Damned Healer-Chapter 96: Little More Motivation

"Shit... if he thinks he's getting away with this, he's dead wrong..." Gregor said coldly, turning to the others.

"If there are two paths, putting all our eggs in one basket would be risky. Ideally, we should split up. In theory, the core of this universe's power will be at the end, and the group that destroys it will probably be able to beat the target easily and complete the mission. But it's still a huge risk... whatever, fuck it, we're going left."

Everyone nodded. It was kind of an unspoken rule in missions — all leaders were aware of it. Heaven's Will always placed the 'pieces' close to something essential to completing the mission.

They had to go in and reach the end... but they had to do it smartly, calmly — not just charge in 'bravely'.

Gregor stepped forward, copying Raon's earlier move, but at the right-side entrance this time. The door opened, and everyone took a deep breath and crossed through.

...

Moving in silence, tension thick in the air, no one really knew how far they'd gone when suddenly they heard a strange sound. It was soft, but still made their hearts pound like drums.

"What is that?"

It echoed again, clearer this time. Everyone's expressions shifted.

"Sounds like... a heartbeat," Harper said, genuinely shocked. And now that she said it, it definitely did sound like a heartbeat.

The sound kept growing louder the deeper they went, to the point it started hurting their ears. For a heartbeat to be that overwhelming... what kind of terrifying lifeform could it be?

Everyone kept moving forward cautiously.

Finally, they arrived at a massive stone gate with a circular symbol carved into it. Leander and the others were already trying to figure out how to open it...

Darian was at the back of the group, staring at the gate. He felt something, then raised his hand and activated his white power.

"!"

As soon as the power came out from the ring on his wrist, it was pulled away — like it had a mind of its own.

Everyone's eyes went wide. It was like a beam of light shot out toward the circular carving. Then, the huge stone gate started to rumble and slowly opened.

The moment the gate opened, the heartbeat sound blasted even louder. It was so intense Veyle and another mage from Gregor's group almost coughed up blood. They had to unleash the full power of their rings just to endure it.

Luckily, it all happened so fast that no one noticed the light had come from Darian.

After stabilizing themselves, they kept moving cautiously. About three hundred meters in... they saw a huge fighting ring.

Standing at the edge of that massive arena, they felt like ants. The place was already pretty wrecked, with holes everywhere.

In the center, a fifty-meter-tall giant lay on the ground. Its entire body was covered in skin that looked like stone, and its stomach was slowly rising and falling — like it was asleep.

That terrifying heartbeat was coming from it. With each beat, the entire arena shook.

"That's a stone golem... in a lot of universes, they live among the locals," Leander said, watching the giant. "But... this one's way too strong... I feel like we wouldn't survive a single hit."

Everyone swallowed hard. They all felt the same. This was on a completely different level — there was no way they could beat that thing. How the hell were they supposed to finish this mission? The target was supposed to be a Primitive Beast they could actually fight, not this...

But Darian stayed calm. He spotted something written on the ground, just ahead. He pointed at it, calling Gregor over, surprising him again.

"That... it says: Only one may attempt."

Cold sweat ran down their backs. It was already impossible even as a group — imagine sending in just one person.

"I see. Mind if I go?" Darian said softly, making everyone almost jump as they turned to look at him.

He stood in silence. Gregor looked into his eyes, shocked to see not even a flicker of fear. With a sigh, he nodded:

"Maybe failing won't mean death... but you're the weakest here and we don't know what's coming. You sure?"

Darian nodded, with a faint smile. Then turned and calmly walked forward.

Right then, the fighting ring trembled.

Everyone behind him felt a chill — like something terrifying was now watching them. They slowly turned around... and saw that the sleeping giant had stood up without anyone noticing.

It was staring down at them.

His eyes were a deep, pure shade of green. He stared at Darian. Then his mouth moved:

"You came here to challenge me?"

That giant's body was completely covered in runes. And the moment he woke up, the sound of the heartbeat vanished.

The pressure on everyone didn't lessen — in fact, it multiplied several times over. It felt like if he just screamed, he could blow them all to pieces.

Challenge him? How the hell were they supposed to do that? Everyone looked at Darian, alarmed.

"As I promised the last Herald, if you beat me in a fair fight, I'll let you pass and owe you a favor. However... they left me here for too long. While I slept, I kept getting stronger little by little. Now, even if I try to hold back... I don't think it would be a fair fight against you, little one," the giant golem murmured, thoughtful and clearly unsure what to do.

"Then I guess we better give up. I'm seriously at a huge disadvantage here," said Darian, shaking his head in an exaggerated way.

Everyone, watching from afar, got a weird feeling. He looked way too relaxed. Especially Leander's group — they'd seen that exact same look during the meeting.

"Oh? So you're giving up?" the giant golem seemed a little disappointed.

"I'm not really trying to give up. I just want to see if there's a fair way for us to compete..." Darian replied, starting to ask a few questions.

That terrifying creature... everyone behind was stunned. The golem answered everything immediately, in the most direct and innocent way, like a kid. Gregor was shocked to realize he had no malice or real desire to fight.

But Darian had known that from the moment he felt his presence, before they even walked through either of the two doors.

He had sensed the karma of someone very far down this path. It was the second person he had ever encountered with a white, absolutely pure karma. That's why he had encouraged Raon to take the other path — he was sure this being wasn't a threat, but an opportunity.

That golem's race grew stronger simply by sleeping. They could stay in deep slumber for thousands, tens or even hundreds of thousands of years without their life force ever diminishing. Meaning, while asleep, they didn't age and could live for a ridiculously long time.

After a few questions, Darian learned the golem had been tricked. After losing a bet to the "last Herald" of some ancient religion, he had promised to wait until someone could defeat him — and then he'd help that person once.

That Herald had belonged to a long-dead faith. Millions of years ago, as he neared death and was the last follower of his religion, he created this temple, hiding something precious inside.

Getting past the golem meant going straight to the treasure, like a shortcut. The path Raon took led to countless challenges... which, while hard, were still more manageable than beating such a powerful golem.

But even after all this time, no one had shown up to challenge him, and he eventually fell asleep. Most likely, before reaching the two paths, there had been unbelievable dangers that killed everyone else. Those who made it through probably picked the other route.

Maybe... someone had even already taken the treasure, going through the other way. It had been a long time, after all.

Over the years, it's possible the dangers before the split had vanished... or maybe something weird happened, since this group just walked through without issue.

*RUMBLE*

Suddenly, the whole place started shaking, startling everyone — including the giant golem himself.

Darian sighed and focused. He sensed, at a distance, that Raon was behind it.

His eyes narrowed as he noticed something strange and unnatural coming from Raon. That power could bring this whole temple down...

'... he really came ready to cause some serious trouble,' Darian muttered quietly, already suspecting it from Raon's fearless attitude earlier. 'Good. He's gonna reach the end... he just needs a little more motivation. That way, I avoid a bigger mess.'

Trust that Raon and his father wouldn't cause problems? What was he, stupid?

Darian hadn't just learned about powers from the book. A lot of lessons were passed on through that story. The main one: the more power a bastard had, the more limitless and arrogant they became. If you wanted to truly know someone, just give them power and watch what they do.

Freon was clearly scheming something behind the scenes — that was obvious from his karma. He didn't fear the Empire or its rules, so it was very likely he'd try something during the mission.

Rhea must've felt the same certainty, but unfortunately, she couldn't go against the Empire's decision to merge the groups. That's why she handed that rare Artifact to her son — and probably gave him other things too, just in case.

Darian had thrown out the bait and saw the fish take it. Now, he was calmly leading the idiot Raon right off a cliff.

The tremors stopped.

At that moment, Darian turned to the golem. He smiled like a wolf staring down a lamb.

"Brother, let's not fight. I came to set you free."