Damien systematically destroyed all 16 golems in the span of a minute. These regular 1st and 2nd revolution golems, with the restrictions placed on their attacking ability, were nothing in front of him.
After blasting open the last one, he jumped back and made his way to the center of the amphitheater once more.
"Come over," he said to Pandora, who was still watching from her original position.
She responded instinctually and joined him in the center before she even realized what she was doing, and before she could find a chance to complain, the floor shook once more.
Rumble!
The amphitheater floor rotated like a dial in the opposite direction of the wall rotation that took place previously.
Dust flew through the air as the cavern trembled. The walls changed again, and the stone floor changed as if sand was being sifted off of it, revealing the intricately beautiful picture below.
A single tunnel appeared at the end of the rotation.
Damien and Pandora jumped up and landed on its surface, gazing into its darkness with narrowed eyes.
They didn't have other options, so there was no need to think about it too much.
Nodding at each other, they took their first steps into the darkness.
But they wouldn't be alone in their search.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
A group of bodies fell through the open roof of the amphitheater, having entered the same sinkhole as Damien and Pandora.
They raised off the ground as if their injuries didn't exist, and within seconds, their injuries truly ceased to exist.
They all had stark ashen grey skin and the sharp features of Nox beings.
And in fact, a few of them were.
The Nox had found ways to evade the realm laws. This didn't just translate to their ability to kill in the mystic realm, it also meant the level and age restrictions others faced meant nothing to them.
At their head stood a man, roughly seven feet tall and with a body like he'd never stopped training for thousands of years.
On his hip was a large sword dyed red in blood, and to his back was a group of four Nox with features similar to his.
"Let us go. It seems we are not the first to come here."
His eyes went to the singular tunnel present in the amphitheater.
This was the second stage of the mechanism, something that couldn't be activated easily.
It could only mean the enemy was strong enough to pay attention to,
'We must succeed this time. Otherwise…'
He glanced at his companions for a moment before turning back to his target, jumping up to the tunnel.
Their goal was hidden behind several dozen riddles that weren't solvable through ordinary means, and despite the strength of the enemy, it wasn't certain they'd reach first.
But haste was to be made, for any variable had to be eliminated before they had a chance to interfere with the plan.
The man and his group moved into the tunnel, following the steps left by Damien and Pandora just minutes before.
Would the situation become a rat race, or would the two groups have to fight until one no longer existed?
Perhaps the most likely situation would be both at once!
***
The tunnel system was truly like a labyrinth filled with deadly traps meant to slaughter any who t dared enter its halls, but Damien and Pandora didn't encounter much trouble while traversing it.
As a man who held the All-Seeing Eyes in his grasp, it would be embarrassing if Damien couldn't see and avoid these traps.
Now that he knew the general direction he was supposed to be moving in, navigating was almost too easy.
He led Pandora through many weaving corridors, a few staircases that both ascended and descended and eventually came across the mouth of a cave.
They walked in, silent and wary, not even letting their awareness out too far in fear of giving away their presence.
It was extremely dark in the cave, but Damien could feel through his natural spatial perception its general layout.
There were three ways to go from here.
The first was straight, which would continue into a new tunnel system.
The second was upward, along the path of a trickling underwater stream.
And the last…
'I mean, when an option like that exists, you just have to take it, right?' Damien thought with a grin.
He grabbed Pandora's arm, causing her to jerk, but she relaxed when she felt him leading her through the cave.
Unlike him, the darkness was truly blinding for her.
It obviously wasn't natural darkness, and when this unnervingly pregnant feeling was combined with the intermittent strange echoes of sound that resounded through the cave, it was an environment that put one's danger senses to the test.
Pandora didn't want to continue from here, as she realized that her power couldn't get her past this point, but she decided to accept Damien's lead.
Only because he had proven his scouting abilities far better than hers.
The duo walked about ten steps forward and three steps to the left. They zig-zagged to the right and continued moving forward for 6 more steps before Damien suddenly stopped.
'Is it perhaps a pattern? There must be a trap on the floor.'
Pandora sent her awareness into the ground, just in time to witness Damien's foot sinking into an unknown mechanism.
"…!"
It was already too late to do anything about it.
Before she knew it, the stationary abyss around her started moving.
No, she began to fall through it!
The path Damien chose was neither forward nor up, but straight down at the fastest speed possible!
'Prisons are usually kept near World Cores for maximum security, and treasures should follow the same pattern!'
His reasoning was simple yet effective!
The duo fell for almost a full minute before the narrow trench that could barely fit their two bodies widened massively into a huge cavern.
They floated to a stop, allowing themselves to be displaced as they landed on the ground and spread their awarenesses.
Damien frowned.
'That's strange. This world has no World Core. Where do the realm laws come from?'
At their current depth, they should've already been able to sense its powerful fluctuations.
'Actually, isn't this cavern exactly where it should be?'
Damien immediately activated his Celestial Authority and felt the breath of the world itself, the frown on his face deepening with every passing second.
'There is something acting like a World Core, and it is present in this cavern. However, the World Core itself…'
It had been too long for Damien to know whether it had disappeared or it never existed in the first place.
His attention turned to the center of the cavern.
There was a massive stalagmite that reached halfway up the cavern's height, its gait like a mountain in the otherwise flat landscape.
Damien walked up to it and raised his head, peering at its peak.
His previous reasoning turned out to be…far more accurate than expected.
Because not only did he sense the mystical aura of treasure, he saw clearly the being crucified on this stalagmite.
'Holy Light Star, huh…just what the fuck is this place?'
Damien's frown finally traveled to the rest of his face, his expression turning extremely solemn as his ears pricked up.
The sound of approaching footsteps.
The feeling of that murky aura that he'd never forget.
The enemy was already here.
