The spiral staircase goes straight down, and there seems to be no end.

It's a tricky hassle.

Verona frowned, staring at the darkening darkness ahead. He could feel that the dark elemental aura around him was getting stronger, but this also made the Doomsday Guardian gradually start to become restless. In this cookie-cutter environment, darkness is eroding their perception of time. If they don't show up their watch to confirm, they may think they've been gone for a whole day. But in fact, as long as you look at the time, you can know that from the time they entered this big hole until now, it has actually only passed a little more than half an hour.

Thinking of this, Verona glanced at the Doomsday Guardians next to him, who had already shown a somewhat anxious look, and frowned and distanced himself from them slightly. But that's exactly what happened, and they just went down the stairs, with no enemies, no traps, nothing. Only darkness and the path illuminated by crystals appeared to them. And even so, the whole scene has not changed in the slightest, and the stairs in front of me seem to be never finished. And walking in such an unchanging place is indeed easy to lose the concept of time, and to have a feeling of boredom and boredom.

But they could do nothing but move on.

"Lord Verona, are we really on the right path?"

Finally, Chloe couldn't help but ask, as a pioneer, he was ready to fight the monsters that might appear here. But to Chloe's surprise, even though they've been gone for so long, there's still no sign of anything to be seen. Logically speaking. Sealing such things must be very dangerous. And the dark elemental magic around them also illustrates this. But what makes Chloe feel depressed is that she has been gone for so long. But I still haven't encountered anything strange, and something is really not right. This made him wonder if his group had fallen into some illusion. Or maybe you're in some labyrinth.

"Of course."

Hearing Chloe's inquiry, Verona glanced at him disdainfully.

"There is only one way down there, which means that we made the right choice, and that something is wrong simply because you have been affected by the dark elementals, and you have problems judging time and space. Remember, in such a place of elemental energy, do not try to rely on common sense to solve problems, but think - thought is the greatest shield to protect you from the elements. If you can't do that. Jump right from here, I'm sure you'll get to your destination sooner than you think. ”

“…………………”

Hearing Verona's words, Chloe could only swallow back the words that came to her lips. He wasn't a fool, so he could hear Chloe's deep disdain for them. However, what the other party said was not wrong, so he didn't say much. Since Verona had already made sure that there was nothing wrong with them and the others, they had no choice but to carry out the order and move on -- now they only hoped that Verona's judgment was correct.

And at this moment, as if hearing Chloe's request, when they turned the corner again. The seemingly endless staircase has finally disappeared, and in its place is a flat land. Seeing this, Chloe finally breathed a sigh of relief. But he didn't let his guard down. Instead, Chloe stopped, and then he waved the illumination crystal in his hand. He gestured to the Doomsday Guardian beside him. Soon, two heavily armed Doomsday Guardians were seen raising their swords and shields. Cautiously walked down the steps and stepped on the flat ground.

The moment they walked onto the ground. I don't know if it's an illusion, but the darkness around it seems to be stirred up by this, and with the light of the illumination crystal in the hands of the Doomsday Guardian, the surrounding darkness seems to have a life and recedes, like a hunter hidden in the blue waves of the sea away from the existence that will cause damage to it.

"Right ahead."

Verona's body shuddered as he stared at the front before he spoke. As a being born in the dark, Verona felt the cold, beating being in front of her more clearly than anyone else. It's like a heart that keeps contracting, beating. And the darkness around it was like the heat emanating from this beating heart. Such a thing is definitely not a product that can be created by the hands of mortals, but can only come from those ancient, transcendent and holy beings!

"Keep going!"

Hearing Verona's words, Chloe was also excited -- half of course, the excitement of the mission was about to be completed, and the other half was the excitement of finally being able to free himself from it. He's been bought up and whirling around with this god-wrenching guy in such an unclear place. Seeing that they were finally able to complete their mission and leave here, Chloe immediately cheered up, he drew his long sword, gestured ahead, and soon, he saw several more Doomsday Guardians holding illumination crystals along the stairs to the flat ground in front of them, and then spread around.

And at this moment, the darkness also changed.

If just now it seemed like a beast cautiously watching the uninvited guests invading their territory, now they seem to have confirmed who the real enemy is. At the moment when the Doomsday Guardians stepped on the ground, the retreating tide of darkness swelled violently as if they were frightened, and in the blink of an eye, they saw that the light of the illumination crystals held by those Doomsday Guardians suddenly dimmed a lot. And then, the tide of darkness erupted forward, enveloping the Guardians of Doom. Not only that, but the darkness even eroded into their bodies along their armor. With the sound of screams, several Doomsday Guardians in front of them suddenly fell to the ground, they writhed in pain and let out heart-rending screams.

As the thick darkness burrowed into the bodies of the Doom Guardians, their bodies began to swell like a blown ball, and soon, the hard steel armor was broken by the swollen bodies. Immediately after, the whole body was rounded. It is more than two meters tall and full of puffiness. In this way, the monster with thick limbs broke through the shackles of the armor and appeared in front of them.

"Watch your surroundings!! Mr. Verona, we need your help! ”

Seeing these monsters appear, Chloe breathed a sigh of relief, and he stepped back as he called Verona's name loudly. Hearing Chloe's call, Verona, who was wrapped in black robes, snorted coldly, although he was very reluctant to obey the dispatch of a human, but Verona also knew that it had reached a critical moment. Therefore, he also hurriedly raised his hands. Reciting the incantation silently. Immediately after, a bright red ball of flame sparkled from between Verona's hands, rushing straight towards the dark-tainted monsters in front of him. And these bloated monsters obviously didn't have enough flexibility to dodge Verona's attack, only to hear a loud "boom", a series of shining fires tore through the darkness, completely erupted, and completely devoured those bloated monsters. And the raging flames did not be extinguished by this, on the contrary, they scattered on the ground like a rain of flowers. Then it spread rapidly, and in a short time, a wall of fire was formed, mercilessly tearing apart the original thick darkness.

And this seems to have finally provoked the wrath of the dark monsters. A strange howl erupted from the flames, and the next moment, several tentacles formed by carrion flew out of the flames and attacked the black-robed mage in front of him. And for Verona, it is clear that they have been prepared for a long time. I saw him sneer, flip his right hand, and take out a staff with a ruby in front of his robe. Then a fire elemental shield glowing red appeared beside him and the rest of the people. Blocked the further movement of the dark monsters.

And with the glow of Verona's flames, everyone finally saw the scene before them clearly -- this one was suspended in the middle of a bottomless abyss. A platform connected by four massive chains. And on the altar in the middle of the platform, an oval-shaped, dark jewel-like thing was quietly hovering there. And beside it, the darkness even condensed into something substantial, like a river, that swirled around it incessantly.

Undoubtedly, it is the fragment of the Shadow Gate of Death.

But the doomsday believers didn't know that at this moment, in the shadows not far above them, Jenn was standing there, watching every move below.

"That's the fragment of the Shadow Gate."

Muttering to himself, Jenn looked up. Beside him, of course, were Aina and Tilis, the latter of whom had only just come to his senses. As for the previous coma, Jenn's explanation to Tilis was that she was a little too tired, and Tilis herself did not have much doubt about this explanation, after all, it was difficult to figure out the time in this dark state, and it was not surprising that she was also thirsty and hungry before, so it would pass out.

But at the moment, Jenn is not concerned about Tilis, on the contrary, he cares about the so-called "fragment of the Shadow Gate of Death". Verona they hadn't noticed, but Jenn had noticed that the location of the altar where the fragment of the Death's Shadow Gate was placed was directly below the altar where the sunglasses were placed that they had passed by.

And the meaning of this could not be clearer.

As Jenn pondered, the doomsday believers approached the altar. These dark monsters are not real dark monsters, but just an instinctive defense. Previously, they were able to use the bodies of those Doom Guardians to transform and launch attacks on everyone, but under the protection of Verona's spells, it was difficult to do any more damage without the pure dark magic of their bodies.

The altar is already in sight.

Looking at the floating gem in front of him, Verona's eyes flashed with a greedy light, and then he raised his staff and whispered silently, and soon, a transparent palm formed by the condensation of magic appeared out of thin air, and then reached forward and grabbed the fragment suspended at the top of the altar.

“――――――！！“

And just as the magical hand summoned by Verona was about to grasp the fragment, suddenly, a golden light shone down, completely piercing the huge magical hand. (To be continued......)