A week felt like a year in a place without sun. Crow continued to travel with Acco because his method of travel was much faster. When he was exhausted, Song Xue came out, and they continued like normal.
With this method of travel, they made incredible progress. Exactly eight days after Crow woke up from his slight coma, Acco dropped them into a hand-crafted passage. Stone-carved bricks lined the walls, ceiling, and floor. This was obviously not a natural formation; every twenty-fifth brick on the tenth row was made from Nightstone. Even Acco had no problems traveling in this place because of how bright it was.
To be fair, it wasn’t all that bright, but compared to the darkness of the caverns, it was practically daylight for their sun-starved eyes. The architecture reminded Crow of something he’d read about but never actually saw.
Acco, Song Xue, and Crow followed the passage because it was, more or less, going in the same direction they were traveling. However, after about an hour, Crow stopped.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be here,” Crow stated out loud.
“Because?” Acco asked. “This is the easiest going we’ve had since coming to this floor.”
“That’s the problem. We should be worried about who made this place.”
“He’s right,” Song Xue said.
“Dammit, I hate when you do this,” Acco sighed.
“Too late.” A deep voice rumbled from behind them.
As one, they turned to face a man that was a smaller version of Otto. He was decked out in heavy armor made from an unknown metal coated in a black substance that gave it a matte finish. On the shoulders of his pauldrons were white starbursts. In his hands was a massive double-sided hammer. They made the head with the same metal and coating, while the flat side of the hammer had the same starbursts as the pauldrons. A helmet covered even his head with a small slit so he could see.
Crow could see the ice-cold, merciless eyes within.
“What the fuck are the Minnustern doing down here?” Acco nearly shouted in fright. And Crow finally understood why he was feeling uncomfortable.
The Order of the Minnustern was a religious faction from the central continents. They didn’t hold any significant power, but few nations wanted to deal with them. Their Paladins of Absence were like ghosts and a pain in the ass to fight—like the man who randomly appeared in front of them.
These crazy bastards worshipped the Void, and Minnustern roughly translated as ‘Negative Star.’ None of the paladins felt fear or pain and considered it a good death if they sent heathens to the Void ahead of themselves. They weren’t mass murderers, but they did hunt down and force cultivators to fight—the only escape was to die or kill. The order selected their paladins carefully and indoctrinated them as children. Their conditioning was so absolute that nothing could shake their faith in the order.
The passage gave him an odd feeling because they were known for creating megalithic structures with rough-cut stone bricks. Their castles, towers, and other massive structures were all dedicated to Ginnungagap, the primordial god of the void, also known as Oblivion.
Not even Crow was confident enough to take this guy down. More than that, he did not know how this big, heavily armored man appeared behind them with no one noticing. He made a few subjective guesses, but almost all of them had to do with the Void, so skills like Mara’s.
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“Who are you?” Acco asked.
“Penitent.”
“How is that a name? It’s antithetical to what you represent. You don’t show sorrow or regret killing for the sake of killing,” Crow claimed.
“I’m not the penitent… you are,” the big guy chuckled and lifted his massive hammer off his shoulder. “I’m not sure why meat paste wants to know my name, but I’ll oblige. I’m known as Paladin Buer, but I have another title… Inquisitor. You should never have come here.”
Crow looked at his companions, wondering what they had stumbled upon.
*Otto out.*
“Haha,” Crow laughed, feeling Otto’s urge to fight.
Buer looked at Crow, who had suddenly burst out laughing. It wasn’t a reaction he was used to seeing. Usually, the penitents groveled and begged for their lives. It made him feel good about what he did. Their prayers and begging for forgiveness before they died were like an homage to his god.
“Sehnsucht,” Buer said.
“Huh?” Acco replied.
“It means I yearn for what you are about to receive.”
“And what is that?”
“From oblivion, we came, and to it, we shall return,” Buer dictated the Minnustern’s mantra while slamming his left fist against his chest. It was similar to a Druid’s greeting, but it felt more like he was sending a soul to the afterlife.
Immediately after, Buer grabbed his gigantic hammer and raised it above his head to slam it down on Acco, who was the closest to him. The Astrologer Star Slid himself behind Crow. The hammer continued downward and smashed the stones underfoot, shattering them and creating a concussive blast from the impact. Song Xue had disappeared, so Crow wasn’t sure if she was close to the point of impact. Still, he stumbled back and might have fallen if Acco’s hand hadn’t supported him from behind.
“Fuck, man. If you yearn for oblivion, take your own damn life.”
“I cannot. If my offerings aren’t sufficient, Ginnungagap will reject me.”
“What kind of mind fuckery is that?”
“Enough. You will not blaspheme my god!”
Buer’s hammer swung around as if it weighed nothing. Even fully decked out in heavy armor, the big man moved as if it was all made of paper.
Bong!
Otto’s sudden appearance surprised everyone except Crow. Not just because he appeared but because he stopped the hammer’s forward momentum. He held the indestructible coffin in front of him, an object Crow converted to a shield for the big guy.
The two giants collided, and the moment stalled as if the world inhaled and held its breath. One had his hammer stopped, and the other held his shield before him like an immovable mountain.
“Otto send you.”
“Send me?”
“To oblivion. Fool.”
They moved as if they were rehearsing a choreographed dance. Hammer, shield, walls, floor, and ceiling all received multiple impacts as they battled. It was as if two titans were clashing, their power destroying the world around them. The passage was wide, but it was not big enough for these two monsters to go all out. Crow and Acco had to back away so they wouldn’t get hit by shrapnel.
Buer’s armor suddenly glowed, and he spun around in a circle with his hammer extended out. Otto received the powerful blow on his shield, which sent him crashing into the wall. As he climbed out of the hole his body made, he let loose a bellowing laugh.
Crow saw the look in Otto’s eyes as he awakened and touched on that power buried inside him. The intelligence there was not like his usual affable self. Instead, he looked like the god of wrath. There was no fear in those eyes, only anticipation of the battle.
“Move back, quick,” Crow muttered to Acco, dragging him away from the fight. He mostly spoke out loud for Song Xue’s sake. He knew she was around but didn’t have time to pay attention to where she was.
“Otto break metal-man. Take your toy hammer. Warrior of a pathetic god.”
“Arrrgh!” Buer roared, hearing his god being disparaged, and his hands gripped his hammer tightly. As he raised the weapon above his head, Otto’s legs had already tensed. Crow was always amazed at the giant’s battle sense when he was like this. The timing of his attacks was impeccable, and Otto released the tension in his legs and shot forward like a bolt of lightning—his shield led the way. Buer could only turn and shift his hammer in a panic, attempting to disperse the attack as much as possible.
BOOM!
The two slammed into the wall, which gave way under their combined mass. The ceiling crashed down around them, and shortly after that entire section of the passage collapsed. It was a testament to how intense and destructive their confrontation had been.