When Azrael regained his senses, he realized that his body was trembling... No! Not just his body, but the entire sand castle was shaking as if it were about to collapse at any moment.
Many of the sky-high sand pillars he had seen when entering the underground area had already collapsed, filling the entire space with thick, rising dust.
Large sections of the walls, ceiling, and other parts of the castle continued to crumble, producing deafening rumbling sounds that echoed throughout the ruins.
If not for the star-level barrier protecting him, Azrael would have already been buried beneath the immense debris and rubble of the collapsing structure.
"Huh?" At this moment, a voice filled with surprise suddenly reached his ears, and before he could even react, a figure appeared before him.
Azrael was startled and nearly attacked instinctively, but he stopped at the very last second when he realized the person who appeared before him was Elyara.
"You are finally awake!" Elyara exclaimed, her voice carrying a mixture of agitation and relief. "Do you even realize what you have done by recklessly sitting there?"
Her outburst reached Azrael, but his expression remained unchanged.
Nalvadir had already told him that it was the sanguinal throne that sustained the entire ruins. Now that its energy had been absorbed by him, the entire broken fragment of ancient Genesis was destined to collapse.
Yet, Azrael remained calm as Nalvadir had also explained how to safely leave this place before everything crumbled.
"Calm down..." Azrael stood up from the throne and said in an even tone. "I know exactly what is happening, and I already have a way to get us out of here."
As he spoke, Azrael glanced around, but he didn’t see Vanessa or any of the other members of the Transcendent Organization.
By now, many parts of the castle had already collapsed, and they were surrounded by massive fallen fragments that blocked their view of almost everything else.
In truth, it was only because of the star-level barrier that they were still standing unharmed. Without it, they would have long since been crushed under tons of sand and rubble.
"Where is that crazy woman?" Azrael asked, frowning when he couldn’t sense Vanessa’s presence anywhere nearby.
Though agitated by the situation, Luo Bingqing still answered Azrael’s question.
As he listened, Azrael’s eyes narrowed.
According to Luo Bingqing, a few minutes after Azrael had sat down on the throne, all of the Transcendent Organization members, except Vanessa, had suddenly fainted. Once they collapsed, Vanessa carried them to the Ancient Wooden Door located slightly behind the throne.
But shortly after, one of the massive sand pillars near the throne crumbled, cutting off their view of what happened next.
"We don’t know what happened afterward," Luo Bingqing continued, his eyes narrowing further. "But if I had to guess, that woman must have used her poison powers to render her companions unconscious. That Hiroshi fellow told us before that the door required human blood to open. Realizing she couldn’t escape, she probably chose to use the blood of her teammates to open the door and escape from this crumbling place."
Azrael frowned deeply at Luo Bingqing’s words, Nalvadir’s warning replaying in his mind.
’Using blood to open that door is nothing but inviting your own doom.’
Shaking his head, Azrael dismissed the thought and stopped dwelling on Vanessa any longer.
’Well, whatever happens to her isn’t my concern.’
"What should we do now?" Elyara’s voice drew him back. "The path leading outside is already blocked by the collapsed sections of the castle. Even if you do have a method to pass through the sandstorm outside and reach the exit portal, we would first have to escape this collapsing castle, which is nearly impossible."
Hearing Elyara’s nervous voice, Azrael simply shook his head.
"Don’t worry. We don’t need to leave this place to escape."
As he spoke, his gaze shifted to the crack filled black throne behind him.
Without hesitation, he stepped forward and swung his leg like a whip toward it.
A deafening boom shook the surroundings and the black throne, which both Elyara and Luo Bingqing had failed to even budge earlier was blasted backward, slamming into the barrier’s wall and shattering into countless fragments.
Luo Bingqing and Elyara’s jaws nearly hit the ground when they saw this, and for a moment, both of them wondered if they were hallucinating.
’Did he... did he just destroy that throne with a single kick?’ Both of them thought at the same time, recalling how they had tried desperately to move it earlier, only to find it immovable.
Of course, Azrael could do so only because the throne had already lost all of its energy, reducing it to nothing more than an empty shell.
Elyara and Luo Bingqing, unaware of this fact, could only stare blankly at the broken fragments in disbelief. Google seaʀᴄh 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹~𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮~𝚗𝚎𝚝
’Well, although that guy was suspicious, at least he didn’t lie about this much...’ Azrael thought, ignoring their reactions.
His gaze shifted to the small pit that had been hidden beneath the throne, now revealed after its destruction. Inside, a faintly glowing, light-blue storage ring rested quietly.
Azrael bent down, retrieved the storage ring, and peered inside with his consciousness.
There were roughly twenty items inside the ring, but since Nalvadir had already told him about them, Azrael’s expression hardly changed.
’Where is it...?’ Azrael scanned through the contents until he found the object he was seeking.
With a thought, he drew out a glowing stone etched with a mysterious rune from the ring.
By now, Elyara and Luo Bingqing had finally recovered from their shock and their eyes immediately landed on the small pit beneath the throne and then on the storage ring in Azrael’s hand.
"What is that?" Luo Bingqing asked, his voice filled with curiosity as he stared at the strange stone Azrael held.
"Our ticket to outside..." Azrael replied calmly, his voice low, before turning his attention back to the storage ring.
"But before leaving, let’s increase our strength a little more."