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Chapter 132: Deeper Still

Soon, the group found themselves in front of a room, with a door hanging open like someone had exited from it not too long ago. Inside, a bunch of furniture lay clattered together at the center, while the rest of the room was empty. It was as if some kind of suction force had pulled all the furniture in the room together, forming a pile in the middle.

“What happened here…?” Acaya muttered.

“Five people left this place not long ago,” Iris said, using her Oculus Angelica to search for the barely-visible footprints on the floor. “They were most likely the House of Crimson Moons.”

“Did they end up encountering some Ghosts, perhaps?” Iyesha asked.

“Most likely,” Ashika replied. “Ivy, can you keep tracking the footprints?”

“Er… I could, but I would like to conserve my mana if possible, Horus,” Iris muttered hesitantly.

“That’s fine. I’ll do it, then,” Ashika — alias Horus — said, activating her own Oculus Angelica. Her green eyes lit up gold, signaling the Eye of Omnipotence, and she scanned the ground for more footprints. “This way.”

They could’ve used this ability from the beginning to track the House of Crimson Moons down, but before getting here, the ground did not have any footprint marks on them due to their material. As such, the Ability wouldn’t have worked.

After a while, the group arrived before a descending staircase, beyond a set of doors.

“The footsteps end here,” Ashika said. “They went down, most likely. Do we follow?”

“It’s not like there’s any other way to go, per se,” Tian Long said. “Since we’ve already tracked them all the way here, we might as well finish what we started and commit.”

The rest of the group nodded in agreement, and they opened the doors. There, the footsteps continued downwards, but they hesitated.

“Tch… this ominous feeling…” Obo muttered in disdain, staring down into the darkness below.

“It feels so eerie, but also as if it’s drawing us in…” Iris remarked.

Meanwhile, in Finn’s mind, he was breaking down the mechanism of this Temple. He hadn’t forgotten what Jim said — all Dungeons and Temples have a reoccurring mechanism that appears time and time again. Finding that mechanism and the way to solve it will be what allows the group to achieve victory.

Of course, on the contrary, if they are unable to find and solve said mechanism, they will be defeated without even knowing what killed them.

So far, there were several clues that he had picked up on. One, the main entrance of this cathedral — they had been sucked inside by a powerful force, much like a black hole. Two, the furniture laid out in a pile in that room, stacked one on top of the other as if something had sucked them all together.

And now, this stairwell… there was no actual suction force pulling at their bodies, but it was messing with their minds, drawing them in. The group was fully conscious of this, but they still wanted to go down despite the possible danger.

But be it physical or psychological… the force was the same — it was a suction force, a force pulling them in. That was most likely the Temple’s mechanism — and also the Emperor’s power.

How did Finn know this? Well… during the fight with the Baron in that Dungeon a few days earlier, Dar’ Talor had created a black hole singularity of sorts, nearly wiping out the whole team by sucking them into it. He had claimed this was borrowed power from its master, whose name was The Lunatic, according to his full title: Dar’ Talor, Follower of the Lunatic.

Since Dungeons were tied to Temples as Barons were tied to their Emperors… it would be safe to assume the master of this Temple was, in fact, The Lunatic, and he held the power of singularities with strong suction force.

Of course, this was all mere speculation at this point in time, as there was no way to confirm it just yet, but Finn was fairly convinced he was right. Either way, the group ultimately decided to head down the dark staircase, with Shin (alias: Spark), the Lightbearer, creating light for more visibility to defend against surprise attacks and Tian Long igniting a flame in his hand to help out and add a little bit of warmth.

However, though the fire warmed their physical bodies, it could not ease the unsettling feeling in their hearts. Part of them was wanting to run away from here, but there was a string pulling at their minds, telling them to keep going. The red string of fate? If fate was their death, sure.

The staircase wasn’t too long. It was a simple, downwards set of stairs that had no turns or twists. At the very bottom, there lay a small chamber with stone walls surrounding it, illuminated by something that seemed like moonlight even though it was completely blocked off from the outside.

Within the chamber, a group of five stood. It was the House of Crimson Moons.

“There they are!” Acaya called out, rushing down the stairs. The others picked up their paces as well, following closely behind. The House of Crimson Moons, noticing their arrival, turned around slowly.

“Huh… looks like the slowpokes are finally here,” Duke snarled in contempt.

“How was the trip here? You seem relatively unscathed,” Hurricane said with a smile. “Good to see.”

“Good to see? Stop with the jokes,” Toth growled, stepping his big, chunky body forward. “You are probably cursing that we’re still alive inside your heart right now, aren’t you?”

“Whatever could you mean?” Hurricane asked innocently, frowning in confusion.

“Don’t play dumb with me!” Obo yelled, dashing forward and closing up to Hurricane in an instant. “You barricaded the door on purpose, hoping that those Ghosts in the garden would kill us, huh?!”

“… Heh.”

Hurricane suddenly unleashed a shockwave of energy all around him, blowing Obo back.

“Woah- ngh!” He crashed onto the stairs from the impact, and all of them stared at Hurricane in shock.