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墨書 Inktalez
A deep voice echoed through the grand hall, seemingly coming from all directions at once, sending chills down their spines. Lin Xi, Chen Rui, and Zhou Zheng quickly formed a triangular formation, warily scanning their surroundings, weapons poised and ready.
"Who is it?" Lin Xi asked coldly, her voice laced with authority.
There was no answer, only a gust of cold wind sweeping through. The runes on the walls flickered increasingly, and the floor of the hall began to tremble violently, as if something was awakening.
Chen Rui fixed his gaze on the Black Crystal, rapidly analyzing the data: the energy of the crystal was rising, and it could peak in just a few seconds!
"Then let’s destroy it before it activates!" Lin Xi commanded decisively, drawing her explosive rounds and aiming at the crystal. However, at the moment she pulled the trigger, a transparent energy barrier suddenly sprang up around the crystal. The bullet struck the barrier, exploding into countless sparks.
"No! There's a barrier protecting it!" Lin Xi gritted her teeth.
Zhou Zheng cautiously approached the crystal but felt an invisible pressure gripping his throat as if unseen hands were tightening around him. He quickly stepped back, his face pale. "This thing not only protects itself; it can also attack!"
"We need to find the source of the barrier!" Chen Rui quickly flipped through the data on his device while activating thermal imaging. His eyes locked onto the screen as a corner suddenly displayed an extremely high Energy Fluctuation.
"There!" he pointed to a wall on the left side of the hall, where intricate runes were carved alongside three stone discs that appeared to be rotatable.
Lin Xi swiftly led the team forward, but just as they took a step, the ground cracked open, and several dark figures surged out from the fissures.
"Rift Creation!" Zhou Zheng roared as he raised his weapon and fired.
These Rift Creatures were stronger than any they had encountered before; their bodies seemed to be made of liquid metal that rapidly healed after being shot.
"Concentrate fire on their heads! Don’t waste ammunition!" Lin Xi commanded while engaging one of them in close combat. She rolled to evade an attack and seized the opportunity to stab her dagger into its head, killing it instantly.
Zhou Zheng used fireballs against the remaining two, forcing them back into a corner. Meanwhile, Chen Rui dashed toward the stone discs to analyze how to disable the barrier.
"Leader Lin! I need time!" Chen Rui shouted; these discs needed to be arranged in a specific order to close off the barrier!
"Hurry up! We can't hold them off for long!" Lin Xi yelled back while elbowing away a charging Rift Creature.
Chen Rui's hands moved swiftly over the stone discs as sweat trickled down his forehead. Each disc bore dozens of symbols; he had to find the correct arrangement in a short amount of time.
"Try to identify any patterns in the symbols!" he muttered to himself; the runes of the rift should correlate with Energy Fluctuation.
He took out his detector and began matching symbols on the discs with Energy Fluctuation readings, quickly discovering that the middle disc needed to align with a spiral symbol while the two side discs required symmetrical patterns.
"I'm almost there! Just give me thirty more seconds!" Chen Rui shouted.
At that moment, Lin Xi and Zhou Zheng were struggling against the remaining Rift Creatures. Zhou Zheng's fireballs were nearly depleted, and Lin Xi's movements had slowed from continuous combat.
"They're getting stronger!" Zhou Zheng gasped. "Chen Rui, how much longer?"
"Just one last step!" Chen Rui exclaimed as he forcefully turned the left disc. The runes began to emit blinding light, enveloping the entire hall in a radiant glow.
Suddenly, the barrier surrounding the Black Crystal vanished!
"Leader Lin, we can attack now!" Chen Rui shouted.
Lin Xi did not hesitate. She quickly pulled out the last high-explosive grenade and hurled it towards the Black Crystal with all her strength.
Boom!
At the moment of the explosion, a massive crack appeared on the surface of the Crystal, and a piercing shriek echoed from within. The entire hall began to shake violently, and the shockwave from the Rift Creation disintegrated into nothingness.
"Get out of here!" Lin Xi ordered, and the three of them rushed towards the exit. Just as they were about to escape the hall, a chilling voice echoed once more:
"Do you think destroying this Crystal will change anything?"
Lin Xi turned sharply to see a shadow slowly emerging from the crack in the Crystal. It was a man dressed in a black robe, his face obscured by shadows, with only a pair of cold eyes glinting with an eerie light.
"Who are you?" Lin Xi demanded.
The man in black smiled faintly. "I am an envoy of the Abyss. Your struggles will only hasten your demise."
"Quick!" Chen Rui grabbed Lin Xi's arm, but her gaze remained fixed on the man in black.
"When we meet again, you will be part of the Abyss," he sneered before vanishing into thin air.
The three finally burst out of the underground hall, and the tremors behind them gradually subsided. Looking back, they saw that the hall had collapsed into ruins, leaving only a silent wasteland.
In the forest, exhausted, they sat down on the ground, and Lin Xi's eyes were filled with deep contemplation.
"Who was that person? Why was he there?" Zhou Zheng asked.
"We can set aside his identity for now," Lin Xi replied slowly. "What matters is that he mentioned the Abyss Project, which is far more complex than we imagined."
Chen Rui nodded. "Although this action destroyed the Crystal, it’s clearly just the tip of the iceberg. We need to find more clues to truly stop this."
"Exactly," Lin Xi said as she stood up, her gaze resolute. "We need to organize our intelligence immediately and report back to headquarters. We must act quickly."
The three supported each other as they began their journey back to base. Despite their exhaustion, they knew this was just the beginning of their battle.
To be continued...
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