Chapter 118
After devouring one of the serpent demon's heads, the shared experience alone was enough for Ye Bai to level up twice.
Keep in mind that the higher the level, the more the experience required skyrockets. After the second class advancement, gaining even a single level demands an enormous amount of experience. Under normal circumstances, players at this stage would need several days of grinding to level up—let alone during the current server-wide early-game phase, where progress is even slower.
Of course, for Ye Bai, maintaining an overleveled status in the game was only a secondary benefit. The real significance lay in the tangible impact of her level growth in reality. After the events on Makur Star, she understood all too well that strength was the only true foundation for survival.
By the spatial rift, Kraken was still firmly gnawing away at the remaining half of the serpent demon lord's body, showing no signs of letting up.
Watching this scene, Ye Bai recalled her brief glimpse of the serpent demon lord—seven heads in total, with the terrifying ability to regenerate severed ones. If Kraken could devour them multiple times, wouldn’t that mean endless leveling, all while being eco-friendly and healthy?
If only they could pull the serpent demon lord through the spatial rift, just like how they had sucked in other infernal creatures earlier.
The moment this thought crossed her mind, Ye Bai suddenly frowned.
She now noticed that, without realizing it, Kraken had drifted dangerously close to the spatial rift.
Kraken was still tugging and chewing on the remaining half of the serpent’s body. Its teeth didn’t seem as formidable as its digestive abilities, unable to fully sever the serpent’s flesh. In the midst of this tug-of-war, Ye Bai realized Kraken was slowly being pulled toward the rift.
Given its massive size and the fact that it had just vacuumed up a horde of infernal creatures, Kraken appeared to hold the upper hand. But the moment Ye Bai entertained the idea of luring the serpent demon lord over, a chilling realization struck her—
She wanted Kraken to bait the serpent demon lord into the deep sea, but what if the serpent demon lord was thinking the same thing? Infernal lords were far more cunning than the mindless, chaos-corrupted lesser creatures of the abyss.
Even as one of its heads and part of its body were being devoured, Ye Bai could sense a deliberate, almost taunting intent behind the serpent demon lord’s actions.
This was bad—the enemy was trying to drag Kraken into its domain instead!
"Kraken, that’s enough! Let go now—it’s a trap!" Ye Bai urgently shouted.
"Huh?"
The feasting Kraken turned its spiritual form toward Ye Bai, its expression clearly hesitant. Slowly, reluctantly, it began loosening its tentacles from the serpent’s body, like someone reluctantly letting go of a stubbornly stuck carrot.
But sensing Kraken’s retreat, the half-submerged serpent’s scales suddenly flared with a crimson glow. The space around the rift rippled like disturbed water, and for a split second, the boundary between the two dimensions blurred.
Whoosh!
The serpent’s body abruptly yanked backward with tremendous force, dragging Kraken—who hadn’t fully disengaged—toward the other side.
Ye Bai’s pupils contracted. A dizzying, disorienting sensation engulfed her, followed by the familiar feeling of dimensional travel.
The next moment, her vision was flooded with scorching heat. A dark-red sky and the suffocating reek of molten lava permeated the air.
Standing atop Kraken’s head, Ye Bai—along with Kraken’s physical form—had been pulled straight into the serpent demon lord’s domain!
BOOM!
Kraken’s colossal body crashed down beside a fortress of magma, flattening dozens of nearby infernal creatures under its bulk.
True to its gluttonous nature, Kraken’s first instinct was to scoop up the crushed creatures and shove them into its mouth, triggering a rapid series of experience-sharing notifications in Ye Bai’s ears.
But she had no time to dwell on that now. Standing on Kraken’s head, she stared at the magma fortress, her face paling in shock.
The serpent demon lord Kedar was no longer fully submerged in the molten pool as before. Now, most of its massive body was exposed, coiled in layers around the fortress, with countless segments still writhing and slithering through the lava, sending waves of molten rock splashing.
Yet this spine-chilling sight wasn’t what horrified Ye Bai the most.
What truly stunned her was the number of heads Kedar now displayed.
One, two, three… seven.
Even after Kraken had devoured one earlier, there were still seven heads here. That meant Kedar wasn’t a seven-headed serpent demon, as Ye Bai had initially thought—it was an eight-headed one.
For serpent demons, each additional head signified an exponential leap in power, as every head represented a new ability.
This also meant Kedar wasn’t just Level 85 or above, as Ye Bai had estimated—it had to be Level 90 or higher.
Back when they first clashed, whether out of arrogance or restraint, Kedar had only revealed a fraction of its strength. This was its true form.
From the heart of the volcanic fortress, a head larger than all the others emerged from the molten "crater." Unlike the others, this one had its eyes tightly shut, while the remaining six heads encircled it like devoted sentinels.
Six pairs of eyes locked onto Ye Bai and Kraken. The central, eyeless serpent flicked its tongue, and Kedar’s voice—deep, sinister, and dripping with malice—echoed through the abyss:
"I knew I wasn’t mistaken… that intoxicating divinity… God of the Deep, devouring you will be my final step toward ascension…"
Hearing this, Ye Bai instantly understood why Kedar had been so desperate to lure Kraken into its lair, even sacrificing a head as bait.
If it grew a ninth head, Kedar would undoubtedly surpass Level 100, ascending as a true divine entity—no longer just an eight-headed serpent demon lord, but the Greed Demon God, the legendary Nine-Headed Infernal Serpent.
And how did Kraken respond to this grand declaration of war?
It was still busy hoovering up the fleeing infernal creatures like a ravenous roomba, its massive tentacles sweeping the battlefield for snacks. Even the half-eaten serpent body it had been chewing on earlier was still being chomped—Kraken’s enormous maw had no trouble multitasking.
The sheer absurdity of the scene momentarily broke Ye Bai’s tension.
The earlier spatial distortion had clearly been Kedar’s doing—a one-sided expenditure of power to drag Kraken into its domain, setting the stage for an epic clash between two titans: the God of the Deep and the Serpent Demon Lord, locked in a battle of mutual annihilation.
But in that fleeting moment, Ye Bai felt that Kedar, the serpent demon notorious for its greed and devouring nature, had lost on a spiritual level.
When it came to eating, Kedar still carried some pride as a demigod powerhouse and a lord of the infernal realm. Kraken, however, in its current state, truly embodied what it meant to be a glutton!
Of course, from Ye Bai’s perspective, she couldn’t be happier to see her beloved "daughter" eat so much. Kraken’s conversion rate was astonishing—not a single bite went to waste.
"...Stop eating!" Kedar, whose seductive glances had been completely ignored, was the first to lose patience and roared in fury.
Aside from its largest head, the other six heads lunged at Kraken one after another.
Hearing this, Kraken only sped up its devouring. From the moment it had started feasting until now, Kraken had already leveled up twice, pushing Ye Bai’s shared experience pool to the threshold of Level 56.
Seeing this, Kedar followed suit, its serpentine maw gaping wide as it bit down on one of Kraken’s tentacles.
At the same time, each of its heads unleashed a relentless barrage of high-tier spells upon Kraken.
Inside the protective green barrier maintained by Kraken’s magic, Ye Bai was tossed left and right uncontrollably as the two titans clashed. Watching the barrier shrink, she knew the situation was dire.
Though Kraken’s true nature surpassed Kedar’s as a sea deity, the Deep Sea race relied heavily on their environment to unleash their full combat potential. While Kraken could survive on land without issue, its fighting prowess was significantly diminished.
Ocean magic was severely weakened here, unable to unleash its original power—let alone in this infernal space, which was hostile to aquatic creatures. Meanwhile, Kedar’s strength was amplified.
Originally, Kraken had been using the half-eaten serpentine body as an anchor, holding its ground while tangling with Kedar.
But Kedar quickly realized this. Now that it no longer needed to "fish," and after discovering that no amount of attacks could make Kraken loosen its grip, one of the serpent lord’s heads twisted around and aimed for the remaining portion of the severed body—
Snap!
Blood gushed out as another of Kedar’s heads cleanly bit through the remaining half of the serpentine torso, sending it tumbling into Kraken’s maw.
Boom!
With its anchor severed, Kraken was flung backward by the recoil, sending Ye Bai into another violent spin.
Meanwhile, the stump of Kedar’s severed body pulsed with a bloody glow before swiftly sinking into the magma.
Ye Bai immediately recognized that Kedar was using [Decapitation Regeneration] to restore its lost head. It seemed that while Kraken had been feasting, Kedar couldn’t activate its recovery skill. But now, by "abandoning its head to escape," Kedar had deprived Kraken of its most stable source of experience.
Of course, Kraken wasn’t without combat instincts. After swallowing the last chunk of flesh, it immediately sought out another head.
But the serpent lord, having learned its lesson, was now on guard. There was no way it would let Kraken succeed again. The two colossal beings locked into a fierce struggle.
The magma fortress trembled as flames erupted, molten rock splashed, and high-tier spells clashed. Amidst the chaos, the faint sound of crashing waves could be heard—magical constructs of tidal attacks.
Between the two behemoths, a tiny human figure darted and leaped like a flea.
After a quick mental exchange with Kraken’s spirit form, Ye Bai seized the moment and voluntarily stepped out of the protective barrier.
Escaping back to the deep sea was no longer an option. Kedar had too many tricks up its sleeve and had prepared thoroughly. The magma fortress was still some distance from the spatial rift, making it impossible for Kraken to locate the coordinates for a dimensional leap.
Under these circumstances, Ye Bai couldn’t afford to let Kraken waste energy maintaining a barrier for her. She needed to find a way to help Kraken win this battle!
‘-753’, ‘-634’, ‘-732’…
Ye Bai danced on the edge of a blade, leaping and dodging amidst the clash between Kraken and the serpent lord.
In just a few seconds, she had already taken significant damage—not just from Kedar’s six heads’ spells but also from environmental hazards caused by the two titans’ struggle.
As a Spellbreaker, Ye Bai was practically trying to get hit by spells.
Back when she had chosen her second-tier class, she had considered this the greatest advantage of her profession.
A flash of light—whenever her health dropped to dangerous levels, Ye Bai instantly leveled up on the spot. If she ran out of experience, she still had health and mana potions in her inventory.
Whoosh—
Kedar’s serpentine head swung sideways, evading Kraken’s grasping tentacles and tilting Ye Bai’s footing. She plummeted from a height of over twenty meters.
‘-52’
The landing still dealt fifty-some points of fall damage—a relatively minor amount thanks to the shock absorption from her Featherlight Armor set. Without it, she would’ve lost half her health.
By now, Ye Bai’s [Spell Disruption Refund] skill slots had gained three new high-tier spells.
She didn’t use these spells to attack Kedar. At her current level, even a refunded spell would barely scratch the serpent lord. It wouldn’t make a meaningful difference in helping Kraken.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The battle between the two giants raged on, shaking the earth. On the surface, it seemed evenly matched, but Ye Bai knew the situation was far from favorable. Kraken’s arsenal paled in comparison to the serpent lord’s.
Due to its biological structure, Kraken needed to wrap its tentacles around one of Kedar’s heads before bringing its mouth close enough to bite.
This was Kraken’s deadliest move—once it got a head in its mouth, that head was as good as gone. Even if Kedar could regenerate, doing so would still cost it time and energy.
But fulfilling that condition wasn’t easy. The serpent lord wasn’t stupid. Its heads worked together to prevent Kraken from getting a grip. Moreover, unlike Kraken’s tentacles, Kedar’s six heads were all mouths!
Even as they fought Kraken, these heads continuously tore into its tentacles.
After landing, Ye Bai’s gaze locked onto Kedar’s heads—more precisely, the infernal brand on its neck.
A demigod and a third-tier class were worlds apart, let alone someone like her who was still only second-tier. Ye Bai knew her ability to influence this battle was limited, so she had to think outside the box.
At this moment, an idea she’d had upon first encountering Kedar resurfaced in her mind.
Ye Bai took out the scroll containing the paper figure and quickly explained the current situation before asking:
"Nameless, do you have a way to alter the Infernal Brand on the serpent demon?"
It wasn’t just ‘books’ that used words—the Infernal Brand was essentially demonic script.
According to the lore, demonic script functioned as a magical language, similar to spell scrolls. The Infernal Brand on a Hell Lord, within the setting, granted it power. Couldn’t that mean the brand itself was a form of ‘skill mapping’?
From a worldbuilding perspective, Ye Bai found this reasoning perfectly sound. The only question was whether such fine details aligned with reality, as she had only outlined the broader lore of the divine realm and didn’t know the exact evolutionary process when a serpent demon ascended to Hell Lord status.
Hearing Ye Bai’s words, the paper figure paused briefly before grasping her meaning, then couldn’t help but praise, "You’re truly a genius!"
Then, the paper figure turned toward the serpent demon’s position and explained, "But like last time, I’ll need to get close enough."
Ye Bai nodded. "I’ll create an opening for you right away. But… when you attempt it, can you avoid alerting it? Just confirm whether it’s possible to alter the brand first."
The reliable paper figure thought for a moment before answering, "That shouldn’t be a problem."
"Are you guarding against the serpent demon’s hidden move?"
Ye Bai nodded again, then immediately sprang into action. She rushed toward the battlefield where Kraken was gradually losing ground.
At that moment, most of Kraken’s tentacles were wrapped around one of the serpent demon’s heads—the one capable of casting ice magic. As a deep-sea creature, Kraken had the highest resistance to water-based spells, and her combat instincts told her this head was the easiest to handle.
But just then, Kedar’s other heads suddenly stirred. Its coiled serpentine body tensed and shifted, and the five pairs of exposed eyes gleamed with vicious anticipation.
That look—it was the look of a predator finally seeing its long-awaited prey take the bait.
And Kedar’s largest head, the one that had remained buried in the magma fortress all this time, finally emerged, stretching toward Kraken.
Ye Bai leaped onto Otophis’s back, quickening her charge.
Earlier, Ye Bai had already taken note of Kedar’s largest head—the one whose eyes had remained shut. It was clearly Kedar’s most powerful, yet it had stayed inactive the entire time.
All these signs made Ye Bai think of one legendary spell from the Infernal skill set.
This was one reason she had told the paper figure not to alert Kedar prematurely—because if this was indeed that spell, she would only have one chance!
The next moment, Kedar’s largest head reached an optimal distance in front of Kraken.
Kraken’s tentacles were coiled around one of Kedar’s heads while the others fended off attacks from the remaining heads. With all her strength, she pulled the captured head toward her maw, creating a momentary stalemate between the two colossal beings.
Then, deliberately sacrificing yet another head as bait, the Hell Lord swiftly maneuvered its largest head above Kraken and slowly opened its eyes.
The five other heads, which had been suppressing Kraken’s tentacles, didn’t press closer. Instead, they all retreated slightly.
Finally, those slowly opening eyes locked onto Kraken.
Unlike the serpent demon’s other eyes, these were a dull, lifeless gray.
From those eyes, two beam-like trails of gray ‘gaze’ became clearly visible.
The moment those gazes fell upon Kraken, the transformation began.
Where the gaze touched, Kraken’s crimson tentacles rapidly faded, turning ashen.
Not just in color—their very texture underwent a violent shift, from resilient flesh to something stonelike. This was a fundamental change. No matter how mighty those tentacles had once been, they were now nothing more than inert rock.
All of this happened in the span of a single glance.
The gaze struck the midsection of Kraken’s tentacles, and the change occurred only there. The parts still connected to her body and the tips remained unchanged, but with the middle turned to stone, the severed ends lost their connection and went limp, lifeless.
The half-swallowed serpent body thrashed violently now.
Such struggles would never have broken free of Kraken’s grip before—but now, the petrified sections were no stronger than ordinary stone. A single wrenching motion shattered them.
Four tentacles crumbled away from Kraken’s body, and the five waiting serpent heads greedily devoured the fallen pieces.
Just as Ye Bai had feared, Kedar’s largest head possessed the legendary spell—Petrifying Gaze.
In the past, even a demigod lich could only cast legendary magic by borrowing the power of the Tome of Death. Yet Kedar’s dominant head wielded such magic innately—and of the most dreaded kind.
Petrifying Gaze, inspired by the real-world myth of ‘Medusa’s gaze,’ turned any target under its sight to stone. The duration depended on the level difference between caster and victim. Against a vastly weaker foe, a single glance meant instant, irreversible petrification.
Against a peer, the victim could recover if the gaze was broken—but as long as the spell persisted, restoration was impossible.
For a serpent demon, this ability was beyond overpowered—it was game-breaking.
Because, as demonstrated now, while the gaze turned its prey to stone, its other heads could freely attack the petrified sections, dealing permanent, irreparable damage.
This was the Hell Lord’s true killing move!
"Rooooar—!"
Kraken let out a long, agonized cry and involuntarily released the half-devoured serpent body.
The partially digested remains of the head spilled out, along with mangled chunks of flesh.
Before this, despite the wounds inflicted by Kedar’s other heads, Kraken had endured, focused solely on the fight and consuming her foe. This was the first time she had ever been forced to relinquish prey already in her grasp!
Kraken's entire spiritual body was emitting a green glow, desperately trying to block the incoming spell, yet it was futile—it could only slow the spread of the petrification caused by that gaze across her physical form.
For the first time, Ye Bai heard Kraken let out a scream. The sound felt like a hammer striking his heart, leaving his mind buzzing in an instant.
Think of a way, think of a way, think of a way… Don’t limit yourself to the conventional abilities of the current role. Approach it from another angle—there must be a solution!
"Hahaha…"
Kedar yanked out the severed half of the serpent’s body, his gaze shifting back toward Kraken.
The sound of waves rose in overlapping layers as an illusory tsunami surged toward Kedar. Kraken’s spiritual form had completely transformed into green light—she was casting an ocean spell, the same legendary magic [Skyward Tide]!
The spell conjured a phantom tsunami, and even the magma pool Kedar occupied began to churn. As a fluid, the molten rock became part of the surging waves.
Yet, this place was far from the deep sea, and the skill was severely weakened. At her current level, Kraken couldn’t unleash its full power.
Legendary against legendary, Kraken’s Skyward Tide only briefly disrupted Kedar for a few seconds before the terrifying petrifying gaze locked onto her again—this time, the serpent lord’s target was precise: Kraken’s head, or more accurately, the position of her spiritual core.
Kraken raised her tentacles to block, but the petrifying gaze swept through them effortlessly. Wherever it touched, the tentacles turned to stone before crumbling to the ground.
The speed of the gaze was beyond comprehension. Even with dozens of tentacles, Kraken couldn’t withstand such rapid disintegration.
"Kraken!"
At the critical moment, Ye Bai’s voice rang out. Simultaneously, a thin line flew from somewhere behind, landing within reach of Kraken’s remaining tentacles.
At the end of the line was a small, rounded hook.
It was, unmistakably, a fishing hook.
"Bite!"
Ye Bai shouted with all his might.
Kraken’s massive emerald-green "eye" blinked once, and on instinct, she reached out with the nearest half-intact tentacle and grabbed the hook as it swung past.
Kedar had never paid attention to Ye Bai—a mere speck tainted with Kraken’s aura. If Kraken was a feast in its eyes, Ye Bai wasn’t even dessert. Too insignificant.
So even when it noticed Ye Bai inexplicably moving closer, Kedar didn’t care what the little insect was up to.
"Below demigods, all are ants"—this saying held absolute truth in the cosmology of the Ten Thousand Realms.
But just as the serpent lord prepared to close in on Kraken, already deciding where to take the first bite—
"BOOM—"
Originally, due to her massive size and lack of buoyancy outside water, Kraken had been forced to sit heavily on the ground, channeling all her strength into casting legendary magic to fight Kedar.
Yet in the very next instant, Kedar witnessed Kraken take flight.
What kind of joke was this?
She had shown no mastery of gravity magic. Kedar itself couldn’t fly—how the hell was Kraken airborne?! Had its eyes, unused for so long, started hallucinating? But the other heads saw it too!
And Kraken’s absurd flight wasn’t the end of it. As she rose, her numerous tentacles—still extended in battle—hadn’t retracted. Before Kedar could react, those petrified stumps, still partially stone, whipped across its face with full force.
"THWACK THWACK THWACK—"
A rapid series of impacts rang out. Before Kedar could process what was happening, it had been slapped across the face by a dozen of Kraken’s tentacle tips.
But the humiliation didn’t stop there. The sudden barrage knocked the head wielding the petrifying gaze off-balance.
Its eyes still open, the deadly beam abruptly shifted direction—landing squarely on one of its own heads and a section of serpentine body behind it.
"CRACK—"
Even as Kedar frantically shut its eyes, the unlucky head caught in the blast petrified instantly, transforming into a lifeless stone statue.
The adjacent section of neck didn’t escape either. Since each of Kedar’s heads was far smaller than Kraken, the petrification was swift. Though only the middle of the second neck was struck, the connecting head was rendered useless—just like Kraken’s severed tentacles.
In one stroke, Kedar had lost two heads.
And its first devoured head hadn’t even regenerated yet!
The primary head snapped its eyes shut, and Kedar’s remaining heads swiveled in unison to assess the situation.
What they witnessed next was perhaps the most ludicrous sight in the serpent lord’s thousand-year existence.
The colossal Kraken—several times larger than its own body—was now being swung through the air like a wrecking ball, tethered by a ludicrously thin line.
At the other end of that line was an utterly ordinary-looking wooden rod, comically insignificant compared to Kraken’s bulk.
And gripping the rod’s end was that insignificant speck—Ye Bai—swinging it in wide, circular motions as though reeling in a fish.
Under normal circumstances, this might make sense if the object being pulled was, say, the size of a human head. But the thing at the end of that line was Kraken—a being hundreds, if not thousands, of times larger than Ye Bai himself!
Even with multiple heads confirming the sight, Kedar’s remaining serpentine faces exchanged glances, each silently questioning if their vision had failed.
—Shouldn’t this be the other way around?!
But no matter how many times Kedar blinked, the absurd scene remained unchanged. Kraken hadn’t shrunk. There was no trace of magic amplifying the force. She was simply… being lifted and swung by a flimsy stick and string.
If asked, Ye Bai would’ve explained it simply: Kraken was classified as a "fish," and she had just "taken the bait."
"BOOOOOOM—"
As if the visuals weren’t surreal enough, the accompanying sound effects were earth-shaking.
Kraken’s massive body became an unstoppable wrecking ball. As she was swung around, not only had Kedar been blindsided—losing two heads in the process—but the surrounding hellscape didn’t fare any better.
Though the fulcrum was baffling, the tremendous centrifugal force allowed Kraken’s massive size to unleash its full destructive potential without any reduction.
This mid-air whirl demolished the surrounding environment—countless boulders shattered, magma splattered, and nearby ordinary creatures of the abyss were all helplessly flung to their deaths, dissolving into beams of white light.
The system registered Ye Bai’s act of dragging Kraken into an attack as a weapon strike, rewarding her personal stats with a significant boost in experience.
She had only meant to test it out—never expecting it would actually work!
Back when Ye Bai was at sea, this idea had crossed her mind. But in the endless depths where no land existed, with Kraken as her only foothold and no materials to craft a vessel, she had never attempted to "fish" for Kraken’s true form—there simply wasn’t a fulcrum to leverage.
Yet in that split second, lightning-fast thoughts raced through her mind until she seized upon a flash of inspiration—
Before, she lacked a fulcrum. But now, on solid ground, the earth beneath her feet became that very pivot!
Initially, Ye Bai had only intended to use this "fishing" method to free Kraken from the legendary magic trapping it. But as the experiment succeeded, she discovered something astonishing—under the effects of the miraculous fishing rod, Kraken’s immeasurable weight was judged to be a mere ten pounds. As long as she maintained a firm grip, she could swing it around effortlessly.
And unless Ye Bai willed it herself, the "fish" hooked by the miraculous rod would never break free.
Ten pounds was a trivial weight for Ye Bai’s current strength—she could easily whirl it dozens of times without strain. But with Kraken as the "catch," the devastation caused was incomparable to swinging an ordinary ten-pound fish.
"Thwack! Thwack! Thwack…"
Seizing the opportunity, Ye Bai even advanced mid-swing. After completing a full 360-degree rotation, Kedar’s remaining head was smacked once more, and the magma fortress was sent flying by the terrifying force.
With the active attack, Kedar’s health bar appeared before Ye Bai. Combined with the earlier damage inflicted by Kraken, the enemy’s lengthy HP had already dropped to 60%. This latest devastating swing shaved off another 10%.
Ye Bai quickly checked Kraken’s status—aside from a newly added "Dizzy" debuff, its health remained unchanged.
Seeing this, Ye Bai doubled down on her efforts… Hang in there, sweetheart. A little dizziness is better than turning to stone.
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