NOVEL NEXT Chapter 163: Into the Hall of One Life
The massive metal door hung slightly ajar. The Twilight Cultists ahead had already slipped through the narrow gap, while those behind Ryan pressed steadily closer. With nowhere to hide, he pulled the Shadow Cloak tight around him and stepped inside, praying he wouldn't stumble into something worse.
The moment he crossed the threshold, his gaze flicked to the side—and his breath caught. His right foot, mid-step, snapped back instinctively.
On either side of the doorway stood two colossal insects, their monstrous bodies gleaming in the pale light. They were less than ten yards apart, motionless but poised, antennae twitching as if they had already sensed the disturbance. Ryan stood no more than seven yards from one of them, close enough that even a casual swipe could reach him. Only an idiot would provoke such things here.
—
Evil Giant Insect Overlord
Leader
Level: 35
Health: 225,000
Type: Giant Insect
—
And those two were only the beginning. Every ten yards deeper into the chamber, another monstrous insect lay coiled in wait, each one like a ticking trap. Ryan knew that to stir even one of them would rouse the entire swarm, a stampede he could never survive.
Beyond the door stretched a cavernous hall, its walls crusted with jagged crystals. The crystals bled a faint white mist, filling the chamber with a pallid glow. It wasn't just unsettling—it carried a curse, and Ryan felt its effect the instant he entered:
Nightmare of the Dying: Players in this area are forcibly maintained at 1 Health.
His armor, his shield, his painstakingly built defenses—none of it mattered. One strike would drop him where he stood. His only lifeline was his Divine Shield, and he would need inhuman reflexes to trigger it in the fraction of a second before death.
The sound of shuffling robes and murmured chants grew louder behind him. The cultists were coming through. Ryan had no choice. He pushed forward, clinging to the hope that these massive insects shared the same weakness as their smaller kin—that they would notice nothing unless he strayed within five yards.
He moved quickly, threading the line between the two monsters, not drifting too close to either side. Every step felt like walking a blade's edge.
And then—nothing. The insects stayed still, unprovoked. Ryan's chest thudded with the release of air he hadn't realized he was holding. His pulse pounded so hard it made him dizzy.
But there was no time to bask in relief. The cultists were still advancing. Ryan slipped away from the entrance, angling toward the far left of the hall where fewer shadows stirred.
Once the hooded figures had pressed on toward the center, Ryan finally dared to slow. He exhaled, letting the tension ease, and only then took his first real look at the place.
At first glance he had registered nothing but mist and size. Now, standing still and seeing it properly, he realized the full scale of what lay before him. The chamber was immense, its surfaces glimmering with crystal, the white haze shifting and coiling like smoke, and for a long moment even Ryan, hardened as he was, could do nothing but stare in wonder.
He hadn't noticed it on the way in, but the path had been sloping downward all along. Now, standing still, he realized just how deep he had descended. Dozens of meters of solid earth pressed above, held aloft by titanic black pillars that seemed to pierce the cavern roof itself. The scale was overwhelming: the hall stretched so far that his vision failed to find its limits, an underground expanse at least three thousand yards across.
Far ahead, a massive platform came into view. It rose and sank in steady rhythm like some mechanical heartbeat, carrying load after load of Twilight Cultists upward into a yawning opening in the dark ceiling. The stream of figures never faltered, hooded bodies vanishing one after another into the unknown above.
The cultists pouring in through the metal door behind Ryan now marched toward that same platform in an unbroken tide. The route they carved had become a living wall across the right side of the hall. With his health locked at one, he had no illusions about trying to push through. A single brush from a cultist's staff would snuff him out.
That left only the left flank. Ryan set his course in that direction, certain now that Dimia, his target, was connected to this place. Whether she was here in the flesh or simply tied to the power that pulsed through the cavern, the trail pointed nowhere else.
The walls along his path were lined with excavated chambers, each one guarded by pairs of hulking insects. Their entrances gaped like empty eyes. Ryan didn't bother to look inside. If they were empty, it would be wasted time. If not—if some special guardian lurked within that could pierce his cloak—then he would be signing his own death warrant. And judging by how many of these stone rooms there were, it was impossible to comb through them one by one.
Besides, nothing about these ordinary chambers fit the quest's hints. Dimia was no lowly initiate. As a high-ranking cultist, her lair would be distinct, marked by something more than bare stone.
He slipped further left, steering clear of the cavern's center. The ground there teemed with robed cultists, too dense to risk. Instead, he wove between Twilight Watchers that patrolled the outer edge. They were formidable, Level 34, but their senses were blunt; as long as he stayed outside their detection range, they passed him by without so much as a twitch.
Every so often, a rarer threat appeared: Twilight Trackers. These ones could pierce stealth, but they were few and far between. When Ryan spotted one, he simply changed course, keeping a wide berth until it was gone.
One chamber after another drifted past. Occasionally, a cultist stepped out from within, often trailed by a Tracker. Each time, Ryan felt a flicker of relief at his decision not to explore. If he had been inside when they emerged, he would have walked straight into their detection and been swarmed before he could even blink.
He was still congratulating himself on his restraint when the sound struck.
A deep, metallic boom rolled through the cavern. Ryan whipped around in time to see the distant door—the one he had slipped through earlier—slam shut. The sound reverberated off the pillars and walls, a finality that sank into his chest.
Whether the cultists' procession had ended or whether his own presence had triggered it didn't matter. The door was closed, sealed.
Ryan's stomach tightened. If he failed here, finding his way back would be close to impossible. This cavern was a maze, and even if he stumbled across it again, he had no idea how to force that massive gate open a second time.
"This quest probably only gives you one shot," he muttered under his breath. "Fail once, and it's gone."
He pushed on, weaving between watchers, hugging the wall, every movement precise and deliberate. Step by step, the scenery began to shift, and at last something new appeared in the endless haze before him.