Infinite Evolution: My Idle Evolution System - Chapter 185

Chapter 185: The Prisoner’s Chains

The reason why Cassius appeared so unbothered standing before existences said to be at the very apex of the world was the same as why he acted so nonchalant with Viola. In his secret travels around the world, going from Gate to Gate, he had seen many S-Rank Hunters from afar. Of course, some were stronger than he was at the time.

But these few… they were not part of the “some.”

The female S-Rank Hunter leading the large group of S-Rank Hunters was of Russian origin, the same as the others with her. But when she cocked her head slightly and saw that someone besides Viola was still standing, her pretty face turned a bit ugly. She had never heard of a Japanese S-Rank Hunter with the appearance of the man looking past her group as if none of them even mattered.

However, if he was so daring as to disregard their existences, then she would have no choice but to teach him a lesson.

FWIP!

She crackled with green lightning energy and appeared in front of the cold glare of the exceptionally handsome hooded man. Her anger soared even further when she saw his multi-colored pupils tracking her movements.

Yet, just as she went to strike out, a filament of starry purple energy appeared in front of her fist.

“!!!”

*Whoooosh!!*

Before the Russian Hunter’s fist could make contact with the solar plexus of the indifferent young man, the starry filament rapidly expanded. It threatened to devour her whole and eternally erase her existence from the world.

“Tsk!” She clicked her tongue and waved her hand. Out came a wave of green lightning. When the green lightning collided with the spatial filament, an extremely powerful explosion of chaotic energy blasted outward.

A sphere of destruction was created from this collision. In an instant, it expanded dozens of times its original size. Both Viola and the Russian S-Rank Hunter were pushed back.

They realized simultaneously that their collision of attacks could cause serious damage to the Dome Facility and the island. Thus, they dispersed the energies they had infused.

While the chaotic energies slowly dissipated, Viola’s icy glare honed in on the angered Russian. “Do not get ahead of yourself, Vera. If you think the truce between our countries or the presence of the Mage Lord is enough for you to do whatever you want, then you are sorely mistaken. Next time you do something like this…” A scary look emerged on her normally relaxed face. “I’ll take more than just a part of your dress.”

“What!?” Vera looked down in urgency, only to see a flicker of spatial energy finishing the corrosion of her right arm sleeve. It dispersed at Viola’s behest before it could do any real damage, but just imagining what would have happened if that energy burrowed into her skin was enough to twist Vera’s expression into a mix of fury and fright.

“…Vera…” The other S-Rank Hunters who had come with her sent vicious glares in Viola’s direction, but she seemed to treat them as thin air.

Upon recalling the horrible rumors surrounding the Space Element, they dared not retaliate.

Vera’s explosive green aura violently fluctuated as she turned around and stormed off toward the Gate in the distance. “Let’s go!” she irritably ordered.

The S-Rank Hunters in her group hesitated for a moment while glaring at the Japanese Hunters, but they nonetheless followed the lead of their Party head. Within seconds, they were already stepping into the Peak Purple-rank Gate. But before they fully vanished, Vera’s venomous voice echoed through the Dome’s interior:

“You know the normal tradition of this Gate, Viola! So let’s have a small competition to see who can kill more Oblivion Titans! My party or your little ragtag group of nobodies!!”

With that, the Russian Hunter Party—Green Dragon—ventured into the rather special Purple-rank Gate.

Cassius ignored the Russians from beginning to end, his focus entirely on the Spatial Element still swirling over Viola’s hand. He would definitely find a way to add that Element to his arsenal, even if the System was too stingy to give him a Space-related Skill from Skill Boxes.

For now, though, he had a question he wanted to ask. “A tradition? What was that… Russian talking about?” He took a moment to recall her very forgettable appearance, yet still forgot her name.

*Urgh!*

Blood sprayed from the bright red lips of Vera, the Green Dragon. She keeled over slightly while standing atop the corpse of a massive black-and-white neon-shaded behemoth the size of Manhattan.

Meanwhile, Viola, who had just heard Cassius’s question, looked into his irresistibly attractive cold eyes and answered, “I didn’t mention it to you previously for the sake of suspense, but this Gate is not like a normal Apocalypse Gate. It was also because of this Gate’s uniqueness that it was not permanently cleared. You see, this Gate… or, rather, the Boss and Mini-Bosses of the Gate, are locked down in chains that cannot be broken…”

The tension in the air between them grew especially dramatic as Cassius sucked in a cold breath of air. “So this Gate and the ‘tradition’… Let me guess. S-Rank Hunters from all around the world come to this Gate and make a sport out of hunting the normal mobs that reside within it?”

Viola’s eyes flashed in surprise. “Yes, that’s a very good guess,” she said, not having expected him to figure out the truth so quickly. “Tell me, have you heard of the Icedom Senator’s Prison Gate? The Black-ranked Gate?”

Cassius nodded.

“Well, that Gate and this one are similar in how the main contenders of each Gate are tied in chains. In fact, the material that makes up the chains appears to be the same in all cases,” Viola explained, her tone dramatic. “It’s unknown what exactly tied them up or for what reason, but what those qualified to know do know is that something out there didn’t want anyone interfering with the ‘prisoners’ of any Gate that has similarly bound monsters. Even if the bound monster could theoretically be killed, the chains have a built-in protection feature that prevents the captives from being harmed.”

…