The Glorious Evolution

However, the moment they reached the center of the hall, Arthur froze as a Corrupted Ashori beast growled in its sleep and shifted to the other side... its feathered tail brushing against his legs.

Arthur gazed at the Corrupted and then at his brother... sweat drops already forming on his forehead as he felt the weight of the feathered tail on his legs.

The smallest Corrupted was as big as an SUV car... so, although the tail was mostly feathers, it still weighed something... This made Arthur understand that if he were to move it away, the Corrupted was bound to feel it.

If one woke up, hell would break loose in the temple.

Levi saw everyone becoming slightly nervous... they knew that fighting was a lose-lose situation.

He used hand signs to tell Arthur to remain in his place as he handled it for him... Arthur blinked twice, not daring to even nod his head.

’Casting an illusion will cost too much energy... aetheric energy will be enough.’

Levi channeled aetheric energy in his finger, making it take the form of a concentrated needle... then, he pushed it towards the Corrupted’s head, making it pierce its skull and brain. When the Corrupted felt the sudden jolt of pain assault its head, it instinctively woke up and tried to scream and thrash around in pain.

Levi had already used his aetheric grasp to seal shut its mouth and freeze its body in place... as the Corrupted’s crimson eyes gazed at them in agony, its gaze showed nothing more than utter hunger... Even when it was dying, it wanted to feast on their sunlight at all cost.

Sadly, it dropped dead a few moments later with its hunger remaining unsatiable... When it died, everyone looked around them at the rest of the Corrupted... They sighed in relief after noticing that Levi’s assassination was perfect.

Arthur swiftly removed the wing to the side and caught up to them.

After a short while, everyone made it to the other side without disturbing the tens of slumbering Corrupted... Unfortunately, it was only about to get worse from here on.

”Most of the Corrupted are hiding in the depths from the sunlight... and they are wide awake.”

Levi whispered a warning as he watched more than a hundred Corrupted Ashori, mixed between humanoid and beastial.

When it came to the Shadow Dimension’s corruption on Hollow, Beast, and Trueborn races, it could either kill them outright if the potency was too much or slowly turn them into a Corrupted race if they inhaled the corrupting atmosphere over decades or maybe even more depending on each race and person.

Once corrupted, they became zombie-like immortal entities that could survive for eternity as long as they were in the presence of the corrupting atmosphere, and avoided direct exposure to sunlight.

However, unlike the nightcrawlers, they couldn’t possess other entities, turning them into Tier 1/2 night crawler-like beings but retaining the same strength they had before getting corrupted.

-Jasmine, how far can your portal put us?- Levi asked.

-I can avoid the first two floors.- Jasmine replied while tapping on her right eye.

Jasmine had already told them that she had a mutated eye that gave her X-ray vision... though, with a limited range of about thirty meters.

’The hidden chamber is behind a wall on the third underground floor... If she used her portal, we can avoid the Corrupted on the first two floors, but once we emerge, we will be detected by the ones on the lower floor.’ Levi thought carefully, ’If all of us fought, the energy disturbance will be too much. Also, we don’t know what Tyrese or Evangeline’s teams are doing currently... but I know they have no access to portals like us, so they are bound to have a tougher time, forcing them to fight most of the time.’

Although both teams had been teleported somewhere else, Levi understood that the energy disturbance affected them all... since they were the only ones with a teleportation-like ability, they had to make the best of it.

However, the energy consumption would be a problem for Jasmine, forcing her to tap into her growth totems’ reserves quicker than anyone else.

Levi knew that they could share their reserves with her, but he didn’t want to start tapping into them so fast... they had just landed in the site, they couldn’t afford to go broke so soon.

’Screw this... we can’t be tiptoeing throughout our whole exploration... something needs to be done to the Corrupted.’

Levi understood that tiptoeing around the Corrupted wasn’t a long term solution... they still needed to leave the temple after getting what they wanted. Levi didn’t see a way for them to do run their exploration in peace while hanging around a wide awake Corrupted horde.

Think, think... Levi kept pondering over their options as he scanned the floors, the staircase, and anything that could be of a help.

’What if we locked them out of the third floor?’

Soon, Levi’s brow raised in intrigue after noticing that they had the necessary tools to make his strategy work... It would also help them avoid unnecessary battles in the depths and speak freely.

No delay, he updated everyone on their next plan... though, most of them didn’t seem to agree with it, believing that it was too risky for him. But, Levi convinced them that he had it covered. They glanced at each other, and then they nodded in understanding.

Once everyone was on board, Levi descended the staircase alone.

It didn’t take long before he arrived on the first underground floor... his harmonic spine painting a copy of the hall above him... the only difference was the countless Corrupted Ashori moving all over the place without any purpose.

Soon, Levi spotted the staircase for the next floor on the other side of the hall, leaving his eyebrows twitching.

’What kind of design is this... couldn’t they have built a single staircase leading to the depths?’

Levi didn’t know if the staircase design was like this as a defensive mechanism or not, but he could tell that the pattern would keep repeating on each floor, leaving them incapable of bypassing the Corrupted.

’Casting the Eternal Mirage on every target is impossible with my current spiritual reservoir... I have to use my illusionary techniques.’

The Eternal Mirage was indeed a powerful ability... however, just like most unlocked innate abilities from Ash’Kral’s library, their limit was based off Levi’s energy reservoir. Unfortunately, Levi could only use it on a couple Corrupted at most before his energy tank tapped out.

However, unlocking it had bestowed Levi access to Illusion Aspect... and while his Resonance Access was still at 10%, it was enough for Ash’Kral to teach Levi many low-grade illusionary techniques.

Levi had already mastered a dozen, each one with its own strength and weakness.

’It would have been more efficient if I was able to use my Violin... but, aether energy will do for now.’

With a flick of his fingers, Levi released strings of aetheric energy, each one slithering rapidly towards the heads of the Corrupted... he didn’t concentrate the aetheric energy to avoid creating the green shimmer.

This left the Corrupted to keep roaming mindlessly around the floor, having no clue that their minds were being tampered with by Levi.

’I need to replicate the last scene in their minds through an illusion that keeps repeating over and over again.’

Once a connection was established, Levi held out his hands, and focused, sending an illusion straight into their minds... with his spiritual prowess being higher than theirs, none of them suspected a thing.

They froze in their place, but in their own minds, they were still moving around the place like nothing had changed... The floor clean, the walls intact, everything normal.

But, Levi knew that his illusionary technique, which was called False Scenery, wasn’t perfect... it was like playing TV straight in their minds.

Sure, it would occupy them, but their senses and instincts were still sharp... the moment anyone walked amidst them, one of them was bound to wake up if its instincts tingled.

That’s why he kept everyone upstairs... he trusted himself to walk amidst them without raising the alarm because he grew up with nightcrawlers.

Whether it was nightcrawlers or the Corrupted, Levi could walk amongst them and absolutely feel like he was at home... it was like being raised by a wolf pack or a lion pride. Without the inherent fear or worry screaming to be noticed, the Corrupted’s instincts would remain dormant.

As expected, the moment Levi committed, he walked through the frozen Corrupted... his back flat, his heart steady, his breaths calm. He even walked between two Corrupted, who were literally one meter away from each other, and their instincts warned them of nothing.

’What kind of childhood did he have to be this comfortable with monsters...’ Jasmine murmured inwardly as she gazed at this insane stunt with her peculiar vision.

Soon, Levi made it to the other side, and he walked down the stairs again... of course, he canceled the illusion as he couldn’t afford to keep it active on each floor he had done the same stunt.

However, the Corrupted suspected nothing unusual once the illusion broke apart since the scene was the same in real life... they simply carried on roaming randomly again.

Meanwhile, Levi repeated the same process on the Corrupted in the second lower floor... walking amongst them without a change in heartbeat or expression like he was walking in his own apartment.

”How is he doing?” Shia whispered.

”He is already on the second floor.” Jojo replied softly, tracking Levi’s aura with her spiritual vision.

”He is really doing it...” Nurah raised an eyebrow in astonishment, ”I knew he hung around nightcrawlers a lot, but still...”

”This is nothing compared to what Levi went through.” Arthur frowned, ”My brother has exhausted his fear and worries from nightcrawlers after a decade of being tormented by them... to him, monsters are just his roommates.”