'It's one roadblock after another. This Soul Avatar is more troublesome than I envisioned. But, as the saying goes, great things do not come easily.'

What hovered before Izroth was a link of chains that seemed to have imprisoned the Eternal Devouring Crystalized Leech within. But, these were no ordinary chains. With a glance, one could tell that there was something profoundly deep and mysterious about them as they gave off a world suppressing aura.

​​

The moment the Soul Avatar's creation progress reached 100%, the domineering chains appeared around the Eternal Devouring Crystalized Leech out of thin air.

'These chains are identical to the Chains of Mazi used to seal the passageway between the Mortal Realm and Shadahi Realm. However, if I were to compare the two, the one before me now is stronger—and not by a small amount. It feels as if the Chains of Mazi were made specifically to replicate the effects of these chains.'

Although the chains did not look sturdy, Izroth felt that no matter what attack-type skill he used in his current arsenal, it would not leave a single scratch on them. However, he also knew that he could not allow these chains to remain like this forever. With this in mind, Izroth read over the chains' information via the system interface.

Name: ???

Rank: ???

Usage: ???

Special Note: The appearance of these chains represent the will of the world.

'Will of the world? Is this the system's way of trying to tell me that this item should not exist? No, if that was the case, the system would not have bothered to register the item in the first place. Maybe my Energy Vision Sense will help to remove some uncertainties and shed light on the situation.'

With that thought, Izroth activated his Energy Vision Sense. However, the instant he did so, everything around him was engulfed in endless darkness. The only visible objects were the Eternal Devouring Crystalized Leech and the mysterious chains.

This darkness lasted for less than a second as everything around Izroth turned back to normal. But, his Essence that was just a bit above 50% had been completely drained! Izroth's complexion had become pale as he underwent Soul Weakness from losing such a large amount of Essence too quickly.

'Even though I restricted the range to one meter, I still lost over 500 Essence in less than one second? Not to mention, that darkness... Well, at least I confirmed one thing. These chains do not originate from this realm. But, why did they appear around the Eternal Devouring Crystalized Leech? Is it due to the will of the world that it mentions?'

Izroth believed that there was no point for the system to register an item it did not want to exist. If something should not exist, regardless of what kind of item it turned out to be, the system would make sure that it was rejected. Therefore, two possible explanations came to Izroth's mind.

The first was that someone in the Divine Realm was personally intervening with the matter concerning his Soul Avatar. Usually, it would be unthinkable that anyone in the Divine Realm would bother interfering with a player's progress. After all, with his current strength, Izroth understood that he was far from being any type of threat to them.

However, previously, seeing as how someone in the Divine Realm was responsible for interfering with his progress, Izroth did not dismiss this possibility. Nevertheless, Izroth's thoughts leaned more towards the second explanation—his location. Or, to be precise, the location of the Eternal Devouring Crystalized Leech.

'The Forever Drinking Leech was already close to reaching the divine rank. It's possible that combining it with the mythical ranked Arisia Crystal allowed it to take that final step and enter into the divine rank. However, the appearance of these chains—does this mean that divine ranked materials do not belong outside the Divine Realm? Or, is it that they require a specific handling method?'

Unfortunately, Izroth could not think of a concrete answer due to the lack of details of the mysterious chains and Eternal Devouring Crystalized Leech. For now, he could only speculate until he found a way to deal with the chains.

'Considering my Energy Vision Sense was instantly drained, breaking these chains are probably out of the question. Even if I use the Seal word of the Twin Lasting Epoch Sentinels' True Word Bow, alone, it can not suppress these chains. Do I have no choice but to use that?'

Izroth pondered for a few moments before he decided on his next course of action.

'Since the Eternal Devouring Crystalized Leech does not seem to be in any immediate danger of disappearing, I should concentrate on recovering my lost Essence. After all, it's too risky to proceed in my Soul Weakness state. In the meantime, I will take this opportunity to do some searching.'

Izroth sat down as he started to utilize his Source Chant to regenerate his lost Essence. At the same time, he opened his system interface to a symbol in the shape of an unusual purple crest with three black lines that cut across its surface. Hidden behind the three black lines was the image of an extraordinary beast with the head of a roc and body of a biped land dragon. It was the symbol of the Netherworld Exchange!

'With the Restricted Supreme Spirit Voucher, I can acquire any item at or below five moons.'

In the Netherworld Exchange, everything was exchanged for using a currency called Spirit Vouchers. Since Izroth was the first player to unlock the Netherworld Exchange, he received a bonus reward—the Restricted Supreme Spirit Voucher. With it, no matter how many Spirit Vouchers an item cost, as long as it was below six moons, he could purchase it.

The higher the number of moons an item costs in the Netherworld Exchange, the greater its overall value. One to three moons represented rare quality items, and four to six moons epic quality items. Seven to nine moons were even more impressive as they displayed the strength of legendary quality items. As for ten moons—they were at the pinnacle of the Netherworld Exchange and symbolized unique quality items!

This was just the rough understanding that Izroth had come up with in his quick exploration of the Netherworld Exchange. Needless to say, there were exceptions.

'Although five moon items are typically epic quality, what I require now is not necessarily raw power.'

Izroth understood that he could not rely on pure strength to overpower the mysterious chains, so he chose to take a different approach.

'If the power gap is too huge, one must simply meet force with a gentle touch instead of a heavy hand.'

Izroth had still not gone over all the items within the Netherworld Exchange as it would take him weeks due to the sheer massive quantity of items. However, this time around, he narrowed his search parameters to two item types, in particular—magic items and talismans. Also, to further reduce the number of things he had to look through, Izroth solely focused on four moons and five moons items. Even though the number of items was still in the tens of thousands, with his perfect memory, it would not take Izroth too long to sort through them.

...

Four hours later...

Izroth opened his eyes and stood to his feet. At the same time, his complexion returned to normal as a wave of refreshing energy rushed throughout Izroth's body.

〈System Alert: The effects of «Soul Weakness» has ended!〉

The first thing Izroth did was check his status to confirm that he was not still unknowingly affected by anything else. After all, who knew what other adverse effects the mysterious chains would invoke?

'My Essence has already recovered. Now that I've returned to my full strength with the effects of Soul Weakness wearing off...'

For the past four hours, Izroth kept a close eye on the chains. If something unusual occurred, he would have taken action—even if the chances of failure were high. Fortunately, the chains only appeared to be cutting off the connection between the Eternal Devouring Crystalized Leech and the neighboring space. While it seemed that one could reach out and touch it, in reality, it was in a completely different space. As to what this space was, Izroth did not know.

But, Izroth was not idle the past several hours. He had long since concluded his search of the Netherworld Exchange. The Restricted Supreme Spirit Voucher in Izroth's possession had vanished. In return, he acquired a talisman known as the Thirty-Two Localities Isolation Talisman.

Not only was the Thirty-Two Localities Isolation Talisman epic-quality, but it was also a graded talisman! Compared to typical talismans of the same quality, it was several times more costly and challenging to acquire. If not for the Netherworld Exchange, who knew how long it would have taken Izroth to obtain such a high-graded talisman?

Once Izroth did one final check and verified that everything was in place, he was ready to confront the mysterious chains.

'I'll have one chance.'

"Let's begin. Infuse." Izroth said as two magic rings appeared—one on his right hand and one on Izroth's left hand.

〈System Alert: You have infused with the magic item «Twin Lasting Epoch Sentinels»!〉

〈System Alert: The current energy output available for the «Twin Lasting Epoch» is 70%. Do you wish to activate this magic item? (Warning! Activating this magic item requires the user to be uninterrupted for 15 seconds. Being forcefully interrupted can result in a dangerous backlash from the magic item.)〉

'It would have been ideal if it were at 100%, however, 70% will have to suffice.'

"Activate." The moment that word left Izroth's mouth, an immense surge of magic energy surrounded his hands as the sound of a faint pulse could be heard.

Fifteen seconds later, two ancient and powerful warriors appeared made from pure energy. One wielded an intimidating shield and the other a mighty bow.

The instant the ancient warriors appeared, the one that wielded the majestic bow took a stance as if it were about to fire. As it got into position and pulled the bowstring of its bow, an arrow materialized out of thin air made from the same energy as the ancient warriors. The sole difference was that the arrow took on a solid physical form!

Simultaneously, the word Seal materialized on the arrow's side as if it were being written by an invisible brush with energy as its ink. But, the "brush" did not stop after writing the word Seal. A second word followed it—Power.

The ancient warrior that wielded the bow released a fierce battle cry as they aimed straight towards the center point of mysterious chains. The bizarre thing was that the words Power and Seal seemed to be melting and fusing together into a single word on the arrow's side!

'Compound Double: Power and Seal.'

...BOOOOOOOOM!

The arrow shot from its bowstring tore through the air with frightening strength and explosive power. The pressure the arrow generated was so intense that it caused the space it traveled by to collapse unto itself and form tiny spatial fractures!