Chapter 18: An Ambush and a Desperate Stand

No sooner had the woman’s voice faded than countless figures emerged from the shadows. The cultists of the Evil God, who had been lurking in the darkness, finally revealed their true forms. The dim environment was the Netherworld Division’s natural hunting ground.

Upon witnessing this, Eliza’s heart sank. ‘These cultists clearly laid an ambush, waiting for us to fall into their trap,’ she thought.

She immediately led everyone in a retreat. However, they had barely taken a few steps before colliding with a brawny, scarred man.

“Little girl, this path is impassable, you know.”

The brawny man sneered, his aura revealing him to be a Tier 4 knight. Eliza’s eyes narrowed, her longsword already gathering power.

Tier 4 opponents were still within her fighting capabilities. After all, she was a dual-class Tier 3, a dragon prodigy, and in extreme situations, she could even exchange a few blows with a Tier 5.

“Whether the path is passable or not isn’t for you to decide.”

Eliza scoffed, then charged forward without hesitation.

The man, encountering a Tier 3 knight daring to confront him head-on for the first time, found himself intrigued. He swung his heavy hammer, smashing it down.

With a resounding crash, the ground cracked, and the colossal hammer caused the entire passage to tremble.

Eliza narrowly dodged the blow, her sword imbued with battle qi, striking towards the man.

Strangely, the moment the sword qi made contact with his body, it twisted and transformed into black mist.

The man’s cultivation technique was peculiar, Eliza realized, daring not to engage him in a direct clash. She cautiously retreated.

“What’s wrong, little girl? Don’t you want to get a little closer to your uncle?”

The man’s sinister grin made Eliza’s stomach churn. If battle qi was ineffective against him, what about magic?

“By the Goddess of Holy Light, I beseech you, grant me strength to sever the evil of chaos.”

As Eliza offered her prayer, a mist in her mind seemed to slowly part.

Within the mist, a noble woman sat upon a throne, gazing into the distance, a faint smile playing on her lips.

With a boom, Eliza felt all the magic within her body surge and boil. The Goddess of Holy Light had answered her prayer.

Eliza’s eyes narrowed slightly, magic already coalescing in her hand.

“Cultist, this is the end for you!”

As Eliza’s words fell, a powerful magical force slammed into the man, the shockwave causing the entire cave to shudder.

The woman deep within the cavern was also startled by this surge of power. Moments later, the smile on her face transformed into one of excitement.

“What a promising talent! If we could recruit her into our Great Chaos Divine Cult, we’d gain another bishop.”

The woman chuckled wickedly, already plotting how to implant corruption into Eliza’s body later.

Once the light dissipated, the man’s blurred silhouette reappeared. He struggled to lift his head, black mist wafting from his body, clearly severely wounded.

“Ha, I underestimated you, but how many times can you use such power?”

The man wiped the black mist from the corner of his mouth, then simply sat cross-legged, beginning to absorb the surrounding black mist.

Seeing the situation take a turn for the worse, Eliza unleashed another burst of explosive magic.

Boom~

The cave ceiling dropped a few loose stones, but the man seemed unfazed, continuing his meditation.

‘Damn it!’

Just as the man had implied, the magic within her body could, at most, sustain two more powerful explosive spells.

Furthermore, she discovered that the force she expended was being converted into black mist, becoming nourishment for the man. This fact gave her a massive headache; if she couldn’t kill him in a single strike, he could continuously convert black mist through his cultivation technique. The longer this dragged on, the greater her disadvantage.

Sounds of fighting now erupted from behind them; they were caught between two fronts, and the situation was dire.

Eliza closed her eyes, reaching out to tap a point in front of her—a gesture of prayer. She intended to risk everything, to carve out a path for everyone.

“Explosive Magic!”

With a bang, this explosion was even more intense than the previous ones.

The man was once again engulfed in the chaotic magical currents. To be safe, Eliza retrieved several scrolls from her storage ring. These scrolls contained the holy light power of priests; by channeling magic into them, their inherent power could be unleashed.

Boom~

After the holy light scrolls merged into the chaotic magical currents, a scream echoed from within, indicating that the man had finally been eliminated.

Eliza wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, quickly pulling out several magic crystals to rapidly replenish her magical energy.

While recovering, she directed everyone to retreat. Everything proceeded smoothly until a voice rang out.

“The game ends here, little sister. You are very outstanding; join our great Chaos Divine Cult!”

A phantom figure blocked their path, radiating an aura of terrifying power. This was a force they could not contend with; even their holy light amulets grew dimmer, tainted by the black mist emanating from the woman.

Time was running out, and cold sweat began to bead on Eliza’s forehead. She had never encountered such a formidable enemy before.

Just at this critical juncture, a sharp roar suddenly erupted from the other end of the cavern.

“How dare you be so presumptuous!”

The woman turned her head, seeing a middle-aged man in full plate armor. He wielded a great silver-iron sword, his eyes blazing with fury, his aura overwhelmingly domineering.

“Tch, little sister, I’ll be back for you. I’ll make sure you join our great Chaos Divine Cult.”

The woman glanced at Eliza, a faint smile on her lips, then charged towards the examiner.

Eliza scoffed inwardly. She possessed the pride of a dragon; even if she truly couldn’t escape, she would never become a minion of the Evil God’s cult.

The belated examiner and the woman clashed fiercely. The woman’s power was born from the essence of Chaos. The examiner struggled immensely, sensing vaguely that the woman had yet to unleash her full strength, a realization that filled him with profound worry.

With the cave entrance blocked by the two combatants, Eliza could only lead her group in resisting the cultists attacking from behind.

Both battlefields raged intensely, and the cavern itself began to groan, eventually collapsing and isolating Eliza’s group from the examiner.

Eliza’s side was relatively manageable; these cultists of the Evil God were not particularly strong, nor did they practice the same peculiar cultivation technique as the man from before. Otherwise, this fight would have been much harder.

After slaying a few more cultists with a swift strike, Eliza’s gaze drifted to the center of the cavern. She paused, a flicker of surprise in her eyes. ‘Did the person in the center of the magic array just move?’ A sense of foreboding settled in Eliza’s heart, but as more cultists lunged at her, she was pulled back to reality, forced to set aside her doubts for the moment.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the cavern, the examiner was being overwhelmed by the woman. Her aura grew increasingly formidable, while the examiner’s strength visibly waned. The examiner raised his greatsword, unleashing several sword qi strikes, then swiftly retreated. However, his reaction was a beat too slow; the woman had already appeared behind him.