The second layer's guardian zone was another crimson cathedral, but it was located in the middle of a raging lava river, and the heat around was so intense that it could disintegrate away a mortal within seconds and turn it into ashes.
Even Ace was feeling intense heat despite all the protection layers he had donned on himself. But this was the least of his problem because when he tried to fly toward the cathedral, the lava river suddenly surged toward Ace as if it had come alive like a tsunami.
Ace never expected this sudden development since there was nothing but this peculiar attacking prowess of this river around the cathedral at all in the fate map, and it was just named red.
With his nimble movement, he managed to avoid being swallowed by the lava river. To his astonishment, the lava river seemed to have a mind of its own as it started to shoot burning lava at him like cannonballs, and their speed was terrifying.
'I don't have time to waste on this!' Ace's eyes turn cold as he finally decides to act instead of dodging. He knew with that massive river, those lava balls were endless, so he needed to either run from here or charge in if he wanted to enter the cathedral.
The former was not an option for Ace, so on his behest, the Dark Feather Sword suddenly released powerful Qi waves before its speed increased ten times over, and Ace had already condensed the white Qi sword in his hand as he slashed it toward the surging lave wave.
With the flying sword's speed and his timely slashing, a pathway in the lava river finally cut open, and Ace successfully cross the lava wall blocking him from entering the cathedral range.
When Ace was only ten meters away from reaching the outer square of the cathedral, he felt he suddenly brushed past into some sort of thin layer. The next moment all those incoming lava waves seemed to lose their momentum before falling back into the river.
To Ace's astonishment, not even a drop of that burning lava was spit over any part of the cathedral, and all that intense heat was now completely gone without a trace. Even though it was still hot, it wasn't at the level of boiling anymore.
'Was that some sort of test?' Ace mused as he looked at the crystal stairway fifty meters away and the same swirling massive red entrance, 'Whatever the case is, the next level clearly won't be easier.'
Sighing at the long journey ahead, Ace moved toward the entrance. He's been paying attention to the Unknown Entity's mark all this time, and it has been inside the cathedral for over three hours now.
This also means that the person was still on the second layer, and unlike him, it needed to go through the trials. This made Ace relief as well as confused about the identity of this person.
Nevertheless, since that person has no advantage like him, then this means he didn't need to care about their path entangling anytime soon, and he should completely focus on doing his mission.
Upon entering the cathedral, the same static voice rang at this moment, "Sun and Moon Seeker Token detected!
"You have two choices; would you like to bypass the trial of the lower layer second level? Or do you want to continue with the Unique Trial solely made for the Sun and Moon Seeker?"
"I'll bypass this trial," Ace answered without hesitation.
Just like the last time, the voice rang in affirmation before his red surroundings turned corporeal, and the next thing he knew, he was standing right in front of a bright passage.
However, right at this moment, Ace's expression contorted. Without hesitation, he darted toward the passage using his lighting step at full power, without even caring about if someone was watching or not because he felt deathly intent from behind!
Just where Ace's figure stood a moment ago, a three-meter-wide sharp claw landed, leaving behind a booming sound. The claw was actually corporeal gray, and it started to fade away right away.
"He dodged it?" An astonished eerie voice rang at this moment before a tall cloaked figure walked out.
Two icy gray snake eyes were glowing behind the hood in a ghastly gray hue and emitting bone-chilling killing intent as they looked at the bright entrance where their prey just vanished.
"How can there be someone else besides me in this place?" The mysterious person muttered with uncertainty, and the killing intent in its eyes intensified even more, "Since I've already discovered it by chance, I can't let this variable get in my way. This person can even escape my sneak attack, so he's clearly not some nobody who might have stumbled upon this place. Let me see whether to eliminate him or…"
The mysterious person walked toward the bright passage as well. At the same time, a two-meter-long red staff suddenly emerged in its hand, and on top of this staff was etched a silver color pentagram-shaped gem. There were five golden rune symbols on its five-pointers while a black rune was in its center.
Ace, on the other hand, after escaping the terrifying sneak attack, appeared in the middle of rocky terrain, which was as so red as it almost appeared black. But it wasn't extremely hot; instead, it was extremely normal.
But Ace didn't care about any of it as he was extremely alarmed by that sudden sneak attack that came out of nowhere. However, he was forced to care about it when he stepped over a black pebble on the rocky surface.
'Bommm…'
An instant explosion happened, which almost threw him off balance, and left him flabbergasted. But it was just the start as multiple explosions started to occur whenever he stopped over some pebble.
Ace instantly understood that this entire land was nothing but bad news, so he quickly avoided the explosion and then took out his flying sword and flew into the sky.
But he soon regretted it because his flying seemed to have triggered something, and all those explosive rocks and boulders on the ground started to tremble, and then they started to get attracted toward each other.
However, they didn't explode; instead, they started to increase in size by combing, and soon they started to take the shape of rocky creatures like golems Ace had once seen.
But they were far from those simple golems, as those exploding rocks turned into bird shapes of all sizes and then started to chase after Ace like a plague.
This all happened so quickly that Ace was gobsmacked as he was still in the process of taking flight, and all those rocky birds were now behind him, and they were as fast as him.
As if it wasn't enough, Ace felt his heart palpitate when he noticed an extremely horrifying Qi start to gather right below him.
He then heard a sneering voice, "Flying over a weapon? Now that's new!"
'Shit!' Ace cussed in exasperation.
He knew it was most likely his assailant, and he was even more sure this was the Unknown Entity and this was nothing but bad luck that he bumped into this guy right when he was about to enter the third layer. He most likely completed the trial right around the same time.
However, Ace was instantly surprised when he noticed a few of those rocky birds behind him change direction and head directly toward the voice's owner.
Not only that, but the rocks on the surface started to turn into humanoid forms, and their target was also the owner of this voice.
'Now is my chance!' Ace knew he was just a flying target if he didn't do something, so without hesitation, he took out a stealth talisman and slapped it on himself, vanishing.
Actually, the talisman was just a sham to use his own heartless stealth!
The mysterious person's snake eyes shimmered in astonishment when it saw Ace vanishing even from its Soul Sense and all those incoming rocks.
"Hmph, annoying pests, you let my prey get away!"
ƥαṇdα-ηθνε|·ƈθm The next moment, it smashed the staff on the ground, creating a crack, and the next moment an invisible ripple started to spread, and all those rock figures touched by it turned into dust.
But the next moment, that dust suddenly caught a spark and…
"Booommmmmmmmmmmmmmm!"
A huge mushroom cloud rose!
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