Hmphhh!
Hmphhh!
Hadeon was panting heavily as he looked at the woman who was lying on the ground, her back on the crimson cactus. He had run for more than a mile and escaped the expanding chasm and those dreadful voices.
"What the hell was that?" Hadeon cursed.
Hmphhhh!
Hmphhhh!
He took a deep breath, trying to calm his raging heart and filling his oxygen-deprived lungs with air.
He sat down near the fallen cactus and removed the dried, half-burnt mole hide from his head and chest.
Steam and black fumes slowly rose from his pale skin, which had patches of red; his skin had been slightly burned in many places.
"Fuck!"
Hadeon cursed as he looked at his hands now covered with ash and blood.
It was hurting a lot!
His skin was itching all over his body, and his legs were sore from running at full speed for an hour without taking a break.
Hmphhh!
He finally relaxed as he could no longer hear the cries of those things from the flame.
"Well, at least I got a Spirit Relic. Let’s see what we have here." Hadeon talked to himself as he quickly dismissed his depressing thoughts, now looking at his status window.
Name: Black Bastion
Type: Armour
Grade: Extraordinary
Description: A suit of armor forged from the black scales of a Chasm Lizard, a fiend that prowled the Fiery Abyss. The lingering trace of an ancient god’s blood within its scales grants the armor exceptional resilience against flame and overwhelming durability.
Attributes:
[Blessing of Moloch]
[Unbreakable]
[Infernal Resistance]
"What? A god’s blood?"
Hadeon was shocked to see the mention of a god in the description provided by the system.
"The lizard was a descendant of a god?" Hadeon wondered.
Hadeon knew that gods existed in the layers of hell; as they were worshiped by the native races of the world, they were not the conventional almighty and omnipotent gods that humans believed in, but beings of absolute power and control. In fact, the passage to hell opened on their planet because of the gods.
Hadeon sighed as he read the description again, yet there was no other information related to the unnamed god.
With his other thoughts, he summoned the Relic.
A black shadow of the chasm lizard crawled out of his chest in the next second and began to spread across his body like a viscous dark fluid.
Slowly, the viscous liquid started to take a more solid form as new details appeared all around the armour; black scales with serpent-like red runes began forming on his back and arms, and finally three scarlet horns protruded out of the helm like that of a coiled snake.
The armour looked like a sinister, cursed armament from folklore, used by demons and corrupt humans. It was emitting a cold and wild aura as if it had come to life itself.
’This—’
Hadeon blinked as he found himself covered by a wall of black scales.
"Truly fitting the name, Black Bastion." Hadeon smiled.
He felt a surge of vitality appearing in his body, and new information appeared on the red screen.
Attributes:
[Blessing of Moloch]
Unqualified.
[Unbreakable]
The black scales refused to crack even under tremendous force.
[Infernal Resistance]
Grants overwhelming resistance against the extreme flame and heat.
Hadeon was studying the attributes— the power that each Spirit Relic contained after being activated by the essence of an awakened.
"I guessed it; anything related to gods is usually very hidden, as they were once the very epitome of the world," Hadeon murmured.
"But Moloch- it looks like I have heard of it somewhere, but where?" Hadeon wondered as the name sounded familiar to him.
"Was it Moloch or Mormon?"
He grabbed his head and forced himself to remember the names of the gods he had heard about, but even after thinking for a whole hour, he didn’t get anything.
Ahhhh!
"Fuck why can’t I remember it!"
Hadeon cursed, thinking about how he had forgotten a lot of things.
It had been more than nine decades since he had cleared the first layer of hell and evolved alongside the Champion.
"I have to write everything I have in my mind after leaving hell." He sighed.
’’Well, good thing at least I have something good to wear now. I don’t have to wear that grease-leaking hide."
He glanced at the tattered hide, which was lying on the ground, a disgusted expression plastered on his face.
***
Ten hours later...
Hadeon was sitting inside the hollow stem of a dried giant crimson cactus that he had found lying near a small obsidian stone.
Well, after thinking for a while, he decided to build himself and the lady alongside her a little home, as he didn’t wanna rest in the open, fearing some moles or lizards might attack them.
Having a thick wall around their body would at least hide them and protect against a sudden attack. In the end, it was much better than sleeping in an open forest.
The cactus he had chosen was more than five meters tall and two meters wide, enough to accommodate two adults, well, even if one was a eight feet giant!
Hadeon was currently looking at the face of the beast tamer who still hadn’t opened her eyes and was sleeping loudly.
The wound on her head had healed completely three hours ago. Hadeon had guessed she might wake up in a few hours, as her heartbeat and breathing had come back to normal.
Well, at least compared to a woman of her size— 156 heartbeats per second!
The woman was snorting loudly, completely lost in her sleep.
At first Hadeon feared it might bring unintentional dangers, but he decided to not disturb the girl.
*Sigh*
’Maybe this isn’t that bad after all!’
Hadeon sighed loudly, finding himself alone with a girl in a forest filled with rats and lizards that wanna eat them alive.