He just stared at her, not answering.
"Come on..." Aliyah sighed. "Are you still going to play the 'I am human' card after doing that? You can regrow limbs, and you can survive attacks to your vitals. You're like some sort of abomination amongst abominations."
Tapping her wand, she continued.
"Will you lose control?"
Julian shook his head slowly.
"I'm not an evil spirit. And despite how it seems, I'm still human. I won't lose control, so you don't have anything to worry about."
"Hmm..." Aliyah lowered her wand. "Honestly... you probably shouldn't show something like this to anyone else. If you get out, and they do too, you'd become a plaything for the exorcists."
"I know," Julian replied, his head still spinning. "Only you and another guy know about this. The other guy is an enemy."
Aliyah shifted back slightly.
Noticing that, he sighed.
"You're not on my list of people to kill. Also, did you do what I asked earlier?"
Aliyah nodded.
"From the top of the staircase to the bottom, there's only ice. Getting here should be a little hard, even for the awakened evil spirits."
'Good... Now with one sealed and four above us... we really need to think of Plan B.'
Despite his mind still replaying what happened earlier, Julian carefully rose to his feet and began walking around the room, his hand tracing the walls.
"What are you doing?" Aliyah asked.
"Looking for a secret room."
"..."
Even though it sounded stupid at first, Aliyah soon joined in on the fun. She used wind sorcery around the edges of the room to try spotting some kind of secret room, but even after the two searched, they came up with nothing.
Or rather, the only thing was the hole in the wall where Julian had found the ring.
"Do you think there could be some sort of entrance on the other side?" Aliyah mused, approaching the hole.
"It's possible. Can you check it with your wind sorcery?"
"Way ahead of you," Aliyah replied with a smirk and stuck her wand inside the hole.
Soon, she cast some wind sorcery, and to both of their surprise, the entire wall started to shake until finally, the hole cracked open, revealing a narrow passageway through which they would need to crawl.
Their expressions turned for the better, but right as Julian was about to volunteer to go first, Aliyah raised her hand, stopping him abruptly.
"Before that, your arms were chopped off more times than I can count. Find your crossbows."
She lowered her gaze, then met his eyes again.
"Also, you're in need of a pair of pants. Sort that out... somehow."
"..."
'Shit.'
He had nearly forgotten that he was half-naked.
But swallowing his embarrassment, Julian found his crossbows amongst the dozen arms, and after putting them on, searched for a piece of cloth he could use.
Just then, he heard a rip, and when he turned toward Aliyah, he realized she had torn the bottom hem of her robe, tossing it over to him.
"That should be enough to cover up."
A shiver ran down her spine.
"But... I'll be going first. Don't mind me."
With those words, Aliyah approached the hole and climbed inside. Even though her body was muscular, she was still pretty petite, so she fit perfectly.
Julian sorted out the clothes situation, and after waiting a few seconds, he began crawling as well.
It was much narrower than he would care to admit. But since he had no one to blame except the people who had made this stupid tomb, he kept it to himself.
'My body definitely became sturdier too. I guess with the miasma reforming my limbs, it also enhances them.'
It was interesting, but he was sure that there was some other way to utilize the miasma than to become a full-blown masochist.
Even so, as the two crawled for what felt like hours, Aliyah suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?" he whispered.
"I see something..." Aliyah replied cautiously. "There's an opening in front of me. It drops down into some kind of weird sewage system thingy. Smells like absolute shit too."
Julian was confused about what she meant until he caught a whiff of the smell, nearly gagging.
"Don't you dare ruin my white skirt with your vomit." Aliyah warned. "Though, what do you think? Should we go down?"
Julian raised a brow.
"Do you see some other way to leave?"
"Nope. Just thought you might want to relax in here for the next 20 or so hours until the night ends," Aliyah replied honestly.
'In this narrow, smelly, and suffocating tunnel? Seriously?'
"Don't be crazy. It's only a matter of time before the awakened evil spirits go down there. They might send some weak evil spirits into this hole. You're up ahead, but how would I feel if one just so happens to crawl into—"
"Okay! Okay! I got it. We're going down," Aliyah replied, irritated.
A moment later, she pushed her body forward and then fell down. Only then did he see what she was talking about. It really was like one of those unmaintained sewage systems.
Still, he crawled through the gap and fell as well, landing right on his feet.
The ground and walls were all brick, and there was some sort of glowing green liquid flowing. Drinking that was definitely a no-go. Probably best if they didn't touch it at all.
Still, as the two relished in the fact that they could stand and breathe properly, they were met with two choices.
A path to the left that continued on as far as the eye could see.
Or a path to the right where there was a slope downward.
Julian pondered over both paths carefully, and then got an idea, plopping down onto the disgusting brick ground.
"Tired?" Aliyah asked.
But Julian just shook his head, a slight smile on his face.
"I'm going to check out both paths with Spiritual Essence Projection. Protect my body for a bit."