Chapter 121

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Chapter 121: Lives

The owner of the tongues looked like geckos, but no gecko would be as huge as them. Their tongues were almost as thick as Tasha’s ankle, with a fat body that was over two meters long from head to tail, not as slender and flexible as geckos. They had no scales on their skin, covered all over in a coarse and bulky shell resembling obsidian, with dark red flashes peeking through the cracks of the shell.

They were some distance away, and a wave of heat was approaching.

The walls were getting closer, the breath of the abyss becoming more and more evident, with a subtle but distinct shift. Having felt the pure essence of the abyss before, Tasha could sense the difference; that strange sense of ancientness evoked curious associations, like the feeling of old and slightly tainted preserved meat.

The gecko-like creatures huddled in groups on the walls, like a mass of not fully solidified lava. As Tasha approached, they lifted their heads, opened their mouths, toothless with a large and terrifyingly red cavity. Judging from the proportions of their huge heads, they looked more like giant salamanders, a thought Tasha preferred not to dwell on being bitten by them.

She fell without struggle for hundreds of meters, allowing a third tongue to coil around her foot. Descending, descending, passing over these fat geckos to land underneath them. At a certain point, the tongue’s traction changed from pulling downwards to lifting upwards, with a certain elasticity, like a bungee cord. Tasha remained motionless until she was only a few hundred meters from the wall, able to see the tiny flames on the face of the tongue’s owner, which, if they had eyes, could probably see her.

Tasha leaped up in this moment.

As she descended, she caught her breath, shaking off her earlier exhaustion. She gathered enough strength to flap her wings once again, curling up and flipping her body upside down, the silver dagger she had previously sheathed to save someone making an appearance once more.

It was as easy as cutting grass with a sickle.

A creature with a deep abyss breath was easily restrained by a silver knife, as three tongue whips were cut off with one strike. Tasha quickly flew away from the wall, the heavy demon wings flapping in the air, gradually lifting her upward.

The giant salamanders raised their heads.

They all seemed to be mute, even the ones whose tongues were just cut off did not cry out in pain. These creatures did not roar like monsters in movies, they just opened their mouths wide, with each red mouth facing Tasha, resembling clams opening at the bottom of a river.

Flames spewed from these large mouths.

Tasha had a high resistance to fire, so these flames were not stronger than dragon breath. But before the flames could actually touch Tasha, the air in front of her was heated by the flames, and a scorching wave hit her heavily. As she spread her wings to fly, the demon wings, like fully stretched sails, were pushed back by the rushing heat, causing her to fall backward suddenly.

To be precise, it was like Tasha being hit head-on by a heavy truck, her body just starting to rise, forming a right angle in midair, and then flying out abruptly.

She struggled to steady herself in midair, which was quite difficult, like a leaf trying to stay steady in a hurricane. Tasha tumbled in midair, spinning like a whipped top, not horizontally, but flipping upside down and back again. This feeling was extremely strange: she felt weightless in the scorching heat, but when she tried to move, she felt the burden on her wings as heavy as a thousand pounds.

As Tasha plummeted downwards, the magic around her thickened, and her body became heavier and heavier, pulled by more and more invisible forces.

Suddenly, in this predicament, she remembered the fleeting suspicion that had crossed her mind earlier.

Since they escaped from Fluid Guard and entered Mage Tower, their exploration team remained unscathed. From the bottom to the top of the tower, even crossing the drawbridge early on, everyone was safe except for the skeleton sentry that was first struck down by unidentified objects when the magic array was activated.

They were able to safely reach here because Pathfinder had disarmed all traps. From small mechanisms and Casting Golem to large magic arrays, everything along the way was dismantled. Tasha could imagine the Legendary Wizard clearing obstacles in his path. So why did the skeleton guardian still trigger effective traps?

Was it intentional? Was it negligence? Was it laziness? Any of these reasons could be argued, but none of them seem quite right. In comparison, another speculation, although lacking evidence, is easier to believe.

The mechanism that attacked the skeleton sentry may not have been triggered when Pathfinder passed by.

Pathfinder Liandrin is a human Legendary Wizard, and the essential difference between him and the skeleton guardian is not in size or strength, but in the fact that the former is alive while the latter is dead.

All members of the team are living beings, and the only undead creature brought along is the skeleton guardian, which was the only one to suffer a fatal attack. Tasha dared to speculate that certain magic traps near the drawbridge only react to undead creatures.

These traps designed for undead creatures were not activated when the archmage passed by in the past, thus they survived, waiting quietly for the appearance of undead creatures.

Just like traps designed for demon creatures are only triggered by Tasha.

The flames were directed at Tasha, as well as the heavy feeling around her, targeting parts of her related to the Abyssal Demon. While everyone else seemed unharmed, Tasha became increasingly anxious. When the drawbridge broke, she saw Wild Wizard Rudolf fall and immediately fly back, light as a bird, whereas Tasha, with her true wings, stumbled clumsily like a penguin. Her demon wings felt almost useless, unable to catch the wind as she tumbled through the air, indicating that perhaps they were not real.

Pathfinder Liandrin doesn’t have any demon blood, so Tasha has to rely on herself to deal with all the demon traps and tricks.

The heat wave calmed down a bit, and Tasha finally stabilized her body. She managed to escape the fate of spinning like a top and at least kept her head up and feet down. She spun around unable to distinguish directions, struggling to control herself from falling further, and flew with difficulty in the opposite direction of the pull. After those glowing salamanders disappeared from view, it was all pitch-black around her. Even with wide-open eyes, she couldn’t see anything, making her doubt if she had gone blind.

Why did those things blow her over here?

Trying to guess the intentions of a group of creatures that could easily cut off her tongue seemed a bit paranoid. If they were creatures encountered in the wild, Tasha would rather believe she could rely on her strength and a bit of luck to escape from fire-breathing (dragons). But this place wasn’t a natural environment; all the magical creatures here were the Mage Tower master’s pawns. Making unrelated things in the natural environment team up for a coordinated attack was not easy.

Tasha heard flapping wings.

It wasn’t just a single sound of flapping wings, but a whole chorus, gradually getting louder. Suddenly, a strange image appeared in Tasha’s mind: a hunter opening a cage and releasing a group of trained hawks, pointing their beaks towards distant geese in the sky.

The air currents hit Tasha’s face, and she tried to dodge, but there were things approaching in the darkness. What were they? She didn’t know, but they at least had a pair of wings and very sharp claws.

Many sharp claws struck Tasha at once. She managed to dodge a couple of them but not all. Tasha tried to counterattack with the feather blades on her wings. The sharp edges did hit something, but the result was far from ideal, like hitting a rock with an egg, easily breaking upon contact.

Surprisingly, a small notch appeared on the demon wing from the collision. This was a semi-magical creation, and Tasha was surprised to see it could be cut like an ordinary blade. The wound felt like it had been scorched by flames, with no sign of healing. The sharp claws latched onto the wing, threatening to tear the notch further.

She was so scared that she broke out in a cold sweat and quickly folded her wings. As soon as her wings were folded, she started to fall downwards, losing her agility. The sharp claws were everywhere and hard to dodge. Tasha couldn’t avoid them, and she got countless wounds instantly. The sharp claws tore through her armor and skin, causing a sharp pain. Her whole body was burning from the wounds, like being scratched by a hot iron. In fact, if she were to touch a hot iron with her bare hands, she would only feel warmth.

It’s silver.

Being cut by the demon-slaying silver knife felt like this, no, it felt even worse. The weapon specifically designed to counter abyss creatures burned the demonic part inside Tasha, causing sharp stinging sensations. A real demon would probably be in too much pain to react. Strangely, the creatures with silver claws emitted the aura of the abyss.

Tasha parried with her sword, and if there was any light around, spectators would see the sword light weaving into a net. The enemies in front of her scattered, but attacks from all sides in mid-air came relentlessly. These bird-like creatures swirled around her, above her head and below her feet, with their claws just grazing without leaving a trace. The superficial wounds accumulated layer by layer, forming large patches of injury. The chaotic airflow filled the air, the flapping of wings resounded loudly, and there was no light nearby. The encirclement tightened, like the lid of a juicer about to be closed.

Tasha stopped moving, falling like a rock.

The enemies in the darkness did not let her go, following her and clawing at Tasha again, like a group of vultures catching prey in mid-air. Their movements were quick, their touches probing, and their prey didn’t move, as if dead.

Eventually, their movements became bolder.

A pair of claws grabbed Tasha’s shoulder firmly, not like before where they would touch and go. After a brief contact for one or two seconds, it released with a deep bloody gash. Believing the prey had no resistance left, the next pair of claws went straight for Tasha’s head, the claws sinking in.

The flapping around her and the one above her head increased, indicating coordination. Once these claws gripped her, they could crush her skull, but before that happened, with the claws slightly sunk in, the silver-clawed enemies were not going to let go.

After enduring for a long time, Tasha grabbed the claws on her head from behind.

She tightly grabbed and pulled the claw off her face, a silver knife cut a semi-circle, slicing the claw not to cut it off, but to secure it, like using a hook in rock climbing. Just as Tasha seemed completely powerless a moment ago, she leaped up and swiftly ran to the enemy.

The thing she climbed on struggled madly in pain, the more it struggled, the deeper Tasha’s blade went in, its flight path became more chaotic and difficult for others of its kind to catch up. Tasha stuck firmly to this thing, waiting for the dizziness from the intense pain to pass – blood poured from her left eye socket, the silver claw buried half a finger’s length just now, Tasha endured the pain to dig out the useless eyeball, the burning sensation of the silver claw seeped further inside. For safety’s sake, she had to cut the tail for survival. One eye, one chance to turn the tables.

Tasha started climbing upwards, revealing the true form of the creature in the dark little by little as she touched it. From two sturdy silver claws to the thighs, then to the long feathered back, and the torso… that body covered in feathers, yet with a human-like waist, shoulders, and neck. As Tasha’s hand moved up again, she felt a different texture from the feathers.

Hair.

Tasha suddenly understood what this was.

The eagle-like claws and lower body, the humanoid body covered in feathers, a face similar to a human’s, this was the "Obituary Bird."

In the abyssal worms, some evolved into Little Devils, and Little Devils had many evolutionary directions. Some of them did not grow tough and heavy outer shells, but instead grew feathers; they did not become more ferocious, but grew more like creatures from the Primary Material Plane – in the aesthetic view of creatures from the Primary Material Plane, they were becoming more and more beautiful. Abyssal worms evolved into Little Devils, and Little Devils evolved into Obituary Birds. If they were fortunate enough to continue evolving, succubus or Mind Demon would be their evolutionary endpoint.

The "giant salamander" on the wall is probably a Fire Salamander.

It is on the most common evolution path of Balrog, before Balrog is Toxic Charizard, and before Toxic Charizard is Fire Salamander. They can run on lava, catch prey with their chameleon-like long tongues, spit out heat waves, and were once mistaken for a subspecies of dragons. Whether Fire Salamander or Obituary Bird, they are all high-level monsters that can advance to mid-level demons with just one more step forward. Although they lack self-awareness, they are not weak.

The "Master of Evil Spirit" controls Abyssal monsters.

This Obituary Bird has a different lower body from what is recorded. Instead of eagle claws, it has artificial silver claws. Tasha felt some hard material between those claws and the body of the Obituary Bird, like the handle of her silver knife, isolating the silver claws with the ability to break evil from the abyssal monsters. There are also uneven scars on its throat, perhaps the reason why these noisy Obituary Birds from legends remain silent when struck by a silver knife.

Creating magic servants using Abyssal monsters and adding the ability to break evil to them to deal with demons entering the tower is a remarkable design and action.

Tasha’s blade struck above the joint.

The silver claws can clash with the silver knife, with the former even stronger than the latter, which is why Tasha did what she did. Above the joint of the silver claws, the thigh of the Obituary Bird is still a monster’s thigh. In this part, the silver knife cut into the flesh like a chef’s knife cutting through butter.

The handle’s diameter is not much thicker than the wrist. Tasha grabbed it and swinging it felt like waving a large flag. The half-bodied Obituary Bird went mad and charged recklessly, while Tasha firmly gripped its body one circle higher, the dragon claws wedged into its body like boots on ice. She even flipped over during this struggle, with her two feet and the holding hand fixed on the body, the right hand holding the cut-off silver claw, swinging it towards the approaching Obituary Bird.

The silver claw grabbed the head, and the approaching Obituary Bird flapped a few times in panic, falling down with a fluttering sound.

The injured bird Tasha caught was not the fastest, and groups of Obituary Birds gathered again, with extremely noisy wing flapping, but attacks only coming from the front.

The magical wings of Obituary Bird were closely pressed together, with the creature known as Tasha hiding behind them. No matter where she tried to attack from, whether from the back or the top, Tasha struggled to evade the much larger Obituary Bird with its menacing claws.

The true Obituary Birds in the abyss were not gentle creatures who cared for their companions. They hunted in groups because individually they were weak. If any bird in the group was injured or hindered the rest while hunting, it would be torn apart. These Obituary Birds were not quiet, not cooperative, and did not have silver claws.

The Abyssal monster had a body covered in silver claws that could easily tear apart its opponents. Due to their nature of fighting amongst themselves, even a well-made magic servant would quickly perish in their midst. There were rules to restrain them, such as not attacking their own kind.

Things were just as Tasha had speculated.

The birds circled above, while the magic servants were likely confused by the chaos. The situation had completely turned around, with Tasha no longer surrounded and facing attacks from all directions. Her enemies, clumsily trying to avoid the unlucky bird’s wings, retreated. Taking advantage of the Obituary Birds’ restraint from attacking their own kind, Tasha swung her silver claws, scratching and scattering feathers everywhere.

She thought to herself, this setup wasn’t as clever as it seemed.

If a real demon found themselves in this situation, they would likely have a lot to say about this seemingly clever strategy. The Obituary Bird magic puppets were indeed terrifying: imbued by the archmage, they had strong magical resistance and were impervious to Abyssal monsters’ spells. In close combat, their silver claws and the surrounding environment were overwhelmingly oppressive. These magic puppets were only effective against demons, and beings with demon blood could not wield anti-demonic weapons. The person who devised this plan had never considered facing someone like Tasha.

This body was made up of elements of demons, dragons, and various creatures from the Primary Material Plane. These elements, unlike Tasha’s horns, wings, and talons, were not obvious but they existed within her, even if overshadowed by her dominant bloodlines. The elements from the weaker races played a crucial role, balancing out the proportions of each bloodline.

The descendants of dragons were inevitably drawn to treasure, demonic blood could bring out darkness even in the kindest of beings, those with undead attributes often seemed aloof, and the affinity of the Son of Nature was a constant connection to nature. A mix of these attributes appeared within Tasha’s body, and with so many conflicting elements, none could assert dominance over her body. The entirety of Aryan life had shaped Tasha’s physique, but her soul was uniquely her own.

No matter what kind of special powers they used, they couldn’t fully control her.

The magical energy in the dungeon was running out quickly. Tasha blinked and the pain and heat in her left eye stopped. A new eye grew in the empty socket, and then an image suddenly appeared in Tasha’s mind, tearing through the pitch-black darkness. The colors were only black, gray, and white, but from the silver claws nearby to the feathers falling from above, every detail was vividly clear.

Is this what dark vision feels like?

Tasha’s right eye had a black iris, but even this excellent eye could only see darkness at the moment. Her new left eye had a green iris, looking either fascinating or eerie. Despite having poorer vision than the right eye, it clearly reflected the lightless surroundings.

Upgrading the dungeon was so difficult, and the outcomes surpassed Tasha’s expectations. The system that Tasha had put together was just a way to organize information for her, like a homemade spreadsheet, only able to report what she perceived, not truly all-knowing. Therefore, at this moment, a hidden benefit of the upgrade was finally revealed to Tasha.

Extracting elements to form a body, a random activity dependent on luck, left room for further adjustments after completion.

She had signed so many agreements with various covenanters, who represented different professions and bloodlines. The diverse beings linked with the dungeon like a reserve gene pool. She didn’t even know which race the eye’s ability came from, as the ancestors with dark vision had long vanished without a trace. However, they had always coexisted with this land and with Tasha. The process of species evolution rapidly manifested in Tasha, bloody and swift. In the painful transformation into a butterfly, her new eyes adapted to the environment with dark vision.

The wounds that weren’t treated where the silver claws had touched healed much slower, but each one was steadily recovering. Muscles regrew on bone-deep injuries, blood filled them, skin repaired, shedding scorched layers like a snake. With each bit of progress, Tasha felt her body becoming lighter again, as if countless weights were being lifted off her.

Restoring and adapting the regenerated body to the environment.