Rise of the Eromancer

Chapter 220 DROPPED... Into The Underworld Again

Somewhere in the Underworld, in a vast mist of chill and ice, several large critters and small monsters were currently just idling… and killing each other; filling the sea of white with red. This land has no order, but that is just the eternal trait of the Underworld.

Soon, however, thunder erupted. The creatures who were out for each other's blood, now just scattering and running away into the distance as they were afraid that lightning was soon to follow.

Lightning did not follow, however. But it was fortunate for them that they still scattered away, as what followed next was the ground erupting; now mixing dirt with the white and red as an explosion of earth and mud fountained over the field of snow.

"Huh…"

Within this fountain of dirt, was Rhys; his face slightly amazed as this was actually the first time he was ever responsible for creating a Hole. Well, he did not create it per se, he only landed the final blow to fully connect the Underworld to the Surface.

And it was a weird feeling.

The Dig puts the gravity in a sort of vertical orientation, and then once it turns it into a Hole, it would be complete and would completely invert the gravity depending on which side he dived into — but as he was already inside, Rhys felt as if the gravity just died for a few seconds; with him just floating in space and even spinning before being puked out by the ground.

Still, he managed to land on his foot and knee; his eyes, already completing the scan of the surrounding area.

"W…woah!"

He wasn't alone in this experience, as Dominique was right beside him when he stomped the last wall to the Underworld. Unlike him, however, Dominique wasn't as graceful as she found herself dropping straight on her back.

"I did tell you young people to grab on to something."

And while Rhys and Dominique were puked out by the ground and dropped into the snowy Underworld, Talia was just letting out a small and tired groan as she very carefully climbed down onto the Underworld; doing a handstand before just flexibly rotating and placing her feet on the wet ground,

"A Snowy Desert region, it would zeem your plan to frame monsters for the massacre up there has gone down the drain," Talia let out a long and deep breath, causing vapor to cover her entire face from how cold it was, "We should just use this chance to escap—"

And before Talia could finish her words, Rhys suddenly but gently placed his prison jacket over her shoulder.

"What are you doing, child…?" Talia raised an eyebrow as she quickly grabbed Rhys's jacket; her thick accent, slightly showing itself as she looked at him, "I am no frail maiden, you do not need to treat me like your grandmother."

"You and I both know that I don't treat you like my grandmother," Rhys smiled; quickly walking away before Talia could even return the jacket to him, leaving him with only a white shirt as he once again scanned the surrounding area.

"Ahem…" Dominique brushed her nose with her thumb as she stood closer to Talia, "...You know if you don't want that, I can have—"

"Shut it, you imbecile," Talia clicked her tongue before following behind Rhys, "You should only talk when spoken to."

"I don't take orders from you, grandma."

And while the two were bickering with each other; with Dominique amused and Talia clearly annoyed, Rhys was holding his breath so he could see more clearly without the vapor clouding his vision.

And true enough, the monsters he was spotting in the distance would not be enough to wipe out the entire prison. Should…

…he just summon Arachnea?

…No. His first meeting with Arachnea could be said to be completely coincidental, the 2nd one in the Underworld Corps is suspicious, and the 3rd one during the Mankappan monster storm was downright skeptical — if Arachnea was to make another appearance now, everyone would know that he and Arachnea are really connected to each other.

Being connected to a god would do wonders to his influence, but being connected to the God of Spiders?

The world would probably hunt him down.

"Good thing this is a Snow region," Talia stood beside Rhys as she also looked at the monsters, "Plenty of food and a limitless supply of water — we will have no problem surviving until we reach the next region."

"Yeah," Dominique sighed, "The only problem is we will have no fucking idea where we're heading to — the clouds are covering our view of the Underworld. I don't even know where Helios is."

"It's always up, you imbecile."

"Doesn't matter, we will be lost — and what if the next region is a real desert? We're fucked — and my gang and I do not want to walk another hundred miles back."

"Then just stay in the prison," Talia crossed her arms and tugged on the jacket Rhys gave her, "But iz it just me, or is it actually getting colder?"

"You're…" Dominique just breathed out every so weakly, and yet her entire vision was completely blocked, "...right."

"I hear footsteps," Rhys then crouched down, pushing away the snow as he touched the ground, "Lots of it."

"Monsters?" Dominique asked as she put up her guard; stretching her arms to the side as she materialized… nothing. She just stretched her hands to the side for some reason.

"I'm not sure," Rhys squinted his eyes, "But there's no use guessing, they'll be here—"

And before Rhys could even finish his words, a silhouette started to form on the white horizon.

"No… humans! They… seem to be riding horses!" Dominique then got into a stance as she sucked in and held her breath as soon as the silhouettes cleared. If there were creatures more dangerous than monsters in the Underworld — it was its native sentient inhabitants, the other races… and demi monsters.

And this one just happens to be both.

"Centaurs," Talia whispered, "Kill all of them! These people can not be reasoned with and they treat humans as food!"

And as soon as Rhys caught the full view of more than a dozen half-humans, threads quickly began trailing out of his fingertips. These half-humans did not have a horse's lower body, however, but their lower halves were more akin to that of tigers.

"No. Cenleons…" Dominique clicked her tongue, "...Even worse."

The cenleons were running toward Rhys and the others at full speed; their arms, probably even thicker than Rhys's waist. Unlike the centaurs, the cenleons did not need weapons at all… their long claws which protruded from their fingers were already like knives.

Those claws, however, were nowhere to be seen—no. Some of them had their claws protruded, but even from a distance, their claws were clearly shattered and their fingers bleeding.

"Wait…" The threads trailing from Rhys's fingers fell down as he raised his fist, "...They're not rushing toward us. They—"

And before Rhys could even finish his words, a loud roar echoed throughout the entire sea of snow; the chill they were feeling before, now almost freezing their skin as a translucent shadow revealed itself on the horizon; a translucent in the silhouette of a very thin man…

…a very thin and gigantic man.

"Scheisse…" A small hesitantly crawled on Talia's face as they saw what the cenleons were running from,

"...That's an Ice Warden."

Ice Warden — Threat Level 10.