Blood Moor (Part 1)

Diya walked out of the Mercenary Guild, with Flavia following closely behind him. Every now and then, she stole a glance at Diya's nearly **, lithe body, the blush on her face never fading. Diablo flew off to one side, taking it all in, and from time to time let out a strange chuckle.

After fusing with the second fragment, the Rogue Encampment had undergone some changes. Inside, it was still the same, but outside, it was no longer that endless pitch-black darkness. Looking out through the palisade, one could see a desolate stretch of grassland in every direction.

The gate of the Rogue Encampment was directly in front of the Mercenary Guild, so Diya only had to keep walking straight ahead to reach it. The so-called gate was actually two rows of palisades staggered apart to form a bow-shaped passage, twisting and winding a few times. At last, Diya walked out of the Rogue Encampment.

What appeared before him was an arched stone bridge, roughly five meters long and two meters wide, blue-gray in color. It looked as if it had been carved from a single whole block of stone, with many dark green vines twining over it. Beneath the stone arch bridge was a deep ditch, stretching from left to right to who knew where.

From within the deep ditch came the crisp sound of water flowing with a "hualala." Diya took a few steps forward to the edge. The ditch was a full five meters wide and about three meters deep. Looking down, he saw an incomparably clear stream trickling along the bottom, the water about a meter deep.

The sight gave Diya a burst of familiarity, yet also felt strange.

"Diablo, that place over there wouldn't happen to be the Blood Moor, would it?" Diya pointed ahead, toward the wasteland across the stone arch bridge, where short clusters of dark green grass grew, and asked with some hesitation.

"That's right. That's the Blood Moor. What, did you think that fragment could fuse with just anything?"

"Mm? What do you mean?" When Diya heard that, the puzzlement on his face deepened. It seemed there was some other meaning hidden in Diablo's words.

"It's simple. There are thirty-nine Hell Fragments, and each one has to be connected to the others before you can fuse with it, linking them one by one. Otherwise, even if you obtained the final fragment, you wouldn't be able to fuse with it at all."

"I don't really understand."

"Put it this way. I told you before about two methods of fusion. With the first method, no matter which fragment it is, it can be fused. The price is time. The later the Hell Fragment, the more powerful the force it contains, and the longer you need to adapt to the radiation of that fragment's power. After fully adapting, devouring the Hell Fragment into complete fusion would take even longer," Diablo explained in detail. "Also, you can only fuse with one at a time. Only after you have completely fused with one fragment can you fuse with a second. But if you use this method and don't start fusing from the first Hell Fragment, the fragments won't connect into a world, and naturally, you won't be able to enter this place."

"In addition, my soul power is limited, and the intensity of hellfire I can use is also limited. Every time you fuse with one fragment, my soul power increases a little, and my control over hellfire and so on rises accordingly. The farther back a Hell Fragment is, the more powerful the force it contains, so it requires stronger and greater amounts of hellfire to melt it. For example, if you obtained a Hell Fragment of the Stony Field right now, my hellfire wouldn't be able to melt it. If you obtained a Hell Fragment of the Cold Plains, then my soul power would just barely be able to sustain the hellfire long enough to melt it and fuse it with you."

"So that's how it is. If I got one of the later Hell Fragments now, I could only stare at it. That feeling probably wouldn't be pleasant," Diya sighed.

"Don't worry. You haven't run into that situation yet," Diablo said with a laugh. Flavia stood beside Diya, one hand gripping her wooden bow while the other had already nocked an arrow, resting it in front of her thigh. She did not understand a single word of what Diya and Diablo were saying, but she would not ask any questions.

"Since that place over there is the Blood Moor, is it the same as in the game? Are there monsters like Fallen, Quill Rats, Zombies, and so on?" Diya said. Looking out, apart from the endless grassland, there were only scattered stones and a few somewhat dry, low little trees.

"That's right. Same as in the game, the monsters inside—"

"All right, then if I kill the monsters, will I gain experience points and level up?"

"That question is idiotic. Have you seen your own level? This is a world, not a game. There are no experience points and no levels. When monsters are killed by you, they won't burst out gold coins or equipment either. However, when monsters die, they do revert to source power, and after a period of time, they'll gather together again and be reborn," Diablo said, rolling his eyes at Diya.

"Then wouldn't they be impossible to kill off?" Diya was a little dumbfounded. "If that's the case, what meaning is there?"

"Of course there's meaning. Since these monsters can't be killed off, they can be used to train combat techniques. Can you find any other place that lets you train endlessly like this?" Diablo shot back, then suddenly looked at Flavia. "She might be able to gain something, but you can't, because you originally don't belong to this world and are not within this world's rules."

"One last question." Diya took a deep breath. "How strong are the monsters? Are they the same as in the game?"

"Hell is a higher plane, far above the human world. The Fallen clan on the Blood Moor are the weakest existence in the system of hell monsters. Before Hell exploded, compared with the humans of the Brahma Continent, their strength was absolutely among the high-end existences. Only now that Hell has been destroyed and become incomplete, their strength is only a tiny bit of what it was. I estimate they won't be your match now, but exactly how weak they've become, I don't know either. You'll have to explore that yourself," Diablo said.

"Is that so?" Diya frowned. The monsters of the Blood Moor had once been that fierce, peak existences on the Brahma Continent. Wouldn't that mean they had been like king-level, emperor-level, imperial-level, or even the stronger saint-level?

"What, without a weapon in hand, you don't dare go in?"

"Master, I'll protect you," Flavia said firmly, leaving Diya unsure whether to laugh or cry. Great. Now he was being looked down on too.

Crossing the stone arch bridge, they formally stepped into the territory of the Blood Moor. A softness came from beneath his feet. The place was utterly silent; apart from the footsteps of Diya and Flavia, nothing else could be heard. The somewhat dim light shrouded the distance in a hazy blur, making it seem boundless.

The moment they entered the Blood Moor, bright light flashed in Flavia's eyes, making her look every inch a female war goddess. Her hands had long since made their preparations; the instant a monster appeared, she could launch an attack at any time.

Diablo drifted leisurely through the air, while Diya looked left and right, paying attention to the movements around them. His spiritual power had only recovered a tiny bit, so he was especially cautious.

On the Blood Moor, apart from grassland that could be seen everywhere, some places also exposed patches of pitch-blackness, as if they had been scorched by flames. There were also some broken wooden stakes and the like.

As their steps carried them forward, deeper and deeper into the Blood Moor, suddenly, there seemed to be some sound, drifting over indistinctly like the roar of an ancient strange beast. It sounded so unreal, as if in a dream. Diya stopped and turned his gaze toward the direction the sound had come from, but saw only a stretch of gloom.

"Master, something is coming," Flavia said. Her hands moved, drawing the bow and aiming ahead, waiting motionlessly for the so-called thing to appear.