The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　Hidden inside the carriage, "Magical Beast: Destroyer" immediately unleashed "Annihilation" on "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast".

　The wound on the "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" instantly stopped healing. "Viligion" attempted to deliver another blow.

　But faced with the sudden threat of death, the "lion-headed serpent beast" finally reacted and managed to dodge to the side in time.

　However, sword marks still inexplicably appeared on its body. "Viligeon" triggered the "Holy Sword's" guaranteed hit property, forcibly twisting its body to slash at "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast".

　Although this sword strike was not delivered with full force, it still managed to break through the "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast's" defenses.

　The wound, which should have healed instantly, showed no signs of healing whatsoever.

　It was as if this "lion-headed serpent beast" had completely lost the regenerative abilities that belong to living beings!

　"Viligeon" landed on the back of "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" after this sword strike.

　It stepped on snake scales and sped upwards.

　As the "lion-headed serpent" coiled its body in an attempt to break free, it adjusted its position while running, always remaining directly above the giant serpent.

　"Roar!"

　The "Lion-Headed Serpent" was as irritable as if it had lice on its body. With a roar, it suddenly turned around, its lion-like head glaring fiercely at the "Vilijon" running on its back.

　Then, the lion's head suddenly shot out and fiercely bit at "Bilijion"!

　At the same time.

　The "Moon Goddess Chariot," however, escaped the battle under the control of the "Fairy Tale Animal - Little Rabbit" and headed towards the top of the "Iron God Soldier."

　At this moment, the Lion-Headed Serpent Beast's attention was drawn away by the Virizion. The Black Mist Beast was still locked in combat with the Forest Shadow Leopard.

　The other creatures were also fighting against the magical spirits summoned by Lucia and Aurora.

　For a moment, no creature attacked the carriage that had suddenly entered and injured the "lion-headed serpent beast".

　The "Moon Chariot" stopped outside the barrier of the "Absolute Fortress". After replenishing the magic power of the "Iron God Soldier", Lucia Artemis stared at Dark with a wary expression.

　Although she was nearly twenty years old, she looked young and cute. Her thin eyebrows stood up, and even when she was angry, she only looked adorable.

　However, Dark only glanced at her face before turning his attention to Aurora beside her.

　The moment Aurora saw Dark's appearance, a look of relief instinctively appeared on her face.

　She quickly leaned close to Lucia Artemis's ear and whispered something. Lucia Artemis actually remembered Dark. Although she was displeased, she still ordered the "Iron Soldier" to open the barrier of the "Absolute Fortress".

　With a light tap of his toes, "Fairy Tale Animal? Little Rabbit" drove the carriage directly into it, landing on top of "Iron God Soldier's" head, and the barrier of "Absolute Fortress" immediately closed.

　The "Iron Soldier" has a flat, ring-shaped protrusion on its head. It was originally designed to protect mages, so naturally it needs a place where mages can stand comfortably.

　The ring of raised bumps is a meter high, and even without activating the "Absolute Fortress" barrier, it can provide a certain degree of protection for the Archmage.

　Dark stepped down from the carriage, his expression relaxed, and said, "It seems I haven't arrived too late."

　Aurora placed her hands in front of her, clenched her fingers, and whispered, "Yes, Lucia?" Artemis then took over Aurora's command and continued to direct the magical spirits in the arena to fight without stopping.

　The battle situation did not truly ease after the "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" was lured away.

　In fact, the "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" originally attacked the "Absolute Fortress" with the intention of "playing around." Although this action held Lucia Artemis back, its own combat power was not actually displayed.

　The mere presence of the other creatures was enough to leave Aurora and Lucia breathless.

　Especially the "Black Mist Beast," they had to frequently summon magic cards to assist the "Forest Shadow Leopard" in order to prevent it from being defeated immediately.

　Under such urgent circumstances, they also had to be distracted and command the other magical spirits.

　Those magical spirits were also at a disadvantage in their battles against other creatures.

　This is mainly due to their sheer numbers, the short health bars of magical spirits, and their lack of self-healing abilities.

　If Dark had arrived a few minutes later, those magical elves would have surely been defeated.

　At that point, Aurora and Lucia had no choice but to run away again. Dark was not unaware of the situation, but he still chose to ask Aurora first what had happened after entering the "Heavenly Court".

　Aurora tilted her head back and answered his question as briefly as possible.

　Two minutes later, Dark realized that his earlier guess had been somewhat wrong.

　Aurora was not embroiled in crisis because of the appearance of Lucia Artemis.

　Instead, she was saved by Lucia Artemis, who happened to be passing by! At that moment, she disappeared through the flesh tunnel and found herself in a forest full of charred trees in the blink of an eye.

　Before she could recover, a creature hiding behind a tree immediately attacked her.

　Fortunately, the creature wasn't powerful; she blasted it away with a single, bare-handed strike. Aurora immediately became alert and summoned a magical spirit capable of concealing itself, attempting to hide.

　But this strategy proved completely ineffective. Instead, more magical spirits emerged from the forest and launched a fierce attack on her, who should have already gone invisible.

　She quickly summoned the other magical spirits to deal with the situation.

　Because the trees in the forest were dense and difficult to maneuver, she fought and retreated, trying to get out of the forest.

　She did succeed, and even repelled some of the forest creatures. The remaining creatures also stopped in their tracks due to the special aura emanating from the palace outside the forest.

　She realized the palace's purpose and felt a surge of joy, so she cautiously guided the magical spirits to gradually cease their attacks.

　The creatures peeked outside for a moment, then sure enough, fled back into the forest.

　Aurora relaxed for a moment, feeling she had found a "safe zone." However...

　Just a few minutes after she had rested, a creature that ignored the palace's aura appeared before her.

　-

Chapter 973 Darkdemon, Invincible Under Heaven (12K views, requesting monthly votes)

　That creature that ignored the palace's atmosphere was none other than the "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" that had been lured away by "Viligion"!

　Aurora did indeed forge several powerful magical spirit cards with Ergani's help.

　But that "lion-headed serpent beast" was a creature of at least twelve stars in strength. Even if she used all her strength, she could not possibly be its match.

　But Aurora will not sit idly by and wait for her doom.

　She used all her wisdom and limited strength to contend with the "lion-headed serpent beast" and sent out as many signals as possible in order to seek a glimmer of hope.

　Her efforts proved worthwhile.

　While the "Holy Knights" and Gavin North's children, who had previously "mysteriously disappeared," were not in this vicinity, the Moon Elves who had entered the "Heavenly Court" even earlier happened to be nearby!

　Lucia Artemis's initial intention may not have been to rescue people; she may have also wanted to find someone to cooperate with in fighting the enemy.

　But the truth that ultimately emerged was that it was her appearance that saved Aurora from her perilous situation.

　—Although this is actually just moving from one dangerous situation to another.

　However, it must be said that Lucia Artemis is indeed much stronger than Aurora, and Aurora's situation has been greatly alleviated.

　Originally, she was prepared to activate the power of the snake skin for a final gamble. In any case, after cooperating with Lucia Artemis, Aurora also learned about the plight of the elves and that Lucia Artemis had also been attacked by creatures of the "Heavenly Court" shortly after entering it.

　Excluding creatures that attack based on predatory instincts, Lucia Artemis also encountered powerful creatures with clearly specific purposes.

　That powerful creature was the "Black Mist Beast"!

　Shortly after Lucia Artemis entered the "Heavenly Court", she was approached by the "Black Mist Beast".

　She engaged in a fierce battle of attack and defense with the "Black Mist Beast".

　Although she didn't give it her all due to the dangers of the environment, Lucia Artemis clearly felt that she would have a hard time winning in a direct confrontation.

　Therefore, after some planning, she successfully escaped from the attack of the "Black Mist Beast".

　Not long after, she was caught up by the "Black Mist Beast" again.

　Moreover, the "Black Mist Beast" that came chasing after us this time also brought other powerful creatures with it!

　Yes, the other creatures currently attacking in a swarm are all led by that "Black Mist Beast"!

　Each time Lucia Artemis escapes, the "Black Mist Beasts" that chase after her capture even more powerful creatures to serve them.

　In this predicament where she could neither fight back nor escape, and where the enemy seemed to grow stronger the more she fled, Lucia Artemis exerted all her strength, gradually becoming exhausted.

　It wasn't until she met Aurora that she was able to share the burden.

　Of course, the "Little Phoenix Blood Pill" that Aurora fed her was the key to her being able to stand up again.

　After that, the two worked together to create bait several times to shake off the group of creatures, but each time they were quickly caught again.

　As they fled, their understanding of those creatures grew. They became absolutely certain that both the "Black Mist Beast" and the "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" possessed unique methods to find them in this environment!

　The existence of such special methods is clearly unusual.

　Moreover, when the same situation occurs in two people, the possibility of it being a coincidence is significantly reduced.

　Of course, now it's happening to three people!

　After hearing Aurora's story, Dak immediately thought of that extremely dangerous giant eagle!

　It was another powerful creature that appeared after he entered the "Heavenly Court." It was also a troublesome creature that attacked him while biting him, and it also possessed special means of tracking in this environment.

　In essence, that giant eagle was no different from the "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" and the "Black Mist Beast".

　Dak has reason to suspect that this is some kind of "mechanism," a deliberate act by someone behind the scenes that led them to the "Heavenly Court"!

　"It's impossible that some kind of trial ritual or something would be so painstakingly summoned just to feed us to these monsters."

　A series of possibilities surfaced in Dak's mind.

　According to the clichéd stories still prevalent in this world, gods summon humanity, issue trials, and then grant power and missions to those who pass the trials—this is a tired and overused trope.

　But as things stand, it does have a certain flavor.

　The only problem is that the "gods" here might not be normal. Dark frowned slightly, reasonably questioning Hermes's sanity. If everything happening now was orchestrated by Hermes, then what was his ultimate goal?

　Ultimately, did Hermes really come back to life?

　A slight gloom crossed Dark's mind, but he quickly regained his composure and turned his gaze to the battlefield.

　In just two or three minutes, the situation in the game changed again. "Viligion" walked on the "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" as if it were flat ground, and the "Holy Sword" on its head left terrifying wounds on its body.

　The "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" has lost its self-healing ability, and each wound weakens it. However, the black blood flowing from its wounds emits a highly toxic fumes, like poison.

　However, "Viligion" was completely unaffected by the poison gas—it certainly had no ability to avoid poison, but "Shemi's" "aromatherapy" was continuous and had filled the entire area, which made "Viligion" completely unaffected by the poison gas.

　The abnormal state caused by his "Raging Righteous Heart" was also alleviated by "aromatherapy".

　"Viligion's" rationality was not entirely devoured. Its speed was extremely fast, completely surpassing "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" in agility. Occasionally, if thrown off balance, it would use "Leaf Blades," condensing sword-shaped blades as springboards to maneuver and dodge through the air, compensating for its inability to fly.

　"Viligion" established its advantage through its own abilities. But it was essentially dancing on a knife's edge, with no room for error.

　While the "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" was constantly injured, none of the injuries were fatal, and it was like a venomous snake, always waiting for a chance to turn the tables.

　However, "Viligion" never gave "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" an opportunity, which made "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast" more and more seriously injured. It was about to be cut down by "Viligion", who was only nine stars long, when "Black Mist Beast" finally made its move!

　Although they have always fought their own battles, they are now on the same side.

　The "Black Mist Beast" is clearly more intelligent than the "Lion-Headed Serpent Beast," and it's impossible for it to watch its second strongest fighter be sacrificed so worthlessly.

　Therefore, it has been fighting against the "Shadow Leopard of the Forest" by imitating its form, and has finally revealed a corner of its true power!

　As Dark's gaze fell, he saw that the "Black Mist Beast" had undergone a sudden change in form!

　Its transformation was completely unexpected. One second it was locked in close combat with the "Forest Shadow Leopard," and the next second it suddenly twisted and deformed. Its cheetah-like beast form collapsed instantly, and its body exploded with black mist, revealing a gaping maw from the abyss.

　Before the "Forest Shadow Leopard" could react, the giant maw of the "Black Mist Beast" closed and swallowed it whole from head to tail!

　At that moment, Dark heard the moon elf girl beside him suddenly scream, her face turning pale.

　Clearly, even if her "Forest Shadow Leopard" wasn't dead, it had already lost its fighting ability.

　The "Black Mist Beast," which had swallowed the "Forest Shadow Leopard" whole, twisted and deformed, transforming back into a beast form only three meters long, as if it had completely digested the "Forest Shadow Leopard" in the blink of an eye.

　"So this is the type of creature?"

　Dark's pupils contracted slightly, and he whispered, "Hatch, Blue-Eyes Hatchling!"

　It's impossible for the "Black Snow Beast" to digest a twelve-star magical spirit in a short time. However, judging from Lucia Artemis's reaction, her connection with the "Forest Shadow Leopard" should have been completely severed.

　This indicates that the "Shadow Leopard of the Forest" is no longer in this space.

　The Black Mist Beast's ability to devour is based on its possession of a stomach from another dimension.

　At this point, the "Forest Shadow Leopard" should be inside its stomach. And it hasn't been completely destroyed.

　Fortunately, the "Forest Shadow Leopard" is just a magical spirit, and its true essence is contained within the magic cards. Even if it were digested and absorbed by the "Black Mist Beast," it wouldn't be able to generate much power.

　The appearance of the magical spirit species must be a first for the "Black Mist Beast".