Mass Fly.
As the name suggested, it was a magic spell that allowed flight magic to be cast on multiple people, granting everyone nearby the ability to fly together.
Riezel activated this magic, bestowing the ability to fly upon both himself and Aesc at the same time, causing faint blue magical energy to shimmer around their bodies.
In the next moment, Riezel and Aesc left the ground, drifting up into the air.
"Aesc—!"
Totorot’s voice could be faintly heard from behind, but Aesc did not reply, only nodding at Riezel.
Seeing this, Riezel immediately took Aesc and shot straight down into the Great Pit like a full-power dive.
Aesc nearly cried out, wanting to tell Riezel to slow down.
It was not that she was afraid, but because the interior of the Great Pit was an unknown realm for everyone. No one knew what dangers might be hidden inside, so charging straight down like this was far too reckless.
However, when Aesc glanced at Riezel and saw his face completely calm and unafraid—his demeanor utterly composed—she suppressed her voice and left the decision-making to him.
She knew that Riezel must have understood what secrets the Great Pit held, so considering he had chosen to dive downward at full speed without any hesitation, it naturally meant that he was confident the two of them would not be in any danger, at least for now.
What she guessed was indeed the case.
"As far as I know, the only thing in the Great Pit truly worth seeing lies at the very bottom."
Riezel’s voice entered Aesc’s ears.
"There’s nothing of value here until we reach the bottom."
In other words, there was no need to waste time in the upper layers; it was best to move straight down at full speed.
Riezel silently conveyed this thought, and Aesc nodded ever so slightly to show her understanding.
"How deep is the Great Pit, anyway?"
Aesc only asked this one question.
"At the very least, it’s around eight thousand meters deep."
Riezel gave a rather vague answer.
"Eight thousand meters...?" Aesc muttered thoughtfully. "It’s... much deeper than I thought..."
Riezel gave no further reply, simply steering the flight magic and speeding downward.
Thanks to such an unrelenting descent, the light above them quickly faded away. Sunlight from the surface could no longer reach this far, plunging everything into pitch-black darkness.
"Continual Light."
Riezel cast another magic spell, creating a glowing sphere that appeared in front of him, emitting a bright light and illuminating their surroundings as it flew ahead, descending alongside him, continuously pushing away the darkness and lighting up the bottomless chasm.
"Hmm... the temperature doesn’t seem to be dropping..."
Aesc, observing closely, noticed this keenly.
"Is it because of this smog? Is something burning at the bottom of the Great Pit?"
At this depth, both Riezel and Aesc could see clouds of smog rising from below, carrying warmth—some even flickered with sparks, giving the impression that something was burning far beneath them.
Riezel still did not respond to Aesc, not until they had descended to about seven thousand five hundred meters.
Only then did Riezel suddenly speak.
"Don’t blink." Riezel said expressionlessly. "What you’re about to see is the original sin hidden within Britain."
As these words left his lips with an almost casual tone, Aesc felt the air around them suddenly grow oppressively heavy.
As a Fairy of Paradise, Aesc’s instincts warned her that what she was about to witness would shake her soul and shatter the very foundation of Britain itself.
As a result, Aesc opened her eyes wide, focusing intently on what lay below, determined to see the deepest secrets Britain kept hidden.
After a while, Riezel seemed to notice something first and finally slowed their descent.
Aesc also saw that the darkness beneath them had changed, because there was now something new.
It was...
"A red... light?"
A light like fire.
A light like flames.
Such a glow suddenly appeared at the bottom of the Great Pit, entering Aesc’s field of vision.
"..."
Trembling.
A trembling unlike anything she had ever felt before.
A chill suddenly rose from deep within, seeping into Aesc’s mind and spirit, making her tremble for no reason at all.
"Energy Immunity - Negative."
It seemed that Riezel felt the same thing, so he immediately cast a magic spell, trying to shield them from whatever it was.
Yet, whether the magic failed or was simply ineffective, it did nothing to dispel the chill in Aesc’s heart, nor did it stop her trembling.
Nevertheless, Riezel still guided Aesc downward, though now at a much slower pace.
They drifted down like this for a while longer, until at last, Aesc saw what lay at the bottom of the Great Pit.
It was an enormous presence.
A massive form.
A feeling of pitch-black emotion.
A terrifying gaze.
When that thing—symbolizing Britain’s most primal, profound, fundamental, and vast sin—entered Aesc’s sight, her eyes widened to their limits, and all her usual calm and indifference vanished completely.
"...Why?"
Aesc’s voice trembled as she cried out in shock.
"Why are you in a place like this?!"
Inside the Great Pit, Aesc’s voice echoed with perfect clarity, reverberating through the darkness.
"Tch!"
In that instant, Riezel clicked his tongue, suddenly stopped flying, then quickly grabbed Aesc and shot upwards without looking back.
*Rumble—*
Almost at the same moment, the red gaze at the bottom of the Great Pit lit up, and the space immediately began to shake.
Like a black hole capable of swallowing everything around it, that gaze tried to drag Riezel and Aesc—who were rising rapidly—back down.
At the same time, pitch-black cursed magical energy surged out like a tsunami—the terrifying curse solidified into a tangible force, pulling the burning ashes together to form countless cursed hands.
They were the same curse, the same hands, as the Calamity.
*Rumble—!!!*
As the space quaked and the pit roared, the pitch-black, cursed hands shot out from the depths like venomous snakes locking onto prey, each one lunging after Riezel and Aesc.
Each of these hands was larger than either of them—any one of them could seize a person as easily as crushing a fly. They looked like the hands of demons reaching out from hell, relentlessly pursuing the two, clearly intent on dragging them both down together.
"Shining Burst!"
As Riezel flew upward at full speed with Aesc, he unleashed his magic just as the cursed hands were about to surround them.
In an instant, a dazzling radiance like sunlight burst from Riezel’s body, scattering the countless cursed hands closing in.
Yet the cursed hands seemed endless.
Even as some were blown apart, more took their place, still reaching for Riezel without pause.
No, that was not right.
’No... they are not trying to catch me...’
Riezel almost instinctively realized that those ’hands’ reaching out from the bottom of the Great Pit were not after him—they were after Aesc.
’Has the ’one’ at the bottom realized Aesc’s true identity and figured out that she’s a Fairy of Paradise?’
’Is that why it unconsciously reached out its ’hands’ even while asleep?’
’What does it want?’
’Does it seek salvation?’
’Does it want rescue?’
’Or... is it reaching out to ask its ’companion’ for help?’
While Riezel was thinking about this, the cursed hands clung to them like a disease that would not let go, surrounding the two of them.
Riezel prepared to cast magic again and reflexively activated the Transparent World, intending to see through all the attack trajectories of the cursed hands. But when the transparent light appeared in his eyes and he looked downward, the sight stabbed at his vision.
He saw only bottomless darkness, a dense wave of curse power, and then—that curse, thick as a swamp—made his eyes and mind ache sharply.
’What a terrifying curse!’
Riezel’s expression changed slightly.
He should have been completely immune to mental interference, with the highest rank of Abnormal Resistance and his power to suppress all evil powers, so logically, the curse power should not have affected him at all.
However, that wave of curse power had become so thick it was nearly tangible.
Not only could it affect the mind, but it could even corrode the physical world.
If such a powerful curse exploded all at once, not just Britain, the entire world would be polluted and corrupted, turning into a dead land.
Such a terrifying curse—Riezel looked straight at it, even saw through it.
Evidently, the only reason he did not go insane on the spot was because of the protection from his development abilities and skills.
’No! I can’t keep looking at it!’
Riezel quickly deactivated the Transparent World, and because of this, he finally made a mistake.
A ’hand’ much smaller than the others—almost indistinguishable from a normal human hand—suddenly slipped around and grabbed Aesc’s foot.
"Ah!"
Aesc, who had been in shock all this time, cried out in alarm as she finally reacted.
Unfortunately, by then, it was already too late, as a powerful force pulled Aesc downward.
"!!!"
Riezel failed to catch Aesc.
He could only watch as she was dragged to the bottom of the Great Pit by the cursed hand, his expression twisting once again.
"GOOO—!!!"
For reasons unknown, just before she was pulled into the endless darkness, Aesc shouted at Riezel before disappearing from his field of vision—swallowed up by countless cursed hands and vanishing without a trace.
*BOOOM!!!*
In the pitch-black Great Pit, a burst of fire suddenly erupted with an explosive roar.
Riezel’s whole body ignited in flames, the blast blowing his cloak’s hood back and exposing his true face to the air.
*Whoosh!*
A moment later, Riezel became a streak of fire, shooting downward like a meteor plummeting from the sky.
Before long, he plunged into the swamp of curses and vanished from sight.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
[Support me and read next Chapters early at: /VALRRR]