Chapter 220: Rescue... Failed!

The gods were haggling.

As time ticked away, Fred and Demon Lord couldn't help but let faint smiles flicker across their faces...

Though these two couldn't communicate directly, they shared a mutual understanding—they needed to act quickly and kill David!

Of course, there was another person involved.

Though his face remained expressionless, his excitement surpassed that of the other two.

It was Sterl!

Seeing Fred's overjoyed expression, Sterl felt a kind of shared pleasure.

At this moment, a notification flashed before Sterl's eyes——

[Congratulations! You have completed the objective of the Array Master initiation ceremony: Understanding Array.]

With this notification, Sterl was just two steps away from his Sub-Profession.

First, he needed to complete the practice of five different formations, which was quite achievable.

After joining the Myriad Arts of Heaven Curriculum, Sterl could simply access the Hall of Valor's contribution shop through his personal panel. Besides the usual items and tools available for purchase, there was also a sub-store dedicated to formations.

Sterl could easily buy various basic formations from it, learn five of them, and successfully build them.

The second requirement for the job advancement ceremony was to obtain the Ethereal Crystal shard from Fred's body.

Sterl sprang into action!

Normally, he would let Fred make the first move, achieving a counter-attack for maximum dramatic effect.

But Sterl knew that Fred had a god backing him. Before transmigrating, he had read countless novels——

According to typical plots, if you beat the minion, the boss would come next.

Sometimes, just to drag the storyline, these well-connected enemies wouldn't be killed off so easily!

So, to avoid unnecessary complications, Sterl went all out immediately.

Stardust Enhancement·Shadow Stealth! Output Boost!

In an instant, Sterl vanished into the shadow realm, his body emanating a dense and indelible shadow energy that sent shivers down anyone who saw it!

Simultaneously——

Stardust Enhancement·Inspire!

Although the control-removal ability was unusable, it could still grant Sterl enhanced attributes.

Then came divine descent activation! Life Ignite activation!

And... At this moment, Sterl's body was shimmering with starlight, a result of him collecting power-ups through Heart of Soul Convergence by killing various players along the way, boosting his life force and all attributes by 37%!

Next...

Realm of the Stars activation——

In an instant, just as Fred's face lit up with joy, he realized that David's figure had vanished.

He warily grabbed the giant axe from his back, the purple-red energy surging around him. It was the faint but potent Divine Power of War churning within him, significantly boosting his next skill and providing Fred with high damage resistance!

"Come on!"

"Coward! Hiding in the shadows!" he shouted loudly, though one hand was already reaching into his inventory, ready to pull out a life-saving item at any moment.

One second passed...

The wind rustled softly.

Two seconds passed...

Utter silence!

Swoosh!

A blood-red crystal suddenly appeared, transforming into a crimson sword that thrust towards Fred.

Now, Sterl was almost certain that Demon Lord and the God of War and Violence had made some sort of deal to take him down.

Now that their plan had failed, they wouldn't just let it go!

Although Sterl's guess might not be entirely accurate, he quickly made a plan...

After passing this trial, he wouldn't attend the formation classes anymore!

He needed to lay low for a while and come back later to settle accounts with these two divine schemers!

While Sterl was swiftly planning, outside the formation, the numerous gods looked at the corpse that Demon Lord had teleported back using spatial powers, their expressions changing one by one.

"You... what deal did you make with the God of War and Violence?" Gloria was the first to stand up, her tone filled with extreme anger.

Just as Sterl had instant-killed Fred, the God of Space, Demon Lord, had been stalling for time despite others' pleas to save "David."

He dragged it out until Fred was about to strike David down before reluctantly agreeing to intervene, but even then, he moved sluggishly.

It was only after Fred was killed in an instant that Demon Lord's face changed drastically, and he attempted to save Fred.

The result...

Fred, a powerful fanatic capable of easily slaughtering even mid-tier legends, had his life snuffed out in an instant.

All Demon Lord could bring back was a corpse!

At this moment, the God of Space's face was as dark as it could get.

His first reaction had been that if David couldn't be killed, he should at least save Fred, a player with an extremely strong talent for formations, who was surely favored by the God of War and Violence.

Faced with the dire situation, Demon Lord decided to drop the act. But the final outcome was disastrous—not only did he fail to save Fred, but his true intentions were also blatantly exposed.

"Demon Lord, you've gone too far."

"No wonder you were stalling for time earlier."

"Are you planning to make enemies of us all?"

The assembled gods, having regained their composure, spoke out angrily.

However, facing their accusations, the God of Space remained cold and indifferent, "I don't need to explain my actions to you."

With that, he floated up into the air, surrounded by a protective silver glow.

Demon Lord felt a slight panic. After all, rumors had been circulating in the Hall of Valor that many gods had already started to kill each other. This move had made him a lot of enemies.

David's talent was something any god would covet!

In an instant, several gods, led by Gloria, activated their Divine Powers. Demon Lord, feeling increasingly uneasy, raised his protective power of space to its maximum.

"Wait... he's gone??"

"Forget about Demon Lord for now..."

However, the tense atmosphere didn't last long. Candice suddenly noticed that after breaking through several spatial nodes, the player named David tore open a teleportation scroll and disappeared without a trace.

What's even more bizarre was that none of the gods present could pinpoint the exact location to which the teleportation scroll had sent him. The only one with keen spatial awareness, Demon Lord, was too preoccupied with the other gods to focus on David.

This highly talented future Array Master had vanished right under the noses of the deities!

"We'll settle this next time."

"This isn't over!"

"Demon Lord, you will pay for today's actions!"

Seeing this, the gathered gods didn't bother to waste more words. One by one, they flashed away, preparing to track down David.

Although there was a chance they could take down Demon Lord if they acted together, the God of Space's escape abilities were formidable, and fighting in the Hall of Valor's teaching grounds could potentially anger the Hall of Valor's consciousness.

So the gods held back.

But judging by Demon Lord's pained expression, he understood...

He really needed to be more cautious when going out in the future.

"Damn it!" His face was as dark as could be. Not only did he fail to save Fred, thus straining his relationship with the God of War and Violence—one of whose most valued devotees had died on Demon Lord's turf—but he also made an enemy of the exceptionally talented David and the numerous gods who had high hopes for him.

It was a total loss!