Rune was finishing up tying the priests who were chained to the wall. He had stabbed the guards’ spears into the wall as he hadn’t destroyed all of them, and was using it to hook up the chained.

He had also finished absorbing as much as he could from the deceased Drakes and the blood pool that engulfed the area around the tall chairs and table. Some of the blood was already soaked into the floor crevices and he couldn’t reach them and the room smelled of death and had a strong iron smell hanging in the air.

He had gained the skill [Breakneck] which allowed him to travel double his max speed at all times as it was a passive skill. Apparently, since Drakes are weaker recipients of Dragon abilities, they were just on par with a rank 4 Hierarch in strength and dexterity, but they could move and react much faster thanks to the [Breakneck] skill.

There was no staircase or ladder down to the next floor and Rune very much considered breaking the floor to get to the fourth floor. He looked around and tried to ask the priests, but they wouldn’t say how to get down. Rune did consider killing one of them as an example, but then realized that this may be due to the influence of the Black Dragon.

He settled on kicking one of the chairs. He broke the bases of each one off of the ground as they were connected to it and he raised them upwards with his [Gravity Control]. Then he slammed them down into the floor and everyone could hear an audible cracking sound.

The chairs exploded into rubble and stone flew everywhere and some of them hit the priests and Rune, but they just bounced off of him. The floor didn’t seem to have a single crack in it from his attack.

However, one stray rock struck the pentagram under the table and it glowed red for a moment. Still, Rune was able to catch a glimpse of that glow and turned towards it. He walked up to the side of the pentagram and looked at it.

Nothing else seemed different about it and Rune grabbed a nearby rock. Then he threw it at the pentagram, but it didn’t glow. It had bounced off of the center of the pentagram. Then he looked at where the first rock had previously landed. It was resting on one of the five points of the pentagram.

Then he decided to drop a rock on one of the other points and it glowed for a moment. He realized that there might be a way to get down.

Rune, Rena, Rouna, and two rocks were at the ready. They were about to step or be dropped onto one of the points on the pentagram each. Rune counted down with his fingers. Three. Two. One.

They all got onto the pentagram and it glowed a lightish red color. It started to spin and, once it completed a single full rotation, it began to descend.

The priests were wide eyed as they figured out the puzzle and were arguing with them that they shouldn’t go down there, but Rune just wagged his finger at them and stayed on the lowering platform.

The walls went from the same material as the ground to a darker colored metal material for the walls of the interior of the device. The pentagram glowed brighter as the light receded from the third floor.

Suddenly, the platform stopped and the walls around them opened up to a long hall. There were ten doors and twenty guards lined up, two per door. They all turned as they noticed the walls of the platform open up and they were confused when they saw three people and two rocks.

One person started to move a whistle towards his mouth and every other guard pulled out their spears and slowly cornered the trio. Rune stepped forward and whisked the whistle from the guard’s hand with his title skill of Greed’s Chosen.

The surprised man tried to blow the whistle, but his mouth was met with air as the whistle was out of his hand. Rune crushed the whistle in his hand and dropped the powdered remains onto the floor.

Then he cast [Ice Age] and the air around them turned cold, colder than anything the guards had felt before as they lived in a desert. They shivered as Rune took another step forward and he used [Gravity Control] on their spears.

The spears started to move out of their hands, but only half of the spears moved out of their hands as the other half kept their strong grips. Ten spears moved to float around Rune and he aimed them at the guards.

He threw them at the guards, but his aim was to break their weapons. Each guard blocked the weapons skillfully, but they kept coming back to try and inflict more damage. Rune and the other two just watched in leisure as the guards’ weapons broke into small pieces.

The guards soon became weaponless and the started to back up towards a door on the other side of the long hall. They didn’t seem to be running away and, when they opened the door, Rune could see shelves of weapons inside.

Without hesitation, he quickly ran into the room, past the guards, and stored all of the weapons along the walls. Then he looked back at the guards and smiled as their faces turned to despair.

Then he tied them all up together too quickly to react to. The room he was in had a set of stairs leading down to a strange circle on the floor with a pedestal in front of it. The pedestal had several strange buttons and a slot for a key.

When he examined it, he noticed that it was the same strange keyhole that was used to get onto floor four. The circle on the floor was strange due to being lower than the floor by about a foot and it had several gears around it. It was also split into six sections like a triangle with a curved side.

Rune looked around the room some more to see that there were lights in the ceiling and the walls had paintings on them depicting a lot of people who seemed to be worshipping a Black Dragon. It seemed like the people were Manticores as they had stingers on their tails and had red hair.

Rena and Rouna came into the area behind him and looked at the paintings. Rune stepped in front of the pedestal and plopped the key into the keyhole. He turned it and the gears on the circle started to turn.

The six triangles of the circle pulled into the floor, away from the center of the circle. What appeared underneath was a path of stairs that curved in a clockwise spiral. In the center of the spiral, there was a hole leading all the way down, but Rune couldn’t see the bottom.

He started to walk down and Rouna and Rena followed after they realized that they were going to be left behind. On the way, Rune tried to radio Riika and the others, but it seemed like something was blocking the communication.

They were moving down the stairs at a quick pace, but half an hour had already passed. Rune thought about using a magic device to help them, but, when he had tried to take out his hovering platform, he couldn’t activate his storage.

The only things he could use were on his person. He had kept his scythe and a sub-machine gun, but had stored everything else away. Rena still had everything she needed on her person and Rouna didn’t need anything.

It took some more time after Rune had tried to pull out items from his storage, but, when they finally reached it, they saw a really large room.

It was about 300 meters high and the walls were quite a bit of distance away from them. The staircase was in the center of the room and was surrounded by walls and a single door that they had to open.

Around them and along the walls was a river of light blue liquid. It brightened up the area enough so that Rune could see as both Majin and Dragons had night vision. The strange fluid made ripples along the surface and it seemed like something was swimming in it, but it was clear enough that they could see through it and they could not see anything strange in it.

There were four dragon statues in each corner of the room facing the center and they had ruby eyes. Out of their mouths trickled the strange liquid and it poured into the river below. The statues very much resembled the Black Dragon depicted in the fourth room with the curved horns and the malevolent shape of its head.

In front of them was an altar that was rectangular and was in the middle of the river in front of them. It had chains around it and holes to allow the liquid to flow in and out. Standing near it, but still not in the liquid, was a man was had grey horns that flickered blue runes on them and he had navy blue hair. His tail was made of obsidian, but seemed to be the same as a Manticore’s except that it also had more spikes than a regular Manticore and , wherever it touched, it let loose acid spilling from the tail.

Around him were four guards who also had horns that flickered blue, but they were much smaller than the person they were guarding. They each carried crossbows, spears, and knives.

All five turned as soon as they heard a creaking in the wooden door. The guards immediately pulled out their spears and pointed them at the trio as they came out. The man with the obsidian tail was holding a book and chanting something to the altar.

Rune rushes the guards and he kicked one into the river of the glittering blue liquid. He started to scream out in pain as the fluid constricted him like a snake and it entered inside his body via mouth. It was disgusting to watch as a large portion of liquid flowed into his mouth.

“That is a Water Weird, or at least something like it!!”

Rouna said shocked as she watched the scene unfold before her eyes. He liquid around them took shape and it became hundreds of serpents like the one that flowed into the man and they slithered about. They looked at Rena and Rouna as the moved about.

Their heads were that of a snake with fangs and strange whiskers. They slightly resembled a catfish and a snake and an eel as Rune looked closely at them.

They all roared in unison and the ground shook with their voices. Then they continued moving along the river path and ignored the others.

The guard who had fallen in was coming out and had a strangely blank expression covering his face. Then the water weird came out from every office on his face and Rouna covered her mouth in disgust and shock.

The guard stood standing and the other three were pointing at the trio. As soon as they shouted to attack, the man with the blank expression started to move. He pulled out his knife and attempted to stab Rune. Of course, Rune stepped out of the way and gave the guard a slight push, but, accidentally using [Breakneck], he pushed him so quickly and so powerfully that he was pushed into the ground and made a large impact crater.

The other three guards backed up unintentionally and nudged the chanting man who stopped his chanting. He turned around and the three guards showed immense fear in their faces as they turned to look at him.

Suddenly, the man swiped at the guards and scratched all of them. They screamed and their wounds started to smoke as they fell to the ground, clutching their wounds.

Their wounds grew larger and larger until they lost all their skin and their muscles started showing. It was like pouring hydrochloric acid on someone and it slowly burned off their skin and flesh and meat.

After a moment, they became a puddle of red and yellow liquid and a lump of meat in the middle of it with half disintegrated bones randomly sticking out of it.

The only guard left alive was the one in the impact crater with ten bones broken and he had blood trickling from his nose and ears. The man holding the book rolled his eyes in their sockets to look at Rune, Rena, and Rouna.

He started to speak and Rune could see that his lips were cracked and dry and his eyes had red veins in them. Around his eyes were dark bags as if he hadn’t slept for several days. When he spoke, it sounded rough and old.

“You dare trespass in this sacred grounds?! Be gone?! Only the Hells await thee!!”

He dropped his book and it started to float in midair and the words started to glow red. It fired off ten spells at once and ten flames came into existence above the book and they flew at Rune.

He tried to cast [Dispel Magic], but it didn’t work and he had to side step the attack. He now understood that he was in an area where he couldn’t use magic, but the enemies could.

He carefully analyzed the situation and fired off three shots at the book. They all bounced off of a glowing sphere around the book. It was a barrier.

Rune rushes it and punched with his fists, but he man with the obsidian tail attacked him at that moment. Rune escapee by stepping backwards and ended up crashing into Rouna.

To both Rouna and Rena, Rune used telepathy.

Rena charged left and pulled out her rifle and Rouna moved right and pulled out her shotgun. They both fired consecutive shots outside of his range and Rune started slashing him down with his scythe.

“I cannot die!! By the Dragon God, I have been granted near perfect regeneration!!”

He made an example by letting Rune cut him, but that was an immense mistake as he was suddenly caught on fire and his blood started to burn. He screamed in agony and the book started to glow green.

The barrier around it disappeared and Rune quickly cut it up. However, the obsidian tailed man stopped burning and his flesh came back. He spat out some blood and looked at Rune.

He had realized his mistake and jumped back from Rune. Then he tripped on the edge of the river and flailed his arms as he fell into the Water Weirds.

They engulfed him and entered his body. More than one entered his body at once and he was soon buried. Then, after all the Water Weirds entered his mouth and ears and eyes, he stood up in an empty river.

His eyes were now brimming with power as he climbed back to where Rune was. Rouna quickly launched a poison spell and the man deflected it.

Then the man rushed at Rune and started to choke him with one hand while firing off spells left and right. He spoke as the liquid dropped from his mouth and flew to the ground.

“These Advant Water Weirds are brimming with magical power!!! You cannot stop my power!!!”

Rune held up his hand and tried to shove the man away as drool dribbled from his mouth. He cast a spell.

Rune had noticed that Rouna had cast a poison spell and figured that the book kept them from using magic, but now it was destroyed. Now, however ironic, he could cast [Dispel Magic].

He cast it and the man’s eyes rolled upwards and the frothed at the mouth. He let go of Rune and started to smoke. A blue smoke came out of his mouth and they split into four equal parts and moved to the dragon statues’ mouths.

Suddenly, the ground shook and he ceiling broke. It fell down around them and they could feel abnormal power around them.