Chapter 571 - YOU SHALL NOT PASS!
***
Journey to the part of the Doxon Duchy the tomb was located was in two parts.
They used teleportation circles to cover a majority of the distance and arrive at the closest city to the tomb but as the city was not a stone throw away from the tomb, they border a rented carriage that was more than large enough to fit their party of Nine...
(Hal, Emily, Rita, Karmen, Olivia, Lillian, Andrei, and two capable guards he brought along with him. One named Jared and the other named Harold)... Excluding the carriage the driver of course.
The carriage was quite speedy and in a few hours, they were closing in on their destination when the carriage suddenly stopped with the driver claiming,
"This is as far as I go. Beyond this point, the carriage won't work."
No one thought of this as ominous. If anything, it was a tad expected that there would be procedures put in place to prevent the disturbance of a final resting place.
Why else were there only capable individuals present if it wasn't to brave the dangerous traps that were sure to be put in place?
They continued on foot towards the definitely suspicious-looking cave that was alone on the barren land.
"Power" Rita mumbled and everyone knew what she was talking about.
The closer they got to the cave, the more the very ground they walked, hummed with power.
"It's nothing special. The tomb is underground and all you feel is what has been put in place to keep its content safe" Emily said just as they all felt a tremor from underground.
Feeling the tremor, Emily smiled,
"And it would seem we're not the first ones here" she said and continued walking towards the tomb with Hal by her side and everyone else following.
Hal was keeping it well hidden but he was getting excited... or more accurately, something inside him was getting excited.
Something that had been with him since the time of his birth.
There was something inside the tomb that he wanted... He just had no idea what it was.
Emily went into the cave first after signaling for everyone to stay outside while she inspected the inside of the cave.
She returned to the outside in a minute which had been enough time to accurately inspect the inside and return with the news that it was,
"Empty except for a portal that is obviously an entrance"She let that sink in for a few seconds before she said,
"There is a very likely possibility that we will be separated. I don't know the interior architecture of the tomb. Also, from outside of the tomb, my perception is useless... Hal?"
Hal understood why he was calling out to him and was quick to stretch out his Astral perception in an attempt to depict the layout of the tomb but found his perception getting repelled.
He shook his head to signal the result.
Emily sighed but it was clear the results were expected.
"Be ready for anything," she said with an expression that they all understood.
During their preparations and with the mindset of sparing no expense, they all were now in possession of portable teleportation circles in form of scrolls.
To be used for a quick getaway.
This was the tomb of a Semi-saint after all.
Not only would the tomb itself be dangerous, but those inside it and ready to take all it held for themselves would also be as well.
Having a quick getaway in case of danger too intense to survive was smart planning.
They went into the cave in twos except for the trio of Andrei and his guards.
Hal and Emily went in last and Hal felt the sensation was quite like traveling through teleportation circles except it ended faster.
When it ended, Hal, Emily, and Andrei were in a wide hallway, wide enough to admit six individuals standing shoulder to shoulder.
The hallway was lit with rune lamps hanging off the wall.
Hal looked up and the hallway was closed with no sign of the portal they had come through. The portal was not under his feet either.
"Interesting" Emily said with her hand placed on the wall while Andrei finally came to terms with the knowledge that he had been separated from his guards.
Pulling out his communication talisman, Andrei attempted to contact his guards,
"Jared? Harold?" as he called their names, there was a notable beep that Hal knew signaled Andrei's communication not getting through.
He reached out to his ladies with his telepathic connection with them and found that he could not.
The most he could achieve was to sense their location (which was inside the tomb) as well as a sense that each of the ladies had another by her side at the moment.
Olivia was with Karmen and Rita was with Lillian.
He could then infer that they had all been separated into groups of either two or three.
Three seemed more likely which meant that either Harold or Jared was together with either the group of Olivia and Karmen or the group of Rita and Lillian. "This is... Easy" Andrei said with a sigh that caused Hal to look over at him,
"Why, because nothing has happened yet?" he asked and Andrei nodded but then gestured behind them.
It was blocked up and looked to have never been an entrance or passageway.
"Yes, partly because of that but also because there is a clear path forward. There are no crossroads."
"Give it time" Emily said with a thin smile and as soon as she was done talking, the very back that was blocked began to produce multiple spikes that got longer by the second.
The trio was made to walk forward but their path was blocked by statues that were molded to be wearing armor.
They resembled warriors and their swords made it clear that they meant business.
Unanimously, they spoke,
"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"
Of course, with the spikes getting ever closer, neither one of the three planned to stay and wait to be skewered.
Hal did not doubt that the spikes would puncture their skin if allowed to make contact just as he did not doubt that the swords wielded by the statue warriors would be devastating.
Especially to him who was the weakest, in terms of cultivation among all three of them.
There were five statues warriors standing shoulder to shoulder with their swords outstretched and ready to strike.
All the warriors were at least nine feet tall and with a physique (not too fat and not too slim) to match their height so that they were essentially giants.
To make things worse, and make escape all the more difficult, spikes stretched down from the top of the hallway right atop the statue warriors and stopped just before they could actually connect.
Essentially sealing off the barely enough-for-one-person space that had been open atop the statue warriors.
Andrei wasted no time summoning his war hammer cosmic Armament and charging at the statue warrior directly in front of him.
The warrior intercepted the hammer with his sword that he wielded with one hand before striking at Andrei with his free hand.
Before the hand could hit him though, Andrei sneered and kicked off of it while simultaneously sending a charged attack at the spikes above the warrior.
Not only destroying said spikes but destroying the warrior's head as well.
Andrei made to leap through the space that was more than enough for an escape but before he could make his way completely through...
*Bang*
"Oof"
... He was smacked away from the opening by the very hand he had kicked off of.
"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!"