Chapter 697: Nethergrass Plain

"The secret realm has been opened! However, those pesky humans have taken the lead and disappeared inside the secret realm ahead of us!" a Four-winged Lesser Demon in the lead spoke. 

"No matter. We will catch those humans one by one inside. Their scattered mess won't be able to put up much resistance against our forces," said another Great Demon with six wings. 

"Right!" a lizardman-looking Greater Demon licked his lips and said, "I'm going to enjoy hunting these humans down. They are all dead meat!"

"Onward!" 

The booming volume of an Arch Demon's voice rippled across the skies before the army of powerful demons began marching into the red portal in the spiral of dark clouds at the top of the colossal earthen staircase. 

The authority of an Arch Demon was something even Greater Demons could only hear and obey.

As the demons marched into the red portal uniformly like an army of disciplined soldiers, the Arch Demon shortly arrived by the foot of obelisk.

"Thank you for the hard, Sir Gusion. Fortunately, you have survived another round of secret realm opening this time," the Arch Demon stated.

"That is to be expected. The inverted gravity in this space does lessen the burden and expenditure of opening the secret realm," said the Shaman King's Successor, Gusion, before he added, "However, the opening has left me drained, nonetheless." 

"I will leave the task of leading the demons to Sir Solas's hands. But remember, we mustn't fail again. We must complete the mission this time and absolutely not let the power fall into the humans' hands!" Gusion instructed gravely. 

"You don't have to worry, Sir Gusion," Arch Demon Solas assured and said, "The humans won't get any chance—not without any Battle Kings to shield them! We will proactively hunt them all down!"

"They were simply too foolish to sneak into our lands. But since they've come, they can forget about ever returning!" Arch Demon Solas grinned insidiously. 

"The humans will never have thought that there will be multiple Arch Demons participating in this time's secret realm opening."

…

…

…

Eternal Night Secret Realm

True to its name, it was a lightless place, cold and dark like the night and without a shred of sunlight despite the starry skies shown above. 

The entire realm was brimming with Death Energy, Yin Energy, and Darkness Profound Energy.

When Leon recovered from the displacement of teleportation, he began perceiving his surroundings with divine sense.

"Aria, Darlene! Good, you're both here!" 

Leon sighed with relief, knowing that he did not get separated from them even though they have been separated from the rest of the humans. 

However, he suddenly froze when he did not detect Duna's presence anywhere. 

"Aria, Darlene, what happened? Why isn't Duna with us?" Leon inquired, knowing that they were the ones holding Duna's hands.

The two girls knitted their eyebrows together and tried to recall what happened when they got swept away like a powerful underwater current and transported inside the Eternal Night Secret Realm.

"I… I was sure that I was holding Duna's hand very firmly…" Aria answered with a surprisingly meek voice, feeling guilty for Duna's disappearance despite being innocent. 

"I know you were," Leon stated before shaking his head and said, "I am not blaming you. I just want to know the details of what happened."

"You two were holding her, so you two should have a better grasp of the situation during that moment." 

After saying that much, Aria and Darlene pondered harder as they tried to recall what happened during the teleportation. 

"I think Duna purposely let go of my hand, but I'm not too sure… It all happened too fast, and the suction force was powerful as well…" Darlene answered unconfidently. 

However, her words shortly helped Aria recalled better as she added, "I seem to recall a similar situation… I think Duna purposely wanted to separate from our group, although I am not sure why…"

"Haiz…" Leon issued a long sigh before he waved his hand and said, "Let us just leave it at that then. It seems that Duna has her own plans for the Eternal Night Secret Realm. We can only hope that she will be fine on her own."

And hopefully, they will bump into her again soon. 

Nevertheless, after scanning the surrounding with the maximum range of his divine sense, Leon could tell that the Eternal Night Secret Realm was extremely huge when he could find another human besides them.

"Let us explore the area and see what good stuff we can find around here," Leon stated. 

"Mmm."

"Alright!"

Aria and Darlene quickly straightened up, ready to set out on an adventure with Leon while eyeing the surroundings for anything of interest to point out.

"Hmm…" Darlene hummed a low contemplating tune.

"Is something the matter, Darlene?" Leon was quick to notice something was on her mind before Darlene responded with a nod. 

"Mm, it's just that when I heard about this place being full of treasures and opportunities for Battle Masters to become Battle Kings or even a Battle God, I just didn't expect the place to be gloomy like this," Darlene spoke her mind. 

"Understandable," Leon nodded and said, "I also thought the same, but at the same time, I am not surprised it turned out like this when it is called the Eternal Night Secret Realm."

"Still, I wonder where this Eternal Night Secret Realm is located?" Aria questioned while gazing up at the starry skies.

"That's a good question," Leon stated before saying, "I suppose we can only slowly find out as we explore this place."

That being said, the trio began trekking through the grassy plain in their region that seemingly stretches far and wide as they discussed the Eternal Night Secret Realm. 

The grasses were all surprisingly vibrant and full of vitality, but contrary to ordinary grass found anywhere else, these grasses were all black with hints of other colors. 

Leon spots tints of red, purple, silver, and blue among the black grasses, but no matter where he looked, not a single stalk of grass contained three or more colors.

At the same time, Leon was not familiar with them.