Reaching near the black stone beast, Lucifer finally raised the giant statue he was carrying before smashing it on top of the beast.
The massive statue that Lucifer was carrying shattered because of the impact.
Finished with the attack, Lucifer didn't relax. Instead, he started moving the pieces of the white statue aside to see if the black one was actually destroyed or not. Unfortunately, he soon realized that it wasn't destroyed.
After Lucifer moved the pieces of white statue aside, he was able to see the top of the black statue's dragon head, which was still intact.
This time he wasn't concerned though. The attack came from the eyes of the black statue, which was still covered because of white stone pieces.
It was the perfect opportunity.
Lucifer placed his left hand on the head of the black statue, letting his decay do the rest.
"This energy... It's much more than I got when using it on Varant. Is it that beasts of similar strength give me more strength than Variants?" he wondered while decaying the beast.
The black stone beast kept shaking his head, impatiently but he wasn't able to free his eyes. It couldn't do anything.
By now, it was clear to Lucifer that the beast couldn't move either. All it could do was move its head.
Soon enough, the beast turned to dust, completely destroyed.
Lucifer tossed the white stone pieces away to make sure that the black beast was actually destroyed.
After clearing the place from white stone pieces, he was able to see the dust of the black statue. But there was something more there.
He could see something shining inside the dust.
He placed his hand inside the dust to see what it was. As he brought his hand out, he noticed that it was a red jade that was shining inside.
"Beast Core?" He wondered, surprised.
"Isn't it something that only the strongest beast of a dungeon is supposed to possess? This was the strongest beast in the Dungeon? How?"
"Ah, I get it! All these other statues! They aren't statues! They were powerful beasts that probably came here to kill the Stone Beast only to end up as statues!"
"It's certainly true. This ability is actually frightening. If that speck of light had hit my head instead of my hand, my head would have turned to stone. Would my healing work then? What about my decay?"
Keeping that core in his pocket, he walked towards the stone arm which was lying on the ground.
His left glove was still on his arms. It had turned to stone as well.
Stomping his foot on the ground, he smashed the stone arm before he turned to leave.
He was actually disappointed because he wasted his time. He had thought that this place was going to be special, but it was nowhere close.
All it had was a beast inside and no treasure at all. Even though the Beast Core was special, it wasn't worth anything to him.
He stepped outside, leaving the place. He walked back.
As Lucifer left, the door of the hall once again closed, but it was only now that something started changing inside the hall.
Hundreds of beast statues that were inside the hall started coming back to life as the effect of the Black Stone Beast's powers were over.
The beasts had turned to stone because of the attacks, but they hadn't died. Now that the effect was over, they returned to normal.
Hundreds of powerful beasts were free now.
...
Lucifer left the middle path and met up with Cassius and Uzuki.
Yaliza was also back.
"Alicia didn't return yet?" Lucifer asked, surprised. If anyone was supposed to be late, it was to be him since he had two battles. Why was Alicia late?
"Yeah. She still hasn't returned," Yaliza affirmed.
" Did you find any beasts in the third path?" Lucifer asked Yaliza.
"I didn't. But I did see some battle marks. I'm sure Hunter Union took the third path," Yaliza replied.
"So there should be monsters in the first one. Even then, Alicia isn't back? That's odd," Lucifer muttered, glancing at the entrance of the first path.
" I wonder if something happened to her. Someone should go and check. Please bring her back so I can stand up. I'm getting tired of sitting!" Uzuki pointed out.
"Why don't you just stand up then? You don't have to wait for her to return, do you?" Lucifer asked, confused. How were these two things related?
"That's because he is actually sitting on a trap trigger. When he stands up, the trap will activate. He wants Alicia back just to be sure," Cassius explained the plight of Uzuki.
Uzuki knew he could most probably survive the trap, but he didn't want to take a risk.
"You stay here. I'll be right back," Lucifer agreed before he flew inside the first path.
...
Lucifer was flying inside the tunnel, trying to find Alicia.
"This smell...? Poison?"
As he was walking, he found a strange smell that was making his head spin. His skin also started turning blue slowly.
Fortunately, his healing also activated, protecting him and removing all adverse effects.
He looked around, wondering where this smell was coming from.
"Alicia!" Soon, he noticed Alicia lying on the ground. Her skin was completely blue, and her heartbeat extremely slow.
"She must have been affected by this poison. This idiot girl. What use is that barrier if she doesn't cast it on time?"
He picked up Alicia and started flying back. He needed to get her out of the reach of this poison before even thinking about helping her.
As Lucifer was flying back, he noticed something strange. The path back seemed to be longer. He had already flown for longer than he did when coming here, but he still wasn't back.
Something seemed odd.
"What? How is this possible?"
He abruptly stopped as he noticed that the path split in two. There were two tunnels before him. They weren't here when he had entered. He made sure to check his surroundings when coming here before. He knew it wasn't here.
"Is this Dungeon playing a trick?" Frowning, Lucifer sat on the ground. He also placed Alicia on the ground.
He was sure that this dungeon was messing with him. Like this, he wasn't going to be out in time. And he didn't have time to check both paths again.
"I only heard rumors about it. I wonder if it'll work," he placed the beast core he had just received on the lips of Alicia. "Time to test."
"Now I need water. Where can I get it?" he wondered, looking around.