"This is the place." Old Ru pointed at the giant building behind him. They had ventured quite far from their place, so it wasn't that surprising that they found a mysterious building out of nowhere.
"What is this building?" Noel asked while furrowing his eyebrows.
"This building is a mansion from the previous civilization. Though, this is just a normal place that I usually visit a couple of times every year. What I want from you is to beat all the monsters behind the building. There is a giant sinkhole behind this building and inside you will find a lot of monsters… So, I will wait for you here until you finish."
"Hmm?" Noel frowned. "Are you not coming with us?"
He had talked big to Dimitri that his safety was guaranteed, but it seemed that Old Ru had a different plan.
"If I come with you, you will always think that you have that assurance… Well, I won't completely leave you without nothing, so…" Old Ru took out a small piece of paper with a weird symbol on it. "This is a talisman that is imbued with my power. If you think you can't defeat your opponent, pour Spiritual Energy into this talisman and I will sense the reaction. After that, I will immediately go to help you. You should be able to withstand the onslaught for five minutes, right?"
"I see." Noel looked down, contemplating. If Old Ru went with them directly, they would definitely be unable to use all their power, thinking that Old Ru would intervene when their lives were in danger. But by doing this, they would feel a sense of urgency and make them more careful.
With their current strength, they felt like fighting a Superior Demon was possible.
However, they still lacked one thing.
Noel raised his hand. "I know that we shouldn't ask this, but considering our opponent will be a Superior Demon. May we know about the information of that demon?"
"That's true. It's not fair for two Spirit Masters to challenge a Superior Demon." Old Ru nodded. "In fact, you should be able to guess what Superior Demon you will encounter once you reach their nest. Inside that sinkhole, you can find an entrance to an extremely complex tunnel. It's a demon that lurks inside the ground that usually makes the land fertile. Just expect something quite big. And don't worry about your battle inside; the tunnel it created is quite sturdy."
Anna looked down, wondering what the demon was. Meanwhile, Noel glanced at Anna, asking, "Do you think it's possible to fight the Superior Demon?"
"There's no way we can do that normally. But it might be possible if you use both of your elements. I'll also warn you of the danger."
"Alright then." Noel nodded in agreement. "Let's go, shall we?"
"Yeah. I'm quite curious about how strong we've become with this new ability. I feel like improving the control of my Spiritual Energy causes my overall control to increase."
"I feel the same."
Before they left, Noel and Anna bowed to Old Ru. "We will go."
"Yeah. By the way, your time limit is two days. You have to kill all one thousand demons and the Superior Demon within two days."
"One day is enough." Noel and Anna answered at the same time. Both of them smiled at each other and said the same thing. "Kill all the demons in a half day and take a rest for another half day before challenging the Superior Demon."
They had the same plan in their mind. Looking at their synergy couldn't help but put a smile on Old Ru's face.
"Is that so? Happy hunting."
Without hesitation, Anna and Noel turned around as they headed to the sinkhole. As Old Ru said, there was a giant hole a hundred meters behind the mansion.
The hole diameter was about fifty meters. It could swallow the entire mansion with the size alone. And it was quite deep, considering they had to use their Moon Blessing to see through the dark to see the bottom of it.
"The hole is quite deep, huh?" Noel frowned. "There is definitely a bottom layer and the rain should fill this hole with water. Yet, we can't see any water on the bottom."
"Indeed. It seems that the demon has drunk it or something?"
"Do demons drink?"
"I'm not sure. They can live with only Spiritual Energy, so…"
Both of them fell silent. They realized that this area was more mysterious than they thought.
"Look at that hole." Noel pointed at the hole that Old Ru said was the entrance.
"The hole is quite big… ten meters in radius… What kind of giant demon is hiding inside this nest? In addition, there are going to be tunnels and caves inside…"
"Do you feel anything with your instinct?"
"I've picked up a few dangers from the ground, but they are pretty scattered. I'm sure that they are Peak Level Demons. We have to go into the tunnel before I can pick up the rest."
Noel thought for a moment. The entrance was about thirty meters inside the hole, so they had to go down carefully.
Though, both of them seemed to have reached the same conclusion on how they were going to enter the tunnel.
"I think I don't have to tell you, right?" Anna smirked.
"I will drop you in the middle of the hole." Noel snorted.
"Then, how about making a slide to the tunnel?" Anna stuck out her tongue.
"You know that I have to use more Spiritual Energy than necessary, right?" Noel let out a sigh. Noel ended up moving behind Anna and gradually lifted up her body, carrying her like a princess.
Anna didn't even bother to resist since she knew what they were about to do. As she expected, a pair of black fire wings appeared on Noel's back. This was the Undying Phoenix Wings, and they had to fly directly into the entrance.
And due to the characteristic of the wing and its placement, there was no way Noel could carry her like baggage or on his back. In the end, he had to carry her like this even though it would make Anna feel complacent.
Noel's eyebrows twitched as Anna had a sly grin on her face, thinking that she was above him.
In the end, he flew toward the entrance while ignoring her cheeky smile.
"Hehe. You know how to treat a woman gently too… I thought you were just a savage."
"Do you want me to drop you here?" Noel glared at her. They were in the middle of the hole. Even Anna would have a hard time landing unscathed from this height, especially since there was no wall she could use.
That was why Anna immediately wrapped her hands around his neck, making sure that she wouldn't let it go. "With this, I won't fall."
"…" Noel sighed. "In any case, the hole is quite—"
Before Noel finished his words, he sensed some demons with his Demon Hunter Medal.
Obviously, Anna also picked up some presence with her instinct. But Noel didn't let her warn him as he picked up the pace.
As soon as he landed on the tunnel, he tried to toss Anna to the ground, but Anna made a cheeky grin as her arms were still refusing to let go.
However, their time had to be interrupted by the inhabitants of the tunnel.
They instantly picked up a total of nine presences inside the tunnel. With their Moon Blessings, they could see their appearances. They were either earthworms, mice, or centipedes.
As much as Anna wanted to show her superiority, she knew that the enemies had to be killed first.
She turned around and raised her right foot. Lightning began to spark from her body before moving toward her leg. Due to the training, the flow was so smooth that she felt she could muster more power than she originally thought.
Bam!
She stomped the ground, channeling all the lightning to the tunnel. The lightning electrified the walls, causing the demons to jump off the wall if they didn't want to be electrocuted. But there were a few that couldn't react to it and died from the lightning.
As for those that jumped off the walls, Noel had looped around Anna and followed the lightning. He coated his feet with the new ability so that he didn't get electrocuted while stepping on the lightning. After that, he reached the jumping demons and took advantage of the fact they were in the air to slash them.
Within just a few seconds, they already killed nine demons.
"Noel. Do you feel it?"
"Yeah." Noel nodded with a serious expression.
"I discharge more lightning even though I use the same amount of power… More like, I become more efficient in releasing my power?"
Noel agreed with her. "It seems that we can test our new power here."
As he said those words, Ardagan gave a response to his desire.
[Mission: Testing New Power.]
[Description: Eliminate all demons in the lair.]
[Reward: Empowerment Rune.]
[Mission: Superior Demon!]
[Description: Kill the Superior Demon.]
[Reward: Force Control]
[Mission: Time Attack!]
[Description: Clear the whole nest within 24 hours. (1064 Monsters Remaining)]
[Reward: Challenger Medal and Secret to Career Advancement.]
