My Wife and I Became Sages in Another World-Chapter 451: The Hell Gauntlet

After my team and I managed to defeat the 256 Primal demons on the 89th floor, we drank MP and healing potions before we kept advancing to the upper levels.

We knew that we were extremely close to the top, and we didn’t want to get caught by an ambush or a trap, so it was crucial for us to stay in tip-top shape at all times.

When we arrived on the 90th floor, we noticed that it was similar to the throne rooms we had seen before, which were much smaller than any other level in the tower.

The long window panel in the back showcased a sea of clouds and a panoramic view of the Lost Continent, but we couldn’t admire the sight since we were all displeased to see Drakzen waiting for us.

It seemed like Drakzen was tired of disguising as a human, so he showed himself to us in his hybrid form, which was the same one Nessa had been using this whole time.

Demons couldn’t use their full power unless they revealed their true forms, and I had already pushed Drakzen to that point in the past, so I was sure that I could deal with his hybrid form.

Nevertheless, after having encountered Drakzen so many times, I could tell when the demon was prepared to fight, and this wasn’t one of those times.

"What do you want?" I asked, utterly serious and without hesitation.

"Me? I was just passing by to congratulate my friend on making it here so quickly..." Drakzen replied, his tone as sarcastic as always.

"We all know you don’t have any friends, so spit it out. What are you doing here?" I continued, sharpening my gaze with hostility.

Drakzen made another sarcastic comment about how hurt he felt over my words, but we all just stared at the demon with annoyance.

"If you are here to waste our time, then I suppose we have no choice..." I said, grabbing my bo and changing into a more stable combat stance.

Drakzen lifted his hands with innocence, explaining that he had gone to the 90th floor merely to introduce us to our next challenge, which he called the "hell gauntlet."

He kept elaborating and told us that, in hell, devils who wanted to challenge a Demon King for their title would have to go through a series of death matches against the king’s chosen demons.

The devils that were part of the gauntlet were linked to the Demon King’s soul, so he was able to sense whenever one of them perished, and if all eight of them were destroyed, the Demon King’s soul would be "materialized."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

In my eyes, the whole gauntlet sounded like a waste of time since my group had already finished taking down a little over 250 primal demons, so fighting eight of them one by one would be a piece of cake.

Jackson interjected and explained that unless we killed the "hell gauntlet" demons, then our spells wouldn’t have much effect on Xalathas.

It was a protective measure against sudden assassination attempts, making the Demon King unkillable unless his gauntlet was destroyed.

Understanding our next task, I spotted the staircase leading to the next room, but I was still waiting for Drakzen to go away as he seemingly wanted to waste our time.

"Anything else?" I asked Drakzen, knowing that he had more to say from the annoying smirk on his face.

"Heh, good luck. I expect great things from this group..." He replied, vanishing into smoke.

’That’s all!? God, I hate this guy...’ I thought, sharpening my gaze and walking towards the stairs leading to the 91st floor.

Our team discussed our plan as we advanced. At first, we were only expecting to fight Drakzen and the king, but the apparition of Agares had us more worried than the Demon King himself.

Whenever I fought the demon generals in the past, I could sense the overwhelming malice that flowed from their bodies—something I never felt with Jackson and Nessa.

Still, behind the immense evil aura, I could also sense a purpose.

The demon generals weren’t doing their evil deeds "just for fun," but they genuinely had a goal in mind that justified their actions.

Of course, their objectives were evil in the end, but there was still purpose behind them.

Compared to the demon generals who had their own goals, all I could sense from the Primordial Demon, Agares, was pure, overwhelming malice oozing from his body with no purpose.

For us, it was more dangerous to fight a demon that didn’t have any goals since it would make their actions utterly unpredictable.

’Will Agares fight to protect the king? Will he just face us himself? Is he even going to join the fight or just watch?’ I pondered.

Too many variables were being added, so we needed to ensure that our group was focused and determined when the time arrived.

When we got to the 91st floor, we weren’t too surprised to see the layout of the room, as it was an expansive fighting arena that seemed to be made with cement, though the material was at least a hundred times more durable.

The room’s size was about two hundred meters in diameter, and there were tiny motes of blue light floating all around the area, illuminating the surroundings.

At first, I didn’t sense the presence of any demon, but right as I took a few steps forward into the room, I raised my bo to the side and deflected a massive dagger that came flying toward my face.

"So, this must be the first demon from the gauntlet..." I commented to my team, who silently prepared themselves for combat.

Thanks to the blue light motes, we were able to discern the figure of the demon in the back of the room.

It looked like it was a little over two meters tall, with a very skinny body that was almost "stick-like" and long arms that reached the ground.

Behind the demon’s figure, we could see dozens of large daggers floating with their tips aimed at us, which didn’t truly threaten me.

Each of the daggers was oozing with incredible amounts of MP, so I could sense them flying toward me the very second they moved.

"Let’s finish this quickly..." I said to my group, launching ourselves forward at high speeds.