Chapter 499: Weird Hexagrams in the Maze
Chapter 499: Weird Hexagrams in the Maze
"Hum-mm~ Now we can be sure that Ely and the others are already in there. Let's go in and join the party!" Sylvia rubbed her hands together and immediately descended the stairs.
By the time she reached the bottom, she simply looked toward both sides of the passage in bewilderment. "Hm? Where should I go now? Right or left? Uuu, this is a tough choice."
"Nevermind, I believe in my luck. Then, there." Sylvia spun around once, then walked in the direction she thought was where the investigative team had gone.
After a few minutes of walking in silence, Sylvia looked around once again while scratching her head. "Where am I now? Why do all these places look the same? Is this a labyrinth? Err... Am I lost? I better head back first."
Unfortunately, even though she had returned to what she believed was the starting point, she could not find the ceiling with the big hole.
"Where am I now? Oh no, I'm really lost… Am I going to be stuck here forever? A maze with no way out? Ely, where are you..." Sylvia became a bit panicked.
She just walked and turned here and there, but she never thought that she would get lost because of it. The girl who panicked then ran where her hunch took her.
*Clack*
"Eh?" Sylvia was surprised that her footing suddenly dropped. Yet, she immediately realized that something terrible might happen soon. "I might have just set off a trap! Aaa..."
Realizing that, Sylvia immediately ran as fast as she could to getaway.
*Bam*
Sure enough, a black crystal boulder with hundreds of sharp blades fell from the ceiling. It immediately rolled toward the running girl.
"Waaa. I'm done, I'm done!" Sylvia looked back and hastened her escape. She made a random right or left turn to save herself. To her surprise, the sharp crystal boulder also followed her.
After ten minutes of running, Sylvia managed to escape the sharp crystal boulder's pursuit. She was now panting in an empty room. "Huff, haah... Looks like I'm getting further and further lost. Hopefully I'm going in the right direction."
*Creak* *Bam*
A stone wall suddenly rose and sealed the only exit.
"Huh? This maze locked me here!? Where's the mechanism, where is it?" Sylvia pounded on the sealed exit. She also tried to force herself to open it with her Saint-level physical strength. Unfortunately, none of her efforts yielded satisfactory results.
*Gurgle* *Gurgle*
The strange noises suddenly echoed in the dimly lit room. The blue light emitted from the crystal on the ceiling just increased the creepy atmosphere.
Sylvia fell silent for a moment and froze for a moment. She felt pretty tense, but she ventured to see what might have popped up behind her back.
"Phew, I thought what was it... It turned out to be just you little blue slime." Sylvia breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the creature in the center of the room. It was just a slime four times the size of a sleeping pillow.
However, the relief only lasted for a moment. The blue slime suddenly let out hundreds of long tentacles and immediately attacked.
"Welp, eek! Hey, I didn't come to disturb your sleep." Sylvia widened her eyes and immediately jumped up and continued to dodge the attacks from the hundreds of tentacles.
Physical ability alone couldn't keep up with the sheer number of attacks. Several tentacles managed to graze Sylvia. It didn't hurt, but something after that really surprised the devil girl.
Her skin turned slightly red, but her clothes were somehow melted by the tentacle slime.
"You pervert little slime. Are you planning to strip me naked with your pervy ability!? Don't expect that to happen!" Sylvia frowned and took out several ranged weaponry from her Space Bag.
*Bang* *Splat*
A jet of superheated light shot toward the enemy. It managed to crush the blue slime. The sticky blue liquid splattered everywhere.
"Fuuh... You got what you deserved. The weapons from my father's secret lab are pretty decent." Sylvia blew out her silver gun.
"Eh?" Sylvia was stunned to see the splattered liquid formed several new entities. One tentacle slime suddenly morphed into eight identical, albeit smaller, creatures.
The blue slimes spawned hundreds of tentacles and immediately attacked again.
"Uwaa!" Sylvia could only dodge and counterattack. Both hands held two silver pistols. Nevertheless, whatever she did, she was at a disadvantage. "Ely, the Goddesses, whoever it is, help me!"
'Hmm?' Elysia looked back reflexively. She felt that someone was calling her name, but she was a little unsure about it.
'What's wrong, Ely?' Elena slowed down her flight speed, and so did everyone else.
'No, it's nothing. Let's continue our exploration deeper into this maze.' Elysia shook her head.
'I think we are close to uncovering what might be hidden within this place. This maze was probably created by Sorush to store or seal something. We're on the third floor now.' Oceanid rubbed the wall and clarified a symbol there. He nodded confidently.
'Third floor, huh... How deep is this place to begin with?' Nell muttered softly.
'Who knows. Anyway, let's move. We are on the right path.' Oceanid shrugged his shoulders, then he flew in front to guide the girls as the vanguard.
The investigative team explored the maze without dealing with any danger or traps. Inversely proportional to a lost devil girl. She kept coming into trouble wherever she went.
Sylvia was walking with the aid of a cane because she was tired enough to deal with so many disturbing things. She was half drenched, and her dress was tattered from several battles.
"Uu, six of my dresses are damaged and unusable. This is the seventh one. I don't want the others to be damaged." Sylvia sighed to look at her black dress.
It was torn in several parts, and there were several holes as if it had been burned. Even so, Sylvia's glossy white skin was uninjured.
"Pervert slimes, weird monsters, annoying black shadows, and then what else might I meet here? Where's the treasure? Where did Ely and the others go? I want to go back now..." Sylvia pouted and muttered in a pitiful tone.
Then, Sylvia looked at her silver gun and threw it away. It was broken and unusable too, just like the fate of the other eight ones.
At that moment, she accidentally glanced at a wall with several weird white hexagrams engraved on it. She just ignored that and kept walking, but she just stepped back and stood at the entrance.
"I'm sure it's a riddle or something that can trigger a certain mechanism. Investigate it or not? Maybe it will lead me to a dangerous place? But, it might also lead me to a safe place..." Sylvia put her hand to her cheeks while considering her decision.
"Anyway..." Sylvia smiled and threw her cane into the room.
"..." A few seconds had passed, but nothing happened.
"This room is safe! Let's find out the function of those mysterious hexagrams, nana-na, lala~" Sylvia jumped into the room. Still, she stood near the entrance to make sure of something.
After a minute had passed, no traps were triggered, and the exit was not sealed either. Because of that, Sylvia leapt across the threshold to approach the hexagrams on the innermost wall of the room.
"Is there something behind this wall?" Sylvia took a closer look at each hexagram. However, she couldn't understand anything. All she could understand were the uniquely shaped slots at the center of each hexagram.
"It has some strange symbols. But, these slots are probably the triggers to activate the mechanics of these hexagrams. Where can I find stuff to plug all these unique slot holes, hmm?" Sylvia stroked her chin while checking all corners of the room. Unfortunately, it was just an empty room without any clue.
"Uhh, this is useless. Maybe the keys to open this wall are hidden somewhere in this maze? I'd better get out of here." Sylvia just scratched her head and walked away.
A flash of black shadow passed through Sylvia like the wind. She blinked a few times in surprise and looked back to find out what it was.
Very much to her surprise. A boy was already standing in front of the hexagrams with various colorful crystals in his arms.
"Hey, that brat over there. What are you trying to do? Are you an evil spirit?" Sylvia exclaimed.
The boy turned his head back like an owl. His black eyes stared into Sylvia's red eyes.
"!!!" A jolt suddenly attacked Sylvia, and her blood-red eyes suddenly clouded and faded. She just stood at the entrance expressionlessly.
The boy suddenly disintegrated and was absorbed into the wall. Simultaneously, Sylvia walked back near the innermost wall like a controlled doll.
She inserted the uniquely shaped crystals into the appropriate slots until there were no more crystals left. At that very moment, Sylvia's bloodline managed to get rid of the foreign energy's hypnosis.
"!!!" Sylvia flinched slightly, and her eyes returned to a blood-red color.
"What was that? Eh? Where did that owl boy go? Luckily, my bloodline makes me uncontrollable by an evil being like him. Just watch out if we meet again. I'll crush you with the Disintegrator Cannon." Sylvia clenched her fists in annoyance.
"Eh? Since when are all the key slots on this wall filled with crystals?" Sylvia wondered in a daze.
All of the crystals suddenly flashed with light of various colors. That lights flowed into each circuit path in each hexagram and spread throughout the wall.
A circular gate slowly popped out from the hexagram in the middle.
"What's that?" Sylvia gaped in surprise, and her eyes widened.
Yet, her attention was diverted because the uniquely shaped hole in the circular gate gave off a flash of white light as if to lure her.
"Oow!" A hard object suddenly fell out of nowhere and hit Sylvia's head.