Ascenders Rift

The scene shown to the eyes of Gragtaasz and Rick was an astonishing one, as the previously dominating Dreadtooth was now lying in a pool of his blood, his body cut into two halves. Though the area was still confined to darkness, their senses could perceive the dreadful scene. While the duo was still in a state of shock, Evan, who had slaughter Dreadtooth quickly waved his hand, causing his Void Blade to disappear.

When this happened, both Rick and Gragtaasz came to their senses, Gragtaasz looked at Evan with a poisonous stare as he shouted while erupting his entire Dark Mana, "You filthy human! How dare you kill Dreadtooth? If I don't kill you today, I can never rest in peace!"

The instant Gragtaasz exploded into a rage, Rick, who had sensed the danger rapidly retreated towards Evan's side. Looking back at Gragtaasz's location, one would notice that the darkness had faded as his wildly exploding mana power had illuminated most of this temple.

Rick, having arrived by Evan's side, had a dark look on his face as he spoke while staring at Gragtaasz's power boost, "Evan, can you deal with this?"

Evan, hearing this smirked and asked, "What's this, are you feeling uncertain, Rick?"

Rick was a bit ashamed hearing those words, he didn't like the feeling of being useless. Despite this, however, he still had his pride; he clicked his tongue and snapped, "So what if I am! Can't you see that we're in danger? I want to know if you are capable of handling this like you did that brute!"

Evan chuckled as he heard this, he no longer mocked him but replied with a calm look on his face, "Don't worry, him acting like this is in our flavor. It saves me the trouble of having to chase him all over this place, allowing me to finish him in one fell swoop."

Rick didn't know fully by his words, he asked, "Hmm, really? Even I can't catch up to him, what makes you think that you'll be able to finish him like you did that brute?"

Evan's eyes gleamed in a sharp light as he took a few steps forward to arrive a few meters ahead of Rick as he spoke, "Watch and learn..."

Rick knitted his brows at this but said nothing in reply; his eyes were now directly fixed upon him like a hawk watching its prey. He didn't want to miss out on a single moment to learn his tricks.

Evan paid no heed to Rick's actions; he merely stood with a calm expression as he faced the direction of the raging Gragtaasz, whose Dark Mana seemed to be out of control.

As Evan's eyes reflected with the lights, he waved his hand causing his star-like Void Blade to appear again as he spoke out loud, "Gragtaasz, come, allow me to send you on your way to hell,"

Gragtaasz seemed to have only now just gathered all his energies, as he heard Evan's words, his face carried a savage appearance when he shouted, "Damn arrogant human, today you shall suffer death!"

Soon after his words, Gragtaasz waved his staff, pointing its crystal tip towards Evan. As this happened, a ball of black energy formed, which rapidly expanded to a size of three meters. The moment it formed; a surge of power had swept around the area as if everything was about to fade from existence.

Evan's gaze turned sharp when he saw this massive ball of power, he glared at Gragtaasz and spoke, "Humph! You do realize that you've almost exceeded the limit of our seal, are you not afraid of the System's Will?"

Gragtaasz had a look of madness when he laughed and replied fiercely, "Like I give a damn, this damn world, that damn race. If I can escape, I will kill them all! But before them all is you, accept your death human! Dark Mana Wave!"

Instantly, the ball of mana exploded as it fired towards Evan in a flash, beaming towards him like a giant dark ray that could annihilate all things in its path. The moment this beam was fired, a warning sound came from the heavens as a cold voice sounded across the temple.

[Warning: Prisoner has exceeded the limit of the Abandoned World, forcefully activating a sealed skill. Commencing punishment!]

Buzz! Following the loud voice, a golden ray much quicker than the one fired by Gragtaasz bolted down from the heavens from a golden rift. It smashed into Gragtaasz's head before exploding as it consumed his body in a flash.

The moment the strange power engulfed Gragtaasz, his eyes showed a look of unwillingness as his voice echoed across the old temple, "I... I only wanted to be free... was that too much to ask for? I guess… that was but a fool's dream."

Not long after those words, the lights faded as Gragtaasz was no longer in this word. Yet, despite that occurring, the beam fired by Gragtaasz didn't halt in any way, as it was now only moments away from Evan's position.

Evan stared at the beam in front of him with a cold look as he thought, 'Che! So it can punish the prisoner but ignore the life of the challenger who must now succumb to the price for breaking the rule. Hmph! This damn system!'

As Evan thought this, however, his actions weren't slow, his body glowed in crimson lights as he gathered a section of his Battle Energy channeling it into his blade before he dashed forwards. Suddenly, Evan's figure superimposed with the late Aperehs as he made a mighty swing while yelling, "Executioner Slash!"

With his roar, the blade in Evan's hand slashed forwards as it cut apart the air. A crimson slash wave swept across the void cutting through the massive beam wave in a flash as it smashed into the walls of the room, leaving behind a deep and wide gash for a few dozen meters.

Following this, the black beam, which was fired by Gragtaasz, was neatly split into two halves that veered off to the two separates sides of the entrance of the temple. These rays quickly collided with the walls of the black space created in a disastrous scene.

Boom! Two flashes of bright lights erupted from the entrance, lighting up the entire temple, as the shockwave rippled across the area wreaking havoc as it tossed a few of the upraised stones about in a disorderly manner.

'Damn, it actually had such power! To think he could so easily cut right through it, at this rate, I might not even be able to defeat him even with my advantage in speed,' Rick thought as he looked at the scene of chaos before him as he calmly swayed his body, dodging the stray rocks like a blurry shade.

Evan stood calmly as if the shockwave was nothing; he merely waved his blade at the incoming debris, easily breaking them apart.

Moments after, the scene had died down, and the lights had faded. However, if one looked closely, they would notice that at the entrance of the temple, a myriad of white cracks had formed over the wall of darkness.

"Hmm, an opening," Rick muttered as he saw the cracks, he was about to strike it with his spear, but it was at this time, he heard a muffled sound from outside.

"Haha! See, I told you that the heavens itself are on my side, watch as I break it in one fell swoop this time! Open!" With a shout, a loud 'bang' was heard as the cracks started to expand at a rapid rate.

Eventually, the entire world of darkness had cracks all over its surface, which soon shattered parted like shards of glass. As this happened, the lights from the gloomy fading sun-filled shone within the temple, revealing the scene to the world.

Rick looked at this scene with a bit of surprise, as Evan made a smile. Not long after, a fat figure jumped through the entrance followed by three beauties.

Evan smirked and spoke, "Took you guys long enough, were you having trouble against those mobs?"

Joe and the others having arrived in the Old Temple was shocked, especially when they saw the amount of rubble and bottomless craters around the vast room. If anything, the only area that seemed oddly fine was the section that had the two strange-looking statues that seemed to be a part of the world itself.

"This... what happened here? Evan, where are the bosses?" Joe asked in shock.

"Mm, I don't sense anything, not even a trace of an overwhelming existence. There's still a bit of lingering grief, however..." Layla said as she looked around curiously.

Breya remained silent as her eyes shifted back and forth between Evan and Rick. Emilia, on the other hand, had a dark look on her face, it seemed as if she was listening to something.

Evan looked at their group and replied with a smile while casually pointing towards Dreadtooth's corpse, "You're a bit late, we've already finished them,"

As Joe and the others followed his fingers, they noticed the body of a massive crocoman that was cut into two, resting into a pool of blood. Their faces had looks of shock as Joe exclaimed, "What? You're telling me I expended so much power to save you all from that dark barrier to find out that you've already killed the boss? Damn! What the hell, man?"

Breya and Layla couldn't find any words to express their shock; they only looked at Rick and Evan like they were two anomalies.

Rick stared at Joe and spoke in mock, "Hmph! You're mistaken about something; the barrier broke because of Evan's efforts."

"Like hell, it did!" Joe said, not buying Rick's words.

"Tsk! Stubborn fatty..." Rick cursed in his mind.

Evan seeing this shook his head, not bothering to clarify, he spoke, "Joe, Breya, Emmy, Layla... you've come just in time. The truth is our battle isn't quite yet over."

"What? You're joking, right?" Everyone responded with a puzzled look on their faces, Evan seeing this showed a dark look when he spoke again, "Sadly I'm not, it's time for the second round,"

As everyone was feeling shocked, Emilia's dark face turned pale as she looked towards the two odd-looking statues in fear as she pointed at them and yelled, "Everyone, be careful of those statues!"

When they heard her words, Joe and the others looked towards the statues that rested at the center of the room in a serious manner. As Layla saw it, her eyes flashed as a bloody vision came into her eyes, one which was connected to the scene she saw on the outside of the rift.

"No! Not again!" Layla screamed as she fell to her knees trembled before puking out a bit of blood, Evan seeing this was alarmed, he ran to her side in a hurry as he touched her shoulder and spoke, "Layla are you alright?"

Layla hearing this calmed down a bit, she bit her lips before speaking, "Those statues, they're related to the visions I saw when we arrived here. It's filled with death!"

Evan hearing this shifted his eyes onto the statues and began to feel a terrifying power, his mind grew dark when he muttered, "So, they were the hidden bosses, how truly troubling indeed..."

The world seemed as if it was welcoming the arrival of two unparalleled beings, as two bright rays of lights erupted from the statues piercing towards the heavens, illuminating this part of the world.