Azimuth: The Elden Throne

305 Bottom of the Catacombs

It seems I made a massive mistake!

Due to how in a hurry I was, I ended up posting the wrong chapter...

Sorry for this.

The reason for that is because I have a massive folder with all chapters ready, they serve as a backup in case Webnovel commits a mistake.

But in my haste, I copied the wrong chapter and posted it without checking if it was right or not.

Once again I apologize, but there should be one good piece of news...

This chapter is a bit bigger than what I posted at first, so the price after being updated will still remain the old one if I understood everything correctly, so it shouldn't affect those that already paid for it.

In any case, peace...

.

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/Probably half an hour later?.../

/Shuaaa…/

/Fall…/

"Huff… Huff… Okay… "

/Inhale.../

"We've been falling for a while… Has anyone been counting it down?... Phew..." One of the Heroes asked as he looked around

"So you've finally calmed down, never thought a Thief would have a fear of heights." Someone replied on the side as he sharpened his Ax

His words immediately triggered the Thief

"As if you're one to talk, did you think I wouldn't know you're afraid of cockroaches you bastard?" /Grunt.../

"Those bugs are devilish compared to heights." The large man replied with a scoff as he kept grinding the edges of his weapon

"I could say the same!"

"Enough, now's not the time to argue, we need to figure out what to do." The Tank said on the side as he stood atop a rock, his shield laying next to him as the Priestess sat upon it, hugging her knees

'First, our situation…'

'We've lost one of our Vanguards and one of our rear Mages, the only one who can save us from freefalling to our deaths.'

'However, instead of maintaining its pressure and attacking, the Boss seemingly vanished, and I think I know why.'

'I don't quite know when, but somewhere as we feel, the walls… Vanished also.'

'We may have entered a massive cavern through a hole in the ceiling… Or we were transported elsewhere. Maybe something else.'

'It would be good if the Boss isn't with us, but that may just make things harder, and since our mission didn't fail yet, this must be the System may take the Boss to still be "trapped".'

'Still, it's only a matter of time till it finds a way out... Or we perish first.'

'In fact, I wonder if we'll be kicked out of the mission without getting any rewards once the Event comes to an end, that would truly be a bummer.'

'I would like to get some answers at the very least...' .

'But we're still falling, and we'll hit the ground eventually, that's all I can do, and if this is some sort of puzzle to be solved, than I can only say whoever made this is a sick bastard.'

'Nonetheless, it may not be a problem to me but not everyone has a Constitution high enough to save them from it, though as long as the Priestess is here, she'll bring them back.'

'My fear is that they'll either die immediately, maybe due to bad luck by falling into their own weapons…'

'Or they'll be ambushed by the Boss as soon as we reach the ground.'

'There's also the chance the ground down there is uneven and we'll be separated.' He thought as he looked at the 'sky'

With so much time in hand, thinking and talking were the only things they could do.

"... How are you feeling?" He asked as he turned to the Priestess

"... Not very good." She replied as she looked at her own hands, or at least tried to

In this darkness, even light seemed to be consumed, the only thing they could do to know they were around each other was to talk, and that's why they were constantly arguing.

Of course, to make sure they didn't stray away from each other, they bound themselves with rope and the rocks around them as well, making a large platform to stand on.

They did so when they could still see...

For the Priestess, however, she felt suffocated, the more she fell the weaker she became, she could feel her own powers dwindling by the minute.

As if she had failed to gran the hand before falling down a precipice.

"It's… Hard to explain, but I don't think we're on Eden… Not that we were before but at least back then I could still feel a connection…"

/Shine…/

"Now it's silent, even creating this light is taxing…"

"But that means the connection isn't yet severed, right?" The Tank asked as he interrupted the girl

"... Right, it's weak, but it's here." She said as she brought her hands to her chest

"We're not alone, in more ways than one…"

/FWOOSH!/

""!""

Suddenly, as they fell, they heard a strange sound echo in the distance.

And when they followed it, looking at the edge of their platform, they saw where it came from.

"Wait! I see something… Is that… Oh no." The Archer, who until now had remained silent, said as his eyes glowed in golden light

"What is it Bai?"

"... I see the ground."

'I'm pretty sure it is the ground...'

""!""

"And… It's hard to explain, but we should be safe… For now."

"The sounds we just heard… They all came from those weird spots of light flying in the sky."

"Birds?" The Swordsman asked as he tried to look at the ground, but he only saw darkness

"No... Not quite… Birds may be… A bit… They're pretty ugly."

"Well, we'll see soon enough, for now, everyone, get ready."

The Heroes hardened their resolve as the wind passed through their hair, their fight had just started.

…

/Meanwhile…/

/SPLAT!/

/ROOOOOOOAR!!!/

/BOOOOOOM!/

Far away on the ground, Dale could be seen fighting a gargantuan abomination, evading its attacks and retaliating whenever possible as he tried to understand its patterns and abilities.

The creature was over twenty meters tall, and its body wasn't even symmetrical, looking very much like an eldritch horror.

Its head was like a ball mixed with a brain, like a thousand small balls gathered together into one cohesive mess.

There were arms growing on its sides and back, and its body looked more like a bunch of limbs pressed together than anything else.

It was somewhat Humanoid, but even that was being generous… Like a failed experiment of a mad scientist.

(Image?)

[Abyssal Fiend

Challenge Level: 265-275

]

Its screech was like the chirp of hundreds of birds at once together with the toll of a loud bell.

It caused his ears to ring, maybe that was the entire point…

/SLAM!/

Nonetheless, he kept fighting, and eventually, his fist penetrated deep into its 'head', destroying it and scattering pieces of blood and gore all around.

Like many times before, Dale jumped back quickly, avoiding getting in contact with those disgusting things.

/Twitch.../

Even on the ground, its blood twitched and moved, up and down, left and right, like a slime seeking something.

10:41

Maybe it was a slime, a parasite living within this bizarre organism.

"Huff… Urg…"

Upon defeating his enemy, Dale touched his head, feeling an intense headache.

But as he always did, he shook it off, focusing on what he had to do, survive and defeat his opponents.

He didn't quite know where he was, and many times he asked himself just what was he seeing.

It felt as if he was at the edge of reality and a nightmare.

From the name of the creature, he assumed to be in the Abyss, but that wouldn't make much sense either.

The descriptions of the Abyss he knew of did not match with this place, and its very essence was contradicted by his presence here.

It was a mix of a metaphysical realm and a dimension, it shouldn't be so easy to access it, at least, that was as far as his understanding of it went.

He never stepped foot in it after all, even before...

But first of all, to understand how he came to be here, it would be necessary to go back a few minutes ago...

Before, Dale used everything he had to try and accompany the Heroes as they fell, just in the off chance the bottom of their fall ended up more dangerous.

Because if it was, the first to fall would likely become the first to… Well, fall.

However, once he saw the ground, he thought it would be best to accelerate his descent and create a foothold for himself, maybe he could even formulate a trap.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

If the strange creatures prowling these lands weren't enough, there was absolutely nothing here.

Just an extensive field of desolate gray rocks with a tint of greenish light weaker than that of a candle that spread throughout the horizon, like a fog that dulled his sense, causing him to feel as if he was sleeping.

But he knew he was very much awake.

Even in his memories, there wasn't anything that quite fit with what he was seeing right now, this was something he had never seen in all of his gaming adventurers and his many hours sitting in front of his PC and inside his Pod watching videos on Lore and otherwise useless analysis on the history of a video game.

Was this the Abyss? A part of it, maybe one of its many unique environments like a... Biome of sorts?

Or was this something like the Arenas before? An inspired artificial environment was created for the Event...

Whatever it was, it gave him the creeps, even in this form.

He did not belong here, and everything around him screamed as such.

He needed to leave, fast, before whatever loomed in this endless green fog extended its reach to him.

/Step…/

/Crunch…/

There didn't seem to be any kind of toxin or anything special about this place, itwas just that desolate.

Even so, Dale paced his breathing, not wishing to breathe much of this air.

/BOOOOM!/

"?"

Interrupting his thoughts, Dale heard a large explosion echo in the distance, and he quickly understood what it was after pondering for a moment.

After falling for who knew how long, they were finally all here.

/Step…/

It was time to end this.

/Crunk… Cling…/

He started to walk, pulling the chains behind him as he did so.

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