The Paladin in the Abyss-Chapter 768 - 789: Shattered Limbs

"Humph, humph, humph... You must be new here..." the dying man’s face twisted into a sinister smile, "Do you think death is the end? Welcome to Hell..."

Suddenly, the man released his hand from the wound and lunged to choke Lancelot by the neck, but before his fingers could touch the Human Knight’s skin, several cyan Sword Qi had already punctured several holes in his body—that was the Protective Sword Shield automatically activated. Having advanced to the High Rank of the Foundation Establishment Stage, Lancelot was now able to maintain this Cultivation Technique as long as he had enough True Yuan.

"What’s going on with this guy?" Kalalin asked, somewhat worriedly, "What did he mean by his last words?"

"Do I need to hit him once more, brother?" Little Isa offered proactively, "Just in case he gets up again?"

"No need," Lancelot shook his head, "Let’s go, Uncle Barrend is waiting for us."

After passing through the porch littered with bodies, the group entered a hall where fierce fighting was in progress. No sooner had they emerged from the passage than a Fireball came hurtling towards them. With no time for any other action, Lancelot could only erect a Shield of pure True Yuan in front of him to take the full brunt of this signature plastic energy Spell head-on.

The Fireball exploded with a bang, the powerful blast pushing Lancelot against the wall. However, thanks to his blocking, the erratic fire snakes did not harm any other companions, and Bruto was already holding up his Shield in front of him, his Warhammer swinging fiercely towards a bald Wizard on the second floor of the hall.

Regrettably, there seemed to be some kind of invisible barrier in the air, blocking the Dwarf’s impressively powerful Warhammer. However, when the Warhammer hit the transparent barrier, a strange ripple appeared midair, revealing the outline of the barrier. On both sides of the hall, wide staircases led upwards, and at that moment, dozens of people were fiercely fighting over them. Still, the attackers were clearly suppressed by the relentless bombardment of Spells from the Wizard on the high ground.

"Ha! You damned crows! Don’t think you can break through my Positioning Wall!" the bald Wizard shouted down to those below, "Come on! Taste this!"

In his hand, a blinding Lightning appeared, ready to be thrown. Lancelot internally cursed, having previously experienced it, that in an enclosed environment like this, a ricocheting Lightning Spell could be a terrifying disaster. Just then, a short syllable was chanted from the other side of the hall. Suddenly, a deafening noise erupted around the Wizard, preventing him from maintaining his Spellcasting, and the Positioning Wall that had been blocking the attackers vanished.

"Well done!" someone yelled to the crowd, "Charge!"

Naturally, Lancelot and his companions had no interest in joining the battle for the staircases; they were looking for the entrance to the basement, and such a thing was not here in this great hall. While the Wizard above momentarily ceased fire, the group quickly ran across the hall, slipping through a partially ajar wooden door on the right.

Behind the wooden door was a storage room cluttered with miscellaneous items. At least five people had fought here, but now they all lay on the ground. Alongside the bodies, several overturned wooden crates spilled out their unsettling contents—countless bones, seemingly washed with great care.

"There are no Dwarf skeletons here," Bruto said uneasily, "Right?"

Lancelot did not answer his question, instead moving to a door leading to another room, which had a heavy bolt across it and seemed not to have been opened recently.

"No... don’t go in..."

The feeble moan arose from behind the group, and Lancelot turned to find one of the ’corpses’ that had been lying on the ground sitting up. This was a Tiefling with pale red skin, their entire left face was a blur of blood and flesh, seemingly slashed multiple times by a blade. The Human Knight noticed that this person carried no emblem either, so he took out the healing potion again and unscrewed the lid, pouring it directly into the other’s mouth.

It was just an ordinary healing potion, whose effects couldn’t compare with even the lowest level Divine Arts of Alamir, but it was enough to pull a person back from the brink of death. The Tiefling’s pain was slightly alleviated, and with his still intact right eye, he sized up the group with a somewhat perplexed question:

"Who are you? I don’t seem to have seen you before we set out..."

"We’re not your enemies," Lancelot explained simply, "You just said not to go in there, why?"

"That door leads to the dungeon, it’s filled with evil experimental creatures, very dangerous." The Tiefling pushed himself to sit up with effort, "How come you don’t know? It was made very clear before the action that we must stop them from releasing the monsters in the dungeon, and to clear that area only after the rest has been secured..."

"The plan has changed, we need to get into the dungeon now." Lancelot shrugged his shoulders, "Once we’re in, you can put the bolt back in place, I don’t mind."

The look in the Tiefling’s eyes told that he hadn’t quite grasped the situation at hand, but the group wasn’t going to wait any longer. Bruto let out a low growl, lifting the completely wrought iron bolt with great difficulty, then violently pushed it aside.

"This thing must weigh at least two hundred pounds..." The Dwarf braced his knees, breathing heavily, "What on earth is locked up inside?"

"We’ll know soon," Lancelot said, placing his hand on the doorknob, "Are you alright?"

"Go ahead. I’ve got this premonition that the old man is locked down there..."

Lancelot pushed open the heavy wooden door, behind which was a round well, and to the right, a stone staircase without handrails spiraling downward along the wall. Several thick iron chains hung from the vaulted ceiling, most reaching the bottom of the well, but one chain ended with a cage, swinging before their eyes.

"Damn it, what is this place?" The Dwarf, with his dark vision, could easily see inside the cage, "Look at those severed hands and feet, they’re like unwanted spare parts..."

"Stay alert," instructed Lancelot, switching Frostslash to his left hand, "Stick close, and watch your step not to fall."

The party carefully descended the staircase, with Lancelot at the front, followed closely by the Dwarf. Then came Kalalin and Alamir, while little Isha remained in her bat form, hidden under Lancelot’s cloak. They hadn’t gone far down when they reached the base of the shaft. The scene that met their eyes made them momentarily feel as if they had returned to the Abyss: There were seven or eight dining-table-like stone slabs, each with a blood-drenched corpse on it, and beside the corpses were ’tools’ such as bone saws, awls, hammers, and the like. On the ground next to the slabs were many iron cages, identical to the one they had just seen, likewise crammed with fragmented limbs.