CHAPTER 578: SMILE

There was a volatile pause as the Thing stared at Liam. Hair flowed over her head, covering one of her eyes, the other peering at Liam through a little slit.

Her eye was a dot of white light, adding to her terrifying appearance.

She smelled horrible, too. Rotten, like an unburied corpse.

Her head was hunched over the corridor’s ceiling, as it did little to accommodate her height.

"Am I intruding?" Liam asked, receiving no response. "I don’t mind leaving, y’know? Just point me to the nearest exit." He smiled with his teeth.

The Thing was not amused. Its body was shaking strangely, and Liam could only assume it was anger. Maybe excitement, too.

Then, something surprising happened.

The Thing outstretched her hand towards the left hand corridor. A long, bony, dirty, creepy finger pointed towards it.

Liam looked at the corridor for a moment, then back at her.

"I’ll be on my way, then," he said, smiling like it was the happiest day of his life. "Cheer—"

BOOM!

Terrible pain flooded Liam as the Thing’s witch-like hand smacked him towards the far end of the corridor. Contrary to its weak appearance, she was incredibly strong.

To think he fell for the primitive trick in the book. From an even more primitive Thing!

’Rank 5,’ Liam thought seriously. He’d broken some face bones, fixed them, and started running all in the same breath.

He was fast, but the corridors were plenty, torches bursting with sudden blue flames to provide light as he passed through. The skittering noise behind him was getting louder and louder.

The Thing was fast, alright. Very fast.

Faster than him.

Liam felt a long, cold hand reach out and wrap around his neck. He cursed to himself, the odachi forming in his hand and making a swift backwards slash that would’ve split a Rank 4 cultivator in two.

Except, the Thing was not a Rank 4 cultivator, and she wasn’t split in two. In fact, the sword made contact with her arm, barely piercing an inch past her black, dried up skin. Worst of all, her grip was still tight around his neck.

And she clenched. Liam’s neck gave way to all kinds of cracks, and had he still been human, he would’ve died then and there.

Except, Liam was not human, and he was not dead.

His neck changed shape, transforming muscle into hard bone. The rest of his body followed closely, pulsing and bulging with all kinds of liquidy noises and cracks. Within seconds, he was a different creature altogether.

It seemed as though his body followed a design most suitable for enduring powerful attacks and strikes. Liam had used all the skeletal material on the outside of his body, interweaving muscle fibers in between to support his shield-like composition.

He looked like an armored titan of sorts, sacrificing power for protection.

’If I can’t beat you,’ Liam thought, breaking the Thing’s grip on his neck and punching it with a fist covered in Chaos. It fell back for a moment, tilting its head in confusion. ’I just have to survive you.’

With that, Liam was on his feet once more.

As he ran, attacks continued to shoot at him from behind. Grabbing, pulling, smacking him onto the Tomb walls, cracking off more and more of him.

He slipped as a claw missed his head, tumbled across the floor, and something clicked within the Tomb’s floors.

KRSHHHHHHHHH!

Fire spewed like dragon’s breath from holes in the walls and ceiling. Liam grit his teeth and shoved through, while the Thing visibly recoiled, releasing a deafening shriek that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. No doubt, it had reached every corner of the Tomb.

It was the first time it made noise, and it was not soothing to the ears.

Liam pulled through the fire, his skin releasing a disgustingly appetising smell. He resembled a nasty burn victim, and his healing seemed like a sped-up timelapse of him recovering. The fire bought him time.

’You don’t like fire, eh?’ Liam thought. The fire was still spewing out, and the Thing made no effort to follow.

That meant it wasn’t invincible, but it also meant it had a weakness Liam couldn’t exploit to the furthest extent.

’If only my darkness could be as fiery and ferocious as true flame.’

Ahead, the seemingly endless corridor split into three different paths. Each one undiscernable from the next.

He’d made a beeline for the middle one, the Thing gaining on him within seconds.

Yet, just as he was about to jump through it, he made a smooth pivot with his left foot, evading to the left, and ducking as he did so.

The maneuver had caused the Thing to jump over his back, unable to stop in time, slipping and falling in humiliating fashion.

’Faster but dumber,’ thought Liam, dashing through the left corridor with unreal speed. He’d bought himself a second or two of time, but that was plenty.

Finally, the Tomb’s dreadful hallways came to an end. He could see a stone door not far away, spreading apart as he approached.

A smile formed on his face.

There were bold writings on top. It seemed important, but there was no time to let the Translator read the script and do its thing.

He leapt through it and the doors began to close behind him. He could see the Thing’s glowing eyes and wavy red hair as it shut. She made no attempt to pry the doors open with her bare hands.

He winked at her and smiled.

It smiled back.

Then the doors shut.

Stretching out his body, Liam took one look around the space. The walls were curved outward, like a colosseum without the crowd or glory.

Hanging from above, wrapped in rusted chains, were mummified corpses of armored soldiers. Swords in their hands, their mouths hung open. Other items were scattered around here and there – broken shields, plates of metal, dried bones and chipped swords.

The ceiling was shaped like a dome, the walls of which spoke of an ancient mural, depicting a great war of fire, blood and destruction.

Liam was taken aback.

This was the Thousand Year War.