“My, my, looks like we’re out of room to hide!” Tze Cha laughed out loud and extended his two hands in the air: “What say you Josephine? Am I allowed to do a little fighting, wreak a little havoc now?”
“...yes.” Josephine Wong exchanged looks with Jianmen and Nameless, then said: “Just make sure that you will still have enough to eat after the fight.”
“No promises, but I’ll try.” Tze Cha’s body levitated above the ground, and after the chanting of a few arcane words in a low and echoey voice, then he extended his hands in two different directions, one towards the two monsters coming their way and the other at the wall of moving flesh, organs and bones. After a short delay, dark flames that were black as the deepest night with dark blue flares at the edge shot from his palms and against the wall of flesh and the monsters.
The surface of the walls along the hallway cracked up and crumbled into dust as the dark flame traveled through the space and struck Tze Cha’s targets. This kind of dark flame did not appear particularly threatening to the other three members of the team, yet the two monsters cried out in pain the moment they were touched by the flames and had to retreat back into the room where the “painting” was. The wall of flesh and bones was burnt to a crisp in just a few seconds, as if it was made of highly flammable paper.
Jianmen frowned at the sight and the energy signature of the dark flames in slight discomfort and disgust. He knew what kind of power Tze Cha wielded, so he was not surprised at the effectiveness of the dark flames against the monsters and creatures that roamed this place - it was a kind of dark, grim, maddening power that could only be controlled and wielded by Omen Dragons and maybe a few of the deeply mysterious creatures with similar natures. It was a power of utter madness and insanity, filled with pure rage, grudge, hatred and indifference, and it was especially effective against malice, especially large and concentrated instances of clustered malice simply because of the strong destructive negative emotions and ill will it contained could easily melt down the thin fabric of sanity that held the clustered malice together.
But effective as it might be, the use of Tze Cha’s power would inevitably mean that they would be doing irreparable damage to the malice and in turn what was left of the victims’ memory here.
Tze Cha’s laughter grew louder and wilder, then he clenched his hands into fists, and made the dark flames concentrated around his hands and arms. The next moment, he struck the ground with his two fists.
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The ground cracked up like a fragile mirror beneath them, and in less than five seconds, it broke completely and the team of four started falling through the hole towards the bottom of a dark and empty pit below - no member of the team, even though they did not need any light to see everything in the environment above, could see clearly what was below.
Jianmen snapped his fingers and created a bright orange ball of gentle but bright light. And with the lighting it provided, the team were able to see most of the area around them. The space they were in was not that of a regular pit, but a pit with two statues of two tall sitting Buddhas each with three angry and even hateful eyes sitting on cushions that were shaped like a lotus carved into two sides of the wall. One of the Buddha statues had a wide, unnatural smile on its face, and the other had an open mouth with clenched teeth inside, as if it was trying to suppress anger.
And when the team of four stopped themselves from falling and started levitating in midair, the eyes of the two Buddha statues moved and focused on them.
“We should leave.” Nameless raised his voice: “These are blasphemous evil Buddhas, block out their mantras if they start chanting!”
Nameless’ warning was almost too late - right after giving it, the two statues started giving off chants of ancient language in unison. The Buddha statue with an unnatural smile had a higher voice, while the other with clenching teeth had a more hoarse voice. And even though Jianmen and Josephine Wong concentrated their power of mind and will to prevent themselves from being influenced by the mantras, when the two statues started chanting they still felt that some extremely thin traces of cold and vile energy was trying to seep through their skin, their eyes, noses ears and enter their body to stir up emotional and spiritual chaos. Illusions symbolizing horror, dread, sadness, hopelessness and even lust started appearing around them.
Tze Cha was especially affected by this chant of evil mantra in unison, his One Eye started shooting blue flames, his body started squirming and he grabbed onto his own head and squeezed his own temples while biting his own teeth as if he was enduring severe pain.
“Nameless, mantra!” Josephine Wong waved her hand at the two Buddha statues and conjured up two purple energy swords with wide, flat and long blades: “Jianmen, sigils and words! Pei, Vivian, leave right now and get to safety!”
Nameless sat in the air with his legs crossed and started chanting his mantra loudly and sternly. As his voice resounded in the air, a golden spherical bubble filled with appeared, enclosing the team inside. At the same time ripples of pale and grey energy waves appeared around the golden bubble, as if there were invisible waves in the air crushing against it from different directions.
Jianmen started writing in the air with both of his hands when he heard the order from Josephine Wong. His fingers did not leave anything in the air, but symbols and ancient words appeared on the purple energy swords’ blades as he continued to write. When he was done, the symbols all lit up in orange and golden light, and lightning sparks of the same colors started jumping out from the sword.
“Gah!” Josephine Wong yelled and pushed her hands outward, the two purple energy swords shot through the air aiming at the foreheads of the two Buddha statues. The pale and grey energy waves concentrated around the two energy swords but then were immediately pierced through and left behind, just like the sound barrier around a supersonic jet.