One second they were talking about that Legendary Demon, and the next, they ran right into it.
This was no coincidence.
In fact, this was already the third Legendary Demon Lin Gui had encountered in the past two days...
Lin Gui's eyes almost lost focus.
The first was Morag Sarn, also known as the Prophet of Rotten Whispers, a Legendary tree demon.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't from the Black Demon Forest, but from the Glenn Highlands.
He had run into it when he sensed the riot in the Black Demon Forest and planned to retreat.
After that, Lin Gui abandoned any thoughts of retreating.
Morag Sarn's strength was infinitely close to the Epic Rank, which was far beyond his capabilities.
The second was Gorog Ironjaw, also known as the Ironclad Sovereign, a Legendary stone monster.
The Ironclad Sovereign was an elemental demon, and unlike other demons, it spent most of its time in a deep slumber.
When Lin Gui passed by, he had even pocketed a few chunks of rock that had fallen from its body.
And this third one...
...was the very Legendary Demon Theia wanted to hunt.
The Forest Abyss Devourer—Moragus.
Cold sweat trickled down Lin Gui's cheek, while Theia stood beside him with a conflicted expression.
“Go, quickly. We've only known each other for about ten minutes. There's no need for you to save me.”
The movements of a Legendary Demon were almost always accompanied by a demon tide.
Right after Theia uttered the Legendary Demon's name, they were already surrounded.
Even without actively sensing them, Lin Gui could hear the hissing of the demons.
It was the sound of crawling, growing closer and more dense by the second.
“Sigh, alright.” Theia sighed, her tone tinged with a hint of regret.
“It was nice chatting with you. Any last words you want me to pass on?”
She did have the ability to escape with Lin Gui, but doing so would drastically lower her own chances of survival.
As an adventurer who lived on the edge, she wouldn't make such a choice.
Even if taking him along only reduced her survival rate by three percent.
Lin Gui replied calmly.
“Just go. No last words. I'm all alone in this world with no family or friends. Just let me die here in peace.”
“Your name?”
“Lin Gui.”
“What an odd name... I'll remember you, Lin Gui.”
With that, Theia kicked off the ground.
In the blink of an eye, she vanished into the dense forest.
As long as the Legendary Demon itself didn't pursue her, she was highly confident she could shake off any pursuers.
Seeing the talkative elf disappear, Lin Gui let out a long sigh of relief.
The Veil of the Gloomy Night was his masterpiece.
Before stepping into the Transcendent Rank and fully mastering it,
he didn't want to expose this trump card in front of a stranger.
The roars of the demons grew closer and closer.
In the distance, towering trees collapsed one after another with deafening crashes.
Amidst the chaos, he could faintly hear human shouting.
“Captain! We have to split up and run! If we keep going like this, we'll get caught sooner or later! We'll all die!”
Deputy Captain Clark shouted at the top of his lungs.
He was currently drenched in blood, looking like a complete bloody mess.
Suddenly, a blood eagle swooped down from the sky, precisely knocking the priest in the center of the formation out of the group.
“Ahhh!”
The priest's scream had barely begun before he was torn apart and devoured by the swarming demons.
As the limbs of his squad members were brutally torn off, the distant trees began to twist and deform unnaturally.
Moragus's terrifying, massive figure finally loomed into everyone's sight.
Captain Barnard showed a look of grim determination, taking one last look at the treasured photo inside his pocket watch.
He then stuffed a suicide note along with the pocket watch into the hands of Camp, the assassin.
“Tell Evan that as a father, I'm sorry for always being so harsh on him. Tell him... never to become an adventurer like his father.”
Camp didn't hesitate. Taking the items, he was the first to charge out of the group.
The other assassin and the mage in the team followed closely behind.
Glancing to the side, Barnard saw that Clark, the genius warrior he had personally promoted, hadn't left.
Barnard sighed and said, “You don't need to throw away your life with me. You still have your whole youth ahead of you.”
Clark let out a bitter laugh and unbuckled his shattered armor.
Only then did Barnard see that a green plant was actually squirming inside Clark's muscular body.
“I'm sorry... I... can...”
Before Clark could finish his sentence,
the clump of thorns inside his body suddenly sprouted rapidly, and countless sharp briars pierced outward from within.
Blood sprayed wildly, splashing across Barnard's weathered face.
Staring at Clark, who had been turned into a pincushion with bits of flesh flying everywhere,
Barnard turned deathly pale, and the greatsword clenched in his hand clattered to the ground.
A shadow enveloped his body.
He turned his head blankly and saw a massive, decaying, twisted tree with a human face smiling eerily at him.
Hanging from the trunk were several familiar faces.
They were all Transcendent Rank captains of various Gold Rank adventure groups.
Golden Gryphon's Heart, Immortal Bulwark, Dawn Vanguard...
“Hehehehe~ How amusing. Your heads look just like balloons... How amusing... Hehehehe~”
The face on Moragus's trunk twisted and shifted constantly, as if mocking their weakness.
“Tiny, ignorant humans... Hehehe... I really didn't expect... you all to actually come out... Hehehe.”
Barnard's body shuddered, his eyes widening in disbelief as he muttered,
“W-what did you say?”
“Hehehe~ I said~ I didn't expect~ that person actually baited you all out. Six Transcendents in total, and you... Hehehe... are the last one.”
“This is a trap...”
Before he could finish his sentence, Barnard's head was wrapped by tree branches.
With the sound of crunching bones, Barnard's pupils dilated, and his limbs hung limply.
Tearing the head off, Moragus played with it happily for a moment before stuffing it into his mouth.
Before long, Barnard's painfully twisted face surfaced on the trunk.
Moragus's aura surged significantly.
Shifting his massive body, he arrived in front of Clark's fallen corpse.
Just as he was about to butcher it, he suddenly raised his head in confusion, looking toward an inconspicuous tree far in the distance.
He waved a branch, and a sharp, meter-long wooden spike whistled through the air toward that direction.
The tree crashed down, but the spot was completely empty. There was nothing there.
“??”
Moragus tilted his head in puzzlement.
Instinct told him there was something there, but no matter how he searched, he found nothing.
“Can trees have hallucinations too? Hehehe~ How strange~ Did eating too many humans rot my brain? Hehehe~ Trees don't have brains.”
On the other side, Camp, who had escaped from the heavy demonic encirclement, collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
Not far away, the outline of Audo Canyon was faintly visible.
Just a little further, and he would escape this Black Demon Forest that had claimed so many lives.
Vomiting a mouthful of blood, Camp let out a miserable laugh.
Both of his teammates had been torn apart by demons.
Relying on his speed as a Shadow Assassin, he had barely broken through the encirclement.
Yet, several of his joints had been bitten through by demons, leaving him a bloody mess.
His vision gradually blurred. Before taking his last breath,
he used the very last ounce of his strength to weakly hurl the captain's pocket watch and suicide note toward Audo Canyon.
Then, he fell into an eternal sleep.
One day later.
Picking up the blood-stained suicide note from the ground, Lin Gui looked up at the rugged Audo Canyon in the distance.
Just then, the system's voice echoed in his mind:
【Ding! Special Commission has been updated】
【Content: Deliver the suicide note and relic of the Captain of the Sword of Heavenly Punishment to his wife and child】
【Route: Black Demon Forest → Audo Canyon → Caran City → Adventurer's Guild】
【Time Limit: 7 calendar days】
【Reward: A random special magic spell】
Rate on N.U.
