Chapter 420: Self-Evolving Monsters

“It’s about to begin.”

Firefly pulled out her transformation device, the compact apparatus shifting into a light, emerald-green sword in her grip.

“Antares is right behind this door.” Jeanne d’Arc’s voice was remarkably steady, her hands tightly gripping her holy flag.

Artemis stepped forward, placing her hand gently on the seal carved into the stone door—a crest depicting a moon and a bow with an arrow.

“That’s…?” Robin looked at the familiar crest, her expression puzzled.

“I forgot to mention,” Hermes explained with a smile. “The Spirit that originally sealed Antares was sent down to the lower world by Artemis. You could say it was her most ancient Familia.”

“I see.” Robin understood immediately. No wonder the architecture along the way looked exactly like a temple built to worship the Goddess of the Moon.

As Artemis’s body radiated a soft divine light, the heavy stone door emitted a deafening rumble as it slowly swung inward.

It was no wonder that only Artemis could open the door. After all, this temple had been built by her own believers to enshrine her.

However, when the door opened completely, the sight behind it made Robin and the others widen their eyes in horror.

It wasn’t the ancient altar or grand, empty hall they had imagined. It was a biological hive completely corrupted by flesh and blood—a sight so sickening it churned their stomachs. Writhing, dark red biological tissue covered every inch of the walls and ceiling, as if the temple itself had become a living organism.

Countless translucent flesh eggs of varying sizes hung from the ceiling. Through the thin membranes, one could even see the monstrous embryos curling and developing inside. A thick, suffocating stench of blood and rot hit them like a physical blow, nearly causing them to vomit.

“To think it… parasitized the temple.” Asfi drew in a sharp breath of cold air. She finally understood why there had been so many monsters outside. This place was quite literally an endless monster hatchery.

“How could this be…” Artemis was equally shocked. She couldn’t believe her believers’ temple had been desecrated to this extent.

“I didn’t expect the deterioration to have reached this stage.” Hermes lowered his hat brim, his tone more grim than ever.

Suddenly, a sickening writhing sound echoed from behind them.

The group spun around, only to see that the stone entrance they had just passed through was now completely blocked by rapidly expanding, squirming walls of flesh.

“The exit is…” Cassandra went pale with fright, instinctively covering her mouth.

Disasters never come singly. Accompanied by a series of sharp cracking sounds, the mature fleshy eggs on the ceiling began to shatter one by one.

Foul slime rained down like a shower as monstrous scorpions—covered in jagged red veins and appearing far more ferocious than the ones outside—dropped from the broken eggs. Their crimson compound eyes locked dead onto the uninvited guests.

“Push through!” Aiden shouted without a second of hesitation.

With a short incantation, blazing flames wrapped around his body as if alive. He transformed into a streak of crimson light, plunging headfirst into the black tide of scorpions.

The blade of Godslayer: Surtr flashed in the dim, fleshy corridor, every swing generating a wave of scorching wind. Whether it was the monsters’ hardened carapaces or razor-sharp pincers, everything in his path was effortlessly cleaved in two by the ultra-high-temperature slashes, reducing them to charred ash and dropped Magic Stones.

With Aiden spearheading the charge with overwhelming momentum, Firefly, Castorice, and the others followed closely behind, cleaning up any stragglers dropping from the walls and ceiling. The group became a red-hot blade, stabbing viciously into the monsters’ fleshy domain.

However, there were simply too many monsters. They surged from every direction like an endless tide.

Aiden was forced to unleash a blast of fire, burning every monster in a cone-shaped area ahead of him to ash and temporarily clearing a path. But almost immediately, new monsters spawned from the flesh-covered walls.

This time, a horrifying scene unfolded.

The newly born monsters were completely unharmed by the raging flames. Under the intense heat, their carapaces didn’t crack; instead, they emitted an eerie red glow. Their bodies began to swell, becoming even more hideous and powerful than before.

“How is this possible… the fire isn’t working!” Cassandra covered her mouth, gasping in disbelief.

“Self-proliferation… adaptive evolution… these are Antares’s abilities.” Hermes’s voice was incredibly heavy, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. “These monsters have inherited some of Antares’s traits. By the looks of it, they’ve evolved an immunity to fire in this short amount of time.”

“Isn’t that evolution speed way too fast?!” Furina couldn’t help but yell.

“If fire doesn’t work, then let’s use sound.” Aiden made a split-second decision and canceled Everlasting Flames.

The scorching flames receded, replaced by an invisible, vibrating force. He wreathed the sonic magic of Demon Lord Valion around his blade and swung it outward once more.

This time, there was no fire and no light. There was only a visible, distorting sonic slash sweeping across the corridor.

The fleshy walls in its path shattered like glass struck by a heavy hammer, exploding into a mist of flying blood and gore. The monsters caught in the blast didn’t even have time to scream before their bodies disintegrated from the inside out under the high-frequency vibrations, turning into messy puddles of flesh.

The strike worked perfectly.

Aiden didn’t pause. He reached out his hand, mobilizing the massive amount of magic power within his body while simultaneously activating Alpha Inforce.

He stacked the magic’s power infinitely. The surrounding air began to emit an ear-piercing hum, as if the space itself could no longer withstand this terrifying force.

“Gospel!”

An intensely concentrated sonic blast erupted from his palm. The air distorted and the atmosphere shattered, countless spiderweb cracks appearing accompanied by sharp cracking sounds. A terrifying shockwave swept out, blasting forward in a straight line.

The area cleared by the sonic blast was wiped completely bare, leaving behind only a ‘purified,’ perfectly smooth stone wall. Everything in the corridor for tens of meters ahead—whether it was the newly born monsters, the squirming fleshy walls, or the monster eggs hanging from the ceiling—was utterly annihilated by the sonic blast, reduced to the most primal fragments and dust.

The deafening explosion only echoed several seconds later, violently shaking the entire corridor.

“Did that get them?” Jeanne asked gravely, gripping her holy flag.

“No.” Aiden shook his head, his expression remaining stern. “The monsters here are endless. If we don’t take down Antares, we will never finish killing them.”

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