Unlocking The First Seal

"I want you guys to spend the next few hours running some drills with your teams. I know it's short notice, but any help at this stage will be beneficial."

Nodding, the five headed off to gather their teams before they began running some basic training routines.

Fortunately for Minos, his team was made up of the most disciplined people having passed the willpower/courage test, so it didn't take much effort to turn his group into a well oiled machine.

…

Two hours later, a strange shattering sound from the realm portal grabbed everyone's attention.

Turning around, Minos watched as the realm portal began slowly expanding, quickly enlarging ten times over from the size of an average door.

It was is if a seal had finally broken, allowing the realm portal to finally return to it's original appearance.

"Everyone gather." The Guild Master suddenly shouted.

Calling his team, Minos made his way in front of the Guild Master, his eyes still glued on the portal as he listened to his words.

"The portal is finally open, and what happens next will be hard to know, so be sure to follow all of my commands precisely. No fooling around, understood?"

"Understood!" Everyone echoed.

Nodding in satisfaction, the Guild Master watched as the other teams slowly funneled into the realm portal before finally leading his group in as well.

Despite having entered a realm in the past, Minos's heart was still slightly rushing as he slowly walked up to the strange portal, the flashing scenes giving him a slight taste of what was about to come.

Steadying his team, Minos finally stepped in, following in the footsteps of the Guild Master who had already entered.

As if walking through a thick wall of mud, Minos struggled for a bit before he finally forced his way through to the other side.

When the light finally reappeared, Minos opened his eyes to find himself in a large dense jungle, the howls of beasts filling the area and reminding him he was far from safety.

A quick inspection revealed that he was the only one here, making it clear that this realm portal teleported everyone into separate locations.

He had already anticipated such a possibility, so he wasn't too worried, only hoping that his fellow guild members could survive.

Of course he wasn't completely safe either, after all, without the Guild Master to protect him, he'd also likely face dangers beyond his level.

Activating his Omniscient Eyes, Minos began looking around, his mind constantly running through the scenes he had seen in the portal to try and deduce his current location.

'The portal constantly flashed through nine distinct locations, and from what I saw, I recall the jungle being close to the volcano range.'

'While the volcano range is far from safe, the high terrain would be a good place to scout, so it's best I head there first.'

'The only problem I have left is which direction to travel…'

Thinking for a moment, Minos put his ear against the floor, using the earth to try and feel the seismic movement that was usually present near volcanoes.

With his incredible sense of hearing and touch, it didn't take much time for Minos to feel slight vibrations coming from the north.

Standing back up, Minos made sure to first inspect that the direction was safe before he finally started walking forward.

…

Hours quickly passed as Minos moved at a snail-like speed while also using his eagle puppet to scout, not foolish enough to rush in a location he knew nothing of.

While his slow travel made his trip a tedious one, it also allowed him to avoid all danger so far, staying relatively safe.

Unfortunately, not everything could be avoided, so just as Minos was about to keep walking, he heard a slight hiss from the distance.

Ducking behind a tree, Minos quickly froze in place, his breath held in his throat as he controlled his heart rate to slow down.

With such a maneuver, the vast majority of demonic beasts would completely miss his presence, but this creature was different.

Despite doing his best to hide, the hissing got louder, making it clear that the demonic beast had already figured out his location.

Knowing he wasn't escaping this time, Minos walked back out from the shade of the tree, looking straight ahead at the large snake demon.

The snake's slitted pupils were staring lifelessly at Minos, its emotionless aura making it clear it saw Minos as nothing more than prey.

'Snake demon? No wonder it found me.'

While his presence was low, the heat from his body was still obvious to snake demons which had the ability to detect it, rendering his hiding pointless.

Luckily, while the snake demon was also incredibly strong, it was still only in the same realm as Minos.

Tapping his spatial ring, Minos pulled out his old friend, the Heaven-Sundering Sword, a weapon he hadn't used for a long time.

'Been a while since I've fought, hasn't it.' Minos thought with a smile as he rubbed his finger across the blade's long body.

As he rubbed his finger across, he suddenly remembered the seal that had been put upon the blade by the Nine Sword Divinity.

Ever since he entered the Inner Heaven Realm, he hadn't really had the chance to use it, so he had completely forgotten about the seal, but now everything had come back to him.

'Looks like this fight will be even easier than expected' Minos smiled, before forcing his Nux into the blade.

As the Nux traveled into the Heaven-Sundering Sword, its body quickly lit up with dozens of chain-like marks that wrapped around its body.

Controlling his Nux, Minos forced it into the first chain that was closest to the hilt, struggling for a bit before his Nux overpowered the chain and shattered it.

As it shattered, the Heaven-Sundering Sword let out a loud cry, as if it had come to life for a moment.

The cry caused the snake demon to jolt up, its aura tinged with a new sense of fear that made it second guess its own will to battle.

However the loud cry didn't last long, and quickly sank back down, as if the Heaven-Sundering Sword's spirituality had been devoured once more by the abyss.

With the sword settling back down to normal, the snake's fear quickly vanished, replaced with anger as it let out another loud hiss directly towards Minos.

However while the snake was hissing at Minos, getting ready to pounce, Minos was distracted by a sudden message that had traveled directly into his mind and revealed something to him.

'Expansion? Interesting.'

It turned out that with the first seal breaking, the Heaven-Sundering Sword finally revealed a slight glimpse of its miraculous nature, finally giving Minos access to its first move.

Like the name implied, Expansion allowed the sword to expand up to ten-times, and this size could be controlled both lengthwise and widthwise, allowing Minos incredible versatility.

Looking at the snake demon that was about ten or so meters away, Minos decided to use this opportunity to give this move a test drive.

Pointing his sword directly towards the snake's head, Minos slightly whispered under his lips, causing the tip of the sword to suddenly rocket forward at an incredible speed.

While the snake demon was fast, how could it compare to the Heaven-Sundering Sword, which moved even faster than the blink of an eye?

By the time the snake demon realized what had happened, the Heaven-Sundering Sword had already pierced through it's left eye, turning it's brain to mush.

Slightly astonished, Minos quickly retracted the sword and sheathed it on his hip before walking up to the snake demon's collapsed corpse with a little amazement.

As a demon beast of the Inner Heaven Realm, it went without saying how strong its defense was, yet it was still pierced like a knife through paper.

Of course part of this had to do with the fact that Minos attacked its eye, which was the most fragile part, but it was still impressive nonetheless.

After marveling at his work for a second, Minos pulled his sword back out and began cutting through the snake demon, revealing its Demon Core.

Just like how humans have Inner Heaven's, demon's have Demon Core's, which essentially function in the same way.

The Demon Core was incredibly valuable, and could pretty much be used in all functions of auxiliary craft, from refining pills, to making weapons, and even some talisman's needed Demon Core's.

Cleaning the blood from the surface of the ruby-like stone, Minos put it into his spatial ring before quickly continuing on his way, not wanting to wait for the beasts to gather in his location.

After traveling a few minutes, the howls of beasts and the sound of fighting came from behind him, making it clear that the snake demon's corpse was finally found.

Luckily he acted fast and managed to avoid the battle, sparing him from any more unnecessary fights.