The group descended the stairs for several minutes.
Along the way, they could see several veins of magical stones in the wall, very similar to elemental stones.
"These stones..." said Luna. "They look like the stones we use."
"They don't look like them, they are them," said Sariel. "Elemental stones form naturally just like any other ore."
"Ah... so that's how they form..."
Curiosity getting the better of her, she reached out her hand toward what was probably a Fire stone vein and felt a warmth similar to a campfire when she touched it.
"It's also possible to create them by condensing your magical power, as you saw in Krimisha," said the traveler. "This is usually the method used to create more powerful stones, since there are always many impurities in stones formed in mines."
The group descended a few more dozens of meters until the staircase finally ended and connected to a long, relatively wide corridor.
This time, the walls were entirely carved in marble with various images of angels on them.
As nothing was happening at the moment, Luna remembered a detail about the shadows.
"Sariel, those shadows that attacked us earlier were made of Conjuration, but I think I felt a little bit of Reanimation."
"Yes, I felt that too. Actually, it's impressive that you felt Reanimation, since Conjuration, in high concentrations, tends to mix with the other elements and change them."
"But why were they different from the other shadows? They were even able to walk in the light."
"It's too early to be sure, but I believe these creatures are like parasites that seek out corpses to 'possess' and become stronger. The shadows without a host also have Reanimation, but it's hard to detect since they are way weaker."
"Like that necromancer?"
"Oh, I haven't explained the difference between Reanimation and Conjuration to you yet, have I?"
Luna shook her head.
"Both Reanimation and Conjuration can raise the dead, but there is a difference between the two. Conjuration allows a corpse to remain raised indefinitely until it is dispelled or defeated, but the raised body can only use 5% of its original power from when it was alive.
"Reanimation, on the other hand, allows the resurrected body to use 100% of its power, so if you used Reanimation magic on someone from the Council, for example, it would be the same as fighting them alive.
"But there are other differences too. Conjuration is a one-time activation spell, using a certain amount of magic only once, while Reanimation requires you to constantly expend your magical power."
"Is that why they were so insistent on attacking us? To possess our bodies?"
"Probably. To them, we must be like a rare jewel that must not be lost at any cost."
"But... won't their magic run out at some point?"
"Remember that they are a completely different form of life from us, so who knows how things work. My theory is that their bodies are made entirely of Reanimation mixed with Conjuration, almost like a ghost. That's why they die so easily without a host, because their bodies are almost not solid."
As this conversation took place, the group noticed a light at the end of the corridor. Approaching cautiously, they came across a kind of balcony on the edge of a precipice, and what was on the other side of the abyss left them speechless.
With a territory larger than a major capital city, and buildings hundreds of meters high, a vast underground kingdom stretched beyond sight, surrounded by an abyss so deep that it was impossible to see the bottom.
All the rock in the cave had been dug out, leaving enough space for the ceiling to be hundreds of meters high, making it impossible to see the top due to the darkness.
There were some structures and buildings built on a small portion of rock near where the group was, but there were also some attached to the walls, with stairs leading up to them.
There was a bridge crossing the wide gorge leading to another portion of land near another wall.
This one, which was larger, was probably the center of that kingdom, with tall buildings and sturdy walls that stretched beyond the darkness.
The buildings were large and imposing, capable of housing tens of thousands of people in that underground city.
"What...?" Raymond sighed.
"Did the angels build this?" Luna couldn't believe her eyes.
"He, looks like they're good at underground stuff too..."
Everyone's eyes were wide and shining as they watched the scene, and even Aegreon had a surprised expression.
After remaining in a trance for a few seconds, the group awoke and immediately began to discuss.
"We'd better be careful," Raymond said. "There may be angels here."
"Negative," replied Sariel. "There is no lighting in the buildings, and I don't see any auras here. This place is completely abandoned."
"We'd better get going." Shiina pointed to the right, where there was a corridor they hadn't noticed because their attention had been stolen by the underground kingdom.
Following the corridor, a few more minutes passed when the tunnel opened into a large hall dozens of meters wide and high, with other smaller corridors connected to it and several statues of angels and dragons. There were also chairs and tables, as well as several broken pieces of marble on the floor and some broken support pillars.
"What a huge place..." sighed Luna.
Once again, everyone was surprised by the size of the place. The stone was so well carved that they even forgot they were underground.
"It looks like a battle took place here," observed Sariel.
"You're right," replied the princess. "There's a lot of broken stuff here."
"We need to be careful." Raymond held his sword still in its sheath.
Dodging the debris, the group continued their way, reaching about halfway across the hall, when the traveler suddenly stopped.
"I sense several auras of fire approaching from the east."
"Fire!?" exclaimed Shiina. "Isn't that Conjuration?"
After waiting a moment, several creatures covered in lava emerged from smaller corridors and advanced toward the group.
Their forms varied greatly, some being humanoid, quadrupedal, snake-like, or even what appeared to be fish with legs and arms.
Some of the creatures threw fireballs from a distance, while others advanced toward the group.
A wolf-like creature with a vertical mouth tried to bite Luna, reminding her of when she was attacked at the pond near Fire Mountain.
However, this time she was no longer a simple defenseless princess.
Pointing her hand at the creature, she shot an ice stake, piercing it from the inside and killing it instantly.
Raymond was attacked by three fish-like creatures the size of rhinos that had only two arms and used them to crawl toward him, leaving a trail of lava on the ground where they passed.
Despite needing to crawl, they moved with impressive speed and jumped on him.
Using his long sword, Raymond covered its blade with lightning and cut two of them in a single horizontal stroke, while destroying the other with a lightning punch.
Two other bat-like creatures, larger than an adult man, flew toward Shiina with their flaming wings and tried to hit her with their lava claws.
The assassin ripped off the head of one with a wind sphere and cut the other with her sword.
Then, creatures about three meters tall, extremely muscular and with a hole expelling lava from a hole in their faces, tried to punch Sariel and Aegreon, but the two used their weapons to cut them in half with ease.
Despite the group's clear advantage, the creatures kept coming, so the five decided to spread out from each other to expand their spells, with Sariel and Luna creating a blizzard around them, Aegreon burning the creatures with a sea of purple fire, Shiina becoming invisible and killing the creatures stealthily, and Raymond casting countless lightning bolts.
Now that they were using more power, the creatures couldn't even get close to them, yet they still didn't give up their suicidal attack.
A few minutes into the battle, a strong tremor could be felt on the ground, and all the creatures stopped attacking, looking around worriedly, then scattering throughout the hall as they fled down any corridor they could find.
"What happened?" asked Luna.
"There's a big one coming," said Sariel.
Everyone looked carefully at the corridors from which the creatures had come as the tremor grew stronger and stronger, and a loud, heavy sound echoed through the caves.
Footsteps...
The tremor was definitely the footsteps of a large creature.
After a few seconds of anticipation, the east wall of the hall began to crack as a loud thud could be heard.
Unable to withstand such power, the wall collapsed, raising a large cloud of dust.
And from the hole in the wall emerged a creature about thirty meters tall, its body covered in lava and emitting dark smoke.
Its shape was humanoid, but its entire body was made of obsidian. It had flaming scarlet eyes and two large horns curved forward that dripped lava.
Its body was robust and heavy, and the heat it emitted was deadly.
As soon as this creature spotted the group, it ran towards Sariel, the closest target, while knocking down every column that prevented the ceiling from collapsing.
That monster was like a raging bull seeking to destroy everything in its path.
However, unfortunately for it, what stood in its way was Sariel.
With a carefree look, the traveler threw his glaive at the creature, without using magic, and the weapon pierced its neck and easily severed its head.
Its body advanced a few more meters due to inertia before falling, and the creature's head flew directly toward the traveler, who remained motionless.
Without moving a muscle, the head fell almost on top of him, with one of the horns just inches away from touching him.
"What a shame, I thought it was stronger." He touched the tip of the horn with his finger, not caring about its heat.
However, several other tremors began and became closer.
From the same wall emerged a few dozen more huge creatures, some similar to the one Sariel had just killed, others similar to larger versions of the small monsters they had faced a moment ago.
And just like the first creature, these ran toward them.
The tremors created by their heavy bodies and the lack of columns supporting the ceiling caused some rocks to collapse, putting the group at risk of being buried.
"Tsk," Sariel cursed. "Get on your horses and let's go to the abyss! If we stay here, we'll be buried!" The traveler then mounted his horse and made his glaive fly back into his hand, cutting one of the creatures in half on the way back.
As powerful as the people there were, it would be dangerous even for them if they were buried under a mountain.
Following the travelers' instructions, everyone mounted their horses and rode as fast as they could to the end of the hall while the ceiling collapsed and the creatures advanced furiously.
Using magic, everyone launched attacks behind them in an attempt to delay their advance, killing some in the process, which were soon replaced by others emerging from the hole.
"How can there be so many of these things here?!" shouted Shiina. "Wasn't this supposed to be a sanctuary for angels?!"
"There's probably magma at the bottom of the abyss," Sariel surmised. "They must have sneaked out from there."
As the ceiling collapsed and the creatures continued to emerge, the group finally crossed a small gate that led directly to the bridge. Like everything else they had seen so far, the bridge was also very long and wide, about twenty meters wide and about two hundred meters long.
"Hurry!" Raymond shouted. "Only Kura knows what will happen if we fall."
With the horses running as fast as they could, the group crossed the bridge like lightning.
However, soon the creatures destroyed the wall that stopped them and followed the group on the bridge.
With the weight of dozens of creatures running with strong legs, the bridge did not resist and started to crumble, throwing the creatures into the dark abyss.
The group ran as fast as possible to reach the other side before the ground below their feet crumbled, but there was someone who was way too behind them and probably wouldn't arrive in time.
Luna was still learning how to ride a horse, so she was not able to properly conduct one, which made her lag behind.
Everyone managed to cross the bridge, while Luna and Chinhej were the only ones who didn't arrive.
Before she could reach a safe place, the ground collapsed, throwing her and Chinhej into the abyss.
"LUNA!" Raymond ran towards the abyss, showing clearly that he had intentions of jumping.
"STOP!" Shiina stopped him. "Are you trying to kill yourself!?"
"RELEASE ME!" He tried to break free, but she was using all her strength to stop him.
Raymond hopelessly looked at Luna while she fell into the abyss, when a blur suddenly advanced from the corner of his eye and jumped into the cliff.
Sariel dived like an eagle and disappeared in the darkness with Luna and Chinhej.