Chapter 445 Third Floor

"What, what the hell is this now?!" Shadow shouted as he looked at the scene in front of them. A scene that was straight out of hell presented itself in front of them, some of the angels even trembled from the scene while trying their best not to vomit.

What has presented in front of them was a field that had no grass, just dark soil that was saturated with blood. Small puddles and streams of blood flowed around from the thousands of corpses that were shown to them.

There were small hills of corpses present, but most of the area was filled with corpses, and even live humans that were displayed on long spikes that entered through their buttocks, while exited out of their mouths. ( Author: Yeah, pretty much what Vlad the Impaler did )

Some were put on large wooden crosses where their limbs were either bound by thin threads that cut deep inside their flesh or they were penetrated by large iron nails that would stick out from behind the wood.

There were those that were hung on large wooden beams by their entrails, those who were hanging by their skin which was slowly being pulled and ripped by the weight of their body, and more.

The scene was not just gory, but almost unbearable.

"That damned Drayce, what the hell did he do here?!" Tank shouted in anger as he went toward one of the men who was being hung by the skin of his back being penetrated by a thin metal spear and slowly being pulled apart.

"Wait Tank, don't touch him, not yet." Reign said as he looked around them. No matter where he looked, he was greeted by the same sight.

'Just how many people are here, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe even more?' Reign thought as he could feel anger slowly boiling inside of him.

He didn't know any of these people and whether they lived or died was of no concern to him, but to see such a sight truly made him angry.

He didn't mind seeing corpses, people being killed was also another thing that didn't bother him as that was what the world had become now. But seeing people being killed in such brutal ways, slowly tortured for perhaps hours before they were finally allowed to die, made him angry.

Lightning appeared around his two hands as he clenched them both into fists. He took a deep, long breath before exhaling in order to calm himself down.

'We're in the middle of a hidden task, there's no time to get angry here.' Reign thought as he closed his eyes and calmed down.

"None of them can survive, that's for certain." Wolf suddenly added from the side as he looked at the people that were unable to even wail as their strength was completely gone.

"So what, we just leave them and-"

"Tank!" Wolf's shout interrupted Tank's words as he stared at him.

"We're in the middle of a hidden task, this place is a building in the middle of a desert, we don't even know if these people are real, hell, even if they were, how do you reckon we get them outside?" Wolf's words made Tank silent, not only him, everybody was completely silent as they found Wolf's words to be completely true.

"If you want to help them, then kill them, ease their suffering, but other than that, we can do nothing, hell, we don't even know what exactly we're supposed to do here," Wolf added as he approached one of the men who was being hung on a wooden cross with the help of the thin threads.

He summoned his sword and promptly drove it through his heart, killing him instantly.

"For some, death itself is a luxury."

"Let's move, maybe we'll find out what we need to do after walking around." Reign said as he opened his eyes. His expression was one of resolution as he moved through the corpses and half-dead men and women that could be found on the field.

It took them about 1 hour before finding what was needed. There was a clearing in the middle of the corpses, a small lake of blood had formed there while a person sat on a throne of bones in the very middle of it.

His long blonde hair cascaded down all the way to the lake of blood and its tips were tainted by the blood. His face was one that could only be described as beautiful, his sharp jawline coupled with his sky-blue eyes and soft eyebrows could make anyone blush with a single smile.

The man wasn't really muscular, but he wasn't skinny either, one could see his well-defined muscles easily as he wore a sleeveless white robe. The bottom of the robe was red as it went down in the lake of blood.

As Reign and the others approached, the man lifted his head that was being held up by his right hand. His hands had no calluses, his nails were not long and they were kept in good condition as well.

There were no scars or bruises from what Reign and the others could see, which made them believe that if the man did all of this, he did it with ease.

'There are perhaps even a million people here, if this man did all of this, then just how strong is he?' Reign thought as he stared at the man who suddenly met his eyes.

A glance.

Just a simple glance.

And yet Reign felt paralyzed, he couldn't move, he couldn't even breathe for a moment as the man's eyes were enough to make him understand that he was not somebody that he could hope to match.

"You guys are the third to arrive, that's quite something, to be honest." A pleasant voice was suddenly heard inside everybody's heads. The man's mouth didn't move, he simply looked at them with a slight smile.

"A notch above those previous two teams, however."

"Hmmm, what should we do?" The man suddenly disappeared from the spot and appeared behind Reign.

"Such an interesting specimen, well, a bunch of you are." Before Reign could even turn around, the man disappeared before appearing right in front of Mia.

Mia, the angels, everybody was still paralyzed and couldn't move. The man put his hand on Mia's chin and gently lifted her head. He simply looked at her before disappearing once again and appearing back on the throne.

"Alright, walk towards me, the ones that can reach me will pass." Suddenly the pressure all of them felt was gone and they were once again able to move.

Reign panted heavily as he stared at the man who simply smiled at him.

"That's it, we just walk to you?" Reign asked cautiously as the man nodded his head.

"It's that simple." The man's voice reverberated inside their heads as Reign and the others all glanced at each other before slowly walking toward the man.

As soon as they stepped into the lake of blood, the pressure they felt before appeared once again. It wasn't as powerful, however, but it made it hard to move.

They all steeled themselves and started channeling their mana as they slowly walked toward the man. Mia and the angels did the same, but they were obviously having more trouble.

Mia was doing fine, the three strongest angels as well were able to slowly move toward the man, but the other angels all struggled fiercely and each step was incredibly difficult to make.

One thing that none of them knew was the fact that the pressure wasn't the same for everybody. What the man was currently testing was the resolve they had, the pressure on each one of them was what he felt was enough to make them struggle, except for the angels who were in his eyes simply too weak to stand with Reign and the others.

Of course, if they truly wanted to make it to the throne, if they gave everything they had and went through an unimaginable amount of pain, they would be able to clear his test.

He highly doubted that it would happen, however. He could sense that compared to the others, the ten angels didn't have the drive or willpower to make it to the end, even if he put less pressure on them, it was debatable whether or not they would be able to do it.

As the team made it halfway, the pressure they felt was enough to make them clench their teeth and dig their nails in their hands. They not only felt pressure but a lot of pain as well, hell, Reign and the others felt as if their bones would break at any moment.

They still continued, however. Their abilities slowly manifested around them, but they were unable to interact with the others, Reign's lightning would never be able to reach Wolf, while the latter's flames would never touch any of the others either.

The lake of blood had no reaction to their abilities, even Laura's ability which should easily be able to freeze the lake simply did nothing to it.