The Smiling Death-Chapter 396: Something Unknown
Amon exhaled slowly and stood up. "You two should rest here. Those two abominations are dead. I will go inside the tower to deactivate it."
Scarlett removed her palm from her face. "What? You are going inside? Then let me come with you. What if there is something inside?"
Scarlett tried to get up, but Amon stopped her by putting both his hands on her shoulders.
"No. You stay here. I will be fine. Do not worry. If anything strong appears, I will just run away from there."
"Amon! It could be dang-"
Amon put his index finger on her lips. "Do not talk. I said I will run away if I see something suspicious. You and Mark stay here and recover. If something actually exists there, then you guys should be in good form. So rest here."
"Yes. He is right. Let us rest for a while and believe in Amon," Mark said from beside. He looked at Scarlett with a calm expression, though his eyes held sadness at the thought of Malphas.
Scarlett sighed tiredly and leaned back against the wall once again.
"Run if there is something unknown inside," she told Amon with a stern expression. Though she was also worried about him.
Amon smiled lightly and nodded. "Got it. Do not worry about me. Take care."
He turned toward the huge open door of the tower.
He stopped in front of it.
The entrance was more than thirty meters tall. The huge metal doors, which were covered with complex patterns, had slid open on both sides.
"Alright, let us go," he said with resolve as he stepped inside.
Everything was dark inside. But Amon was someone who could see in the darkness.
What appeared in front of him was a huge hall-like space.
"The monsters must have been here, locked for so many years to guard this place."
But soon his eyes widened.
On the circular walls of the hall, there were machines attached to the black walls all around. Transparent pipes were also attached. Something violet in color was flowing through them, glowing gently.
It was not too bright. To be honest, it was not even visible from outside. But once he entered, he could see them clearly. They were not everywhere. Some areas of the walls were empty.
In one corner of the hall, there were stairs attached to the wall that led upward in a spiral path.
Amon walked toward it.
His eyes curiously observed the machinery, which was unknown and not understandable.
Amon stepped onto the stairs made of black stone.
Tap
Tap
Tap
He started to walk upward.
"How far up is it? Damn, how long will I have to walk like this?"
The current situation reminded him of the time when he was getting out from the bottom of the Celestial Tree.
The path was similar. There were roots there, while here there were stairs.
"Hope there will be no more monsters up there."
Amon continued his climb.
He took out a water bottle from his storage ring and drank the cool water for the first time since the battle here had started.
Gulp
Gulp
He sighed.
He remained standing there for a while. He was tired. But the tower was too high.
"I will travel by running then."
After resting for a while, he started to run.
He used mana around his feet, strengthening them and increasing his speed as he climbed higher and higher.
After more than ten minutes of running, he got closer to the top.
He climbed the last stair.
As he stepped onto the top floor, his eyes widened.
In front of him was a hall filled with machines. Massive structures were etched into the ground and walls. From every direction, thick pipes ran across the floor and walls, all moving toward the middle of the hall. And all those pipes were connected to a chamber.
Inside it was a huge violet crystal.
The crystal was massive. Around twenty meters tall and almost equally wide. It slowly floated in the air.
Glowing patterns were engraved everywhere on the glass and the floor around it.
The crystal glowed faintly violet, and the pipes also had a slight glow as something moved inside them.
"So that might be the energy source that keeps this tower activated, creating the barrier around this place," Amon concluded while watching the thing in front of him.
---
Meanwhile, Vetaal was sitting quietly on one of the trees, without any worry, just waiting for the battle to end.
He could sense it.
The guardian monsters at the three towers, west, south, and north, were dead.
Two remained at the eastern side, but they were also killed soon.
Though they gave more challenge compared to the others, since one monster had ranked up.
But fortunately, Malphas was able to kill it.
He just needed to wait for a while. Then he and the others would be free.
But suddenly he felt something dangerous.
His white eyes widened in shock.
"What? Do not tell me... damn it!"
The gray-skinned, corpse-like figure of Vetaal started to float in the air as he dashed in the direction of the eastern tower, where Amon was at the top floor of the tower.
Vetaal’s face was panicked and worried.
"Hope they are not too late."
He moved toward the tower as fast as possible.
---
Back inside the tower.
Amon was now standing in front of the waist-length pillar. A transparent panel was on it.
"What is this? What do I need to do with this?"
In confusion, Amon put his palm on the panel and then sent a small amount of mana into it. The panel beneath his palm started to glow.
Amon’s eyes narrowed, and he pulled his palm away from it.
Inside the panel, one line and two options appeared in glowing letters.
[Do you want to deactivate it?]
[Yes / No]
Amon looked at those two options with wide eyes.
"Hahaha. Finally. I can deactivate it. We can escape from here."
Amon raised his index finger to click on the ’Yes’ option.
But just then, a crack appeared in space in one corner of the room. Something shot out from it in a flash.
Before Amon could click on No, something hit his stomach with unbelievable force.
His body arched like a bow.
Blood gushed out from his mouth. His body was thrown backward. He collided against the wall where there was open space with no machines.
BOOM!
"Arrrghh!" he screamed in pain.
His vision blurred as he nearly lost consciousness.
