Crack-! Crack-!

BOOOM--!

The spikes that Reven sent towards all the directions utterly destroyed the mechanism which shot arrows at Reven.

'They say sometimes Absolute Power is enough to break through anything for nothing.'

SSUPPP…!

Reven mused himself as he looked at the newly opened path.

= = = = =

[Ding!]

[Dungean Analysis Status: Progress- 5%]

= = = = =

'Empress' also showed some progress at the moment which earned a somewhat satisfied nod from Reven.

Reven then walked inside the newly path.

'It seems I have already entered the Inner Region.'

The path here was very different from what he faced till now. The walls here were shinning much brighter –almost silvery- compared to the cave walls he had faced before which had almost no visibility.

'The Ardor concentration here is also higher.' Reven thought.

He continued to walk for some time only to reach the end of the tunnel like hallway and saw a gigantic room or hall like structure.

On one side of the was a waterfall like structure coming out of the wall which was shining brightly.

Due to this the hall itself also had a somewhat glow in its walls because of the reflections.

Reven moved his eyes to examine the hall and he saw was…

At the exact time a message from the 'Empress' rang out inside his mind.

[Alert!]

"!!!"

-----

At Parth's side.

Huff-! Huff-! Huff-!

*Cough* *Cough*

'What a bad luck! Damn it.' Parth thought as he looked at the being in front of him.

After Parth separated from the group and went to his separate pathway, his initial journey was easy.

With his brutal strength and abilities, he breezed through anything that came towards him. In fact, he was the fastest of the entire group to reach inner region.

He was also able to easily destroy the traps laid to prevent them from reaching the inner regions too.

Everything was looking good for him until he came to the glowing hall.

The glowing hall he was in had the same structure like the one Reven found.

But…

The moment he entered there he lost his consciousness.

After about 6 hours passed, he was finally able to gain his consciousness back. He looked around to see something but even with his Meta-Human eyes he couldn't see anything.

The room he was placed in was simply pitch black.

He swiftly checked his body and found out that he couldn't move it even a bit.

He was paralyzed!

He tried to reconnect his nervous system from the movable parts of the body but he couldn't even do that. He thoroughly checked his body again and finally realized that it was not that his body was paralyzed.

But…

It was that the Ardor inside is body was totally frozen. He even tried to move it by force but he wasn't able to.

The moment he tried to force his way to break the solid frozen Ardor, his entire spine would hurt like hell.

He still didn't lose his hopes and tried again and this time-

Bleugh-!

Cough-! Cough-!

He spurted blood and his has turned red from all that pressure his nervous system was bearing.

Click-!

It was at this moment, the door to the pitch black room opened and some light poured in.

He saw a monster with a Manti-orc like body structure and an orc like face with two twisted horns entered the room.

"You will not be able to do anything human." The Manti-orc monster said in an unknown language to Parth's ears but he could easily understand it.

'Huh-! How can I understand him?' He looked quite surprised as he realized this.

"Oho! It seems you are quite surprised hearing me.

But do not fret over it. It is but a mere outcome of the Ardor you use.

Ardor is sentient and this means it is universal and contain knowledge far beyond our understanding.

So any being with intelligence can simply communicate through Ardor if he or she has a minute understanding of Ardor."

The Manti-orc's words cleared Parth's doubts.

"So may I know where I am and why I am here?" Parth asked looking at the Manti-orc.

"There are many but let me tell you the main one. You are going to be offered as a sacrifice."

"… the FU*K!"

"No really… You are going to be our ticket out of here by acting as a sacrifice.

Also it's not just you but many more… from different worlds."

"What is this place anyways?" Parth asked back.

"Oh this place… It is a ruins. The ruins of some destroyed world that is. Though it is famous around most of the worlds as the Forfeited Lands!

And yes there are many more like these."

After saying that the Manti-orc walked towards him and placed his hands on Parth's back.

Parth felt his back heating up specifically his Root Cog's position. Soon the frozen Ardor around his body was able to move again.

Parth tried to see if he could control it but he found out that the Ardor simply stayed in his body in moveable form but he was not able to move it by himself even a bit.

Though he still regained his ability to move his body.

"Let's go and meet your fellow sacrifices."

The Manti-orc then proceeded to take him towards another area which was a cellar where he saw many other people like him.

Some of them were humans while some of them were totally different from humans and looked more like Dwarfs, Druids, Demi-Humans and the legendary Elves from the fantasy webnovels.

Parth was in daze looking at the scene. He literally thought he was dreaming for some time.

Suddenly…

-----

At the same time that Parth was ambushed and knocked unconsciousness.

[Emergency Alert!]

[Parth's Wrist-Band have stopped sending signals.]

'The Hell!!!'

Reven was flabbergasted as he saw this news and had a somewhat bad feeling.

How could he not? After seeing the creature in front of him and Parth last known point of coordinates which showed that he too had reached the inner region.

The monster in front of him was a gigantic kobold. It was mostly silver in colour with patches of black in some parts of its body. Not only that it was wearing a deep grey armour on its chest.

The giant kobold held a huge spear in his hands. The spear itself looked a very high quality weapon by its looks and its design. It was indeed a very powerful weapon.

Of course the dreadful Ardor that the kobold was emitting was suffocating itself. And the weapon just made him even more powerful than he already was.

'I wonder will this spear be able to withstand my [S-] rank Ardor.'

Reven couldn't help but think.

"Human welcome!" The kobold spoke first completely taking Reven's attention.

"Oho! I can understand you huh!"

Reven replied sarcastically as he thought in his mind 'This will be hard but I think I need to keep acting as he isn't a big deal. So that I at least win the mental fight.'

"So Mr. Whatever your name maybe, to what do I owe your presence here?"

"I want to fight you, human. You are strong, human!"

"And how did you know that?"

"Your vibe is strong vibe, human!"

'Isn't this guy just too… Human?' Reven couldn't help but think.

"So if I fight with you what do I get?"

"Entry to the Forfeited Lands, human!"

'Forfeited Lands?'

"And if I don't wish to fight?"

"Death! Human!"

'Fu*k, I knew it. It was never going to be easy. Trying to fool this guy may get me some result but I don't have time Parth is also missing now. Damn it!!!'

Reven cursed and finally said-

"Okay I will fight with you.

But it will not be a fight to death because it will not be fare. As if I win I will not get anything if you simply die while if you win then you can simply have me as your servant.

How does this sound?"

"Yes, human. I think that is fare as killing you will get me no benefits either."

"Good then… Let's fight!"

…..