CHAPTER 82: INSIDE HELL

All of them looked somewhat reluctant to do so. And honestly... who wouldn’t be?

Ishiki was sure that no sane creature would willingly hurl itself into that maw. They all seemed happy looking at the prey coming to them on their own.

But there was no other option. It was a choice between how they wanted to die.

And to Ishiki’s discomfort... dying by the hands of the lord seemed very swift and less brutal... even then he had chosen to run.

Maybe because of the simple fact that the survival instinct was irrational. It whispered that there was a chance, however infinitesimal that they might survive inside the forest but there was nothing but end here.

As if synchronizing with his thoughts, the temple shuddered again, sending tremors through the ground.

’Holy hell... this is the second time... fucking second time. I am never entering another temple. Ever.’

Without wasting much time... they all jumped into the hell hole called Crimson Canopy and behind them the five soulless puppets followed, having no consciousness of their own.

The princess was at the front and the temperature suddenly dropped as they all set foot outside the invisible barrier of the clearing. Suddenly thin ice materialized around them... slowly at first and them in an instant it froze a path for them to follow.

The vicious branches that had shot forward to attack them were frozen solid mid stride.

Yuki ran at the vanguard like a blizzard in human form, her power constantly lashing out to freeze the encroaching roots and limbs. Filch ran in the center, carrying Nina on his back, Liu Xi and Ishiki took the back.

Ishiki summoned the new armor type vestige he had received. The [Berserkers Effigy] started to materialize around him from motes of light.

The smell of wet iron and old blood suddenly hit Ishiki. The motes of light converted into dark, needle-like strands of energy, weaving together rapidly, hardening instantly upon contact with the air.

It sounded like a thousand swords being drawn from their scabbards all at once. In seconds, the transformation was complete.

Ishiki was encased in a nightmare of black steel.

The armor was a terrifying fusion of high-gothic craftsmanship and bestial savagery. The plates were not made of smooth metal, instead they were textured with millions of microscopic ridges, mimicking the matted direction of wolf fur, but calcified into an alloy like metal.

A fully enclosed, frog-mouth helm of darkened steel rose from the gorget. It was sleek and angular, with a sharp, vertical keel running up the center that resembled a wolf’s snout.

The visor was a narrow, sinister slit—a void from which only a cold, predatory gaze could emerge.

Massive, multi-layered pauldrons curved upward like the bristling hackles emerged... covered in wicked, thorn-like spikes—the "solidified fur" of the Smikewolf that jutted out aggressively, promising to impale anyone foolish enough to tackle him.

His hands were encased in articulated steel claws. The fingers ended in sharp, talon-like points, and the knuckles were reinforced with jagged ridges designed to tear flesh upon impact.

From beneath the breastplate, a tattered crimson cloth hung between his legs—a splash of blood-red against the abyss of the armor.

Ishiki flexed his fingers. The metal groaned a little.

Despite looking like it weighed a ton, the [Weightless] ability held true. He felt lighter than air, as if the armor itself wanted to hunt and kill.

He looked like a Warlord of the Void.

A Cruel Ghost clad in the skin of the beast he had butchered.

He summoned the [Curved Blade] too. The pale blade materialized in his hands... he held the blade tightly with his metallic talons and removed the helmet of the armor.

’Damn, this looks... cool.’

It wasn’t the moment to admire the beautiful and dangerous armor, but the thought surfaced anyway.... as they moved forward the branches behind then slowly broke free from the ice and came in arcs of hungry tentacles.

Ishiki and Liu Xi had to stop them and move backwards at the same time. They moved backward, fighting a retreat.

The two players weren’t well-versed in each other’s styles, but survival is a universal language. When it’s a fight for life, coordination happens by necessity.

A dozen frenzied tentacles broke through the ice, shooting toward them with little tooth-filled mouths opening at their tips. Ishiki gritted his teeth and slashed at two of the closest ones with the pale blade.

The impact was dull, but it did avert the branches away. They just had to stall until they got far enough for the trees to leave their pursuit.

’But... but there is no end to them.’

The ugly truth of their situation was that they had to somehow... by any miracle hold on until the Crimson Night ended and the find an enchanted place to survive the following Crimson Night.

And then... they will have to continue forward during the Silver night. By hunting the Withering beasts and if they are unlucky enough then demons too.

It was a marathon through a meat grinder.

Ishiki couldn’t think straight. Being under the constant barrage of wooden tentacles with splinters, demanded him to focus completely on one task.

Actually... they were in luck, of a gruesome sort.

The soulless players had followed them all inside the Crimson Canopy and they all were now being fed by countless branches and roots alike. It was a ghastly and disturbing sight to witness.

Ishiki gritted his teeth and tried the hardest he could to not look at the sickening brutality. The trees were tearing apart the human bodies limb from limb... some even tore the internal organs into several pieces.

Every single one of the trees surrounding them was eager to get just one piece if the flesh be it of human, withering beast or demons. The trees devoured everything with no end to their hunger.

’Screw it... screw everything.’

Ishiki parried a certainly lethal branch aiming directly for his neck. He lost his footing in the slippery ice and that was enough for a dozen of wooden tentacles to assault him.

Some struck harmlessly against the hard metal of his breastplate. Others impaled themselves on the sharp needles of his pauldrons, thrashing in frustration. A few tried to wrap around his legs, but the armor’s spikes made purchase impossible.

Liu Xi stepped in.

His longsword cut a heavy, wide arc, severing the mass of tentacles attacking Ishiki.

"Get up!" he grunted.

Ishiki scrambled to his feet, regaining his balance with [Curved Bone]. He didn’t really like being indebted to the livid man, but he liked being alive more.

’Huh? What am i thinking?’

He joined in with Liu Xi. The man consciously maintained a distance, careful not to impale his scrawny companion.

"Nice sword..." Ishiki complimented through gritted teeth, deflecting a root.

Liu Xi was silent for a moment, decapitating a branch. "You’ve got a nice armor too."

Both of them continued to attack constantly at the wooden tentacles... cutting some and parrying others. They had been moving for almost half an hour now and they were deep inside the Crimson Canopy.

It was getting harder and harder for them to look around. There was very scarce light around them. Actually that was an understatement... they could not see anything except for just a few meters around them.

Ishiki meanwhile was fighting with his eyes closed... he didn’t need to see while he activated [Ghost Blade] the mental strain of maintaining the skill, coupled with the physical exhaustion of the armor and the fight, was piling up fast.

His brain felt like it was vibrating.

At some point the number of trees attacking them had doubled and they had no clear direction. Ishiki could only put his faith in the princess that she was moving in the correct direction.

"Curse it!" Liu Xi swore.

He was gasping hard. Unlike Ishiki the man did not enjoy the benefits if being able to perceive everything without light.

Ishiki gave him a quick glance and saw that he was covered in ugly bruises all over.

"Hey, Ishiki..." Filch’s voice cut through the chaos from behind. It carried a rare urgency. "Can you hold them all for a second?"

"Okay... make it fast!" Ishiki shouted back.

He didn’t ask why. He just shifted to the center, abandoning the flank to take on the full assault of the tentacles himself. He became a whirlwind of steel and pale bone, deflecting attacks from three directions at once.

Behind him, Filch was preparing to transfer Nina to the battered Liu Xi. Filch needed his hands free; the fighting was getting too intense for him to carry dead weight.

Liu Xi turned around quickly, dismissing his longsword into motes of light to receive the girl.

Suddenly, the ice behind Ishiki cracked and two serrated branches erupted from the ground, bypassing Ishiki’s guard entirely and speeding toward the unarmed Filch and Nina.

"Step aside... damn It!" Ishiki screamed, without looking back.

Filch stood up, gritting his teeth and summoning his dagger.

But it was too late... The branches were too fast.