The Guardian gods-Chapter 262

When a beam of light came close to this soldier, it was deflected, heading toward Erik’s troops. Fortunately, it was momentarily bombarded away by the beams.

Almost on command, the dead body of the reflective soldier was shared among Silas’s soldiers, who began developing the same characteristics. Edward, still in the sky, noticed this and frowned.

"A queen?" he thought in confusion as he scanned the battlefield from above, searching for the new leader.

Erik, observing the rapidly evolving enemy, knew they had to act swiftly. "King Edward, we need to focus our attacks!" he shouted, his voice barely audible over the cacophony of battle. "We can’t let them adapt any further!"

Edward nodded and signaled his troops. They reformed, focusing their firepower on the newly emerged reflective soldiers. The sky lit up with concentrated beams, each strike precise and relentless.

Despite their efforts, the reflective soldiers proved resilient. Their mirror-like surfaces deflected many of the attacks, causing chaos among Erik’s ranks.

Amidst the chaos, Erik’s mind raced for a solution. He needed to find a way to penetrate the reflective defense. An idea sparked, and he quickly relayed his plan to Edward.

"Edward, we need to change our tactics! Aim for the ground around them, create a dust cloud to obscure their vision!"

Edward acknowledged the plan and relayed the orders. The aerial troops adjusted their aim, targeting the ground near the reflective soldiers. Explosions erupted, creating a thick cloud of dust and debris that enveloped the enemy.

The reflective soldiers, momentarily blinded and disoriented, began to falter. Seizing the opportunity, despite being tired, Erik rallied his ground forces. "Charge! Now is our chance!"

With Erik leading from the ground and with the support of Edward from the sky, Silas’s remaining troops were quickly being taken out. Erik even began using the corpses of dead Silas soldiers as bait, making them easier to kill.

Erik and Edward stood side by side, watching as the battlefield fell silent. The echoes of battle faded, leaving behind a landscape scarred by conflict but victorious.

"It’s over," Erik said, his voice weary but triumphant.

Not waiting for Edward to respond, Erik passed out, falling face-forward toward the ground but was caught by the weary Roland, who now looked haggard like a beggar, his armor in pieces barely hanging on his body.

Smiling tiredly at Edward, Roland took a deep bow and said, "In the place of my king, I would like to thank you for the help you offered in this way. Many of us will get to see our families because of you, your highness."

Edward nodded as he flapped his wings, followed by his men as they took to the sky. Before fully taking off, Edward looked deeply at the sleeping Erik.

Erik’s current features were something he had never seen before. At first, he thought it was a transformation that came with using his full power, but that was wrong; even after using up his power, the features were still there.

As Edward ascended into the sky, his mind churned with questions. "What had happened to Erik? Was this change permanent? Is the change something Erik is aware of?"

The survivors began to regroup, tending to the wounded and gathering the fallen. Roland carried Erik to a newly built makeshift infirmary, where healers rushed to assess his condition. Despite his exhaustion, Erik’s new appearance gave him an almost ethereal glow, one that the healers couldn’t explain.

In the cursed forest, not too far away, the Jaguar closed its eyes in contempt as it thought to itself boredly, "This elf has no proper manners, to play in front of my yard and still dare to turn my meal to ash, nothing left."

Before the Jaguar closed its eyes, it looked off into the distance where the retreating form of Ursula could be seen penetrating the cloudy sky, disappearing.

Ikenga and Keles felt the sudden shift in the air as they were pulled into a vortex, a swirling mass of shadows and whispers that reached out and clawed at their divine essences. The disorienting sensation was relentless, their divine senses scrambled in the maelstrom. They could hardly find their bearings, tumbling through the chaos until it felt like the vortex drove them through something akin to a membrane.

When they regained their senses, they found themselves on a red burning cloud, quickly descending toward a ground that seemed to be on fire as well. Ikenga subconsciously tried to connect with his divinity, only to feel as if invisible heavy chains had wrapped around him. His divine power was still present but heavily suppressed.

Pulling on what he could, Ikenga turned into an eagle mid-air, flying with desperate strokes of his wings. Beside him, Keles morphed into a dark vulture, gliding as they descended rapidly toward the burning surface.

Morphing back mid-air, Ikenga landed on the ground with a hiss as his feet were seared by the intense heat. Raising his leg, he saw pieces of his skin left on the hot surface, quickly burning away. Instinctively, he summoned wooden shoes imbued with fire elements, wrapping them around his legs to shield himself from the searing pain. He looked at Keles and waved his hand, causing similar shoes to appear on her feet.

Ikenga never thought he would have the opportunity to see hell as he began taking in the surroundings.

The landscape around them was nightmarish. The sky was a churning mass of crimson and black clouds, crackling with crimson lightning. The ground was a barren expanse of cracked, scorched earth, dotted with pools of molten lava. Rivers of fire snaked through the landscape, their banks lined with jagged obsidian rocks that jutted up like the teeth of some great beast. The air was thick with ash and smoke, making it difficult to breathe, and carrying with it the heavy stench of sulfur.

In the distance, they could see twisted spires of blackened stone reaching toward the sky, forming a grotesque skyline that seemed to mock the heavens.

Demonic creatures of various shapes and sizes roamed the land, their eyes glowing with malice as they hunted for any who dared to cross their path.

The ground beneath them trembled as if the very earth were alive and in pain. Flames periodically erupted from cracks in the ground, sending up showers of sparks and ash. The heat was unbearable, even with their divine protections. Every step they took felt like walking on a bed of hot coals.

As Ikenga and Keles moved cautiously through this hellscape, they realized that they were in a place where their divine powers were not just suppressed but actively resisted by the very fabric of the realm.

Keles spoke up, breaking Ikenga out of his thoughts. "It seems we are lucky."

Ikenga was confused at first but immediately understood what she meant. "This abyss layer has no Lord; otherwise, we would have felt a snopping sensation or something like a rejection."

Having confirmed that, Ikenga frowned as he noticed no longer had the sensation of being connected to things, so he had a hard time estimating or deciding how big this layer was.

"What do we do now?" Ikenga turned to Keles. Keles was looking around the layer, mainly down at the ground they were standing on.

"There is death everywhere; they may give us the information we need," she said as her hand, covered in a gray glow, gestured at the bones below, trying to wake them up.

Keles knew nothing of where she was, and what she was doing was equal to taboo, so Ikenga got on guard when he saw Keles frozen and her shell empty, meaning her soul was pulled out.

Keles had a different vision as she found herself in front of an ever-stretching river. Looking down at the river, she saw the phantom of a huge lady covered in a red dress looking at her.

The name of the lady was whispered to Keles from the void and the reason why this was happening. Keles, knowing she was at fault, took a deep bow at the lady as she spoke, "I apologize for my behavior, Lady Styx. I know nothing yet of the rules of the abyss."

A soft, motherly voice spoke to Keles, "There is truth to your words, child, as the abyss’s breath on you is so little. Take this as a warning and be careful of your actions while in the abyss."

Keles’s soul was pushed back into her shell, and she began heaving. Ikenga took hold of her, looking at her with worry. "What happened?" he asked.

Keles took a deep breath, steadying herself as she regained her composure. "We have to be more careful," she said, her voice tinged with the weight of the encounter. "I attempted to summon the dead for information, but instead, I was confronted by Lady Styx herself."

Ikenga’s eyes widened in recognition but quickly were hidden. "Who is Lady Styx?"

Keles, having gotten herself together, said, "She is the mother of all demons or rather the guardian of the River Styx, where the demons are born from. She stretches to all layers of the abyss."