Chapter 653: Xero's Whereabouts
Chapter 653: Xero's Whereabouts
'Rhea, you're right. I can currently sense Xerroth's aura somewhere in the archipelago, but something mysterious camouflages his aura quite well. Can you pinpoint his exact location?' Elena gave up on searching because it was confusing.
'My apologies, but it looks like the lightning islands down there are camouflaging the inhabitants' auras, or he's purposely camouflaging them. I could feel his aura in one place, but the moment I tried to check over there, it immediately shifted to another place. And now, his aura seems to be on every island.' Rhea also felt confused.
'Hm, if that's the case, exploring the entire archipelago is the only option, huh... Anyway, we know he's here. It could be that he put some dummy aura for mere distraction. Let's check one by one.' Elena took a deep breath as this would be a tedious quest.
"Sylvi, Vann, can you feel the Evil God's aura in the thunderstorm archipelago down there?" Elena asked while lowering their altitude slowly. Many boulders were floating in the storm, and she was just trying to dodge the impact.
"Mm, I can feel it, but it's confusing me. His aura seems to be all over the place... Maybe hundreds now? And it seems to be growing. What's going on?" Sylvia scratched her head in confusion.
"Ah-uh, his trademark evil aura is there, but I can't pinpoint his exact location. There are too many disguises." Vanessa looked left and right in wonder.
"All right, we'll try to find him by checking his aura one by one. His dummy aura keeps growing, and he's clearly doing that on purpose. We can start with the dummy aura that just appeared on the crescent island over there." Elena pointed her finger at an island next to the center of the thunderstorm.
As they neared the purplish land, Elena put up an additional protective barrier instead and didn't actually land. The land there was really electrified by high-voltage electricity.
They remained floating a few centimeters above the ground and headed towards one of the sources of Xero's aura nearby.
"Hmm, I'm sure this dummy aura is one of those newly created ones." Elena swung her hand to destroy a black lightning orb in the cave. She then looked in a direction in the distance in wonder.
"Oops, did I alarm him for destroying his dummy aura? It seems, he is afraid to meet us. What happened to him after fighting all-out with that Ruvoid God? Can he not tell that it is us who are coming?" Elena felt a surge of energy, and all the dummy auras now no longer added up.
"Shall we continue looking for Evil God? I'm sorry, we can't be of much help." Sylvia apologized that she felt a bit useless.
"Don't worry about it. In the meantime, please take good care of Ely for me. She is fast asleep." Elena felt there would be something that needed her quick action.
Therefore, she handed Elysia to Sylvia's care very carefully. It was like she was treating something delicate, fragile, and could break if not handled with utmost care.
Vanessa climbed onto Sylvia's shoulder, and Elysia was carried by Sylvia in a princess carry. For some unknown reason, Sylvia felt a mysterious pang inside her when she saw Elysia's sleeping expression.
She was aware that Elysia's body was relatively weak, and it was inversely proportional to the tremendous power that her friend had. However, Elysia currently looked so fragile, vulnerable, yet adorable. It seemed to encourage anyone's instinct to protect this sleeping angel.
"We'll go around the island at a leisurely pace. Don't keep looking at Ely's face, or she'll wake up. It was a bit difficult for me to make her fall into a deep sleep." Elena reminded and brought everyone to continue their search.
"Eh-ah, mm…" Sylvia nodded with an awkward smile. She felt a little embarrassed.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the purplish crescent island, there was a pitch-black shadow sheltering in an underground cave with some uneasy feelings.
'Shit, what was that? Although they camouflaged their aura very well, but I knew several extremely powerful beings had just come to this island. Why did they destroy my aura clones? Do they want to claim ownership of this multipurpose archipelago?' The shadow muttered in wonder.
'Duh, they couldn't have come for me, could they? It could be that Ruvoid God, or maybe those Goddesses? Either way, I'm not in a state to meet anyone before I recover. That demon overlord will take care of the intruders. Let's see what happens when the clash occurs.' The shadow looked up and continued its meditation on the hexagram star formation.
Two hours passed, and nearly a hundred Heretic God's dummy auras had been exterminated. However, Elena still failed to find the Evil God's whereabouts.
'Master Elena, can you sense the disguised high-pressure demonic aura in the western area of this island? Most likely, Xero was over there because I felt quite familiar with this demonic aura, even though it was disguised very well.' Rhea tells what she found.
'Hm, let's try looking there. I purposely didn't really disguise our aura, but he didn't take any action. Has he forgotten about our auras?' Elena wondered and flew towards the west of the crescent moon island.
'For that, I don't really understand either. Maybe something happened to him and made him do that.' Rhea could only conclude such a thing because they didn't know Xero's situation yet.
Elena lowered their altitude as they arrived near the end of the crescent island. However, she realized the presence of a giant demonic creature. It was building something there.
"Hm, what kind of creature is that? Is it an Evil God? That's a strange shape..." Elena felt a little doubtful. She can only detect the existence of this creature at close range, yet this one has a hint of Xero's aura.
*Bzzt* *Bzzt* *Zzt*
The intensity of the electric current was increasing in the region, but nothing could penetrate past Elena's barriers.
Unfortunately, the electrical irregularities caught in the air made the giant demonic creature bewildered. It turned towards the source of the awkwardness with some curiosity and caution.
"..." Elena didn't want to say anything when that demon overlord moved towards her.
That creature was like a rabbit at first glance and like a giant bear upon closer inspection. Its body was covered by a thick purple slime armor with countless electric currents running all over its body.
The curious overlord moved around that spherical irregularity. The electricity only flowed through that mysterious spherical shape of air but couldn't pass through it.
Therefore, the curious overlord decided to directly examine that mysterious spherical irregularity. Its body hit something. A solid object was present as if a transparent ball was there.
*Bzzt* *Bzzt*
Elena's outermost barrier layer was entirely enveloped by high-voltage electricity and purple slime. The demon overlord even climbed onto the barrier as if treating it as a toy.
Sylvia looked at the Goddess of Light. She wondered what Elysia's master would do at a time like this.
This place was dangerous for anyone with low immunity to electricity. If seen from their group body constitution, only Vanessa could freely play here.
"Mrowl!" The demon overlord was wide-eyed in surprise and growled as it was suddenly bounced high into the sky and plunged into the sea.
Sylvia gaped in astonishment. She was about to propose a suggestion, but the Goddess of Light simply threw that demon overlord far into the sea with just a hand swing.
"Sigh, what's wrong with this cungus? You made my barrier become filled with slime and electricity. Please play somewhere else." Elena removed the sticky slimes from her barrier before continuing their search for that mysterious demonic aura.
They were standing in front of a hidden cave mouth sealed by a semi-transparent purple wall. The cave was headed underground, and the familiar demonic aura could be felt more clearly from there.
'Can you feel it, Master Elena? Yes, it can't be wrong anymore. This is Xero's demonic aura that may have come from a formation. He is probably recovering because his evil aura is quite weak.' Rhea was feeling a bit excited. She wished Xero survived that battle.
'Yep, I can feel it too. His aura becomes clearer here, and that demonic aura... Hm, let's check it out.' Elena stretched her hand forward and punched a hole in the purple barrier.
After that, they entered the cave and let the purple barrier seal back the entrance by itself.
At the end of the cave, a formless pitch-black shadow was meditating on a star hexagram formation with a dense demonic aura. That shadow was just minding its own business in deep meditation without caring about the circumstances around it.
Yet, a strange presence suddenly appeared so close. It made the shadow wary and alert. A pair of red lights flashed from the shadow-like eyes trying to scan the surroundings.
"Who!? Show your presence before the almighty me, or you will face the consequences for breaking through your boundaries!" The shadow shouted in a reverberating and harsh voice.
"Sorry to interrupt your recovery meditation, Evil God. I'm glad to see you survived that battle." Elena greeted and removed the invisibility of her layered barrier.
"You-" Xero widened his eyes in surprise. The foreign presences were the Goddess of Light, the Devil Princess, the white cat, and the 'dead' Elysia.
'Elysia is dead? This is beyond bad. The Goddess of Light will obviously be furious at anything right now. They've come for me, right? Well, they certainly can help me out of my predicament. I'd better follow their whims for now whatever their goals are.' Xero muttered in his mind and asked. "You came for me? Now that you've found me, what are you going to do?"