Chapter 558 557: Entering The Mountain



With our flirting out of the way for now, Anput and I rejoined the others at the entrance to the mountain, where the Golems stood guard, watching over the now empty battlefield that reeked of blood and death before turning towards us, their stances neither aggressive nor friendly as they observed our actions closely.

"I'll take the one on the right; Kat, take the one on the left with magic only, let's get a grasp on their resistances if we can, alright? I would like a little more information before we head inside, but..."

Nodding, I stepped forwards and raised my hand, staring at the Golem in front of me and getting a good look at its structure as I tried to pinpoint somewhere to attack that could cause the most amount of damage.

They were stereotypical Golems through and through; boulders and stones stacked together to formulate their body in a roughly humanoid shape, and they stood around Jahi's height, making them a rather imposing enemy for those of us not so vertically inclined.

Their arms and legs were comprised of thick slabs of stone that emulated a rough type of armor, while their hands were either a set of four digits or some type of weapon, with the two in front of us sporting a club and a thin bladed spear, meaning they could have an arsenal of melee weapons at their disposal.

"Jahi, don't take it down right away; let it move around to see how it reacts before destroying it, alright?"n0velusB.c0m

I glanced at the Demoness beside me, who nodded in affirmation as she rested her great sword on her shoulder, cutting an imposing figure as she stared straight at the Golem in front of her.

"Sounds good to me."

After I received her affirmation, I took a deep breath before weaving together a spell as quickly as I could, my mana bursting forth from my Core and shaping together a sharpened, heavy spear meant to pierce even stone.

Throwing it forwards, I watched as the brilliant ethereal blue lance whistled through the air at high speeds, impacting against the chest of the Golem and drilling a hole clean through the monsters torso, making it stagger back a few steps before dropping to its knee.

Summoning another lance, I took aim and hurled this second one towards its head, blasting it apart and watching as the rest of the Golem crumbled to the ground, lifeless.

The stones making up its body crumbled to dust in moments, and I breathed a sigh of relief for the time being as a fear that lurked in the back of my mind was temporarily proven wrong; I had thought that the Golems might reanimate and put themselves back together after being defeated, but thankfully that wasn't the case.

At least, for now anyways.

I glanced over at my Demoness and watched as she ducked beneath the Golem's clumsy swing, which while slow and rather wobbly, it held tremendous power as it shattered the rock that it hit, turning some of it to dust as it pulverized it entirely.

Jahi allowed it one more swing before nodding to herself, getting a grasp of what the Golem was capable of before blitzing forwards and slamming her mana coated fist against its chest, cratering it and sending the Golem staggering backwards before it collapsed, dead.

Shaking off her hand, Jahi turned back towards us and nodded, saying "Not that bad. Slow but really powerful, so don't let it touch you. I have a feeling even a 'weak' attack from one of these things would break bones. Don't get cocky with them, and we should be good. Now..."

She looked off into the tunnel, summoning an orb of golden light to illuminate the path as she said "We should look for the heart of the island now, and hope that this is a straight shot towards the center of this place... Otherwise, I think we'll be here for a little longer than I want to be. Anput, Kat, listen for a heartbeat or movement and take us to it. Nirinia, bring up the rear. Leone, stick beside me."

With her orders given, we got into formation and stepped down into the tunnel, which rapidly descended into the earth and wrapped us in a warm, still air that smelt of minerals and soil.

The tunnel continued down for another minute or two before slowly evening out over the course of another few minutes, though it was also slowly spiraling to the left, creating a large corkscrew beneath the earth that lead us towards the heart... hopefully.

It had no branching paths nor any other Golems, which was both nice and worrying as we began to make our way even further into the mountain, Anput and I straining our hearing as best we could as we quietly continued onwards.

There was a very faint beating that sounded out every few seconds, echoing throughout the tunnel and creating a rather odd feeling inside our bodies as it vibrated the air just enough to be noticeable, but not enough to be able to tell without focusing on it too much.

That was to say, everything about this journey into the depths was unnerving, and we eventually found ourselves stepping into a large cavern that was illuminated by vibrant crimson crystals that pulsed with mana, as well as the occasional duller brown crystals, all of which were surrounded by Golems.

Reaching the entrance of the cavern, we all stared at the mass gathering of Golems before turning our gazes upwards, cursing softly at the giant conduit that we found ourselves in, which lead straight up into the mountain and out into the open sky above.

We weren't in a mountain, it would seem, but instead inside a dried out volcano that was now being used as a base for these Golems, which all turned to look at us as we entered the volcano's magma chamber, where they had been gathering.