Chapter 143 : The Depths of the Abyss
Chapter 143: The Depths of the Abyss
For Levi, this battle was no different from any of the previous ones.
He aimed at the target, pulled the trigger, and fired a bullet.
Logically speaking, the bullet should have pierced through the monster's head and turned it into a corpse.
That was how it was supposed to happen.
Until a beam of light appeared.
“Swoosh—————!”
A beam suddenly shot out from the monster's eye and struck Levi's bullet. Under the slowed flow of time, Levi could clearly see the beam vaporize the bullet before brushing past him.
“???”
Are you kidding me? Is this even a monster? This is a magical beast!
Although Levi had seen Bat Monsters capable of emitting ultrasonic waves during the vampire incident, at least that had been somewhat scientific. After all, they were bats. It was perfectly reasonable for bats to use ultrasound.
But firing beams from its eye? What kind of creature is this? Why don't you just throw Godzilla at me while you're at it?
You've gone and thrown me straight into a fantasy world now, haven't you?
Even while grumbling inwardly, Levi did not stop moving. He immediately stepped forward, and while Eye of the Reaper was still active, he shoved the muzzle of his pistol directly into the monster's gaping mouth.
Then he pulled the trigger once more before instantly retreating.
“Bang!”
Time resumed its normal flow.
Levi quickly dodged to the side.
The now lifeless monster continued charging forward from inertia before crashing into the nearby wall and collapsing onto the ground. It writhed desperately for several moments, frightening the Old Professor and the others hiding nearby into hurriedly backing away.
Only after struggling for a while did it finally become completely motionless.
Only then did everyone cautiously approach and begin examining the monster's corpse.
“This thing is huge.”
Joe could not help sighing as he looked at it.
Judging by its appearance, it was about the size of an adult monkey. By volume alone, it was certainly no small creature.
“Did I see that correctly just now? It seemed to fire light from its eye?”
Miss Godney's face was filled with confusion and unease.
Even she found it difficult to believe.
Even Annie quietly stared at the monster's head before softly saying,
“Its eye is strange.”
“Its eye?”
“Yes. It's a human eye.”
“Oh?”
Hearing Annie's words, Levi walked over and raised the Gas lamp in front of the monster.
The battle had been too intense earlier for him to pay attention.
Now that Annie had mentioned it, he indeed realized that while every part of the monster looked bizarre, the strangest feature by far was its eye.
There were certainly animals in nature whose eyes somewhat resembled those of humans.
But even monkeys and apes still had noticeable differences.
“No wonder this thing gave me such an unsettling feeling.”
Levi muttered to himself.
The moment he first saw it, something had instinctively felt wrong.
Now he finally understood why.
To be honest, no matter how ugly the monster looked, Levi would not have found it particularly strange.
After all, it was a monster.
Looking however it wanted was perfectly normal.
Even if it had compound eyes or fish eyes, nobody would think that was unusual.
But human eyes were different.
The eye on this monster looked as though someone's left and right human eyes had been fused together and stitched onto its face.
Look.
It even had double eyelids.
Apparently, it cared quite a bit about beauty.
An eye like that might have looked attractive on a human face.
But placed upon a head that resembled a dog's...
It became profoundly unsettling.
“This is... a Night Fiend...”
At that moment, an aged voice sounded.
Everyone turned around to see the Old Professor staring at the monster with a deathly pale face.
“According to legend, the Night Fiends are the messengers and guardians of the Goddess of Night. They protect her palace and sacred grounds. Any sinner who trespasses upon the sacred land will be mercilessly hunted down by the Night Fiends...”
“……………”
Hearing the Old Professor's words, Miss Godney's expression changed slightly, but she still hurriedly said,
“B-But those are only legends, aren't they? Based on what we've seen so far, the Night Fiends could simply be some undiscovered species of beast that lives underground. Isn't that right, Professor?”
“No matter what they are, they can at least be killed.”
Joe stepped forward, gripping his shotgun as he nudged the Night Fiend's corpse.
“If they can be killed, then there shouldn't be any problem. Professor, let's leave this place.”
“No. We can't leave.”
“Huh?”
The Old Professor's answer genuinely caught everyone by surprise.
“Why, Professor? This place is so dangerous...”
“I've already said it.”
The Old Professor steadied himself and stared straight ahead.
“Night Fiends only appear to guard the temples and sacred grounds of the Goddess of Night. Since Night Fiends exist here, that means this temple must contain some secret worthy of their protection! We have to find it! That is our mission and our duty!”
Hearing the Old Professor's words, Joe and Miss Godney were momentarily at a loss for what to say.
Levi merely coughed lightly.
“Actually, I think that if you want to conduct a full investigation, you'd be better off cooperating with the military. Wouldn't dealing with these monsters be much easier that way?”
“Heh. As if we had that kind of influence. Besides, even if we managed to contact the military, they wouldn't care about whatever secrets this place holds. They'd simply blow the whole place up. That absolutely won't do!”
That was true enough...
If you asked Levi, if this temple really was some kind of monster nest, he would absolutely blow the entire place apart as well.
After all, Levi was a detective, not an archaeologist.
There was no reason to risk his life just to verify some unrealistic legend.
Of course...
Following archaeologists around and watching the excitement unfold was perfectly fine.
“Then let's see what secrets this temple is hiding.”
Levi had no objections.
After all, this was the Old Professor's dream, and judging from everything so far, he clearly possessed a deep obsession with this place.
Besides...
This gave Levi the perfect opportunity to ask the Old Professor about the Goddess of Night.
As for the goddess who had appeared before him twice already...
Levi felt it would be better to learn as much about her as possible.
“The origin of the Goddess of Night?”
As they walked through the silent corridor, the Old Professor's voice was low and hoarse.
“No one knows where the gods originated. By the time humanity became aware of them, they already existed. Humans knew them, worshipped them, and believed in them. But that was all. The creation myths contain many vague points, and even outright contradictions. It is said that the Creator God created the present world and humanity itself. But if that's true, then there is one question...”
At that point, the Old Professor paused to catch his breath.
“If the Creator God created mankind, then why are there so many different human races? Why are some people tall while others are short? Why do some have pale skin while others have dark skin? Even if the environment could shape and change humanity, it shouldn't produce differences this great...”
As he spoke, the Old Professor looked at Levi and chuckled.
“Therefore, besides the orthodox legends, there exists another folk legend.”
“Oh? I'd love to hear it.”
“That different human races were formed from the flesh and blood of different gods. That is why they differ from one another.”
As he spoke, the Old Professor fixed his gaze upon Levi.
“For example, the descendants of the Goddess of Night inherited her characteristics, possessing hair and eyes as dark as the night itself.”
“………………”
“The descendants of the God of Light possess hair that shines like gold, along with eyes as blue as the rippling sea.”
“The children of the God of Nature have emerald-green hair full of vitality and eyes as pure as flowing streams...”
“The children of the God of Earth possess sturdy physiques and eyes as solid as stone, their personalities as steadfast as mountains.”
The Old Professor coughed.
“In the beginning, the descendants of the various gods gathered together and established different nations, each worshipping its own deity. That continued until the appearance of Emperor Arthur, who unified the entire continent...”
“Professor, you'd better not keep saying things like that in public.”
Joe hurriedly tried to calm him.
“Criticizing Emperor Arthur will only bring trouble.”
Just as Joe had said, Emperor Arthur was the first ruler to unite the continent, making him a figure deeply revered throughout the Empire.
In every respect, he had unified the Empire.
Its culture.
Its currency.
The various kingdoms that had once worshipped different gods and possessed different cultural traditions had all been defeated and destroyed.
The entire continent ultimately adopted Emperor Arthur's imperial system, calendar, and units of measurement.
Because of this, Emperor Arthur was regarded with nothing but admiration throughout the Empire.
For someone like the Old Professor to openly condemn Emperor Arthur for destroying diverse civilizations in pursuit of continental unification...
That was an extremely politically incorrect viewpoint.
“I know. I was only speaking casually.”
The Old Professor snorted coldly and ended the topic.
Meanwhile, Levi fell into deep thought.
When the Old Professor had said those words just now, Levi knew they had been directed at him.
After all...
Wasn't he exactly like that?
But logically speaking, he should have had nothing to do with the Goddess of Night.
After all, he had transmigrated into this world.
And yet...
The Goddess of Night had already appeared before him twice!
Why her?
Why not some other deity?
Could it be that the Goddess of Night had mistaken him for one of her descendants?
That couldn't be right, could it?
Come on, big sister.
You're a god.
Even without DNA testing, surely a deity should be able to tell through bloodlines or something that I'm completely unrelated to you.
Of course...
That was merely Levi complaining inwardly.
He had no idea why the Goddess of Night had appeared before him twice...
He only hoped there would not be a third time.
After that, everyone continued onward.
Oddly enough, however, the farther they advanced, the fewer Night Fiends they encountered.
At first, Levi's group still came across one or two scattered Night Fiends.
Later...
They did not encounter a single one.
This left Levi rather puzzled.
According to the rules of monster movies, shouldn't there be more monsters the closer one got to the core?
So why were there fewer instead?
In contrast, the Old Professor's pace became increasingly faster.
Eventually, even the others struggled to keep up with him.
“（&（……&!”
Just as the group passed through another tunnel, a sharp cry suddenly rang out, startling everyone.
They turned toward the sound.
A man dressed like one of the local natives came running toward them from another passage.
He was carrying a little boy in his arms.
“#&Y^@*(@!！”
Upon seeing the Old Professor, the local man became even more agitated.
He hurried over, gesturing frantically while saying something.
The Old Professor listened with a solemn expression and nodded repeatedly.
“Professor, who is he? What is he saying?”
Levi could not understand a word, so he immediately asked.
“He's one of the locals. We hired him as our guide.”
The Old Professor sighed before answering.
“That child... is his son...”
“Professor, you brought such a young child on an archaeological expedition?”
Miss Godney looked rather speechless.
“I didn't want to either. But his son was the one who discovered this temple. Without him leading the way, we never could have entered this place.”
“This...”
When Levi's group had entered the dream, the archaeological team was already inside the temple.
As such, they had no idea how the team had reached this underground temple.
Now it seemed...
The child had been the key.
“So what did he say?”
“He said the demon is about to awaken, and that we must leave immediately.”
“A demon? What demon?”
Levi already felt that the Night Fiends were demonic enough.
“*@67（……@W&！”
The Old Professor questioned the guide once more.
The man quietly asked his son.
The little boy stared at them and gestured while saying something.
“##&）#*（）#？”
“What? That's impossible!”
Upon hearing the child's answer, the Old Professor's face instantly filled with overwhelming shock.
His expression was as though he had just caught his own wife cheating on him with three men at the same time.
“No... How could that be? Why...”
As he spoke, the Old Professor suddenly turned and sprinted deeper into the temple.
Almost simultaneously—
The entire ground around them began to shake violently.
Then...
The ground beneath Levi's feet suddenly split apart!
“Waaaah—————!”
Everyone managed only a single scream before they were completely swallowed by the endless abyss below.
“Ugh...”
After an unknown amount of time, Levi finally opened his eyes and stood up from the ground.
Not far away, Joe, Miss Godney, and Annie gradually regained consciousness as well.
Despite having fallen from such a tremendous height, none of them had suffered any injuries.
There was not even a scratch on them.
Which was only natural.
After all...
This was merely a dream.
Not reality.
“What happened?”
“Where is this place?”
The others also climbed to their feet and looked around in confusion.
Only Annie calmly raised her hand and pointed ahead.
“The professor is over there.”
“Huh?”
Hearing Annie's words, everyone turned to look.
Then they were all stunned.
Not far ahead stood an enormous stone coffin.
Before it...
The missing Old Professor was suspended in midair, tightly bound by chains.
Even more astonishing...
The chains did not come from anywhere else.
They originated from the coffin itself.
The stone lid had shifted slightly aside, revealing a narrow opening.
From the darkness within, countless crimson chains, as though soaked in fresh blood, extended outward and wrapped around the Old Professor's entire body before lifting him into the air.
“Professor!”
Seeing this, Joe immediately shouted and tried to rush forward.
But in the next instant—
Accompanied by bizarre screeches, several Night Fiends descended from above and blocked everyone's path.
At the same time, a voice echoed through the chamber.
“I'd advise you not to make any rash moves, Joe. Otherwise, I can't guarantee your safety.”
Hearing the voice, everyone turned around.
A blond man wearing glasses, with the refined appearance of a scholar, slowly stepped out from behind the Night Fiends.
He was the final member of the Old Professor's archaeological team—
Creed Johnson.