Asmodeus chose not to open the door using the key and instead returned to his camp and tried to get so sleep. Thanks to them killing the boss and falling into a strange section of the dungeon, likely a lower level close to the final boss room.
"Ugh..."
The flas beca dull and vanished, with charcoal littered across the ground as he woke up. Five or six hours had passed since Asmodeus closed his eyes. He didn’t normally sleep for hours, even when spending ti with his wives... so it felt quite refreshing.
"Good morning lad."
Logan’s eyes bead with light; his exhaustion and injuries appeared better as he smiled while stirring a pot of broth. The scent of beef and onions lingered in the room while Nerim and Zahir both sat with their eyes closed.
"How is everyone doing?"
"Well, the lad managed to survive the night. His fighting spirit and mana have recovered, but his arm is a little." Logan looked at Zahir with his bandaged arm, broken during the battle with the huge guardian.
"The Lass..."
"I’m fine, just a little tired. The mana used to maintain my alarm spell drained a little."
"Can you keep fighting?"
Asmodeus glanced at her arm and nodded. The bruises vanished along with the cuts and wounds. He noticed her gaze several tis but ignored it for now. As a married man, he couldn’t pretend he was naïve after her glance changed.
"Well shall we eat sothing, then head into the next room?"
"Yeah, right on ti al is ready."
The thick broth resembled gravy, filled with at, carrots, onions and other strange herbs that Asmodeus didn’t recognise, and yet the scent reminded him of ho. Before serving, the dwarf popped open a small device filled with warm, fluffy rice.
’Eh, a rice cooker?’
"What’s that tool Logan?" He asked as the dwarf started filling bowls with the broth and rice.
"Oh? Do you not know what this is? It’s a rice cooker. It was sothing invented years ago, a fad hero created this and many other devices before he passed away several hundred years ago."
’That bastard was definitely summoned or reincarnated here!’
Asmodeus hated it when people would get summoned in comics and then take credit for inventions. It always seed so shallow because they would take credit for things other countries created, and the readers ate it up and believed it.
He shrugged and took his bowl.
And sipped the broth.
"!!!!"
A tasty, thick gravy, with hints of dozens of minerals and vegetables, a sweet aftertaste that followed the aty and strong kick of the pepper and spices.
’It’s like they’ve mixed the deliciousness of Beef Stew with the sweet spiciness of curry!?’
Not long after eating, the entire group looked much better, with rosy cheeks and fair skin. The effect of the al brought everyone’s spirits to the max.
"Are we ready to go now?" Nerim asked while holding her spear.
"Of course, Lass just let take point."
"No, I’ll lead. Follow ."
Asmodeus didn’t want to waste more ti. He needed to visit ho and arrange his plans for the auction house. The biggest worry for him was saving Thorim. Although he promised to do so, the truth was, he was only about twenty percent confident.
Because the dungeon limited his power, he would struggle more than he thought.
’Well if I can bring him outside it should be fine...’
He held the crystal to the second door, and the murals he saw when in that strange trance vanished, and just the white marble and green veins remained. The entire wall reminded him of the Taken.
’Maybe there was no tal here, so it fused with the stones?’
"Everyone good?"
"Y-Yeah..."
"Of course, let’s open the door."
"..."
Zahir didn’t suddenly start speaking, but when Asmodeus looked back. The young warrior began to smile at him, then nodded. ’I seem to have won his trust too...’
Clack!
The mont he placed the glowing crystal into the slot, a strange noise echoed from the depths, a low groan followed by the creaking of stones moving. Dirt and smoke flowed from the cracks in the door as it dragged against the ground.
Inside, there was only darkness.
"Torches!"
Asmodeus snapped his fingertips, and two huge flas appeared beside him, granting a two-tre sight radius around him. "This is strange." It wasn’t normal darkness but felt more like the darkness was devouring the light.
When even his magic only gave such short-range vision, Asmodeus beca wary.
The torches barely managed a tre radius of light.
"Keep close, if you lose your way even I won’t be able to find you."
The party listened to Asmodeus speak, but didn’t refute him; instead, they all shifted closer as he took each step slowly.
’Sothing’s here with us!’
He couldn’t see it, but the sharp tingle on his spine, the feeling of being watched, lingered, and with each step, the strange warning and danger signals grew. Asmodeus didn’t fear the enemy, but with his reduced power and magic level, he wondered what could be inside this strange room.
The group walked in a strange pattern, instead of straight ahead. Asmodeus stepped in several directions and managed to asure the width of the room.
He touched the cold, smooth wall.
"So it’s not a rock wall, and the cave seems to have been completely changed."
"Lad, this feels dangerous."
"I know, but we need to find the way to leave."
Because they fell to a lower level in the dungeon, the return portal used to leave or go back to a previous floor didn’t work.
He’d even tried the special item that adventurers used in Grigor, but it just cracked and turned into smoke.
"Let’s go."
The room’s width was close to fifteen tres.
However, Asmodeus only moved three tres deep, because the more he walked, the clearer the prickling and dangerous tingle lingered on the back of his neck.
Through the dark, the party trudged towards the centre of the room.
Asmodeus checked the floor, aware of the strange puzzle in the previous room, but what surprised him was the lack of anything magical in the room. There were no traps, no puzzles, no monsters... just the silent enemy in the dark.
"C-Careful, an evil creature lingers..." Zahir’s soft voice brought Asmodeus to a stop.
"Where is it?"
His eyes flashed gold for a mont, and he could see the vague figure ahead of them... a tall humanoid that sotis twisted into a deford and monstrous shape.
’What the hell is that, a monster?’
"Lad?"
"Nothing, let’s keep going, spread out and prepare for combat."
The faint scrape of tal echoed through the dark. Asmodeus raised his axe, eyes narrowing as the air thickened around them. The light from his flas flickered once, then steadied, revealing only faint motes of dust drifting through the black.
Step by step, the group advanced. Logan kept his shield raised, boots grinding against the smooth floor, while Nerim crouched slightly, spear angled toward the sound. Zahir moved behind her, his broken arm strapped tight, one hand on his sword hilt.
’Strange...’
With each movent, the shape of the figure shifted.
Sothing alive awaited them, taking long, steady breaths, but the closer they ca to it, the colder it beca. The temperature plumted enough to form frost underneath Asmodeus’s boots.
"Stay here." He whispered.
However, the darkness exploded with his next footstep. It peeled from the walls and ceiling, coalescing into a towering silhouette that glimred with faint green veins like those in the marble doors. A humanoid shape made of pristine black tal, faceless, slender and moving with fluid motions... behind the shape, eight arms each holding a sword.
"Ah..." Logan’s voice trembled as he lowered his mace.
Nerim’s torchlight struck its chest and revealed a single green gem embedded there. The sa as the key Asmodeus carried before.
But what made him nervous was that the body of this monster was just like a Taken, yet... the aura emitted from its body reached the level of phisto.
"It’s made from the sa material," he muttered.
The creature tilted its head at his voice, and then its arms moved, eerie and non-human. The movents of its arms snapped into shape, rather than shifting or bending... Then it spoke using so strange sort of magic.
"Return."
Asmodeus gripped his weapon. A Killing intent exploded from the monster suddenly after that single word, and yet it didn’t move.
’This thing is dangerous!’
"T-Thorim... is that you? My boy... It’s your Pa!"
"WHAT!?"
He turned to the dwarf, watching as he staggered forward, mace down and hand extended. "I’ve been searchin’, for so long son."
The thing stepped closer, and the ground quaked beneath its feet. Each motion left trails of black mist, and when the fog touched stone, it rotted and turned the marble into a dark, slate instead of stone.
"Logan, that’s not your son right now!"
"No, no no no... It’s ma boy... I can tell!"
As if waiting for Asmodeus to say that, the monster’s face twisted and transford into a horrific smile filled with sharp teeth and black eyes.
Then it lunged at Logan with eight blades, cutting through the air.
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