CHAPTER 672: THE IRON MAW [1]

"Damn this place stinks!" Logan complained before spitting on the ground. "This vile stench reminds me of meat left to rot."

"Don’t complain... You don’t see Nerim or Zahir complaining."

Asmodeus enjoyed the complaints of the old dwarf, but hated the dwarf reminding him after it forced him to block off his sense of smell. Though he wasn’t exaggerating, a strong sour scent that stung his nose, a nasty rotting scent like meat and dairy left in the sun for a month, and a subtle sweet scent that only deepened the foul odour.

’I can almost taste it with each breath.’

The mountains looked fine from below, but once the party reached the summit, pools of black ichor spread across the entire mountain range, leaking from the dungeon. Normally, the portal splits the inside of a dungeon from the outside.

However, as he observed, somehow the foul energy from the abyss and strange black goo caused cracks in both the dungeon walls and the barrier created around them.

"..."

"Well it’s not pleasant, but I can breathe through my gills and so I don’t smell anything." Nerim joked while Zahir covered his nose with a thick cloth and shook his head.

"See, Lad! It’s not just me."

"Yeah, yeah let’s keep going."

Slowly but surely, they arrived at the final basin just above the dungeon. Asmodeus glanced around with a sharp glare. "So many corpses." On the ground lay dozens of half-eaten, half-metal corpses. "I guess not all of them could transform into those monsters."

’I really don’t like how thick the scent of the Abyss lingers here...’

He couldn’t help but doubt the shimmering portal.

Normally, the light was blue or purple with a calm surface that flowed like the ocean, but this was different and instead resembled a maelstrom and the colour.

"Black... a black dungeon gate?"

"This isn’t right. I’m sure it was suppose to be purple." Logan grumbled while gripping his weapon, different from before. He held a medium kite shield and a hefty mace. On his belt, a sharp mining pick swayed as he jogged ahead.

"Well we don’t have a choice, let’s enter."

Asmodeus knew this could be dangerous, but he wouldn’t delay. If anything went wrong, then he’d just unseal his aura and destroy everything. But somehow, the moment he touched the portal, a sense of foreboding prickled at the back of his neck.

’Why do I feel danger?’

The soft, squishy black gel felt cold to the touch as he pushed through it, and the world started to shake; a low chiming resounded in his head. The noise was like someone smashing a church bell with a hammer.

His surroundings warped and twisted around him as a strange feeling of weight pulled onto his muscles, bones and body.

[Warning]

[Deity Detected!]

[Dungeon Rank too Low - Placing Restrictions!]

"What!?"

He shouted into the void, but no answer came; rather, the movement of his aura and mana slowed to half the speed, and his muscles almost became three times heavier, as if he packed them full of lead.

[Strength Restricted to 50%]

Woosh!

After the last message, thousands of black chains shot towards Asmodeus. He tried to avoid them, but the sharp hooks wrapped around his limbs and sank into his flesh. ’Damn it... Lumina and Serena told me of this kind of thing.’

Bang!

He tumbled from the sky and slammed into the ground and forming a deep crack under his feet. "Ugh... it stinks so bad." Asmodeus complained while flexing his muscles and shaking them. He tried to estimate his current maximum power and smiled. ’Still a Rank 1 Demigod Level.’

"Everyone alright?"

"Aye."

"Mm."

*Nod*

The dwarf scraped the walls with his mace, while the mermaid and the desert warrior checked their weapons and started to light the small lanterns they brought, hooking them to their belts.

"Then check your weapons, this place doesn’t seem too easy to clear." Asmodeus finally inspected the starting room.

A small cave with a hard dirt floor, as if sucked dry by something. The walls looked beautiful, but the silver glow from the metallic minerals in the rocks made Asmodeus cautious. "No wonder they call it the iron maw..."

’My strength isn’t low, so there’s no need to hold back.’

He gripped his axe and followed from behind. Nerim scouted ahead, her left hand flickering in the light thanks to her small buckler. "Careful." Her gills fluttered as if sensing something.

’Can she sense things using her gills?’

Asmodeus didn’t know everything about mermaids. ’I need to learn more.’ So he planned to observe her as she used simple gestures to guide the team through the glistening passageways.

Unlike the first room, the iron maw’s first floor was filled with dozens of narrow passages, although they all connected, leading in one direction. It caused the foul smell and dry air to take its toll on a party.

"Slowly, there’s two paths now." Nerim mumbled to herself as the passage led to two doorways; one seemed to be a dead end, with four huge, metallic golems standing frozen and unmoving.

The golems resembled statues, with gemstones for eyes, and solid metal bodies with disgusting purple veins that pumped the black goo constantly.

Three of the golems had glistening blue sapphires, and the largest golem, with four arms and a height of three metres, had ruby eyes.

"Are we just going to go wild?" Nerim asked, her stance low as she squatted in front of Asmodeus, their bodies brushing against each other as he wrapped around her, gripping his axe over one shoulder.

"Let me go in and see if those bastards awaken, then wait until I give the signal."

He rolled his neck, the excitement of the dungeon growing as his blood magic swirled, without the divine aura. Asmodeus could still use his nostalgic style as his blood started to pump faster and faster.

The thrill of clearing dungeons was something he missed.

"What’s the signal lad?" Logan asked.

But Asmodeus had already charged forward, his body and weapon burning with a violent, bloody aura—each step cracked the ground as the room shook. "Let’s fight!" He leapt into the air with a bloodthirsty smile.

Once he reached a few feet from the monsters, their eyes lit up and they started to move. Asmodeus stepped on the smallest golem’s head and pushed himself forward, his body spinning as the golem attacked.

He answered by gripping his axe with both hands and twirling like a storm, to form a whirlwind of steel and blood.

The impact was cataclysmic.

Asmodeus’s axe carved a half-moon arc through the air, the edge dragging a wake of crimson light that screeched across the stone walls. The first golem’s torso split from shoulder to hip, molten silver gushing like blood before solidifying midair.

The creature didn’t even scream.

It simply stopped existing from the waist up.

Boom!

He landed in a crouching position with dust exploding outward.

The other three golems reacted instantly, purple veins flaring to life as they roared in metallic distortion. The air trembled as one swung its heavy arms like hammers.

"Move!" Logan bellowed, diving behind a jut of rock. The dwarf’s shield took a glancing blow, sparks flying as he slid backwards several meters. "Hah! I’ll take the left one!"

The mermaid, Nerim, darted to the right with a mysterious grace, her movements fast and fluid despite the weight of her gear. "Zahir, cover Ryuji!"

The desert warrior nodded sharply, flicking his curved blade from its sheath. Runes glowed along the blade’s edge as his blades of wind wrapped his body, cutting through the foul mist that billowed from the golems.

Meanwhile, Asmodeus twisted his body mid-swing, catching the second golem’s punch on the haft of his axe. The blow sent a thunderous vibration through his arms, but he smiled.

"Heh, good hit."

He kicked off the ground, using the golem’s arm as leverage to vault upward, axe spinning like a reaper’s scythe. The blade caught the construct across the neck, splitting its head in two with a sound like shattering crystal. A torrent of black fluid sprayed outward, sizzling when it hit the floor.

The blood hissed before something sucked it back together.

’Hmm?’

"What in the?!" Logan gasped as the fallen ichor writhed, pulling itself into tiny, crawling things that resembled half-liquid slugs with metallic eyes.

"They’re alive! Burn the residue!" Nerim shouted, flicking a vial of greenish oil across the ground and tossing her torch. The moment the small fire touched the oil, it erupted into a giant blaze, consuming the crawling slugs in a green fire.

"On it!" Logan pulled a small bag of black powder and tossed it on the first golem Asmodeus killed, and threw his torch.

BOOM!

Zahir twisted his body, dipping his swords in the flames as he parried a golem’s downward strike. Pale orange spikes exploded, but he redirected the blow into the wall, the impact shaking loose chunks of rock. "Ryuji! The big one!"

Asmodeus turned to the largest golem with red eyes and took a deep breath while cracking his neck.

’For a warm up you guys were great.’