288 Peculiarity

His dungeon entries increased each time, so Kieran was not surprised that higher-tier monsters had appeared. There was even a possibility that he would face God or some other kind of celestial being later on.

Kieran knew this in his heart, yet this did not mean that he was prepared to fight mythical monsters right now.

Kieran had thought that mythical monsters would only appear after the 10th or 20th dungeon. He was not prepared to face one now.

However, he also knew that the Hell Fiend Spider before him would not let him go if he decided to step down.

The books he had read about the creature had stated clearly that, when the spider entered hunting mode, it did not let go of anything within its sight.

Even if its stomach was full, it would not mind playing with its prey and saving it as rations for another day.

Kieran could not retreat, so he had to risk it.

"Schmidt, go down to the lower deck. The nest of this big ugly bastard should be down there. If Boller isn't dead yet, he should be down there as well!" Kieran said quickly.

"But you…"

"Take care!"

Schmidt wanted to say something, but he eventually just told Kieran to be careful.

"Relax, I've imagined a lot of ways that I could die, but they definitely did not include being eaten alive. I will eat the monster before I get eaten!" Kieran said coldly under his breath, his eyes locked on the monster before him.

The rhythmic beating of his heart in his chest started to change.

Two distinctive auras started to escape his body.

One of them was an evil rainbow-colored aura that contained the cardinal sins: Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride.

The other one, a stinging sulphuric stench combined with a chaotic, violent aura started to burn fiercely enough to destroy the sky itself.

"You big fat bastard! Guess who!"

Kieran's voice turned into a deep, rough sound. It felt extremely unlike any being's voice and would have sounded very unsettling to anyone's ears.

Kieran soaked in the feeling though.

The first to suffer were the demon vessels around the deck. Their dull expression suddenly became delighted and compliant.

The tentacles produced from the demonic energy lay down firmly on the deck floor, as if they were bowing before Kieran.

The man drawing the magic circle looked at Kieran in utter astonishment.

"HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? HOW?" he shouted over and over, eventually spitting a mouthful of fresh blood and shrinking on the floor. The man was still mumbling non stop.

"Blood of the Devil! Lineage of the Ancestors! How is this possible? HOW?"

No one was answering him.

Schmidt had leaped over the handrail and slid towards the second deck.

Kieran was about to confront the Hell Fiend Spider, ready to reveal the ace up his sleeve.

However, the fact that no one answered the man did not mean that no one had heard what he was muttering.

Deep inside the nest on the ferry, someone shrouded in a needle-like magical glow heard him and stopped struggling.

"Assistant, o' assistant, in the form of a raven, ominously befallen. Bird of Death with a body of chaos and a heart of light… He who will reign the land with a kingly might!"

The mysterious figure was muttering Nikorei's prophecy.

"So this is what a body of chaos and a heart of light means? He who will reign the land with a kingly might… Astonishing!" the mysterious figure said lightly before finally sighing.

"What should I choose?"

...

Deep in some other part of the ferry, another abnormal existence had heard the words.

Her cold heart felt a sense of delight before she gave an order to her pet.

A strange growling sound was heard once again.

Upon hearing the sound, the Hell Fiend Spider, which was confronting Kieran, started to back off. It took a quick leap towards the man who was drawing the magic circle and shrunk on the floor.

Just as the Hell Fiend Spider landed on the man's body, ready to devour him, a force field barrier appeared over the man, blocking the spider's attack.

"Huh?"

Kieran, who had been about to use [Devil Transformation] and activate [Desire Summoning], was stunned by the scene before him.

It seemed inconceivable. According to the books, the Hell Fiend Spider's devouring attack could even pierce through a God's defensive structure, let alone a magical item's force field barrier.

Yet what Kieran was witnessing was not an illusion.

"Unless… Maybe the spider is mighty in looks, but lacks any true strength?"

A sudden theory bloomed in Kieran's mind. What happened next only confirmed his theory.

Based on Kieran's judgement, the man's force field barrier could definitely not surpass a Powerful Level Defense, yet it blocked the spider's poison spit attack once again.

According to the legend, the venomous spit of the Hell Fiend Spider was enough to corrode even a godly artifact, yet it could not even melt that force field barrier.

How was that possible? The only explanation was that the Hell Fiend Spider before Kieran was not what it seemed like.

After giving some thought to how and where the spider egg had hatched, the explanation he came up with made more sense.

Even without the sulphur river as a breeding place, other methods could definitely have been used to speed up the hatching process. As a result though, the hatchling had been vastly different from a real Hell Fiend Spider.

"If that's the case…"

Kieran squinted his eyes and stopped what he was about to do.

Even with the buff [Devil Transformation] and [Desire Summoning], Kieran would still have had no hope against a real Hell Fiend Spider. Against a spider that only shared its appearance though, [Devil Transformation] and [Desire Summoning] would be a waste of his energy.

When a poison spit attack finally broke through the force field barrier of the man, the spider opened its mouth, preparing to devour the man's soul. Kieran was quicker though.

Bang!

[Python-W2] shot a wide-diameter bullet at the man, who had lost his ability to resist any more attacks. He was killed with a single shot to the head.

His brains and broken skull were scattered all over the floor.

Suddenly, a golden glowing scroll fell off the man's body.

Kieran squinted at the golden glow and shifted all his attention to the Hell Fiend Spider.

The spider was staring right back at him.

Its hunger, accompanied by a feeling of contempt, turned into the purest killing intent.

Dozens of smaller venomous spiders hurled themselves at Kieran as even more spiders gathered around the Hell Fiend Spider.

Kieran swung his great sword and smashed every single one of the spiders with its violent wind.

The rest of the venomous spiders and the Hell Fiend Spider surrounded him.

[Arrogant Word] started to tremble violently, as if the battle drums of an ancient battlefield were beating loudly.

The heavy great sword in Kieran's hands became lighter and sharper.

A dark red shine circled the great sword's body violently, an unbending, untamed aura establishing its proud presence.

[Arrogance], [Untamed]!