"Where is this? It's so dark!"
After a moment of disorientation, Paimon found that everything in front of him had turned pitch black.
Actually, it wasn't *that* dark, but Paimon habitually said so.
"Don't talk, Paimon, be quiet!" A familiar voice appeared next to Paimon's ear, but when Paimon tried to turn his head to look, he found that his vision hadn't changed at all.
"You all just watch. I'm controlling this thing." Yu Jin noticed Paimon's movement, stopped dawdling, and began to observe his surroundings.
Although the place where the Golden Tree emerged was near the bonfire, there were no people around, as if the firelight was only to illuminate the darkness and not to serve anyone.
"Yu Jin, can we move a bit forward?" Dain saw the purple Abyss runes floating above the bonfire and knew that the core area was ahead.
These runes, suspended above the bonfire, were an important energy source for maintaining the Burning of the bonfire, and also conveyed some kind of information.
If they really lit fires underground like this, the Apostles might be fine, but the Abyss Mages would suffocate to death.
"Okay, you seem to know your way around, so I'll listen to you." Yu Jin heard this and made the Golden Tree burrow back underground.
"It's dark again!" Paimon exclaimed in surprise.
"Don't make a fuss, haven't you seen someone digging a tunnel before?" Yu Jin grumbled, then began to sense the surrounding environment.
The Abyss Order's camp was very spacious. The Golden Tree's bark once again enveloped the eyeball at its end, rapidly wriggling underground.
After an unknown period of advancement, the bonfires ahead became visibly denser, and correspondingly, the light grew stronger.
The Golden Tree's roots once again emerged from the ground. It tried its best to contract the golden light on its surface, and under the cover of the bonfires, it perfectly blended into the background.
"So many bonfires!"
"Look ahead, an Abyss Herald is coming!"
No sooner had Dain finished speaking than the space ahead rippled, and then a spatial rift much larger than a typical Abyss Passage tore open.
The specks of starlight it emitted looked like fragments of the starry sky in deep space.
"That big?! Could it be that the Abyss Order has cultivated a strong Abyss Herald?!" Yu Jin exclaimed in shock when he saw the spatial rift, which was three or four times larger than an ordinary Abyss Passage.
He compared the size difference between an Abyss Mage and an Abyss Herald and thought that if an Abyss Herald evolved again, it would be roughly this size.
"Strong Abyss Herald? What's that?" Lumine felt completely bewildered by Yu Jin's words. Could'strong' also be classified as a separate rank?
"Don't listen to him, no such thing exists." Dain refuted Yu Jin's so-called "strong Abyss Herald."
He had fought the Abyss Order for so long and had never seen such a thing as a "strong Abyss Herald."
The appearance of an Abyss Herald is identical to that of a human. Dain also relied on their aura to identify an Abyss Herald.
He carefully looked at the huge Abyss Order and said with a solemn tone, "This means a large number of Apostles are being teleported. It seems the Abyss Order has big plans recently."
"Buzz~"
No sooner had Dain finished speaking than the Abyss Passage ahead began to fluctuate violently. Then, one by one, distorted and frenzied Abyss Monsters emerged from it.
Those were Abyss Heralds and Abyss Lectors.
It seemed that there were no less than a dozen various Apostles emerging!
The Apostles walked out of the spatial rift. They did not leave but stood on both sides of the Passage, as if welcoming some important figure.
When all the Abyss Heralds had emerged, a figure also appeared from the Abyss Passage.
A man among the Abyss Monsters, a man with the same golden hair as Lumine and Dain.
Aether, Lumine's long-lost brother.
"Brother!!!"
"Damn it, Dain, hold her down! Paimon, you too!"
Lumine let out the most uninhibited cry since her awakening. The loudness of her voice, in Yu Jin's opinion, could only be rivaled by Beisht back then.
So, without a word, he "held down" Lumine. In fact, consciousness cannot really be held down; there is no physical body to hold.
Yu Jin merely used a portion of his will to tightly envelop Lumine. The latter immediately felt a mountain appear out of thin air in her chest and mind, pressing her so hard she couldn't breathe or recover.
"Se-senior..."
"Alright, just calm down... forget it, call out however you want!"
Yu Jin originally wanted to advise Lumine not to be so distraught, but after seeing that he had already attracted Aether's attention, he gave up struggling.
Actually, Aether's strength was still very formidable; it would be very troublesome to capture him.
So, let's just consider it a branch repair for the Golden Tree.
"It seems Osial really has been released. Target lost. Everyone, go to other nations and see if there are any sealed Gods."
In the distance, Aether was arranging for the members of The Order to search for traces of other Gods, but suddenly a strong tremor surged within him.
He couldn't quite describe what it was, perhaps a premonition of danger, perhaps a sign of something important, or perhaps Lumine's longing?
Aether seemed to sense something. He abruptly turned his head and looked in a certain direction. Then he saw the eyeball hidden in the dim background, and the familiar branch beneath it.
Well, it seemed that tremor was a premonition of danger.
"Screech Boom--"
The dim underground suddenly brightened, then quickly faded again.
"This place isn't safe anymore, let's move." Aether glanced at the black-purple pit and said faintly.
Subsequently, the huge Abyss Passage reappeared, and the Apostles who had just arrived followed Aether's footsteps and left.
"Bang!"
The Abyss Passage closed, and the flickering firelight also dissipated. The underground plunged into complete darkness... "Hiss..., that was a bit powerful." Yu Jin was the first to wake up. Recalling the moment Aether made his move, that fierce elemental power almost surged into his body even through the Golden Tree.
"Not 'a bit,' but very strong!" Dain also woke up, his face still showing some lingering fear.
His former traveling companion had grown stronger again.
"If he isn't plotting something, then among the seven Gods on the surface, probably few could defeat him." Dain muttered. He now felt increasingly that time was urgent.
"Hmph, what's so great about that? At worst, if he comes up, I'll just cling to Yu Jin!"
Paimon also woke up. Just thinking about that barely visible lightning, she felt a faint ache returning to her body.
"Lumine would cry herself to death, you know? You abandoned her when she needed you most, and Lumine even spends three hundred thousand Mora every month to support you."
Yu Jin pointed to the silent Lumine beside him, whose eyes were unfocused, and said. It seemed that Aether being a member of the Abyss Order was a significant blow to her.
Paimon also reacted. Seeing Lumine in such a state, he immediately flew in front of her and began psychological therapy.
"Hey, hey, hey, what's wrong with you? Don't you still have me?"
"Since your brother is messing around with the Abyss Mages, then don't want him anymore. Let him find an Abyss Mage to be his sister!"
"What, you still acknowledge this brother? Then you should become even stronger and bring him back!"
...Paimon circled Lumine, constantly chattering about this and that.
"Paimon, I'm already fine." Lumine saw Paimon's lively and anxious appearance, and felt much better in her heart.
She pulled Paimon down from the sky, hugged him in her arms, and began to knead Paimon's small face.
Paimon's face immediately became unhappy, but considering that Lumine needed his comfort, Paimon let Lumine knead him into a ball.
"Senior, where was that location just now?" Lumine looked up and asked Yu Jin.
"Underground in the sea, but I estimate he's already run off." Yu Jin said, stroking his chin.
"Is that so..." Lumine's expression visibly darkened a few shades. But very quickly, she cheered up again.
"No matter what, I will find my brother!"
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