If he had been on his own, taking on numerous curses like this would have been strenuous at the very least, not to mention dangerous. But with just a few others by his side, the whole matter was resolved easily.
Naturally, their strategy of using synergistic abilities to achieve maximum fire power was the determining factor for the battle, but even if they would have fought slowly and carefully, it would not have been too much of a hassle.
None of them moved once the curses vanished. They were standing where they stood, waiting to see if there were any surprises in store for them.
But unbeknownst to any of them, the primary reason he was standing still was because Nero had become distracted! He had used Radix Augmentation before slaying the curses, not really expecting anything.
Absorbing aether was a matter of draining the target of their vitality once they were killed. Who knew if curses had vitality, but they definitely didn't have any aether. Yet he received feedback regardless.
A strange heat entered his body, unlike when he absorbed aether. This heat was not comfortable, nor did it seamlessly meld into his aether. Instead, it spread out across all the muscles in his body, and began to produce a mild itching sensation.
When the massive flames killed all the curses at once, the heat that Nero absorbed was significantly stronger, and the itching much harder to ignore. But fortunately, both the heat and the itching did not last long. Nero could not understand what was happening.
Despite how uncomfortable the heat was, he did not feel any worse after it faded, nor did he feel weaker or corrupted. Instead, he actually felt a little more energetic. After deciding that the result was not anything bad, he returned his attention to the situation at hand.
He once again used Aether Pulse, and though he still detected countless anomalies, they were far away from him, outside the stair hall.
"Let's continue," Nero said, stepping forward. Even though the lights were still on, the increasing density of fog made it more difficult to see.
They reached the second level without any more incidents, but Nero paused. The stairs heading further down to the third floor were right there, but they had not checked out the second floor yet.
The chances of the artefacts being on a lower floor were higher, or at least he assumed that they might be stored in the lower levels, but going directly down meant taking a risk and ignoring any potential artefacts on the second floor.
But if they explored the second floor, chances were the others would catch up to them before much longer. After a bit of consideration, he decided not to take any drastic measures. It was best to take things one step at a time.
He walked up to the door to the second floor and used Aether Pulse to check if anything was right outside the door. Harold and Gabriel also used a couple of cards to scan their surroundings before they finally went through the door.
The layout for the second level was different from the first. There was, what seemed like, a reception desk, behind which were three dark corridors. Nero was not surprised that the lights weren't working here. It was, in fact, quite abnormal that everything else was still working.
The walls were also not see through, so it was tough to tell what the rooms held. Without any signs that they could read, and without being able to use any of the machines himself, it was very difficult to tell what lay ahead of them.
"Remi, see if you can access any of the machines at the reception," Nero said as they edged forward, their weapons gripped tightly in their hands.
There were no sounds on the second floor which made every step they took seem much louder, and every breath they took was like a siren announcing their location. They were practically inviting something to attack them. But nothing happened.
One would think that such a situation would call for Muted Self, but considering that their location would be revealed as soon as they entered a single fight, using such a card was just an unnecessary use of aether. At most it would give them a slight edge in the first fight.
Remi's breathing paused as she touched a device at the reception.
"This floor is an archive. There's six different rooms, each containing files and research on a different topic," she said, sounding astounded.
"Is there anything about artefacts?" Nero asked.
"I don't know. It's not so easy to use these, let me see what I can find out."
Just Remi said that, the sound of something heavy and metallic being dragged across the ground suddenly broke the silence, startling her.
The rest turned their attention towards the middle corridor, where the sound was coming from.
"Surround the reception desk and don't just focus on the sound," Nero said, going around the reception and standing behind it, right in front of the middle corridor. "Make sure nothing else sneaks up on us. Remi, see what you can find out about this floor."
Jackal came and stood next to Nero while the others spread out. They were trying to make sure nothing else attacked, but the loud, grating noise was incredibly distracting. In fact, as the source of the noise came closer and closer, Nero found himself flinching every time he heard it. He realised that this might count as an auditory attack of some sort.
"This can't go on. Does anyone have any way of blocking that sound?" Nero asked. Muted Self would not work on an external target.
Gabriel slapped his hand on the floor and red sand began to roll out from underneath his hand, flowing down the dark corridor. In a couple of seconds the entire ground, as far as they could see at least, was red. The sand continued even into the darkness, but no matter how much sand went in, the sound was not reduced. In fact, the source of the sound continued to get louder and louder.
Nero could hear Jackal grinding his teeth as he was trying to resist the piercing, high pitch noise. When he looked over, he saw that Jackal's nose was bleeding. This was definitely not an ordinary sound.
Nero summoned his flame and flung it down the corridor. The darkness seemed to swallow up the light of the flames as they travelled down, and the source of the sound was still not discernable.
"One of the research topics is Corruption," Remi said. "For some reason, the room holding those records has been sealed, at least according to what I'm reading here."
It was nice that Remi could focus on her work, but if they couldn't find the source of that noise Nero had a feeling their ear drums would not hold up.
"I think it's misdirection," Nero suddenly said. "We feel like the sound is coming from the middle corridor, but it might not be. Jackal, light up the room and spread the fire as far as you can."
Jackal lit up his yellow flames and began to spread them across the room, but the fog seemed to be diminishing the flames, making it harder for him to spread the fire. To help him out, Nero used Flare on all three corridors, trying to spread the light and fire but the darkness that filled the corridors were especially menacing, and seemed to swallow up all light. Even the flames could not do much.
Just as Jackals flames finally reached the mouth of the corridors, white smoke was suddenly blown out from the walls, extinguishing the flames.
"Attempted arson is punishable by incarceration," a voice suddenly boomed across the room. "Human assistant, you have been flagged for your misdemeanour. Stay in place so a sentinel may appraise the situation!"
The sound was nearly deafening, startling Remi so much that she actually jumped. The rest were also taken aback by it. But, at the very least, it provided a brief respite from the grating noise.
Nero did not waste any time, not wanting the heat of the flames to dissipate, and immediately lit the hall on fire with his blue flames. Once again, fueled by the residual heat of Jackal's fire, his flames spread quickly.
The grating sound suddenly changed into a painful wail coming from every corner of the room. Whatever it was, at least they hurt it. Unfortunately, its cries hurt them back, and much more seriously at that.
As if that was not enough, the darkness in the corridors seemed to react to his blue flames. It seemed enraged by the constant attempt to light it up.
The darkness that filled the corridors began to slither forward, slowly entering the main room.
Remi, as if unaware of all that was happening around her, kept searching through the machine.
"The second room is dedicated to the study of the moon. That's strange, it doesn't say which moon it's focused on studying."