novelThe Divine Aria—The Fisherman at the Volcano Vent
| ← Ch.518 | Ch.520 → |
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Underworld.
According to Edgar, it was not always this dreadful and filled with Specters. Before Hades appeared, the Underworld had a different name—the "Mystical Continent". It was different from the Mythical Continent in many ways. It had more condensed Shadow-elements and reeked of Death, making this an ideal place for the Specters to live. After Hades' appearance in the continent, the Specters then gradually unified their strength and became organized.
This in turn made it much more difficult for the other Monsters to live in the Mystical Continent—they either were hunted and killed, or have fled to areas that were far away, or hid in very secluded areas. These survivors had superb survival skills and strength, almost as strong as the "Commanders" in Mythical Continent.
There were various types of them too: from Tier 6 Megabosses, Tier 5 Overlords, Tier 3 or Tier 4 Ultimate Bosses, and also ancient god-like Bosses. They all had high tier monsters, with over Level 50, as their underlings too.
(. c om) However even with the strength that they had, they could only live under the radar under the dreadful regime of Hades.
Qin Ruo was hoping to find such a Boss and it had to be a Light-type Boss too. According to Edgar, there was an island about a hundred kilometers southeast from his camp—the "Heaven Peal Island".
The Heaven Peal Island was an island that contained an extinct volcano in the middle. The island's temperature was so high that it was rather difficult for the Specters to survive. This made the island an ideal shelter to avoid the dreadful Undead. Most of the monsters residing on the island were Light-type monsters, the "Heaven Peal Beasts"—which gave the island its name. With combined unique conditions where the island's environment could deter the Undead and its inhabitants possessed the Light-type abilities to drive off the Shadow-type monsters, there was no way the dreadful Undead could be anywhere on this island.
Other than that, Heaven Peal Island had a unique trait too!
One that Qin Ruo had noticed.
After about two hours of flight, Qin Ruo finally found this Heaven Peal Island in the middle of the ocean and the volcano that Edgar mentioned.
Most Heaven Peal Beasts resided inside the extinct volcano, leaving only a few weaker ones residing in the caves outside. This made the island look quiet and lifeless. However, when the Undead Horde got close to the island, the island's volcano would then spray a huge amount of holy purifying magic—destroying the high tier Specters that were surrounding them in one go. And the one that activated this holy attack was what Qin Ruo's after—the boss on the Heaven Peal Island, the Tier 4 Light-type Ultimate Boss "The Heaven Peal Lion".
A Level 46 Ultimate Boss! And it was not any weaker than Galbis too!
Galbis was an arrogant warrior so it was easy to bait him out of his nest. However, the Heaven Peal Lion was an experienced fighter, one that had been fending off the Undead Horde and defended the Heaven Peal Island for years. If Qin Ruo wanted to kill this ultimate boss to clear his Ring of Honor quest, it would be much harder than killing Galbis.
As for the other Light-type Bosses, they were rare in the Underworld and were mostly kill-on-sight targets to the Undead. Anything that was weaker than Tier 6 Megabosses did not stand a chance to survive and it was much easier for Qin Ruo to take on a Tier 4 Ultimate Boss rather than anything that was on the higher tier.
He had no other option.
(. c om) If he wanted to unlock the final attribute of his Ring of Honor and return to Mythical Continent, Qin Ruo must face the Heaven Peal Lion.
After scouting the surrounding areas of the island for a moment, Qin Ruo rose to higher altitudes determinedly."Sorry... I guess we'll have to sacrifice you..."
Then, he deactivated Aquamorph and spread his Angelic Wings.
***
As his Angelic Wings were flapping in the air, Qin Ruo noticed that there was a swarm of black dots marching toward him from the horizon. The black dots then started to converge toward his direction and turned from black dots to massive black clouds.
Very soon, the flying Specters from various directions, flew toward the Heaven Peal Island speedily.
Qin Ruo anxiously observed the approaching Specters and the Heaven Peal Island, still with his Angelic Wings activated. He still decided to stay, despite the approaching threat.
This was, after all, his plan.
His plan was to use his Angelic Wings to lure the Specters that possessed the flight ability, like the Skeleton Dragons and high-tier Vampires, to attack the Heaven Peal Island.
The point, though, was not to defeat the monsters on the island. Qin Ruo's plan was to infiltrate the volcano while the Undead horde was keeping the island's defense busy. There were no other entrances to the deeper part of the volcano except through its vent. Without the Undead's aid, it would be impossible for him to penetrate the defense.
The Undead horde was flying closer to the island... closer... and closer... and eventually!
The Heaven Peal Beasts that were residing in the caves outside the volcano finally detected the Undead invaders.
Swoosh Swoosh!
Several white silhouettes flew out of the caves and into the sky. They spread out their white wings, ones that looked identical to Qin Ruo's Angelic Wings and dashed out of the island.
After pulling himself from the amazing sight of the Heaven Peal Beasts swarming out of their hiding, Qin Ruo swiftly glided toward the vent of the volcano.
The vampires and Skeleton Dragons were merely 200 meters away.
Several seconds after Qin Ruo hid in the volcano vent, swarms after swarms of Skeleton Dragons and vampires hovered above the Heaven Peal Island like a massive gloomy dark cloud looming over the entire place, letting not even a single ray of sunlight shine through onto the island.
Just as these dreadful Shadow-type monsters started advancing toward the volcano vent, a tremendous surge of Holy magic suddenly burst out of the volcano neck...
Boooom!!
The volcano, that had been dormant for years, suddenly exploded.
However, instead of volcanic magma it was a majestic pillar of holy white light bursting out of the vent...
The purifying energy within the light was so strong that it combusted every single Specter that dared to glide close to the volcano vent into ashes. It was as though a massive white pillar penetrated a fifty-meter wide hole in the middle of the gloomy undead cloud above the island.
***
Good grief!
Qin Ruo gulped and stared in awe at the ashes floating in the air.
This Heaven Peal Lion was no pushover.
Even though he did hear about its superb "Divine Aria" from Edgar, Qin Ruo did not think this skill was this powerful... Qin Ruo stared at the sky, his jaw slack.
Holy crap...
It actually pulverized a huge chunk of the flying Specters in one go, at a super long range too!
No wonder Edgar claimed that even if the Lich Army were to participate in the invasion of Heaven Peal Island, it would still be a tough nut to crack. This Divine Aria was indeed a winning move. Utilizing the geographical advantage of the volcano vent and also the combined might of the several thousands of Heaven Peal Beasts in the air, it surely would become one of the Specters' worst nightmares.
"Thank God this attack could only affect the Shadow-type Specters..."
Qin Ruo was thankful as he thought this.
If this attack could damage everything that was in its path with the same intensity, Qin Ruo would get himself killed hundred times over in just seconds...
Gently and quietly flapping his Angelic Wings, Qin Ruo and Poochie flew around the island to lure the Undead toward the volcano while also collecting the loot and Mana Cores. There were over hundreds of High Tier Specters that were pulverized with each strike of the Divine Aria. So, it was natural that some of these dropped Mana Cores.
The cooldown time for the Divine Aria was six seconds, which gave Qin Ruo enough time to lure a maximum amount possible of Specters toward the volcano vent. In less than ten minutes, Qin Ruo and Poochie were able to collect several accessories and over sixty Mana Cores. And sometimes, Poochie would ram a few Skeleton Dragons and Vampire Bosses into the depth of the volcano, spicing things a little for the Heaven Peal Lion.
In fact, with this amount of yield in loot and Mana Cores, Qin Ruo did think about continuing with this, perhaps for the entire lifetime, like a fisherman by the volcano vent.
However, Qin Ruo understood that this could not last forever. Although Divine Aria was tremendously powerful, its intensity remained the same each time it burst out of the volcano. Yet, there had been an increasing number of Tier 5 Bosses showing up in the island's airspace, and evidently this led to more and more Tier 5 Bosses being kicked down through the volcano neck by Poochie—causing some turmoil in the belly of the volcano.
Besides, even if the Heaven Peal Beasts could take turns to engage the flying Undead Horde in the sky, there was no one who could take the Heaven Peal Lion's shift—only the lion could activate this powerful Divine Aria. If it halted its super powerful beam for just a short moment there would be swarms of Undead flocking into the volcano. So, it had no other options but to keep on beaming the Divine Aria.
And when its MP was depleted, the battle would be over.
***
Qin Ruo had been hiding at places where the Heaven Peal Beasts and Specters could not detect him. As he watched the two sides fighting head over heels, more and more loot fell onto his lap.
However, the Heaven Peal Lion seemed to not able to hold on longer, much to Qin Ruo's surprise.
Thirty minutes had not even passed, yet the gap between the launch of the Divine Aria seemed to keep increasing. The intensity of the Holy beam seemed to have decreased too...
As more and more Undead ventured down to the volcano neck, Qin Ruo had no choice but to hide deeper. Eventually, he flew past the neck and into the belly of the volcano.
As he flew into the deeper part of the volcano, he could feel countless of hateful eyes of the Heaven Peal Beasts focusing on him.
"Shit."
Qin Ruo felt a slight chill behind his back as he scanned his surroundings.
There were over thousands of Heaven Peal Beasts, flapping their white snowy wings, hovering in the air leering at him. Some of them had bodies that were blue in color, some in violet, and some red. And among these flying Heaven Peal Beasts, there was a huge hulking Orc with a lion head, flapping two pairs of wings staring right into Qin Ruo's soul. It knew. It knew that it was this hateful human who brought all the dreadful Undead Horde to its home and kill its brethren.
It was apparent that this Lion-head Orc was the leader of these flying Heaven Peal Beasts: The King of the Heaven Peal Beasts, the one that was casting the Divine Aria into the air—the Heaven Peal Lion.
As he was about to retreat to the volcano's neck to avoid confrontation with this Tier 4 Ultimate Boss, Qin Ruo heard a loud dragon's roar behind him.
'Shit. '
The Skeleton Dragons... the Undead hordes were just behind him.
The situation had turned dire...
| ← Ch. 518 | Ch. 520 → |