Rise of The Strongest Monarch-Chapter 79: The Descent [5]

Thud. Thud.

Footsteps hit the ground next to me as I notice Amelia putting her mask back on, almost like she never took it off in the first place.

"Took care of the problem for now," Zeno says as he stretches.

I just turn around to face Zeno, but Airi is almost face to face with me.

"Are you able to keep going?" She asks with a casual, yet calm tone.

"Y-Yeah," I answer nervously at first.

"Then we’ll just keep going from here," Airi says with a smile back on her face.

With that I am back to following behind them again as they lead us further down into the abyss. The sounds of zierel climbing along the walls no longer seems to exist.

It doesn’t mean that we are alone or anything of the sort, but I begin to climb down the wall once more.

Following the path they take so I can avoid grabbing another shitty part of the wall.

Grab. Grab.

The feeling is starting to feel a bit overwhelming as we go down the wall, almost like it is right next to us now.

"I don’t know if I’ll be able to hold much longer... It is extremely overwhelming now," Celeste speaks up with a bit of a struggle showing in her voice.

I just need you to buy me a tiny bit longer. We are literally just about there so it won’t take us much longer to take care of this problem.

Whatever is causing this pressure will be dead within the next few minutes, I feel like I can guarantee this. Just don’t try to take over on me during this time.

Wriggle. Wriggle.

The feeling goes throughout my entire arm and slightly into my chest.

You can handle it celeste, I’m trusting you not to take over on me. You’ve never taken over without permission or anything so you can do it.

She doesn’t respond as I continue to climb down alongside the others.

"I can see the bottom," Airi speaks up with a bit of relief in her voice.

"About time," Zeno responds.

"The zierel we’re looking for should be down there," Amelia chimes in.

"Exactly why we need to be careful when we hit the ground," Airi warns.

After a few more moments we do reach the ground without any issues, it feels as if I’m stepping on some sort of slime. It reminds me of the nightmares that celeste messed with when I first met her.

Except the floor isn’t covered in black goo or anything of the sort.

It has a series of vein like tendrils across the floor, going into something in the distance. It isn’t really obvious what the tendrils are going into in the slightest.

"What is all this?" Amelia asks while staring at the tendrils.

"Part of the zierel causing the pressure we feel," Airi answers without any hesitation.

Airi pulls out her sword after that, Zeno pulls both pistols out, and Amelia’s bow forms in her hands as well. All of them seem ready to fight against whatever is ahead of us.

Wriggle.

I ignore the pain slowly starting in my left arm and focus on pulling my sword out.

Grip.

Rumble!! Rumble!!!

The ground begins to shake all around us as I look ahead towards the darkness.

"It definitely knows we are here," Zeno says while lifting up his pistols.

"I’ve noticed," Airi responds while lifting up her sword.

"How are we going to go about this?" I ask with a serious tone.

"You two will wait while we draw its attention," Airi instructs.

The same intense aura from when she first saw Zeno is back, that murderous feeling that is radiating from her. She’s definitely ready to kill this zierel without holding back.

Zeno also seems to be ready to fight against it, but he still has that carefree expression like always.

I really don’t know how he can be so laid back with everything, especially when it comes to fighting a bunch of monsters. I tend to take them more seriously since I don’t know what to expect.

Maybe he knows what to expect with them?

He is a light bearer so maybe that is the case, but even Airi is usually pretty serious when it comes to fighting the zierel.

Airi and Zeno disappear without a chance for me to see where they went, but then I hear something in the distance.

"SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!!" It cries out, echoing off the walls all around us.

STOMP!!! STOMP!!!!!!

Large stomping is all I can hear after the screech in the distance, but yet I don’t see anything at all. The area ahead is completely covered in darkness... Not even a sign of Airi or Zeno.

"I think it is covering the area with some sort of shield of darkness," Amelia says while scratching her head.

"What makes you say that?" I ask curiously.

"Usually you can still see the light from their weapons but I don’t see a single thing coming from them," Amelia answers.

She makes a pretty solid point since the light is honestly kind of blinding at times from their weapons. So the fact that no light whatsoever is radiating... That is strange.

The zierel we’re up against is definitely using something I haven’t seen before.

But then again, there’s a lot of things I haven’t seen yet. Airi or Zeno might’ve fought against zierel like this in the past for all I know. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"You have a pretty good point there," I say while staring ahead. "Should we go assist?"

"Honestly it is smarter to wait a little bit longer," Amelia responds without hesitation.

We wait for a few more moments as the sounds of clashing and gunshots begin to echo throughout the area around us.

"I’m sure they will give us a sign to work with," I say while gripping my sword tighter.

"We don’t need a sign, just patience," Amelia replies calmly.

Patience isn’t the only thing we need here today but I definitely agree with her.