.......
"This place is ghastly, but it's still quite an interesting place nonetheless."
Azmodeus voiced his opinion of the eerie environment as he put one of his hands on the head of the jittery girl. He used his other hand to swipe away all the vines and spiderwebs dangling from the crumbling roof that lay above the dilapidated staircase.
"I don't like it..." Pan Nu muttered with a trembling tone.
"Yeah, I know, but just bear with it for now. We're nearing the location of a wide hollow area, which is likely where the one who set down the Formation will be."
Azmodeus reassured the anxious girl while continuing to make his way through the dreadful staircase that seemed to extend downward forever.
And after a few minutes more of walking down the creaky steps, he and Pan Nu found themselves at the bottom of the wooden staircase.
After stepping over the last step, which was on the verge of caving in, the tall, immortal-like man observed his new surroundings, and the only word he could use to describe it was...
"Morbid..."
This whole place looks like something straight out of a horror movie that got mixed up with a swamp bog TV series...
Azmodeus had seen many movies and TV shows through the soul absorption of all the heroes, and it was through this culture washing that he knew a bad setting when he saw it.
But regardless of the eerie ambience of the expansive swamp-like underarea, he walked through the knee-high green water. He also made sure to use a thin filament of crimson-colored Qi in order to cover up both himself and the girl clinging to his head, adamantly refusing to look up.
"I'm not scared or anything! I-I just don't want to waste my eyesight on this stupid place, so hurry up and kill whatever is preventing us from leaving!"
Pan Nu made sure to reiterate how unafraid she was as she tried to sneak a chocolate snack into her mouth without moving her head.
"...Sure, sure..." Azmodeus spoke with an exasperated tone as he increased his trudging speed, quickly turning into some form of humanoid motorboat.
Putter! Putter! Putter!
He sped off through the deep bog, heading toward where he felt a trace of an energy that shouldn't belong to anyone of this world.
To set up a formation, one needs energy, and there are no beings capable of utilizing any form of energy in the Astral Plane...
These sword slashes caused innumerable blood lines to emerge on the darkened skin of what were once villagers.
"You all were likely peaceful and harmonious at one point in time; however, that time has long since passed from the looks of it." Azmodeus sheathed his sword before leaping onto the floating lab. "So just die and enter the never ending cycle of Reincarnation."
*Spurt!* *Spurt!* *Spurt!*
The ten horrifying monsters were sliced up like sashimi, dying with the lust for meat still present in their barbaric gazes.
*Plop!* *Plop!*
After their meat chunks splashed against the swamp water, Azmodeus took leisurely steps toward the unbothered slenderman while glancing at all the system notifications he received.
BLING!
*Ding!* *You have killed 10 Humanoid Monster specimens in the Mid-Silver Rank!*
*Ding!* *You have obtained 400,000 points in the Physical Existence Refinement Aspect!*
*Ding!* *You have made great progress within the Middle-Silver Rank!*
*Ding!* *Your skin's hue has improved in quality, giving your skin a shinier silver color.*
After all of the system notifications finished ringing out, Azmodeus took slow steps toward the far taller and thinner black slenderman as he said, "So you're the one who set up such a complex formation, huh? And from the looks of it, your lifespan is on its last legs, which over time caused your body to rapidly deteriorate, leaving you looking like this..."
"Ho...? You're quite the knowledgeable one, aren't you?" The slenderman mused, his hands making great strides in the stirring of whatever hodgepodge he was concocting.
Azmodeus ignored the occasional arms and legs that appeared from within the nightmarish man's cauldron as he responded, "I started to dabble in the Medical profession, and you could say that I'm a fast learner."
*Tap Tap*
His strides never slowed down, as he was but a mere twenty meters away from the eerie black man.
But regardless of the strength he displayed and his unimpeded advance, the slenderman paid no heed and continued to stir the contents of his cauldron. This resulted in weird, nasty fumes being exuded into the air.
.......