Ashan slowly pushed the black door open and stepped inside.
The moment the gap widened, a thick wave of smoke poured out, carrying a rancid, nauseating stench that clawed at his senses. It smelled of decay, rusted blood, and something older, something that had been sealed away for far too long.
Darkness swallowed the chamber whole, dense enough that even the faint outlines of the walls were impossible to make out.
Ashan wrinkled his nose.
'What a rotting smell. Don't tell me that sleeping shitface already died inside that coffin while waiting for someone to show up.'
Unbothered, he took two more steps forward, fully entering the chamber.
Boom.
The door slammed shut behind him with a deafening crash. Both halves collided and sealed themselves tight, the sound echoing violently through the enclosed space. The reverberation lingered, bouncing from wall to wall before fading into silence.
The darkness didn't recede.
Ashan clicked his tongue.
'So the lights aren't coming on. Figures.'
'Whatever. That's not a problem.'
His pupils shifted as the Byakugan activated, veins faintly surfacing near his temples. Instantly, the world unfolded before him in layered clarity. Walls emerged from the blackness, grotesque and organic in appearance. Thick, vein-like structures pulsed across every surface, stretching and intertwining as if the chamber itself were alive and breathing.
The floor, by contrast, was strangely neat, smooth stone unmarred by the corruption crawling along the walls.
In one corner sat a massive chest, its surface etched with faded runes and sealed with heavy iron locks.
Ashan raised an eyebrow.
'A chest? That's impressive. Why didn't I notice it immediately?'
He took a step toward it, curiosity momentarily winning out.
'I wonder what's inside. Might as well take a..'
Kreess…
The sound sliced through the silence.
Metal scraped against metal, slow and deliberate. The noise echoed unnaturally, as if the chamber itself were amplifying it. Ashan stopped in place, his foot hovering mid-step.
His grin widened.
'So it finally woke up.'
He turned his gaze toward the coffin at the center of the room. Through the Byakugan, he saw it clearly. The lid trembled slightly as something inside shifted.
The demon's eyes snapped open.
White, empty, and burning with malice.
It lay within the coffin, its body unnaturally still while its hands tightened around two swords, Veyra and Solen. A third blade rested beside it, half-hidden beneath its arm. Thick, white fluid dripped from its mouth, splattering against the inside of the coffin with wet, sickening sounds.
Slowly, the demon turned its head toward Ashan's position, its gaze locking onto him despite the darkness.
Ashan chuckled.
Even through the coffin, the creature's expression was hollow. Ridiculous.
"Don't waste my time," Ashan said flatly. "Come out already."
The demon's response was immediate.
It drove both swords upward.
The coffin's shutter exploded, shattered into fragments that tore through the air like shrapnel. The demon leapt out in a violent blur, landing several meters away with all three swords in hand. Its eyes glowed stark white, illuminating the darkness around its face.
It stared at Ashan and spat onto the floor.
"HUMAN…"
Ashan blinked, genuinely startled.
"…You can talk?" His lips curled into a grin. "How surprising. Fighting someone who can talk might actually be fun."
The demon lowered its stance, muscles coiling like a predator about to pounce.
"Disgusting… human… dares… here to… steal… artifacts…"
Ashan's grin faded into a look of mild irritation.
"Tch." He sighed. "Can't you talk properly?"
He tilted his head.
"Whatever. Your name is Araksha, right?"
The demon froze.
Its eyes widened, glowing brighter.
"Damn… human… you know… my name? How?"
Ashan crossed his arms calmly.
"I have my ways." His gaze hardened. "So I won't beat around the bush. Araksha, I came here to defeat you and claim the Key to the Apocalypse."
Silence fell.
…
On the other hand, Draven and the others pushed open the red door and stepped inside.
The moment they crossed the threshold, every member instinctively shifted into position. Mana circulated through their bodies, weapons angled forward, breathing controlled. This was not hesitation, it was preparation for a synchronized assault.
Unlike the other chamber, this one was illuminated.
Torches burned along the walls, casting flickering light across the space. Even so, the brightness did little to ease the tension. The floor beneath their feet was cracked beyond repair, deep fractures spreading like scars from countless past battles. Just like the previous room, a massive chest rested silently in one corner, untouched.
Sisiliya's gaze moved past the chest.
It stopped at the coffin.
The stone casing was coated in thick dust, ancient and undisturbed. Yet the air around it felt wrong. Heavy. Twisted.
'So that's the coffin they mentioned,' she thought. 'This place… it's saturated with wicked mana.'
Her fingers twitched.
'It's dense. Oppressive. Whatever is sealed inside… it's no ordinary monster.'
Boom.
The door slammed shut behind them.
The sound echoed violently through the chamber, sealing their escape. Almost immediately, the coffin began to vibrate. Dust peeled off in layers, cascading down like falling ash as the stone trembled harder and harder.
"Everyone, get ready," Draven said sharply. "It's coming."
Mana surged throughout the team.
Then,
The vibration stopped.
Silence swallowed the room.
No movement. No sound.
Draven's eyes narrowed.
In an instant, he raised his hand and cast a mana wall, forming a translucent barrier between the raiders and the coffin.
'It definitely woke up,' he thought. 'Then why isn't it coming out?'
His instincts screamed danger.
'Something's wrong.'
Whoosh..
Without warning, black chains burst from the ground around the coffin. They lashed outward like living serpents, slamming into the mana wall all at once.
The barrier shook violently.
Several raiders stumbled back from the impact.
'Damn it,' Draven cursed internally. 'Just like he said. Chain-type magic.'
His jaw tightened.
'Mana restriction… If even one of those touches us, it's over.'
The chains struck again and again, relentless.
Draven glanced at Sisiliya beside him.
"Professor," he said firmly. "Prepare your long-range spell. We attack together."
Before she could respond..
BOOM!
The coffin's shutter exploded outward, fragments scattering across the chamber. From within, the demon mage Yakwaru burst forward in a flash of motion, crossing the distance in an instant.
It hovered slightly above the ground, robes fluttering unnaturally as it waved its orb-embedded wand. A twisted, grotesque smile spread across its face.
"Humans," it hissed. "You dared to step into this sacred place."
Its voice was warped, layered with malice.
"All of you pests will pay for your crimes."
Shock rippled through the raiders.
"That monster… it talked?" Eirena whispered, her grip tightening on her sword.
Murmurs spread.
But Draven and Sisiliya didn't hesitate.
The ground beneath Yakwaru surged violently upward. Stone and soil wrapped around its body in seconds, sealing it completely within a hardened prison.
"Professor, now!" Draven shouted.
Sisiliya clapped her hands together, mana surging violently.
She aimed.
A blinding beam of light tore through the air, piercing the mana barrier and obliterating half of Yakwaru's head. Purple blood sprayed across the floor, splattering against the cracked stone.
For a brief moment,
Silence.
"She did it!" someone shouted. "She killed it in one shot!"
Aren's chest swelled with pride.
'That's my wife.'
But in the chamber, Yakwaru's remaining eye slowly shifted toward Sisiliya.
"Keeekekkekee…"
Laughter bubbled from its ruined face.
New flesh began to crawl outward, reforming bone, muscle, and skin in seconds. The demon's head restored itself completely.
Sisiliya's breath caught. Her jaw tightened.
'It healed… its head? That level of regeneration… that's absurd.'
Yakwaru slammed the base of its wand into the ground.
The chamber trembled.
Dust exploded upward, swallowing the torchlight as the floor came alive. The stone cracked violently, and from the broken soil, dark silhouettes began to rise.
Humanoid shapes formed, golems made of compacted mud, glowing veins of magma pulsing beneath their surfaces. Heat radiated from their bodies, the air thick with iron and ash.
Yakwaru's laughter echoed.
"Your feeble tricks… your weak attacks…"
"They mean nothing here."
A crushing wave of demonic mana flooded the chamber.
Draven grimaced as the pressure pressed against his lungs, warping the very air. The mana around them was corrupted, distorted, hostile.
Behind him, Sisiliya and Eirena adjusted their stances.
"Those golems," Sisiliya said tensely. "They're bound. They're moving with its mana signature."
Eirena raised her sword. "We need to advance before they reach us."
Draven didn't respond. His eyes never left Yakwaru.
The demon mage hovered higher, chains lashing across the room, carving deep scars into the floor.
Draven stepped out from behind the mana barrier.
He reached behind his back and pulled free the Gunbai.
"This is my first time using something like this," he muttered. "Let's hope it's worth it."
Yakwaru sneered.
"A human with a toy thinks he can defy me?"
Chains erupted beneath Draven's feet.
"Move!" Sisiliya shouted.
Draven didn't.
Instead, his heel slammed into the ground.
The moment the chains rose, he swung the Gunbai with both hands.
BOOM.
A compressed pressure wave tore through the chamber, slicing through the chains and scattering debris and sparks across the chamber.
"…Not bad," Draven muttered. "This thing can handle it."
Yakwaru screeched.
The golems charged.
Each step shook the chamber like war drums. Molten fists crashed down, streams of fire tearing through the air and painting the walls orange-red.
Eirena dashed forward, blade igniting.
[Flame Slash]
Her sword traced a burning arc, cleaving through two golems. They exploded into molten stone,
Only for more to rise from the fissures.
Draven watched the horde form.
"Too many," he said grimly. "They're stalling us."
His eyes glowed faintly blue.
[Killer's Instinct]
The chaos sharpened into patterns.
Amid the noise, he found it, the rhythm. The pulse of Yakwaru's true mana source, buried deep underground.
"There," he whispered.
Yakwaru raised its wand, screaming in an inhuman tongue.
"O'zrha ta nor!"
Blue flames spiraled upward, forming hundreds of chains, denser, sharper, thicker. They rained down like black spears.
Sisiliya poured her mana into the barrier.
Draven knew it wouldn't hold.
He moved.
Sliding across cracked stone, every step silent—
[Silent Step]
Chains slammed into where he had been.
But he was gone.
Yakwaru's eyes darted wildly.
Then,
Lightning erupted behind it.
White-blue electricity surged through Yakwaru's body, leaping between golems and melting them into slag. The demon screamed as its mana shield fractured violently.
It was Aren's fearsome skill.
Recreated.
Refined.
Cast in Draven's own style.
The demon shouted. "You dare..!"