Mystical Journey

Right in front was an empty hall made entirely out of stone. It was pitch black without any light but strangely, everything could be clearly seen. There even was an old man with a crutch standing in the center of the hall, staring quietly at them.

"Where are we?"

"The escape route underneath the village."

"Where're the villagers? Are we going to ignore them?!" Cohen kept asking.

"Us leaving is the biggest protection we can provide them." Rose Dahm replied softly.

"We should be very careful with what's going to come next." Rose Dahm said in a strict tone. "I'm not joking around. We're going to die here if we're not careful."

"I have encountered these situations countless of times." Cohen smiled as if he didn't care at all.

The old man in the living hall in front of them finally reacted. His pitch black eyes started to stare at three of them.

The first one was Dalier. The old man stared at him for a full second before averting his gaze to the next person.

The next person was Rose Dahm, he was stared at for three seconds.

The last one was Cohen, who was glanced at for only a second.

"He's marking…" Dalier whispered. "The death mark… This meant that one of us will be killed by him."

"It's an ancient ritual. According to the beliefs of the ancient witch doctor, they're able to leave a part of their conscience on one's body if they stared at that person long enough. Then those two would be strung together by fate and the witch doctor would be able to track the person within a certain range."

"This also means that he's firmed in killing one of us." Rose Dahm smiled wryly. "We're definitely in his killing list."

"Why don't we hand over the book to him? That item is meaningless to us right?" Cohen whispered.

The other two stared at him in anger and it made Cohen shrugged helplessly.

"Alright fine, fine. Quit staring at me, I'm just merely saying it."

"Retreat!" Suddenly, Dalier shouted.

A faint buzzing sound came from the stone hall.

It was like those of swarming bees and Cohen, who had experienced this before, his face turned pale and retreated without hesitation.

Three of them ran crazily inside the tunnel.

Cohen turned his head and looked back and had goosebumps.

Behind them in the tunnel was countless of white worms which had a pair of transparent wings flying after them. He could even see the sharp needle-like mouth which resembled mosquitoes.

These white bugs came in like a flash flood as they went after the trio in the tunnel.

A fork suddenly appeared in front of them and each path led to different directions in the tunnel.

"Here!!" Cohen went into the inner path.

"Be careful!" A hand pulled him back.

There was a giant stone ball that was starting to get loose.

Boom!

The stone ball that was at least four meters tall started to roll towards them through the passage. The old man's face could strangely be seen on the surface of the stone. It was like of an illusion.

"Fuck me!!" Cohen was frightened by it. If he were to run into that path earlier, he would be trapped in between the stone ball and the countless of human eating bugs and would've died by now.

"You guys can't escape." The old man's voice came from afar.

"Go to hell!" Cohen shouted loudly.

Pew!!

Suddenly a sharp stone flew past him from behind and landed on the stonewall in front as it sparked.

"Bring it on!!" Cohen shouted.

The trio started to dart around left and right as they kept evading the stones shot by the swarm of worms.

The old man behind them kept waving his crutch as stones flew towards them.

"There's more in front!!" Dalier shouted.

The other two looked to the front to see a huge giant stone ball rolling with the diameter of five meters towards them. As it rolled, it seemed to be able to squash everything into mincemeat inside the tunnel. Similarly, the old man's face could be seen on the surface of the ball.

"To the left!!" It wasn't sure if it's Dalier or Rose Dahm was shouting.

Cohen couldn't make out who's who in the situation any longer. He barely made it as he moved to the left as he entered into a narrow space.

Boom boom…

The stone ball rolled past the trio.

"Cohen…"

Suddenly, Cohen heard someone calling out to him and he looked at where the voice came from.

He saw the ceiling of the tunnel broke apart. As the light shone in, a human figure jumped into it.

"Cohen, hand over the Sone Clock of Fortune." This man was a handsome white man with golden short hair. He was muscular and gave off a cold aura.

The trio ignored him as the old man was catching up to them even after the swarm of worms was crushed by the giant stone. He somehow walked out from among the countless worms and evaded the giant stone mysteriously. As he moved his crutch, it started buzzing once more.

"Move forward!! Quickly!!" Dalier shouted.

Rose Dahm followed tightly from behind and Cohen was the last one running at the back.

"Evade!!"

Another giant stone rolled towards them.

Coincidentally, another narrow path by the stonewall appeared and three of them hid in it.

The stone ball went directly towards the golden-haired man. He couldn't evade in time and there was no place for him to run but to welcome the stone ball.

"What a pity…" Cohen prayed for the fellow as he was completely innocent.

At this moment.

Boom!!

A loud explosion could be heard as if it was a volcano eruption.

The giant stone was shattered into millions of pieces in the middle and what came out of it was the golden-haired man.

"Cohen, hand over the Stone Clock of Fortune." Garen slowly walked out from the center. Countless of bugs which were surrounding him mysteriously died off and layers of them were soon accumulated on the ground.

Cohen, who was sprinting forward with all of his might, turned around to look as he heard the explosion. He literally paused as he saw the scenario.

"F*ck me… This guy is even worse…!"

The mysterious old man started shouting as he stomped his crutch.

Five to six stone balls started rolling but were demolished by Garen's fist. Each fist was like a dynamite.

Everyone started to lose their calm when they saw Garen breaking the stone like he was popping a balloon.

"What the f*cking hell!! Cohen, how did you anger this monster!!" Rose Dahm finally lost his cool. This was something out of his expectations and wasn't in his control at all.

"I don't know!! I don't even know him!!!" Cohen shouted.

As the both of them fled frantically with Dalier leading the way, the giant stone that had been chasing them was now a tool to block the person after them.

"Cohen!!!" Garen shouted and in an instant, the giant ball was split in half as Garen moved his hand.

"F*ck me! Stop chasing me!!" Cohen cried as he sprinted.

While Garen was chasing them from the back, giant stone balls would occasionally block him from them. Eventually, the mysterious old man was angered by Garen. He started shouting and would summon sharp stones and shoot them towards Garen. This made it more difficult for Garen to chase them.

Garen was angered.

The moment he was slightly less alert, the whole team encountered a swarm of crazy beasts and were almost separated.

The whole team continued moving forward after killing a portion of the beasts via some heavy weapons.

After that, they encountered trembles similar to an earthquake when the village was right before their eyes. The earth suddenly trembled and the whole village was sunk into a deep pit.

He could avoid it in time but not so far the team.

At least half of the Nighthawk team's weapons was disrupted by this deep pit.

Afterwards, Levi secretly betrayed them and he escaped into this tunnel.

Afterwards, the trembled continued and the team which managed to reassemble for a moment were separated again. Raged, Garen went down and killed everyone in sight!!!

After a series of incidents, he was angered as he was here to take revenge and not on a holiday!

It took him great effort to find any movement underground. Coincidentally, he met Cohen's team as he jumped into it.

Since the Stone Clock of Fortune appeared right in front of him, he naturally would try to obtain it.

Hence the current situation.

The trio ran at the front, Garen chasing them in the middle and the old man was at the very back.

Garen was extremely annoyed by the old man but was afraid to lose the trio if he were to deal with the old man. He was really surprised by the turn of unexpected events today.

As long as he found Cohen, Levi shouldn't be far away. He could deal with almost everything if he could obtain the secrets of the Stone Clock of Fortune.

Boom!!

Another stone ball was split in half.

"What the f*ck! Cohen, didn't you say you're being chased because of a normal antique?! How could a normal antique relate to such a monster? Are you f*cking kidding me!!??" Rose Dahm lost his cool and scolded. Since these two were able to become best friends, their characters were almost the same even in the face of danger.

"It wasn't this guy before!!" Cohen still had the energy to reply back even though his face was drenched with sweat and he looked like he could pass out any moment.

"Pass the Stone Clock of Fortune to him!!" Rose Dahm cried out.

"Faster!!" Cohen agreed as well as he quickly took out a small white porcelain item.

He immediately tossed the item behind.

As the small bottle rotated in the air, Garen obtained it without much difficulty.

He glanced at the small bottle and continue pursuing them.

"F*ck! Why is he still here?!"

Rose Dahm felt hopeless.

"How would I know!!?" Cohen was on the verge of collapsing as his stamina was fast depleting and even he himself believed that he would die from the immense exertion.

"What is that floating thing?" Garen squinted as he saw a black book-liked item which seemed important floating in front of them. "Hand over that for me and I will leave you alone."

"F*ck…"

Suddenly the trio felt helpless as they realized that he was looking at the book.

Wasn't it the same from the very beginning?