It was somewhere around midnight when Chaos finally got out of the grove. The rest of their journey though it was much more peaceful than any of them had expected. Even the skulls hadn't seemed to even notice them. Either that or due to the death of Nebiros they all were left lifeless.

Now passing through some bushes, all filled with various berries that varied from red to purple, Samukai was making sure that no ambush awaited them. He didn't know how long it was to Vendetta, but he guessed that it couldn't be longer than an hour. Since it was night time a chance of encountering a patrol was low but still high enough for him to worry.

Phantom on the other hand seemed to not mind about any of that and casually advanced towards the town. He was wondering when they will find another entrance to those undergrounds. Maybe he should've asked Pharaoh if there was something, maybe a spell or even an artifact that could help them find them. Speaking of Pharaoh, he was weirdly silent for the past day. It's not like he missed him, but the demon was more than certain that he was plotting something.

Soon enough Chaos encountered a road leading through some fields. It was rather empty save for small animals like rabbits or sparrows. One rather interesting fellow was a greenish, wyvern with an "s" shaped body and small pair of wings. It kept its distance from the upcoming, potential threat.

- So do you think someone might be waiting for us in Vendetta?- Phantom asked, not even caring about the curious wyvern that seemed to follow them, albeit still keeping a safe distance.

- Isn't that what you are waiting for?- Samukai tried to shoo the reptile away, by waving Izanagi at it.

- Only if there will be someone that can use magic above fourth tier

- I would have asked if you don't have enough fighting, but I already know the answer

- I have to keep myself occupied somehow- samurai looked at the wyvern that was now going in a different direction to theirs, deciding that the newcomers definitely aren't food and could in fact be dangerous.

Following the dirty road soon enough led them to a countryside full of small hills. And from there was a straight paved road that was going through the small stone wall that rose over the horizon. It couldn't be higher than five meters tall. Comparing it to Silesia, Vendetta looked like a slightly more developed village rather than a proper town. But then again none of them had seen what the inside is like, so there might be more stuff to do than in Silesia. All Samukai had known about this town is that there is some tavern.

What was weird was the lack of any patrol or even a single guard. Maybe they were on the way or maybe no one took a drunk man rambling about some headless samurai seriously. While the second option was nice, the warrior knew that it was too good to be true. But a dead man can dream, right?

Now the real problem was how will they get in? Samukai was now regretting not going back for his mask. That would've helped even if only in the slightest. For now the only option seemed to be turning everyone into shadows. There was but one problem with this one. While it would make them way more difficult to be detected, it would also make it harder to keep an eye on the demon. There was also an option of going in as they were, but that was pretty much inviting problems to happen. Especially if the Champions were really going after them.

Thus with no better option, Samukai casted his Arts of Shadow theater. Soon they all were four shadows that could easily slip past through the gate. Or rather through the small hole in the wooden gate that was supposed to keep the town safe.

In the warrior's own opinion, wooden gates weren't the best choice. They really liked to catch on fire just from three burning arrows. Once again Silesia looked to be the superior of the two, but this one was still standing, so he needed to give Vendetta that.

Yet still, the fact that there wasn't even one or two guards on the night patrol was worrisome. Maybe they have thought that being close to a village that uses undead for guards might be enough to scare potential raiders? But Samukai knew that it would only work for a short while. Then someone would have tried to get into Vendetta, just like they are doing it now.

As the four shadows passed the gate, samurai came to a truly terrifying conclusion. What if all that was a trap? A way to lower their guard and then easily ambush them? It was quite a good tactic. Even really good. Warrior's worry was growing with each passing second as they wandered around the empty streets of the sleeping town. Honestly Vendetta wasn't even that pleasant to look at. It had simple, small buildings made of wood and stone rather than marble. Its streets were wide, making the town look larger than it really should have been. Even Baszta had some charm, but not this town.

But his companions didn't seem to mind that or even the peace that was accompanying them. Though it probably was better, considering that due to Phantom actions it soon might as well be turned into some hellhole. All four of them suddenly stopped when the sound of footsteps and clanging of metal filled the streets. Just great, it looked like the ambush was somewhat successful. Yet something was wrong. Those footsteps weren't going in their direction. In fact they sounded like they were rather coming to the center of Vendetta.

Phantom then came out of the shadows, trying to see what all of that commotion was about. Samukai tried to drag him back, but the demon was already out. Noktum followed them, standing between them.

- What are you doing?- warrior whispered.

- Aren't you curious about what is going on?- demon asked when he was climbing on top of one of many houses. He was a better climber than his teammates had expected and in a matter of seconds he was sitting on the roof. Samukai quickly followed him and helped Noktum to get up.

They were now following the noises, carefully advancing towards the center. Soon after they saw armored guards wielding nets and torches. To Chaos's luck none of them had noticed the team on the roof. After they passed, demon ordered them to go further. At first no one from Chaos noticed what might have caused that commotion. But when the samurai noticed an orange glow that was becoming brighter, he had an idea what was probably going on.

Finally they stopped on the roof of one of the better looking houses that resembled a roman insula, but much smaller. While it wasn't as big, it still would have let them be unnoticed for a while. That is if no one would do anything to drag the attention on to them. Phantom slithered closer to the edge of the building and saw what was the focus of the guards.

Right in the middle of the town square were twelve soldiers in iron armors that encircled some big, black reptile. Upon a closer look, that lizard might have been the size of a horse. It's scales were obsidian black and looked like chunks of stone. On it's back they have formed something resembling spikes. While that monster had no wings, it had four massive legs that ended with sharp claws.

Phantom had rarely met this kind of dragon. Smelters were rarely seen on the surface and most of the time lived in caves, or close to volcanoes. Samukai on the other hand was quite familiar with them. His own village had two of those. They were pretty good for when used for defending something, due to their hard scales and their fireballs that easily melted metal.

As for now the Smelter was growling, threatening to shoot a fireball at any moment. All of the guards were careful and moved slowly no to provoke it. The dragon hissed and growled yet it still wasn't spitting fire.

Samukai was kinda glad that the dragon was here. It gave them the opportunity to slip past any of the guards. Now the only question left was what were they going to do now? There might be some shops worth checking out, but beside that, warrior couldn't see anything else. Well, maybe there was a crystal but they would need to find another entrance to that damned dungeon.

- You saw the dragon, now get back to the shadows- warrior whispered to the demon, whose eyes were focused on the Smelter. Spellcaster ignored him, so the samurai was forced to once again cast his arts.

- Hey! I was watching!

- You can watch later. Now let's search for some shop

Samukai wandered around the town for a while, but still couldn't find anything that resembled a shop. Most of them probably were close to the center, but that was too risky move, considering that torches still shone in the night and occasional screeches from the dragon were heard. And when he finally found something, it was closed due to night hours. So with that out of the way, all that was left was to continue to wander around the town. It still was too early to leave and beside that, it's not like the warrior was too keen on returning to said dungeon.

During the wandering, warrior spotted something that looked interesting to say at least. In the further part of the town stood an old, destroyed chapel or some sort of a temple. Honestly speaking it looked like a mix of both. At the lower parts it was like a typical roman temple, but the upper part, or whatever was left of it, was like that from a chapel. What's more there was no one around to guard it, so if he went in now to just have a quick look it would cause no harm, right?

He already noticed that Phantom was more than eager to go in. His own curiosity won over and now he was marching towards it. From the closer inspection, if it was kept in better condition it would've been a lovely place. While none of the western temples could rival in beauty from the ones from his homeland, some of them could come close. And this might have been one of such.

The worst part of this building was the amount of dust that was freely flying in the air. Samukai was sure that he would sneeze if he could. But beside the dust, there wasn't really anything in there. He went deeper and saw a few objects being covered by some fabric that lost its old color, probably due to the passage of time. From the way it was placed, he guessed they were probably covering some chests and boxes. When he wanted to come closer, he heard footsteps coming from the entrance. Not wasting even a second, the warrior hid behind one of the objects.

- This place can't be good for my health- someone said, between coughing from all the dust.

- I know, right? But it's a simple check up so it should take too much time

- You said that last time and yet we spent an hour here!

- How was I supposed to know that there was a young cockatrice?

Those two men passed where the samurai was hiding, but they didn't notice him. The information about the cockatrice was surely one to keep in mind. Especially if he wanted to explore more. Warrior then heard something heavy being moved.

- You are sure we shouldn't tell anyone about that?

- Yeah, and get sent to check what is inside? I don't know how you, but I prefer being alive

Now they both were returning, pretty much having his interest at his peak. The only problem was that both guardsmen were still in the building, right to the entrance, thus normally sneaking past them wouldn't be the best idea. Now using arts on the other hand. Soon four shadows were easily walking deeper into the building, searching for whatever made said noise. For a few minutes of searching, no one saw anything special. That was until Noktum spotted a bunch of barrels and crates. There wouldn't be anything weird about that, except for the small hole in the wall that was left uncovered. A small mouse could barely pass through it, but for shadows it was no problem.

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All four went through the hole and now were seeing what was hidden behind the wooden objects. Well see wasn't too correct since without any source of light, it was dark. It was impossible to say where they even were or if there even was something.

Noktum casted a small fire, giving some light and illuminating the corridor. At first it looked like a blocked part of the building that could potentially be used for storing something valuable, but the slope that was there led all the way down. Walking down the slope, the team stood in place that probably was the basement of this temple. But if it was a simple basement it wouldn't have been so hidden, right?

- Do you sense something?- warrior asked the demon as he himself was searching through the place, hoping to find something interesting.

- Not really- demon then summoned his scythe and started to strike the stone floor with it. He did that until he heard a more hollow sound- Now there is something. Help me a little- samurai joined him and soon both of them came to the conclusion that part of the floor hid some opening or hole. Phantom hit his weapon right in the middle of the "hollow square" as he decided to call it and in fact found some hole. He did the same for the rest.

- I don't know how you, but I can't see anything- Samukai said as he gazed into the darkness. Noktum threw a fireball down it. While it gave some light, none could still tell what even was there. Soon it vanished in the abyss, never to be seen again.

- I am sure that going down in some hole where you can't even see the end is not the smartest choice- warrior faced the demon.

- And why are you telling me this?

- Because I know you are eager to check what's down

- And maybe I do, so what? It's not like I would've dragged you down there

- Oh really?

- Yes, because I know you would've gone there after me, just in case I set the whole place on fire- warrior couldn't really argue with that. But still, there was no way to go down there. Maybe with a rope or chain, maybe even with some strong vines. Yet he doubted any of them had a spell to make those, so that was out of question.

- Beside all of that, how do you even want to get down there?

- I can fly so there is that

- Yes, you. What about us?

- Just stick to me- when he finished that, some weird banging noise came from the hole, making the team back away by a few feet. Then after a few seconds a gust of air followed, blowing a nearby dust. Chaos waited for a while, waiting for something more but nothing came. Phantom just in case decided to use the sight that Pharaoh had given him. Something wasn't right. What he saw confirmed that. The air that came out from the hole wasn't air but in fact a blast of chaos energy. It hung in the basement for a while until it spread out.

Demon came closer to the hole and took a better look. Its walls, or the parts that were visible, were covered in the same color. It seemed like those bursts were rather constant.

Oh my, looks like you have found a channel Pharaoh's voice finally rang once again in the demon's mind.

A what now?

You remember that spherical object in the dungeon?

Yes

That's what lets the energy that generated by them be able to go to the surface

So there is another one of those down there?

Maybe or maybe it is the one that you activated. You will only know if you go down

Now that was a proposition that was hard to decline. After all this could've been a straight route to the crystal, but he was sure that both Samukai and Noktum would be against that. Especially if he were to say that he heard that from some Pharaoh that only he can hear. He scratched his chin, trying to come with a solution.

Meanwhile warrior and magician were searching for any other alternative. After a while of searching, they found nothing but dust. Honestly speaking, beside that hole, it was really empty in there. But that probably was to expect, considering that this building probably was going to be rebuilt, thus anything valuable was probably stored somewhere else. Phantom still stood close to said hole, but samurai didn't pay too much mind to that at the moment.

- You know- demon said catching the attention of his teammates- I'm sure that it might lead us to those undergrounds

- And what makes you so sure?- Samukai asked, not really too keen on going into some unknown hole.

- My intuition of course

- With your intuition we will end in some active volcano

- Come on, it isn't that bad- Phantom said while he spread out his wings. A blue aura danced around them. Demon stretched as if he prepared to jump- Seriously, I know I might not be the most trustworthy demon, but believe just this one time

Samukai sighed. At least Phantom admitted something about himself. So there was some improvement. Maybe he was right, after all some random hole in the ground probably wasn't there without any reason. Either that or they will end in some gutter. After some more thinking, samurai decided to give that idea a chance. He could scold him afterwards either way.

Noktum already came close to the demon, sitting on his back. Samukai came and kept close to his tail. The moment their leader took off to only go down made the warrior think twice about said plan, but it was too late to even think about coming back.

Soon they were in pure darkness as Phantom flapped his wings to slow down. Samurai thought that if it wasn't in such a dark place, it could've been even sort of relaxing. It wasn't like he was able to fly normally thus it was rather a new experience for him.

- You both are heavier than I thought- demon broke the silence, descending deeper into the unknown. After a few meters in, that channel as Pharaoh called, became somewhat tighter. While at first Phantom had some space for his wings, now they were touching the walls. If this was to continue then soon he might've found himself stuck in there. Now that wouldn't have been too much of a problem considering that abbadon was fond of making space. The other problem was that abbadon could potentially destroy something important.

Another while had passed and the demon found himself unable to go deeper. He tried to move his wings somehow, but they simply wouldn't budge. He sharply sucked air in, rather annoyed by that.

- Say Samukai, do you trust me?- Phantom suddenly asked, catching the warrior off guard.

- Why so sudden? Beside, why have we stopped- samurai looked down at the seemingly never ending abyss- I don't like what you are thinking right now

- You are already dead, so you should survive the fall- demon started to loosen the grip of his tail around the samurai.

- If there is one... Don't you think that throwing me into some abyss is too extreme even for you?

- Wouldn't say so- Phantom felt Samukai escape from his grip, falling down into the darkness. After a while both demon and shadow heard a loud thud followed by curses coming from samurai- So he survived, great. Now it is our turn- Phantom then casted a bone cracking impact at the walls and fell down, landing right next to the samurai.

- It wasn't as deep as I expected

- You really are lucky that I have no body!- warrior pointed at the demon.

- You have survived and you are in one piece. You can't have any complains to me

Noktum had already casted a flame and got the attention of his fellow. While it didn't give much, they could at least see the floor. And just like Phantom thought, it was awfully similar to that from the dungeon, with the expectation of being gray. It was hard to say how big the entire area was but none could see the walls. After wandering around for a while Noktum spotted a spiral staircase leading down.

Before they decided to go down Phantom wanted to check something. He expected the world to go gray, but instead it was filled with chaos. It was flooding with it. The pure amount of it made his head spin. While it wasn't the most pleasant sight for his eyes, the energy was in fact going up by the channel.

They on the other hand started to get down, making careful steps on the spiral staircase. It was narrow so they needed to go one by one. After they were on the very end, the yellowish color returned. And with that the feeling of uncertainty of what might be ahead. Especially about what attribute will the next elemental be. But for now it was the standard routine. Find the room with Exodus, maybe find something interesting and exit the underground right to the temple.

Phantom took out crystals to check if something was nearby, but they only pointed at each other. So all that was left was simply checking every room. Speaking of which there have been none for the moment. In fact the staircase was at the end of some hall. Extremely tall, but narrow hall. The length of it was also very noticeable. Samukai was checking each and every step in order to not activate some sort of a trap.

- I don't want to say that it looks like a dead end, but I see no other way- samurai commented as he went further on in the hall.

- If you won't find any doors I can always make new ones- demon replied, summoning his scythe.

As the team went much deeper into the hall, the walls started to change. Once perfectly plain, now covered in various carvings. The same was happening with the floor. None of them liked that, due to the fact that stuff like that never brought good news. And neither of them expected to be different this time.

- So when are we getting ambushed by some ancient golems?- Samukai asked, constantly being on his guard.

- I hope it will happen soon enough- Phantom said.

After going in a straight line for a longer while, Chaos found themselves standing in front of something that could've been a gate. Before them were five great rectangles, all standing very close to each other, pretty much creating a wall that rose from the ground all the way to the very top. They too had those carvings from the walls.

- Well, now what?- warrior questioned as he was examining the gate. There surely must have been a way to open in somehow. Maybe the crystals were supposed to be put somewhere. There were such mechanisms before so that wasn't out of the question. But after checking everything that was there, samurai found nothing that could've had crystals placed upon them. Maybe they only needed to hold them close to the doors? There was also a possibility that such a mechanism indeed was there, but on the other side of it- Can you hand some crystals?- Samukai asked, reaching his hand to the Noktum. Shadow gave him fire and water crystals.

Samurai held them close to the doors, moving them up and down, left and right, but nothing was happening. He then tried to stick the crystals in the carvings, but none fit in there.

- Hey, can you move a bit?- demon asked. Warrior went to the left, curious what the spellcaster wanted to do. Upon guessing, he immediately ducked and let the red beam fly next to him. He expected the spell to penetrate the doors like it always would have done. But seeing the spell being stopped by some reddish, flickering light, probably a barrier, was unexpected.

Demon was dumbfounded to say the least. He started at the doors with an empty gaze for a good while. It wasn't until the warrior waved his hands in front of his eyes, when he returned to his senses.

- Who decided to be the funny one and casted a barrier?!

- It wasn't me- Noktum said, stepping away from the demon.

- I don't even have such spell- warrior commented.

- Then who did that? Are you telling me that those doors just casted a spell by themselves?

- How am I supposed to know?

- Master, maybe it is some spell or circle that was casted there a long time ago?

- While it could've been a good explanation, circles don't stay so long. Maybe a year at best. Second, if it was that powerful to block an eight tier, I would've felt that- after he said those words, a small rumbling shook the corridor. All of the carvings turned red. Chaos backed off from the walls, slightly dreading what was happening. Phantom once again fired abbadon, but this time kept the spell for a good few seconds. After a while the barrier had fallen and carvings returned to normal.

Now there was a rather big hole in the doors. One could easily see the further parts of the corridor behind it. But when the samurai went to check out what exactly was on the other side, he stopped in his tracks right when he was in the hole.

- You might want to see that

The rest of the team came closer to him and too were shocked by what they saw. Inside the hole were many, many roots creating veins like patterns. There was seemingly no end to them. Those closest to the hole were badly burned and some colorless liquid was leaking from them.

- Is this water or what?- Samukai questioned as some of the liquid landed on his hand.

- I don't think you should've touched that- Noktum commented.

Phantom wanted to check something, so when the world once again went gray he gazed at the liquid. It was flowing with chaos, almost like it was nothing, but it. Could it be that was the reason for the barrier? No it couldn't have been, there just was no way. In his entire life he had met many weird things, but a spell being casted out of thin air was impossible.

Not like it was the first weird thing about that maze. A normal one doesn't fix the floor at a moment's notice. Or has such weird carvings.

Those undergrounds were much more mysterious than he originally had thought. There were way too many unknowns for him to be comfortable. But one thing was sure, it wasn't a normal dungeon, if it could've even been called such.

Just what was hiding deeper, even in the very heart of it? He didn't know, but he was sure that sooner or later they all would see. Especially with crystals guiding them.