Darkness had spread across the entire canyon. If it weren’t for the glow of the night-lights scattered around, the canyon would have been completely swallowed by the dark.
Cold winds and sudden powerful gusts appeared from time to time, causing the whole canyon to tremble. The sounds of howling and distant ocean waves could even be heard from here.
Daniel and Drael were riding Vorak, continuing their journey through the canyon. Hours had passed since they started moving, yet neither of them knew how much distance they had actually covered.
The flow and sense of time in this canyon were completely different from anywhere else. A single minute felt like an eternity, to the point where they felt as if days had passed.
If it weren’t for the fact that the sky was still dark, they would’ve sworn they had been traveling for days.
"Luckily, no other monsters have attacked us," Drael said, glancing around. Since the mist incident, nothing bad had happened.
Of course, that was partly because Daniel had released his aura, terrifying the creatures in the area. Now, aside from a few extremely powerful beasts, no monster in the entire canyon dared to provoke them.
"At this rate, who knows when we’ll reach the center of the canyon," Daniel said with a slight frown. He was starting to think that maybe it was time to fly the rest of the way.
Even though Vorak was fast, flying would obviously be much quicker and would save them a lot of time. His mana had also recovered considerably during the past few hours.
He should be able to break through that gravity restriction and escape the canyon with Drael. Still, those were only his thoughts, he wasn’t sure if he should actually do it.
The risks outweighed the benefits. He decided to wait until they at least reached the middle of the canyon. The only problem was... they had no idea where the middle was.
"Maybe you could send one of your beasts up there to scout?" Drael suggested suddenly.
It was actually a good idea, one that made Daniel pause and think. He had a fallen one, a False S-Rank creature, that could easily break the gravity restriction and take a look from above.
That way, they could finally get an idea of how far they were from the canyon’s center.
Without hesitation, Daniel summoned the fallen one. The creature bowed, received its command, and immediately took off toward the sky.
As expected, the gravity restriction tried to drag it down, but with that level of power, how could it possibly fail?
It broke through the restriction and continued flying high above the canyon, ascending as far as possible and observing everything from above.
It even tried to fly toward the canyon’s exit, but suddenly sensed a powerful danger and was forced to retreat.
About thirty minutes later, it returned to where its master was waiting and reported everything it had seen.
"At this pace, we have a few hours left before reaching the canyon’s center. But by then, daylight might break," Daniel said, frowning slightly.
It was good news that they were only a few hours away, not days, but on the other hand, in a few hours it would be morning, and he wouldn’t be able to use the Law of the Moon.
In that situation, he had only two options: either increase their speed and try to reach the center within two hours, or wait until night returned.
"Can we increase our speed?" Drael asked, clearly thinking the same thing.
"I don’t think so. Vorak’s already running at full strength. We have to consider that his stamina will run out sooner or later," Daniel replied.
"Then we don’t have a choice," Drael muttered.
Daniel nodded, dismissed his fallen one, and they continued their journey.
Before long, they passed through narrow rocky paths between the cliffs. The air was gradually getting lighter, and the biting cold began to fade.
Then, suddenly, they saw a strange shadow in the distance, something so unexpected that for a moment, they thought their eyes were playing tricks on them.
"What the hell is that?" Drael said with a sudden sense of unease. For some reason, seeing that shape sent a shiver down his spine.
"I don’t know," Daniel muttered, frowning as he summoned his sword and raised his guard.
It didn’t take long before they got close enough to see it clearly. It wasn’t a monster, it was a structure.
"A temple? No... more like a tomb," Drael said, frowning and trying to reason why a temple would even exist in a place like this.
Both of them slowly dismounted from Vorak and approached the tomb. A dreadful, uneasy feeling rose in both their hearts, and they stopped midway.
They exchanged glances, unsure whether they should move forward or not. After all, this was a freaking tomb in a dark, abandoned canyon.
Who the hell would build something like this here?
"Based on what your beast said, we should be near the canyon’s center by now," Drael recalled suddenly.
They also remembered something else, the fallen one had said that when it tried to approach the canyon’s center and head toward the exit, it had felt a dark, ominous presence and decided to retreat.
Could the thing Zairmorn felt be related to this tomb? It wasn’t impossible...
"So what do we do now? Ignore it, or check it out?" Drael asked.
"Can we really ignore it? This is the third floor of the tower, every detail matters for conquering a floor, especially something this important," Daniel said mockingly.
If it were up to him, he’d rather avoid it entirely. But both of them knew this was probably part of the floor’s challenge, and ignoring it wasn’t an option.
After exchanging one last look, they decided to enter the tomb. But before stepping inside, Daniel created a protective layer of mana around Drael, he didn’t feel like saving this idiot again.
Then, they walked into the tomb...
Completely unaware of the horror that awaited them inside.