(Lian Li POV)

"And that's where you found us," The paladin Ariya concluded, shivering slightly from the memory.

Going with our initial plan, all of us were sitting under the shade of a tree a short distance away from the city gates to hear this paladin's recount of what happened.

Her companion, who had his lights punched out by Tatiana, was still out cold beside her. Now we know why she didn't need an escort.

My sisters and I looked at each other, the tentacle was definitely there but we saw no such humanoid monsters around just now.

"Based on what you said… It seems like people who were originally living in the city turned into those lifeless husks while those that were merely visitors were left unaffected," Guiying pointed out. "And then those tentacles and monsters culled the ones that were unaffected."

Ariya shivered, "Now… Now that you mentioned it… It does seem to be the case…"

"Curiously… We did not come across any of those monsters just now either," Eris commented, actually sounding a little disappointed.

"Perhaps they had gone underground or something? Back to where the Dark Sect's base is?" Brendan suggested.

I stood up and dusted myself, "Alright, no point speculating here! Let's go to that trapdoor and see just what this stupid Dark Sect did."

Ariya widened her eyes at me, "Wai… Wait! Didn't you hear what I said? Those things are monsters! There's no way you can fight them! You weren't there but I saw them! No normal person can fight them!"

"Did you not see me destroy that giant tentacle? And you think some small monster like that would worry me? The one you worship as your 'Founding God' is our Master, if we fear something like this, we will bring shame to His name."

"Dis… Disciples? Of Founding God? That… That's impossible!"

Tatiana clasped her on the shoulder, "As much as it annoys me to admit it… What she said is true. No need to worry, just leave this to us and wait here with Michael."

"E… Eh?"

While the paladin looked stupefied by the news, we had already made our way back down into the city. Even Tatiana came with us for some reason.

"Shouldn't you be watching over your paladins or something?" Diao Chan pointed out.

"They can take care of themselves, as evidenced by the fact they survived this calamity on their own."

Well, I suppose I have to give that to them, they were quite smart about it. Not like I care about their wellbeing anyway since they aren't related to us.

"Also, maybe the two of you should sit this one out?" I suggested, looking at Guiying and Lunamaeniera.

The both of them shook their heads and insisted they had to come along, something about helping Master and receiving a reward or something from Him. Since they were so adamant about it, I decided there wasn't a point in stopping them either.

Moving through the streets of the city again, we came to the location of where the trapdoor Ariya had told us was located behind the inn.

True enough, there was a wooden trapdoor half buried in the ground hidden behind some broken crates.

Eris reached for the handle and pulled.

"Locked," She muttered, her hand releasing the handle to move to the sword on her waist instead.

She swung her sword in a flurry of slashes before sheathing it, the trapdoor breaking into pieces after a moment.

I led the way into the bowels of the earth, summoning a small light orb to illuminate our surroundings.

It turns out the trapdoor led to the inn's storage room where most of the food was kept. So either the Dark Sect had been using this place without the innkeeper's knowledge or, more likely, he was in on it too.

Either way, we'll be going back to search him later.

However, when we went deeper inside to search the room, we found a dead end with no other way out.

"Hmm… A secret door perhaps?" Elaria suggested, moving towards the wall and started tapping it a few times.

The result was a few solid sounding knocks, meaning there were no secret doors here. The rest of us started to inspect the other walls but also came up empty.

Just as we thought we hit a dead end on our trail, Tsuki suddenly pointed to one part of the floor, "What's this? There's some sort of inscription laid here."

I shone my light at where Master's little sister was pointing at, only to find nothing.

I raised a questioning eyebrow at her but she moved closer and placed her hand on the ground, causing a part of it to light up and reveal itself as a teleportation inscription.

"That… Wasn't there before, was it? Or was my eyesight really that bad?" I muttered.

"No… It was definitely not there until Tsuki touched it. How curious…" Kiyomi assured me.

We looked at Tsuki who just shrugged, "Maybe it's because I'm from another world? So are we going in?"

I glanced back at the people following me and they all gave me a nod, prompting me to lead the way by stepping onto the inscription.

My vision turned white as I was teleported away, my sight returning just as suddenly and I found myself standing in another room made of stone. There was only a single path forward that led to a wooden door at the end of the corridor which, for some reason, is making me uncomfortable just by looking at it.

The rest of them appeared behind me a split second later, all of them taking a moment to get their bearings until they spotted the door as well.

"Is it just me… Or does that door look really unsettling for some reason?" Brendan muttered.

Eris drew her sword, "Nah… Yer not the only one feeling bad jujus… Whatever's behind it feels like bad news… Insidious…"

I checked behind us and the teleportation inscription was still there on the ground, so we could simply just turn back any time we wanted making it unlikely that this was a trap.

Since we've come this far… We have to see it to the end.

All of us stepped forward together, edging closer and closer to the door.

With every step we took, the pressure around us seemed to increase. The door couldn't have been more than just a few dozen steps away but it felt further away than it should have been.

When we were almost at the door, I realised my breath was visible in the air and the temperature around us dropped almost instantly. I felt my body getting heavier and heavier, as if it was made of lead. I started to slow down as I suddenly felt really exhausted.

Manami clapped her hands together and the cold vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

"What was that?" Guiying asked.

"A trap or curse, perhaps," Lunamaeniera suggested. "We have traps like that inside our Archives to stop intruders as well. It puts them to sleep and guards can clean up the intruders easily."

Brushing that feeling away, We finally reached the door and my hand reached out to grasp it, noticing how cold the handle felt.

I looked back and waited for everyone to nod before pushing the door open, prepared to fight whatever was behind it.

Behind that door was a giant, circular hall with several other doors like the one we had just come out of, no doubt leading to other teleportation inscriptions that would lead to other entrances.

The hall was big enough to house a dragon with space to spare and the entire place was curiously devoid of any furniture.

What's more, we knew this was where the Dark Sect base was because there were quite a number of people standing around wearing the robes of the Dark Sect. The only problem was that they were in a similar state as the people outside too.

But that wasn't the biggest issue, no.

The biggest issue was the mass of flesh and tentacles that was sitting right in the centre of the hall. You'd expect it to be standing on some sort of formation or something but no, it was just… There.

The thing looked like someone had taken a whole bunch of people and merged them into one being, if the multitudes of eyes, mouths and limbs poking out between the tentacles were anything to go by.

What in the world did these people summon?!

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