Chapter 158: So Close


    ''Darcy.Masami.I can feel it! We''re so close to each other! Just a little more.'' Ani was hyping herself up while engaging in a full-on sprint through the fiery hell.


    Her eyes were in the same hazy Darkness glow, just like Darcel and Masami. Boosted power course in her body, also increasing Ani''s determination.


    Ani felt like hours had passed since she first felt her Darkness Soul link frantically pulsate through Darcel and Masami''s feelings.


    And though her injuries quickly grew, her power as well quickly grew.


    She was able to now efficiently deal with the vicious beasts that came at her without having it be a life or death battle.


    Ani still couldn''t avoid grave injuries, but at least she wasn''t so desperate like the time she first encountered the blood-red lion.


    Running down this path, Ani had felt like she was close to the end.


    If she squinted her eyes really tightly, Ani swore she could spot a spark of blue just up ahead of her. Ani couldn''t tell the exact distance she needed to traverse. Still, at her current speed, she wouldn''t take too long to eventually arrive there.


    For the past minutes of running, Ani was starting to feel a bit wary, though. No savage blood-red beast tried to ambush her for a couple of miles now.


    But Ani kept her guard fully up, knowing it wasn''t over yet.


    And Ani was right to keep her guard. As she was thinking of theck of beast, the ground soon started to slightly tremble.


    Ani paused, focusing her energy on the next fight.


    Up ahead, a towering figure shot out from between the blood-red skull trees!


    "Hwagh!!"


    It was an enormous blood-red bear with redbones protruding out of its palms. The blood-red bear feral eyes preyed on Ani, and it savagely charged towards her.


    Ani took a deep breath. Her Darkness Soul link burst up, and hands ignited a Darkness glow.


    Ani didn''t hesitate and sprinted right towards the beast in the next split second, matching its crazed dash.


    In her boosted state, Ani no longer had the ordinary limits of mortals. Her speed had slightly eclipsed the blood-red bear, nearing it in a manner of seconds.


    Only inches away from the blood-red bear, Ani jumped and struck her fist straight towards its boney palm.


    The blood-red bear had trouble tracking Ani''s speed and just barely reacted to her fist.


    Ani didn''t have any fear of the blood-red bear''s terrifying palm.


    Her Darkness glow fist shattered the bones sticking out the blood-red bear''s giant palm, and she violently struck its palm.


    ''Bang!''


    Blood flew out between Ani and the bear, but only the bear had to take several steps back.


    Ani''s hand got shredded by the blood-red bear''s bones and sharp nails, revealing her gory flesh.


    While the blood-red bear felt its whole arm go numb, and bile rises to its mouth. Its face began to contort into slight fear.


    Ani crazily smiled at the beast''s fear. She didn''t let the blood-red bear rest for a second, and she swiftly jumped straight at the beast once again.


    This time, Ani reached a height of eight feet into the air just to match the blood-red bear''s giant head.


    The blood-red bear bared its razor-sharp teeth at Ani and struck out its other palm while she was in midair.


    Ani smirked as she just narrowly shifted her body in midair, letting the blood-red bear palm graze her right shoulder.


    Before the blood-red bear could react to her dodge, Ani quickly plunged her left fist deep into the beast''s eyes! Ani pushed forward her momentum, slipping her whole arm into the blood-red bear''s eyes.


    The blood-red bear''s bodily defenses was nothing but mush towards Ani''s Darkness Soul link increase powers.


    Even as its bones were fortified and enhanced, Ani''s fist shattered its skull, tearing right into its brain.


    The blood-red bear''s body spasmed in sudden pain for a split second.


    Their whole fightsted mere seconds, but the blood-red bear was already dead. Ani tore her arm out of the beast, and it was covered in the gory mush of brain matter and blood.


    As Ani dropped to the ground, the giant blood-red bear corpse crashed to the ground causing slight cracks in it.


    Ani didn''t care and just shook her arm to get rid of most of the blood and guts.


    After killing that giant beast, Ani felt as if the end of this fiery hell was near. She quickly took off in a mad sprint, going at speeds slightly beyond the standard limit of average peak mortals.


    At her speed, Ani didn''t know how long she was running.


    It felt like hours passed by in a snap. But after hours of endlessly running, Ani finally came upon a change of scenery.


    ''Ahh!! What the hell is with this ce?! So cold!!'' Ani immediately stopped, huddled arms together, and began to shiver.


    The immense freezing cold prated her body as just in front of her was an enormous ocean of ice-cold water!


    It was a dramatic shift in temperature that nearly caused Ani''s mind to go into a state of shock. She whipped her head back, and she still clearly saw the fiery hellscape boiling.


    And yet, when turning back around, all that was up ahead was this ice-cold ocean.


    Ani slowly walked up to the ice-cold ocean, gazing all around the ce.


    And like she expected, it was a real dead end here.


    There was nothing beyond this ocean, meaning.Ani looked down in the bask of ice-cold water. Her eyes couldn''t see the floor of the water, showing its vast depth.


    Ani looked back up, her expression a bit curious. She waited a bit, expecting for the gray robe figure to arrive.


    But after a couple of minutes, nothing showed up for her.


    Ani''s eyes gazed back down at the ice-cold water, realizing that she''s going to have to dive into the ice-cold ocean.


    A great big sigh escaped from Ani''s lips.


    There seemed to just be no end to what kind of pain this trial can dish out. Still, since she fought her way this far, Ani wasn''t about to turn back now.


    Ani closed her eyes and focused on her feelings. The frantic eagerness she felt about reuniting with Darcel and Masami increased the power of her Darkness Soul link at a slightly quicker rate.


    Not being hasty with this, Ani patiently stays still to gather her power.


    Her stillnesssted for almost half an hour. And after all that time, a faint Darkness glow aura covered Ani''s body. In the Darkness glow aura, Ani felt the cold was much more manageable to deal with.


    It wasn''t perfect, but it was enough to at least test out the waters. Ani reopened her eyes, staring down the ice-cold ocean.


    ''Here goes nothing.'' She thought to herself and jumped right into the ice-cold ocean.


    Ani only made it a couple feet down the ocean before she stopped entirely. Her whole body began to uncontrobly shiver as the freezing water temperature dramatically increased and prated deep into her bones.


    Ani closed her eyes tight. She began to focus intensely on her Darkness Soul link. It quickly responded to the near-death situation, creating a more defined Darkness glow aura around her.


    Ani felt some of the cold break off from her, but it wasn''t that much.


    Her eyes wearily open again, being able to just barely content with the freezing water now.


    Ani recontinued her slow descent into the freezing water. After a few minutes of diving, her body only increased in its shivering.


    Legitimately, Ani was starting to feel despair, realizing this may all be hopeless.


    The rate of her Darkness Soul link simply couldn''t keep up with the freezing temperatures. Frostbite began to cover bits of her body, making the cold honestly much worse than the boiling hell.


    And just when Ani was about to lose all hope, her slow Darkness Sou link suddenly began to frantically surge!


    Ani''s eyes burst open, feeling an incredible wave of energy explode inside of her.


    But her main reason for getting so shocked, ''Darcy! Little Fox! You''re here! And I''ming to you!!''


    Yes, Ani managed to feel that Darcel and Masami were very close to her! Her love for them exploded as Ani was eager for their reunion. Her Darkness glow aura intensifies, and Ani sets her targets below her.


    Inspired by a new wave of confidence and power, Ani sted off towards where she felt Darcel and Masami were.


    She tore through ice-cold water, feeling the freezing temperature decrease for her. The little frostbite bits broke of her body as her power steadily increased.


    .


    A profound Darkness glow aura shrouded Darcel as he brazenly sted through the ice-cold water. Just mere minutes before, he was on the verge of losing hope and copsing in this frozen hell.


    But, immediately when he felt the girls close by through his Darkness Soul link pulsating, Darcel felt a rush of energy and hope.


    His Darkness Soul link frantically increased in power, allowing him the ability to resist the cold and majorly increase his speed.


    Darcel wasn''t sure where he was going or if he was even going the right way to end the trial. Yet, none of that matters as he was squarely focused on reuniting with his girls no matter the cost.


    Time flew like the wind for Darcel, and he didn''t know how long he was crazily diving for.


    A few minutes may have passed, but Darcel felt like hours passed just being so close to his girls yet not being able to see them.


    ''D-Darcy?! D-Darcel?!''


    It was faint whispers that echoed in his mind. Whispers that made Darcel freeze and got him excited. He clearly heard the sweet, lovable voices of Ani and Masami in his mind!


    ''Finally, we''re here!'' Darcel shouted in his mind, unsure whether or not this would make it to the girls.


    But Darcel continued on diving; he felt his Darkness Soul link strongly pulsate as if he wasing right on the girls.


    And soon enough, Darcel froze once reaching miles deep into the ice-cold water. From only a few meters away from him, Darcel saw two figures that caused an endless amount of joy to burst in his chest.


    To his far right side, he spotted Ani in a Darkness glow aura, broadly smiling in extravagant happiness, looking between him and Masami.


    And to his left side, Darcel spotted Masami in the same Darkness glow aura and a trembling smile on her cute face.


    Darcel was sure as well a tremendous goofy smile epassed his face as well.


    Like three sonic booms went off at the same time, Darcel, Ani, and Masami shot off towards each other.


    All three of them felt their Darkness Soul link explosively increase in power to the point of far surpassing any other previous encounter. As they neared each other, none of them even felt the ice-cold temperature affecting them that much anymore.


    They got within a meter towards each other in just mere seconds to only a few feet.


    And right when they made it to simple inches apart from each other, Darcel, Ani and Masami stopped.


    They all relished in seeing their lovely faces again, and Ani immediately spoke out, preparing to tightly hug both Darcel and Masami.


    By her Darkness Soul link powers, her voice clearly echoed out despite being deep in water.


    "Darcy!! My little fo-"


    <em>''Rumble~!''</em>


    Ani had to stop the reunion short, however, when the whole ice-cold ocean began to violently quake!


    Darcel, Ani, and Masami''s eyes widened. They had to concentrate just to center themselves and not get tossed around by the intense rumbling.


    As the rumbling urred, Darcel, Ani, and Masami witnessed something bursting up from below them. "


    Ngnh?! What the hell? Bubbles?" Masami''s voice also clearly echoed out as she, Ani, and Darcel watched numerous streams of bubbles re right up at them.