Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Deafening footsteps echoed through a foggy swamp of rot and death as the Cinderflame Drake dashed forward without care, carving a quick path through the Dao Transformation trial. On its back rested John and the others, who had come to appreciate the speed at which they were progressing.
"We've saved at least a few weeks of traveling," Laia said as she watched the dark and foggy scenery pass them by. Distant roars of other beasts blasted out occasionally, but none had dared to confront the Cinderflame Drake. Within this realm, its power was almost unmatched.
"Good, because we have no time to waste," John replied. He had calmed down a bit since his initial discovery of the enemy's invasion, but his raging flame of anger had turned into a hot cinder, smoldering in silence, waiting to burst into flames once more.
A small frown appeared on Laia's face as she saw John's dark, brooding mood. She wanted to say that everything will be alright and that they'd arrive in time, but she knew she would only be lying if she said that. They had gathered some information of what was going on based on the updates to the Jade Dragon List, but news was sparse at best.
The list made mention of a temple at the end of the final realm, which was to be the place of their last stand.
The Cinderflame Drake suddenly came to a sudden halt, stirring John and Laia from their deep thoughts. A frown appeared on John's face as he stood up and moved towards the drakes head. He wanted to ask why it had stopped, but the drakes gaze told him everything he needed to know; a gaze of caution…and fear.
"Tch!" John clicked his tongue as he realized what was going on.
"What's happening?" Laia asked as she arrived next to John. "Why did the drake suddenly stop?"
"There's something ahead that even this drake fears, and it won't move any closer," John replied.
"Something even the drake fears?" Laia repeated as she gazed into the dimly lit fog with heightened caution.
"This is as far as our quick journey goes," John said to Laia as he hopped off the drakes head and to the ground below. Laia did the same, and landed beside him while the drake turned around and sped off into the distance from where it had come.
"Couldn't you have forced the drake to help us with whatever is in front of us?" Laia asked curiously.
"No," John replied succinctly as he shook his head sideways. "The drake fears what's in front of us more than it does me. If I forced it to help, it would rather fight me than fight…whatever lurks ahead."
"Do you think it's another Demon?" Laia asked softly.
"I doubt it," John dismissed her idea. "If there were two Demons in this realm, they would most likely work together to attempt to break out, or at least fully dominate this realm. But that doesn't change that whatever is in front is beyond dangerous, and is most likely not something either of us can handle."
"What should we do then?" Laia asked, deferring to John's judgment.
"What else can we do? We move forward," he replied without hesitation as he started to walk forward. Laia stared at his back for a brief second before following along closely, prepared to follow his lead. He had led them through the realm thus far, and she was sure he would be able to do something about what lurked ahead as well.
Kirii suddenly appeared next to the two, while John instructed him to guard Laia should anything happen.
"Aye!" Kirii replied, before nuzzling his head against Laia for more head pats, who couldn't help but smile as she obliged his request.
The three continued to slowly and cautiously make their way forward through the dark and damp land, their auras withdrawn as much as possible, and guards heightened. As they proceeded forward, an ominous silence descended upon the area, like it was a land of death. All three felt their instincts flare with warning as they ventured forward.
An aura familiar to John slowly but surely increased in intensity, giving warning of the danger to come. Laia too felt the aura, even more strongly than John, as it was the complete opposite of her being; the aura of death.
A bright green glow slowly became apparent through the thick fog, a sight that brought joy to John and Laia.
"The portal to leave this trial!" John said, his voice no more than a soft whisper. A sheer cliff face miles high guarded the way forward, and at the very base was the formation portal, its green light a warm and comforting contrast to the dark and damn land they had traversed over the last several weeks.
"Stop!" Laia's voice sounded out in John's mind as she used mental sound transmissions to communicate. Both John and Kirii immediately stopped, sensing the urgent danger in Laia's warning.
Their eyes peered forward through the roiling fog, and a silhouette floating high above in the distance directly above the portal just barely came into view. The silhouette, which was over fifty yards in size, was dark and shrouded in shadows, but its bulbous body and eight long legs gave insight into what exactly it was.
"A spider?" John said through sound transmissions.
The creature seemed to hover in the sky, but John was just barely able to make out a massive web on which the creature sat, a web nearly half a mile wide. Dozens of dried up corpses of Dao Transformation beasts clung to the web as well, not a drop of blood remaining within any of them.
"Not just any spider…a Deathshroud Spider!" Laia replied, her voice full of grave warning. "The most lethal of all Dao Transformation spiders! And its cultivation is in the Late Dao Transformation Realm…this creature is beyond our capability to handle!"
