Chapter 1629: Keep Moving

Erebus continued moving forward, relentlessly killing every creature that appeared in his path. His face twisted in a deep scowl, his eyes glinted with an intense light of anger.

He showed no mercy toward anything that emerged from the fleshy walls or resembled a part of the grotesque structure surrounding him. He no longer felt the need to hold back. All he wanted was to destroy everything standing between him and the source of the curse.

Memories of the past flooded his mind. He remembered all the suffering his people had endured.

The children who had died after watching their parents transform into monsters, the parents who had witnessed the same horrifying fate befall their own children.

He remembered the countless lives lost during the war and the generations who had been forced to live beneath the darkness that followed it.

All those memories accumulated inside him for so long without ever finding an outlet. He had carried them silently while trying to protect the remaining inhabitants of Scadri, suppressing his anger because he could not afford to lose control in front of the people who depended on him.

But now, he had finally found something he could direct that anger toward.

"Haargh!"

Erebus occasionally grunted or released furious screams as he unleashed his Shadow Magic against the creatures emerging from the walls.

Enormous tendrils of darkness pierced their bodies, crushed their limbs, tore them apart before they could approach him.

Whenever one creature fell another creature seemed to take its place, but Erebus just continued attacking without hesitation.

To him,they were all nothing but enemies that needed to be destroyed. It was as if his movements were driven by something that seemed far stronger than the Magic flowing through his body. It was as though every attack carried the weight of all the resentment and suffering he had kept buried for so many years, feuling his attack.

He did not know how long he had been moving forward or how many creatures he had killed along the way. His attention had narrowed until nothing else mattered except advancing deeper into the structure.

The passage continued stretching ahead, with more grotesque creatures emerging from its walls and floor.

And then, eventually, the tunnel began to widen.

The fleshy walls gradually curved out, revealing an enormous chamber beyond them.

Erebus crossed the threshold and finally emerged into a vast open space. The chamber was so large that Adrius’s floating lights could not illuminate its entirety at once.

Massive pillars of bone and stone rose from the floor and walls and pillars and disappeared into the darkness above, while thick strands of flesh stretched between them like enormous veins or membranes.

The walls curved irregularly around the chamber, several large openings extended into other passages that disappeared into the surrounding darkness.

Unlike the narrow tunnel behind him, this place offered enough space for something enormous to move freely.

The floor stretched across a wide area, covered in uneven layers of dark tissue and exposed bone. Strange structures protruded from the ground, resembling the remains of enormous ribs or other skeletal parts.

The entire chamber seemed to pulse faintly as though it were part of a living body.

Erebus finally stopped advancing. His breathing was heavier than before, but the anger in his eyes did not diminish.

Only then did he glance behind him and realize that Erend, Adrius, Lysander, and Sylmira had followed him throughout the journey, but Erebus had become so consumed by his anger that he had almost forgotten their presence.

Seeing them standing several meters behind him reminded him that he had not entered this place alone.

The others had no time to comment on his behavior. Their attention was already drawn toward the enormous chamber surrounding them.

It looked much like the passages they had crossed, but everything here appeared on a far greater scale.

Massive bones protruded from the walls and pillars, thick layers of dark flesh covered nearly every surface. Some of the fleshy structures moved slowly, contracting and relaxing as though they were still alive.

Meanwhile, the stone surfaces were wet with blood that continuously flowed along their uneven edges before gathering in dark pools across the floor.

The sight was deeply unsettling. Even after everything they had encountered inside this structure the chamber made them feel as though they had entered something far more important than the passages leading to it.

Erebus, however, barely paid attention to his surroundings. His eyes moved rapidly across the chamber as he searched for any sign of the creature responsible for the curse.

He looked between the enormous pillars, examined the fleshy structures covering the walls, and searched the darkness beyond the reach of Adrius’s lights.

But he found nothing.

There was no enormous body waiting for them, no recognizable figure, and no obvious presence that he could identify as the source of Scadri’s suffering.

His expression grew darker.

"Where is it?!" Erebus shouted impatiently.

His shout echoed on the enormous chamber, reverberating between the pillars and disappearing into the distant passages.

The sound seemed to awaken something within the surrounding flesh, causing several nearby structures to contract more violently.

Erebus clenched his fists. He had finally reached the place he believed contained the source of the curse but the creature itself was nowhere to be seen.

Adrius slowly moved forward and his eyes carefully examining the enormous chamber as a deep frown settled across his face. He paid particular attention to the strange structures surrounding them, observing the layers of flesh and exposed bones that covered the walls and pillars.

The sight of blood continuously flowing across the stone surfaces made him even more uneasy.

He had encountered countless strange phenomena throughout his long career as an Archmage but this place was unlike anything he had ever seen.

There was something deeply unsettling about the way the entire chamber seemed to move as though it were part of a living organism.

Lysander and Sylmira also began moving around the chamber, examining its surroundings from different positions.

They occasionally stopped to inspect the fleshy structures and used their Magic senses to search for anything unusual.

However, neither of them seemed to have discovered anything yet. Their expressions remained just as serious as Adrius’s.

Erend approached Erebus who was still standing with his fists clenched and his eyes searching the chamber for the creature. Seeing how his anger continued to grow, Erend placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait," he said firmly.

Erebus turned toward him, his expression still filled with frustration.