Dante and Alexander had already recovered from Nagasawa's sudden attack on their bodies. Naturally, Dante would recover faster from mild poisons, but this was too much even for him.
"We have to keep moving forward," she said, leading the way. Her steps were large, but she never left them behind. Her instincts told her something was wrong, but she couldn't say what. So, her leadership continued.
Throughout the descent, nothing was found. It was as if the Dungeon had been completely cleared. But this specific location was monitored by the witches the entire time. Was there any possibility that someone had descended and cleared the unexplored areas? She really didn't know, but over time, something was discovered.
"There's something here," Elizabeth said, entering a different passage, slightly separating from the others. They followed her voice and found something rather curious.
"Look at this," she said, pointing to the entrance that only one person could pass through at a time. In fact, it seemed that this passage had collapsed at some point, leaving only a gap.
Everyone passed through calmly, wary of the rocks. They could widen the entrance, but it was dangerous due to the risk of collapse, so there was no choice but to be careful.
When everyone passed through, they found themselves in a dome-shaped cavern.
It was a massive room, with several frozen stone pillars that could no longer support the cavern's ceiling, and a monument in the middle, covered by vines and dead plants. The mana in the area was also highly variable.
"The support could give in at any moment. It could bury us all. Be careful with your movements," Clovis pointed out the cave's flaw. As a dwarf, his specialty was architectural analysis, and that was clearly one of the worst things he had ever seen being done.
"No, there's something different," Elowyn said as she closed her eyes and concentrated. Before they could say anything, Seraphina said, "The mana here is being subtly drained." Her magical perception was the greatest among all of them.
Dante looked around and saw several Blue Spider-Lilies, a new variation of the flower. "So beautiful," Sara said as she plucked one from the ground.
"Let's take a break," Nagasawa said, heading towards a small stream that covered both ends. "It's drinkable, rest for a bit," she suggested, as some of the students approached to take a sip of water. It had been hours since they had been walking, and their throats were already parched.
"Dante, there's something strange here. Stay on guard," Dante ordered, and almost no one took him seriously, except Elizabeth, Sara, and Clovis.
"Are you sure, fool?" Alexander asked with a smile. "I don't see anything strange. Are you hallucinating because you're on drugs?" he teased, while the others laughed.
"Seriously, did you come drugged for the excursion, Scarlet?" Seraphina questioned.
'I'm going to end up killing one of you sooner or later, I'm starting to lose my patience,' Dante thought, shaking his head in denial almost accepting these intrusive thoughts.
'There's something in this place, but what?' Dante questioned, placing his hand on one of the statues.
Dante began to walk again through the area, everything was strangely quiet. Not only were there no beasts or monsters, but it was as if that place was outside of the dungeon they were in; compared to the countless tunnels, it was just a large dome.
Everyone slowly separated as they walked in groups, only Dante and Nagasawa remained alone.
He walked to one side and counted the pillars emerging from the ground. There were nine mounds with nine statues attached to the stones, the statues seemed to be iron armors and had no traces of mana. They were like mere decorative ornaments. Dante decided to take a closer look and jumped up, grabbing onto the helmet of one of the statues.
A scream came from the north, Dante recognized Alexander's voice and decided to go see what was happening. In a few seconds, he arrived at the scene.
When he arrived, he saw something grotesque: three identical men completely mangled by vines and pieces of stone chips. Their bodies were in the early stages of decomposition, so it was reasonably recent. The wounds were deep, but there were no signs of struggle or conflict in the area; on the contrary, everything was very clean, despite being old.
"What did this?" The others approached, each with their own questions. Nagasawa approached the bodies and touched their arms.
It seemed that the bodies were holding something, so she slowly moved the bodies and saw a kind of Orb with a rune embedded in it. It was a rune with a circle, a triangle, and a kind of inverted spiral inside the triangle.
"An ancient rune," she said, lifting it with her hand. Dante tried to identify it, but none of the runes he knew fit.
"It looks like an eye," Dante commented lightly, and Nagasawa agreed. "It seems important," Sara added.
"It's getting colder, this place is reacting," Elizabeth said as she warmed herself with mana.
As they talked, Seraphina resumed the exploration and headed towards the monument submerged in vines. She threw a fireball at the vines, but the fire did not burn completely due to the moisture, only managing to open a slight hole.
"Guys!" She shouted, getting everyone's attention. "I found something!" Everyone ran in her direction.
She was facing away from the location, and everyone looked directly at her. But there was no time. The ground began to tremble, and something started to rise, causing Seraphina to be paralyzed with fear.
She slowly turned around, and a golem began to emerge from the vines. It was made entirely of rusted iron, resembling the armor of a fat man. The vines began to move slightly as the golem emerged from the ground, causing small tremors. It stood about twelve meters tall.
It raised its hand and moved towards Seraphina to crush her.
"It can't be..." Seraphina began to go into shock, but received a slap directly to her face from Elowyn, who drew her bow from her back. "Pull yourself together, if you don't want to die," she said.
"Ethan, use your lightning to clear those vines," Elizabeth ordered, then looked at Seraphina. "Stop acting like a child," she said, wielding her rapier.
"You heard her, pixie," Clovis appeared beside her, holding a spear.
"Hey, you idiots, start fighting!" Nagasawa shouted as she held off the Guardian Golem alone, being pushed back by the golem's fist.
One of the newly freed golems began to run, causing the entire area to tremble slightly. "Hey, you jerk, die!" Alexander said, attempting to cleave the Golem in half.
The attack failed.
The golem countered directly against Alexander, sending him flying against the wall, where he hit his back and fell to the ground, almost losing consciousness.
"Get up soon, you dog," Forki said, trying to help, but he himself was injured.
Dante and Sara were fighting against three golems while the others tried to stabilize and create a strategy.
"Hey, I think it's the first time we've fought together," Dante said with a smile on his face. Sara responded by sticking her tongue out, saying, "Disgusting to fight with you!"
Dante exploded the head of one of the golems with his sword, using the Humility Ascension skill. "The core is in the neck," she said, and Dante agreed. With a sideways cut, he disabled the remaining two golems.
"That's exhausting," he said, turning to see Nagasawa's fight.
She was just holding the golem so they could deal with the smaller golems. She was clearly at a disadvantage and being pushed back by the golem's fist.
Elowyn, Ethan, Seraphine, and Forki were fighting with the other four golems, while Sara and Dante headed to help Nagasawa. Clovis was supporting Alexander, who had a fractured leg and couldn't recover.
The battle was tough, mainly because the remaining four golems had more protected heads, and the Guardian Golem was made of extremely resistant material.
The Guardian Golem was getting stronger and stronger, and Dante and Sara finally arrived to help Nagasawa.
With a powerful blow, Sara managed to push the golem back, leaving it off balance.
"We don't have time," Sara said, helping Nagasawa to her feet. Her hands were bruised, and her sword was about to break.
"Damn stone that can't be poisoned," Nagasawa muttered, exhausted.
The Guardian Golem emitted a deafening roar, creating cracks in the floor and walls of the dome. Sara began to feel the weight of the ability as her mana was sucked by the environment.
She struggled to regain her footing, but her core wavered under the pressure.
The Guardian Golem struck again, and Dante managed to hold it with his brute strength, but his sword ended up breaking.
The Guardian Golem began to suck mana to regenerate, leaving Dante frustrated.
"Get out of here with her immediately!" Nagasawa shouted, cutting part of the Golem's hand with her greatsword.
Dante agreed, determined to protect his comrades. He asked Sara to hand him Durandal.
"What do you mean take Durandal? You're a vampire!" Nagasawa protested.
"Shut up, you're already annoying me," Dante replied, completely changing the environment around him. He turned to face the Guardian Golem, which was slowly crystallizing due to mana absorption.
Reluctantly, Sara threw Durandal to Dante, who held it firmly over his shoulder.
"I'll be back soon," Dante promised, disappearing amidst black flames.