This feeling...
Minori's golden eyes narrowed, focused on the deep valley below.
The cursed energy within his body stirred restlessly, resonating with something buried far below.
"We're here. We're finally here."
Duogan's voice trembled.
He clung to the gnarled trees at the cliff's edge, peering into the abyss. His gaze, filled with dread and longing, locked on the void below.
Minori turned toward him."You've never been down there before?"
Duogan shook his head, his voice low and fearful."I can't. Every time I come close, the curse rages inside me... I lose myself. I black out."
"When I wake up again, I'm always back at the edge of the forest. It's like something throws me away."
Then, Duogan turned toward Minori with frantic excitement.
"But ever since I've stayed close to you, Master Strong... the curse has stopped fighting me."
Minori blinked.
That caught him off guard.
"It's being suppressed?"A passive effect? Unintentional?
If so, then perhaps something within him—be it YGGDRASIL's coding or his own divine-class racial traits—was dampening the influence of local curses.
An unplanned boon.
"I didn't think I had this ability," Duogan said, eyes wide with almost childlike wonder.
Minori said nothing. The implications were... interesting.
Then, Duogan took several steps back.
"Please, my lord—ride on me."
He crouched—and with a guttural roar, his small body expanded.
Roar—!!
In seconds, his form ballooned into a massive stone-scaled creature—eight thick limbs, heavy tail, glowing yellow eyes.
A basilisk, though slightly smaller than before.
Minori noted it at once.
Duogan's original transformation had reached nearly ten meters in length. Now—he was only about eight, even counting the tail.
Likely a side effect from their earlier battle.The damage to his core transformation had not yet fully recovered.
Minori raised a hand.
"No need."
A scroll unfurled in his grasp and shattered in a burst of golden light.
Shhhrring!
A winged form descended—a Fire Archangel, sword blazing with holy flame.
Minori leapt easily onto its back.
Duogan gave a low grunt of understanding. With a screech of claws on stone, he moved toward the cliff's edge and began to climb down the near-vertical slope.
His petrified limbs gripped effortlessly onto the jagged surface, moving like a lizard on sheer stone.
Minori followed from above, the Fire Archangel's glowing wings stirring the cold valley air.
The descent began.
Wind howled between the rocks.There were no sounds of beasts, birds, or insects.Only the dull howl of air—and silence.
An unnatural silence.
As they sank deeper into the valley, light vanished. The shadows grew thick. A faint white haze crept along the valley walls.
Minori frowned.
Magical fog. Or curse mist.
He ordered the Archangel to draw closer to Duogan, closing the distance to avoid separation.
They dropped faster.
Thirty minutes passed.
"ROAR!"
Duogan leapt from the cliff face, landing with a heavy thud.
They had reached the bottom.
Minori signaled the Archangel to slow its flight and descend.
The bottom of the valley was pitch black. Even moonlight couldn't pierce this far.
Only the radiance of the Archangel lit the ground.
Crunch.
Minori's boots struck something brittle.
He looked down and saw a long, narrow bone.
He knelt, brushing the dust aside.
Not animal. Human-like. Possibly subhuman.
With a sigh, he pulled a monocle from his item box—an enchanted lens purchased in E-Rantel—and fitted it over one eye.
His vision sharpened immediately.The dark haze peeled back.
Bones. Everywhere.
A narrow, descending passage stretched forward, lined with the remnants of dead things.
Duogan landed beside him and shrank rapidly, reverting to his gnomish form.His bark-like skin was visibly changing—black veins spreading, the thumb-sized curse scars now expanding visibly.
"Master Strong," he gasped, "the root... the root is near. I feel it!"
His voice trembled, half in agony, half in awe.
Minori said nothing.He could feel it too.
The cursed power in his body pulsed—no longer dormant.
"Interesting."Minori murmured, eyes gleaming in the gloom.
He hadn't expected this much from what was initially just a hunch.
This place—this cursed depth—held secrets no one in the Empire, or even Nazarick, had touched.
As for danger?
If there had been some massive threat, the forest gnome tribe would have noticed it long ago.
Then again...
They had destroyed themselves.
Minori and Duogan walked side by side, their steps echoing across the bone-covered stone.The deeper they went, the heavier the silence became.
Too quiet.
Minori slowed his pace.
The amount of bones was far too high. Not just subhumans.Animals. Monsters. Maybe even other sentient races.
And yet—not a single sound.
Suddenly—
THUD!
A shadow pounced from the left cliff wall, reeking of rot.
BOOM!
The creature struck the Fire Archangel directly, claws clashing with the flaming greatsword.
"ROAAAAR!!"
A monstrous scream tore through the valley.
The Archangel's blade sank into the creature's flesh, and the smell of searing meat filled the air.
But the attacker's sheer weight crushed the angel backward.
—
Another blaze of light—A second Fire Archangel charged in from Minori's side, ramming into the monster and forcing it off.
Its twisted body rolled across the ground—and under the flame's illumination, its form became clear.
Rotting basilisk.
Its entire body was bloated with decay. Skin sloughed from bone. Pus oozed from gaping wounds.
Barely recognizable as one of Duogan's kin.
"A basilisk…?"Minori murmured, spotting the signature tail and eight legs.
But this one was... wrong. Twisted. Reanimated?
No—
Cursed.
Then—
More roars.
Dozens.
Creatures crawled from both sides of the valley wall, each one a rotted basilisk in varying states of decomposition.
Their eyes glowed with feral hatred. Their howls echoed in the stone.
"They're not dead yet!"
Duogan's voice cracked—then broke into a scream.
"This is their nest! I should've known! Curse! Curse! It's all your fault!"
"I... I shouldn't have eaten the heart... shouldn't have done the ritual—!"
His words spiraled into madness.
Squelch.
Black rot spread rapidly along his neck and chest. His mind was slipping.
CRACK!
Minori appeared behind him, blade-hand raised, and struck the back of Duogan's neck with practiced force.
Duogan collapsed, unconscious.
Minori stood over him.
"Full-body curse infection. Possibly triggered by proximity."
He glanced toward the incoming horde.
Their eyes weren't on him.
They were glaring at Duogan. Their mutated kin.
Hungry. Vengeful.
Minori's lips curled.
"Well... then."
He raised one hand. A black ripple pulsed from his palm.
"Dark Wave."
A dense black energy burst outward—and under the thick curse-mist, its range expanded violently.
Dozens of meters of darkness surged out in all directions.
The cursed lizards—already unstable—froze.
Their rotted bodies convulsed violently, unable to withstand the amplified magic.