With a powerful push, Nash opened the entrance wide, revealing what was laying inside to them in the next second.
"A... sword?" was the first thing Nash asked the moment he saw the sight inside, his fingers tightening around his sword's hilt slowly.
Once the doors were opened, what showed itself before Nash and the rest was a huge hall with an even grander appearance than outside. However, the biggest shock didn't come from the majestic look of the place, but the scenery in the very center of it.
Fifteen sculptures, each resembling different humanoid creatures, were seated in the middle, all of them facing the very middle where a circular lifted platform with a sword implanted deep in it could be seen. However, because only its hilt was visible from a distance, Nash and the rest didn't know what it truly looked like.
"Those statues are alive, be careful," Erys warned Nash, her eyes scanning their surroundings to see if there were any hidden traps or danger.
Crack!
And just as she said those words, all fifteen statues moved in sync, turning toward their way with obvious hostility surrounding their bodies.
"Destroy them!" Nash ordered his Souls with a sharp gaze as he pointed forward.
Whoosh!
Following his order, all five Souls behind Nash moved simultaneously and began to run toward the fifteen creatures with their weapons firmly in hand.
Swish!
The first one to reach the front of the group of statues was the six-tailed Soul, as it immediately launched an attack at the closest statue, which looked like a hybrid between a serpent and a human.
Nash watched the first clash with an anticipated gaze, thinking the fight will be over in seconds as although the two were on the same rank, in the end, they were in two completely different realms because of the work of evolution on Nash's Soul.
However, sometimes reality likes to rebut one's expectation, and in a rather harsh way on top of that.
Just the moment the Soul could have cut the statue into two, the statue suddenly unnaturally twisted its crystal-like body to the side, barely avoiding the lethal attack, and without giving the Soul a chance to react in time it slashed its own tail at it, piercing its body right in the very middle!
BAM!
Watching as his strongest Soul's body exploded into dark matter, Nash couldn't help but widen his eyes in shock. However, that shock lingered only for a split second before a sigh of relief escaped his mouth as the Soul materialized its body back into shape in no time at all.
'So the amount of my essence gets depleted according to the damage done to my Souls.' Nash thought to himself once he checked and saw his amount of essence decrease by 20 instead of the used to 10 units.
BAM!
And just as he thought about this, several other of his Souls exploded into nothingness before reconstructing themselves, causing Nash to frown deeply. He knew that he must act quickly or else his essence will be depleted even before he could think twice about the matter!
"Kill them," Nash ordered Erys with an indifferent tone of voice, but quickly added, "But make sure to leave one alive."
Erys seemed to be confused by the last part of the order, but as she had no choice but to obey, she quickly raised her weapon and took a step forward.
Whoosh!
With the speed that was akin to teleportation, Erys' body blurred for a moment before she reappeared a hundred meters away at the side of one of the statues, and with a single motion cut its body into two from up to bottom!
Swish!
BOOM!
The force behind the swing was so great that a powerful ripple traveled through the air, making Nash's Souls and the remaining fourteen statues around Erys stagger several steps backward while web-like fissures formed below Erys' sword that spread all around the place like a virus!
"One down, more to go," Erys told herself with a nonchalant voice and locked her indifferent gaze on her next target before vanishing into thin air once again.
Whoosh!
Swish!
One by one, the statues that simply overwhelmed Nash's Souls a second ago fell onto the ground in nothing more but pieces and debris! Erys was like a ghost, zigzagging between the statues with ridiculous speed and taking their lives away without the slightest warning!
'Strong.' was the only thing Nash was able to think even though knowing Erys was killing not strong foes, but ones that were below her level by two whole ranks!
'I am curious to see what she could do if she decides to go all out. Especially when she utilizes her Legacy.' Nash couldn't help but get slightly excited for the future before him.
...
After killing almost all the statues except one without breaking a sweat, Nash ordered all his Souls to come back before he himself took a step forward, his gaze filled with the will for a real battle.
Ever since he got his Legacy back thanks to it being unsealed, he wished nothing more but to test out his strength and what he was capable of doing.
Before, if it weren't for the black sun outside the fact that the creature was an evolved one, a much stronger enemy than a normal Infant Rank Beast, he would have tested out his power much sooner, but alas, that's not what happened.
However, now that he saw what the statues were capable of doing and where their limits were, Nash knew for sure that it was safe for him to push his luck and try to kill it. Maybe this fight could make him surpass the bottleneck he was currently struggling to break now for many days.
"Stay there and make sure nothing disturbs our fight," Nash spoke loudly to all to hear and stopped walking forward when he was closer than five meters away from the statue.
The statue, which seemed to be a human in its entirety with the sole exception of the four pairs of spider legs coming out of its back and the ten pairs of eyes on its face gazed at Nash with a motionless body, its long sword pointing toward the ground that was held in its left hand.
Nash examined the creature with no change in his facial expression before he raised both of his hands before him and slightly bent his knees to get a much stable stance.
"I hate spiders..." Nash said coldly and without a second thought pushed his feet against the ground and burst forward with speed akin to a bullet!