The stench of charred flesh drifted through the air, pungent and bitter.
More importantly, the flames did not simply burn out.
The purple-black flames seemed to possess a consciousness of their own, boring downward along the flesh and burning from the ground into deeper layers, using the flesh as nourishment to spread wildly in all directions.
There was not a hint of surprise in Adrian's gloomy eyes; he was clearly well aware of the nature of the power he had borrowed.
Hovering slightly with the aid of the pitch-black wing behind him, his feet left the ground. He slowly raised his flame-covered hand and thrust it toward the massive beast.
Purple-black flames erupted from his palm, condensing into a thick pillar of fire that blasted directly into the massive beast's chest.
The moment the flesh-membrane came into contact with the purple-black fire, it began to shrivel.
The dark red flesh-membrane that had blocked everyone's attacks finally began to crack before this fire.
The membrane cracked outward from the point of impact, exposing the underlying flesh. The purple-black flames snaked into the fissures, burning from the outside in.
The massive beast let out a shriek unlike any before—one filled with agony.
It slammed its arms against its chest, trying to smother the fire, but the purple-black flames clung stubbornly, spreading from its chest to its palms instead.
The Blue Knight saw her opportunity.
Her threads snapped taut in the same instant, catapulting her forward from the side. Crimson sword qi surged into her rapier as she slashed savagely at the fire-cracked membrane of the massive beast.
This strike cut half a foot deep, penetrating far deeper than any of her previous blows.
The Great Ascendant moved in tandem. The beam of light on his chest aligned with the fire-scorched rupture and blasted inward. This time, the beam was not blocked by the membrane; it tore straight through most of the body, blasting a shower of shredded flesh out of its back.
The massive beast swayed, its two legs sinking deep into the fleshy ground to stabilize itself, barely managing to stay upright.
The flesh beneath its feet surged frantically into its body, attempting to plug the scorched wounds.
Yet the purple-black flames continued to burn, incinerating the newly supplied flesh layer after layer. For the first time, its rate of regeneration could not keep pace with the destruction.
The attendant had already retracted his purple light. He had no need to strike now, nor did he have the strength left to do so. He had never excelled at this kind of wide-scale, heavy assault; unless he risked his life, there was no point in exhausting himself further.
He gathered the purple light and hovered it around the group, guarding against any sudden ambushes.
He stared at Adrian's back, where the single pitch-black wing beat slowly in the void, the purple-black firelight illuminating half of the Archbishop's face. The attendant's eyes flickered briefly before he looked away.
Margaret, on the other hand, was not so preoccupied with such thoughts.
She fired another volley of unstable water blades at the massive beast. Seeing that they still had little effect, she simply shifted her focus to the Blue Knight, condensing a water film to shield her from the flying debris and block out most of the pollution.
Meanwhile, the tide of battle in the void had completely turned.
The Blue Knight actively pinned it down from the front, preventing the giant individual from advancing even half a step.
Adrian's ranged flames relentlessly scorched its flesh, while the Great Ascendant assisted from the side, helping the purple-black fire burrow deeper.
For a time, the massive beast was beaten into a steady retreat. The flesh beneath its feet could not keep up with the rate of the purple-black fire's burning, leaving its wounds to multiply and deepen.
Adrian hovered in midair, his pitch-black wing folding slightly. His expression was calm, yet the purple-black flames surrounding him projected a sense of sheer madness.
Meanwhile, Kraus released his grip on Lu Yuan's wrist.
The two stood in an entirely unfamiliar channel.
Flesh lined the ceiling and floor; the dark red, meaty tissue formed the very channel before them.
The entire passage seemed to possess some form of life, rising and falling slightly, expanding and contracting as if breathing with the pulse of a living creature.
There were no bronze pillars here, and looking back, the massive void from before was nowhere to be seen.
Before him, Lu Yuan's grey-white text began to flash frantically.
【Environmental Perception: High-level pollution source detected. Please stay away immediately.】
【Environmental Perception: Pollution concentration is continuously rising.】
【Environmental Perception: High-level pollution source detected. Please stay away immediately, please...】
Several lines of grey-white warning text popped up almost simultaneously, with more continuing to stream out.
Lu Yuan forced himself to ignore the text, looking away.
Both he and Kraus knew exactly what lay ahead.
The green light on Kraus's bone ring flickered slightly. He raised his hand, pointing the ring forward.
The channel split into three paths ahead. The one on the left sloped slightly upward and appeared the narrowest; the one on the right curved off to the side; and the middle path led somewhat downward.
An extremely thin green line of light extended from the bone ring, winding along the fleshy floor before finally slipping into the middle passage.
“That thing went this way.”
Kraus withdrew his hand and gestured for Lu Yuan to stay close, then walked toward the middle passage.
Lu Yuan followed close behind. Walking on the fleshy floor, every step felt soft and heavy; his soles sank in slightly, requiring effort to maintain his footing.
This was entirely different from the sensation in the void above. Up there, the layer of flesh at least had some soil mixed in, but the ground here was pure flesh.
He glanced down and saw his footprints linger on the flesh for two or three breaths before slowly bouncing back.
Together, they slipped into the middle passage.
This passage was incredibly oppressive, the environment growing stranger the deeper they went.
The channel slowly narrowed, shrinking from a width that could accommodate three people side-by-side to barely wide enough for two.
The flesh on the walls was no longer just rising and falling slightly; it began to throb rhythmically. Lu Yuan could feel the pace of the pulsation, which perfectly matched the heartbeat coming from the deepest depths.
Something seemed to be flowing slowly within the walls of flesh. With every squirm, a warm current of air surged from deeper in the passage, carrying a choking, bloody stench that blew directly into their faces.
“Why take such a massive risk?” Lu Yuan spoke as they walked, keeping his voice low.
Kraus walked ahead, bone armor already covering his entire body as dark green crystals constantly materialized on its surface. He did not look back, continuing to lead Lu Yuan deeper.
“Just to catch a glimpse of this so-called forbidden thing?” Lu Yuan continued.
“According to imperial regulations,” Kraus's muffled voice echoed from within his bone armor, “without concrete evidence, such an existence cannot be written into a report, or rather, cannot be used as the justification for one.”
“Then aren't you worried? What if a forbidden thing truly exists and we miss it? Or what if it unleashes an irreversible threat?”
Lu Yuan's words plunged Kraus into a brief silence.
“Indeed, we cannot afford that,” his voice carried a hint of coldness. “There were several past instances that resulted in catastrophic consequences. Someone used a 'forbidden thing' as an excuse to redeploy a massive amount of personnel, only for the base to be attacked. Don't you think that's ridiculous?”
Lu Yuan fell silent.
He naturally believed that the empire had corresponding regulations, but he believed even more that the Kraus before him would never take such a massive risk—even bringing a Rank 2 like himself into the deepest depths of the seal—solely for the sake of a rule.
From the moment he had met Kraus, everything the man did was driven by his own calculations.
Therefore, this trip was absolutely about finding something specific.
As for the traces or direct clues of the empire's so-called forbidden thing, those were secondary.
Lu Yuan did not plan to press further. Since Kraus had no intention of explaining, asking would yield nothing.
The passage narrowed further. By the end, it was barely wide enough for a single person to squeeze through sideways. Kraus's bone armor scraped against the fleshy walls on both sides, making a wet, sticky sound.
Deep within Lu Yuan's consciousness, the thread connecting the first three fragments suddenly snapped taut, and the previously vague direction instantly became clear and straight. The thread no longer pointed vaguely downward; this time, it explicitly indicated a location.
The fourth fragment was directly above them in front, or more precisely, it should be above the next space once they exited the current passage.
Lu Yuan silently committed this direction to memory.
The passage twisted a few more times, the pulsation growing faster and the hot wind hotter.
Lu Yuan felt as though he were walking inside a living creature, and this passage before them was one of its blood vessels.
Kraus suddenly stopped, nearly causing Lu Yuan to bump into his back. Peering over Kraus's shoulder, Lu Yuan stole a glance forward.
The view suddenly opened up. The passage had reached its end, giving way to a vast, seemingly boundless void ahead.
Compared to the one above, this was the true abyss.
No matter how large the upper void was, it could only hold around a thousand people at most. The one before them was so vast that the opposite wall was completely out of sight.
The only thing visible was a faint, dark red shimmer emanating from the deeper depths, casting vague silhouettes.
Countless bronze pillars rose from the deeper bottom, stretching upward.
These pillars varied in thickness—some were so thick that it would take several people to encircle them, while the thinnest were about a person's width—protruding diagonally from the inner walls of the entire void.
Cave openings of various sizes lined the surrounding cliff walls, each covered in a layer of dark red flesh, leading to parts unknown.
A scorching, metallic wind welled up from the bottom of the abyss, the heat causing Lu Yuan to instinctively take two steps back.
There was no longer any need to strain to hear the heartbeat here, for the pulse originated from the deepest depths, echoing clearly and solidly within this colossal void.
With every beat, the fleshy walls of the entire abyss rose and fell in tandem, and the dormant patterns on the bronze pillars flared to life the instant the heartbeat fell, only to dim once more.
A new line of grey-white text popped up before Lu Yuan.
【Environmental Perception: Extremely strong pollution source detected. Please stay away immediately.】
Lu Yuan stared at the message.
He knew he was finally drawing close to the entity that had been sealed by the Bronze City for over a thousand years.
Kraus stood at the exit of the passage, his eyes already shrouded in green light.
The faint green shimmer radiating from his bone armor was linked to a weak thread that snaked down the cliff face, vanishing into the darkness of the abyss.
Without a shred of hesitation, Kraus stepped forward and descended.
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