In the deep gloom, Knox, Clara, and Alaric press forward, wading through underground sewers and ancient conduits. The air is humid and thick with the stench of rot and decay.
Alaric's violet eyes glow faintly in the darkness. He acts as the scout, scanning the environment for Specters and Low-level Forsaken.
"Three dead ahead, Uncle Knox. They're submerged, hiding beneath the thick currents," Alaric warns in a low voice.
Knox draws the Sterling family's ancestral Mythical Weapon, a gleaming silver rapier. The runes etched across its surface pulse with a dim, cobalt light. Without breaking stride, he steps into the water and, with a single, swift motion, eliminates the three enemies that surface from the shadows.
"I don't want to waste this blade's power. Let's move with speed," Knox whispers.
Clara tightly grips the Amulet at her throat, the lantern in her hand casting the only light. She is focused, sensing the spiking Spiritual Energy near the water-soaked walls. She feels the shadow of the Chaos Impact growing palpably stronger here.
"Something is blocking the path," Alaric alerts them.
The three reach the end of the waterway, where a colossal stone gate stands—the monumental entrance to the Sunken City. The gate's surface is entirely covered in deep-etched, ancient, misty script. The mechanism is a puzzle; the runes must be correctly deciphered to unlock the way.
Knox immediately retrieves their clandestine copy of the Artifact Map and compares the script to the cipher. "It's the language of the Ancient God's Lament..."
Clara steps forward, her gaze intense on the stone.
"There can be no mistake... That is Dragon Language."
Firm conviction crosses her eyes. "I will solve this with my spellcraft, but I need some energy."
She unclips her pouch of Magic Chalk and quickly inscribes a complex magic circle on the ground. As she correctly solves the cipher with her arcane incantations, a cyan-blue surge of magical energy streams from her hands toward the gate.
''Cripta Aeterna, Solve! Ignis Draconis, Manifesta! Aperire Ianuam Profundi!"
The ancient script on the stone begins to tremble, then slowly slides and shuffles, rearranging itself into the correct sequence.
"Grrrroannn… BOOM!"
The gate slowly swings open with a tremendous sound, revealing a massive flight of stairs that descends into the profound darkness below.
"We proceed! Clara, Alaric, be careful. This is the most dangerous sector!" Knox cautions, taking point and leading them through the enormous stone doorway.
Meanwhile, the situation in a narrow alley in the center of Mistveil City is completely transformed. Anya, King, and Queen clash at speeds the eye cannot follow.
King and Queen fight Anya fiercely and relentlessly. King's every movement is precise, adhering to the harsh discipline of a high ruler, constantly cutting off Anya's escape routes in front and to the sides. Queen maintains pressure with her long dagger and close-range thrusts. Her rose-pink eyes are filled with cold, absolute resolve.
'This is bad... The Stranger knows our plan,' Anya thinks mid-dodge.
Queen uses her venomous Malice Tendril skill. Thorny, poisonous vines erupt from the ground near Anya, chasing her to ensnare her. At the same time, King uses his shadow power to subtly plant his Shade Trap skills along Anya's path.
Anya smoothly dodges the Malice Tendril vines, slicing and evading the thorny roots. However, she fails to notice King's Shade Trap and steps right into it.
Anya: "Damn it... Ah, I'm dead!"
She is instantly immobilized. A shadow-like, black coating surges up from the ground where she stands, covering her. It solidifies into an orb, and King immediately begins the incantation to activate a magical barrier.
"Vexillum Umbrae, Ligatio Aeterna!"
Arcane runes come to life on the orb. As King's chant concludes, the runes on the shadow sphere activate and transform into a magical locking sigil. A high-pressure magical barrier seals Anya within. King combines his Night Stalker power with the ritual to maintain the seal.
Queen prepares her contingency plan, aiming her poisonous thorns to strike.
On the other side...
Makus and Edgar are engaged in a battle inside a huge warehouse near the city.
Makus fights defensively against Viper. Viper fiercely attacks Makus with his venomous hands. Viper cannot yet use his Hybrid Variant Form because his energy was depleted in a previous battle.
To defend against Viper's corrosive hands, Makus coats his hands, feet, abdomen, and back with gravel and stones. He constantly replaces the stones when they are eroded by the venom.
Edgar defends against Tyson, but is outmatched and forced to flee. Tyson is the owner of the Trigger 4 - The Tether Trigger. His skill, Siphon Link, unleashes numerous fibrous tendrils that pursue Edgar.
At that moment, the Dog & Cat Duo sub-unit of The Strangers arrives and stops in front of Viper. Mad Dog, the mercenary, speaks to Viper.
"Viper... I'm sorry, but orders are orders. I'll have to take you out."
Simultaneously, the mercenary Black Cat instantly and swiftly appears in front of Makus and Edgar, blocking their retreat.
"You two aren't going anywhere."
Meanwhile, in the Anya vs King & Queen battle...
The intensity of Anya's flame leaks outside King's magical barrier, causing King and Queen to suffer the scorching heat.
King's black coating melts and begins to burn. His magical sigil is also burning.
Soon, an explosive force bursts from the perimeter of the melting sphere, violently slamming King and Queen away.
The impact sends King and Queen flying. They immediately rise from where they land and prepare to reseal Anya.
Anya activates her Hybrid Variant Form. A pair of dazzling, beautiful wings—a magnificent blend of gold and crimson flame—burst from her back. She accelerates, soaring into the sky, escaping King and Queen's reach.
But as she climbs high into the sky, she collides with an invisible barrier.
King mockingly speaks to Anya.
"We've sealed you with a magical ritual... you are now severed from the outside world."
Anya responds with surprise.
"Not bad... you two."
But in her mind, she thinks:
'This is a high-level Magic Ritual... they can use magic, too?'
The houses and the ground within the barrier warp and break, shifting into various cube-like shapes. The earth beneath Anya bulges, and debris floats into the air.
King and Queen are not interested in the Artifact Map; their sole purpose is Anya's containment. They know if Anya escapes, their entire plan will be ruined.
King and Queen aggressively pressure Anya, preventing her from gathering energy for her skills. But Anya dodges their attacks smoothly, without even breaking a sweat, all while calculating her breakout.
'This means I'm in a separate dimension... just killing them won't be enough to escape the barrier...'
Anya immediately makes a decision in her mind:
'I must burn everything to ashes!'
A pulse of searing energy erupts from Anya's body. She decides to quickly eliminate King and Queen and breach the barrier.
Anya shifts into her True Variant Form. She begins to activate her ultimate power: Phoenix's Wrath.
She cloaks her phoenix body in magnificent, giant phoenix wings. Flaming Aura surrounds her, and the fire gradually begins to spread, infecting the entire barrier dimension.
Before the flames even reach King and Queen, the oppressive heat nearly burns them alive. They realize Anya intends to incinerate the entire barrier.
King and Queen immediately transform into their Full Variant Forms. They must defend the barrier from breaking.
King is the owner of Trigger 6 - The Night Stalker. He rapidly changes into the legendary Vampire, Dracula. His skin becomes ghastly white like a corpse, and his body size increases. Dark veins bulge at his temples. A pair of crimson-black bat wings tears from his back, and his ears become sharply pointed like a demon's.
Queen also transforms into her True Variant Form: the Succubus demoness. She is the owner of Trigger 5 - The Malice Bloom. A pair of black goat horns emerges from her head. Her skin changes to a blend of purple and pink. Two pairs of bat-like wings emerge from her back, resembling an abyssal butterfly. A long, black tail with a sharp arrow-shaped tip lashes out from her coccyx.
Queen immediately uses her innate Succubus Dark Magic, which requires no incantation, to shield against Anya's flames. She unleashes a blend of blood-red and dark purple Dark Magic to create an Abyssal Casket.
The Abyssal Casket resembles a sleek, wet, poisonous husk made of sea kelp. Its surface is laced with pink and dark purple energy veins, like blood vessels and vines, and covered in many small, sucking mouths with sharp, demonic shark-like teeth.
King uses the blood of his Dracula Form to cast Crimson Stasis. A red mist rises in front of him, moving toward the flames, seemingly halting the fire's expansion as if freezing time.
However, King's crimson mist is quickly burned away and destroyed. The flames continue to spread, reaching Queen's Abyssal Casket. The Casket begins to absorb Anya's fire.
But Queen's Abyssal Casket slowly melts and incinerates even as it absorbs the flames. Knowing they can no longer stop Anya, Queen activates her Dream Dominion, opening her personal dreamscape. Simultaneously, she uses her Fate Attribute, Fatum Sine Cura. A red arrow appears in front of both of them, momentarily deflecting the flames. King and Queen escape into the Dream Dominion.
(Note: The Succubus's dream power is her own skill, not the power of the Dream World.)
(Anya is the owner of the Patient Trigger. She possesses the Phoenix Form and Celestial Fire, making her one of the most formidable combat fighters among all Trigger owners, not just the Patient Triggers. Her flames can incinerate anything, both physical and non-physical.)
Anya's flames, with ferocious momentum, soon burn the red arrow of Queen's Fate Attribute. They immediately consume and erode the non-physical form of the Dream Dominion. Furthermore, her Celestial Fire eats away at the entire magical barrier erected by King and Queen.
As the entire barrier collapses, King and Queen are thrown out. King's wings are incinerated, and his body is covered in severe burn wounds. Queen is unconscious. Her wings and tail are burned and destroyed. Her back and body are covered in burn wounds. The Dream Dominion is the only reason they were not fatally harmed. King is still conscious but appears exhausted and in pain. His vision is blurred, and he searches for Anya through the haze. But Anya is nowhere to be found.
Anya, the clear winner of the alley fight, rapidly flies toward Makus's location the moment she breaches the barrier.
Meanwhile, with the Artifact Expedition Team...
Alaric, Knox, and Clara are descending the massive stairs. Knox and Alaric guard Clara and clear the specters throughout the descent. After about an hour of continuous descent, they reach the bottom.
Alaric's eyes detect the presence of an abnormal entity ahead. He immediately speaks to Knox.
"Mr. Knox... there is something unnatural right in front of us."
Knox immediately draws his dagger, and Clara prepares to use magic.
Alaric takes the lead. The three walk slowly toward the entity. As they reach its side, Clara's lantern illuminates the creature clearly.
Alaric and Knox are stunned speechless the moment they see it. Clara's knees are shaking from terror as she whispers:
Clara (voice trembling): "D-d-d... demon..."
Knox and Alaric immediately silence her by simultaneously pressing their index fingers to their lips.
"Shhh..."
Clara immediately clamps her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with fear, though her knees continue to shake.
Alaric is also utterly petrified—a terror so profound it feels physical. Yet, he maintains a deadpan mask, desperately forcing his face into an expression of cold, professional stoicism. Knox registers this internal struggle, his own demeanor remaining perfectly, annoyingly calm.
Lying before them, blocking their path, is a colossal, blood-tinged monstrosity. It possesses the size of a Giant but the horrific appearance of a human infant. Its head is immense, and multiple limbs form a horrifying quadrupedal shape. A gaping, oversized maw, dripping with viscous goo, dominates its abdomen. This demonic creature is sleeping right across the team's path.
Alaric subtly lifts a trembling hand and points toward an extremely narrow gap between the beast's slumbering, goo-covered flank and the damp wall. It is barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through sideways. Knox and Clara immediately shift their focus to the tiny space. Knox is the first to head toward it.
Knox presses himself against the wall and executes the movement with slow, deliberate control. He breathes out, shrinks his shoulders, and slides past the colossal, heaving mass without a single splash, successfully clearing the beast. Clara, still trembling, is next.
But Alaric hesitates. His fear—the absolute, bone-deep panic—is too strong. He cannot bring himself to face that gap yet. Instead, he reaches out to Clara. Though she shakes her head in protest, Alaric gives her a gentle, pushing pressure on her shoulder, forcing her into the narrow space.
'Sorry, Sister Clara... I'm so scared I might wet myself,' Alaric thinks internally, a silent apology directed at the floor.
Clara, driven by Alaric's push, successfully squeezes through and joins Knox.
Now, it is Alaric's turn. Internally, he is screaming, a panicked mess. Yet, he maintains his poker face, his violet eyes still unnervingly steady. He slowly approaches the gap, sticking close to the wall. The hands gripping the wall are visibly shaking, and his knees feel like they are being repeatedly zapped by an electric current.
Knox and Clara watch Alaric's ordeal, utterly silent. They have survived worse, but the sight of Alaric—the calm, collected scout—breaking down internally is truly unsettling.
And then, just as Alaric slides his first foot into the gap, the Giant-Infant Demon moves.
One of its massive limbs twitches, extending a grotesque, fleshy hand directly toward the narrow space where Alaric stands.
Alaric reacts instantly, a surge of adrenaline overriding his paralysis. He leaps—a desperate, clumsy bound—just before the hand can block the passage. He crashes onto the ground on the far side, successfully clearing the beast.
Alaric notices Knox and Clara's eyes are wide, but their shock isn't focused on the near-miss. Their gazes are fixed downward, locked onto his boots.
Alaric, catching his breath, follows their terrified stares down to his own footwear. Just as he suspected. In his desperate jump, he accidentally landed right on the tip of the demon's massive, pink, fleshy fingertip.
He snaps his head up to look at Knox and Clara.
They are gone.
Alaric's mind, which was just fighting the battle for composure, instantly registers the truth: they abandoned him. They left him alone.
Just then, the Giant-Infant Demon stirs. Its immense head slowly rises, its enormous, wet eyes opening.
This time, Alaric's mask shatters completely. His pretense of calm is vaporized by pure, unfiltered terror. He instinctively funnels a massive surge of Vitality into his legs—a burst of power he didn't even know he had. He takes a desperate, gasping breath and lets out a full-throated scream as he flees at impossible speed.
"Ahhhh.... Knoxxx... Claraaa... WAIT FOR ME!"