"Thank you." After Bibi Dong finished speaking, she turned to look at the three, "Let's go."
"Wait." Tang Wulin suddenly said. He stared at that pitch-black staircase, a trace of golden light flashing in his Golden Dragon pupils, "There's something down there. Something very powerful. And... it's alive."
Before his words fell, a low roar that seemed to come from the depths of the underworld emanated from deep within the staircase.
That roar contained such pure malice and hunger that the entire forest's Soul-Devouring Trees began to tremble, their leaves falling like rain.
Edwin's expression changed.
"Impossible... the seal there should still be intact... unless..."
"Unless what?" Qian Renxue pressed.
Edwin looked at Bibi Dong, his eyes full of terror: "Unless your teacher can no longer suppress 'it.' Rakshasa, if your teacher is truly still there, then she may already... no longer be who she once was. The power of the Abyss is eroding everything, including those who once tried to control it."
Bibi Dong's body trembled slightly.
But she didn't hesitate, stepping onto the downward staircase first.
"No matter what she has become, I must see for myself."
Qian Renxue, Tang Wulin, and Dai Chengfeng followed closely behind.
Behind them, the Tree King's crack slowly closed. Edwin's face gradually blurred, finally leaving only a faint sigh:
"May true light guide you out of this eternal darkness..."
Darkness swallowed everything.
The staircase was long—so long it seemed to have no end. The four could only rely on Qian Renxue's sacred flames for illumination, but that light could only brighten the surrounding several meters. Further away was pure darkness that absorbed all light.
The air was permeated with a stale aura, mixed with rust, mold, and some indescribable sweet-fishy smell. The walls on either side of the staircase were damp and cold, covered with a layer of slimy moss. Looking closely, one would discover that those mosses were slowly writhing, like living creatures.
"These walls... are alive." Dai Chengfeng said in a low voice. He didn't dare touch the walls, only using wind to perceive the surrounding environment.
"Not just the walls." Bibi Dong's voice was especially clear in the darkness, "The staircase beneath our feet, the supporting structures on both sides, even the air we breathe—all contain weak life fluctuations. Everything here is... a part of some enormous existence."
"Like the Tree King?" Tang Wulin asked.
"More vast than the Tree King, more ancient, and also more... hungry." Bibi Dong stopped walking. In her hand appeared a purple crystal emitting a faint glow. Under the light's illumination, one could see the staircase ahead covered with densely packed, vein-like protrusions. These protrusions pulsed rhythmically, transporting some dark red liquid deeper into the staircase.
"It's 'eating.'" Qian Renxue felt a wave of nausea, "What exactly is down here?"
"The 'stomach' of the Abyss." An unfamiliar voice suddenly rang out.
That voice didn't belong to any of the four of them, but came directly from all directions—low, hoarse, carrying a metallic grinding quality.
The four immediately entered combat stance, standing back-to-back in a circle, vigilantly looking in all directions.
"Who?" Tang Wulin shouted, the Golden Dragon Spear erupting with dazzling golden light, dispersing some of the surrounding darkness.
"I am the warden here, and also the prisoner here." that voice answered, its tone carrying no emotional fluctuations, "You may call me the 'Tomb Keeper,' though this title isn't accurate. I guard not a tomb, but a 'gate.'"
"What gate?" Bibi Dong asked.
"The gate connecting the Abyss and the Divine Realm." The Tomb Keeper's voice drew closer. From the darkness ahead, a silhouette slowly emerged.
That was... a difficult-to-describe existence. It had a roughly humanoid form, but its entire body was covered in dark golden bone armor, with sharp bone spurs extending from its joints. Its head had no facial features, only three deep holes arranged in a triangular pattern. Its left arm was a massive bone blade, while its right arm had completely mutated, becoming dozens of constantly writhing tentacles with suckers at their ends. And behind it spread a pair of damaged, bat-like bone wings.
"An Abyss creation." Bibi Dong made her judgment, but a trace of confusion flashed in her eyes, "But your aura... is very peculiar. Not completely Abyss, but also divine."
"I was once a god." the Tomb Keeper said, "Ares the War God, if you've heard that name."
Qian Renxue drew in a sharp breath. Ares the War God—one of the Divine Realm's oldest and most powerful main gods. In the Divine Realm's historical records, he had fallen in the first Twilight of the Gods, leaving no remains.
"You didn't die." Tang Wulin said.
"Worse than death." Ares—or what was once Ares—said calmly, "My divine position was contaminated by the Abyss, my divine body eroded, my consciousness twisted. But with my last strength, I sealed myself beside this gate. In this ugly form, I have guarded it for thirteen thousand years."
He turned sideways, using his bone blade to point at the end of the staircase. There, the darkness was even more concentrated, but one could vaguely see a massive door built from countless bones. The door was slightly ajar, and from the crack seeped dark red light—that kind of light that instinctively inspired fear and revulsion.
"That is the Abyss Gate, the 'fruit' of that experiment back then." Ares said, "Edwin, your teacher, and the other rebel gods—they tried to open a controllable passage to the Abyss, to draw power from it. But they failed. The door opened, but couldn't be closed. The Abyss's power flooded out like a deluge, contaminating large regions of the Divine Realm, and also contaminating us guardians."
Bibi Dong stared at that door for a long time before asking: "Where is my teacher? Isis the Goddess of Life, where is she?"
Ares was silent.
"She's behind the door, isn't she?" Bibi Dong's voice trembled slightly.
"Yes." Ares finally admitted, "She used her last divine power to construct a seal behind the door, temporarily preventing the Abyss's full-scale invasion. But thirteen thousand years have passed. The seal is weakening, and the Abyss's power is growing stronger. And Isis herself... she is being assimilated. Every moment, her humanity is being eroded by the Abyss's malice. When I could still communicate with her, she told me her time was running out. At most another three hundred years, and the seal will completely collapse, and she will become the first 'Lord' of the Abyss on this side."
"So we came too late?" Qian Renxue asked.
"No, you arrived just in time." Ares said, "Isis has been waiting for someone. She said, only that person can truly close this gate and end everything."
"Who?" the four asked almost simultaneously.
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