Chapter 706: 552 The Most Original Sin
"[Full Flight]."
It was a magic that allowed flight magic to be cast upon multiple members at once, enabling one’s teammates to fly alongside oneself.
Reiger activated this magic for himself and Lotte, causing a faint blue glow of magical power to flicker along both their forms.
Then, Reiger and Lotte drifted off the ground and floated into the air.
"Lotte——"
Faintly, from behind, Tettelot’s voice came through.
But Lotte did not respond, only nodding at Reiger.
Seeing this, Reiger immediately took Lotte with him and dived down into the big cave.
The speed was a full-speed dive.
Lotte almost cried out, asking Reiger to slow down.
Not because Lotte was scared, but because the interior of the big cave was unknown territory for everyone. No one knew what dangers lay inside, and they shouldn’t rush downward so recklessly.
But when Lotte looked at Reiger and saw his face showing no fear, even appearing calm and collected, he immediately held back his voice, leaving the decision to Reiger.
She knew Reiger must know what was hidden inside this big cave.
Since Reiger was unafraid to choose a full-speed dive, it naturally meant he knew they were temporarily safe.
Indeed, that was the case.
"As far as I know," Reiger’s voice reached Lotte’s ears, "the truly worthwhile thing in this big cave is at the bottom."
"Before reaching the bottom of the big cave, there isn’t much of value here."
So, there was no need to waste time in the first half of the big cave, and they should just proceed downward at full speed.
Reiger silently conveyed this thought, causing Lotte to imperceptibly nod in acknowledgment.
"How deep is this cave, exactly?"
Lotte asked just this one question.
"At least eight thousand meters?"
Reiger gave an ambiguous answer.
"Eight thousand meters?" Lotte murmured, "That’s much deeper than I imagined."
Reiger did not respond to Lotte anymore, but continued to control the flight magic, speeding downward.
Soon, in such a blind dive, the light from above disappeared.
The sunlight from the surface could no longer reach here, leaving the area in total darkness.
"[Perpetual Light]."
Reiger once again cast a spell, causing a light orb to appear in front of him, emitting bright light, and illuminating the surroundings.
The orb flew in front of Reiger, falling with him in the dive, continuously dispelling the darkness and lighting up this seemingly bottomless cave.
"The temperature doesn’t seem to have dropped, huh."
Lotte, observing her surroundings closely, keenly noted this.
"Is it because of this ash? Could there be something burning at the bottom of the cave?"
At this depth, now, both Reiger and Lotte could clearly see wisps of ash floating up from the bottom of the big cave.
This ash was warm, some even glowing with firelight, giving the impression that something was burning below.
Reiger, however, still did not respond to Lotte until they descended to around 7,500 meters, when he finally spoke out of the blue.
"Don’t blink now," Reiger said, "Next, you will see the original sin hidden by Britain."
Accompanied by such light words from Reiger’s mouth, Lotte suddenly felt the air around them become incredibly heavy.
As a Paradise Fairy, her instincts were telling Lotte that what she was about to see would shake her soul and shake the foundations of Britain.
Thus, Lotte widened her eyes, concentrating intently on looking downward, attempting to uncover the deepest secrets hidden by Britain.
After a while, Reiger seemed to notice something first and finally slowed down the flight.
Lotte, too, saw something at the bottom of the cave; it was no longer mere darkness but something else.
It was—
"Red... light?"
A light like flames.
A light resembling firelight.
This light suddenly appeared at the bottom of the big cave and caught Lotte’s eyes.
"————"
Trembling.
An unprecedented trembling.
A sudden chill that emerged from deep within touched Lotte’s consciousness and soul, causing her to tremble involuntarily.
"[Negative Attributes Neutralization]."
Reiger, by her side, seemed to feel the same and instantly cast a spell, trying to block something.
But this magic, ineffective or failed, completely did not alleviate the chill in Lotte’s heart, nor did it stop her trembling.
But Reiger still continued to fly downward with Lotte, only much slower now.
After a slow descent like this for a while, Lotte finally saw clearly what was at the bottom of the big cave.
It was a gigantic entity.
It was a massive form.
It was a pitch-black emotion.
It was a terrifying gaze.
When the object symbolizing Britain’s most primitive, deepest, fundamental, and enormous sins caught Reiger’s eyes, his eyes rapidly dilated and he completely lost his usual calm and indifference.
"...Why?"
Reiger’s voice trembled as he cried out.
"Why are you in a place like this...!?"
In the large cave, Reiger’s voice echoed clearly, reverberating throughout the darkness.
"This is bad!"
At that instant, Reiger abruptly stopped flying, and with Reiger, he shot upwards without looking back.
"Boom!"
Almost simultaneously, a red glow lit up from the bottom of the great cave.
The space suddenly shook, and the gaze funneled everything in its vicinity back towards it, like a black hole, attempting to pull Reiger and Reiger as they ascended rapidly.
Meanwhile, the dark magic power surged like a tsunami, and the terrible curse took on a tangible force, causing the burning ashes to rapidly gather and form a multitude of cursed hands.
That was the same type of curse, the same hands, as the "Calamity".
"Boom!!!"
The space trembled.
The cave shuddered.
The dark cursed hands, like venomous snakes that had spotted their prey, burst one after another from the bottom of the great cave, chasing after Reiger and Reiger.
Each one was larger than Reiger and Reiger, capable of grasping a person as easily as gripping a fly.
They were like hands of a ghost stretching out from hell, relentlessly pursuing Reiger and Reiger, with every intention of dragging them both down.
"Sunshine Burst!"
Reiger shouted while carrying Reiger, launching the magic as they were about to be surrounded by the cursed hands.
In an instant, a blinding brilliance like sunlight burst forth from Reiger, scattering the countless cursed hands converging around him.
Yet the cursed hands seemed endless, and although some were scattered, more immediately took their place, continuing to relentlessly grasp at Reiger.
No, that’s not right.
"They’re not after me."
Reiger almost intuitively realized that those "hands" stretching up from the bottom of the cave were not aimed at himself, but at Reiger.
"Has the ’thing’ below recognized Reiger’s identity and knows she’s a ’Paradise Fairy’?"
So, did it subconsciously stretch out its "hands" while still in slumber?
What does it want to do?
Seek redemption?
Seek rescue?
Or perhaps... seek help from its own "comrades"?
As Reiger pondered these things, the cursed hands once again clung to them like a lingering illness, enclosing the two.
Reiger prepared to launch magic again while reflexively opening the transparent world, intending to see through all the attack trajectories of the cursed hands.
However, when Reiger’s eyes filled with a transparent luster and he looked below, the sight that met his eyes stung his vision.
He felt an abyssal darkness and a dense curse power, and then that dense curse, swamp-like, caused both his eyes and brain to sting in pain.
"What a terrifying curse...!"
Reiger’s expression changed slightly.
Despite being completely immune to mental interference, having the highest level of "anomaly resistance" ability, and possessing the power to counter evil forces, by all accounts, the curse’s power shouldn’t have affected him.
But that wave of curse power had just now been so intense it nearly became tangible, not only affecting the mind but also eroding the physical world.
If such a powerful curse were to erupt all at once, not just a small Britain, but the entire earth could become contaminated and eroded, turning into a barren wasteland?
Such a terrifying curse, Reiger had looked straight at it, even seen through it, and not immediately losing his sanity was all thanks to the protection of his developed abilities and skills.
"No! I can’t keep looking at it!"
Reiger decisively closed the transparent world.
This led to Reiger finally making a mistake.
That is, a hand much smaller than the surrounding cursed hands and indistinguishable from that of a normal person suddenly came around and grabbed Reiger by the foot.
"Ah!"
Reiger, who had been in a state of shock, let out a cry, coming back to her senses.
But by then, it was already too late.
A tremendous force acted on Reiger, pulling her down in one swift motion.
"...!"
Reiger was unable to catch Reiger, watching helplessly as she was pulled down to the bottom of the great cave, his expression changing once again.
"Run quickly!"
Driven by some emotion, just before being pulled into the boundless darkness, Reiger yelled this to Reiger.
Immediately after, Reiger disappeared from Reiger’s sight, swallowed by countless cursed hands, leaving no trace.
"Bang!"
Inside the pitch-black great cave, a firelight appeared alongside an explosive noise.
Reiger’s entire body ignited in flames, and the blast wind blew open the hood of his cloak, exposing his true appearance in the air.
A moment later, Reiger transformed into a streak of fire, shooting down like a meteor falling from the sky.
It wasn’t long before Reiger plunged into the swamp of curses, disappearing from sight.