By the time Aren reached the other side, he mumbled to himself, "No matter what, don't break the three taboos." He had finally finished the basic explanation of this cursed land.
With that, he jumped onto what appeared to be one of the balconies of the old temple.
He raised his thumb toward the others.
The next person immediately started moving.
Not caring about anyone else, Aren turned toward the massive corridor ahead.
The temperature here had dropped significantly, but the density of the black air thickened, and so did the pain in his chest.
The balcony was connected to a temple corridor.
Both walls of the corridor were lined with dozens of old wooden torches, all lit with red flames that drowned the hall in an eerie crimson glow.
A thick layer of black dirt covered the floor, as if nothing had touched these grounds for millennia.
What was more, the ceiling was scorched black, as if burned, while the purple stone inner walls were spotless.
These walls made him shudder slightly. I have to avoid them.
Up ahead, near the edge of his vision, he could see the corridor splitting into several branches, but the distance was too great to make anything clear.
Not long after, the last person jumped onto the balcony. The very next moment, the rubble began to shake.
Aren heard a loud snapping sound. The platform behind them was now gone.
No one spoke. After a brief pause, people began entering the corridor.
The moment the first guy placed his foot inside, a loud metallic sound echoed through the hall.
Aren took a step back and waited, but nothing happened.
The man simply bent down and pulled an old metal sword from the dirt.
Aren scanned the others and then stepped in himself. He took a few steps on the stiff metal floor and dug out an old one-handed sword as well.
Gripping the wooden leather handle, which surprised him, he shifted toward the center.
This time, almost a third of the group moved forward without taking any weapons.
Not wasting a moment, two of them pulled out shiny swords, one from his mouth and the other from his ear.
Then a girl in the middle pulled out a massive red scythe from her neck.
For a split second, Aren thought the blade would behead her, but it passed through her neck as if it were an illusion.
A muscular man standing at the front pulled out not one but two small hammers, both black-green in color and covered with countless spikes.
The fifth person on the right pulled out a black spear from his chest, as if it had been lodged there all along.
Finally, the last girl unraveled her long hair as the ribbon in her hand transformed into a small whip covered in countless blue thorns.
The moment the six weapons appeared, as if provoked, a massive pressure descended on everyone.
Aren felt as though a gigantic beast had stomped on him. His legs trembled, and his right knee slammed hard into the floor.
But the pressure vanished as suddenly as it had come.
Aren stared at the six with a pale face.
Someone behind him muttered, "Cursed weapons."
The revelation split the group.
First came a cluster of ten people who stuck together and walked at the front, while the six with cursed weapons leisurely followed behind.
The last person had taken the brunt of the cursed weapons, leading to this formation.
Aren clenched his sword and stayed near the center of the group, constantly muttering, "This won't be the same."
They had only made it halfway through the corridor when the temple began to shake again.
This time, it did not stop. Hundreds of footsteps echoed through the hall.
Aren stared wide-eyed as a wave of mindless beasts rushed toward them.
His mind screamed at him to turn and run, but his body remained frozen.
Others began to scream.
"Shit, run!!"
"No, the platform is broken!"
"We have to push forward, damn it!!"
Inside, Ray was dumbfounded as Aren remained shock-frozen.
Unable to control himself, he shouted, [Dude, it's not the time to freeze. Move, damn it! Move!]
But just like before, nothing passed through the void.
The monsters were only twenty meters away when Ray tried to move even a finger. Failed.
Ten meters. The smell of rotting corpses scraped the back of his throat. Ray tried blinking to shock Aren awake. Failed.
Five meters. Ray sighed, trying to accept this doomed reality.
People said a human was at their best when it came to survival.
Just as the monsters were upon them, the chilling reality dawned on Aren that there was no way back.
At that moment, Aren ruthlessly shoved the man in front of him.
Inside, Ray screamed with joy. [Finally!!!]
Without hesitation, Aren plunged his sword through the opening.
The sensation of the blade slicing through flesh sent a jolt through him.
But he did not retreat. Not this time.
Once again, he stabbed forward while shouting at the top of his lungs, "Push forward."
The wave of monsters collided with them. The guy before him screamed, but Aren did not stop. He kept stabbing forward while pushing, one step at a time.
A monster slipped past from the side and lunged at his neck. Without even stopping, Aren punched it with his free hand.
Crunch!
The sensation of bones crumbling made him shiver as his fist almost tore through the beast.
Just then, someone shouted, "Look, there's no monster there!"
Stopping everything, Aren looked over the man's shoulder. He finally saw clearly that the corridor was splitting into three branches.
While hundreds of monsters poured through the left and right corridors, the central corridor remained spotless.
Further down the corridor, he noticed a door leading into a hall. As he looked at it, his heartbeat spiked.
Others shouted in excitement.
"Nythra status!"
"Push, guys!"
A new surge of power rushed through him.
Just a few more meters, and he could prove them wrong. It was now or never.
Aren pressed his shoulder against the big guy's back. Not caring about any consequences, he pushed. Pushed with all his might.
The others fell into the same madness, the human shield surging forward without caring about their own lives.
Just in covering this short distance, many fell, but instead of backing down, their effort only increased.
Even those with cursed weapons joined the fray, giving them one final push.
At the front, the big guy finally lost his footing.
To Aren's surprise, the man fell forward. This caught many of the monsters off guard.
Not wasting the moment, Aren leapt off the man's back and landed straight into the middle corridor.
Bam!