In the rift below and the mist in the distance, those densely packed eyes, flickering like crimson stars, silently emitted a bone-chilling threat.
Every gaze was like a cold hook, firmly locking onto the intruder, Lucifer.
What permeated the air was not just sulfur and heat, but also a layer of almost tangible, bloody pressure belonging to a top predator.
Lucifer gazed with Reticence for a moment, the weighing look in his pure black eyes finally turning into a calm intent to retreat.
His wings vibrated slightly, and his figure drifted down like a falling leaf, finally stepping steadily onto a relatively wide and flat black rock platform extending from the cliff wall of the rift.
This place was slightly further from the source of those crimson gazes, but he could still clearly feel the terrifying aura seeping from the abyss and the mist.
With his back to that dangerous darkness, his gaze seemed to penetrate the rock wall, casting once more toward the depths of the Demon Realm.
On the platform, the high pressure and corrosive environment unique to the depths of the Demon Realm still existed, like an invisible millstone, continuously crushing and tempering his body.
“Currently, there seem to be only two ways to increase my Physical Strength.” Lucifer sat cross-legged, resisting the pressure of the environment while calmly analyzing in his mind.
“The first is to stay here and use the power of this environment to slowly polish my physical body, like grinding water, until it reaches the limit that my current magic power can carry.
This method is safe, but…
too slow.”
He felt the minute tearing and rebirth of his muscles under the pressure.
The information fed back by Magic Eye of Balor showed that his Physical Strength value had increased by an insignificant six points.
This speed was a drop in the bucket for him, who urgently needed to balance the power within his body.
“The second is to venture deeper and take the risk of actively searching for Indura, especially those close to adulthood or already matured, to force the physical potential to explode to its limit through life-and-death combat.
It’s dangerous, but the results might be faster.”
The risks were also obvious.
Once surrounded by a swarm of Indura, especially if encountering a true adult with a Combat Class of 200,000, even with Seven Hearts, it would be difficult to escape the fate of being exhausted and devoured.
The depths of the Demon Realm were full of dangers, by no means as controllable as the Trial Grounds.
“Could it be…
that I can only choose between the two, either wait slowly or risk my life?”
Lucifer frowned slightly, a rare feeling of distress flitting through his heart.
Both of these plans were contrary to his pursuit of efficiency.
He needed a way that could both accelerate the increase of Physical Strength and keep the risk within an acceptable range.
Just as his mind was racing, weighing the pros and cons—
“Swish—!!”
The speed of the sound seemed to be distorted by some force, arriving almost simultaneously with the attack itself!
Too fast!
So fast that Lucifer’s perception and reactions, which far exceeded those of ordinary people, only captured a blurry afterimage!
“Puchi—!”
In the next instant, sharp pain came from his chest!
Lucifer looked down and saw a crimson, slimy, barbed, and strange “spear,” comparable in thickness to an adult’s arm, had already pierced through his upper left chest!
Dark red Demon Blood gushed out along the barbs of that eerie “spear.”
That was not metal or rock, but more like some creature’s…
tongue?!
Lucifer didn’t even groan from the pain; his combat instinct allowed him to forcibly suppress all stray thoughts the moment he was wounded.
He turned his head sharply, his pure black eyes piercing like sharp swords toward the direction the attack came from.
In the shadows at the edge of the platform, a weirdly shaped monster was slowly revealing itself.
It roughly maintained the classic rocky, hunched humanoid silhouette of an Indura, but it was on all fours, crouching like a giant lizard.
Its body surface was not the grayish-brown of an ordinary Indura, but presented an ominous mottled color of dark red mixed with deep gray, like dried blood splashed on rock.
Most striking was its head—it had no obvious facial features, only a giant mouth split to the ears and filled with spiral-shaped sharp teeth.
And that crimson “spear” piercing Lucifer’s chest was precisely a long tongue covered in tumors and barbs, shot out like lightning from this giant mouth!
An aura far more powerful, violent, and chaotic than any Indura Larva encountered before blew toward him like a tangible bloody wind.
In Lucifer’s perception, this monster’s magic and sense of threat far exceeded that of a larva, but…
there seemed to be a subtle difference from those adult Induras with a 200,000 Combat Class that were like natural disasters.
It was strong, strong enough to pose a fatal threat to the current Lucifer, but that “strength” didn’t seem “complete,” carrying a sense of distortion and instability.
A mutant…
adult Indura?
Or…
an individual in the process of evolution?
At this moment, the crimson long tongue piercing his chest suddenly retracted.
The barbs scraped against bone and muscle, bringing more intense pain and a strange sense of numbness.
There seemed to be some kind of corrosive toxin or magic power attached to the tongue.
Lucifer’s eyes turned cold.
He grabbed the section of the tongue still inside his body with his left hand—it felt slimy and cold—while his right hand already gripped the hilt of the replica “kirato.”
Qiang—!
The black sword was unsheathed, carrying a sharp sound of breaking air, as it slashed down fiercely toward the base of the tongue he was holding!
“Clang—!!”
The expected scene of flesh being severed did not occur.
When the blade made contact with the surface of the tongue, it actually produced a loud sound like metal clashing, even splashing a few sparks!
That tongue was unimaginably tough; the sharp blade of kirato could only leave a shallow white mark on it, and the counter-shock force made Lucifer’s arm slightly numb.
“Hmm?” Lucifer was slightly surprised.
The hardness of this tongue far exceeded that of ordinary biological tissue, and was even sturdier than many metals!
Seemingly feeling an “itching,” the Mutated Indura let out a low, hoarse whimper from its giant mouth, and the long tongue suddenly accelerated its retraction, carrying a powerful pulling force, intending to drag Lucifer over.
Lucifer let go as he went with the flow, his body using the force to drift back several meters, while the Demon God Power within him surged rapidly, gathering at the chest wound.
Amidst the flickering dark red light, the pierced flesh squirmed and healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
A moment later, only a faint red mark remained.
The powerful recovery ability of the Demon Clan was fully displayed at this moment.
He stood with his sword, looking at the enemy before him with a grave expression.
Although the wound healed instantly, the lightning-fast exchange just now had given him an intuitive understanding of this Mutated Indura’s danger—extraordinary speed, bizarre attacks, and astonishing defense.
Its Combat Class…
is definitely far beyond mine, but it doesn’t seem to have reached that hopeless level of 200,000.
He recalled the mountain-toppling pressure brought by Belial’s Combat Class of 210,000.
Compared to the monster before him, there seemed to be a gap in “quality” between the two.
The fellow before him seemed more like it was in some powerful but not yet peaked transitional stage.
Maybe it’s not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”