Chapter 158: Origin Realms

Flaming shackles and vines, one on the left and one on the right, simultaneously wrapped around the monster. Logically, these two things, coming from mythical-level beasts, should immobilize anyone bound.

With the exception of this monster.

The Dancing Lion freed itself by twisting its head, neck, and body.

Entangled on the left, it freed itself from the right; locked on the right, it freed itself from above.

The shackles and vines, like trying to catch an oiled eel, would dart wherever they touched.

This was unsettling!

Even mythical-level techniques couldn’t restrain it, proving this Dancing Lion was no pushover.

Its movements looked like shadow play. You fixed your eyes on it, and it was never where you looked. You strike, and it has changed position. Visible, but untouchable.

But the Dancing Lion’s moves were rhythmic.

This technique was called the Waterwheel Dance.

In past times, martial arts emphasized agility and agility, propelled by an inexhaustible force, Aeon. This Dancing Lion incorporated these elements into combat.

But Luke and Scarlett knows zero about the Dancing Lion’s technique, so their options were limited when it comes to defeating it.

Option one is to unleash an area-of-effect attack that can overwhelm the lion and its power. The other option is to read its rhythm and predict its next move.

The second option was to be clever. Luke thought so too. Why? If they unleashed a powerful attack right away and failed to kill it, the monster might go berserk, which would be even more troublesome.

The Dancing Lion was already a madman in base, so imagine how formidable it would be when enraged! Better to figure out its patterns first and fight steadfastly.

However, the two of them, working together, fell short. But that was after Luke caught the rhythm of the Dancing Lion.

Twist left → Rotate → Short step → Swing the blade.

Twist right → Leap → Flip → Kick.

Over and over, exact, repeatedly, perfectly.

Luke started guessing where it would go before it even moved.

Scarlett followed suit and timed the monster’s capture, slipping the flaming shackles onto the Dancing Lion’s arms when it was about to swing its knife or kick.

Whoosh!

Luke threw his spear.

This throw, calculated to the letter, sent the spear flying to where the Dancing Lion would be, two seconds from now!

But the Dancing Lion stopped in the middle of it and reversed its movement as it understood that the hunters had caught its rhythm; hence, it abandoned said rhythm.

This meant it possessed sentience and intelligence, making it the strongest guardian Luke and Scarlett had ever encountered.

"Someone’s gone too far!"

Luke leapt into the air, condensing a Thunder Javelin and hurling it down with everything he had, and sure enough, the Dancing Lion dodged.

Subsequently, Scarlett fired off an orange Flame Arrow at the same time, but to no use either, as the monster moved like a horizontal tornado.

WHOOSH! FWOOSH! WHOOSH!

One blade of wind after another!

When the Dancing Lion spun around, it flung its blade so hard that it gave birth to wind blades that attacked Luke and Scar.

Luke’s senses were sharp, so he dodged them clear, but Scarlett didn’t, and one of the wind blades struck her, sending her flying across Nemo Point with blood spraying from her mouth.

"Fine. You brought this on yourself!" Luke growled in the sky, provoked.

As he landed back on the ground with his Lightning Dragon Wing Guards, he slammed his hand to the ground. Soon, what seemed to be a forest materialized out of nowhere and cocooned the battlefield.

This was the Olympus Serpent’s power.

The trees, thick and strange, were as dense as a wall. Vines, grass, and flowers carpeted the ground, and everywhere looked like a typical forest.

Nemo Point was gone, replaced by this self-contained world.

Sunlight couldn’t penetrate, leaving the forest dark and gloomy, the ground slippery, and everything around was alive and moving.

With the forest so dense and crowded, it would be difficult for the Dancing Lion to leap around as before.

Simultaneously, Luke asked every plant, every vine, every root, and every leaf to release poisons into the air. So, just standing inside this forest, the Dancing Lion began to die. Its skin was smoking, and its blood was turning black.

To its credit, it escaped back to Nemo Point with its last strength by using its blade to slice through Luke’s manifestations. However, it was crippled at this point.

That one second spent inside the forest was enough to kill it a hundred times over.

Eventually, the same thing that was moving like wind, like shadow, moments ago couldn’t even stand again, allowing Luke to finish it off like licking a dinner plate clean.

"Purgatory Charge!"

Luke roars and feels the power of spirits moving through him and his Hell Ape Gauntlet, and he dashes at extreme speed and momentum, punching through the weakened Dancing Lion.

BOOM!

SHRRSSHH!

The Dancing Lion’s body exploded like wood.

Halfway through the explosion, it transformed into Flame, entering Luke’s body.

〖You have killed a high-level monster!〗

〖You have killed a Guardian.〗

〖Flame +200〗

〖You have gained 250 experience points!〗

〖Congratulations! You have killed the Guardian Dancing Lion, gaining the qualification to enter the Hell-level Origin Realm "Black Sun".〗

〖Note: Only those invited may enter the Origin Realm.〗

Luke nodded to the system and looked at the atmosphere as lights began to twinkle. Little by little, they brightened like a prism until the light began to tear the atmosphere in the shape of an eye to become a dark portal leading to the Origin Realm

After helping Scarlett regain herself and after letting her absorb the monster core of the Dancing Lion, Luke and Scarlett looked at the Origin Realm, ready to face it, because if they didn’t clear this Origin Realm, it would manifest as three random dungeons, which pose a very big threat to those who may not be able to defend themselves.

At least an Origin Realm didn’t release monsters. You come in, prove yourself, that’s all.

Scarlett Summoned her Empyrean Phoenix.

Scarlett did not summon her beast earlier because she was conserving its energy.

Now, her eyes burned with fire, as ethereal and awe-inspiring as the mythic beast. The Empyrean Phoenix revealed its adult form, majestic and imposing!

"Amigo, tell me — can you Assimilate this Origin Realm and save us some trouble?" Luke asked.

Amigo summoned himself on his own, replying, "No, Master."

"OK, I admit, what you did earlier wasn’t cheating, that’s just your own ability. Use it now, make this Origin Realm easier on us."

"Can’t, Master," Amigo said. "This one, I genuinely can’t pull off."

"Why?" Luke asked. "You can assimilate monster zones, you can assimilate dungeons, you can even assimilate places in another world. What’s the difference with an Origin Realm?"

"The Origin Realm is not the same as monster zones or dungeons," Amigo said. "I assimilate monster zones and dungeons, and they remain the same, their nature unchanged. But the Origin Realm’s existence depends on its own laws and environment. The moment I Assimilate it, that’s me placing my own Dominion over its Dominion. And once that happens, it stops being an Origin Realm at all because I’ve stripped it of the factors that made it an Origin Realm per se.

The trials will change, the rules will fall apart, and everything you were supposed to discover and accomplish will cease to exist. If we simplify the place, looking back, we’ve also destroyed the conditions for clearing the Origin Realm. So, I may assimilate, but if you still want to clear this Origin Realm and take what’s inside, I can’t touch it. My ability doesn’t help here. It’d only make us fail."

Luke and Scarlett both rubbed their chins.

"Well put," Scarlett said. "That makes the Origin Realm sound like something transcendental. My father’s Beast is an Origin Beast. I guess this word ’Origin’ ties to something beyond the ordinary."

Amigo wanted to explain what Origin means, but Scarlett and Luke were braced to charge into the Origin Realm regardless, so he spared them a lecture.

Meanwhile, Luke was thinking about the story Lucy’s father, Mr. Blackstone, had told him about X Kingsley and Y Blackstone, who entered an Origin Realm together, and only one came back out.

Luke ignored the pessimism, so he started walking into the Origin Realm.

But wait.

Some reddish-purple flowers crept out of the ground to block their path to the Origin Realm.

Since they were flowers, Luke thought he had accidentally activated an Olympian Serpent skill, but that wasn’t the case, so it meant something else had done this.

Unlike him, who was clueless, Scarlett knew what it was because she had seen these flowers before. She also knew which beast and which summoner possessed this ability.

It was her aunt and the Golden Eldritch Manticore.

Her aunt and the Golden Eldritch Manticore were now in the same place as them after chasing them for hours.

When Brienne saw them about to enter the Origin Realm, she instructed her beast to summon a wall to block their path.