<h4>Chapter 1163: Ghost Under the Lava (1)</h4>


    <i>Boom!</i>


    The constantly-rollingva erupted. zing, scarlet torrents of extreme heat surged and sshed all around at a rapid pace. Rhode flitted across in a sh, concealing himself entirely in the shadows of one of the towers. He narrowed his eyes to scan the surroundings, turned around, and extended his arm, where a ck card flickered in his hand and transformed into a pitch-ck sword the very next second. He stooped over, held his breath, and quietly listened to the activities around him.


    Based on his investigation earlier, the five steel towers basically served as military towers. As long as he could take them down, the others could pass through the area and enter the door safely. The mission that Rhode gave the others was to take down the functions of the steel towers. If it weren’t for the existence of that mysterious, shadowy creature at the bottom of thevake, Rhode wouldn’t mind crushing his way through. But now... In order to not alert the enemy, he could only deploy another strategy.


    Fortunately, based on the situation he observed before, there were groups of five heavily-armored human soldiers. Security was tight in this area. But luckily, Rhode had his way around them.


    <i>Stomp... Stomp... Stomp...</i>


    Rasps of shing, heavy steel armor resounded. Rhode squinted at the scene and clutched the sword hilt. He waspletely hidden in the shadow, waiting silently for the opportune timing to strike. Shortly after, a patrol team marched past him. The soldiers inspected the area, failing to notice the enemy lurking in the shadows beside them. After scanning the area for a few moments, they turned around and headed into another tunnel.


    It was at that moment Rhode struck.


    The instant the soldiers turned around, Rhode pounced. The sword in his hand metamorphosed into a dark radiance as he darted ahead. In a dazzling sh, the soldier at the rear was shed into half like tofu. Rhode’s sword trembled abruptly as ck mes erupted inside-out from the de. He turned around, withdrew his sword, and dashed forward again.


    The next soldier ahead turned around subconsciously after hearing some strange movements. But he had only turned halfway before the razor-sharp de prated his neck. Then, ck mes exploded to devour that unfortunate soldier. Rhode continued his attack, positioning his sword in a nted stance and shing it downward in a straight line. This series of movements was so quick that it onlysted less than five seconds—from when heunched his attack to puncturing the third soldier’s chest.


    At that moment, the two soldiers at the front seemed to realize that something was wrong. One of them lifted his gun and pointed to the rear. But as soon as he turned around, he witnessed a sh of dark radiance and felt a chilly sensation on his neck. Then, he stopped breathing.


    “...!”


    Meanwhile, the soldier at the front turned around. After witnessing Rhode’s presence, he widened his eyes and was about to scream, when suddenly, Rhode swung his right arm forward.


    <i>Kacha.</i>


    The razor-sharp de grew in length, metamorphosing into a long whip that wrapped around the soldier’s neck and stifled the scream that almost escaped him. Then, the ck de spun abruptly, severing the unfortunate soldier’s head and sending it skyward beforending on the ground.


    “Phew...”


    At that moment, Rhode heaved a sigh of relief. He swept a nce to the surroundings keenly before lifting Subus in his right hand and shing it downward. Savage ck mes erupted from the de in this move, shrouding the lifeless corpses on the floor instantly. In just a dozen seconds, the scattered corpses and filthy blood were swallowed, leaving nothing behind. Rhode returned to the shadows and continued to sneak his way in.


    After taking down three teams continuously, Rhode finally eliminated all patrols safeguarding the first tower. But he didn’t let his guard down just yet as he didn’t know how exactly the patrolsmunicated and rotated shifts. If he had annihted the patrols that were taking over the current shift, perhaps the patrols might feel suspicious after some time. The most important thing now was to seize the timing. After taking down the three patrol forces and ensuring that no one discovered his presence, Rhode went up to the entrance of the first tower and peeked into it.


    What made him heave a sigh of relief was that the entrance wasn’t locked. However, the situation inside was nowhere better as heavily-armored soldiers and surveince cameras were everywhere. Even though Rhode didn’t know how they managed to set up such aprehensive base, it seemed like the emergency siren would be sounded immediately if he were to barge inside.


    <i>When that happens, things might get out of hand.</i>


    At this thought, Rhode shifted his gaze away and dashed into the shadows of the tall, dark tower like a ghost, vanishing out of sight.


    Meanwhile, the two Canarys stood at the side quietly, sensing the presence of that mysterious creature lurking deep below thevake. No wonder Rhode was anxious about it. That creature was almost 100 meters in length, and a dozen meters wide, which was rarely seen even in the Dragon Soul Continent. At that moment, their group was just above it. If they weren’t careful, they might be thoroughly out of luck. It was due to this reason that Rhode was acting so cautiously. The two Canarys put up solemn expressions because they discovered earlier that the creature that was as stationary as a rock twitched as though it were awake. Although the frequency of its movements was low, theva was like an extension of their bodies. The creature was like a fish held up by their hands, where they were able to sharply feel its movements.


    “Should we tell Rhode about it?”


    Canary knitted her brows and gazed at her projection who stood beside her. In fact, she admired the personality of her projection. Even though her projection was created based on Rhode’s impression of her, if Canary were able to be exactly the same as her projection, perhaps she wouldn’t have that much burden on her shoulders.


    “...”


    Facing Canary’s question, Canary No. 2 pondered in silence before nodding gently.


    “Okay, I’ll inform Rhode. You tell Bubble about this and ask them to pick up the pace. I have a bad feeling about this situation.”


    “Got it.”


    Upon hearing Canary No. 2’s response, Canary nodded slightly, turned around, and left quickly. Canary No. 2 gazed at Canary, let out a sigh, and shifted her gaze to the sea ofva before her. Then, she witnessed several streaks of red brilliance.


    “There are movements?”


    After hearing Canary No. 2’s report, Rhode’s heart sank. Earlier on, he felt like something was amiss. When he killed the soldiers, he sensed the presence of Chaos aura escaping their bodies and attempting to gather in a certain ce. For safety’s sake, Rhode activated the ck mes of Subus and devoured the Chaos aura. Now, it seemed like that apparently wasn’t a bad move. Perhaps all the power of Chaos in this ce came from that huge, mysterious creature skulking underneath theva. Perhaps the strange activities reported by Canary earlier were precisely its instinctive reactions upon feeling its power depleting at a fast pace. Maybe the amount of power lost was just a drop in the ocean, but Rhode’s group might attract its attention if they continued to ughter the soldiers!


    But now, he didn’t have any other ways to pass this information to the others. After all, Erin and Lydia weren’t card spirits he couldmunicate spiritually with. Right now, he could only take one step at a time, wipe out the defense as quickly as possible, and proceed on to the next.


    Rhode pondered, but the speed of his swinging sword didn’t slow down at all. Even though the entire steel tower seemed well-structured and heavily-guarded, it wasn’t prepared for air raids. Rhode could easily conquer a tower that was tens of meters tall. He flitted up the tower like a shadow and emerged at the top. At that moment, two gun-wielding soldiers who were patrolling on the highest floor had their backs facing him and didn’t detect his presence. In an instant, Rhode ughtered them mercilessly and lit them on fire to remove all traces. Then, he opened the door and sneaked inside the tower silently via the stairwell.


    The inside of the steel tower was dimly-lit. Perhaps due to theck of electricity, not all themps were lit up; some of them emanated a fuzzy radiance along the walls at intervals. But this was to Rhode’s advantage. He concealed himself in the shadows and killed his way through without being discovered. Along the way, he realized that theyout of this ce was basically the same as buildings on Earth. However, some ces felt out of ce to him, just like previously, when he and Lydia entered the moon base eroded by Chaos.


    <i>Seems like I’m about to find out the true identity of that thing soon.</i>


    At this thought, Rhode picked up his pace. If that creature was like the one that had eroded the moon bases, he would need to go all-out with his group. But if that happened, he might also destroy this ce and they would be buried alive, not to mention opening the door to escape.


    <i>Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!</i>


    As soon as Rhode wiped out the soldiers ahead and was about to advance, he suddenly heard a series of hurried footsteps. He turned around, leaned to the side quickly, and fused into the wall, disappearing from sight. Almost simultaneously, a team of heavily-armed soldiers arrived at the scene. Their captain was a young man donned in a ck uniform. He swept a nce at the surroundings with an ice-cold expression and let out a snort.


    “What exactly is going on? Where are the guards? Why are they missing?”


    “Maybe they went to patrol the ce. After all, it’s time for the next shift...”


    “That bunch of useless trash makes my head hurt! Why are they running around all over the ce at such a time?!”


    Upon hearing his subordinate’s response, the captain grunted. Then, he turned around, gazed at his subordinate, andmanded with a long face: “Get ready. We’re going to start the fusion soon. Bring all experimental subjects to Experimental Lab One and give them an injection... By the way, how is Experimental Subject Three doing?”


    Upon hearing his question, a man who wore a white coat, like a researcher’s, replied immediately.


    “Reporting, Sir. The condition of Experimental Subject Three remains the same. We’ve increased the dosage, but there are still no effects after injecting it into her body. Frankly, if it weren’t for the apparatus indicating that everything is normal with her body, we would have believed that she is dead.”


    “Check her conditions right away. We need to turn her into a Chaos being before the Saint awakens! Remember, if we can’t do it, the Saint’s wrath will burn us all into ashes! Hurry up! Don’t waste anymore time! Understand, you fools?!”


    “Yes, Sir!”


    Everyone nodded at hismand before turning around to leave. But at the same time, a barrier of ck mes erupted, trapping them inside, like a cage. It happened so quickly that some of them didn’t detect its presence immediately and were instantly swallowed by the ck mes and vanished into nothingness before letting out a shriek. The sudden emergence of the mes stunned the rest. They gripped their weapons and stepped back instinctively. At the same time, a dozen tentacles drilled out of the ground suddenly and bound them firmly. The whistling de airflows extinguished the weak, dancing mes of themps. In an instant, there was nothing else apart from darkness.


    After a few moments, the darkness dissipated.


    Rhode emerged from the shadows. Around his feet were corpses, while the ck mes gradually expanded to the surroundings, devouring and shredding the remains into bits. The young captain earlier was the only one who survived and escaped the tragedy. But now, his back was against the wall as he stared palely at the razor-sharp de Rhode was pressing against his throat. A slightest movement and his head would be severed right off.


    “W-Who are you?”


    Widening his eyes, the man gazed at Rhode in terror. He couldn’t imagine how someone was able to sneak into this heavily-guarded tower. Not only that, but he also annihted the guards effortlessly.


    <i>Are any humans capable of doing that? What kind of sick joke is this? Isn’t it just a bunch of primitive men on thisnd? Why is there someone so powerful here? Who exactly is he?</i>


    “I seem to have heard something interesting.”


    Facing his question, Rhode didn’t answer. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the man instead. The corners of his lips perked up into a strange smile.


    “Would you mind telling me more about the situation of this ce?”


    Under the threat of death, the young captain gave in immediately and confessed everything to Rhode.


    It was just as Rhode had expected. These people were the descendants of Chaos who arrived from Earth. However, they didn’t seem to be fully aware of the power inside their bodies, as well as their identities. They hailed from an organization named ‘Heaven’s Law’. All members of that organization were like him; ‘abnormal ones’ who possessed the power of Chaos. They believed that they were chosen by the Gods of this world to contribute to the evolution of humans. For that, they uncovered and awakened the power of Chaos in every corner of the world. The Akashic tes in the moon bases were their main targets because ording to the records of ‘Heaven’s Law’, those tes bestowed on them miraculous powers. As a matter of fact, many of the higher-ups in Heaven’s Law were the ones who unearthed the Akashic tes. They imed that they were enlightened by the tes during the excavation and also received special abilities. It was due to this reason that they were looking forward to taking away the Akashic tes, bringing them to where they belonged.


    However, after they failed to snatch the Akashic tes, Heaven’s Law changed their goal. They began working toward a ‘brand new world’, summoned subordinates to this new continent through the ne channels, and proceeded to expand the continent. This young man was one of them. He was just a small leader of Heaven’s Law who was responsible for capturing the natives of this continent and injecting their so-called ‘sacred powers’ (in other words, the power of Chaos) into their bodies, turning them into their subjects and puppets. And now, they were in one of the bases of Heaven’s Law. However, this base was only recently built and still in development.


    Rhode also learned from that young man that after a period of time, they would send out selected candidates to the channel connected to the Seven Fantasy Boundaries. These people weren’t aware of what was on the other end of the channel. But ording to them, the selected candidates had epted the will of the Saint and obtained the right to enter the channel.


    <i>I see.</i>


    After hearing the young man’s narration, Rhode finally understood their background. It seemed like even though Marybelle dealt with most of the Chaos creatures back then, the Akashic tes still left a rtively huge impact on Earth... Perhaps these guys were influenced by the Akashic tes, which was why they turned to this.


    “Good.”


    Rhode nodded with a smile and flipped the de around.


    “Next, I have a request.”


    He said, gazing at the pale young man.


    “Could you tell me what that so-called experiment you mentioned earlier is?”