Journey Of A Legend

Chapter 168: Underground Prison

*Crack!*

*Crack!*

One deep crack after another started to form on the surface of the boulder.

Under a few seconds, hundreds of cracks were visible around the stone, making it to look like it was covered with huge spider webs from all angles.

Seeing this sight, Greg started to smile slightly and with a powerful motion, he pulled his hand out of the gap.

*BAM!*

With a loud explosion, the huge boulder erupted into several small pieces, revealing a small entrance like a gap on the ground instantly.

"It seems it has been opened.", said Greg and looked at the broken orb in his hand.

The moment he used his power to examine the interior of the boulder, he was quite surprised to find an orb inside it, which was swirling here and there without stopping.

After analyzing it for a while, Greg realized that the orb's path was following a system and was not random. 

Taking this important piece of news into account, he instantly looked for the point where the orb was the closest to the boulder's surface and when he found it, he smashed the orb into chunks without hesitation. 

Without his power, he wouldn't have found out this that was for sure.

However, what shocked Greg the most was his physical power. 

The boulder which didn't even budge an inch after the explosion now had a huge gap because of him. He didn't know if the stone was that strong because of the orb inside it or because it was naturally that tough, but one thing was for sure.

Greg's physical power free once again. 

"It's only natural.", said Alice in Greg's head and explained, "Every time you break into the next Grade, your power including your physical and elemental powers will grow too."

"I see. Then what about my regeneration ability? Will that become stronger too?", asked Greg thinking about the moments his passive regeneration ability saved his life several times.

"Well, you had that power because the seal on your soul got broken, and only with time did you obtain that power more and more. However, now that we... I mean I sealed it back again, you won't be able to make it stronger no matter what. Only if you want to go insane again and go on a rampage, then unseal the curse and you will have that regeneration power."

"I changed my mind then. I don't need that thank you...", said Greg without hesitation and looked at the others before him.

Seeing as all of them were perfectly fine Greg looked at the neverending staircase which disappeared in the darkness nodded and said, "Let's go."

"Sure."

***

Inside a cave, suddenly a creature with a missing arm appeared.

"Sh*t! Those f*ckers! They will pay for it!", murmured angrily Netherclaw and slowly he took out a small mirror from his robe.

Before doing anything with the mirror, Netherclaw looked around for one more time to see that no one was around his proximity.

After making sure that there was not even a single life form around him, the humanoid creature nodded and started to chant words in an unknown language.

Instantly as he did this, the mirror in his hand floated high up onto the air and started to vibrate. A while later a man appeared in it, clad in full silver iron armor and a faceless mask covering its face completely.

Seeing the being, Netherclaw kneeled down instantly and with a loud voice he said, "Forever on the Summit!"

"Hmmm... How did it go?", asked the mysterious being in a monotone voice, ignoring entirely Netherclaw's missing arm.

"Your Highness! I... I couldn't obtain the mask, nor the boy. They were surprisingly strong. But I can expla-."

"I don't care about your foolish tale Claw. I asked you to obtain the mask and the Blessing and you have failed. Your punishment will be absolute."

"Your Highness! Please! Listen to m-, huh?"

*BOOM*

However before Netherclaw could have finished his sentence, suddenly his head exploded like a watermelon, splattering blood and brain pieces all over the place.

*Paff!*

Without the head, Netherclaw's body fell lifelessly onto the ground, while the mysterious being hummed slightly and said calmly, "Those who fail to do a simple task like this, shall perish from this world for all eternity."

With that sentence, the reflection in the mirror vanished completely and with a heavy sound, it fell onto the ground, breaking into several immediately.

***

Walking down the stairs, Greg was carefully looking around his surroundings.

Because both his and Mila's fire was lit, the sight around them was more than perfect.

The staircases were made out of some unknown purplish-black material which was very similar to obsidian or black jade, but its surface was surprisingly smooth. It was smooth to the point that if one didn't concentrate they could easily slip at any given moment.

The walls however were made out of white, half-transparent jade, which had symbols carved on its surface here and there.

The deeper they walked down, the more carvings were on the jade, turning the place even mysterious than before.

"How deep is this place. We are already walking almost an hour, but we still didn't get to the bottom.", said Mila a bit angrily as he looked at the walls around her.

Hearing Mila Greg activated his earth element and through vibrations he wanted to see where the end will be, however, the moment he did, the carvings on the wall lit up instantly.

Seeing this, everyone raised their guards. Greg watching this also immediately deactivated his powers, making the light in the carvings to diminish slowly.

"What happened?", asked Emma a bit worried as she looked at the carvings.

"I wanted to use my power to see how much we needed to walk, but it seems I triggered something in this place, so I stopped."

"Then we are very close. Let's continue.", said Joe calmly and after turning his gaze away from the carvings he continued to walk forward.

"Sure.", nodded Greg and followed Joe.

Looking at the two, the others looked at each other and after a slight shrug, they started to follow Joe and Greg closely from behind.

After walking for 15 more minutes, the five finally arrived at the bottom, where a huge entrance made out of iron bars waited for them.

"What is this? Are you kidding me? We came all the way down here just to find another sealed door?", asked Emma with an annoyed expression, however, the next second her eyes brightened, and said, "Oh, wait. Look at that."

Greg turned his gaze where Emma was pointing at, only to see a small switch on the side.

From the wall that it was on, several small chains could be seen coming out and through tiny cogwheels, it was connected with the iron bars from above.

"That should open the entrance for us. Let's go.", said Jay on the side and without hesitation, he walked before the switch.

*Click!*

After Jay pulled the switch on the side, the iron bars suddenly started to move with a rusty sound, and with slow motion, it got raised fully.

"Let's go.", said Jay and walked forward without a single hesitation.

Greg, Joe, Mila, and Emma looked at each other, but still after a while followed Jay through the entrance.

"What is this place?", asked Mila with a deep frown as she looked around the place while she covered her nose.

The moment they walked through the gate, what appeared before the was a narrow path, while on both sides several rooms with iron doors could be seen.

Each room was locked, but because the walls were not solid but made out of iron bars like the gate, all five could see what was inside.

However, that sight wasn't a pleasing one that was for sure.

Inside almost every cell, there were hundreds of flesh corpses on top of each other, which were cut into several pieces.

The rotten flesh and blood in each room made the whole place look not only creepy but also because they made the entire area to be filled with the disgusting smell, making Greg and the others fell like throwing up instantly.

"This place is sickening. I think we should turn back. I start to feel ill.", said Emma as she looked like someone who was ready to throw up at any given minute. 

However, before Greg or anyone else should have agreed on her recommendation, suddenly Greg pointed forward and said, "Look! An entrance!"

Looking where Greg pointed, Joe and the others saw as the aisle's space started to grow bigger and at the end of it a huge door, which was made out of that black jade could be seen.

However the most stunning thing wasn't this, but that in the middle of it, an unknown creature's dead corpse was pinned, while deep in it's chest a sentence was etched, visibly made by something sharp.

'Here lies our mistake.'

'We made this one and never made any more.'

'Don't settle here. We did and we regret.'

'This is where our life has ended.'

As Greg finished reading the sentence, he looked down only to see that there was another paragraph written with crimson blood on the ground.

'Watch your rear. Even the slightest noise may act as an attraction for 'it'."