Richard led the way with remarkable speed.
The Mimics, having evolved during their war with the Dark Dwarves, had developed an almost terrifying ability to mimic. However, while this mimicry could deceive the naked eye, it couldn't fool Richard's psychic scans.
Under his psychic senses, no matter how flawlessly a Mimic disguised itself, it couldn't escape Richard's detection.
Richard also managed to collect quite a few specimens along the way.
Descending in a spiral through the mines of the cave region, Richard soon realized that he had already gone below ground level.
Yet the mine shaft continued to stretch downward, with no end in sight.
"Did you hollow out this entire mountain?" Richard couldn't help but ask as he looked at the seemingly endless tunnel.
"No, sir. We've only fully exploited the upper part of the vein," Bruto replied honestly.
As they ventured deeper underground, Richard noticed a faint, sickly sweet smell in the air.
The odor wasn't toxic, but it made Richard extremely uncomfortable.
It was as if the source of this smell triggered an innate revulsion in him.
Every cell in his body seemed to reject this scent—or rather, the entity that produced it.
This only piqued Richard's curiosity further.
It was rare for something to evoke such a visceral, cellular-level disgust in him.
Even the blue flame in his hand, which was particularly effective against flesh, didn't elicit such a strong reaction from his body.
Just what kind of Fiend had the Truth Wizard sealed here?
As Richard continued down the mine shaft, he encountered fewer Mimics and more Aberrants of various kinds.
Due to population issues, the Dark Dwarves, who once had a garrison stationed at the Bottom of the Mountains, now had most of their forces above ground. Only a handful of elite warriors remained in the ancient forts and strongholds, monitoring the movements of the Aberrants.
The mortality rate among these elite dwarves was extremely high, but the Dark Dwarves never shied away from this duty.
On the contrary, they considered it an honor.
They believed their sacrifices were not in vain.
And in death, they would join the ranks of the Dark Dwarf King, eternally safeguarding their people.
...
Boom! A searing jet of flames engulfed the Aberrant blocking their path.
This Aberrant appeared to be a mutated version of some kind of worm. Infused with the Fiend's power, its body had grown to an enormous size, nearly filling the entire mine shaft.
At its front, a massive ring-shaped mouth was lined with sharp teeth, and thick green digestive fluid dripped from between them, sizzling as it hit the ground.
In the past, the Dark Dwarves would have had to retreat or send a brave warrior deep into the worm's maw to destroy its innards.
This often meant sacrifice.
But now, the dwarves only needed to pull the trigger, and the white-hot flames would reduce the worm to charcoal.
Roar! The Aberrant worm let out a low growl, trying to push forward against the flames. But a massive metal shield suddenly blocked its path.
Four Dark Dwarves braced their shoulders and planted their feet, holding the metal shield as they wrestled with the enormous Aberrant worm.
And the dwarves were winning.
The dwarves' thick, short legs erupted with astonishing strength, their iron shoes even leaving imprints in the hard rocky ground as they strained against the worm.
With their combined effort, the Aberrant worm was slowly being pushed back.
Soon, the searing flames spread across the worm's entire body.
In a flash of white light, the Aberrant worm was reduced to blackened charcoal.
Richard stepped to the front of the group and stowed the metal shield.
"Let's keep moving."
"Yes, sir!"
The deeper they went, the more diverse the Aberrants became.
From worms that filled the entire tunnel, to fist-sized but numerous carnivorous ants, to millipedes several meters long with countless sharp, segmented legs.
Along the way, Richard encountered no fewer than twenty different types of Aberrant monsters.
And according to Bruto, these were the weakened remnants of the Aberrants.
In the past, the Dwarf Aberrants would even burst out of the mines and infect magical beasts on the surface to use as soldiers.
It took the dwarves years of near self-destruction to weaken the Aberrants to their current state.
Now, these Aberrants were mostly underground insects and the Dark Dwarf warriors who ventured deep below.
But given the current strength of the Dark Dwarves, it was only a matter of time before these Aberrants broke through.
The dwarves' population no longer supported their continued efforts to eradicate the Aberrants.
That's why the High Priest had paid a heavy price to use divination to determine the future of the Dark Dwarves.
After another hour of walking through the mine shaft, Richard finally reached the end.
Exiting the shaft, he was greeted by an enormous abyss.
This chasm was conservatively estimated to be hundreds of kilometers wide.
Richard looked out, but he couldn't see the other side.
"Is this what you call the Bottom of the Mountains?"
"Yes, sir. The bottom of this chasm is where the Fiend is sealed."
Standing at the edge of the abyss, Richard found the sickly sweet smell growing stronger.
The cold wind from the abyss carried the scent up from the depths.
Richard frowned, the feeling of revulsion in his heart growing more intense.
It was as if something even more repulsive than a sentient pile of excrement was lurking down there.
"Let's wait. We'll go down once everyone's here."
Richard walked over to a platform at the edge of the abyss and took off the bag of synthetic beasts at his waist, releasing the Wizard Hunting team inside.
The team woke up groggily, but the moment they smelled the sweet stench from the abyss, their eyes snapped open.
"What a disgusting smell," Mishen said, wrinkling his nose.
"Seems I'm not the only one who hates it," Richard chuckled.
The Wizard Hunting team looked at Richard, and Makar asked, "Sir, are we going to fight the source of this smell?"
Richard nodded. "Yes."
After releasing the team, Richard wasted no time and immediately took out the components of his armor.
With the help of the Fire Lizards, the armor was quickly assembled and donned.
Once the armor was on and all parameters were set, Richard noticed that the four Fire Lizards had activated their isolation mode.
They'd rather not absorb external energy than endure that smell.
After waiting for another hour, the High Priest's team finally arrived at the Bottom of the Mountains.
Seeing that Richard had already arrived, he smiled slightly. "You're quick, Master."
Half an hour later, the second and third teams also reached the Bottom of the Mountains.
The fourth team arrived ten minutes after the third, but the fifth team was nowhere to be seen.
"Could something have gone wrong?" The High Priest frowned slightly.
Thud, thud, thud, thud…
The sound of iron-shod footsteps echoed from the mine shaft.
The last team had finally arrived.
But they looked a bit worse for wear, with many of the Dark Dwarves bearing injuries.
"What happened?" The High Priest asked.
The leader, a golden-armored dwarf, replied, "A group of brothers from a fortress had been completely corrupted. We were delayed for a while, purifying them."
A hint of sorrow flashed across the High Priest's face. After a moment of silence, he said, "May they find peace. Let's prepare. This battle will be the final one."
Richard walked over to the last team and repaired their armor. The High Priest took out some black ointment and applied it to the dwarves' wounds.
In the ointment, Richard detected the scent of a plant called Death's Grass. This plant could rapidly promote wound healing, but at the cost of extreme nerve stimulation.
Those who used this medicine would experience indescribable pain, with many even passing out from the agony or dying.
But after applying the ointment, these dwarves showed no reaction.
They were as expressionless as stone, unwavering.
Ten minutes later, the team was ready.
Looking into the bottomless abyss, they didn't need any ropes or other tools. They simply jumped down.
Even the lowest-ranked among them were Level 2 beings, capable of manipulating energy to levitate in mid-air.
In the abyss, the cold wind howled.
The deeper they went, the higher the concentration of fire elements in the air, and the stronger the sickly sweet smell became.
Richard frowned as he looked at the dwarves in the team. "Can't you smell this?"
"Sir, we've grown accustomed to it."
After a long descent, they finally reached the bottom of the abyss.
As soon as they landed, Richard noticed that something was very, very wrong with the surroundings.
At the bottom of the abyss was a winding river of magma. In its glow, Richard noticed that the rocks around them were covered in something resembling nerves and blood vessels.
Moreover, they were coated in a layer of fleshy moss-like carpet.
These biological characteristics had appeared on inorganic objects like rocks.
The Fiend's power was truly terrifying.
"Have you seen these things before?" Richard asked as he broke off a piece of rock. At the fracture, even a trickle of blood oozed out.
"We've seen them, but in the past, we couldn't do anything about them," the High Priest replied. "But now, we have a solution."
With that, the High Priest waved his hand, and the Dark Dwarves simultaneously pulled the triggers of their flame throwers.
In the next moment, searing flames instantly purified the surrounding fleshy moss, along with the blood vessels and nerves in the rocks.
The white-hot flames spread along the moss, following the blood vessels and nerves between the rocks, rapidly expanding.
Soon, half the abyss was illuminated.
Only then did the dwarves realize that this flesh erosion had, over thousands of years, almost completely transformed the bottom of the abyss.
While the dwarves didn't know what purpose this erosion served, it was undoubtedly a bad thing for them.
And this seemed to confirm the prophecy.
Richard would use fire to slay the Fiend.
"Let's go," Richard said calmly.
He could sense a vast will awakening.
Within this flesh-transformed environment, there existed a colossal consciousness.
Following the magma river, the dwarves continued to purify the surroundings with their flame throwers. Wherever the flames spread, the flesh disappeared, leaving only the rocks.
After an unknown period of travel, Richard finally saw their target.
Surrounded by countless Aberrant monsters, a being slept on a throne made of flesh, even if it was a dwarf.
And behind the throne, Richard saw a massive tumor sealed by a pentagram.
"What Fiend? It's just a failed experiment," Richard said with a laugh to the High Priest.
At first glance, Richard recognized what this thing was.
"This is called the Cancer of Flesh. It's the final work of a six-ring Great Wizard from the Alchemy School, who specialized in the study of flesh."
(End of Chapter)