*Read Authors Note
[Third Person POV],
As Ace and the earth mage continued to navigate the tunnels, they encountered more blocked tunnels, forcing them to continue charging toward numerous unfamiliar tunnels, and it didn't take long for them to become lost due to the number of tunnels they had already charged through.
Ace and the earth mage were unable to find their way back to the pit where they had engaged the dragon phantom at this juncture.
The primary reason for this was not that they could not remember the tunnels they had travelled through because Ace was able to memorise the tunnels they had travelled through, but rather because as they continued to ascend the tunnels, there were times when the tunnel became blocked at their back because of the collapsing den.
One could already tell from this that the den was actually crumbling.
In fact, there were times when the rocks from the tunnel ceiling suddenly collapsed just as they were below the collapsing ceiling, almost crushing them.
"When are we going to reach the surface at this rate when we don't even know where we're going?" The earth mage sighed and said to no one in particular.
In the few minutes that they had been passing through the tunnels, the earth mage had said similar things, but he ignored them and concentrated only on moving forward.
Not that he didn't care about getting out of the den quickly, but Ace was thinking about a lot of other things in contrast to the earth mage, who was only concerned with getting out of the den.
'Dead end again,' Ace thought to himself as he and the earth mage approached the tunnel's dead end in front of them.
The tunnel in front of Ace was natural, as opposed to the dead ends caused by falling rocks, but since it wasn't all that different from a blocked tunnel to Ace because they both did the same thing, Ace retraced his steps by a distance before returning to enter another tunnel he had passed on the way with the earth mage.
The earth mage would have started speaking whenever they had come to a dead end or blocked road before, but since they had grown accustomed to it, they did not react as negatively to encountering these obstacles as they had in the past. Instead, they both moved backward in silence as they had been doing for some time.
ραпdα nᴏνɐ| сom SQUEAK!
"That's the third sound it's made in the last five minutes," With a worried expression on his face, the earth mage spoke, and Ace replied to him this time.
"It's also getting louder," Ace said as the earth mage made an audible gulping sound and his footsteps unconsciously became faster.
When Ace saw this, he trailed after the earth mage while turning to gaze at his back with a thoughtful expression.
'I wonder how weak it is now'
********
After a few more aimless minutes of meandering through the tunnels in the den, Ace was forced to come to a halt by an unexpected reaction on his back.
A moment later, Andrew Dawn, who had been unconscious on Ace's back, began to release a faint red glow from his body, illuminating the area around Ace and the earth mage.
This was not the strangest thing, as the blood that had originally coated Andrew Dawn's body began to evaporate.
Yes, as Andrew Dawn's body warmed and his body began to emanate more red light, the blood on his body began to evaporate into the air.
As soon as Ace realised this, he dared not attempt to transport Andrew Dawn on his back once more, and he threw Andrew Dawn to the ground.
He was unconcerned about the fact that they needed to keep moving because if they lingered in one spot for too long, they might run into the rat queen.
For one thing, Andrew Dawn's body was already getting hot to the point where Ace could feel his blood bubbling.
Ace had little choice but to drop Andrew Dawn to the ground, and even though he did it roughly, when he turned to look at Andrew Dawn, even Ace could not help but sweat and jump away from Andrew Dawn before the lava that was emerging out of Andrew Dawn's body would reach him. Perhaps if he did not have the fire affinity, his blood might have really boiled now so instead of worrying about the rat queen catching up to them, he had to resolve this sudden issue.
The original clothing and armour that Andrew Dawn was wearing either melted or were destroyed by the lava that was erupting from Andrew Dawn's body.
The fact that Andrew Dawn appeared unaffected by the lava was another strange aspect of this.
While this sight was already odd enough, it wasn't the strangest as dragon-like scales began to appear on the skin of Andrew Dawn.
They weren't apparent at first but then they began to appear like they were the real skin of Andrew Dawn as the colour of the scale alternated between red and black.
Apart from these sudden alterations to Andrew Dawn's physical appearance that startled Ace and the earth mage, another significant alteration happened as two horns gradually began to form on Andrew Dawn's head.
The horns on Andrew Dawn's head were growing larger, but this wasn't the only change; his lower body also rose as a massive tail that resembled a serpent began to develop from behind him.
While Andrew Dawn at this point resembled a humanoid demon from hell in the images Ace had seen in his previous world, Ace was able to discern a crucial aspect of Andrew Dawn's current appearance.
The earth mage, who was also looking at his king who was presently sinking to the ground slowly from the lava that was still emerging from his body but this time it was slower and lesser than when it first started, had a very puzzled expression that was even a little strange. It was probably not Ace who had noticed something about Andrew Dawn's appearance.
Perhaps the earth mage couldn't keep his ideas to himself any longer and expressed them to Ace.
"Don't you think the king's current appearance looks awfully familiar to the dragon phantom?" Before Ace could respond to the earth mage's question, a sudden change struck Andrew Dawn once more, and the sound of a beating heart reverberated throughout the den as his chest began to emanate a blinding light.
If only this had occurred, it would have been better, but the fact is that as soon as Andrew Dawn's body started to make the sound of a beating heart, another creature somewhere in the den responded by making a sound of its own that gave Ace and the earth mage bones a shiver.
SQUEAk!!!!
SQUEAk!!!!
SQUEAk!!!!
SQUEAk!!!!
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