Chapter 121 - 117 : The Old Man

[[ System notification :

Congratulations! You have discovered the [Temple of Chains : Mazu's lair]

]]

"Yeah~ . Another congratulations." Gotze sarcastically commented.

The team had already entered the Northern temple and before they could begin scrutinizing the entire place, they all received a system notification.

Ignoring Gotze's silly comment, Ink Snow scanned the entire place with her eyes.

Mazu's lair was actually a simple building with not much decorations and complicated structures. There was only just one or two special features about the place.

First and foremost, Mazu's lair was just a huge corridor that led straight, with no branches or junctions or side doors and rooms. Secondly and lastly, it only had one noticeable hallmark; a rather conspicuous one at that. The sides of the corridor was bordered by huge 19 metres tall statues of warriors in different armors and clothing, and beasts of different shapes and looks. The thing they had in common was that both statues were colored black and the material used to make them didn't seem like regular stones or ores as it had a weird metallic sheen to it.

"Creepy." Purple Winter commented on them.

The human statues of course, weren't the creepy ones instead, it were the beast ones. One of them looked like lions with the body of a bird and a snake's tail, another looked like a disfigured human with arms sprouting not only from the shoulder but also from both the back and the original existing arms. One looked like a behemoth from the abyss, seeming as if it's existence was meant only for destruction and devouring.

"True. This place is really creepy. I keep getting this sinister vibe from here." Herald nudged his glasses.

"Let's just look around the place first." Ink Snow said.

Since there was only one path ahead of them, the team walked straight, in search of either another exit or their mission target.

After a few minutes of walking, they finally reached the end of the road. Well, it wasn't actually the real end of the road but more like the 'end' on top; the path continued underground to an unknown location.

"Wow." Panda exclaimed as he stared at the wall that stood in front.

"Wow? More like very creepy and scary." Purple Winter commented.

"What strange creature is this?" Gotze asked as he stared at the wall up ahead.

As the road on the surface had gone underground, what stood before them was a wall. However, the wall wasn't blank but had a mural painted on it with a few words scribbled on the side and beneath.

The painting on the wall was that of a 'black sun' with a silhouette ingrained within it. No trait or attribute of the silhouette could be made out from the mural. It looked more like a gray shadow just drawn within the 'black sun' but at the same time looked to be portraying a hand figure.

Depicted in front of the 'black sun', slightly below it, was a monster in a black hood with a a black staff in it's right hand and an opened grimoire in it's left. The contents of the grimoire couldn't be seen due to the angle the monster held the book but the cover of the grimoire was wine red in colour; bordering brown in shade. The monster's features couldn't be made out due to a dark shadow that hovered on it's face and the only reason the team called it a 'monster' was because of two protruding horns that pierced it's hood. Otherwise, when looking at it from an overview, it looked no different from the outline of a regular human being. A chain hung around it's neck and this very chain connected it to the 'black sun' behind it.

"I guess that's Mazu. Right?" Gotze asked.

"Who are you asking? I pretty much guessed the same but I don't know a thing about here." Herald expressed his lack of knowledge.

"If you guys are done admiring that, then let's go. We don't have all day." Ink Snow hurriedly the group.

Upon hearing her words and recalling the mission, the team walked over to the stairs and began their descent down. When Herald, who was the one walking behind, had gone down the stairs, a red light burst from the location of the eyes of the 'monster' in the painting as a white colour began to take form a bit below the eyes.

3 seconds later and the transformation was completed, leaving behind a hooded twin-horned creature with two red eyes and a big grin.

2 minutes of descent and the team finally arrived at the end of the stairs but what they encountered was the least of their expectations and the worst of it all.

They got frozen immediately the last man, Herald, got down the staircase. The good news though, was that they had completed their objective as the special orb handed over to Ink Snow by the priest, Nathel, was glowing brilliantly. The bad news though was both the reason of the glowing and their abrupt paralysis and immobility. The 'object' that possessed the energy wasn't an object but a life form and it was staring at the group.

"Shit!" Gotze cursed. The only effect that was placed on them was immobility so they could still talk and breathe but couldn't move their arms, legs or body.

"It's powerful. Really powerful. Way more scarier than that puppet." Herald was sweating badly.

[Sefiris' eye] had the ability to gauge a person or an object's prowess by scanning the energy value of the person or object. When Herald stared at the cloaked humanoid creature with his glasses, he could see that it's energy signal was off the roof. If it was to let it's energy flare up, they would just be crushed by the sensation of the energy. More so through [Sefiris' eye], Herald discovered that the reason they couldn't move wasn't because of any spell or skill but simply because the energy of the creature was so viscous that it held back their mobility. After knowing this, he couldn't help but sweat violently. He would have even shivered too but his body couldn't move an inch.

'We are dead! We're so f**king dead!'

The last time Herald had ever experienced this sort of fear was back in Conquest, when he was just a level 50 player confronted by a level 200 NPC. Back then, he could at least move but he couldn't do much. This time however, he couldn't even move an inch much less escape.

While Herald got cold feet, Gotze was slightly feeling better though he was still worried.

'[Detect] couldn't spot it...What does this mean? Is it so powerful?'

The team couldn't be blamed for reacting this way. Though they were pro players, they were only but a small party with most of them below the Top Expert rank and with not so much experience in gaming. Getting cold feet while facing such a creature was still understandable.

"All trespassers must die..." The cloaked fiend pointed its right index finger at the team while uttering incomprehensible words which seemed to be understood by the players in their head.

The next second, a dark beam darted out from the extended finger and collided on Panda. Almost instantly, his body disintegrated into atomic particles that disappeared from everyone's sight. On their party channel, they noticed that the Panda's name got grayed out meaning that he was dead.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Gotze continuously cursed. "Move useless body, move!" He tried to force out every ounce of strength to move his body but all he couldn't even manage to make his body quiver less than an inch.

"Noisy." The creature pointed this time, towards Gotze and just as it happened before, a black beam shot Gotze and killed him too.

"So this is how we go huh? At least we completed the mission." Herald smiled ruefully. Truth be told, he didn't want to die, no one did, but he didn't have a choice. He couldn't defeat the monster so he just looked at the bright side of things before leaving things to fate.

"Yeah. At least we did something..." Ink Snow sighed. "I'm sorry you guys."

Ink Snow believed that if they had retreated earlier on, they wouldn't be in this mess. Even though they had technically achieved the mission, the amount of experience points lost with this death might even surpass their gains. In other words, the investment might turn out to be greater than the profit.

"No need for apologies Ink. It's not your fault." Purple Winter comforted her. As soon as she completed her statement, a dark beam struck her and so, Purple Winter joined up with the other two in where ever the hell they were.

Less than a second later, Herald too had followed, leaving behind only Ink Snow. As the creature then pointed at Ink Snow to end her life, it suddenly froze and widened its eyes. Ink Snow noticed this anomaly but before she could guess what was going on, the creature blew up.

*Boom*

The explosion wasn't so huge but the strange things about it was that there was no blood or insides spilled but rather something unexpected. Confetti.

As the creature blew up, Ink Snow regained her movements but before she could decide whether to leave or not, another figure appeared by the spot the creature was. It was an old man with a friendly smile on his face.

He looked to be around 50 years of age or so and from his facial features, one could imagine how handsome he was back in his youth. He was still handsome though and the big white beard also gave him a special sense of refinement and style.

"Oh? What's a young lady like you doing in this dangerous place?" The old man asked Ink Snow with a smile on his face.

Ink Snow still kept her guard up as she wondered who he was, but she still replied "I was sent by a priest on a mission here."

"A priest? Of what order and his name?"

"Priest Nathel. Holy Light Church." Ink Snow replied.

"Hmm? One of Az' kids. Hmm. You seem to be telling the truth. I can sense an aura of light from you. It's a good thing that we happened to come across each other so I ask you this, is there anything you need?" The old man asked Ink Snow.

Ink Snow didn't know whether she could still trust the man so all she did was try to fulfill her mission objective to a much higher rank.

Ink Snow brought out the orb that hung by her waist. It was currently dull now when compared to its previous glow with little signs of light here and there due to the remnant energy from the creature. She then answered the old man.

"Just one thing. I need any object or relic that has the energy signal detectable by this orb. It would be nice if I can get a body part from a life form."

Ink Snow requested for this because she wanted to know the limit of this man's strength and from the way he timely appeared after the death of that creature, she beliihe was very strong and decided to use him to complete her quest greatly.

"Hahaha. You're one good kid. You didn't even ask who I was or anything like that but just went straight to the point. I like you and for that, not only will I fulfill your request, I will also send you other of here for free." The old man guffawed as he stroked his beard.

Ink Snow was surprised at his claim but remembering that he might have been the one to defeat that creature plus his sudden appearance, she didn't say a thing.

"I might not be able to help you with a life form but here, have this." The old man took an object out of thin air and tossed it to her. "It should work right?"

As soon as the object was brought out, the orb glowed brightly again, even more so than when the creature was alive. Ink Snow caught the object and it turned out to be a rusted key.

"Yes, sir." Ink Snow bowed. After seeing the old man's ability, she knew better than to annoy him.

"Hmm, 'sir'. I kinda like the ring to that. Okay now, off you go." The old man waved his hand as if pursuing Ink Snow away and as he did so, she vanished from the spot.

"Now....Why don't you stop hiding and come out let's play a bit eh? Dear Mazu~"