Chapter 596: Artificial Demon Core

Leon did not pursue the scattering group of mutated beings but cleansed the area of its remaining Wrathful Demonic Energy before returning to the surface with a puzzled look.

"Strangely, these mutated beings still know what fear is and when to retreat in the face of a formidable foe, eh? But they only did so after I revealed the power of the Nihility Law..." Leon mumbled with doubt. 

The mutated beings did not seem to be affected by Wrathful Demonic Energy, or at least not affected to the point of losing their minds. 

"How odd…"

In a short moment, Leon reached the surface and cleaved his way through the ice seal on his way out, causing the nearby Lilith to jolt with a start, sliding down the ice slope in an embarrassing manner. 

"Ah!" 

Lilith gave a soft cry, landing on her bottoms before glaring over to Leon, who landed gracefully on his feet. 

"Why did you come out so suddenly?" 

"Didn't I say I was going to be quick?" Leon retorted with a light smile before adding, "Aren't we in a hurry to reach your clan? If everyone's ready, let us continue on our way." 

"…Fine." 

Lilith made a slight pout, unwilling to argue and delay the journey further as she hopped onto Soft Feather's back right away. 

"Looks like everyone's been waiting." 

After Leon glanced at Aria and Duna cultivating silently on Soft Feather's back, Leon tapped the Blue Luan lightly on the head, urging her to wake, "Miss Soft Feather, please take us on our way." 

"Ugh…" 

Soft Feather made a slight disgruntled groan, pretending to have woken up from her nap before taking to the skies with a strong flap of her majestic feathery wings. 

Swoosh~! 

The group reached high altitude in a short instance before Leon leaned over the edge and made a loud whistle to Silver, alerting it not to fall behind. 

Within moments, Soft Feather reached a consistent flight speed in the skies without blowing everyone off her back, soaring over large stretches of battle-torn and blood-soaked fields of lands. 

Corpses and carcasses littered the surface, and little life remained behind on the vast lands of greens, painted in red and black. 

The deeper they traveled into the Wildlands, the more they saw—the horrors and damages brought by the apocalyptic Cataclysm. 

It was like the ending of all life. 

On their trip, a few remnant berserk beasts feasted on the rotting flesh of inanimate carcasses and corpses, while berserk flying beasts were discovered in the sky occasionally. 

Nevertheless, Leon flew off Soft Feather's back and made quick work of the enemy before landing back on Soft Feather's back without disturbing Aria and Duna's cultivation. 

"How long do you think it'll take us to reach the Desolate Crow Clan at this pace, Lilith?" 

"Miss Soft Feather's pace is relatively fast. I would say no longer than six hours." Lilith inspected the vaguely familiar environment, making a quick mental calculation before she responded.

After hearing her answer, Soft Feather quickly snorted, "I can go much faster, you know?" 

"Of course, we do not doubt that you can, Miss Soft Feather." Leon smiled lightly before throwing a glance back at Aria's meditative pose, vaguely sensing spatial and temporal changes in her surroundings. 

'Spatial and Temporal Laws…was this the benefit of their recent intimate session?' Leon silently pondered. 

No, Aria shouldn't have comprehended these laws on her own—not that he was discrediting her comprehensive ability, but it seems to have been spurred from elsewhere. 

'Aria…' 

Grief flickered in Leon's eyes for a moment before pushing the thought to the back of his mind, taking out a portable teleportation array shortly after. 

"What are you planning to do with that?" Lilith cast a glance at the square array in Leon's hand with a curious question. 

"We have a bit of time until we reach our destination, so I plan to make a quick trip back to the Capital and check how things are going back there. Also, I left someone back there, so I need to pick her up."

Recalling how he had left Darlene in the palace after bringing her over from the Dark Continent, Leon felt guilt in his heart.

Nevertheless, he was coming back to fetch her now. 

Little did Leon know, Darlene was brought along to the Western Frontier for a brief period of time before leaving with his mother and others. 

They were just unlucky to have missed each other.

"So this is supposed to be some sort of teleportation device? How does it work? It seems to be missing a power source." Lilith inspected the portable teleportation array curiously with her limited runic understandings. 

The portable teleportation array was like a mechanical contraption, except made with little use of strong alloys and mostly bones. 

With a slight shake of Leon's hand, the square-shaped portable teleportation array expanded into a larger square filled with runic lines. Four rotating pads were seen in each corner with empty sockets in their center.

Leon placed the portable teleportation device down on a relatively flat part of Soft Feather's back before explaining, "These empty sockets are where the power sources will be slotted while the rotating pads are used to change the spatial coordinates."

"Basically, there are used to set the destination. Currently, there are only two spatial coordinates installed in the array. The other two spaces are still empty and serve to deactivate the array for now." 

"Hmm, how intricate. What are you planning to use to fuel the array?" Lilith inquired with bright eyes, keenly interested in the array and not at all inferior to her interest in the ancient relics.

Seeing Lilith's glowing eyes of interest, Leon smiled lightly. 

"Like this." 

With an outstretched hand, a surge of Demonic Energy from the depths of his Black Vortex Space soon gushed out, gathering in the tips of his hand in volume before they were compressed into a solid spherical crystal, purely made of Demonic Energy.

Duna's eyes suddenly snapped open, gazing at the fist-size red crystal ball before shifting her gaze to meet Leon's eyes with surprise.

"Did you just make an artificial demon core?"