Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Chapter 309

"The situation has not changed, we are still surrounded by enemies. Those two beasts that you see there, are not our allies. After the integration, they have completely turned into mindless beasts that are ruled by their instincts. They will attack anyone and everyone indiscriminately regardless of friend or foe".

Glenn stood up preparing to respond to any attacks that might come their way. Fortunately, after the two beasts entered the pressure of the golems on him has significantly reduced leaving him enough time to steady himself.

Bell was also about to join in the fray not knowing what he can do in with his body that somehow felt foreign, when from the corner of his eyes he spotted Chloe and Alice waiting near the door to the assembly room.

He felt his brain being able to process numerous parallel thoughts at once and came up with an idea to make use of this situation. He shared it with Glenn and after a brief discussion, the two decided to follow through with it.

Glenn used a powerful lightning attack that pushed the golem confronting him a few meters back and used this opportunity to run towards the door. Partly due to his inexperience and partly due to his newfound powers, the attack he used in his attempt to blow the golem away, was so powerful that 30% of the area around the chamber was instantly obliterated.

"Hurry" they could see the two girls beckoning them to hurry up. Just as the two of them reached the door, a presence so powerful and distorted that all the hair on their body stood on end came from behind them.

The two turned around in the nick of time to glance at its appearance before the door shut closed.

                                                                        -----

A revolting sight lay in front of them, even after the [Historia] had ended, the three of them remained silent. No, it would be more appropriate to say that they were forced to don on the silence by the scene that had played in front of them.

A place where humans were experimented on like animals would be quite disturbing for anyone to see especially when the test subjects were the innocent children who did not even know they were being experimented upon until the very end.

Although they knew the facility was nothing good, even they did not expect the scenes that lay inside to be so disturbing.

"What is this place?" Denzel asked gritting his teeth. He could no longer remain calm after seeing those poor children be experimented upon and tortured like this.

This trial had affected his mentality and if not for the warnings that Lucine had given him at the start of the trial, he would have already dashed out to sever the heads of those white suit people.

Out of the three of them, the boy was the only human so it was all the more natural that he felt a strong revulsion from seeing his kin experimenting upon their own.

Lucine sighed seeing the lost and forlorn expression of the little boy.

"I have already told you, these are nothing but scenes from history, a shadow from the past. It is being recreated as a trial in front of us through the advanced tier Chronos Magic – [Historia]. Do not let yourself get lost in the scenes of the past."

"As for your question, this place seems to be one of the many facilities built during the ancient era to research and develop a particular skill. I don't know if you are aware of it but the purpose of this facility is to try and recreate the skill [Beast Inheritance]. A taboo that would end up leading them to their own destruction".

Denzel was a little surprised, he had never heard of this skill nonetheless, the complex emotions within him did not subside at all even after hearing the reason behind all of this.

On the contrary, Simon had a stunned look on his face when he heard Lucine say those words. [Beast Inheritance] he was quite aware of the skill, in fact, he even battled with someone who used the very same skill against him not too long ago.

Adalinda had once told him that humans in their endless pursuit for strength, tapped on the power they should never have involved with and ended up destroying themselves. They not only affected themselves, but even encapsulated others around them.

[Beast Inheritance], a skill exclusive to the beast clan and could only be passed down to others through the beast's own will or from their core stone which sometimes contain their beast inheritance.

She also told him that the [Beast Inheritance] was the manifestation of an Ancient Symbol and how humans during the ancient times tried to imitate it. Their actions are still affecting the world as some of the research and techniques that they have developed, are still flowing and built upon to this very day.

Simon remembered his battle with the butler and how the incomplete skill of the [Beast Inheritance], he used, had completely turned the latter into a mindless beast. The children that were experimented upon, displayed the same signs as the butler which further solidified Lucine's words.

The three of them observed the ruins of the transplantation chamber which was once used to conduct many inhumane experiments. The place was a total mess with many broken equipment and machines that had corroded with time, lying around.

There were no indications of any transit rocks being around and the only thing that lingered around was the dark and dreary aura.

Unlike the previous times, Simon did not hurry the group to proceed forward with the trial and gave them time to sort out their thoughts and compose themselves.

Other than the aforementioned reason, he was also confused as to why the trial was showing them all of this. Was there a particular reason they had to know all of this? Was knowing the events from the past necessary to clear the trial?

He did not know, what he knew was that they had to proceed forward to clear the trial.

Lucine glanced all around, her tangerine eyes narrowing a little. This particular trial had given her a pretty good hint about what that thing was that had created this trial ground.

'Its abilities definitely matches that thing, I'm sure now. The power and ability it had displayed up until now, is enough to attract the attention of all of the powerhouses in this world. No wonder, Grandpa told me about it' she closed her eyes and felt a strong time rift surrounding the place.

She then turned her head and looked at Simon who was chosen as one of the inheritors.

'To be all composed like that, he definitely has skills' Lucine remarked. The third trial unlike the first two, was testing the mental fortitude of theirs by recreating the scene that had transpired in this facility long back in the past.

Although Simon was fine, the same couldn't be said for their other companion. Denzel was tightly clenching the rapier buckled to his waist and his eyes blankly stared downwards. It seemed that the scenes from earlier were still playing in his head making him unable to calm down at all. Perhaps it was a bit too much for a boy like him to take all of that at once.

"We can wait if you need some more time to collect yourself" Simon said standing beside the boy.

Denzel shook his head "No need for that, I'm fine now. We should proceed forward without wasting time". After saying that, he started walking towards the door that led towards the assembly room.

Simon looked at the little boy who seemed to be giving off a forlorn atmosphere and sighed. This was the kind of trial that one had to overcome with their own ability and willpower, others won't be able to help you.

It wasn't like Simon wasn't affected, a part of him that was previously a human felt a deep revulsion towards this kind of conduct that was done to these innocent children. He wanted to blast this place to smithereens but because Lucine had told him that all of this was just an illusion, a recount from the past, that he was able to barely hold himself back.

He could only imagine what the boy who appeared to be less than seventeen, was currently going through. From their previous conversation, he could guess that the identity of the latter was not ordinary and this kind of darkness that was hidden deep within a society, was something that he had come face to face with for the first time.

The three of them stepped forward and entered the last stage of the third trial. 

As soon as they entered, they saw a great hall triple the size of the transplantation chamber and came to a halt. That was because the scene in front of them wasn't something that they could take all in at once.

Although they had already guessed from the numbers assigned to the children, but the place was still too revolting of sight for them to see.

Thousands of children unknown whether dead or alive, were kept in a frozen cellar in a particular section of the hall and arranged numerically by the number carved on their bodies.

At a glance, it looked just like a huge register depicting the numerous experiments the facility had conducted throughout the years. As if the sight was sickening enough, there were hundreds of beast corpses hooked on the ceiling giving off a pungent smell.

The four children that had entered the assembly room, stood frozen in place after seeing the horrible sight in front of them. At this moment, they have finally and fully seen the true horrors of the facility that they were kept in.