Translator: SumTLMan
The looming darkness ahead, stark as the gaping maw of an enigmatic leviathan, was poised to devour any unsuspecting prey that dared venture into its shadowy depths.
This encroaching murk swallowed all vestiges of light. Even though plunging deeper into its ink-black abyss might seem like a perilous pursuit, the resounding rumble echoing from behind left Angel with no other choice but to persistently sprint forward.
He moved with rapidity, a streak of fleeting light cleaving through the shadows, vanishing as swiftly as it appeared.
Just as observed by his scouting puppet earlier, he encountered no obstacles on his way. The underground passage was expansive and dry, its echoic silence interrupted only by the steadily encroaching rumble and the rhythmic tap of his own footsteps.
Finally, Angel arrived at the heart of La Sutherland — directly beneath the towering Void Obelisk.
Upon arriving, the formerly claustrophobic passage suddenly broadened into a vast expanse, a transformation as stark as stepping out from the tiny realm of Gulliver’s Lilliput into the colossal world of Brobdingnagian giants.
Not long after entering the negative distance of the Void Obelisk, Angel spotted the terminus.
Previously, the feedback from his scouting puppet reported the presence of an enormous metallic door. Indeed, the report held true; however, only upon standing before it did Angel comprehend the door’s gargantuan scale and meticulous craftsmanship, exceeding his wildest imaginings.
By the dim glow of a luminescent stone, Angel could discern the door’s material — it was crafted entirely from Abyss Mithril.
Abyss Mithril, a high-grade material harvested from the Abyss, was a scarce commodity. Even a minuscule amount would spark frenzied bidding wars at wizarding world auctions. And yet, here it was, used in the construction of such a massive door! Its sheer mass was monumental, likely weighed in tons!
Even for Angel, witnessing such a colossal trove of Abyss Mithril quickened his pulse.
However, he was acutely aware of the impending crisis and there was no room for greed-induced distractions. Suppressing his covetous urge, he turned his attention back to the study of the imposing door.
Under the luminescent stone’s glow, the door refracted the unique dark golden shimmer distinctive to Abyss Mithril.
It was at this point that Angel noticed an anomaly etched on the door. While the scouting puppet reported the door’s facade as entirely smooth, up close, Angel discerned numerous intricate indentations. These grooves interweaved to form a pattern that amalgamated into a broader design.
The resulting design resembled a mural, narrating an unfamiliar tale. While Angel could not decipher the story’s message, he could discern the elements of “laws, punishment, demons” embedded within the design.
Moreover, he noticed that the patterns constituting the design bore a striking resemblance to the luminescent runes he had encountered earlier. Presumably, this design was also a rune.
However, this rune lacked any signs of energy fluctuation, suggesting that it had likely become dysfunctional.
Under normal circumstances, Angel might have been tempted to investigate this rune further. However, with time pressing and in an unfavorable location, he simply didn’t have the luxury to indulge his curiosity.
His only prevailing thought was survival — how to escape from this predicament.
The ominous rumble within the passage showed no signs of abating; if anything, it seemed to be intensifying. Judging by the sounds he could hear, the entrance he had previously occupied had likely already crumbled into ruins.
Given the pace of the advancing threat, it wouldn’t take long before the calamity reached his current location!
In the grip of time’s relentless clutches, Angel turned his gaze back to the looming portal before him, sighing profoundly from his core.
Now, it appeared he had no other alternative but to venture beyond the doorway. Gathering resolve, he decided to attempt to push it open.
Stretching his hand out, it covered the towering door. Beneath his palm, the cold touch of the Abyss Mithril penetrated him, the chill seeping into his very marrow.
His veins strained against his arm as Angel harnessed all his strength, determinedly pushing the door inward… to no avail, it remained immobile.
A flash of surprise crossed Angel’s features before he embarked on a second attempt. This time, as he endeavored to push the door, he didn’t just muster all his might but also conjured three Magic Hands, all pressing against the monumental door together.
Despite the combined effort, his second attempt still concluded in failure.
The gigantic door remained steadfast, leading Angel to ponder whether it was not meant to be pushed, but pulled instead? He tried to exert a pull towards his direction, but to no avail, it produced no noticeable effect.
After several trials, Angel had exhausted every conceivable method he could think of, still with no success.
Had the door even creaked slightly, it would have provided Angel with some hint. But this door seemed as immovable as a mountain, steadfast, unyielding.
“Neither push nor pull… could it be a knock is needed?” Recalling peculiar tales from various anecdotes, Angel remembered similar plot twists: when all attempts to open a door failed, one might consider knocking.
However, if a simple knock managed to swing open the door, Angel predicted he would be terrified. Whatever force was able to open it from the inside, surely it was not something he should trifle with.
The thunderous rumble within the passage was now alarmingly close, the ground subtly trembling underfoot. Angel hesitated momentarily, then knocked on the door.
A crisp knock resonated, and as Angel prepared his defensive spells, he waited, his heart pounding with trepidation.
——Moments later, the door still refused to yield.
Angel was torn between relief and frustration, yet this test verified at least one thing: the space behind the door seemed to be vacant.
The roaring sound behind him was closing in relentlessly. Angel was truly at a loss now, having tried every conceivable method to open the door, all to no avail. He even attempted to convert his mental power into delicate threads, aiming to worm them through the door cracks, but without success.
“Perhaps, the ‘lock’ to open the door is not on my side but on the other side of the door?” was the only conjecture Angel could make now.
With the thunderous roar near deafening, in the pitch-black passage, Angel could even see dust particles dancing in the air.
A collapse was imminent.
The horrifying boom resonated as though it was the footstep of the grim reaper, and as the sound reached his ears, it may as well have signified the harbinger of his demise.
Caught in this moment between life and death, Angel sought to re-enter the state of absolute rationality, hoping to analyze the current situation, desperate for a glimmer of survival.
Behind him, dust and smoke billowed from the passage, but Angel remained unaffected, calmly focusing on the large door in front of him.
During his prior search for a mechanism to unlock this door, he had explored every inch of it without finding any abnormalities. However, the one anomaly that had aroused his suspicion was the rune Engravings on the Door etched in its center.
Angel did not lack an understanding of runes but he could not comprehend the meaning of these particular runes.
At present, his only speculation was that this rune engraving could be the key to unlocking the door. Only by activating the rune might he have a chance to swing the door open.
However, the rune on the door seemed to have lost its efficacy, possibly rendering it inoperative.
Resolute, Angel decided to act on his intuition, attempting to recreate the rune by harnessing his magic formation knowledge, to see if he could somehow recreate it.
Meanwhile, fragments of stone had already rolled to the vicinity of the door.
Unperturbed by the tumbling debris, Angel extended his finger, magic swirling at the tip. Slowly, he began weaving the magic into the intricate lines of the rune on the door…
The rune on the door flickered momentarily, and Angel’s vision abruptly plunged into darkness.
The next second, an eye opened in the dark abyss, regarding Angel.
How could he describe such an eye? It seemed as though it had seen through everything in the universe, brimming with wisdom, yet beneath that wisdom lurked a sinister and bloody aura.
As Angel was scrutinized by this eye, he felt utterly exposed, unable to move, his very being laid bare before it.
His physical body, his soul, all were laid naked under the penetrating gaze of this eye.
Suddenly, a familiar itch erupted at his shoulder. As the sensation intensified, the feeling of being stripped bare gradually faded… His vision was obscured as if by a layer of fog, not only concealing him from the eye but also obstructing his own view of the eye behind the veil.
Thus, he missed the fleeting surprise in that all-seeing eye.
As the darkness gradually receded, the eye vanished, and the glow of the luminescent stone once again filled Angel’s vision.
Angel wasn’t sure how long he’d spent engulfed in the darkness. When he finally snapped back to reality, he was astonished to find that the thunderous rumbling had subsided, the world had returned to a serene silence.
Angel looked at his unscathed hands, then at the large door before him.
The door remained shut, but his body was unharmed. What in the world had transpired?
Whirling around, he beheld the floor strewn with shards of stone, with faint fissures running along the side and ceiling of the passage. Yet, it was indeed a relief that no collapse had occurred here.
Trudging towards the passage for some way, he soon encountered an impenetrable mound of fragmented rocks and earth blocking further passage.
Angel, calculating the distance, deftly navigated his present coordinates through the mental simulation of a map: the collapsed passage was precisely beneath the towering Void Obelisk.
Angel momentarily became lost in his thoughts, as the situation indeed made sense.
After all, if the very passage he was situated in were to collapse, wouldn’t the Void Obelisk, standing proud on the surface, also face peril? Even if it didn’t crumble, it would likely become a slanted Obelisk of the Void.
It seemed his previous apprehensions had been rather needless.
However, the harsh reality of the situation still loomed: how was he to make his escape?
Angel ambled back towards the large door that remained steadfastly shut. As he contemplated his previous experiences, the situation seemed eerily peculiar.
What on earth was going on with this door? And what was the situation with the eye he had encountered earlier?
He scrutinized the runes on the door, but like before, nothing had changed.
Angel was bemused, eventually shaking his head in frustration and letting out a sigh.
He then, almost ritualistically, scanned his shoulder with his mental power. The spot that had been itchy earlier showed no signs of abnormality, which helped him set his mind at ease.
Angel no longer dwelled on these trifles. Instead, he began pondering the more pressing matter: how was he to escape from this place?
The first idea that popped into Angel’s mind was to dig through the mound of earth outside.
Since the passage had already collapsed, carving a path to the outside world should pose no problem, right?
Bearing this thought, Angel extended a strand of mental power through a gap in the mound, hoping to glean some insight into the situation.