Extraordinary Voyage-Chapter 602 - 529: The Next Level and the Snake God

Woooo...

Before entering the gate to the second level of the maze, both sides of the battle had already fought fiercely, darkening the skies and the earth.

The Reversi Bishop wielded his scepter, firing bursts of green phosphorous flames, each as devastating as a cannon blast;

The Reversi Queen summoned a blizzard, either jet black or snow white, yet equally bone-chilling, turning the entire world into a severe winter;

The Reversi King raised his longsword, bestowing layer upon layer of enhancement auras onto his chess pieces;

The Reversi...

As the home ground for these chess pieces, the sixty-four squares on the board constantly surged with a ceaseless flow of desecration energy into the Reversi pieces, granting even the most ordinary Reversi Guard the formidable combat power equivalent to a Tier 2 Extraordinary.

However, even with this advantage, the Reversi pieces failed to gain the upper hand.

Swoosh!

From the ceiling of the maze, a clear full moon hung high, casting a silvery shimmer like rippling water over the entire battlefield.

The tarnished, twisted stone pieces, with various grotesque flesh mutations, thus received an undoubtedly strong debuff, constantly enduring the spiritual purification from the moonlight.

Black smoke billowed, their movements sluggish, even those twisted flesh parts visibly diminishing.

In contrast, the toy soldiers, not confined by the board's rules to exchange pieces with their opponents, were not overly suppressed by the desecration energy of this chessboard home ground.

If not for this purifying moonlight, perhaps, over time, these toy soldiers would develop disgusting growths and turn against their master.

As Olivia's "Lifebound Gem", the girl wouldn't lose its spiritual qualities when casting spells through the moonstone. However, a high-quality moonstone could still significantly amplify the spell's effect.

This wave of almost home-ground-changing silver moonlight was thanks to an organic moonstone the size of a teacup!

Uh... Mom no longer needs to worry about my wallet.

In such a scenario.

Three hundred toy soldiers against thirty-two chess pieces—though inferior in individual power, in war, as long as there isn't a complete overpowering by extraordinary power, the advantage of numbers is the greatest advantage.

Facing the storm-like barrage of alchemy bullets from the toy soldiers, the chess pieces seemed to be caught in a grinder, getting battered and chipped. Even though toy soldiers occasionally withdrew from the battlefield and returned to the "Toy Box", the overall suppressive scenario remained stable.

Within just a few minutes of the battle starting, it was confirmed that the pieces had no backup moves.

Swish—

In the assistance provided by the toy soldiers and Olivia, Aiven and Anita, two Tier 3 Extraordinaries with absolute commanding power, flashed like a sudden storm into the center of the board.

[Thunder Fang] and [Dragon-slaying Sword: Siegfried], besides the sharp attributes of extraordinary weapons, received the sword qi of two Sword Masters with the "Steel-Slaying" domain, each nearly decapitating the kings of both Reversi sides with one strike.

Boom! Boom!...

With the two kings slain, the remaining pieces lost some existential reliance, instantly collapsing into a mix of black and white stone powder, peppered with various biological tissues.

Clearly.

Just like the usual rules of such board games, as long as the opponent's king falls, it's considered a victory.

After all, the initial aim of the maze's design wasn't to keep everyone firmly at bay, nor does everyone possess Aiven and their team's power for violent clearance. With distinct weaknesses, one might progress even if not Tier 3.

The battle ended.

Rumble...

Behind the board, a downward spiral passage opened, granting them qualification to enter the next maze level, approaching closer to the gods.

Simultaneously.

From a bird's eye view of the vast first-level maze, one would notice it divided evenly into four sectors: east, south, west, and north.

The three Pirate Kings with Tier 3 strength positioned themselves in the northeast, northwest, and southwest sections, with occasional traces of other forces.

The southeast sector was mainly composed of various national Navies with mixed intents, a motley crew of Sea Hunters, and a hodgepodge of forces from Cabraal.

As proclaimed by those "Blasphemous Cultists", those who reached the underground maze were all chosen ones, none simple. Among tens of thousands, fewer than forty could reach this maze, each an elite among elites.

In the northwest sector of the first-level maze, standing in a fully enclosed room, Bradley lifted his head to look at a line of spiritual text on the smooth wall before him:

"If not spoken, you have uttered my name;

And you must speak it aloud.

If you can say my name with words,

It would be a miracle."

This was a riddle, clearly testing their wisdom with the correct answer needed to proceed.

Behind Bradley had already gathered two elite pirate officers under the "Oathbreaker", as well as three supportive officers from the Hilus Navy, the latter serving similar roles to commanders.

A group boasting one Tier 3 and five exceptional Tier 2 members made their combat power incredibly formidable; even after reaching the central area, they had incurred no casualties.

They even "picked up" two selected members from other forces along the way, though their expressions clearly indicated a lack of voluntary involvement.

The cohesion of the team was entirely thanks to holding an item in his hands, a relic left by an Extraordinary of an unknown path—the [Wise Man's Conch].

Inside, there might be a fragment of a high-level mysterious being, who claims to know all the knowledge in the world. Although not entirely true in practice, it surpasses any scholar in time and possesses certain divination abilities.

Effect: You can ask one question for free each month, additional questions require a corresponding cost, which could be gold, gemstones, spiritual materials, or even the life of a wise creature (philosophical questions are excluded, as this being seems keen on discussing philosophy with humans; if your argument interests them, you might get a free answer).

In this world, there are numerous extraordinary professions, resulting in countless magical items, besides witchcraft tools and alchemy tools, all tools born from the extraordinary almost belong to this category.

However.

Due to unknown mysterious sources and uncontrollability of various paths, deeply rooted contamination, parasitism, curses, and the like are difficult to distinguish. For ordinary extraordinaries, acquiring a powerful item without side effects is extremely difficult.

For Aiven, having entered the extraordinary world initially relying on the alchemy school, which excels in creation, he possessed strong production capabilities, never intending to contact these peculiar objects with unclear side effects.

But for Bradley, this was a secret weapon in the labyrinth sufficient to serve as an ace.

Just as he had gathered all personnel using the power of the [Wise Man's Conch], facing such an unnerving riddle, he once again pressed the conch to his ear.

An indistinguishable voice between gender and age sounded:

"The quality of the sacrifice is good, a life, you can ask three more questions!"

"Deal."

"Ah——!"

A giant, two and a half meters tall, stretched out a hand as large as a pot cover, crushing one of the unlucky individuals from another faction accompanying them, twisting his body like a towel, squeezing blood onto the conch.

"Caw, caw, caw, not bad, not bad, the answer is... silence!"

On the fan towards the southwest.

Another Pirate King "Dead Bone" Rudolph also gathered most of his personnel, not driving away those willing to follow from other factions, ironically having the largest group among the three Pirate Kings, totaling eight people.

They now faced an issue.

Thirteen openings sculpted into twisted demon shapes lined up before them, with a text hint suggesting only one leads to life, while the rest are all paths to death.

In this situation, even if all eight were to attempt it, they might not find the true path to life; it's a test of luck.

However, several non-Pirate King-affiliated attendants among them couldn't help but be somewhat fearful, their eyes flickering and lowering their stance slightly, ready to flee at any moment.

Nonetheless, this Pirate King had no intention of using them to explore the path.

A middle-aged wizard with a pale face wearing a black wizard cloak, Rudolph, pulled out a black book embroidered with raven patterns in gold thread from his arms, its black-and-gold scheme exuding an indescribable aristocratic aesthetic.

This is a valuable magic book "Crow Language Document" preserved within the necromancy school.

Rustle...

Opening the "Crow Language Document," pages yellowed with age flew up, transforming into a swarm of black evil spirit ravens, rushing towards the thirteen blood-red openings...

Being a Tier 2 Peak Official Wizard, with physical strength surpassing a Senior Grand Knight's "Sewn Corpse," achieved the level of a Great Knight with the "Living Corpse: Manguenke" and several bulging "Magic Pockets" at his waist, Rudolph was a formidable force by himself.

Moreover.

Squeak...

Gurgle... gurgle...

When several Pirate Kings successively broke through the labyrinth middle checkpoints, all twisting demons on the periphery instantly rioted, beginning to continuously compress the labyrinth space, driving anyone still on the first layer of the labyrinth underground to the second layer.

Waiting for others to pass through first and sitting back is clearly unrealistic.

...

Step...

Aiven and his party of four carefully stepped down the last stair of the staircase, just reaching the second layer of the pyramid labyrinth, not having enough time to observe the surroundings.

Almost as if greeting them, a voice, slightly familiar to Milan, quietly sounded again.

It was a song sung in spiritual text, initially somewhat awkward but soon transformed into ethereal and distant, reminiscent of children from a church choir singing a hymn with pure hearts in praise of the gods.

Clearly, the owner of this voice had exceptional talent in the art of singing.

"Yah-hoo...

We offer noble Snake God, who governs sunlight and rain, sowing and harvest, life and civilization...

Disdainful of living sacrifices and blood sacrifices, as long as citizens repay with kindness and abundance...

They are our sky, our earth, our father...

One day.

God in the mist stole one of Snake God's wings, the great father could never return to the sky...

Humble me was born from mist, tribesmen's good thoughts, God's feather...

Fulfilling the duty of Saintess and Priest, returning 'life' to the earth to continue protecting the people of that land."

Milan took a step back, quietly hiding behind Aiven:

"Is this... that ghostly little girl who sought help before? Snake God? Is it the Main God of the Kuma Empire, the Feathered Serpent God Kukulkan?"