Our party was ready. Ros and Lara had replenished their mana, and I'd finally calmed down after the earlier events.
I scanned the area again. We stood in a massive square chamber, wide and tall enough to swallow a cathedral.
I was sweating slightly. The air inside wasn't hot—but it wasn't warm either.
"When you were asleep, we investigated a bit." Ros spoke from behind as he approached me, then continued as he faced me, "There were three openings in the wall. They were basically doors, but I don't know where they'd lead us."
"Doors? What about the one we came from?" I asked, with a hint of suspicion.
We couldn't turn back, because we still had to clear our objective, but I still asked to confirm we would have an escape route.
Ros turned his head and pointed, "It was there," then turned again and pointed elsewhere, "Now, it's over there."
I furrowed my brows, growing even more suspicious.
"How do you know?" I asked, shifting my gaze to him.
"This ring helps me with that. It uses the air as a way to guide us to where we came from." He answered, as lifted his hand to show the ring on his middle finger. It was golden, with a slightly glowing crimson red gem on its center.
I had no clue how it worked, but all I could was reassure myself with it. We at least had a means of escape.
Lara stood—obviously impatient— next to us. She had her arms crossed the whole time.
"In any case, we should go now." Ros suggested, a slight smile crept on his face.
I nodded in agreement, Lara did the same and we started moving again.
We planned cautiously on where to go, and ended up choosing the door that seemed most likely to hold what we were looking for.
There were many familiar symbols engraved next to that hole.
Lara clicked her tongue in annoyance, taking notice of the symbols. They were different party symbols, each indicating to which party they belonged in.
No one knew how they were engraved there, because nobody tried to pass through the hole, and for those that did, none of them came back out.
"There it is." Ros said as if he was expecting it, rubbing his fingers over a certain symbol. It was our party's symbol.
My eyes widened in suspicion. We didn't know what it meant, but that obviously meant this is the door we'd need to pass through.
I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the worst before heading inside.
Approaching the hole, it wasn't too tight but barely big enough to fit for one person.
I didn't know what it was, but this place was giving me the creeps.
I was the first to enter the tight hole, as Ros and Lara followed from behind, carefully watching.
"Hurry up already," Lara snapped from behind.
I didn't even bother to look back at her, only sighed, answering her wordlessly.
I saw an opening in the tight space, the other side. My expression brightened slightly as my breath grew heavy due to the small hole we were trying to pass through.
Finally, as I passed through the hole, I was able to take a better look. I was breathing quite heavily because of the tight space back inside.
But, what I saw was worse than what I was expecting. I knew it would be bad, but I didn't know it was gonna be like this.
The room was very large, built out of concrete. There were torches on the walls, lighting the room in a creepy red color.
What frightened me the most was the sight of the hanging corpses. The ropes were tied to the surface, and it was gripping their necks very tightly.
It sent shivers down my whole body as my hands trembled.
My eyes shaky, I glanced looking for a specific person between the corpses.
It didn't take very long to find him.
Alde was also dead.
His eyes were blown out of his face, half of his torso cut open.
My mouth opened in shock, every corpse hanging looked the same or even worse.
As Lara and Ros finally came out of the hole, they both stood next to me as they observed.
"What is this.." Lara stutteringly spoke, her voice full of guilt. She took notice of Alde and the other corpses.
Ros clicked his tongue, more out of annoyance than anger. "Pay attention now. The Corrupted is here."
I tilted my head and noticed the Corrupted that had been standing there the whole time. I hadn't even noticed it due to the horror I was facing.
Even then, we all expected it. We just came here to confirm Alde's death.
My eyes twitched, locking my eyes onto the white and black Corrupted in front of me.
I closed my mouth and grit my teeth, "So it was you." I furrowed my brows, drawing my sword and pointing it at the monster.
Subconsciously, I activated Form One and jumped at the monster. Lara and Ros also got ready to support.
Lara mainly helps Ros with a special healing spell, allowing him to increase his limits of mana usage.
On the other hand, I charged forward at the beast mixed in black and white. It was like a Hollow, but more elegant in a way.
Instead of dodging or parrying, the Corrupted dashed forward at me.
I repelled myself to the right using an air spell, to catch it instantly.
The silent Hollow who had the same Corrupted Mark seemed to be unbothered by my sudden move as it clutched its fist, redirected itself and threw a punch at me.
That punch had an impact. It wasn't a normal one, it was reinforced by mana and a certain spell I couldn't make out.
I moved my sword upwards and predicted where the punch would be, I was ready to block it.
Its fist clashed with my sword as a large metallic thud echoed throughout the large room.
My blade was somehow able to take the impact, but it took a heavy blow.
Clashing directly with the beast, its fist was trembling as it was clashing with my sword.
I made eye contact with it for the first time and I noticed a pair of small hazel eyes. They were Alde's eyes.
It was most likely doing that to throw me off.
I furrowed my brows aggressively, "Bastard!" I shouted loudly, knocking its fist and its entire body backwards as I strengthened the grip on my sword.
Giving it no chance to retaliate, I dashed forward again, holding the handle of my sword tightly to drive it deep into its head.
"Still…" The Hollow suddenly spoke as it disappeared, then appeared behind me again, "Predictable."
I was hit on my shoulder like a vehicle just ran over it. I grunted in pain and shock. A Hollow spoke.
"Get out of the way!" Ros screamed from afar, after doing almost nothing the whole time.
I quickly glanced at him as I was collecting my breath from the earlier blow, and noticed a large silver circle, hovering in the air right in front of him. It had many symbols and writing over it.
Lara was just behind him, breaking his mana limits.
I instinctively jumped out of the way as I gripped my shoulder tightly, knowing what he was building up wasn't just some weak spell.