Chapter 245 245- Trials Of Death (Part 3)
So, with steady steps, Kai approached the metallic door and pushed it open gently as he took a peek outside. The outside was as dark as the interior if not even darker. If it wasn't for his powerful vision, he would've not been able to see what was outside.
The cell he was in seemed to be located in the depths of an underground location. The air hung heavy with the scent of damp earth and decay, a putrid smell that assaulted Kai's nose mercilessly. The tunnel's walls, slick with moisture, ooze a viscous, unknown substance that he could only assume to be water, creating grotesque patterns that seemed to writhe and shift in the feeble glow of the flickering torches hanging on the walls around him.
The passageway stretched ahead, akin to an endless abyss that stretched as far as the eyes could see. Its narrow confines were adorned with jagged, uneven rock formations that created a chaotic semblance of an old, medieval prison.
Kai frowned slightly when he couldn't spread his senses as much as he could. He felt like he was restrained completely inside these narrow, almost claustrophobic walls. The silence was deafening; broken only by the constant echoing of the dripping water in the distance, each droplet reverberating like a mournful requiem.
But, he had no other choice but to move out of the cell and start exploring this place since he really had no other choice. Stepping out, he started walking left since the right path was closed with a thick wall.
'This place feels… incomprehensibly calm.' He thought to himself. For a prison that was perhaps hundreds of kilometers underground, it didn't feel either cold or suffocatingly hot. Instead, it was humid and rather warm.
As Kai ventured deeper and deeper into the tunnel, the weight of the silence started pressing on his mind. He didn't feel any particular emotions but he could sense what the tunnel was trying to instill in him.
Minutes passed slowly as Kai started suspecting that this was perhaps another trap laid by the Progenitor just like the one he fell in before. But, at that moment, he noticed something ahead of him.
"Hm?"
A few dozen meters away, the ceiling of the tunnel suddenly started changing and not in a normal way at all. The stone's form changed and it shockingly started dripping down as if it melted like ice cream.
Initially, the liquid molded itself into a shapeless mass, undulating and writhing like a living thing, seeking form and purpose. Gradually, defined contours took shape amidst the seething cascade as tendrils of stone intertwined, weaving together to craft the frame of a colossal figure.
Kai watched as the stone turned into a giant monster, hardened as the stone itself and with a pair of dead, red eyes that seemingly shone in the dark tunnel. Kai didn't understand how what he was seeing now was even possible but he couldn't even get surprised anymore considering the bizarreness of this whole place.
The monster finally finished its transformation and looked at Kai menacingly. Its eyes seemed aware of its surroundings and aware of Kai too. So, with deliberate movements, the golem's limbs rose up in the air before going down again as if the creature was simply trying to learn how to control his limbs.
After that, the stone golem took a step forward, in Kai's direction and then another step after that. Eventually, his small steps turned into full strides and then broke into a sprint.
'I guess it's there to kill me.' Sighing, Kai cracked his knuckles before he dashed toward the monster. His speed far exceeded that of the monster. When he reached the target, Kai jumped in the air and punched the monster straight in the face.
*BOOOM*
Instantly, the monster's head exploded into smaller pieces as it scattered everywhere. Landing on his feet, Kai watched as the corpse of the golem fell to the ground too.
"Hm?" Looking at his fist, Kai squinted. "My Origin didn't coat my hand." He murmured.
He most definitely felt that the moment his fist made contact with the golem, all of his Origin vanished and only his true physical strength remained intact.
'So these stones are also Anti-Origin… Wait…' Suddenly, Kai realized something.
These traits the stones had were very much similar to the metal 'Leviathium' albeit way stronger. Both were anti-origin and very resilient against it.
'Is this the stronger form of Leviathium? In its rocky state?' He mused.
Although his assumption seemed valid, he still had no proof to back it nor could he test it to make sure.
As he was like that, Kai's eyes suddenly rose up to look at the seemingly dead corpse of the golem. What he saw at that moment made him change his mind completely.
The monster had suddenly regained its head and was now in the process of standing up again. No damage seemed to have been retained by the monster.
Then, the creature ruthlessly smashed down with both arms, aiming for Kai. The latter jumped back and easily avoided the attack.
'Interesting…' He thought to himself. 'Regeneration is a powerful ability.'
The monster didn't seem keen on the idea of letting Kai stay still as it followed him and attacked with a clear intention to kill. However, because of its slow speed, he could easily avoid the attacks.
'Hmm, I can't feel any particular weak points on it which means that it is either not alive or I can't sense its weakness because of the stones.'
So, to find out what was the true reason, Kai decided to completely and utterly destroy this golem. So much so that it turns into small broken pieces.
So, with that in mind, Kai quickly dashed toward the monster instead of avoiding it, he jumped in the air again and punched the monster's head with a swift attack. Then, he vanished again and appeared behind it as he delivered a hard kick to its back leg.
In a matter of a few seconds, Kai punched multiple holes into the monster's body making it fall to the ground motionless. However, he didn't stop there as he moved closer to the golem and started destroying every intact part of it as if it were made out of crunchy biscuits.
The process repeated again and again till the monster was turned into a pile of rubble. Then, Kai carefully watched it for a while. He waited for any reaction to happen when the monster rose from death. However, after waiting for a while, nothing happened worthy of his attention so he assumed that it had indeed died this time.
"Interesting, so turning it into rubble actually killed it." He murmured as he rubbed his chin.
This didn't explain whether this monster was a sane creature or just a puppet created out of stone but it sure verified the fact that it had no particular weak points. Instead, its whole body was the weak point.
With that in mind, Kai approached the monster before he took a sample of its body and stored it in his pocket. He was very interested in the stones that were used to create this thing. After all, no creature he ever met before actually had any weak points as all of them were alive and had lively organs inside of them that could be damaged with ease.
After that, Kai continued his journey in the tunnel. A few more minutes passed and surprisingly, another golem appeared in front of him out of nowhere. It looked very similar to the first one in everything which meant that they were copies of each other or that was at least what Kai thought was the case.
So, with that in mind, he decided to do the same for this one. A minute later, he was staring at the same pile of rubble that he left a while ago. This one also didn't move at all.
"Is this supposed to be some kind of test?" He asked himself.
Considering what happened ever since he entered this place, Kai was inclined to believe that the Progenitor didn't just want to kill whoever entered the place as that would just make no sense. The reason for that was the countless images drawn on the walls back in the hall, they were all secrets of that man that he wouldn't want anyone to find if the Progenitor indeed wanted no one to find them.
Instead, he pulled Kai away and threw him in this place, then made him perhaps face golems as a form of test to him.
"That could be possible."
However, what he lacked was evidence of this being a test rather than just a death trap. And he was certain that this proof was going to appear somewhere ahead of him. So, Kai continued his journey in the tunnel.
In a matter of minutes, he met a few more golems, each one looking like the one before it. And each one seemed adamant about killing him even if Kai left it without limbs. They seemed like they were programmed to simply kill.