Chapter 268: Abyssal Blood War (Part 1)
"Judging by the reaction of the bloodline magic, crossing the volcano ahead should mean we're not far from Mephisto's Castle!"
On the black, barren land, fine, fiery red Lava could be clearly seen flowing through the cracks in the solidified volcanic lava ground.
Hundreds of Golden Golems, each two meters tall and five feet around the waist, wielded Golden Greatswords, slicing through the visible kobold demons, lesser demons, walking corpses, and fallen demons on this land as easily as cutting vegetables. Any "living being" capable of movement was within their attack range.
Dracula watched these Golden Golems with some envy. Although the Dark Council was not lacking in useful Golems like gargoyles and headless horsemen, they still fell short compared to these Golden Golems that never wore down. Dracula had only heard of the Dark Elf's Golden Warriors before.
However, because these Golden Warriors only obeyed the Dark Elf royal family, their limited usefulness meant these Magic Golems had not received much attention from the Dark Council.
Seeing these Golden Golems now was truly enviable.
Their attack wasn't outstanding, and their stout, round bodies didn't seem to possess much deterrence.
But even if these Golden Golems were blasted into ash, the scattered parts could reassemble and recover instantly in the next moment.
Dracula had personally witnessed a High-Grade Fire Demon being worn down and ground into a pile of Lava Gravel by this group of Golden Golems.
Perhaps the only drawback of these Golden Golems was that they couldn't fly.
"That mountain ahead?!" Deadpool put a hand to his eyes, looking into the distance, and complained, "That's at least dozens of kilometers away! Why didn't we bring a helicopter?"
"If you took a helicopter, the flying demons in the sky would tear you and your helicopter to shreds!"
Logan stood shirtless, a cigar in his mouth. Even with the Protection Jade Token given by the Big Boss, the Hell filled with Lava everywhere made the heat unbearable for him.
"Oh, lots of little birds. If only I had a sniper rifle, I could enjoy some hunting fun in Hell!" Following Logan's gesture, Deadpool looked up at the gray sky, which was dotted with some small black dots, and spoke wildly.
All four of them had good eyesight. Although they were thousands of meters away, they could still clearly see that these black dots, which looked like birds, were actually hideous-looking Winged Demons.
"Here! Just let me see your bird-shooting technique!" As soon as Deadpool finished speaking, Johnny, who had transformed into Ghost Rider beside him, took out an old Mosin-Nagant Sniper Rifle from his Five Yin Pouch and handed it to him.
"Mosin-Nagant? You might as well give me a Springfield rifle. This ancient weapon can't reach those little birds in the sky!"
Deadpool took the Mosin-Nagant with some disdain. Upon handling it, he keenly noticed the gun's unusual weight. Compared to a genuine Mosin-Nagant, this gun was a full third heavier.
"Modified?" Deadpool pulled the slide, checked the chamber, raised the gun, stared through the scope, aimed at the sky, "A product of the Weapons Research Department. It was originally a Demon Hunting Gun issued to the Cleaners.
After modification, its effective range can reach 2,500 meters. The sniper scope lens is polished from the crystalline gemstone of a Beholder's eyeball. Ordinary invisible monsters and shape-shifting monsters will reveal their true forms under this scope!"
Deadpool aimed at the sky for a long time without any intention of shooting.
It wasn't that Deadpool feared the demons in the sky; he was worried about provoking the swarming Winged Demons and delaying Johnny from finding his Master Splinter.
All of them wore Breath Concealment Jade Talismans given by Boss Tang. Ordinary demons couldn't see them at all. As for the Golden Golems, they had neither flesh and blood nor souls, so the demons weren't interested in them. This was also the reason they were able to safely venture deep into this Abyss World.
After some banter, the Golden Golems responsible for clearing the path ahead had already swept the road clean. The purplish-black demon blood on the ground seeped into the volcanic lava rocks, emitting a pungent smell.
Dracula's feet were enveloped in a black mist, within which countless scarlet bat eyes could be faintly seen. This black mist formed by bats lifted him, allowing him to follow beside Johnny.
Dracula's gaze swept over the Mosin-Nagant on Deadpool's back and he spoke directly, "There's a presence on this gun that I find repulsive!"
"The bullets used in this gun are mixed with silver. Not only are they engraved with The Church's scripture runes for expelling demons, but before these silver warheads were reloaded, they were soaked in holy water for seven days."
"It was holy water personally blessed by a Cardinal of The Church!" Johnny added.
Dracula felt his mouth twitch slightly. The Cardinals of The Church, although their lifespan was not as long as that of dark creatures like them, due to the continuity of The Church's strength, these Cardinals, relying on the power of the Holy Artifacts in their hands, were in no way inferior to the Dark Council Councillors or the Vampire Grand Dukes.
Their physical bodies were just a bit weaker.
If he remembered correctly, in the Underworld, The Church's holy water, especially holy water blessed by such high-ranking clergy, was traded to be more valuable than gold.
"One for each of you. Do you prefer rifles, shotguns, or machine guns?"
Johnny didn't seem to notice Dracula's shock. He took out a pile of firearms from the Five Yin Pouch again, offering them for the three to choose from.
The Five Yin Pouch in Johnny's hand was naturally not the one the Boss had, but its space was also the size of a normal three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment, filled with the small gifts Boss Tang had prepared for him before he came to Hell.
"Clatter!"
Among the pile of firearms, Logan immediately took a liking to a M60 machine gun. Judging by the long silver-white ammunition belt, these machine gun bullets were indeed silver bullets. He picked up the machine gun and wrapped the ammunition belt around his body several times, instantly feeling completely safe.
Besides the Mosin-Nagant, Deadpool also picked out two short shotguns. When Johnny received the equipment from the Weapons Department warehouse, he heard the warehouse staff say that these shotgun shells weren't filled with iron sand or steel balls, but solid silver bullets.
Each silver bead was laser micro-engraved with scripture runes and soaked in holy water.
When these weapons were designed, the Weapon Manufacturing Department had conducted experiments. Ordinary vampires basically turned into ash after taking just one shot. As for the Experiment Subjects, the demons summoned through dark magic, ordinary demons would fall with one shot, and demons with thick hides and heavy scales would take at most three shots.
Besides these guns, Johnny also received a batch of high-explosive grenades and flashbang grenades mixed with silver powder and magnesium powder from the Weapons Department warehouse.
"Mr. Dracula, would you like to pick a couple of things?" Johnny watched Deadpool, who seemed eager to carry all the guns on his back, with over a dozen hand grenades hanging from his body, and holding a high-explosive grenade in his hand. Judging by his posture, he wanted to try stuffing the hand grenade into his pants. Johnny looked at Dracula, who was keeping his distance, and extended an invitation.
Dracula shook his head, looking at the pile of human firearms on the ground as if an Ordinary Person was looking at a pile of smelly dog poop. As the deputy speaker of the Dark Council and one of the few powerful ones among the vampires, Dracula wasn't afraid of silver weapons like ordinary vampires, but the deep-seated aversion was unstoppable.
"My dark magic is enough for me to survive in Hell. What about you? Aren't you going to take these weapons?"
Dracula's eyes turned scarlet. His pale hand extended from under his cloak. With a grab, a lone, surviving kobold demon nearby was instantly enveloped in a ball of black mist. When the black mist dissipated, only a dried corpse devoid of any moisture was left in its place.
"My hellfire is the bane of these demons. They are the ones who should fear and repent!"
Johnny turned his head, and flames surged from his smooth skull. Seeing the two balls of hellfire in Johnny's eye sockets, Dracula felt a chill in his heart.
The Dark Council had long records of the terrifying and troublesome nature of Ghost Rider. One Dark Council Councillor had even perished at the hands of Mephisto's Knight. This was one of the reasons why the old guys in the Dark Council had secretly obstructed and dragged their feet when Mephisto asked the Dark Council to deal with Tang Song.
Dracula just hadn't expected that Mephisto had already fallen, yet his Knight was still here! "This is the Hell Abyss. The demons here are as numerous as the water in the Ocean. These Golden Golems and human weapons are not what we should rely on. Our current advantage is that those demons haven't discovered us yet. We'd best hurry and find Mephisto's Castle to steal your Master Splinter's soul before they react!"
Dracula looked at the fully armed Logan and Deadpool, waved his hand, and cast another layer of perception blocking dark magic over the few of them.
A distance of dozens of kilometers was not too far for them. In this Abyss, before a blood moon rose overhead, they successfully climbed the over two-thousand-meter-high active volcano.
In the Volcano Crater, boiling Lava surged, and bright red lava bubbles rose and burst, making muffled sounds within the Volcano Crater. The flowing lava liquid streamed down the mountain wall, merging into the Lava River below. However, at this moment, none of the four had the mood to appreciate this magnificent volcanic spectacle. Including Dracula, they all stared dumbfounded at the endless Demon Army below the mountain.
Four blood moons hung high in the sky. Below the Volcano was a vast, boundless plain stretching for tens of thousands of kilometers. On this plain, countless Demon Armies, numbering in the hundreds of millions, were divided into several factions, locked in battle.
"Blood moon, Abyssal Blood War!" These words were practically squeezed out from between Dracula's teeth.
"Blood moon means these four red egg tarts hanging in the sky? And what's an Abyssal Blood War? Does it mean these demons are fighting each other?"
Deadpool looked at the countless, conservatively estimated hundreds of millions of Demon Army below the mountain, unable to suppress his curiosity, and asked, "What are they fighting over? Mating rights?"
"Every Abyss has its own blood moon. Once an Abyss has multiple blood moons, it means an Abyssal Blood War is underway!"
"An Abyssal Blood War is a war that can only be initiated by an Abyssal Lord. The blood moon connects the two Abysses that initiated the Blood War. Ordinary blood wars might be initiated by some Demon Overlords who want to reduce the number of demons within the Abyss and increase their strength.
After all, Demons are creatures that rely on devouring and killing each other to increase their strength.
But now there are four blood moons here, multiple blood wars. This means at least four Abysses are involved in this Blood War. They must be after the authority left behind by Mephisto!"
Dracula's mood was very low at this moment. Looking at the tide-like Demon Army below the mountain, he suddenly felt inferior because of his ignorance.
After learning that Mephisto had fallen and the several Abyss Worlds He ruled were without a master, he and some Dark Council Councillors wanted to occupy an Abyss and support a Hell Lord from within the Dark Council.
They had approached Tang Song for cooperation for this purpose.
But clearly, they had underestimated the Hell Abyssal Dimension.
The demons the Dark Council had encountered over the past thousands of years were all descenders, whose power could not be fully displayed in the Reality Dimension.
Looking at these Demons like a tide, and then thinking about the Dark Council, even if all the Summoned Creatures of the Necromancers were included, the total number of "People" in the Dark Council Members was less than one ten-millionth of these Demons.
What could they use to compete with these Demon Overlords and Hell Lords?
"I can feel it, my Father's soul is just ahead—"
Following Johnny's gaze, Deadpool saw the towering black mountain peak, tens of thousands of meters high. What also attracted his attention were the tens of millions of Demons densely packed around the mountain peak, locked in battle.
To reach that Mountain Peak, they first had to cross the Demon Plain below their feet.
"Johnny, I think these demons down there could drown us with just one spit each!" Deadpool touched the two katanas on his back.
"Let's be clear, the ten million US dollars we agreed on before isn't enough. We need more money!"
The two balls of hellfire in Johnny's skull eye sockets flickered. He turned back to Dracula, "How long does an Abyssal Blood War like this usually last?"
Dracula understood Johnny's plan. He shook his head, "The time concept in the Hell Abyss is different from our Reality Dimension. An Abyssal Blood War can sometimes last for hundreds, even thousands of years.
The Hell Lords who initiate an Abyssal Blood War have endless lifespan. Time doesn't mean much to them!"
"Furthermore!" Dracula looked at the faintly visible black Mountain Peak in the distance. "I suspect the purpose of this Abyssal Blood War is to contend for the ownership of this Abyss. Once they determine a victor, I think Mephisto's Palace, including his collection, will fall into the hands of the winner."
"It will be much harder to retrieve your Father's soul then. In the Hell Dimension, challenging a Hell Lord at full strength, I don't think even the Sorcerer Supreme himself would gain an advantage!"
Listening to Dracula's words, the hellfire in Johnny's eye sockets surged, clearly showing intense emotion.
"Johnny, add another five hundred thousand US dollars, and I'll go with you. With the Boss's Jade Talismans, these Demons won't discover us! Even if they discover this great me, these two katanas on my back are magic weapons custom-made for two hundred million! Those bastards in the Weapons Department dared to charge two hundred million for two katanas!
I'll take this opportunity to test the quality of the blades. If the quality isn't good, I'll make them compensate me double, no, triple!"
Logan, on the other hand, wasn't as talkative as Deadpool. He just silently lit a cigar with a lighter, threw away the lighter, pulled the slide, and checked the performance of the machine gun.
"No, I'll go myself. Thank you, Logan, Wade Wilson.
I'm different from you. After I transform, I don't have a human presence on my body. These Demons are fighting among themselves and won't discover me. The Boss gave me a lot of things for self-preservation, enough for me to fight back and forth a few times on this Demon Plain!"
(end of chapter )