Through one of the many tunnels opening in the central chamber, Fade and Kira arrived in front of the teleportation altar.
When the both of them saw the scene in the central chamber, their eyes widened in shock.
The whole altar was piled up with dark elven corpses. A huge pile of corpses with guts and innards splattered around.
.But there was one difference, most of these corpses seem to have been split by a sword or similar physical attack before they exploded due to mana deviation.
On top of the pile of corpses stood a dark-elven woman. Her eyes closed and her left hand missing. A giant great sword pierced her heart and her corpse stood still like a proud warrior.
From a giant hole in the ceiling above, rays of moonlight fell on the standing dark-elven warrior as if praising her courage.
She stood there with great elegance. She looked like the very image of a noble warrior who fought till her last breath.
Among all the corpses in the chamber, only her corpse was still intact and hadn't exploded due to this chaotic mana in the surroundings. Her armor was broken in several places and she had several injuries on her body.
Yet, even after her death, her body stood proud and confident. She gave off the aura of sacrifice and glory.
…
"This place is…" (Fade)
Kira shook her head at Fade's question:
"This must be the altar of teleportation, but from the looks of it, it's already broken…" (Kira)
Hearing Kira's declaration Fade was startled, he asked in a loud voice:
"T-then how will we get out of here!?" (Fade)
Kira glanced at the giant hole in the ceiling and replied in a calm tone:
"That's our way out of here, I suppose…" (Kira)
"O-oh! Right! Why didn't I think of that!!" (Fade)
Hearing Fade's shocked voice, Kira shook her head… she already knew that this guy was an idiot to begin with, obviously, he wasn't going to think too far ahead.
"But this is indeed kind of strange, all the corpses here seem to have been sliced by swords, they didn't die due to mana deviation, and they were all killed in battle.
Then Kira glanced at the nearby demon corpses and shook her head.
"It must have been the work of these demon soldiers who followed the retreating troops here…. A long battle must have happened here…" (Kira)
"Well since the strong person we were worried about is already dead, we don't need to worry anymore, let's leave this place now…" (Kira)
Hearing Kira's agreement to leave, Fade smiled happily.
'Sigh~ finally I can leave this smelly and weird place… I never want to come back here again…' (Fade)
Kira stretched out her hand and just when she was about to cast her spell. The mana fluctuations caused by her spell casting seem to have triggered something that was not meant to be awakened.
*Rumble**Rumble*
The whole chamber started to rumble crazily after sensing Kira's mana fluctuation. The pile of corpses trembled along with the ground and several corpses fell down.
The woman's corpse, which was standing due to the sword's support lost its balance and fell immediately due to that strong rumbling.
"What's happening all of a sudden!?" (Fade)
Fade's panicked voice resounded throughout the central chamber.
Kira glanced at the ceiling and noticed that the giant hole was starting to collapse due to this rumbling.
"Quick! We need to get out of this place fast!" (Kira)
"Y-yes!" (Fade)
[Intermediate Wind Magic: Flight!]
With Kira's chant completed, a magic circle appeared below their feet and both of them were uplifted by the wind, towards the giant hole in the ceiling.
In an attempt to escape faster, Kira increased her mana output several times and thus increased the speed of the flight magic.
At an extremely fast speed, both of them immediately left the chamber and entered the giant hole.
With her excellent control over her wind magic, Kira easily avoided all of the falling debris and continued to fly higher and higher with Fade in tow.
As they were about to leave the rumbling of the walls and ground increased even further, more debris fell and the whole central chamber started to collapse on itself.
After a few more seconds of focused dodging, Kira and Fade finally made it out of the hole.
They both landed on the ground nearby safely.
*Huff* *Pant* *Huff*
Kira panted heavily due to mana exhaustion and extreme mana usage, in the span of just a few seconds.
"A-are you okay, Kira?" (Fade)
Kira shook her head and replied with a tired voice.
"I am okay, just a bit exhausted from using too much many in one go…." (Kira)
The giant hole they passed through was more than a kilometer deep, moreover flight magic consumes double the amount of mana compared to other magic.
The rumbling of the ground seems to have stopped after they exited the central chamber.
Kira glanced at the giant hole that had now fully collapsed and closed with a relaxed look on her face. She wiped the sweat on her forehead and said in a relaxed tone:
"Thankfully, we made it out alive, if we didn't hurry, we would have been buried here today…" (Kira)
Hearing Kira's solemn tone, Fade gulped his saliva and looked at the now-closed hole with slight fear in his eyes.
But he was also surer now that, he had become stronger and he could survive any difficulty that came his way. (He literally survived due to Kira again… and he thinks he has become strong…)
"Let's go, we can't stay here, this place is also prone to sudden collapse, we should leave this place to avoid any complications-" (Kira)
*Baaaaammm*
All of a sudden, the sound of ground being ruptured apart resounded throughout the area.
Fade and Kira hurriedly glanced back at the place where the giant hole was located.
What they saw made their eyes widen in extreme shock.
A giant stone hand stretched out of the ground from where the giant hole originally was located.
The stone hand fell with great momentum and cracked the ground around it, it created a way for the rest of its body to come out.
*Baaaammmm*
Another hand sprouted out of the ground with tremendous force and a huge amount of debris flew everywhere with great speed.
[Intermediate Wind Magic: Wind Barrier!]
Kira immediately cast a barrier spell and a spherical barrier enveloped the both of them, thus protecting them from the flying debris.
The ground trembled like crazy.
A huge stone head pushed out of the ground and the two hands gripped the ground in an effort to push the giant body out of the ground.
Massive shockwaves swept the area with each movement of the giant.
"W-what the f*ck is that thing!?" (Fade)
Kira stared at the giant try to get out of the ground and replied with slight hesitation in her voice:
"T-this, this is a peak S-rank stone golem… b-but its aura is too strong... this thing shouldn't be here in this A-rank dungeon at all! W-what is going on!?" (Kira)
Just when the two were shocked beyond belief a status message cleared their doubts in an instant.
[Ding! A new boss has been born in the A-rank Dungeon, Dungeon of Maya!]
[Ding! Due to the rare circumstances, the rank of the dungeon of Maya is increased from A to S-rank!]
[Ding! Please be cautious! The chaotic mana has become ten times stronger!]
With the sudden enhancement of the chaotic mana, the artifact that had been keeping Kira and Fade safe from the chaotic mana till now, started to crack slowly and their situation worsened even further.
"W-we need to run immediately!" (Kira)
[Intermediate wind magic: Flight!]
With Kira's magic, both of them levitated in the air and were just about to run.
But obviously, the golem was not going to sit still and watch them run away like that.
It pulled its whole stone body out of the ground and a massive crater appeared in the ground.
The golem was so big that even its fingers were bigger than the whole body of Fade and Kira combined in height.
In the horrified eyes of both Kira and Fade, the golem stretched out its giant hand and punched with tremendous force.
[Intermediate Wind Magic: Enhanced Wind Barrier!]
Kira poured her whole mana into that one barrier but still, it was not enough to even withstand the air pressure created by that punch.
It shattered like paper and immediately fell apart.
The punch landed directly without any resistance.
A massive shockwave spread and the air howled like crazy due to every movement of the giant golem.
The golem itself is several kilometers tall, small mountains may look like just regular bumps in the ground for this giant golem.
Its presence itself is strong enough to intimidate any onlooker below SS-rank.
The giant golem stared at the sky for a while before finally focusing on the two insects that lay on the ground.
...
…
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here! It's a new twist in the story again! This dungeon of Maya seems to have many secrets hidden in its grasp. As they say, most secrets end up forgotten when the keepers die without telling their tales.
Question of the day.
Would you guys like to pilot a giant golem-like this yourself?
1.Yes (Mech enthusiasts assemble!!! Let's go and explore the space!)
2.No (It's gonna be a huge hassle so I will pass…)
3.Others (Tell me in the comments.)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.