Chloe and others had successfully obliterated the Ancient Golem at Viking Ruin, thanks to Ryuji's unknown strength and they received information regarding the immortality of Giant Serpent due to the excellent support from Shadow Crystals that were actually living things. Chloe and others were trapped in illusions but one of the group member Ray, showed his magnificent desire for justice as he destroyed the crystals to protect Chloe and Elena who were struggling against the crystal and on the other hand, Anti-Libra was silently waiting for the opportunity-
I had sent some spies to keep an eye on the arbiters so that I could gain informations regarding the name of the artifact and about the Giant Serpent who protects the White Tear. I recieved more information today that they had destroyed the Shadow Crystals to remove the effects of immortality of Giant Serpent.
"They think that they can get the artifact but it will be their grave mistake on thinking about this nonsense as I will never allow it to go in their hands." I thought.
"Nova, you know what you have to do, right?"
"Understood, Sir Aeon!"
"Good...."
"They have already destroyed the golem as well as Shadow Crystals, all they have to do is to defeat the Giant Serpent and obtain the White Tear... Guildmaster Ray is also helping them as well. He is the potential threat for us. He is someone who don't show any mercy on evils and his strength can be troublesome for Nova as well..." I thought.
"He has the sense of absolute justice after all." I muttered.
"Just be careful from the the guildmaster, Nova. He is no ordinary person and his high position also proves that as well." I continued.
"Yes, I will be careful to not get in serious trouble."
I wondered whether defeating the Giant Serpent the last trial or there was a hidden trial as well.
I do not know whether there hidden trial exist or not but I should probably wait for them. Even if they fail, I can re-analyse the trials and try to take the White Tear myself. This is the only artifact that could counter the Shadow Tear after all so I cannot let anyone take this artifact no matter what...
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Part 2- Chloe and others regained their stamina as they had prepared themselves to depart for the Azoth Cave according to the information they had received from the Mayor. Ryuji was completely fine so we took him into our party again.
"Good luck in your mission everyone." said Mayor.
"Thank you for your assistance, Mayor." said Ray while showing appreciation.
"No problem." Mayor replied as he smiled.
We had started moving towards the direction of Azoth Cave. We had taken the route 11 via Dream Grassland to reach the Azoth Cave, there are typically two ways to get to the cave either by passing through the Shadow Rift and take the route 14 or directly move from the route 11 to reach quickly that covers almost the same distance as Shadow Rift. We also discussed about casual things to remove the awkward environment along the way.
Ryuji was completely fine and he also apologized to everyone for his behaviour but everyone didn't mind it as they had already forgiven Ryuji and besides Ryuji was the one who saved everyone at the Viking Ruin. We hadn't noticed anymore strange behaviour or strange aura within Ryuji so we had ignored it unless that symptom occurs again, ofcourse not completely ignored it.
However, we believed that would not happen again since Ryuji told us that no traumatic event had happened in his past or something like that and he was completely fine for now and doctor also confirmed that his condition was completely normal as there was no sign of any strange powers or persona.
However, there was something off about Ray. It was like that he was in a very bad mood. Everyone had noticed it and Reina broke through the silence, called out to Ray.
"Hey, Ray. Why do you seem so quiet today? Are you still feeling tired?" asked Reina.
"....."
"Ray?"
"Nothing, I am fine..."
He glanced towards Reina as he said that.
"No, your face doesn't seems to be fine though. Tell me what happened?"
"No it's nothing. Please don't mind me."
"That's not good, you should share whenever you feel down or something. We can help you, you know?"
"...."
"Ray."
"Shut up, Reina! I said I am not in any mood to talk about nonsense things." He seemed angry as he said that.
"...!?"
Everyone looked at him with a surprise expression on their face.
"I mean, I am sorry for saying it in that tone. Please just don't talk to me for a while, besides we should probably focus on defeating monsters that could come in our way anyway and focus on the quest." apologised Ray as he walked a little bit faster to maintain a distance from us to avoid the conversation.
"I don't know but I think it was my fault for making Ray angry..." said Reina with a slight sad expression on her face.
"No it's not your fault, Reina. I think Ray is being bothered by something else." I replied while implying that it was not her fault.
"But Chloe, I wonder what Ray is thinking? I am a little worried. He doesn't seems to be in a good mood today."
"Yeah, his behaviour changed a little bit since yesterday." said Voila.
"Did something happened yesterday, Kurt?" asked Ryuji.
"Well I don't know but when we had destroyed the crystals and returned to the village, Ray had started to act differently."
"I wonder what happened to him." said Elena with a concern look on her face.
Something was really odd about Ray. I was also wondering what really happened. I had also sensed something different from Ray. It was like his strength was increased even more.
After some time, we had reached our destination as we entered the Cave.
"This cave also seems just like other ordinary caves, of course that means the monsters can be found here as well." said Reina.
"Let us head deeper into this cave everyone." I said.
"Yes let's go." replied Elena.
When arrived at the deepest cave, we saw nothing but a boss monster, it was a behemoth.
"I don't think it will simply allow us to use the item to travel to another dimension of this cave..." said Kurt.
"Let's beat the crap out of this monster then." replied Reina as she drew out her weapon.
"I heard that the behemoth is weak against ice and water element." said Kurt as he held his staff in his hands tightly, ready to attack anytime.
"Leave it to me guys, we don't have much time after all." said Ray.
"Huh? What?" Reina looked confused at those words.
But in that moment, Ray had already sliced down the monster into many pieces as the blood flowed out from the behemoth. Everyone was shocked to see the boss monster getting defeated just by single attack.
"A-Amazing." I spoke my mind.
"Yeah, he looks more tougher than before."
"He was already that strong and now he looks even more powerful now. I wonder what really happened yesterday. I had never felt such strong pressure from him." said Reina.
He looked at our direction and-
"Let's use the magic item to go to different dimension to defeat the Serpent and obtain White Tear." he said with a slight hint of eerie atmosphere around him.
"I wonder what really happened but we have an important task to deal with first."
"Yes let's go." replied Ryuji.
The magic item shined brightly as we closed our eyes and covered it with our hands. When we all opened our eyes, we were in the deepest part of the cave and we saw another path that was linear. The cave structure was almost same as the real one and the colour of the cave was completely in red with the fumaroles all over the places. From the fumaroles, there was not only hot volcanic like gases erupted but also flames themselves sometimes.
"It's so hot here..." said Elena while she used her palm to flap it around her face to fan herself.
"Yes, it's really hot here as if we are in the volcanic cave or something." replied Reina.
"Let me help you a little bit guys." I said while using my wind magic to blow some air.
The wind blew out and everyone felt good.
"Wow thanks Chloe!"
"No problem." I replied.
I had wrapped the whole party into my little wind magic so that no one can get dehydrates from the heat and this little magic consumes less magic energy as well since it's not heavy magic like buff, healing, defence or attack magics.
We were following the linear path to reach the deepest part of this dimension. Our last opponent is the Giant Serpent now and we were all ready for this upcoming battle.
---
To be continued...