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Chapter 664: Enigma, Hidden Sword

The souls of demons from the Abyss all had an Ouroboros Mark, so they were given a unique label, indicating that they were fundamentally different from demons produced in other worlds. This difference actually had the meaning of ‘orthodox’. This was why the Abyss was known as the home of demons.

The first demons must have come from the Abyss…

Due to the existence of Ouroboros Marks, the demons of the Abyss had a special ritual that belonged to the Abyss when advancing. From the moment they became demon lords, they would be attracted by an opened Gate of Heaven and enter a domain of Holy Light. This ritual was firstly to proclaim their valor and glory and secondly to facilitate demons seizing the Ouroboros Marks that belonged to angels and ultimately synthesizing the Möbius strip required for a divine spark. Similarly, it was the same for Heaven. The advancement of angels also required them to enter the Abyss to hunt demons.

No one knew how this ritual came about, but it was engraved in the genes of demons and angels, causing both sides to fight each other for eternity. This was also the true reason for the Eternal War.

Of course, the premise of carrying out this ritual referred to the normal advancement path of Abyss demons… Since there were normal ones, there were naturally abnormal ones. There might be many such examples over hundreds of millions of years. Since the probability of accidents existed, it would inevitably trigger too many examples. Clearly, Roy’s advancement was an abnormal case.

In the Bayonetta world, he had killed the demon king-level Archangel Jubileus with his lord-level strength. The reason why this example of the weak defeating the strong could succeed was due to methods and luck. But his advancement had not triggered a ritual, indicating that it was abnormal.

Precisely because of this, Roy set the record for the fastest advancement to demon king in the Abyss…

Benia was an orthodox demon from the Abyss, so when the Ouroboros Mark in her soul was solid enough, the power of her bloodline automatically triggered a ritual to help her enter a domain of Holy Light and hunt the other half of the Ouroboros Mark. If she succeeded, she would be able to advance to the demon king level smoothly. But if she failed, she could only stay in the domain of Holy Light forever.

Roy understood all of this in an instant, but he couldn’t help Benia in this matter. He could only pray that she was strong and cautious enough to return successfully.

The pillar of light formed by the surging energy of the Well of Eternity was still violently stirring the clouds in the sky. Such a huge commotion definitely couldn’t be hidden. While waiting, Roy had already sensed some trolls appearing at the edge of the Well of Eternity. These trolls were attracted by the abnormal movements of the Well of Eternity, but they didn’t dare to get too close and only observed carefully from afar. Since they couldn’t cause any obstruction, Roy couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to them.

But as time passed, Benia still didn’t return, making Roy a little anxious. Not only was he worried about Benia, but he was also worried that the abnormal movements in the Well of Eternity would attract the titanic watchers.

Just as Roy was thinking about whether he should take the initiative to attack and eliminate some potential hidden dangers, the Gate of Heaven opened again. Benia’s figure emerged from the gate and landed on the platform with a thud.

“How is it? Did you succeed?” Roy quickly asked.

Benia shook her head with a strange expression. “I did go to a domain of Holy Light, but that place… doesn’t seem to be a Heaven! Moreover, contrary to what you guessed, it wasn’t the place where those naaru lived…”

What did this mean? Roy and Julia were confused, but after hearing Benia’s explanation, they understood what had happened.

Just now, after Benia was sucked into the opened Gate of Heaven, she, who had been prepared to face powerful enemies, had entered a strange place. It was a narrow alternate space, but this alternate space was not a Purgatory Space attached to a planet. She could feel that this alternate space was drifting, but she couldn’t tell where in this universe it was, and this alternate space was not big.

Benia, who had been on guard to face formidable enemies, didn’t encounter any enemies in this alternate space. There was only dead silence and countless weathered ruins in this alternate space.

Out of curiosity, Benia checked these ruins and found that these former buildings seemed to have come from a very, very long time ago. Even if the airflow were slightly stronger, the ruins would directly turn into sand and wind and be blown away. To be decayed to this extent, it was obvious how old these ruins were.

Benia carefully shuttled through this alternate space and tried to find some information about the origin of this place. She knew that the Gate of Heaven had teleported her to a certain Heaven, but she didn’t see any Holy Light power here. Or rather, because it had been too long, the power of Holy Light had long dissipated here.

In the end, Benia only found one thing in this alternate space—a broken piece of metal. She didn’t know if this thing was a part of a weapon or a part of armor, but it had been severely corroded by time. The reason why she carefully picked it up was that she could barely see a faint and almost indistinguishable engraving on the metal piece. This engraving seemed to be in angel characters.

When Benia took out this piece of metal and showed it to Roy and Julia, it even had a protective barrier that she had cast on it to prevent the metal piece from turning into ashes the moment it came into contact with the air. Roy and Julia carefully identified it and confirmed that Benia was right. The engraving seemed to be in angel characters.

“In other words, you didn’t see any angels there, but the various traces in that place can prove that it was once a Heaven, right?” Roy rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“That’s right. I was quite surprised!” The flames in Benia’s eyes flickered for a moment. “I’ve never heard any news about angels in this universe. Even the beings representing Holy Light have become naaru, so I used to think that Eden had never reached this world, but now it seems like that’s not the case…”

“The Ouroboros Mark must lead you to where the other half of the mark is. This is unquestionable!” Roy said. “But you didn’t see naaru, which means that they don’t have Ouroboros Marks!”

“Perhaps… someone eliminated the angels…” Julia joined in on the brainstorming. “But you said that you didn’t see any angel corpses?”

“None!” Benia said with certainty. “It’s reasonable for Archangel-level existences completely transformed into Holy Light not to have any remains, but low-level angels have corporeal bodies, and the bones of angels can be preserved for much longer than the bones of ordinary creatures. Logically speaking, if there were any, I should have been able to find some traces, but… I couldn’t find them.”

“Are there any traces of a battle in that place?” Julia asked.

Benia shook her head. “No, or rather, I can’t tell at all. I estimate that the ruins in that alternate space have a history of at least a million years…”

Roy thought for a while and raised two fingers. “There are two possibilities. One is that there was indeed an expedition army from Eden in this universe. In such a large universe, it doesn’t make sense that the Eternal War didn’t continue here. But the Heaven expedition army here was completely annihilated. The other possibility is that the Heaven expedition army here has all withdrawn.”

“It’s impossible to withdraw!” Benia shook her head. “There are so many demons in this universe, so there’s no reason for the angels to withdraw.”

“Then, the only possibility left is defeat!” Julia said. “But who killed all those angels so long ago? Most of the demons we’ve seen over the years are at the lord level. Do they have the ability to annihilate an entire Heaven expedition army? Even if that’s the case, what about the remains of the angels after the war? Did the demons pick them all up?”

Roy mumbled thoughtfully, “Perhaps… they were really picked up…”

“What?” Julia and Benia didn’t hear clearly and were stunned.

Roy waved his hand. “It’s nothing. Let’s get back to the main topic. Since you’ve failed to hunt the Ouroboros Mark, have you thought about what to do next?”

“I don’t know either. Perhaps I can only be like this for now…” Benia said dejectedly. “I will maintain this state for the time being. When I return to Argus, I will find those Abyss lords to get the coordinates of the Abyss. Then I’ll return to the Abyss and think of a way to continue the ritual.”

If she couldn’t condense a divine spark, she couldn’t be considered a true demon king. Benia was now stuck at this step, but there was nothing she could do about it. This universe was in such a strange state, and orthodox Abyss demons couldn’t advance for the time being.

“There’s no need to go through so much trouble!” Roy smiled and stretched out his hand to grab at the air. A large cube box appeared in his hand. “Look at this.”

“Your Kanai’s Cube?” Benia and Julia asked curiously, “What are you doing?”

Roy didn’t say anything. He smiled and opened Kanai’s Cube. Then an enormous golden soul containing a condensed Ouroboros Mark jumped out and floated in the air.

“High-level holy soul?!” Benia was surprised and quickly asked, “Darling, where did you get it?!”

In Benia’s impression, Roy didn’t deliberately collect angel souls in the Diablo world, so she was naturally very surprised.

“This is… an offering!” Roy explained with a smile. “Have you forgotten that in a certain world, there’s an Umbra Witch who can borrow the power of demons!”

“Ah, I remember now!” Julia’s eyes lit up. “It’s Bayonetta! Is this the offering she offered you to borrow your power?”

“Yes!” Roy’s index finger gently pushed this golden soul toward Benia with his nail. “This is an offering from the power contract that Bayonetta signed with me. Although she doesn’t have many opportunities to borrow my power, so there aren’t many of these holy souls, they’re all the souls of high-level ancient angels. They naturally all have Ouroboros Marks. I used Kanai’s Cube to condense and synthesize them together, so it should be able to serve as a replacement for completing your soul!”

“Darling, you’re so good…” Benia was moved. She reached out to wrap her arms around Roy’s neck, pulled his head down, and gave him a long kiss.

“Hurry up and start!” Julia harrumphed and pushed Benia away. “There’s too much commotion here. You have to complete your advancement as soon as possible so that we can leave.”

Benia giggled. She reached out to grab the golden soul, opened her mouth, and swallowed it. Then she flew to the other side of the lake and began to quietly absorb the Ouroboros Mark in the soul, no longer using the advancement platform.

“Okay, it’s your turn!” Roy patted Julia’s waist and gestured. “You’re much luckier than Benia. She still has to work hard to find the other half of her Ouroboros Mark. But you’re different. Goddess Jubileus’s soul has already completely supplemented your soul. As long as you have enough energy, you can directly advance to the demon king level and become a Fallen Archangel.”

“That seems to be the case!” Julia looked eager to try as she spread her wings and flew onto the platform.

The pillar of light above the Well of Eternity had become dimmer because of Benia’s departure, but when Julia began her advancement, the pillar of light suddenly grew in size again.

While Julia was absorbing energy, Roy watched from the side. This was the first time the newly-born Well of Eternity was condensing energy on a large scale. Such an opportunity was too rare. Roy actually wanted to take the opportunity to do something. But after trying, he regretfully found that the energy of the Well of Eternity had some effect on him, who had already advanced to demon king, but it wasn’t much.

In fact, this wasn’t surprising. Although Azeroth’s world-soul had an immense amount of energy, and it was certain that she could surpass Sargeras and become the strongest world-soul titan after awakening, she hadn’t awakened yet. Therefore, despite the massive amount of energy, the quality and level of the energy might not necessarily be high. It was already not bad to be able to help demon lords advance to demon kings. But the benefits after the demon king level were not obvious.

From this point of view, it was actually not very wise for Archimonde to have designs on the Well of Eternity in the future, let alone the second-generation Well of Eternity.

Since it didn’t help much, Roy didn’t bother to waste time on the Well of Eternity. To him, crossing time was his greatest increase in strength… However, he was actually quite greedy for the abundant energy in the well water. So after thinking about it, he told Julia and flew toward the spring of the Well of Eternity.

After arriving at the spring, Roy floated above the lake. He slowly stretched his hands in front of his chest, and a long sword emerged from the void.

Upon closer look, people would find that this sword was only a sword embryo, with only the most basic blade. However, when this sword embryo appeared, it caused space to tremble violently. On the surface of the Well of Eternity, there was no wind, but a powerful tornado gradually appeared, stirring the well water and connecting to the clouds above.

Clouds gathered in the sky, darkness surged, and countless dense lightning bolts bloomed in the dark clouds, looking like a scene of doomsday about to descend.

In the eye of the tornado, Roy slowly raised the sword embryo and gently let go, letting the sword embryo fall into the water of the Well of Eternity.

Feeling the sword embryo sinking all the way down, Roy grinned sinisterly and whispered, “Yes, that’s it. Go into the deepest depths. There, you can absorb energy to your heart’s content. One day, twenty-five thousand years from now, your master Osiris will return here and call your name again…”

With that, Roy turned around and left. He placed the sword embryo he had made with 100 million souls in the depths of the Well of Eternity, allowing it to quietly absorb energy and grow over the long years.

Roy was certain that after this new weapon was forged, it would become the most powerful divine artifact in this universe…