At first, no one noticed the armor lurking in the shadows next to the high walls, or even the massive throne at the end of the Fume Cathedral.
But... once Adam pointed it out, everyone's eyes went wide.
Luckily for them, as they ran towards the Fume Cathedral, evading the wave of monsters, Silvana wasted no time and quickly got all the information from Riska.
Sure, Riska could tell them everything, she had enough influence to invade their mission as a high-ranking Operator, but it wasn't as effective as giving Silvana a chance to prove herself.
'Look, this is Fume Throne, and that's one of the main reasons why the Statues are watching who enters Fume Cathedral, and they don't care if it's a monster or human. The only thing that matters to them is power.'
"RRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHH!!!"
Silvana wanted to continue, but suddenly there was a pitiful roar from the direction of the gate. Soon, they heard a strange, unpleasant sound as if a centipede was climbing up the steps, wriggling its long body.
Soon two Weeping Harahas appeared in front of the gate. Their ink-filled eyes went straight to Adam, Oskar, and the others, as grins of satisfaction appeared on their faces.
Without fearing the consequences of their actions, the two monsters rushed forward, extending their vile hands towards the Phantoms that were no more than ten meters away from the gate.
But...
At some point, they stopped moving forward, even though they wanted to.
Turning around, the Weeping Harahas found that a massive stone hand was holding their tails tightly as if they were small snakes that could not be stopped by a strong man.
Then, the Statue lifted the Weeping Harahas above the ground like some kind of worms.
"RRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!"
The Weeping Harahas hissed and screamed, emitting a piercing sound that was as if it had escaped from nightmares to become a horror in reality. But, no emotion appeared on the Statue's face, the screams of such weak creatures were not worth its attention.
Whoooooooooooosh.
In one sharp motion, the Statue brought the Weeping Harahas to the ground, literally exploding their bodies under the pressure from the violent impact of colliding with the solid surface.
Then, the Statue lifted the Weeping Harahas again and tossed their already dead bodies aside like some useless trash.
"Holy shit..." Katrin muttered in disbelief, "We had to put up a lot of ability and strength to defeat those bastards, but this Statue just smeared them on the floor with pure physical strength..."
If they wished, the monsters could fold their claws along their paws, leaving only their fingers, which were clenched tightly to form flesh hammers.
The monsters had short horns on their heads that had no practical purpose, unlike their powerful jaws and long fangs that could tear apart even a piece of steel.
"Silvana?" Adam asked. She already knew what he needed.
'Sure, that's the Noisy Paroses. Noisy Paros are Light Yellow Threat monsters and they are stronger than Weeping Harahas, though they don't have any unique abilities. Almost all of their power is concentrated in their pure physical might.' Silvana quickly replied.
Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.
Quickly approaching the gate, the Noisy Paroses shook the ground with their weight, but reaching the entrance of the Fume Cathedral they stopped, raising their gazes to the Statues.
Unlike the other monsters that had been here before them, they realized that it was better to get permission from the guards before moving on.
Strangely enough, the Statues did not react in any way, allowing Noisy Paroses to move further, entering the Fume Cathedral.
This could only mean one thing - the Statues recognized Noisy Paroses as worthy and strong enough.
Thus, now Adam and the others were facing nine monsters that were stronger than the Weeping Harahas that the Statues had killed as unworthy.
"Fine, we have no other choice either way, so let's fight. If we act together, we can defeat them. I believe that." Oskar said sincerely, clutching his sword tightly and taking a step forward.
The Noisy Paroses glanced over, grinned widely, and began beating their chests with their fists making a sound unpleasant to human ears.
'I see... Now I understand why they were named that.' Adam frowned, looking around.
Whoooooooooooooosh.
Suddenly, without warning, all nine Noisy Paroses stood in front of them and one of them burst forward, aiming straight at Oskar.
Crackle.
Before Oskar or anyone else could do anything, the Noisy Paros stopped abruptly, not of its own will but because two dark swords of the Fume Armors were pointed at its neck.
They appeared beside the monster as if out of nowhere.
Adam's eyes went wide, then he thought of only one thing.
'What was the role of the Fume Armors? What was the role of the judges of this blighted place?'