Not daring to make a sound, impossible to create light.
This was the current predicament of Kincaid and his group, because behind them was the magical beast pursuing them.
And in such a predicament, they encountered something indescribable.
Deep, silent darkness sometimes becomes a protective color for panicked people, but sometimes makes their fear even more profound.
Originally, they just needed to carefully feel their way through the darkness, perhaps to escape Dice Nose's pursuit. But now, something existing in the darkness left them in a dilemma.
What could it be?
The gaze from behind those smooth object… how would it affect their lives?
"F-Forward a bit more?" The soldier carrying Norman whispered.
"Must do this!" The soldier carrying Kincaid was relatively calmer, saying in a low voice, "Our current situation isn't optimistic. At the very least, we need to figure out what's here."
Listening to the soldiers' conversation, Kincaid's expression grew grave.
In this situation, with basically zero combat ability, he couldn't help much. Offering suggestions rashly might disturb the soldiers' judgments that should be coherent.
Based on this concern, Kincaid chose silence, didn't ask questions, but carefully remembered every word the soldiers said.
The crew-cut soldier who released En to explore the building interior was named Moli. His En was unstable, clearly not fully mastered, but its diameter was fifteen meters, which is an excellent figure.
At the edge of his En was the source of the gaze watching them in the darkness. He only needed to take a few steps forward to detect the source of that gaze.
However, doing so also carried certain risks.
He had no idea what was behind those gazes. Although calm for now, who could guarantee those gazes weren't from a sleeping lion?
The misgivings accumulated in his heart, plus the disturbance outside, made him deceive himself, unable to take those steps.
"What's wrong? Hurry up?"
Seeing Moli unmoving, the two soldiers couldn't help but whisper urgingly.
After hesitating a moment, Moli swallowed, about to take his first step forward when a woman-like giggle came from the entrance.
"Tehe, found you~"
The laughter and words they couldn't understand were like a winter chill wind blowing against their backs.
'Run...!'
Simultaneously, the same thought surfaced in the three soldiers' minds.
But just as they prepared to move, pink light brightened at the entrance, instantly dispelling the darkness in the room.
In that instant, including the magical beast, everyone's movements paused.
The scene before them made a chill rise in their hearts.
Under the pink light, right in front of Kincaid and the others, stood rows of transparent glass chambers over two meters tall, filled with slightly turbid liquid, with no bubbles.
Within the liquid stood oddly shaped bodies.
"This is... what?"
Kincaid's eyes behind the black glasses trembled rapidly, as if seeing victim specimens placed in the International Permit Agencies' underground laboratories.
No, there was a difference beyond the essence.
The bodies in the glass chambers were like the roaming-type Brions in the labyrinth that used humans as hosts.
Only, the round metal sphere had a narrow, elongated eye slit, and dozens of root-like fleshy tentacles extended from the human body submerged in the liquid.
At the ends of these fleshy tentacles were attached biological embryos the size of adult fists, and various biological organs… eyes, hearts...
The source of the gaze they felt in the darkness earlier was the eye slits on the metal spheres of these dozens of Brions within the transparent glass chambers.
So, were these dead?
After clearly seeing the true face of the gaze source, including Kincaid, the several men didn't believe the eerie, motionless Brions in the glass chambers were dead.
It was a feeling impossible to explain in words.
Even though the unknown liquid in the glass chambers was slightly turbid, even though the scattered equipment and thick dust indicated this place had been sealed for years.
Yet, based on their first impression, they couldn't convince themselves those Brions were dead. Especially the embryos on the fleshy tentacles made their hearts tremble with fear.
Because they distinctly saw, among the diverse-shaped biological embryos… there was a place for human embryos.
Moreover, without the instruments operating, everything submerged in the liquid showed no signs of decay.
The Brions in the glass chambers stunned Kincaid and his group, making them forget they should flee this place now.
However, Dice Nose, who had chased them here, only released half her ability, then took no further action, just staring blankly at the Brions in the glass chambers and the biological embryos attached to the fleshy tentacles.
Among the variously shaped embryos, she saw magical beast embryos, overturning her understanding of the Ancient Labyrinth City.
'Stone Book never revealed this information... Is it because this information isn't important, or because Stone Book isn't omniscient?'
Dice Nose's face clouded with shadow, thinking of many things in an instant.
Revealing hidden things was Stone Book's ability, also the reason Stone Book existed within the Gatekeeper Clan.
Regarding intelligence about the Ancient Labyrinth City, and various intel from different places on the Dark Continent, the Gatekeeper Clan could learn through Stone Book. That was also an important tool for them to maintain the [Balance].
But these things before her eyes had never been revealed by Stone Book.
Why were there magical beast embryos there?
The Gatekeeper Clan hosted time within their bodies, so their lifespans were long, almost endless, or rather, the concept of lifespan no longer existed.
Simultaneously, the Gatekeeper Clan lost the ability to reproduce.
This was also the fundamental reason Dice Nose was captivated by the objects in the glass chambers, not immediately attacking Kincaid's group.
But Dice Nose quickly regained her senses. The pink light sphere condensed in her palm began to exude killing intent.
The doubts arising now could be resolved after dealing with these humans.
Dice Nose's eyes, filled with icy killing intent, swept over Kincaid and his group.
[Charm]
The killing intent emanating from the pink light sphere suddenly intensified.
…
As long as he stayed high in the air, the magical beasts couldn't do anything to him… conversely, he couldn't kill them either.
Thus, Law chose to descend. After avoiding the three magical beasts' jumping attacks, he went to reunite with Ging and the others.
He landed on the rooftop, took out Ten Horns from Kuro's space.
Even with powerful enemies surrounding them, everyone's gaze was inevitably drawn to the ink-black sphere at the tip of Ten Horns' stem.
'The Calamity Law once described as capable of destroying the Six Continents was sealed inside this unremarkable dried plant's stem sphere?'
'Incredible...'
Just as everyone marveled, an angry roar came again from inside the nearly collapsed building a hundred meters away.
Law immediately put away Ten Horns, looked towards the source of the sound, and said coldly, "I'll leave the other three magical beasts to you. I'll kill that gorilla-face as quickly as possible, then assist you."