Pokterr?

Wasn't that the home continent of the Moles and the Insects?

Wasn't it supposedly the most dangerous location in the entirety of Faust, where hundreds of lives were lost every year?

The two Branded Servants were speechless as they gazed at the smiling Darius.

"Well, there's no need to be worried. It's that time of the year after all." Darius pointed out with a chuckle.

This made the two pause as they wondered what he meant until they grasped it a split second later, pleasantly surprised expression on their faces.

Every year, the leaders of all the continents would organize a joint military mission into the depths of Pokterr to eliminate all the Insects.

They wished they could make it a daily mission, but the Insects killed too many of those who were sent a year and used them as nutrition.

So while they did cull their numbers, they were simultaneously feeding them with more. This created a problematic situation where they could only pinch their noses and do it anyway because otherwise, the Insects would grow too quickly.

The Moles would evacuate the continent during this time so they do not get caught in the crossfires Pokterr would quickly become ground zero.

Darius previously wondered why the Gods and co could not simply head down themselves and genocide the Insects, but it turned out that he had found the reason when he digested the restricted section information.

Well, it should be obvious, shouldn't it? Fully grown Insect Queens were as powerful as the Gods, while above them stood Insect Ancestors, which were as powerful as True Lords like Thanatos.

If the combined effort of Gods and Demons could only make Thanatos retreat but not be defeated, how could they defeat the Insects?

Sometimes Darius wondered if Vena purposefully designed Faust to be this chaotic so her chosen agents could worm their way through the crevices to achieve their goals, which in turn amused her.

Whatever the case, each continent's leaders would issue a mission with variable rewards in order to galvanize new heroes - read as idiots - to dive into the world of Pokterr.

Of course, in order to convince people to take up this suicide mission, the rewards were beyond comprehension. Items on the level of the Tree Heart or the Thunder Heart were listed as possible rewards.

Of course, it would require the brave warriors to not only vanquish a certain number of targets above a certain stage, but they would also have to survive long enough to tell the tale.

"So are we gonna sign up?" Xela asked with interest.

Darius rubbed his chin. "No, doing so would mean that we would be beholden to their rules and authority. I'm sure they would all sacrifice an arm and a leg for us to do so given our position in the world now, but we will enter and do what we want at our own discretion."

Gunner nodded. "Perfect, then we won't have to bother babysitting any weaklings. Even better, we can deal with anyone we see there, regardless of side and there is nothing the other party can do legally."

Darius patted Gunner on the shoulder for his insightfulness. "However, at the same time, the others will be free to target us as we are not part of their forces. It will be quite dangerous."

Gunner grinned wolfishly. "Even better. If I am surrounded by at least 500 combatants at my level, I might finally be able to feel some pressure."

Xela just rubbed her nose, planning to turn a blind eye to any trouble they caused while they were there. Well, her job was to heal her allies from harm, not attack any foes, so it was not her problem.

Darius laughed at Gunner's words, then threw a transmuted Space Stone own on the ground. He then touched it and focused.

[Would you like to change the Space Stone into a Cross-Continental Temporary Spatial Array? This will cost 143 Conversion Points.]

Darius agreed and watched it transform into a circular runic array that was large enough for up to 10 people to stand in. The trio walked in and Darius set the destination coordinates after some tweaking.

In the next moment, they were beamed away from Fallon in a sharp yellow flash. When they arrived, they found themselves in the midst of a huge wasteland that continued from either direction into the horizon.

The ground was a brownish-black that was barren and even craggy in every way. It was as if a century-long drought had occurred here, leaving the area dry. There were some blackened trees without leaves located sparsely across the wasteland, probably dead for years.

The group didn't have long to observe their surroundings before they felt a rumble beneath their feet. Right when it was about to erupt, Darius teleported the three of them a few feet away.

They got to watch space they had previously been standing upon getting blown open, since a huge worm-like creature that was about as tall as a building sprung up with a strange roar.

Had they still been there, they would undoubtedly end up in the belly of the beast as a little snack. It seems like that monster was betting on this, so it naturally paused in shock when it didn't feel any flesh between its rows of teeth that went down its throat.

The trio could only gaze on speechlessly as they watched the thing turn about, trying to sense where they were. Worm-like monsters had terrible vision, no sense of smell, nor could they hear anything since they lacked any auditory organs.

However, the one thing these kinds of monsters were known and feared for was their ability to sense through touch, specifically through the earth around them. They could sense any creature's footsteps through the general movement on the earth, which was how they hunted.

Aerial enemies were their bane, and they would naturally avoid such foes. It was no wonder that when troops were sent her en masse every year, hundreds would die before they achieved their goal.

Just how many could take to the air to avoid such a predator?