Through the doorway, after entering the underground area, Klein and Alger no longer had any natural light before them. The ceiling here was quite intact, lacking any openings, so the crimson moonlight that pierced the mist could not enter.
Alger raised the gas lamp in his hand slightly, causing the wide but seemingly endless tunnel ahead to be stained with a distinct haziness.
With a single glance, Klein spotted at least six statues—male and female, all grayish-white, their clothes seeming carved out of stone.
Among these statues were elves, giants, and humans with an ancient style. Aside from their faces being frozen in expressions of pain and despair, they had no similarities.
As they stared unblinkingly, and thinking that they might have once been living beings, Klein felt a chill run down his spine. It seemed that at the depths of the tunnel, where darkness ruled, a terrifying monster was opening its mouth, waiting for the two of them to step into its belly.
Restraining his fluctuating emotions, Klein and Alger did not speak. They passed between the twisted-faced grayish-white statues and moved forward step by step.
After a dozen seconds, thanks to the light of the gas lamp, Klein could see, without needing the night vision of 'Wraith' Senior, the murals on the walls—tattered, faded images.
Several of these murals were relatively intact, allowing one to discern what they depicted. Their main subjects were undoubtedly the giant cross shrouded in layers of radiance and the majestic figure standing before the cross.
This blurry yet solemn figure either faced floods that had submerged the city up to the mountainside, or stood on the earth that had split into pieces, or looked up at the starry sky above, locking eyes with one evil, insane eye after another that emerged from the profound darkness.
Scenes of the ancient Sun God saving the world when the apocalypse came? This is somewhat similar to the murals that the little Sun and the others found in the temple of the
Alger was also observing those ragged murals. Suddenly, he spoke in a low voice: "I suspect that the 'True Creator' and the 'Fallen Creator' drew upon these contents for their descriptions of themselves."
As expected, our views are consistent… Klein let the
"The True Creator and the Creator worshipped by the
The two continued forward, trying to step lightly, yet there were still some echoes, and in the extremely quiet atmosphere, they drifted far away.
Just then, Klein's spirituality stirred. He immediately stepped forward two paces, blocking Alger and shielding most of the gas lamp's light.
Less than two seconds later, he heard a dull sound approaching from afar.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The ground trembled slightly, growing increasingly pronounced. Then, Klein saw a figure nearly four meters tall emerge ahead.
It was also grayish-white, with patterns like armor sculptures carved on its surface, goat-like horns on its head, and its mouth like a hound's, half-open revealing fangs.
But what drew the most attention were its burning red eyes and six pairs of grayish-white membrane-covered wings.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
This monster held a seven-to-eight-meter-long stone halberd, slowly entering the tunnel. With every step, it shook the earth, transmitting a heavy sensation to the surroundings.
Although Klein had never seen one before, he immediately recognized what it was.
This was a six-winged stone gargoyle!
Its core crystal was one of the main ingredients for the Puppet Master, and the Beyonder power it possessed must be extremely peculiar and hard to guard against!
From its appearance, size, and material composition, its combat abilities would certainly be strong as well, and it would be resistant to most damage… It only needed one sliding step to crash into them and smash out with its heavy stone halberd to create terrifying damage… Klein's left hand relaxed a little, but he did not react immediately.
He and Alger stayed in place, one with his body, one with his clothing, blocking the gas lamp's light so that it was very dim.
Dong! Dong! Dong!
The six-winged stone gargoyle did not look at where they were, but crossed the tunnel horizontally, the sound of footsteps gradually fading away.
Indeed, its senses were not strong… No wonder Zilinksi could go deep underground and return safely back then… Only after the footsteps were barely detectable did Klein move forward again, passing the crossroad.
In truth, with his current strength and equipment, and his understanding of the target, killing a six-winged stone gargoyle was not too dangerous, especially with the Hanged Man's help. The reason he gave up on attacking was that he did not know how many six-winged stone gargoyles were in this underground area. Once a fight started, if it made too much noise, they might be surrounded. In that case, they could only rely on "Travel" to forcibly escape, and if they alarmed something that made even the nearby supernatural creatures dare not approach this ruin, the trouble would increase exponentially.
Controlling one's greed is one of the prerequisites for adventurous exploration.
Alger was quite gratified to see such a calm and rational performance from the crazy adventurer, and he increasingly suspected that the other party was carrying out some orders from Mr. Fool, which was why he suppressed the impulse to attack the six-winged stone gargoyle.