The Damned Demon

[ You have received 110,000 Deviar Shards ]

"What was that Skill of yours that you used to turn them against each other?" Asher asked Isola with a curious look, making Merina and Ceti perk their ears as well.

"It's called the Melody of Havoc. But I can only sustain it for a—"

*Hnnnn*

Suddenly, the clearing began to hum with an unfamiliar energy, making everyone shift their gaze towards the center, the source of the sound.

Moments later, the ground in the center of the area began to pulsate, quaking the very roots of the trees surrounding it. Merina's sharp eyes narrowed as she watched the scene unfold.

"Uhm…," she called out, her voice uncharacteristically serious, "Something's happening."

The others followed her gaze, their eyes widening as they saw the ground tremble, the grass and soil seeming to warp and distort. In the next moment, an iridescent ring of light began to rise from the disturbed earth, a shimmering curtain that stretched skyward. It spiraled up and out, forming a colossal gate that stood amidst them, ethereal and otherworldly.

"A teleportation gate...Bigger than the ones we saw so far…" Asher murmured, a touch of surprise evident in his voice.

Ceti nodded in agreement, her eyes wide as they studied the shimmering spectacle.

"Looks like our path to the next mini-dungeon. But this gate seems to be sealed," she said with furrowed brows while a message popped up in everyone's minds,

[ You are now qualified to enter the Hollow of Echoes ]

'Must be the name of the 2nd mini-dungeon...' Asher mused.

As they were about to step through the shimmering gate, an intricate pattern of lines and symbols appeared on the ground before it, the glowing tracery etching itself into the very earth.

It was a complex, radiant web, a sprawling design of interconnected circles, lines, and figures.

Asher, who had been about to step forward, halted, his eyes narrowing as he observed the sudden manifestation, "A forging matrix..." he muttered, his gaze scanning over the pulsating web of symbols and figures.

He could see that with such a matrix, the heavy work of forging will all be done by the matrix while one of them has to keep transferring the shards.

[ Transfer 50,000 Deviar Shards to the forging matrix to forge a Deviar Crystal and unseal the teleportation gate. More hands speed up the forging process ]

"More hands speed up the process? Does that mean if we all 5 do it at the same time, it will be quicker?" Merina asked as she blinked her eyes.

"Let's try and see," Saying so, Asher crouched as he placed his hands on the matrix, the ethereal light illuminating his face in a strange glow. The moment he allowed the first shard to absorb into the matrix, it was absorbed as though into a bottomless well, sending ripples across the symbol. As he began to transfer the Shards, the Matrix hummed louder, growing brighter, pulsating with an intense rhythm.

But everyone's brows furrowed as they saw the time remaining to forge,

[ Time Remaining : 00:04:55 ]

"Five minutes? Let's all join in," Isola said as she took out the beast pouch and asked Callisa to join in as well.

"Kooo!" With an excited mewl, Callisa's giant figure manifested beside her as she placed her giant pincers on the matrix as well.

The moment their skin touched the pattern, a surge of energy jolted through them. They could feel the Matrix drawing on the Deviar Shards and forging something mystical.

Once everyone began to transfer, Asher subtly smiled upon seeing the time remaining,

[ Time Remaining : 00:00:45 ]

This made everyone realize that each one of them could shorten the time required for the forging process by 20%.

For the next couple of seconds, they kept their hands steady on the matrix, the energy swirling and surging underneath their palms.

The moment they were about to complete, an intense light erupted from the matrix.

It was a blinding spectacle, an explosion of dark, concentrated energy that shot up into the sky, briefly casting the entire surrounding area in a dark light. The light then receded, collapsing back into the matrix, the runes pulsing with newfound power.

And in the center of the matrix, where once was empty earth, now sat a stunning crystal. It was a dark glowing green, its core swirling with motes of light, emanating an intense energy – the Deviar Crystal.

Asher stepped forward and picked it up carefully, his gaze deeply focused on it.

The group stared at the crystal in awe, their eyes reflecting the dark green hue. It was their ticket to the next mini-dungeon.

"It looks…beautiful…" Isola mumbled with a look of fascination just like the rest.

"Does this really contain the power of the Devils?" Merina asked with widened eyes.

"Maybe…but it doesn't matter. Without the rest of the six crystals, we can't do anything with this," Asher said before giving the Deviar Crystal to Isola, "We have to keep this safely. We no longer can use Spatial Roots, so if somebody wants to throw us out of the race for the Deviar, they can steal it or hide it or something. We can't go back to this mini-dungeon and forge another one again."

"Don't worry. As long as I am breathing, I won't let anybody else take our crystal," Isola said with a determined nod as she put it in her spatial bag.

Asher and the others knew it was most safe with her since she was the strongest in their group.

"Now let's get out of here before somebody else comes along," Asher said as they all took a deep breath and entered through the teleportation gate.

The moment Asher and his group crossed the threshold of the teleportation gate, the world around them spun, blurring into a flurry of colors.

The sensation of traveling across space was both exhilarating and unsettling, like the world was being folded and reshaped around them.

After what felt like an eternity, yet also just a split second, the dizzying motion ceased, and they were plunged into a world unlike anything they'd ever seen before.

[ Welcome to the Hollow of Echoes ]

As if they had been swallowed by the belly of the earth itself, they found themselves standing on the uneven floor of a vast cavern.

The walls of the cavern were not the typical rock face, but a glowing mixture of mineral deposits, gleaming veins of gold, silver color, and precious gems that pulsated with an otherworldly radiance, casting a spectral glow across the cavern.

The ceiling disappeared into the darkness above them, replaced by a mesmerizing array of stalactites, each one shimmering like a distant star in the underground sky, creating an eerie, subterranean galaxy.

"The Hollow of Echoes..." Asher whispered, his eyes wide with wonder as he absorbed the otherworldly vista around him.

The sound of his voice ricocheted off the cavernous walls, repeating, distorting, becoming an echo of itself. An echo that seemed to come from all directions, an omnipresent whisper that filled the air and then slowly faded away.

Before them lay a sprawling landscape of towering mushroom forests, their luminescent caps casting an ethereal glow across the cavern floor.

In the distance, the flickering light reflected off what appeared to be a vast underground lake, its surface a mirror for the radiant canopy of stalactites above.

Ceti looked around, her eyes reflecting the unearthly light, "It's beautiful... but dangerous. The echoes…" she commented, a note of caution in her voice as she tried to lower her voice.

"Ceti is right…Let's try not to speak. All of you communicate through me," Isola said as her voice echoed in everyone's mind, making them nod.

"Shit…We have 0 Deviar Shards. It seems like we have to start from 0 every time we enter the next mini-dungeon," Asher said with a look of frustration upon checking the shard balance.

But before anybody could comment on it, another message popped up in their minds that made their eyes widen,

[ Warning! Cavern Collapse Imminent - 5 minutes ]

[ A cataclysm birthed by the throbbing heart of the Hollow. A divine yet destructive spectacle where the cavernous heavens tremble and quake, tearing asunder the sky, causing shards of stone to rain down like a meteor shower from the underworld ]

[ Find a shelter strong enough to survive this. Else, only your luck and instincts can save you ]

[ Duration - 10 minutes ]

A sudden shiver ran down Merina's spine as she and the rest read the message, "Cavern Collapse…Oh no, we have to quickly find a shelter," Her heart skipped a beat as she quickly turned to her group, the urgency reflecting in her eyes.

Asher and others immediately took a look around, glancing around the sprawling, glowing landscape. The vibrant beauty of the Hollow of Echoes suddenly seemed much more menacing.

"There are no natural shelters here. We have to find one, quick!" Asher urged as all of them ran forward.

*Thkk…Thkk….Thkk….*

"Great. Even our footsteps are leaving behind echoes. This dungeon is made to literally give away our positions," Asher said with a click of his tongue.

Even as they ran, the ground beneath their feet began to subtly tremble.

They could feel the vibrations slowly increasing, the heart of the Hollow pulsating in sync with their rising heartbeats. The stalactites overhead seemed to quiver, casting ominous shadows across the cavern floor.

But their every step echoed loudly through the Hollow, seeming to agitate the environment further. Each echo sounded more foreboding than the last, resonating through the cavern as if taunting them.

As they sprinted across the cavern floor, the minute tremors escalated into a rumbling quake, the very earth beneath them protesting, and they had yet to find a shelter!

With only a couple of seconds remaining, Merina's eyes latched onto Asher's back, "Master…" Her expression wincing with worry as she could see there was no cave or anything ahead of them.

In between all this, Ceti noticed how her mother was strangely acting, calling out to Asher as if she believed he could solve everything.

"It's too late!" Isola said with a trembling gaze as the timer went down to 0.

The countdown hit zero. For a moment, a deathly silence engulfed the Hollow.

*Brekkk!*

Then came a thunderous, deafening roar that echoed throughout the cavern, shaking the very bedrock beneath their feet.

The echo-filled abyss came alive with a disastrous symphony of crumbling rock and echoing wails of the creatures scattering for cover.

Asher's eyes narrowed as he looked up to see the glittering stalactite ceiling begin to crumble.

Massive shards of stone dislodged from their roots and rained down around them.

Each impact sent shockwaves reverberating through the Hollow and geyser-like plumes of dust into the air, obscuring their vision and turning the mystical cavern into a chaotic, shadowy battleground.

*CRASH!*

But suddenly, a monolithic chunk of rock crashed to the ground, separating Isola and Merina from Asher and Ceti.

And just as they turned around to look at them, another huge rock crashed right atop them, making Isola and Merina's eyes shake and tremble,

"Asher!"

"Ceti!"

A/N: Esther and Isola art updated.