Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Chapter 995- Hidden Quest (3)

Tsk… Vincent clicked his tongue in irritation "It's hiding now? Coward."

 He slashed through one of the twisters in frustration, but it revealed nothing. The spectre had completely blended its aura with the surrounding energy making it impossible to locate. The only way to find it now would be to destroy all of the twisters.

Next to him, Itherion stood in the air, silently contemplating in his head. His golden eyes reflected the eerie green energy of the formation.

'What is it thinking? It knows that our goal is to destroy the core. Even if it hides its actual body, as long as we get to the core, we can get out of the formation. It knows that which is why it tried to stop us earlier. Yet it is trying to hide from us now? What is it thinking?'. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

If he didn't know any better, Itherion would have thought that the spectre was running away from them. However, given its previous declaration and its abominable character, the spectre was definitely up to something.

Itherion who was silently contemplating his enemy's motive, suddenly widened his eyes. His extremely refined senses warned him of danger and he hurriedly raised his hands to the side to guard himself.

Sparks flew and space cracked as True Gold met True Silver.

CLANG… the attack was deflected effortlessly; however, the defender stood rooted in his place, shocked and in disbelief. The reason for that was simple, the attack earlier contained the essence of True Silver, a power that only a single being in this world possessed.

That's right, the attack came from none other than Vincent.

"What are you doing?" Itherion questioned.

Vincent did not answer him, instead he looked at his own arm with the same shock and disbelief as Itherion.

"This?! My body just moved on its own!".

In the distance, Simon also widened his eyes at the unexpected. He was keeping a close attention on the spectre who suddenly went into hiding and the two humans who were trying to find it when suddenly this happened. Vincent attacked Itherion out of nowhere.

Why did the former do that? Although he didn't know the two humans well, from their attitude and coordination during battle, he could tell that the two humans were friends and trusted each other enough to even entrust their lives to each other.

So what happened?

if not for the vision earlier, Simon would have been stumped just like the two humans in the sky. However, since he saw the future, he knew exactly what was going on.

The formation was activating... but why so suddenly and without any indication?

Simon's thoughts ran and he suddenly understood why. It was the spectre, it was controlling the murky green energy and hastening the effects of the formation.

"It's the formation. The formation isn't just meant to trap us—it's designed to turn us against one another" Simon hurriedly issued a warning.

The next moment, he turned around and parried an attack with his claws. It was a friendly attack, needless to say, it came from Rothgard.

However, unlike Vincent who still retained his sanity, Rothgard was completely overwhelmed by the formation. His eyes glowed green and like a feral beast, he started attacking Simon madly.

"This might hurt a bit but I have no choice"

 Simon threw a powerful kick knocking Rothgard back. He then commanded a couple of Mk 5 Andromedas to temporarily hold the latter down. The remaining spread all around the formation in search of the spectre.

"So that's what the formation does huh? Vincent, you need a hand?" Itherion glanced at Rothgard and then at Vincent, gauging the state of his comrade.

"Save it" Vincent replied curtly, his voice calm but carrying an edge of annoyance "I was just careless before, it won't happen again. Let's find that bastard and finish this farce".

Although his voice appeared calm, one could clearly see that Vincent was annoyed. And why wouldn't he be? The fact that he fell for his opponent's tricks, pissed him to no extent.

"He got us good," Itherion admitted, his tone grim "There's no way to differentiate between his aura and the energy here unless we destroy the entire formation. This murky green energy is masking everything."

 "Leave it to me."

Just as they were at an impasse as to what to do, a voice interrupted. Turning around, they realised the voice came from none other than the demon who was commanding those unknown metallic golems to scatter through the formation.

.

The Andromedas and Revenant Crows swarmed the formation, weaving through the murky green energy and twisters with remarkable precision. Their advanced sensors scanned the area, picking up even the faintest anomalies.

[Kfufufu… You puny ants might be stronger than I thought. However, if you think it's so easy to find me, then you are gravely mistaken. Once the formation activates, you'll all die here!]

The spectre's voice echoed around the formation, its location impossible to pinpoint. Simon did not fall for the obvious provocation and instead focused his mind, all unnecessary thoughts were discarded.

All sorts of information were transmitted into his mind from the Andromedas and he needed to focus so as to not miss any clues.

The spectre's aura might have been hidden, but the Revenant Crows were equipped with advanced detection systems that scanned for disturbances in the energy field itself. Even with the Spectre's seamless ability, it won't be able to hide for long.

The Revenant Crows and Andromedas darted through the twisters, their data streams feeding directly into Simon's mind. His nerves were tense, his senses sharp, as he sifted through the countless readings.

Suddenly, a small anomaly appeared on one of the crow's scans. A tiny imperfection, a small deviation in the data.

There it is.

A disturbance in the northwestern quadrant. The energy there fluctuated unnaturally, and the flow around one particular twister differed slightly from the others.

"Caught you," Simon smirked. Without hesitation, he relayed the coordinates to Vincent and Itherion.

"Northwest, about 250 meters up. Three twisters clustered together—it's hiding above the middle one."