So, Roland quickly retracted the threads of his mental power.
“It must be the watcher that our Hero ancestor left behind.” Looking at the stones, Cage said, “It will be tricky to clear these stones. Also, the watcher below might launch an unexpected attack when we’re about to move the stones.”
Cage’s concerns were well-grounded.
As a former mercenary, Cage was still vigilant though he hadn’t fought for almost ten years.
He knew very well what would become of him if he was attacked during his work.
He had experienced it before.
While he was hesitating, Roland stood out and snapped his fingers.
Then, the stones melted like ice under the scorching sun. They turned into a swamp with a vortex at the center, before the mud in the swamp flowed down.
“Impressive!” Cage complimented in amazement. “Instantly casting Stone to Mud, a level-two spell, at such a young age means that you’re more than a genius.”
Andonara grinned delightedly. She liked it best when other people complimented Roland.
Roland smiled modestly.
But then Cage frowned and said, “The mud is sinking into the secret chamber. What if the three bottles of blood are buried?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve just investigated it with my mental power. This secret chamber is rather huge.” Looking at the bubbling swamp, Roland said, “Even if all the mud falls in, there will be nothing more than a three-centimeter-tall layer of mud on the floor of the secret chamber.”
Cage was much relieved after hearing that.
Soon, most of the mud was drained in the vortex, revealing a dark entrance in front of them.
Roland snapped his fingers again, and the remaining mud became stone.
Cage looked at Roland again and shook his head in admiration.
They approached the entrance together. There were supposed to be stairs here, but because of the mud, the stairs had been reshaped into an irregular slide.
Cage and Andonara both looked at Roland.
Roland snapped his fingers again, and the slide of mud was hardened.
At this point, a cold wind was blown from below, reducing the temperature of the air quickly. Very soon, everybody could see their own breaths.
“This is unusually cold.” Cage drew his longsword and wiped it with his left hand, and blue flames immediately bounced on the longsword, driving the coldness away. He continued, “I’ll go down first. You can follow me.”
Then, he jumped into the cave.
Because Floating was still functional, Cage was not worried that he might fall. He was dropping at a very low speed.
Roland immediately summoned three luminous spheres and jumped down too.
Andonara followed Roland.
The three of them, wobbling, landed in the secret chamber from above, right after the three luminous balls did.
Under the illumination of the spheres, they could see the whole secret chamber clearly.
On the floor was a rock layer about ten centimeters thick, which was particularly thick and uneven at the front.
Roland peeped at Cage, who had jumped fearlessly when there was absolutely no light.
It could only be explained in two ways. Firstly, Cage might be very familiar with the secret chamber, which was unlikely.
The second explanation, and the more plausible one, was that Cage had Dark Vision.
Normally, it was a special ability for rare species, such as kobolds, drows, or nocturnal magical beasts.
There were only a couple of races in the main plane who had Dark Vision.
But the cases were different for the devils. It was said that the devils lived in a dim world, so everybody in the Realm of Devils used Dark Vision for survival.
Recalling the words he read last night, Roland had some guesses.
But he didn’t give it a lot of thought, because his attention was attracted by what was before his eyes.
At the center of the secret chamber was a huge platform that appeared to be a ritual table. Above the platform was a red bronze box with a white key.
What really attracted their attention was the black, surging energy above the box, which looked like the seething clouds before a spring thunderstorm.
In the middle of the energy were two red spots that stared at the intruders like eyes. They were absolutely still and inert.
Andonara drew her longsword and subconsciously stopped before Roland.
“Is this the watcher?” Cage looked around and waved the longsword with blue flames, before he said with a smile, “So, it’s a dark creature. All of them are susceptible to our family. No wonder the ancestor said that it’s not challenging for us.”
“But I feel that it’s tricky.” Andonara pursed her red lips and said uncomfortably, “I’m a Great Swordsman. I can’t deal with anything that doesn’t have a real entity.”
“Then let me destroy it first.” Cage picked up the blue fiery sword and walked forward.
“Wait!” Andonara suddenly stopped him. “Unless—unless you’re going to relocate the Phoenix Blood to your home, you’d better keep this thing here as the watcher, or any intruder could take away the rest of the Phoenix Blood easily.”
Cage moved his foot back and said, “You do have a point.”
“Then what do we do?” Cage looked at the black energy and remarked, “If we don’t kill it, we will probably be attacked the moment we step forward.”
“Can’t you cover yourself with the blue flames, open the box, and then come back with the bottle?” Roland thought with the mindset of a Mage and said, “The blue flames of your family suppress the dark creatures. I don’t think it will dare to attack you.”
Cage looked at Roland speechlessly, which puzzled Roland.
“Did I say something wrong?”
Looking at Roland’s innocent face, Cage said in depression, “We’re Warriors, not Mages. We can’t control magic power precisely like Mages. It took me ten years to learn to attach my flames to my sword without burning anything up… You want me to cover myself with flames? Though I won’t be hurt, they will consume my clothes and my hair. Besides, I can’t complete such a complicated operation at all.”
“Then it seems that we can only destroy it.” Roland opened his hands.
Cage stepped forward with his sword, but at this point, the two red balls in the collection of energy grew brighter and bigger, turning from apricots into apples.
Then, weird sounds echoed in the secret chamber, nasty and discomforting.
They sounded like someone scratching an iron blackboard with their fingernails.
Cage subconsciously stepped back in a defensive posture, and Roland immediately summoned two blue shield-holding magic puppets before Andonara.
In the meantime, he prepared to cast Prismatic Spray.
“The offspring of the Phoenix family are really weak.”
The high-pitched voices made everybody in the secret chamber extremely uncomfortable.
The voices also came with intense mental attacks.
Cage had the bloodline power of a Hero, which contained the Valiance specialization. He was immune to regular mental attacks.
Roland’s mental power was high, and he was protected by a magic shield. So he was barely influenced.
Andonara was more affected than Roland was. As a pure Warrior, she was less resistant to mental attacks. But since the Great Swordsman’s defense against all magic attacks, including mental ones, had been strengthened, she felt a headache but wasn’t really hurt.
Cage looked at the black energy and said in surprise, “You’re conscious? The manuscript said that… you’re just a simple pale soul.”
“Hehehe!” The black energy smirked mockingly. “I’ve been here for almost a hundred years. It’s not strange that I would get my consciousness back, is it?”
Cage looked rather awful. A conscious soul was much stronger than an unconscious one. Since his Hero bloodline power was not apparent, it might be troublesome for him to deal with a soul that was conscious after a hundred years without dispersing.
Then, he looked at Roland and felt glad that he was with a Mage.
Spellcasters were natural enemies to energy creatures.
“So to speak, you have a name and a past?” Roland secretly concentrated his magic power, ready to attack.
“Of course.” The ball of black energy expanded and reshaped into a gigantic human-shaped monster with two horns.
It was about three meters tall and looked rather magnificent.
Roland found it familiar and narrowed his eyes slightly.
Cage and Andonara, on the other hand, couldn’t have looked more awful.
“It seems that you remember my appearance, offspring of the Devil King Phoenix who betrayed the details.” The black horned monster laughed furiously. “That pitiful traitor and scoundrel gave up the Realm of Devils where he was born and raised and only hoped to become a dog of the main plane. It was your ancestor who destroyed our best chance to conquer the world of human beings. Phoenix, you will forever be cursed by all devils. You will spend half of your life in painful slumber, and your descendants will lose their loved ones in their happiest moments. I see it… I see the curse growing and roaring inside you two. Hahahaha!”
Due to his gloating, malicious laughter, the secret chamber was shaking and dust was falling.
Both Cage and Andonara were so pale that there was no hint of blood in their cheeks at all.
