Erick had his Spirit Mind focused on Zatiel and the rest, and got confused when he saw how no one tried to stop him.
But the moment he saw how Zatiel snapped his fingers, a feeling of pure danger appeared, and before he could figure out the origin, inside his stomach a small sphere started to glow before it exploded destroying all the organs in his abdomen.
"When did..."
That attack was more than Erick could withstand, and the ball of flames at his feet vanished and he fell from the sky.
Before he crashed to the ground, chains appeared and covered his body, bringing him to Zatiel
"We need to leave before someone else arrives," Zatiel picked the cocoon, and left the place with Sophia and Ezequiel.
When they were at a safe distance, Zatiel concentrated all the power of his Ring of Abyssal Fire on his hand and threw an immense Fireball at the place of the fight. Immediately black flames exploded in the area and started to consume everything in its surroundings, as they expanded.
...
A couple of hours later, a man showed up in the sky where the fight happened and started to assess the flames that continued to burn it.
The man generates a vortex of green wind and started to suck all the oxygen in the surroundings, but even then, the flames continued burning, although in a weaker way.
Jhon concentrated his energy and blades of winds started to destroy everything finally managing to turn off the fire.
'Since when Erick has been able to use this type of flame?'
Jhon never thought that the spell could be caused by an apprentice, after all, despite the flames not being too powerful they were persistent and propagated easily.
As he scanned the area, he became disappointed. The fire had destroyed everything, and trying to get evidence from here was impossible.
'Forget it, I guess you got lucky old, man,' Jhon returned to the tower, thinking that the death of Zatiel and his group was certain.
...
After two weeks of travel, Zatiel, Ezequiel, and Sophia managed to reach the frozen lake.
Thanks to the medicines of Sophia and his physique, Zatiel's left arm had grown back and he was again in perfect shape.
Zatiel was assessing the cocoon and the status of the Magus inside it. Erick was in a comatose state and all his skin was green, but even so, his injuries had healed a lot and his stomach didn't have that huge hole in it.
'It was more effective than I thought.'
What created the explosion in Erick's stomach and the poison in his body was a small sphere that Zatiel managed to deposit when his hand entered him during the fight.
The sphere had explosion and stealth abilities and was the combination of the ones he obtained from Cristian and Arthur's group, and the damage was so great that it resulted in the current state of the Magus.
"Let's enter!"
Zatiel broke the surface of the frozen lake and covered himself in dark flames before submerging in the water.
Ezequiel and Sophia did the same with their spells and followed him. From the three, the one who had the easiest was the woman, after all, even before being a Neo-Demon, she had control over the natural energy corresponding to water and now, instead of the coldness, the men were feeling, what she felt was just comfort.
After submerging themselves 50 meters deep, they arrived at a submarine cave. This was the entrance to the Laboratory of the Ancient Magus.
After advancing for a couple of hours, they arrived at two massive doors that were broken, pieces of magical equipment, and some shattered vials with blood were in front of them.
Zatiel started to assess the broken doors and the things that were on the ground.
"You didn't advance past this point, right?"
"No. The vial with the blood I showed you is the only thing I found here that wasn't broken, I didn't dare to enter deeper."
Sophia was looking at the door and now she knew how lucky she was by not going further, as her instinct as a Neo-Demon was alerting her of a threat.
"By what I can tell, someone came here before, and whoever it was, their power was superior to the one of a rank 1 Magus by the mark he made on the doors when he destroyed them. But I guess he died during the exploration or else this place would have already been occupied."
Seeing the marks on the door and the material they were created, Zatiel was able to make an educated guess.
"If even a Rank 2 Magus could die here, then does that mean it is impossible to explore?"
Ezequiel knew that even though they were able to defeat a rank 1 Magus, thas was only because they planned everything, and against a rank 2 being they had no chance in a confrontation.
"Not necessarily. Those marks are hundreds of years old, and the defensive protocol is surely defective after all this time. We must evaluate everything as we advance. I will enter first."
Zatiel put his armor on and covered himself with chains as he advanced towards the door.
He had only taken a step past the doors when he was sent flying and crashed into the cave wall. Blood came out of his mouth and his ribs were broken. If it was not for his armor and chain, the damage would have been much worse.
Ezequiel and Sophia reacted immediately positioned themself in front of Zatiel, ready to face what harmed him, but nothing came out.
Zatiel was gasping as he took a pink pill from a ring in his hand. This spatial ring was from Erick, as for the spatial sack, it was now owned by Ezequiel.
After taking the pill, his injuries began to heal and he started to go through what happened.
'Whatever it was, there was no spell in the attack, just pure physical power. With those abilities, there is no reason to wait for us to enter to attack unless it can't leave.'
"Relax, whatever it was, it looks like its function is stopping anyone from entering the laboratory. It should be some magical automaton or similar."
When they heard that, both of them relaxed. Something that could harm Zatiel without giving him a chance to react was something they had no chance of defeating, and even escaping would be difficult.
"Zatiel, that means that we stop here?"
Sophia didn't see a way of defeating that automaton and explored the laboratory with their current abilities.
"No, we will continue. I was hoping to enter the laboratory before doing this, but I guess that the isolation of this cave should be enough."
Zatiel started to draw runes on the ground with his blood.
Ezequiel and Sophia did not understand what Zatiel was doing, but they had absolute trust in him so they just sat down and meditated.
It didn't take long for the array runes to be completed and Zatiel put Erick at the center of it. But this time instead of using a secondary array to attract the consciousness of the Abyss with chaotic souls he used his energy to activate the runes and call it.
This time, the pressure that the consciousness of the Abyss exercised was much greater than before. Because it was summoned here and it didn't come by itself, black energy started to conglomerate and generated a massive disgusting mouth.
Ezequiel and Sophia became alerted immediately and got as far away as possible from the runes as they could.
The pressure was amazing but Zatiel stood firm and started using the runes to complete the transaction.
Maybe it was because of him feeling that something horrible was going to happen or just a coincidence but Erick was able to wake up.
Unfortunately for him, it would have been better to just remain unconscious because what he saw when he opened his eyes was a monstrous mouth devouring him entirely. He wasn't even able to scream before he disappeared.
At the moment the Magus vanished, Zatiel could feel the satisfaction of the Abyss. Not wasting time, he asked for what he wanted in return.
What Zatiel requested was not something important but he wanted the consciousness to transport something that was kept in one of his layers, in a safe location.
The mouth made of abyss aura opened itself again, and from inside it, a vial with a fist-sized drop of blood came out. After that, the Abyss consciousness vanished.
Zatiel moved immediately and grabbed the vial, and there was excitement in his eyes as he assessed the blood.
When Sophia and Ezequiel saw the blood, they understood what Zatiel 's plan was.
"Master, you are going to advance to Rank 1!" Ezequiel was excited. According to the information of his core, the advancement to rank 1 was one of the most important thresholds for a Neo-Demon.
Two of the conditions for Neo-Demons to advance to rank 1 is to reach 20 points in abyss aura and having mastered a spell that can be transformed into their Rank Spell.
But even more important is that they need to obtain a bloodline that can be assimilated by their Chaotic Cores, giving them the abilities of that race, but unlike Bloodline Magi, they don't seek to transform their bodies into the one of another species, but to obtain total control over the bloodline and use the core to erase any type of connection that it had with the creator of it.
This gives the Neo-Demons the abilities of a powerful bloodline without any of the restrictions that came with it like the bloodline shackles.
This is one of the reasons why Neo-Demons can be considered the most powerful race. They not only can use abyss aura that enhances their bodies and gives them powerful spells, a chaotic core that gives them monstrous talent, but also the power of a bloodline without any restriction and even the possibility of evolving it. There is a third point that can be obtained due to their demonic heritage but to say that can be awoken in rank 1 is hard.
Zatiel only nodded at the boy before he sat and started to meditate to be in his top condition before starting.
Ezequiel and Sophia looked at each other before positioning themself around Zatiel and having their bodies ready to act in case of anything.
After a couple of hours, Zatiel was ready and activated his Chaotic Core. The core started to rotate dozens of times faster and without wasting time, he picked his sword and made a cut that reached directly to his heart. The moment the wound was made, tentacles made of runes started to come out from it.
Zatiel got the vial closer to his chest and broke it. The moment he does, the tentacles surround the blood and bring it directly to the core, closing the wound in the way.
The moment the blood disappeared, the greatest pain he has felt since he awoke in this world started.
