Becoming a God Starts with Acting-Chapter 462: Hiding Oneself Away

A violent tremor clearly affected the entire auction floor high above, and all of Utafea shook relentlessly.

"What’s happening underground?!"

The quake was so intense that it was impossible to stand steady. Cracks began to spread across the solid walls. Guests scattered in all directions, using the fastest speed they could muster to flee the scene before everything collapsed and crushed them to death.

"Snap!"

A long whip suddenly lashed out. Its sharp tip struck the air, producing crackling sparks. A tall woman with short, fiery red hair cropped close to her head stood there. She wore only a two-piece dress, the scaled hem slit high up to her thighs. Her ears and neck were adorned with numerous gold ornaments, and the golden bangles on her arms clinked together with a clear ringing sound every time she moved.

Her cold gaze flashed, as if she already knew the source of this chaos.

"Go capture them!"

They had caught that Dark Elf once before. There was no way they wouldn’t catch them a second time!

"Yes, my lady!"

But before the words had fully fallen, an even more violent tremor suddenly erupted, far stronger than any before it, accompanied by a piercing scream that tore through the sky. Even with an entire underground layer separating it, the sound was still enough to make people’s ears bleed.

"Boom! Boom boom!"

This tremor was like the final straw that broke the camel’s back. In an instant, the walls collapsed with deafening crashes, toppling like a pile of stacked toys rather than an architectural structure that had stood for hundreds of years.

The mages still surrounding Utafea showed no sign of leaving. They had paid money to come here, so naturally they demanded a proper explanation from Utafea. Moreover, they were extremely curious about what exactly was imprisoned beneath Utafea that could cause things to spiral into this state. It had to be said that curiosity was always part of human nature. It was what allowed humans to develop to this day, by taking advantage of the various kinds of knowledge they could find and learn. However, this same nature could also easily lead them, unwittingly, straight toward death at any moment.

Dust filled their vision, while Utafea’s army of mages had already formed an encirclement in the air, waiting for whatever it was that had caused all this chaos to appear.

Nick and the others were also hovering off to one side.

Cain couldn’t help but laugh as he said, "Master seems to have run into something interesting. Too bad we didn’t get to go with him, right, Nerio?"

Nerio had already woken up by now. At first, Nick had been worried that he would make a scene when he realized a stranger was holding him. However, he seemed to immediately recognize that the person wearing Leon’s appearance in front of him was Marax. It was truly incredible.

Nerio even looked more at ease than when Marax used his true form. That was really strange. Could it be that Nerio disliked women? But that didn’t seem right either. He wasn’t even a woman, yet Nerio didn’t like him either.

But what mattered more right now was Silvanus!

Just what on earth had Silvanus and Leon done underground? And what exactly was down there? It was utterly terrifying...

Before Nick could think any further, Silvanus’s voice suddenly rang out in his mind: "Run! Run as far away as you can."

Nick froze. Cain sharply asked, "What’s wrong? What did Master say?"

"He told us to run."

Cain curled his lips. Nick would very quickly realize that they had absolutely no chance to run at all.

Everything happened too fast, almost in the blink of an eye. Their entire field of vision turned black. A horrifyingly dense surge of energy enveloped all of them without leaving a single gap, and then it exploded!

"Boom! Bang! Crash!"

The shockwave of the explosion spread out in a circular pattern, nearly catching every mage present. The Utafea mages closest to it fell like a swarm of ants, fresh blood and shredded flesh splattering everywhere. In that instant, even Nick thought he was truly dead.

"Huff... huff..."

The sound of labored breathing echoed, especially clear within the cramped space. Something was wrapping around them, almost completely blocking all attacks from the outside.

Asta instinctively raised his hand to touch it.

These were feathers.

Marax’s wings... were they made of feathers?

"Run!"

Marax shouted. Nick and Asta jolted in alarm and immediately fled at top speed. The surviving mages did the same. Though, to be honest, there were very few survivors left—perhaps none of them had ever imagined things would turn out like this.

It was like a nightmare suddenly coming to life.

And it was indeed a nightmare.

With withered vines blotting out the sky, the Dark Elf’s wings were pitch-black yet radiated light, their span several times larger than its own body.

Rib-like bones grew from its spine and stretched forward, now constantly moving—opening, then closing again, like a gigantic mouth.

Its neck elongated, blood-red eyes gazing down at the humans below. The fury within those eyes grew ever more pronounced. It suddenly threw its head back and let out a long, piercing shriek. Its wings beat once, and explosions rang out again and again, chained together in an unending sequence, almost without pause.

"Where did Utafea even get this Dark Elf from? Have they all gone insane?!" Nana’s subordinate couldn’t help but roar, staring up at the sky with terror in his eyes.

They had not forgotten the tragedy at Lumina a few years ago. Many sources had claimed that the Dark Elf was dead—yet now it had appeared here, like a catastrophe ready to descend upon the world.

"Master, what’s wrong?"

Seeing Nana continue to stare at the Dark Elf, the subordinate asked anxiously.

At this moment, all of them looked utterly battered, their bodies riddled with injuries. They should have been leaving as quickly as possible.

But Nana knew who that Dark Elf was. With its sudden appearance, could it be that...

"Dorian, have you calmed down? Let’s leave."

Silvanus couldn’t see anything. Dorian had wrapped him so tightly that almost no light could penetrate, and no sound could reach him either. Yet it was obvious that the power radiating from Dorian was already enough to overwhelm everything around them.

Dorian seemed not to hear Silvanus at all, continuing to roar in furious rage.

Silvanus knocked lightly against the wooden shell encasing him—perhaps that would work. "I want to leave, Dorian."

The people below only saw the Dark Elf suddenly let out a long screech before vanishing into the layers of clouds high above.

They clearly hadn’t expected things to end like this. Still, all they could feel was relief. In the face of that creature, their defenses had truly been no more than a sheet of paper—let alone launching an attack, they had almost no chance even to try.

Someone cursed loudly, "Is Utafea planning to put a Dark Elf up for auction? They’ve completely lost their minds!"

"They don’t know what limits are. Now there won’t even be a Utafea left."

"Didn’t Lumina and the Nobility claim that the Dark Elf had already been eliminated? In the end, it was all just lies."

Voices of condemnation rang out without end. If they wanted to kill the Dark Elf, it would likely require a large-scale war. But many people present knew all too well about the current conflict between the Church and the Nobility—there would be no campaign to suppress the Dark Elf. In the end, if the Dark Elf were to suddenly attack humans, the ones who would die would still be the ordinary, insignificant civilians.

The wings of darkness halted before a vast forest. The trees below immediately bent and collapsed, as if they were not rigid trunks at all. Roots surged up from deep underground, weaving together to form a colossal dome. Parts of Dorian’s body forced their way inside the dome—it was incredibly cramped, so much so that his wings were folded into layer upon layer of creases. Yet he seemed not to care in the slightest. It was as though only such a confined space could make him feel at ease.

However, this confinement did not press upon Silvanus even a little. He didn’t even realize that they had been "locked in."

"Knock, knock, knock."

The wooden layer of Dorian was tapped again. "We’ve already left, right, Dorian? I want to go out."

There was no response at all.

Silvanus frowned. He knew that Dorian in his current state was abnormal. Back when he had designed Dorian’s story, he had written Dorian as having two personalities. The second personality, however, wasn’t particularly distinct in temperament—it was only notable for its unparalleled strength.

But it had a weakness. If Dorian maintained his powerful form—namely, the Dark Elf form—for too long, his mind would be gradually worn away, until all that remained was the instinct to kill.

From the looks of it, Dorian hadn’t completely lost his reason yet, but he seemed to be selectively hearing what Silvanus was saying.