Chapter 409 Wedding Banquet (9)
Under the gaze of the other five people, the Inquisitor took off his hooded cloak and stepped into the second secret door. The ground under his feet was hard and solid, with no looseness. He glanced at the ground, and through his ability of perspective, he could see that the mechanism group under his feet was stuck by the mechanism group that opened the secret door, maintaining a stable structure. However, this door would soon close automatically, so the Inquisitor stretched out a finger and pierced through the wall, destroying the already opened mechanism group, allowing the secret door to remain open while ensuring that the mechanism group under his feet remained silent.
"Okay, the problem with the mechanism under my feet has been solved. At my shoulder height, there are two mechanism launchers on each side of the inner door. Although the energy inside these four mechanisms has become weak due to time, it is better not to touch them. God knows if there is any problem with the energy inside."
After explaining to the five people behind him, the judge immediately entered the space behind the secret door. The space was not big, about 100 square meters, and there was only a strange altar, besides two unlucky guys who were frozen in mid-air in a flying posture.
"I must have seen this statue somewhere."
As for the Inquisitor, he took a closer look at the statue, or to be more precise, the altar. Two-thirds of the altar was a strange but normal-shaped altar, and the upper one-third was the statue. The statue was severely damaged, but after careful observation, it could be found that it was due to natural aging over time, not human-caused. He always felt that he had seen the statue somewhere, but because it was severely damaged, he did not have any specific impression.
There was a nearly circular stone plate on the altar. The estimated size was that the diameter was more than ten centimeters, but no more than fifteen centimeters. The thickness of the plate was about five centimeters, and there were some grooves on it. However, the peculiar thing was that although those grooves looked like some ancient hieroglyphs, after careful observation, it was found that those grooves were not carved by humans, but were formed naturally. Although all signs indicated that this thing had not been carved by humans, and had not even been polished, the judge did not believe that nature could create such a thing. Someone must have made this stone plate, but he could not guess how.
The five people outside the secret door followed the Inquisitor's route accurately and entered the secret room. Perhaps out of caution, and because of the two unlucky guys who were still frozen in mid-air, they unconsciously lowered their bodies and almost squatted to move in. After entering the secret room, they consciously stopped behind the Inquisitor. It seemed that their companions had been trapped by some kind of trap. If even the Inquisitor in front of them did not move casually, then they thought that the wisest way was to do as they were told.
"What kind of look are you guys wearing?"
"Uh...stay sensible?"
"Stand up, the mechanism that caused them to be like this has failed."
"Are you sure? We didn't see any..."
"there."
The Inquisitor pointed to the area below the altar stone plate, where there were two spots with some friction marks. According to the Inquisitor, that should be the mechanism that caused the current state of the "Rat King" and the "Candle Merchant". However, although they saw the clues, no one moved. They were not completely convinced by the Inquisitor's statement.
"It seems like you guys do have serious trust issues, alright then."
The Inquisitor walked directly to the altar, bent down, and suddenly inserted his hands into the location of the mechanism. After making two holes on it, he turned around, stretched out his clenched fists to the other five people, and then slowly opened them. Two shriveled things, unknown to everyone, appeared in front of everyone.
"Is this... an alchemical golem? No, it's a part of it, but why is it so small?"
After observing for a while, "Scholar" Tarun immediately knew what the two shriveled things were. They were part of some kind of alchemical golem, and the reason they were shriveled was because their energy was exhausted. If they were really the culprits for the current state of the "Rat King" and the "Candle Merchant", then these two things should have still had some energy when the two entered the secret room.
"Can you let me see it?"
"Please."
The "Shadow Demon" seemed to have guessed something. He asked for the two shriveled things from the Inquisitor's hand. After careful observation, he roughly guessed how the parts of the two alchemical golems worked.
"I sensed two different energies above, and they came from... these two unlucky guys. The two alchemical golems must have absorbed some of their energy in some way, and when it reached its effective value, it restarted and attacked them. Considering the reason why we came here, the two of them should have touched that stone... Hey!!"
"Click."
"Shadow Demon" analyzed some clues. He believed that the reason why the mechanism was triggered by the two unlucky guys was definitely because they touched the stone plate on the altar. This thing was placed in this secret room with great effort, and it would not be easily taken away, so many mechanisms must have been arranged to prevent such a thing from happening. "Rat King" and "Candle Merchant" would not be stupid enough to study the stone plate here. They must want to take the stone plate away first, so the time they touched the stone plate must be very short. This can be inferred from the small position where the stone plate was moved. But just this, maybe only one or two seconds, made them fall for it. So there must be more than one mechanism protecting the stone plate. So if you want to move the stone plate, it is best to conduct an in-depth investigation of the entire secret room and then customize a reliable plan.
However, Shadow Demon saw that the Inquisitor took the stone plate directly off the altar. At this time, the clear sound of the mechanism being triggered made everyone's hair stand on end, and they immediately fell to the ground. But it seemed that nothing happened.
"Walk!!"
The pupils of the "Earth Dragon" suddenly contracted. Half of it came from the banshee's blood, which made him extremely sensitive to certain crises. At this moment, he sensed something that was about to happen. If he could not escape from the secret room in time, it would likely lead to his death. So after shouting loudly to inform his companions, he immediately stood up and prepared to rush out of the secret room.
"Om~~"
However, before he took a step forward, the ground of the entire secret room suddenly disappeared. After a very short delay, except for the altar which had not changed and the three-meter square area around the altar, everything felt the terrifying gravity. It was pitch black below, and no one knew how deep it was, but there was no unusual smell, just a faint, rotten and moldy smell.
This situation was not a good thing for Tarun, a vampire. Based on this, she was able to analyze one thing, that is, the space below was deep enough so that it was difficult for the smell to float up. Although the five of them had their own abilities, which could ensure that they would not be killed by the fall, the four walls of this "abyss" were also made of materials that could block magic and energy. They could not die, but they could not get out either.
"Hey~~~~"
And some other, faint, or distant sounds could tell Tarun that there seemed to be something else at the bottom of this "abyss".
“Swish! Swish!!”
Each of them showed their skills and tried to stop their falling process. The archmage released a magic explosion in the sideways direction, pushing herself to the edge, and then tried to fix herself with the staff in her hand. However, because her strength was not strong (relatively speaking), the length of the staff that pierced into the rock wall was not deep, so it was not a problem to get stuck temporarily. However, she could sense that her staff was slowly sliding down, and it would probably fall off the rock wall in ten minutes or so.
The Earth Dragon was very close to the rock wall. He used his strong tail to wrap around the Shadow Demon who was closest to him. The Shadow Demon used his black magic to temporarily create a weak platform on the rock wall that blocked energy. The Earth Dragon seized the opportunity to jump up using the platform, but because the platform was not strong and the weight of two people was too heavy, they were unable to jump out of the "abyss". Fortunately, the Earth Dragon had enough strength. He inserted his hands into the rock wall and stuck to it like a gecko. However, their position was tilted, and there was a person wrapped around his tail. Therefore, the Earth Dragon consumed several times more energy than usual to maintain the current position. If there were no other factors, it could probably hold on for about half an hour.
"Taren!!"
Tarun's original position was actually the closest to the altar. If she used blood magic to create a whip, she could grab the Inquisitor's legs on the safe platform, or the altar next to him, but she didn't do that because she wanted to save people.
Among the five people who fell, "Siren" was in the most dangerous distance. She was in the middle of the team and also the farthest from the rock wall. The abilities of "Siren" were mainly in stealth and camouflage. Although she had certain combat power, she was not the main combat power of the team. If her position was closer to the rock wall, she might have a way to prevent herself from falling, but in her current position, she had no way out.
Perhaps seeing the "Siren's" serious panic and fear, Tarun gave up her chance to escape and used blood magic to quickly close the distance with the "Siren". Using the thrust generated by the explosion of the blood mist, she successfully pushed the "Siren" out of the "abyss". She should have landed in a safe area of three meters square near the altar, but she would be finished. The reverse thrust of the blood mist explosion accelerated Tarun's fall, and she moved. If she wanted to change her position again and fix herself, it would probably not work.
Seeing Tarun falling continuously, the "Siren" who had reached a safe place let out a mournful cry. Although Tarun might not necessarily die, this situation was unacceptable to the "Siren".
"Why are you panicking?"
However, the Inquisitor, who was standing next to the "Siren" and still studying the stone plate, did not even turn her head, as if she was blind to the tragedy that was happening. Just when the "Siren"'s grief and anger made her start to beat the Inquisitor's calf, she saw a strange scene, but it seemed to make sense.
"Bang bang bang bang!!"
Several strange and never-before-seen tentacles suddenly emerged from the inexplicably opened position of the armor and stretched into the abyss at a rapid speed. Although these tentacles were slender and looked fragile, the deep grooves cut directly on the edge of the safety platform allowed the "Siren" to realize that the strength of these tentacles was almost incomparable, especially since they seemed to have some metallic luster on them.
The "Siren" immediately lay on the edge of the safety platform and looked down. It could see that the longest tentacle had wrapped around Taron's leg. This situation surprised everyone. Then, while this tentacle quickly retracted and pulled Taron back, the other tentacles wrapped around the other four people and began to pull them back to a safe place. From the beginning of the fall, to everyone trying to save themselves, to Taron sacrificing himself to save others, and finally everyone being pulled back to the safety platform, the total process did not even take fifteen seconds.
The survivors lay on the ground gasping for breath in fear, but the judge turned a blind eye and continued to carefully observe the stone plate in his hand.
"Thanks.."
"Quiet."
The Inquisitor was immersed in his study of the stone plate and ignored other people. The other five people who had just been rescued kept silent wisely. Although the cause of the crisis was actually this Inquisitor, he saved everyone after all. Besides, only a fool would try to provoke him by keeping such a close distance to him. After all, if you can save people, you can also kill people. Moreover, for this Inquisitor, "judgment" of evil spirits must be much easier than saving people.
But everyone couldn't just sit there and do nothing. The ground disappeared, revealing a huge abyss of unknown depth underneath. Because of the vibration caused by the disappearance of the ground, the mechanism that was blocking the secret door was also shaken open, and the secret door closed again. Although the distance from the platform in a safe position to the secret door was not far, only a dozen meters, there was no place on the opposite side for people to climb or stay. If they wanted to leave here, they could only jump from here, then use their strength to directly break through the secret door and leave.
However, the safety platform underfoot is supported by a slender stone pillar at the bottom. Although it seems that it can't withstand a few impacts, it is actually very solid. Because the material here can block energy, among the crowd, the "Earth Dragon" and the "Scholar" Tarun can complete the door by their own strength. If there is no help from magic, the only one who can lead people away is the "Earth Dragon". But also, without the help of magic, the power required to jump is also huge. The pressure on the slender stone pillar below is also huge. In the best case, the "Earth Dragon" jumps on its own and crashes through the secret door, and then the others use magic to pull the "Earth Dragon" out and escape one by one. Although it feels that the slender stone pillars give people a very dangerous illusion, they are actually very solid and also very safe.
"Hey~~~"
However, the sound coming from the bottom of the abyss did not seem to be thinking in this way. Based on the changes in the sound, Tarun was able to understand that something was climbing along the stone pillars below towards the safe platform. And judging from the gaps in the sound, he guessed that no matter what was below, it would not be small and must be a big one.
“Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!”
Soon, the sound became louder and louder, and the people on the safe platform also felt the vibration. The thing was getting closer and closer. When everyone was thinking about how to deal with it, the inquisitor finally put the stone plate in his hand back to its original position on the altar.
"Boom~~"
After a few loud bangs, the floor of the secret room closed again and returned to its original state. There was some shaking from the ground, as if something below had climbed to a high enough position and was hitting the ground. However, the vibration disappeared after a short while. It should be that the thing below had returned to the abyss.
"What it is?"
"I don't know. It's very big. It's definitely not a good thing."
Just as the five people were discussing what had just happened, the Inquisitor walked over to the "Rat King" and the "Candle Merchant" who were still frozen in mid-air, and used his fingers to dig out two parts from the wounds on their bodies, which were similar to the parts of the two alchemical golems found before. They were shriveled things that looked like a small piece of finger bone, or something similar.
The foreign objects that were dug out quickly weathered and turned into ash after leaving their bodies. The pain from the two people also made them sweat a little, but they still couldn't move. The judge put his hands on them again. The two people could feel that part of their energy was being quickly drawn out of their bodies, but in a flash, they left the frozen state and fell to the ground.
"you?"
"It's okay, it's just a minor injury. We're fine. It just hurts a little, but I still want to thank you, Judge. Thank you very much..."
"No, there are other people here besides the six of you and the two of us."
"What? But we didn't... before!"
The Inquisitor suddenly grabbed the "Rat King" and the "Candle Merchant" and threw them into the altar where the crowd was, then took a few big steps to block the secret door. Some tentacles could be seen extending from his body, blocking the secret door. These tentacles were cut off, physically sealing the secret door, but through observation, they were still wriggling after the Inquisitor cut them off, which showed that these things were still active.
The Inquisitor returned to the altar and removed the stone disc again. The ground disappeared again, revealing the abyss.
"Don't you want to come out and talk?"
The Inquisitor began to ask questions around, but no one responded. The Archmage seemed to believe in his words, but the other six people were very confused.
The "Earth Dragon" sensed the energy in the Inquisitor's body and its activity increased several times, but he did not make any attacking moves. Although it was puzzling, the "Earth Dragon" who knew the current situation did not make it public.