Bolts of dark energy shot out and exploded around Kyros. Kyros could vaguely see the figure of the lizards through the torch he had.

The knights had already rushed forward and made use of Kyros's trick to see in the dark.

And Kyros finally saw the Dark lizards that were moving closer. It was twice bigger than the regular ones that appeared. They could cling to the ceiling of the cave and would move unhindered. The regular lizards would still make a run for it.

Kyros maintained a further distance from the rest to draw attention to these dark lizards. He knew that apart from his other skills, the Cloak of Darkness would be enough to protect him and allow him to survive an attack.

"There are several lizards, and Aron and the knights are running in the dark! It's too risky if I let the lizards hit my family!" Kyros cursed.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The attacks struck the ground. Kyros was able to evade the attacks and finally used another trick.

Kyros kept throwing the torch everywhere and would retrieve it to his Inventory and bring it out to throw it on another direction. The speed of his throws and how he could precisely gauge the max length of his Inventory's instant storage were all factors that allowed him to remain untouched.

The lizards had superior vision in the dark. But the chaos of the moving torch lights that appeared and disappeared was annoying to these lizards. Their sight could not keep up with the chaos of having a bright light and then suddenly falling into darkness. The Dark Lizards could not make a proper aim and would strike the walls or the ceilings.

As their attacks were not hitting, the Dark lizards stopped shooting and gave a loud cry that made the lizards rush faster.

Kyros kept looking at the map and found that the group was headed to a tight corner.

"Go right at the next corner." Kyros ordered as he kept a close look at the map and guided his team.

He brought out the Earth Core once more and began to channel Earth Energy. This time, Kyros was forcibly holding the Vermillion Earth Sword and the Earth Sword.

"Wait... Earth Sword?" Kyros was confused at the new name of the sword.

"I changed the name. The author already shortened it to Not a Spare Sword from Definitely not a spare sword, but I took pity on him on the last chapter. He repeated it like four times. I mean, it was a good joke and all, but keeping that name is just too tiring, especially if you probably will repeat that name several more times in the future. So I decided to give it an easier naming scheme and changed it to Earth Sword."

"Really, Calaminus?! Breaking the 4th wall at a time like this?" Kyros cursed.

"How did you change the name anyway?"

"You just broke the 4th wall too! Who are you to complain? Anyway, I could finally access some of your consoles now as a Soul Wisp! I'm not a Parasitic Soul anymore but can function as some sort of back-end support or admin. I'm setting the transparency setting of your mini-map for easier viewing as well." Calaminus offered his support.

As the two continued to bicker about the settings and how Kyros despised getting his settings changed without prior notice, the group passed the first curve but ignored it as Kyros ordered them to aim for the next tight corner.

"Catch!" Kyros threw the torch towards one of the knights.

The tight corner finally came to view as the knights kept passing the torch to Avary, who illuminated their retreat path.

"Move ahead! I'll slow them down!" Kyros ordered as he was slowly adjusting his speed.

Kyros kept channeling the energy and used over 40 points in Ancient and Fallen Source each.

The group turned to the right, but Kyros ran towards the wall and jumped and kicked it to throw himself back.

The Earth Core disappeared, and Kyros was holding the Vermillion Earth Sword and the Earth Sword and stabbed at the floor.

"Double Cross!"

BOOM!

A large explosion occurred as many parts of the earth erupted and caused yet another stampede.

The power of two Earth Cross erupted, and with Kyros's using it to create a preemptive strike, the Dark Lizards leading the charge, and the many others were caught off guard from the sudden explosion.

Another stampede occurred as the lizards began to fall over one after the other.

Kyros had withdrawn the swords and made his retreat to follow the group.

"Faster! We have to gain some more ground!" Kyros ordered as the group continued to run.

With the explosive attack, the running lizards were smashing into each other, and it took a while for them to recover.

Kyros saw another path leading the east of the map. After a quick analysis, Kyros knew that this path would lead to a dead-end or lead them further to the temple.

"Keep straight! Ignore that other path! It's leading us further from the temple!" Kyros warned, and the group followed.

They ignored the path leading east and followed the wider path.

"Uncle, any enemies up ahead?" Kyros asked Aron.

"I'm not sure..." Aron gave an uncertain answer.

"Not sure?" Kyros was confused as to why his uncle gave an uncertain answer. Previously, he could quickly gauge if there are enemies or none, but now, his uncle couldn't sense what was on this path.

"I guess it's alright... If there are enemies, it shouldn't be that many. Get ready to fight!"

The howls of the lizard were getting further and further. The surprise earth attack gave them a large gap, and some of the knights couldn't help but laugh as they believed that the worse was over.

The small path they were following led to a large open area. Even with their torch, they couldn't see just how far the place extended to.

"Vampires! What do you see? Are there any heat signatures?" Kyros asked.

"None, Master Kyros!" one of the vampires answered. Kyros knew that vampires could see much better and had a way to see heat signatures.

"Good! Let's move!"

"Wait! Something's wrong!"

"Hrm? His spider-sense is tingling?"

Kyros didn't have the energy to reprimand Calaminus but focused his attention on the wide area before him.

Soon, a number of green, yellow, and pale green eyes glowed all over the darkness. The numbers were plenty, and Kyros realized what they were.

"What are... those?" One of the knights trembled.

"Master! Avary is right. There isn't anything beyond there. But what are those eyes?" Scarlet asked immediately. She also said this to defend Avary from what appeared to be a mistake.

"I forgot. There is something in this cave that wouldn't have heat signatures... Because they are made of earth!" Kyros cursed.

Suddenly, a strange yellow glow appeared right in the center of the darkroom. The bright glow illuminated what was beyond the wide, open space. It was an ancient ruin that looked like a city.

The yellow glow came from a strange orb that looked just like the Earth Core that Kyros has.

With this light, more than a hundred golems were now seen. Most were the Clay Golems that they fought. There were several that were Rock Golems and even a Golem they had never seen before. It seemed to be made of something similar to metal.

"This is... the city of Golems!" Kyros was horrified.

"It's... been a while... since I saw... humans... was another path... opened? How... did you pass by...? Or did you dig your way on those small... gaps... to get here... like the lizards?" A slow and old voice echoed out of the room. At the top of one of the ruined buildings was a throne. And in that throne, a tall Golem roughly three meters tall stood in the darkness and towered all the other human-sized golems.

The Golem had different kinds of stone in his body. Some were metal, some gold, and some shining like diamonds.

"Golem King!" Calaminus identified the horrifying creature before him.

"Humans... Regardless of how you got here, our ancient duty... remains... Kill them!" The Golem King ordered the army of Golems began to march towards them.

Everyone was trembling when they heard that. The sight of over a hundred golems charging towards weakened the knees of the knights, and some had fallen in fear.

The sounds of the lizards from behind them were getting louder.

Kyros looked at the charging horde of golems, and a deep sense of anger was building upon him.

"Fate is trying to kill everyone!" Calaminus concluded.

Seeing how everyone was not moving, Aron spoke.

"Let's retreat! We use that other path to escape."

"The Golem King said something that implies there is no other path leading to the temple. The lizards must have been digging their way through small paths to avoid this place. It seems that the Golems here are in charge of not letting anything get out. They send their team to hunt the lizards that dig their way to the other side." Kyros voiced out.

"I... see." Aron sighed. He then began to take a step forward.

"Uncle?"

"Kyros... With your darkness ability, you could escape! We'll create an opening! If you can make it out, at least, you'll be able to save your father! Knights! You have your last mission!" Aron called out to the others.

"We try to save Kyros! It seems that the heavens want the Steele family dead! It gave us hope! It led us to a temple and made me call out my brother, who should be arriving anytime soon! Now, if my brother tries to look for me, he'll die! Men! The Steele family may fall unless we save Kyros! Let us die in a blaze of glory! Knights die in battle! Let's live up to that code! For the Steele Family!" Aron roared.

The knights cheered and roared and began to form ranks in front of Kyros.

"Hail to you, Master. Thank you that even though we have become a Cold One, you allowed us to feel the warmth of family." Avary bowed, and Scarlet and Gregory followed as well.

The trio also went ahead and joined ranks.

"Hey, Vampire kids... I never did apologize for blaming you." The knight who blamed the vampires spoke.

"It's an honor to fight with such young heroes!" The knight saluted.

And as the knights all made their preparations to die, the anger in Kyros's heart reached its peak.

Kyros was gritting his teeth so hard.

"I hate my stupidity! I hate my weakness. I thought I was starting to understand how Fate works, but I underestimated its cruelty! Fate was leading me and played me like a fool. I became arrogant with my intelligence! And Fate used that..."

Calaminus was surprised with Kyros's assessment.

"So... this... is Fate's Curse... I underestimated the extent of the sufferings Fate has destined me to go through too! I keep forgetting that my ultimate enemies are gods and fallen! Fine then. I'll take this more seriously from now on!" Kyros murmured, controlling his anger from exploding out.

"What's the plan?" Calaminus asked Kyros. He saw how angry Kyros was. And even though Kyros was by far the smartest mortal he met, Kyros was still beguiled by the workings of Fate."

"Like hell am I letting Fate kill anyone!" Kyros vowed.