Dayra squinted, trying to shield her eyes from the bright light coming from the dazzling flash after the oval knight’s death.
Neither the mirror nor the acceleration from the External Artifact helped the oval knight defeat Adam. Sure, he managed to inflict one wound—a cut on Adam’s cheek—but was such a result worth giving up his life for?
However, unlike Dayra or Kolos, the oval knight did not have such a deep consciousness and will. His goal was to follow Lyrod’s orders, which to so extent ca from the First Star itself, and to oppose every intruder of the crypt.
This was one of the reasons why the oval knight did not pay much attention to Dayra and imdiately focused on Adam. Sure, she was now a traitor, but she was still an Elder, the only one left after Kolos’s death, and she was the one who had all the seals.
And...
If Adam killed Lyrod, then the task of leading the Corrosive Lakes would fall to Dayra, as there were no other Awakened Monsters of sufficient power here.
Slowly, Adam turned to Dayra.
"So, are you telling that there are seven more floors like this ahead of us before we reach the ninth, where Lyrod is most likely hiding?"
Dayra nodded with a serious expression.
"Yes, but the second and third floors won’t be much different. I don’t know what kind of guards are there, the old ones or ones Lyrod replaced, but he couldn’t have changed the External Artifacts’ locations so that everything will happen much faster there too."
"I see, so we’ll get through the next two floors quickly. By the way, it would be nice if you participated in the battle too."
Adam’s gaze darkened.
"Or do you want to be exhausted by the ti I get to Lyrod and not have enough strength to defeat him? That would be a bad situation for both of us."
Dayra gulped.
She decided to work together, so now she had to do her part. Not only because that was the agreent, but because her survival depended on it.
"Yeah, he’s right..." Dayra thought as she bit her lip. "As much as I detest Lyrod, I can’t call him cruel, but he’s not the type to forgive a traitor."
A traitor could never be forgiven; it was foolish and too risky. The chances of the traitor doing it again were too high.
Sure, Dayra had a different opinion on the matter. She was forced to beco Lyrod’s subordinate if she wanted to stay on this land, so she was never a true ally.
As Dayra said, they passed through the second and third floors without any problems. There, other enemies awaited them, sowhat similar to the oval knight, all of them either having stone, twisted bodies or great fras clad in armor that reflected light.
But this was only part of the crypt, three floors out of nine, and the problems were ready to start again as soon as they reached the fourth floor.
"Well, well... What is this?" Adam tilted his head, puzzled.
Instead of the familiar round platform that had been on the previous three floors, he was looking at a hall of completely different size and shape.
Ahead of them was a floor divided into hundreds of identical squares, each large enough to accommodate up to 10 people at a ti.
The guard on the fourth floor had not yet shown himself, nor had the thing that was sure to cause them a lot of trouble—the External Artifact.
Nothing else would be accelerated, but that didn’t an the test would be any easier. Everything depended on the guard and the effect of the artifact.
"Adam, we need to be careful here." Dayra frowned as she tried to find sothing. "After all... we’re already in battle."
"Hmm?"
Adam didn’t really understand what Dayra was talking about, but soon he got the answer to his question.
Crack.
One of the square slabs flipped over, changing color from gray to purple. A white orb with one large red eye hovered above the slab. It stared directly at Adam, again ignoring Dayra, which was good for her and bad for Adam.
Well, at least that’s what they thought.
Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.
The walls shook as several slabs flew out and surrounded Dayra. Before Adam could do anything, the slabs enclosed Dayra in a cage and carried her away into the depths of the walls.
Adam’s eyes narrowed as he followed Dayra’s aura. After a few seconds, it stopped; the guard had taken her to a safe place, but it was obvious that Adam wouldn’t be able to get there so easily — first, he had to deal with the guard on the fourth floor.
"Hah, looks like you’re smarter than the others. Decided to separate and Dayra so she wouldn’t get in your way and keep her safe at the sa ti?"
Adam grinned as he looked at the eye orb.
If this were the Dead Lands, he would have imdiately freed Dayra from captivity by breaking down the walls in his path, but here, at the Corrosive Lakes on the Tarnished Lands, he simply didn’t have the strength to do so.
It was much easier to get rid of the cause of the problem than to look for workarounds.
"Well, I’m afraid none of this matters because I’m not going to let you live!"
With a fiery gaze, Adam stepped forward, crossing the dividing line between the entrance and the square slabs.
Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.
As soon as he stepped onto a slab, a powerful pressure descended upon him, reminiscent of the gravitational pressure at the dark field during his training with Risha and Radiant Mirage.
But this was a whole different level that Adam hadn’t expected.
His legs were shaking; if his resistance had been any weaker, his knees would have collapsed to the ground, and this was only the first slab!
A nervous smile spread across Adam’s face as he prepared to take the next step, but sothing made his eyes widen.
A stream of fla shot out from the eye orb, moving in a broken line across the slabs, gathering explosive force to tear Adam apart if he stayed in one place too long.
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