Lazarak's words were not enough for Damon to trust him, but he had stopped being paranoid.

For now, there were still questions Damon had not asked and some he had not thought of, but for the moment, he just wanted to get those nasty chains off his body, or what was left of it.

A small shadow slicked through the darkness of a narrow stairwell. Small grating sounds echoed all around him. Still, he moved with caution, careful not to spread his senses lest something attack him.

This body didn't have shadow perception.

Lazarak had told him not to worry too much, as all creatures in this realm had to submit to its law, which kept their strength at a limited rank. For this place, the rank limit was the fourth-class advancement, with the sole exception of Seraph Null, who was the god of this world and could fight at his full power here.

That was not a good sign for Damon. He stood no chance against something at the seventh-class advancement. Lazarak had told him the weakest threshold for being a god was the seventh class.

Which meant anything that didn't have at least that rank couldn't even be considered a god.

The thought made Damon wonder how powerful Lazarak actually was.

He tried to keep his mind from wandering. His objective was to obtain the cure for his sister, but he wasn't getting any closer to his goal.

The narrow stairwell came to an end. Damon continued climbing down.

Yes, he was climbing down to go up. This prison was just one of the unusual places Damon had been, despite Lazarak being in the deepest levels.

They actually had to climb down to reach the upper levels.

That part had confused Damon at first, but he seemed to have gotten the hang of it.

'If that's their best trap, then I'm not impressed.'

He found himself in a wide, open field of bottomless darkness when the stairs ended. There was supposed to be some pathway here or a chamber, anything. Yet all Damon saw was endless darkness and the far edges of walls on every side, as if someone had poured liquid night into the chamber.

On the opposite side, there was a dark passage leading to a similar stairwell as the one he had come from.

He materialized from the shadows with a frown on his face.

"Me and my big mouth." This was instant karma. He had just been gloating about how the stairwell trap was too simple, and now this.

He glanced at the wide chasm. It was more than a kilometer wide.

Which wasn't much really. He could easily jump it. Damon turned to give himself a running start, then stopped at the last minute.

"No… that's too easy. They want me to jump."

That was true. A kilometer-wide jump would be nothing for Damon or any prisoner in the deepest part of Eidolon.

"Why would they make it so obvious…"

Damon bit his lips or rather, the lips of the shadow he was possessing. This would have been easier in his own body; he could have just used the air walk skill. Even then, he'd be stupid to risk it.

Honestly, looking at this chasm reminded him of something. A memory he really didn't want to recall. A few months ago, when his party had crossed the Duhu Mountains, they had to cross a bridge hanging over a chasm.

This one gave him the same feeling he felt looking down that bridge, only many times worse.

"No… they wouldn't… no one is that diabolical."

He really hoped it wasn't what he was imagining. Damon really wanted a scapegoat to go first.

He sighed and sat down cross-legged at the stairwell exit, staring at the other side.

"If only I had a guide or a journey book… where is Sylvia when you need her…"

He felt sad at the thought, holding his head and biting his lips.

"Right… she's dead…"

Damon's hands trembled, feeling his heart far in the deepest layers of the prison, where his true form was beating with twisted pain.

"No… I can't make conclusions. If they're dead, I want to see their remains."

He stood up, clenching his fists.

"Hope is a sweet poison. We get drunk on its taste as it slowly kills us. Abandon hope and abandon inevitable pain, you will be disappointed."

Damon whispered those words to himself.

Picking up a small rock, he turned to the walls and carved:

"Ye who exit, abandon hope… but deny despair."

He took a deep breath, shaky, his hands holding firmly to his father's broken sword, his dealer's hand.

First, he picked up a larger piece of rock.

With all his might, he threw it to the other side, and surprisingly, it flew across the darkness of the passage without issue. Damon heard the sound of it landing and hitting the stairs there.

He glanced at the darkness below him, raising his head to find a similar darkness above.

Closing his eyes, he muttered a prayer, more out of habit than faith.

"Hail the goddess of doom, bringer of death and mother of the circle of inevitability. Let my end come only after I have obtained that which I seek."

Damon would have prayed to the Unknown God, but he was giving that bastard the cold shoulder.

Then again, praying to Doom was habit, not faith.

He didn't know which of them was good for him, but he did know all gods were selfish. After all, they had mortal hearts, and therefore mortal flaws.

Damon held a bow in his hand and waited about an hour. After making sure everything seemed calm and nothing in the darkness moved, he decided it was time to go.

Emerging from the shadows with a running start, he jumped toward the other side, a sonic boom following him. He took off at the last possible moment, streaking through the air like a bullet.

The darkness swirled below his feet as he soared toward the other side. Then—

The space began to stretch. Damon's eyes widened as the distance between the two sides expanded endlessly.

If he wasn't in a body of solid shadow, he would have paled. But that was only the beginning of his troubles. From the darkness, fast as bolts of lightning, black holes shot out with circular maws, each mouth wider than a wyvern's wings.

Damon gritted his teeth as his momentum died.

"Damn it…"

He twisted his body as he fell toward the worms. At the last moment, he turned into a shadow, evading the first one as he fell into the darkness that was their nest, or their prison.

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