Reaching into the chest, Qi Ling took out what seemed to be a ring. She was cautious and didn't dare to put it on, but instead she just observed it carefully.
It was made of gold, with a dazzling purple gem embedded on top. Slowly, she walked back towards the others, ring in hand.
"Ivy. Do you want this?" She asked, holding it up.
"Hm… can I take a look?" Iris asked. Qi Ling nodded and handed it over to her, who accepted it and without any hesitation, began sliding it up her finger.
Qi Ling's eyes widened. "Wait, that could be dang-"
But it was too late.
The gem suddenly lit up, its fascinating purple glow blinding everyone in the room. The Ghost Hunters heard the sound of metal clanking, and instinctively readied their Angelicas. As the light faded away so they could see again, their eyes widened as they saw the army of knights standing on their feet once more, weapons drawn.
"It was a trap after all!" Acaya yelled. "Cry of the Pharaoh — Shifting San-"
"Hold it!" Iris interrupted his casting, sitting on top of Finn's shoulders, and then lowered her voice again. "These knights… don't attack them."
"They're not moving or being hostile…" Qi Ling pointed out, narrowing her eyes.
Iris, in response, clenched her fist tight — the one the ring was on. Immediately, the army of knights knelt down to the floor, as if swearing loyalty.
That was all it took for all the Ghost Hunters to realize what was going on.
"She's… controlling them?" Iyesha murmured in shock.
"So that's what the ring does…" Iris whispered to herself. She had seen Yokru wearing something on his skeletal fingers earlier, but she didn't have time to inspect it too closely. But after looking at this ring properly, she was certain it was the same one Yokru had been wearing earlier. This was how he had been controlling this army of undead knights.
It felt a bit weird and dirty wearing this, but Iris could cope with it. The only problem was… how they were going to bring this army of knights outside this room. If they had to go back down those stairs, then-
But just as the Ghost Hunters were worrying about this, the chest that had once contained the gem disappeared in a shimmer of light, and in its place was a dark, spiraling purple portal.
"… Something like this appeared in the Dungeons too, after taking down a Boss," Obo noted. "It should be safe to go through, but…"
Iris closed her eyes and mentally directed one of the soldiers to go into the portal, disappearing from everyone else's sight. After several seconds, she opened her eyes again. "It's safe. This leads back to the main room of the cathedral, where we separated with the other group."
Acaya blinked in surprise. "You can see what the soldiers can…?"
"Erm… not exactly," Iris replied. "It's more like… I can 'sense' their surroundings. I can get a rough sense of where they are, but I can't detect surprise attacks on them or anything like that."
"Huh… interesting." Acaya turned around and stepped towards the portal. "Well, if she says it's safe, then… let's go."
He stepped through, and one by one, the other Ghost Hunters did as well, with Finn and Iris taking up last. Iris led the rest of the soldiers through the portal as well, and just as expected, they found themselves within the same room they had first been in upon arriving in this place.
Toth went over to the door on the left side, where the other group went through, and tried pulling on it. It didn't budge.
"It's locked," he declared, then walked back to the others. "Busting through won't work either, since it seems to be protected by some sort of mysterious paracausal energy."
"It's fine. Let's go to the rendezvous point for now, and wait just as planned. Who knows — they may already be finished before us," Acaya said, then began heading up the stairs. The others followed.
Unbeknownst to them, however… right as they left, several screams of pain and shock rang out in the air, and were abruptly cut off soon after.
After reaching the same basement chamber as before, the group found that the right half of the sigil in the middle of the doors was now lit up. As it was a crescent moon, that left only the tips on the left side yet to be lit up.
"Looks like our guess was right," Chisis noted. "All that's left is for the other team to take down their boss, and this door should open up."
Just as he said this, the two tips of the crescent moon suddenly began glowing pale white just like the rest of the sigil, and the door before them slid open to both sides to reveal a straight corridor going forward.
"… It seems they did it," Toth said.
"Yeah… now we just gotta wait for them to come back here, then go through there," Obo added with a smirk. "Imma check it out to see what's coming up next…"
With an excited look on his face, Obo was about to head into the corridor, but a hand stopped him.
"No," Acaya interrupted. "It's too dangerous."
"Man, you're too careful," Obo said, rolling his eyes. "What could possibly kill me there? A spike trap? Ha-"
But he froze mid-laugh when Iris sent a soldier into the corridor. Immediately, sets of spikes activated on both sides, piercing through the soldier's armor instantly. The lifeless knight with armor tougher than titanium was filled with holes in the blink of an eye.
Acaya didn't need to say anything further, and instead just patted Obo twice on the shoulder. Obo watched, slack-jawed, as the spikes slowly retracted, and the knight fell to the floor. Iris repaired it by injecting mana into the ring, and it crawled out of the corridor to stand on its feet again as if nothing had happened.
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