Our Family Has Fallen

Amanda did not speak, but her gaze involuntarily drifted to Audrey...

When the gaze fell upon her, Audrey felt uneasy. They were all familiar with each other, except she was the only one who had joined temporarily.

"What do you want to do?"

Audrey tightened her grip on the pickaxe, stepping back half a step, ready to use shadow escape to flee at any moment.

It was right at this moment that Lance’s laughter echoed.

"Stop messing around, I have a sacrifice here."

Lance took out a bottle of strange potion as a sign, it was the so-called "Holy Water" from that Hamlet, a liquid with dense supernatural power, drinking it during tests was able to enhance the overall state for a certain period.

Consolidated from the waste products of the Deep Sea Pearl experiments and purified with herbs to remove negativity, finally separated into a liquid as pure as clear water.

Logically, having gone through so many refining steps, there should be no problem. However, knowing the origin, Lance wouldn’t drink this stuff at all, bringing it was meant for others, and now it was the right time to use it.

Without further ado, Lance opened the bottle cap and directly poured it onto the altar’s tentacles.

The liquid flowed over the tentacles and then gathered in the basin below.

But even after the entire bottle was poured, there was no reaction, Lance thought it wasn’t enough and was about to take out the second bottle, when the altar’s abnormality emerged.

The spot of the tentacle stained by the Holy Water began to turn blood red, as if what had been poured wasn’t Holy Water but fresh blood.

The once-clear Holy Water in the basin started turning red, and even more bizarre was that the original bottle’s worth of liquid began to rise continuously, eventually overflowing.

This situation left Lance a bit confused, but soon things spiraled out of his control.

Because the overflowing blood-red liquid seeped into the ground, penetrating a complex and strange ritual pattern, only then did everyone notice it.

This complex ritual exceeded Lance’s ability, he could only wait for Amanda to decipher it.

However, the liquid spread faster than they had imagined, when it connected into a single patch, a force erupted forth.

Everyone was completely ignoring the Old God’s altar which had calmed down, leaving only blood droplets.

Their attention was fully occupied by the giant door that was slowly opening with a grand disturbance, kicking up dust like an earthquake, with countless stones dropping.

But soon, the noise subsided, leaving only a seemingly narrow crack of the door. But considering the massive proportions, it was more than enough for a person to pass through.

It was unclear what lay behind the door, as it opened, only a thick red light seeped out, exuding an indescribable eerie aura.

"We have disturbed something evil!"

Lance seemed attracted by some force, staring intently at the red light covering the crevice.

"Let’s go."

Prompted back to reality by Amanda’s warning, without much discussion, he took the lead in heading towards the crack, the others, though somewhat anxious, were forced to follow.

In the moment they stepped into the crack, the red light engulfed them like a swallowing abyss, disappearing.

And Lance instantly felt the state inside was anything but normal, the intense dizziness and nausea, coupled with that feeling of weightlessness, reminded him of being dragged into the void by the Limping Walker.

As soon as the sense of landing came, there was not enough time for more reactions, an instinctive breath brought a whiff of blood rushing into the brain.

Undoubtedly, they were shrouded by a strange force, each person experiencing varying levels of impact instantly.

"It’s a portal!"

"Damn it! Why didn’t you say it earlier, what the hell is this place!"

Amanda opened her mouth, and Audrey’s cursing followed right after, neither willing to yield an inch, almost starting a fight.

"Shut up, all of you! Calm down." Lance, somewhat exasperated, shouted once, instantly stopping their chaos.

But it was visible that anger and battle were evident on both faces, eyes filled with blood, akin to a red-eyed state of killing, but they had only inhaled a few breaths of blood mist. This place was frightfully terrifying!

On the contrary, due to her equipment, Boudica often entered a berserk state, building some resistance. However, her expression was still tense, gripping her axe and spear, ready to attack at any moment.

She probably hadn’t even realized that her tightened muscles were fighting against her own instincts.

Lance realized the situation couldn’t continue like this, hastily raising a hand for a Bless to dispel their negative states, simultaneously taking out the Holy Water to distribute among them, urging, "Drink this quickly."

They came to their senses a little, although unsure of the Lord’s reasoning, they drank the potion.

The power from the deep sea nourished their bodies, granting some resistance to external influence.

They wouldn’t have understood anything said earlier, but now seeing their clear eyes, he could remind them,

"You’ve all been influenced by the power here. Be vigilant of any unrest in your hearts, and don’t let corruption invade, if you notice anything unusual, speak up."

The two who had calmed down began to notice the sudden burst of emotion, both feeling a chill in their hearts, yet neither would back down, and it stayed that way.

Lance also suppressed his inner agitation, only then realized the extinguished torch in his hand, its flame snuffed out by an unknown force upon entering.

Casually putting it away, as there was no need for it here, strangely, there wasn’t an obvious light source, yet everyone had clear visibility, albeit appearing like a scene under a red-tint filter.

Looking back and around, it was a vast "open floor," but the dungeon was filled with red blood mist obscuring far distances, only vaguely seeing connecting passages and platforms.

Seen were numerous angular thick stone pillars piercing through the blood mist, standing tall in the dungeon, hexagonal columns hanging with indistinct objects.

Both ends were hidden in the blood mist, only visible was the blood flowing within. No one doubted they supported this independent "world."

And at either end of the path were extravagant and terrifying rock sculptures, incorporating flayed skull faces as the main body, often paired with exaggerated open jaw actions, blood flowing from within.

Such avant-garde sculptures seemed imbued with vitality, viewing them conjured imagined cries of bleeding skeletons in the mind’s eye.

On either side of the path was an upright spike, like a railing, upon closer inspection, noticing that blood flowed in the gaps of the rocks beyond the spikes.

Even giving an illusion of life, like veins, inadvertently suspecting that the blood extracted by the Old God’s altar connected here.

A bizarre space shrouded in crimson, all anomalies signaling the evil of this place.

Looking away was fine, but after closely observing the surrounding environment, apart from Lance, the others plunged into collapse.

"No! My tarot cards tell us..."

Amanda’s voice quivered, clutching cards drawn from unconscious divination, though the results seemed grim.

"Let’s go, anywhere, as long as we leave here, or it will become our gravesite!"

Audrey regretted deeply, defying death for excitement, ending up pulled here, all thrills turning into terror and despair at this moment.

"Did we arrive in hell..."

Boudica’s tense expression and heavy breathing hinted at something, after all, the bloody and black iron world fit descriptions of hell alone.

The only seemingly "normal" Lance was truly abnormal, for faced with such an eerie scene he felt not fear, but instead a bizarre delight.

Finally... I have finally arrived here...

All hardships along the way were rewarded, Lance’s will was being tested at that moment...

Ecstasy!