Some of the adventurers were still lingering in front of the monster rift.
Pia was one of them, standing before the tall tower, hesitating.
Most people had taken the gold coins and left happily.
But these people hadn't.
They all wanted to watch, wanted to see just how long the princess's demi-human team could last inside the monster rift.
But right at this moment, wave after wave of extremely terrifying pressure wrapped around their waists.
They abruptly turned their heads to look.
More than a dozen very different people were standing together.
Each of them radiated an overwhelming sense of pressure.
One of them carried a giant axe on his shoulder. He was so burly he hardly looked human. Layers of thick flesh piled on his face, crisscrossed with scars, making him look extremely vicious.
"That is… Broken Wall Berserker?"
Another had what looked like a rhinoceros horn growing from his head, his expression ferocious and imposing.
"And Mad Rhino too, why are they here at a time like this?"
They were all top experts of the Beast Guild, and likewise among the most powerful individuals in the Adventurers' City.
The Beast Guild, just like its name.
Just standing there, their savage pressure felt like wild beasts suppressing their rage.
It made people's hair stand on end, and even their legs lost all feeling.
Most of the fourth-tier combat power in the Adventurers' City had basically gathered here.
In the end, their gazes focused on the woman standing at the very front.
Compared to the group of burly men behind her, her figure was even smaller than an average person's.
She wore a loose black long dress that covered her legs, and held a fan in her hand.
At the corners of her eyes were two slender black marks, like tear stains.
"Oh? Everyone's here."
Her eyes narrowed slightly, slowly releasing a sense of danger like that of a predator, crawling up the adventurers' spines to their scalps.
Yet her words sounded quite polite.
"Sorry about this, but we have some business today."
"Could you let us use this place for another day?"
Beast Hera.
The first was her title, the second her name.
Just like her title suggested, she was the strongest member of the Beast Guild.
No one knew her origins, or even how long she had lived.
In the eyes of most adventurers, she was incredibly powerful, so powerful it was unfathomable.
This guild leader almost never appeared before the public, let alone on a day like today.
After all, today was supposed to be the working day for solo adventurers.
'Could it be… she came because of Viktor?'
The solo adventurers vaguely formed this guess in their hearts.
Pia stepped forward on his own initiative and explained to the Beast Guild, "Well… Guildmaster Hera."
The small Hera slowly lifted her head and looked at him with narrowed eyes.
Just from that single glance, Pia's entire body trembled slightly.
Beast Hera was truly terrifying.
After all, he was a third-tier warrior on the verge of reaching the fourth tier…
Her eyes bore extremely strange black patterns that spread from the corners of her eyes toward her temples.
The inner black lines even seemed to blend into the whites of her eyes.
Like a beast that had entered hunting mode.
Eerily uncanny.
So much so that beneath those soul-stealing eyes, people unconsciously overlooked her delicate appearance.
Suppressing his fear, Pia continued, "I need to inform you in advance, there's already a group that entered the monster rift earlier, they..."
"Mm… no need to say any more."
She calmly interrupted him, withdrew her gaze, and walked forward with elegant steps.
When she walked, her body didn't sway at all.
It even made people wonder whether what lay beneath her skirt were really human legs.
Suddenly, she stopped.
Because she was no longer allowed to move forward.
"Magic?"
She lifted her head and looked at the shimmering purple barrier flowing in midair.
The barrier looked as if it were dusted with starlight, carrying purple light that slowly flowed.
As if it had consciousness, it followed Hera's gaze as it moved.
The barrier wasn't particularly sturdy, only strong enough to block third-tier solo adventurers.
But its construction was extremely ingenious.
Difficult to break.
"Interesting."
"The one inside must be a very powerful mage."
Hera's brows sank, and her pupils suddenly turned vertical.
A bone spear burst out of the yellow earth, shooting straight up and slamming into the barrier.
Buzz!
Under this powerful thrust, the barrier trembled.
Before the shaking could stop, a second bone spear erupted from deep underground.
Aimed at the same spot, it struck again.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Crack!
The barrier finally couldn't withstand the immense pressure and shattered completely.
It turned into countless white fragments, gradually breaking apart and falling from the air.
The purple stardust drifted in the air, slowly dissipating.
Including Pia, the group of solo adventurers stared at the shattered barrier, stunned on the spot.
The barrier that had stopped all of them was broken so easily?
So this was… the strongest guild leader, Beast Hera?
Hera lightly snapped her fan shut, and several bone spears retracted back into the ground.
She looked at the spots where the bone spears had withdrawn, lowered her brows, and pondered.
Although she hadn't used her full strength, even a normal fourth-tier attack had taken several hits to break it?
Thinking of what the First Prince had told her, her curiosity grew stronger.
Something must have appeared inside the monster rift to draw in such a powerful figure.
A hint of excitement flickered in her strange eyes.
Hera didn't turn around, only glanced backward out of the corner of her eye.
"Oh, right, right."
"Even though the barrier is gone, you should still behave yourselves."
Hera narrowed her eyes again, lifting her fan to cover her pretty nose.
The patterns at the corners of her eyes seemed to extend into sharp spikes, and a chilling aura shot out from her gaze.
"There will be very dangerous monsters inside. Don't sneak in after us, okay?"
Behind her, the burly adventurers hoisted their giant axes, slung chain hammers over their backs, shook the thick flesh on their bodies, and stomped forward.
With a snort, they stepped heavily into the monster rift.
When they passed the gate guards, the guards didn't even try to stop them and simply let them through.
Hera even politely bowed slightly to the guards, then led the adventurers behind her into the purple void.
Dangerous monsters?
Hearing Hera's final words, the adventurers left around the rift couldn't help but tremble.
"Let's go back… maybe."
"Yeah…"
It seemed this was no longer something solo adventurers like them could take part in.
Pia didn't want to stay here anymore either, even though he still wanted to take another look at that cold, silver-haired knight.
But...
The princess's army, and the arrival of the Beast Guild.
Everything pointed to how special today was.
He planned to hurry back to the city and spread this news everywhere as gossip.
But just as everyone was about to leave, he suddenly froze in place.
Being close to the fourth tier, he was the first to sense the change around them.
The breeze gradually stopped.
The sky, which had been clear moments ago, suddenly darkened.
The sun seemed to be obscured by something, its dazzling light slowly fading.
The adventurers also sensed something strange.
The instant the sun disappeared, they instinctively looked up.
At some point, thick black clouds had completely covered the sky.
And they hadn't noticed at all.
Under normal circumstances, weather like this would bring gusts of gloomy wind.
But now, the surroundings were eerily quiet.
At some point, more adventurers noticed this as well.
"What's going on? Why did the sky turn dark?"
"Strange… it's so dark, but it's not cool at all."
"Where's the wind? Why did the wind stop?"
They walked while speaking in confusion.
But suddenly...
"Roar!"
A deep dragon's roar echoed from within the black clouds, spreading across the open land.
A pressure even more shocking than that of the top adventurers earlier instantly hung over everyone's heads.
Whether it was Pia or the others, none of them could stop their bodies from trembling.
They struggled to lift their heads and look again at the sky, now turning pitch-black.
It was a body, jet black.
Occupying the entire cloud layer.
As if looking down on the ants beneath the clouds, it revealed two eyes.
At this moment…
All the wind seemed to exist solely to support its massive body.
They suddenly recalled what Hera had just said.
Dangerous monsters would appear inside the monster rift?
What a joke...
Whatever might appear inside the rift, at least for now, that thing worthy of being called terrifying was crawling right above their heads.
Crawling above the clouds.
———
Beyond the void lay a wondrous otherworldly space.
This place was completely different from the tenth-layer monster rift, no writhing flesh, no surging cracks.
Everything around was uniformly paved with bluish stone slabs, filling the entire space.
Strange reliefs were carved into the surrounding stone plates, pieced together into something utterly eerie.
Viktor stood on the empty stone floor, looking at the monster corpses fallen around him.
All kinds of nameless monsters lay sprawled here, sharp bones piercing through flesh, exposing organs and entrails, scattered in every direction.
The hard horns on their heads had all been snapped off, broken into fragments strewn across the floor.
The bodies of those beasts burned with flames that showed no sign of stopping.
Viktor stood calmly in place, not having moved a single step.
This place was the trial challenge of the tenth layer of the monster rift.
In the Monster Abyss, every tenth layer contains a hidden trial.
All one needs is to find the hidden "door" to activate the corresponding challenge.
And each layer's trial has its own specific requirements.
Also, there's no need to consider whether leveling up reduces the difficulty.
The higher the level, the higher the level of the monsters in the trial.
The difficulty doesn't change, the trial adjusts accordingly for the challenger.
The tenth-layer trial is the first trial of the Monster Abyss.
Its requirement is, take no damage, and eliminate all monsters in this area.
A total of five waves of beast tides.
At this moment, Viktor has already reached the final wave.
In the first four waves, he was besieged by countless monsters, yet didn't suffer the slightest injury.
Not even his trench coat was torn.
Calm. Composed. Elegant.
'That familiar feeling again… as if I've challenged this thousands of times.' Vega looked at Viktor, this thought emerging in its heart.
The last time, in the inheritance temple of the far north, it had felt the same way.
At this moment, Vega slowly lifted its head, as if sensing something.
"They're coming pretty fast."
Viktor didn't respond, only quietly watching as the surrounding walls began to twist.
From behind the stone slabs, one mangled remnant after another appeared. Countless different parts linked together in midair until a complete body formed.
The monster landed on the stone floor, moving its stitched-together body and howling at Viktor.
Then, in midair, tens of thousands of chaotic limbs linked together amid spurting blood.
The beast tide appeared out of thin air.
This final wave was larger in number than ever before.
"Is that so."
Viktor's voice sounded calmly. Suddenly, the trench coat behind him seemed filled with magic and began to whip wildly.
Several fiery red patterns lit up, spreading across the entire coat.
The patterns didn't just flow over the coat, they even climbed onto Viktor's body.
On the back of the trench coat, a pair of fiery red eyes, like those of a monster, lit up.
Almost instantly, the surrounding temperature began to rise rapidly along with his transformation.
The stone floor was covered as if by layers of red magic.
Scorching Ground.
The red magic instantly turned into raging flames and surging magma, clinging to the blue stone slabs.
The surrounding monsters were swallowed by the magma, their limbs burned away, even the ground beneath their feet consumed.
"Then I'll finish this quickly."
He extended one hand, and a staff inlaid with a red gemstone appeared firmly in his grip.
Viktor raised the staff and lightly tapped it.
In an instant, countless raging pillars of fire erupted from the molten sea, flames spiraling upward into the sky.
The air itself sparked under the intense heat, flaring and dancing as it ignited.
Like enormous serpents, constantly stretching out their restless bodies.
The magma surged, eroding all the shattered monster corpses and swallowing them completely.
The overflowing magma gathered together, forming what looked like a massive golem.
It stretched out its arms, half its body submerged in magma, opened its molten maw, revealing a blazing red void, and devoured the overwhelming tide of monsters in one gulp.
Heat waves rolled one after another, and even the air warped under the terrifying temperature.
Crimson instantly flooded the entire space, like the endless fury of the world's hatred and sin.
A soft voice became their final requiem.
"Fall into despair, and then."
"Rest in peace."
[War Magic: Requiem of the Flame Demon]