Arriving in the prayer room, the group immediately started to search around for any clues.

  While this was happening, Shiro ’just so happened’ to have come across the compartments that had been tampered with.

  Looking at the points that were emitting a small wave of mana, Shiro pressed her palms against the floor and tried to get a better view of this formation.

  However, while she could see parts of it, the important aspects were hidden properly and not even Shiro could see them unless she was to completely obliterate this place.

  ’Whoever did this is experienced.’ She thought with a frown.

  {Well…… they did manage to get rid of your vision in the third room. They’re quite cautious.} Nimue nodded.

  ’Mn, regardless, I think I might be able to edit this magic circle a little. Add a little ’program’ to potentially help me.’ Shiro smiled and started to tamper with the magic circle. While this was happening, Nan Tian would cover her so that none of the other members of the party would notice.

  After a while, they started to share their investigation. However, it was also during this that they started to notice that quite a few of them have disappeared.

  Even Shiro was surprised since she didn’t sense anything.

  "Did you notice anything?" She glanced towards Nan Tian.

  "No. Seems like the enemy is a pretty good assassin." Nan Tian replied while glancing around the room to see if he could pick anything out.

  Holding her chin, Shiro thought to herself for a moment before flexing her finger.

  Thin strands of nano tech wire started to thread itself through the room as she created a spider web of sorts. Whenever something or someone touches the wire, she’ll be notified.

  "Hmm…… there seems to be something lurking in this ruin. Do we have anyone that is adept with tracking type spells?" Yorm called out with a frown.

  "I do but I’ll need a piece of the thing we’re looking for. There’s not even a spec of blood or torn fabric so I don’t think I can find them." One of the mages shook their head as Yorm furrowed his brows.

  "That makes things difficult." He muttered.

  Sighing softly, he shook his head and looked back at the group.

  "I’d say we should end the investigation now. We’re currently lacking in the correct personnel to deal with this threat. Despite our levels being 200 or above, the enemy was still able to take out a few of us without anyone noticing. The dangers aren’t worth it." Yorm suggested.

  Just as he said this, a faint shadow wrapped around his head.

  *CRACK!!!

  In a single moment, his head was torn off his body.

  "!!!!" Widening her eyes, Shiro summoned Athera while Nan Tian activated a tier 5 magic circle. As for Yin, she flicked her wrist and purple flames erupted out from every corner of the room, exposing the shadowed figure.

  Hanging from the roof, a monstrosity could be seen with thin elongated limbs that looked as though it could be snapped with a single breeze. The rib cage protruded out of its body while its spine twitched from the sudden exposure of light.

  It had long black hair that seemed to cover most of his face but Shiro could faintly make out a pair of glowing red eyes, exposed bones and sharpened teeth. Its jaw was a mangled mess of flesh that was fused together haphazardly.

  Within his exposed ribcage, they could see corpses slowly being drained and turned to ash.

  Before the monster could pull Yorm into his ribcage, his body suddenly disassembled into petals and reassembled a few meters away with blood dripping from the corner of his lips. Instead of his singular tail that they were used to seeing, it had now split into 7 parts.

  "Tch, rude fellow. I thought I felt like my life was in danger." He narrowed his eyes as mana erupted out of him.

  Flickering in front of the monster, Shiro twisted her body and activated Athera’s first ability. With a tether linking the two of them together, strength surged through her body.

  *CLANK!!!!

  Striking against his thin arms, Shiro’s sword was stopped completely, much to her surprise. Feeling danger overwhelm her senses, she activated her Grace skill without hesitation.

  *BANG!!!!

  Crashing to the other side of the room, Shiro could feel her entire body shattering from that single hit. Despite activating the skill before she took any damage, the force of the attack still brought her HP down to a dangerous level. Quickly activating Rejuvenation to stop herself from being killed in one hit, Shiro tried to stand back on her feet only to stumble slightly.

  "KUAH!!!" Feeling a few broken ribs punctured her lungs, Shiro threw up a mouthful of blood as she could see her HP decrease continuously even though she used Rejuvenation.

  "Shiro!" Nan Tian called out in surprise as he sent his magic towards the monster.

  Before the steaks of light could even touch the monster, shadow erupted out from the tiles beneath them and blocked the attack.

  [Primary Anchor Guardian has been summoned.]

  [Demon God Verron has taken notice of the attack.]

  ’Sh*t! This is the primary Anchor point of a Demon God!?’ Shiro widened her eyes in shock and looked towards the Guardian once more.

  [Primary Anchor Guardian – LVL ???]

  HP: ???

  MP: ???

  "Lil’ Tian! Can you see what level he is!?" Shiro shouted out as her Hp finally stabilised.

  "Yes." Nan Tian said as Shiro could sense a bit of unease in his voice.

  "Level 510."

  Shock filled Shiro’s eyes since she didn’t expect to run into a tier 6 being this soon.

  Without hesitation, she activated her Celestial Raiment and chose Astral Rift as the base element.

  Creating two portal orbs beneath Yin and Nan Tian, she immediately brought them into her realm and dashed away while dragging them with her.

  "We can’t fight this. As a person who has reached tier 6 before, I can tell you that he’s just playing around for now. That hit he did to me was akin to me batting a fly away and it still forced me to use several life saving skills." Shiro shouted out as the three of them dash through the realm without looking back.

  Despite their only being a level difference of 10 from the peak of tier 5, this ten levels was like a giant uncrossable chasm. Even Nan Tian in his prime would probably be killed by this monster.

  If anything, she was thankful that she wasn’t killed in one shot.

  Jumping out of the rift, she glanced back at the ruins and made a mental note on their current location.

  "Seems like I won’t be looking for anchors anytime soon. Especially if there’s a chance that we might run into a God grade anchor like this one." Shiro frowned.

  "God grade?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.

  "Just something I thought of now. Despite there being an unkillable assassin in that ruin, we did manage to find out something rather interesting. The fact that A, anchors can have guardians and B, gods can place down anchors too. So for queens, their Anchors will be Queen Grade while Gods have God Grade Anchors. Sounds simple?" Shiro smiled while they continued to run. After all, if a tier 6 really wanted to kill you, you won’t be able to survive.

  So far, the monster hadn’t tried to chase them down but Shiro didn’t want to take any chances.

  "Mn. Since anchors are a no go right now, due to the danger they hold, I think we’ll have to prioritise something else until you get your class up." Nan Tian nodded.

  "Indeed. We have a few days to burn so I think I’m going to do some research about Class Up’s so that I can get into tier 5 quickly. I can probably extend my deadline with Helion since we’re not in too much of a rush." Shiro smiled.

  Suddenly, a decapitated head flew past the three of them as their breaths halted for a moment.

  Turning around slowly, they could see the Guardian smiling at them with its twisted maw. Compared to before, his body seemed much healthier as his arms were more fleshed out. Once again, his ribcage received a few new tenants.

  "Where are you going?" His broken voice crackled with sadistic ecstasy.

  "Shiro?" Nan Tian called out as he pulled his mask off.

  "Yeah?"

  "I don’t think we can run away from this."

  "I know."

  "Do you have a charge of your Extraction ready?"

  "No. Why do you think I told Helion that I can be ready in a week?" Shiro sighed.

  "I see…… In that case then I want you to run as fast as you can." Nan Tian smiled before a golden radiance erupted from his body.

  Creating several light orbs around him, he charged towards the monster.

  "Sh*t! ESTRELLA!" Shiro shouted out as she knew running was not an option. Rather than letting Nan Tian face this thing off on his own while she ran away, she’d rather fight with him side by side. If they die, then that’s just fate.

  With her shout, a portal opened up beside her as Estrella dashed out with a serious expression.

  Looking at Shiro, Nan Tian, Estrella and Yin who were charging towards him fearlessly, the guardian’s initial ecstasy faded since he wanted to see fear in their eyes. Cracking his body, he charged towards them.