Before long, the group arrived at the bottom of the volcano, far beneath where the lava's surface once was. Now, it had been drained to nothing more than a tiny pool that lay at the center of the ground, restrained by some sort of Qi barrier with runic markings around it in a circular shape. Up ahead was what looked like a colossal stone gate with decorations reminiscent of ancient temples, but… there appeared to be a guard in the way.
A guard that was, quite frankly, dead. For now, anyway.
It looked to be an ancient mech of some kind, made out of a mixture of wood and metal. Its frame was quite large, about twice the height of Xuan, and was mostly humanoid in shape. Currently, it lay slumped over beside the gate, but if the group were to approach closer, there was no telling whether or not it would activate.
"Looks like this is it," the old senior said, rubbing the (fake) beard on his chin. "There is but one final challenge ahead of us."
"Where there is a guard, there is bound to be something it is guarding," the Chen family heir muttered poetically, flapping his fan shut and adjusting his glasses. "Allow me."
Taking the initiative, he stepped forward and raised his hand, magic book in the other. As a grimoire user, he excelled at ranged attacks and raw destructive power, especially when the target in question is immobile. Charging up his Qi, a powerful pink aura appeared around his palm as he focused his mind, and from his fingertips shot out a concentration of beautiful energy that bloomed like sakura flowers. It was a magnificent sight, truly, and even Zi Xiruo and Fu Mei found themselves impressed by the beauty of the technique for a brief moment.
That is, until it was completely neglected by the mech's tough armor.
"… Pfft." Fu Mei stifled her laughter, and Zi Xiruo couldn't help but join her. And honestly—who could blame them? For a technique that looked so beautiful, this performance was utterly pitiful.
The Chen family heir must've realized this as well, and after being laughed at by the only two girls of the party—and total beauties at that—he was beyond embarrassed. He was infuriated—but of course, he stayed relatively calm and composed on the surface, the smile on his face not wavering.
"Quite the tough hide you have there, hm? Well, it seems acting humble is no longer going to fly."
As if—Xuan knew full well that attack just now was one of this clown's top moves, and he had put a good amount of power behind it as well in an attempt to impress everyone watching (especially Fu Mei and Zi Xiruo). After all, despite being enemies, beauties were still beauties. If they wanted to continue through here, they needed to blast through this piece of junk that lay in the way of the door. Even if it was dead, it was still an obstacle.
Readying his stance, the Chen family heir prepared to fire off yet another attack—but just at that moment, the singular eye of the mech suddenly flared to life. Two spinning sawblades that lined its shoulders began rapidly cranking up, and its hands whirled around several rotations before finally adjusting themselves to the correct position.
Then, its head tilted upwards. Energy concentrated around its eye, and the next moment, a blinding disintegration ray shot out of its energized pupil.
"Wha-?!"
Thankfully, the High Elf senior's reactions were quick, and immediately launched a wave of Qi that blasted the Chen family young master out of the way of the attack. He didn't bother being gentle; there was no time to worry about things like that. The Chen family heir was thankful to just be alive.
"Ngh… you have my thanks… great senior…" He groaned, struggling back to his feet while the others prepared for battle.
"Save the gratitude for later—we have a killer robot to take care of!" Another young heir yelled—his name was Ming Hao, if Xuan remembered correctly. He pulled out his long spear and bravely charged towards the mech, now fully activated and towering several times above the height of an average human.
Slamming one of its massive arms down at the ground, the mech created a quake all around it and sent Ming Hao flying off his feet. The spear wielder, however, quickly readjusted himself and stabbed the spear into the ground before spinning his body around it, evading the shaking earth and landing to the side of the mech.
"Senior!" He called out, and the High Elf gave a solemn nod.
"Let's do it."
At the same time, the youth drew a beautiful crescent in the air with the tip of his spear, while the elf senior sliced the air with his fingertips. A surge of fire and a blitz of lightning soared towards the mech from left and right, catching it in a beautifully-coordinated pincer attack.
… One that did absolutely nothing.
The ancient machine simply pummeled the ground with its fist and generated a yellow electrostatic barrier around itself, rendering the two's attacks completely useless. The fire and lightning were absorbed harmlessly by the shield, and not only did the mech not take any damage, it seemed to have converted the Qi into power for itself, and was now readying a counterattack.
'… How troublesome,' Xuan thought, narrowing his eyes. He decided it was finally time for him to do something—originally, he'd wanted to just sit back and let other people do all the work so he could save his strength for the more… important things later on, but as it would seem, that wasn't going to fly here.
As the mech charged up its eye once more, this time with more power than the last, Xuan activated his Divine Asura Eye and glared it right back.
<Name: Ruined Gatekeeper>
<Type: ???>
Strength: 150,000
Defense: 150,000
Soul Strength: N/A
Soul Defense: N/A
'No Soul stats…?' Xuan furrowed his brows. 'Now this… will be a bit of a hassle.'
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