"Do you know how satisfying killing your copies was for me... it really helped me relieve some of my frustration."
With those words, he stared at Izel. "Especially you."
Izel gritted her teeth as she replied, "And how was I supposed to know that pillar contained a hidden switch?" Caius sighed at her words.
"Well, let’s forget about that for now." With that, Caius pulled the black cube from his ring.
At the same time, Talia stepped forward and asked, "How did you manage to get rid of those things?"
Without taking his attention off the cube, he answered, "I simply destroyed the core."
"And what is that in your hand?" Izel said as she stared at the cube.
"It’s some kind of key to this place. I found it before you turned the laboratory upside down," Caius replied as he poured some of his essence into the cube while focusing on the wall in front of him.
At that moment, the wall moved and descended just as it had before, revealing Kyle fighting his copy.
Caius did not hesitate. He hid the cube and rushed toward Kyle’s copy, which was entangled with him.
His sword passed through the copy, cutting it without any resistance since it was restrained by Kyle.
He extended his other hand, grasped the core, and pulled it out of the black liquid before crushing it.
Now that he knew of its existence, locating it was no longer difficult, so it only took him moments to eliminate the copies.
Kyle looked at him. He apparently wanted to ask questions, but Caius waved him off. "Later. For now, we need to deal with the others."
He said that and pulled out the black cube again, and after a few moments another wall descended.
Behind it, Leona was locked in combat with her copy.
Just as before, it ended with Leona’s copy reduced to black liquid on the floor.
In truth, Caius could have lowered all the walls at once, but he did not do that.
Because it would be easier to eliminate the copies one by one rather than gather them all into one space and drown in the resulting chaos.
Now another wall moved, revealing Ellen and her copy.
Without delay, Caius rushed forward, avoiding the sharp blades.
When Ellen saw this, she understood what she had to do without him saying a word. She poured all her focus into one thing—preventing the blades from targeting Caius.
At the same time, one of the copy’s blades flew toward Caius’s back, only to be struck by another blade that changed its course away from him.
While Caius was moving, he gathered a sphere of compressed essence above his finger, and before reaching the copy, he fired it in her direction.
The copy attempted to control the metal shards and defend itself, but Ellen’s blades moved and prevented it.
At the same time, Caius’s bullet reached the copy and pierced her chest in a small explosion.
In that instant, Caius was in front of the copy, extending his hand into the hole in her chest before pulling something out from within.
Essence wrapped around his fist as he crushed the core, causing the copy to fall and all the blades in the air to disintegrate into black liquid.
With that, Caius let out a long sigh. "Finally, we’re done with this."
He looked at everyone, making sure none of them suffered from any serious injuries.
When he saw that everyone was fine aside from some external wounds, he used the cube one last time, and all the walls descended to the ground at once.
Behind one of them, Elliot was revealed, having already dealt with his copy.
Caius already knew that, because he had felt the powerful explosion this hero created.
Elliot stepped toward them. "I’m glad you’re all okay, guys, but how did you manage to move these walls?"
Now everyone stood there staring at Caius, waiting for an explanation.
The latter sighed as he raised the black cube for everyone to see. "I simply found this thing before someone turned the laboratory upside down. After defeating my copy the same way I did yours—by finding the core that sustains it and breaking it—"
"I took some time to examine this thing, which turned out to be a key to this place. I managed to understand how it works and freed you. You know the rest after that," Caius spoke indifferently.
Kyle approached him, casting a close look at the cube. "And how does this key work exactly?"
Caius smiled at the question. "All you need is to bind yourself to it, and it will automatically fill your head with a map of this place."
Ellen raised an eyebrow. "And how do you do that?"
"Well, by pouring some of your blood onto it." That was the method Caius thought of after trying many things.
All he had to do was think from the perspective of those people, and he eventually found the answer.
Caius moved toward one of the walls, and after a few moments a section of it, roughly the size of a door, shifted aside, revealing another corridor.
Without wasting any more time in that place, everyone exited into the passage before he closed the door behind them.
Elliot stared at the cube. "So can you control all the walls now or something?"
Caius shook his head. "No, only inside that laboratory. I don’t know, but it’s like you don’t have the security clearance to control the entire place."
"But what were those copies from earlier?" Leona asked.
"Perhaps some kind of experiments that were taking place in that laboratory, and someone activated them."
When he said that last part, Izel lowered her head slightly, but no one stopped to scold her or anything... everyone considered it a mistake beyond control.
After Caius obtained a mental map of this place, he understood the true scale of this structure.
This place was not merely a hidden temple... no.
It was an entire city connected by these massive tunnels.
And they were now only at the edge of this place, merely a very small and insignificant part.
Suddenly, something entered Caius’s perception.
No, in fact, many things.
Thousands of them, heading directly toward them.
As if this place had finally noticed them, after what they had done earlier.
Without much thought, essence surged through Caius’s body as he shouted at the others.
"Run!"