Death... and me

At first, there wasn't anything strange inside. It was a pretty common residence with a few rooms, probably for a bigger family. However, Rean's eyes were set on a table in the corner of a room, and he could see another symbol of the Essence Race there. Well, a small part of it since the table covered most of the symbol.

Kentucky and Essefy were also there, quickly noticing the same thing. But above all, they could see signs that the table had been moved recently. They pushed the table back and finally saw a small crevice at the now fully available symbol. Rean put his hand inside and felt like he pushed something forward.

*Brummmmm...*

As soon as he did it, a passage began to open on the ground on the sides. It mixed so well with the ground that they truly wouldn't have noticed it if it didn't open. Their Divine Senses didn't work, so it truly only looked like a normal floor.

A set of stairs led down, covered by the darkness as there was no light inside.

"Should we go, then?" Kentucky asked.

Essefy pointed at the table they moved. "Let's put it back so that others won't see any difference. We don't know if some devils will end up coming here or not, after all."

Rean and Kentucky nodded, quickly moving the table back to its place. They also made sure to wipe all any traces of their passage there, doing a much better job than Zandolf did. Well, Zadolf truly didn't expect anyone to come to this place, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

Rean's group then started to make their way down. A moment later, the passage behind them closed, returning the residence to its previous form as if nothing had happened.

Further down in the underworld, Zandolf was breathing heavily, with his body covered in injuries. He felt like he had just escaped a calamity, looking in fear at the gate at the end of the room.

Back when he was trying to see if there were any traps, neither his Demon Beasts nor his Puppets seemed to activate any retaliation. He then called them back and sent them into his Pocket Dimensional Realm. Although he kept his guard high, he still decided to approach the gate and check it up closely.

However, as soon as he stepped into a specific rage, the two cubic symbols on the door shined. Rays of colored light shot out at speeds that even a Middle Stage Divinity Realm like Zandolf was helpless against. Those rays easily pierced through his protection barrier, showing that the energy behind that attack far surpassed his abilities.

Zandolf did his best to dodge while using all his Spatial and Time powers to shoot back. Still, those rays of colored light seemed to disregard all of that. If not for Zandolf's own experience to avoid his vital parts, he truly might have died just there and then. Yet, the door didn't stop and shot more rays of colored light, trying to not give Zandolf a chance to escape.

In a fraction of a second, Zandolf had to choose which rays of light to take head-on while retreating as fast as he could. Finally, he seemed to exit the range at each the trap on the door worked, and the colored light on the cubic images disappeared. The various injuries on his body were those rays that he simply didn't have the time to avoid completely. 'Holy shit! Just what kind of mechanism is that? Is it a formation? But can a formation be this strong? Perhaps just a Peak Divinity Realm could put me through such danger. No, maybe not even them!'

In the end, Zandolf felt like he should turn around and just leave. However, seeing that the attacks stopped, he calmed down while keeping his eyes on the door. Then, he began to recover on the ground while thinking about what he should do. Those injuries were quite deep, and the power of those colored rays of light was still lingering inside his body, so he would take some time to finish it.

It was exactly during this time that a group of three appeared on the other side of the corridor that led into that room. Naturally, they were Rean, Kentucky, and Essefy. "Hum? There seems to be light ahead."

Rean was holding a sphere of light element in his hand to see the things around him since there was no light in that place. After more than one hour going down and some wrong turns, they finally arrived here. Ahead, they could see a colored light that illuminated the room.

However, more than anything else, they saw the middle-aged man sitting on the ground, recovering from many injuries on his body. "This... Senior Zandolf!"

Zandolf was taken aback, not expecting to suddenly hear his name in a place like this. "Who is there?! Show yourself!"

Rean and his group quickly came out, showing that they had no ill intentions. "Senior Zandolf, we have been looking for you for a while already. We finally found you!"

Zandolf narrowed his eyes as he kept his guar high. He doesn't remember to have ever seen any of those three. "Are you part of any of the Realm of Gods' Armies?"

Rean quickly nodded. "Yes, we were told by senior Gardo about you. I'm after information about the Essence Race, and especially trying to find a member of them alive. Senior Gardo told us that you had commented something with him many years ago, so I decided to come and ask you directly. Yet, when we tried to contact you with the communication badges, the signal was just too poor. We couldn't understand anything that you said."

Zandolf immediately remembered a while ago. He did indeed receive a call but couldn't understand the other side either. "So it was you... for you to have my number, that means you got it from the formations masters in my army sight." Zandolf finally dropped his guard a little. "Still, that doesn't explain how you got here. Speak, what is happening?"