A lot depended on Remi putting up the barrier in time. Despite her nervousness, she had not failed to contribute to the team, and she didn't fail this time either. A black barrier made of pure aether blocked the corridor the second the inferno was unleashed.
Yet while the barrier blocked the flames, it did not prevent the shockwave from crashing against everyone. It felt like something had slammed into Nero's chest and pushed him back. If he had not already been diving away, it might have been worse.
What accompanied the shockwave was a thunderous roaring as the fire spread down the corridor and burned everything. But that did not last long.
Much like last time that Jackal spread his flames, the building sprayed white smoke on the flames, instantly extinguishing them.
"Remi, lower the barrier," Nero said, and channelled his flames towards the corridor, instantly soaking up the boiling temperature.
Unbelievably, even after all that, the walls of the building remained completely unharmed, not even accumulating a darker colour due to charring. Fortunately, the same could not be said for the bones. Although they had not turned to ash, since the flame did not get enough time to burn properly, most of them had been broken into smaller pieces, with a few burns on each side.
That glimpse was all they got before Nero's own blue flames spread across the corridor, greedily taking in all the heat that had accumulated.
The buildings fire defence was much better than Nero expected. The inferno barely had any time to burn, so they never ended up having an oxygen deficiency, though the smoke was still a problem. Fortunately, Verdant-2 had planned for that.
With the door to the stairwell open, they used cards to generate wind, carrying the smoke into the hall and sending it upwards, to exit the building.
Although a lot of bony creatures probably died from that explosion, since Nero didn't touch them he couldn't absorb whatever it was that Radix Augmentation was filling his body with. It was a bit of a loss, but being unnecessarily greedy would land him in trouble.
The entire corridor was filled with blue, but Nero did not let them be. He immediately funnelled them into the room, burning away the remaining cursed energy, though it was barely enough.
They finally had a moment of peace, though Nero was slightly distracted. He couldn't help but notice that the temperature of the room didn't drop. Most likely his flames could not absorb all the heat because they were combating the cursed energy. Or there was some other reason, but he'd have to remember this and test it out in the future.
With the onslaught of the curses over, the two teams finally had time to focus on each other. Verdant-2 consisted of five members, but none stood out as much as their leader. Or maybe that was just because Nero already knew who the leader was.
"Bloodfield, you have pretty good timing," Nero said with a smile, showing no nervousness or hostility at the arrival of his team. It was as if he was not even thinking about the fact that they were competing for artefacts.
"Do we know each other?" the blonde man asked, a hint of confusion apparent on his face.
"No, but I know you," answered Nero. "Or to be more accurate, I know your family. As the family that owns the largest orchards in the region, who doesn't know you? Not to mention, the Glory slash is a very easily recognisable move. Harold and I watched Newman Bloodfield fight against a Darkthorn Bull last year live in his debut fight, and he used the same move to cut off one of the bull's horns."
"Oh man, I knew that was familiar!" Harold exclaimed suddenly. "Damn, that was a good fight. Close one too."
Glory slash was the move the blonde man had used that shot out a beam of light from his sword. It was a signature card used by their family, since only they had the recipe for it, and never sold the cards outside.
"Right. Of course. Newman," the team leader said, realising how Nero might have recognised him. "He always loved being the centre of attention. The bigger the crowd, the happier he'd be."
It was fairly common for soldiers who completed their mandatory army service to debut as professional fighters. Everyone loved to watch a good fight, and the chase to watch a good fight live was something no one wanted to miss.
Newman, despite coming from a rich family, was no different. Unfortunately, he and his team disappeared a few months prior to Nero's synchronisation while journeying from one city to another, with no trace. It was all over the news. Everyone suspected that they had fallen prey to some cursed incident, but no one could find any trace of it. All of them were presumed dead.
Such incidents weren't exactly uncommon.
"My name is Leonard. Are any of you injured?"
Nero looked at his team, and as usual, beside a few scrapes, they were fine.
"We're fine. We were just about to explore the room we opened before we were attacked by all those bones. Do you want to join us?"
Leonard exchanged glances with his teammates, who gathered around him.
"Can you explain the situation first?" he asked, trying not to show how wary he truly was.
"Sure, no problem," said Nero, and then briefly explained everything they had experienced so far. From the reception desk that trapped them in an illusion to the other rooms, he left out nothing.
"Do you mind if we check out the other rooms first?" Leonard asked.
"Be my guest," Nero said, flashing him a friendly smile. "By the way, my name is Nero."
Leonard nodded, and led his team to explore the other rooms that they had already explored. Besides one of the rooms where more vapour curses had formed, they investigated all the other rooms without incident.
"Are you sure it's okay to be so friendly with them?" Harold asked, keeping his voice low. "Helping out in a fight is good and all, but what are we going to do if we find the target items?"
"We'll deal with that when it comes to it, but for now, I'd rather take all the help I can get with these curses," Nero said. "Otherwise, if we're guarding against other teams and have to fight all these curses by ourselves, we'll be drained of aether long before we even get our hands on the artefacts."
Harold just shrugged. Nero wasn't wrong. Even though none of them were close to having their aether reserve drained, that was only due to their excellent teamwork.
When Verdant-2 returned, having discovered nothing amiss, the two teams joined together and entered the room. When Nero saw dust and bits of broken bones covering the floor he was not surprised. However, when he saw that all the metallic pillars were destroyed as well, he was taken aback.
These things were quite resilient, so he could not imagine what had broken them. In fact, even in their broken form, none of them could do much to them. They were not even able to lift any of the shards. Each piece had to weigh hundreds of kilograms, if not more.
But with nothing else to discover, they eventually made their way to the final room, which is the one that had been sealed. It had records on corruption.
Nero warned everyone that this room might be the most dangerous yet, sharing his theory. Yet the caution ended up being for nothing. The room really was sealed tight, and no matter what they did, it would not open.
They tried forcing their way in as well, but they could not leave a single mark on the door. In the end, all they could do was let it be.
As they stood in front of the stairs leading to the third level, Leonard turned and looked towards Nero.
"I like your upright and forthcoming attitude, Nero," he said. "As brothers in arms, we should be helping each other and working together. How about we make a deal? Until we reach our target, we will work together. Once we reach it, we can compete fairly for it. May the best man win.
What do you say?"
Nero did not hesitate at all and shook the hand that he held out.
"That's exactly what I was thinking. May the best man win. After all, we may have many more missions in the future where we work together. It's best to have a good relationship."
Whether that was what Nero was truly thinking or not, at least they came to an agreement for now.
Not that Nero dropped his guard for even a second. If Leonard had attacked Nero before, it would have been competition. If he attacked now, it would be betrayal. The name changed, but it didn't change the fact that Leonard could technically still attack him.
But at least now the chances of them continuing to work together were greater.
Nero began to descend towards the third level, and once again, the fog started to get thicker.