While Saber was following the third armor piece, Adelia was breathing heavily inside the dungeon. She had defeated four beasts and was fighting the last one. Unlike the previous four, the last one was not any typical beast. It was just a giant blob of goo that was immune to all physical and magical attacks. She had been fighting the red blob of good for five hours. She was exhausted. No matter how hard she hit the blob, she couldn't hurt it at all. It neither had any limbs nor a face. Hence, it was tough for her to tell what the beast was thinking or about to do. Strangely, the blob did not attack Adelia but kept her from reaching the chest. Moreover, she didn't see any key on its body. She had a bad feeling that the key might be inside the goo, but she didn't wish to test that theory. Why? Because the blob of good stank to high heaven. Never in her life had she smelled something so putrid and nauseating. She couldn't even find something to compare the smell with. To fight the smell, she had to wear a mask on her face. Still, the smell managed to penetrate the mask itself.

"What the fuck are you?" Adelia growled. She raised her hand as a stream of fire shot out of her hands. She had already tried to burn the blob, only to fail. But she hoped this time would be different. On the contrary, the red flames just brushed past the blob, causing no harm to it. Adelia was annoyed to the point she dashed at the blob with her katana raised. She wanted to chop the blob into countless pieces. The blob quickly moved in front of the chest, shielding it with its body. It was really surprising how fast the blob moved to protect the shield. She wondered what would have happened if she had brought backup. Thinking about it, she almost regretted not bringing Saber or his men with her.

She cut the blob in anger. It felt like she had cut a wax statue. The cut in its body closed in a blink of an eye.

"Argh!" Adelia roared as she raised her hand. In a blink of an eye, a chakra appeared above the blop. Jade spikes shot out from the spinning chakra. The spikes penetrated the blob into its body. However, the spikes barely harmed the blob. It just absorbed these spikes with its gooey body. She even tried to turn herself into her true form and attack the blob, yet everything led to utter failure. This blob was immune to everything.

"Come on. Out of the way ugly," Adelia said, leaping away from the blob. The blob did not respond to her. Not a single peep came out of its mouth. Since the blob hadn't attacked her yet, she just sat down and breathed heavily. The blob remained still before the chest instead of attacking her. It seemed to have no intention of attacking, nor it had any offensive capabilities. This blob was created to protect the chest and exhaust the opponent to death. The blob was one of the creations of Dular when he worked under the past Dark Lord. The Dular in the current timeline was still years away from creating this blob. In a sense, Adelia was really lucky to face creations from the past.

Adelia was tempted to contact Gaya or the Dark Lord himself only if he hadn't triggered a heavenly tribulation. Adelia knew for certain he could destroy this thing in a blink of an eye. Unfortunately, he was not here. Which made dealing with this annoying blob her problem. She stared at it from top to bottom. For the first time in many years, Adelia had no strategy to defeat the monstrosity before her.

Silence fell over them. For a few moments, Adelia was on the ground, taking deep breaths. The blob did not move an inch away from the chest. Suddenly, Adelia had a crazy idea in her mind.

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"This should better work," Adelia picked herself up. She sheathed her katana and cracked her neck. Finally, Adelia dashed at the blob once again. On her way to the blob, she raised her hand as a stream of energy shot out of her hand. The energy beam went straight through the blob. As a result, a hole was formed in its center. Adelia immediately increased her speed. Before the hold could close, Adelia leaped into the blob. For the first time, the blob let out a growl. The hole closed up with Adelia inside. The blob grew in size as it frantically moved around the hall. Soon, a bright light emerged within the blob.'

The temperature in the room slowly rose to the point the blob started to melt down. Adelia roasted the blob from the inside. It rolled and leaped into the air, trying to save itself. However, nothing worked in its favor. The blob slowly melted into a red ooze. It formed a puddle that resembled blood on the ground. The air around the blob reeked of putrid stench. It stank to the point one would die of suffocation. Fortunately, Adelia was inside the blob. The growling noise that came from the blob gradually sounded louder.

Eventually, the blob exploded into pieces. Adelia fell down to the ground with a thud. She was completely covered in red goo from head to toe. In her hands, a golden key glimmered. The key put a smile on her face. With the fifth and the last key in her hand, she was one step closer to seeing what was inside the chest. She got up to her feet and walked toward the chest. Wasting no time, she put the key in the hole. As soon as she put the key in, she heard a clicking noise. A dark smoke slowly rose from the chest. The chest slowly opened, revealing an ancient piece of armor, just like the Dark Lord said.

She couldn't help smiling and sighing in relief. Finally, she picked up the armor from the chest. But to her surprise, a bolt of lightning hit her out of nowhere. She was sent flying away from the chest. It took her a second to realize what had just happened. She hit the wall before falling down. She felt a sharp pain in her chest. Luckily, the lightning bolt did not penetrate her. When she looked up at the chest, gritting her teeth, she noticed a ghostly figure rising from the chest.

The figure slowly took the shape of the Dark Lord himself.

"Dark Lord," Adelia immediately knelt down to pay her respect to the Dark Lord. The aura around him terrified Adelia. His eyes glimmered with amusement. He calmly looked at Adelia. Suddenly, a dark beam shot out of his eyes. The dark beams fell on Adelia.

"Bring this chest to your Dark Lord," The Dark Lord said in a powerful voice.

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Adelia shuddered, hearing his voice. But she managed to nod her head.

"Yes, Dark Lord," said Adelia.

Adelia lifted her head to look at the Dark Lord. He smiled at her. But she saw a glimpse of pain and sadness within his eyes. She wanted to question the Dark Lord. But the ghostly figure of the Dark Lord faded away in front of her. She had no time to say anything to him. After he disappeared, Adelia could only take the chest. She reached the chest and picked it up. This time, nothing happened except she felt the space around her benign distorted.

***********************************************************

The sun was on the horizon in Yaserius, where the glistening ocean met the orange sky. Its rays spread in all directions like the open arms of a mother. The reds and oranges spread by the final glow of the flame formed a staircase on the surface of the sea around the island. As time passed, the warm rays of the sun grew colder. Eventually, the rays became nonexistent, making way for the stars to peek through in the dark blue sky. The Aqua Auction ended when the darkness completely conquered the kingdom. People exited the Aqua Palace in a neat line like ants. The island was bustled with people as many ascended to the sky to leave the island. The VIPs were the first ones to leave. Among those VIPs, one of them had the Dark Lord's armor piece.

Saber waited until the group disappeared into the clouds before following them behind. Saber kept his distance from the group. They were not some run-of-the-mill cultivators. Instead, the one who bought the armor piece was one of the War Gods of Gondolin. Attacking them was equal to waging war against the empress herself. The Dark Lord himself said that the empress might be the only one who could face him and survive if they fought.

The War God led his party from the front. He was at the Fusion Stage while the people accompanying him were at the SOul Refining stage. They weren't his guards but rather his underlings. Saber was extra careful not to get spotted in the airspace of the Aqua Palace. Saber planned to strike when the group left the island and entered the sky above a thick forest. Every War God had immense pride and ego that could be used against them. If Saber attacked them and ran into the woods below them, the War God would follow Saber behind without a doubt. At that time, Saber could use the darkness and the woods to take out the group one by one.

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With a rough plan in his head, Saber kept following the group. He used the clouds as a cover to hide.

"How many of them are there?" Saber heard Gaya.

"I count seven," said Saber.

"Try not to kill them. We don't want to make enemies with the empress yet. But if you had to, kill them all, and don't leave anything behind that could be used to track us down," said Gaya.

"It will be done, Dark Queen,"

Saber felt confident taking down all of them if push came to shove. However, he would try not to kill them because of her order. As he was following the group, they suddenly stopped.

"How long are you planning to follow us?" Saber heard a calm yet dominant voice.

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