Reincarnated as the Final Villain's Vessel

Chapter 257: A Dark Forest

The sun rose slowly from behind the ocean, its light adding a beautiful shine to the stretch of blue water, announcing the start of a new day.

A loud crashing sound echoed, and a big corpse hit the ground and sent stone fragments flying like drops of water.

It was a monster four meters long, its body looked like a wolf’s but with dark black skin, and there under its chest, between its front legs was a big slit that opened and closed with every breath, revealing the grinder of sharp teeth inside.

Big enough to swallow a grown human in one bite and send him to dissolve inside its stomach.

And there above the length of its neck, was its head... or at least what looks like one.

Instead of the sharp jaw and the nose, it was replaced by a flat face with none of the familiar features, just six sharp, dark eyes staring around it madly.

One of its four legs had been cut cleanly with a small fountain of blood leaking from there and staining the green grass.

A pained, pleading roar escaped from the opening in its chest as it tried to stand again, only for a girl with short blue hair and dark eyes to appear right under its neck.

Wearing white armor of flexible metal, her sharp sword moved lightly like it was passing through space itself and cutting the tough flesh like butter.

In a heartbeat the smaller head of the monster hit the ground with the blood leaking from its cut neck, and with it its body lost the last traces of life.

"Fuck, it looks disgusting the more I look at it!" Riven waved her sword in disgust, the blood flying off the metal as she stared at the corpse of the hideous monster.

Around her the sounds of shouting and the pained roars of the monsters rose, and the screams of her companions and the screeching of their weapons.

"Look behind you!"

"Damn it, aim at its eyes!"

"Don’t let it get away."

She sighed as the essence rushed through her body, and in the blink of an eye she vanished from her place and appeared near a weak group of three people struggling with one of those black monsters.

The monster’s long, sharp tail was like a whip, lashing straight toward a girl, she couldn’t even raise the shield in her hand in time let alone dodge the blow.

But before it landed on her Riven appeared right in front of her, her sword carved the air and cut the tail like it was nothing.

The monster’s scream rose from the mouth in its neck, the saliva mixed with blood flying like raindrops.

The girl blinked in shock as she realized the situation. "Ri... Riven?... thank you!"

But her words were late, Riven had already vanished from her place, her sword cut one of the monster’s back legs and made it fall on its side so its neck became closer to the ground... close enough for Riven to cut it with one strike... and she did.

In a moment its body fell dead and with it the three of them panted as they stared at the back of their savior and leader, they opened their mouths to thank her but she’d already vanished from her place, heading to help the others.

After another half hour of chaotic fighting, it was finally over.

Many people dropped to the ground exhausted, panting to catch their breath, but Riven stayed standing with her white armor covered in blood, staring at the scattered corpses and the shattered trees.

She raised her hand and looked at the bracelet on her wrist.

[Auerlion] [Points: 40 — Islands: 3]

[Erebus] [Points: 10 — Islands: 1]

[Luminar] [Points: 10 — Islands: 1]

[Solaria] [Points: 0 — Islands: 0]

’Hmm, what are those people doing.’ Seeing that Solaria doesn’t have anything after they had ten points yesterday means their island was taken... and from the looks of it Auerlion were the ones who did that.

The problem is they didn’t have any news or information about what those two groups were doing because of how far they are and the number of islands that separate them from the start.

Plus their group hadn’t moved until this morning, splitting into two teams with the same number, one led by her and the other with her brother, they climbed the hanging bridge and gave up their first island.

The moment they reached the island above them, the two teams separated and took different paths going up.

Silas went toward the east while she took the south... their plan was simple, take control of some islands in the western part at different levels, and do it without rushing while saving their strength and avoiding injuries and elimination.

She raised her head and looked up where dozens of massive islands floated, each one of them kilometers across, connected by those green vines that link them all together.

She lowered her head and let out a breath before she looked at her companions lying on the ground. "Come on, catch your breath quickly, there’s still a lot of work on this island."

...

The climb to the higher levels was long, full of turns and monsters... everything we passed wanted to eat us, every plant and every creature big or small.

So it was only when the sun of the second day reached the middle of the sky that we officially reached the first island of the fifth level.

I was the one who took the first step onto the surface of the big island, like most of them its diameter went past the limits of my perception, big enough to hold cities.

A few dozen meters from where I stood, the straight trees rose like an army of giants, their thick trunks carrying the leaves to a height that went past anything we’d seen the whole way here, like each one of them was a living being on its own.

Their leaves had given up their green color apparently, instead they carried a rotten black color... like each one of them had been dipped in pure darkness and hung on the tree, absorbing the sunlight which made the space between the trees dark like it was a separate world of eternal night... a night with no stars or moon.

This sight reminded me of the fact that a Great monster lived here one day.

I didn’t go into this subject before, but when we started the exam I wondered if any of these islands could really house a Great monster.

And only now did I see its home... when we reached this height passing all those scattered islands and left them below us until they faded between the mist and the clouds, only now could I see what’s up there.

One island floating further in the middle of the sky, huge and massive, to the point that it blocks the sunlight from everything below it at a certain time of the day.

All those vines that stretch down and connect hundreds of islands together came out of it.

It looked majestic, even though all we see is the bottom part... majestic to the point that I wondered if there’s still a Great or Ancient monster somewhere.

But of course there wasn’t.

And there was no need to climb further than this... our job wasn’t purging the Hanging Islands, but winning the biggest number of points.

So I turned my attention to what’s in front of me... this dark forest and those monsters inside it.

"This is really dark... too much." Emeris stood beside me on the purple grass. Staring at those black leaves, that’s when the others started arriving one after another, each of them tired and dirty with blood and dust.

Ivan breathed a sigh of relief as he finally stood on the ground, but the moment he saw the forest he let out an amazed whistle.

"Creepy!... this reminds me of one of the tales my dad used to scare me with when I was little, it’s about a per... mmf!..." And before he finished his words Valia put her hand over his mouth. "Shut up."

Her hand was dirty with blood, maybe she did this on purpose which made Ivan twist away, pushing her off and spitting, trying to get rid of whatever monster blood tastes like.

While Ivan and Valia wrestled for the tenth time today, the rest were tense as they looked at the darkness inside the forest... kind of scared, not all of them of course.

I glanced at the small crowd before I looked at Emeris. "So I’ll take this island, as for you take your team and move to the one next to it."

I pointed at the island on our right there in the distance, a little higher than this one, enough that we can’t see what’s on it.

Emeris smiled in amusement as she tilted her head. "Are you kicking me out?"

In answer to that I shrugged as I pointed at the strange forest. "If you like it you can take it and we’ll leave."

"Yeah, give it to them Caius... let’s go," Ivan shouted excitedly, it looked like he liked the idea of leaving this place.

Ignoring that, Emeris stepped further from the edge with her hands laced behind her back.

"Alright, let’s rest first."