red wyvern raised their eyes to see through the gaps from the gigantic chains, tens of staffs, each hundreds of meters wide and thousands of meters high falling from the sky in the latter's direction.

The red wyvern didn't hesitate in the slightest to change the target of his attack.

A pillar of flames thousands of meters wide flew into the sky destroying the gigantic chains in its path, and even the five hundred meters surrounding chains, as it lit the dark sky.

However, what happened next stupefied not only the corrupted but even Stefan...

The fire breath passed through the falling staffs without any resistance before piercing the dark clouds that covered the skies.

BOOOOOM!

A congregation of bright hot flames lit the world.

'An illusion?' The red wyvern thought before shifting his head in Stefan's direction, ignoring the remaining falling staffs, as it started building up another fire breath attack within its mouth.

Stefan didn't miss this opportunity to change his position. Instead of running along the chains as he did before, his body directly turned into a dark fog, that swished and hid behind the gigantic chains and moved near his targets.

Before the Orange core corrupted could react, his smoky body turned into a terrifying swarm of bats that shot crimson beams into its body, annihilating his existence from this world. Once again, Stefan transformed into a dark fog that streaked behind the chains as cover and moved around the red wyvern who was still charging his next attack.

Five breaths after his last attack, the red-haired elder in the form of the red wyverns finally charged his next attack, and opened his mouth in the general direction of the fast-moving fog, about to release his second breath when...

"His huge eyes widened, with his eyeballs almost bursting out as a massive staff that resembled more of a pillar smashed into him from the skies.

BAAAAAAM!

His fifty meters long body fell to the ground like a red comet, before he smashed into the ground.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The earth shook from the impact, as a massive shockwave spread out destroying all in its path.

Thankfully, Joe, who had been warned by Arlo, and a few corrupted individuals who had seen the attacks coming, had already fled into the distance.

Stefan experienced a brief moment of shock before he directed his spiritual energy to search for his sister and the others. Sure enough, they seemed to have distanced themselves from the battle, yet had not left.

He quickly passed his thought across to Arlo:

"Thanks for your help. But you need to leave now!"

Arlo couldn't reply since the distance between them was too far for his spiritual energy to cover, regardless, Stefan's voice continued to reverberate within his mind.

"Please, take off my sister."

Arlo's face hardened for only a moment. During this time, the corrupted who had escaped with them tried to sneak an attack, but before they could gather their energy, Joe's massive body disappeared from their sight.

Seeing this, a relieved smile found its way onto Stefan's cold face.

"ROAR!"

The red-haired elder who had been smashed into the ground by Arlo's sneak attack roared before lunging back into the sky unscathed. The gigantic chains tried to coil around it and restrict his movement, only to be destroyed by a single sweep of its tail. Its gigantic red eyes blazed with fury as it glared at Stefan's small figure.

At the same time, the other surviving orange core corrupted made use of the short window, during which the red-haired elder restrained Stefan to quickly transform into their beast form. With their transformations, the gigantic chains found it difficult to restrain them any further.

Like this, Stefan found himself surrounded by tens of massive red wyverns each in the same cultivation as him.

Looking at the red-haired elder who had risen above him and was looking down at him from the skies with his window-sized eyes, the gigantic chains covering several kilometers around Stefan suddenly froze.

A grave silence descended into the area as Stefan watched his enemies with a cold look on his face.

The palpitating pressure kept increasing...

After almost a minute which felt like an eternity passed, an angry voice came from the skies:

"Attack!"

Without hesitation, the tens of red wyverns surrounding Stefan opened their jaws, as a terrifying amount of mana gathered within their outstretched jaws. The same was for the red-haired elder who was above, his fireball congregating within his mouth and lighting up the dark skies.

However, Stefan didn't remain still as his opponents acted. His body started transforming, one which while not as drastic as his sister's was nevertheless fear-inducing. At the same time, the thousands of frozen chains suddenly moved. But this time, instead of attacking the red wyverns, they continuously coiled around themselves and not before long, almost a hundred gigantic black eastern dragons made from pure chains covered the skies, stupefying the wyverns who were still charging their attacks.

The black dragons opened their mouth as if to release a roar but no sound came out, which was quite normal since they were composed of only chains. However, they didn't need to release any sound as the roar came from somewhere else.

"GRR..."

Startled by a guttural sound, the red wyverns shifted their focus back to their center only to be greeted by the sight of a dreadful monster.

"ROAR!"

A primal roar shook the skies.

.....

The group continued in silence as Joe's body continued to move around the buildings. Unlike before, Joe didn't move at his fastest and instead moved with more caution due to their previous experience. Due to the explosion brought by Cassian's attack at the beginning, the students had been flung in different directions, so the group had no choice but to discard their previous plan and move towards the nearest teleportation formation, which was found in the northern region.

With Joe's current speed, it would only take them about thirty minutes before they arrived at their destination, and hopefully escape from the minor world.

It was already deep into the night, and the moonlight which was supposed to bask the world in its gentle glow failed to reach the earth as it was obscured by dark clouds.

About twenty minutes went by without anything happening. Roy, Bon, and Judi who were too weak to offer any help unconsciously relaxed the closer they inched toward their goal.

Throughout their journey, Arianne remained in Arlo's embrace, her silent cries making the mood of the group more gloomy.

Sigh!

The old Khan who was to the side remained silent with a difficult expression on his face. He wasn't weak and was an orange core mage just like Stefan but the problem was that he had a utility-type innate talent and all his techniques were related to blacksmithing. When it came to actual combat, his strength could probably only compare to a beginner Red-core mage.

Time slowly passed as the group continued in grave silence, with the only change being their surroundings that zoomed past them at great speed.

It was then it happened...

Joe's swooshing body abruptly came to a stop.

Arlo who was rubbing Arianne on the back to comfort her was wondering what happened, and was about to voice his confusion, only for the words to die down his throat.

The group watched their front in stunned silence before a seed of despair sprouted within their minds

The shadows cast on the buildings by the moonlight seeping past the dark clouds suddenly moved as if they had come alive. They congregated towards their front and blocked their path before a calm figure slowly rose out from their embrace.

The corrupted leader of the beast association gazed at the kids before him with a serene expression. Just like Cassian, who seemed to have become more raucous after being corrupted, Iro appeared even more calm and calculating.

His eyes fixed on the human boy on the gigantic snake as he wondered why it was so important for Razor to not only send Cassian but even him.

While he was pondering, the other party was engulfed in a feeling of pure despair. Even without him acting, Arlo and the others could tell the figure blocking their path was terrifyingly strong, so strong that they doubted if they could survive even if their principals and teachers were present.

Arlo's throat felt dry. The feeling of despair growing within him soon turned into anger as he tightened his embrace on Arianne.

He couldn't believe the opportunity Stefan had created for them with his life would be wasted so easily.

'No...'

'We haven't lost yet.'

He refused to give up until the end.

His spiritual energy silently spread out as he hurriedly sent a message to Joe.

"Run! Just take another path."

Joe hesitated briefly before he barely shook off his fear after Arlo's constant pleading.

His body quickly turned and without holding back in the slightest, he erupted with his maximum speed and slithered back in the direction they came from. Of course, he didn't plan to return when they were so close and merely wanted to change direction before continuing toward their goal.

Iro merely watched the massive snake disappear from his view calmly before dissolving back into the shadows.

.....

Five minutes later...

Arlo's face distorted in anxiousness as he felt his heart rise to his throat.

No matter how they ran to escape, Iro would always appear before them a short while later. Yet he didn't attack and merely studied them as a predator who was certain its prey could never escape would.

Arlo used his illusion domain to try to deceive him several times, yet despite not having spiritual energy like vampires, Iro simply saw through his tricks with his sharp senses. The strength gap between them was simply too much for Arlo's illusion to work.

Also, Arlo wasn't sure if Iro was doing it intentionally, but the more they changed their paths, the further away they got from their goal.

Just when Arlo was falling deeper into the pits of despair, a soft and beautiful voice suddenly resounded within his mind.

"Arlo..."

It was his second summon, Kira.

"I think I can help..."

Despite sounding unsure, Kira's beautiful voice and most importantly, her words calmed Arlo and brought him out of the pit he was falling into.

.....

Once again, Iro stepped out from the shadows and gazed at the huge snake before him calmly.

It wasn't that he was toying with his prey, but he was simply curious about what was special about the human and his group. He wanted them to try their all to escape from him to gauge their abilities, but so far he was left disappointed. The group had launched lightning, illusion, and many more attacks. In fact, he had even been attacked by massive falling staffs. Sure, he was a bit shocked by the group's terrifying combat prowess despite their low cultivation and could tell the group had many one-of-a-kind geniuses, but still, in the grand scheme of things he couldn't tell why they were important, except for the vampire princess who could be used to hasten the fall of the vampires.

'I have seen enough...' Decided Iro as he waited for Joe to arrive.

However, he soon noticed an incongruence. Joe had arrived, but unlike before he showed no sign of stopping and retreating.

Flabbergasted by the sudden change, Iro belatedly realized the appearance of a new figure among the group. The human boy who was hugging the vampire princess, with a pitch-black snake coiled around his snake, now had a new figure atop his right shoulder.

'A fox? With two tails?'

A question mark appeared on Iro's head only for his eyes to widen slowly.

Joe who was about to reach him suddenly jumped into the air, before his 40m long body slowly fell towards him.

Just when Iro was wondering why they were suddenly attacking him despite knowing full well the gap between them, the shadows lining the street suddenly flew into the air before hugging Joe's massive body. The shadow fully engulfed the light bursting out from his green scales due to his light laws, in darkness, and under Iro's continuously widening eyes, Joe's figure fell before plunging into the deep shadows that had congregated just a few feet before him without his knowledge.

He watched with a blank look, as Joe together with the bodies on his back disappeared into the ground quickly, the tail swishing about for a moment before vanishing soon after.

"W-What?"

AN: Sorry for the late update. I heard the story's pacing is too slow. Is that truly so? Let me know your thoughts.