Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 224 - 22: Underground Tunnel

Chapter 224: Chapter 22: Underground Tunnel

"Medea..." In the dim environment, Nora clutched Medea’s arm fearfully, "Is Aske really in that direction?"

"Of course." Medea said, "This mutant has greatly amplified the range of my Mind Power."

"I’ve already screened all the targets within my perceptual range. Aske is in that direction, I can recognize the fluctuations of his Mind Body even with my eyes closed."

Nora wanted to ask, "Why can you recognize it so proficiently?" However...

Ever since the two of them were suddenly teleported here by the mutant, the surrounding environment had frightened her so much that she dared not ask any more questions, she could only scurry along, following closely behind Medea.

The two walked down a long corridor, the walls around them reinforced with steel plates in concrete. Many steel plates were showing signs of decay and rust, silently indicating how long this place had been abandoned, giving Nora an extremely uncomfortable feeling.

"It’s good that Aske is nearby." She thought secretly, feeling slightly relieved.

The two continued forward, trekking uphill. The clear footprints in the dust behind them showed that this passage hadn’t been visited for many years, filling the air with the smell of dust.

Fortunately, the ventilation seemed fine, as neither of them had experienced any breathing difficulties yet.

They finally reached the end of the corridor, blocked by an iron gate embedded in the ceiling. Medea tried pushing it, but it wouldn’t budge.

It didn’t seem to be locked, rather it seemed like there was something heavy on top of it, preventing the gate from being pushed open from below.

"Medusa, are you there?" With no hope left for Nora, Medea could only call out mentally.

"This mutant... there’s something strange..." Medusa’s voice strained.

"Is your Mind Body damaged?" Medea asked, frowning.

"It... when teleporting you... it split me..." Medusa said weakly.

"Split?" Medea was stunned for a moment before realizing.

Medusa was originally a split from her Mind Body, and another split would undoubtedly cause serious harm to her already incomplete self.

"It split you? Where is the split Mind Fragment?" Medea asked anxiously.

"I don’t know..." Medusa gasped, "I can’t maintain... now... I need to rest..."

"My power... first, I lend it to you..." Her voice faded, "Take it back, Medea..."

"Take back our... Mind..."

Medea stood still, silent.

"What’s wrong, Medea?" Nora asked.

"It’s nothing." Medea said blandly, pulling Nora a few steps back, then raising her left hand aimed at the iron gate.

The main personality’s mental consciousness quickly sank, connecting to the sleeping Medusa deep within the Mind.

As she said, Medusa’s alter ego was very fragile at that moment, appearing to have lost a third of her Mind Body, akin to someone being chopped in half and bleeding profusely—Medusa’s alter ego was undergoing immense pain, so much that she could only choose to rest involuntarily.

The slight pain that leaked from her personality made Medea’s body stiffen, even cold sweat breaking out on her back.

However, this pain was enough, from the interface opened by Medea, she could communicate with Purgatory, exchanging pain for a growth in power.

This was originally her "Talent," the talent of the Witch of Suffering.

Azure-blue Flames burst forth from her hand, instantly melting the iron gate, the lock, and everything else on top of it, even directly burning through the building’s roof and shooting towards the cloudy sky.

Nora also felt the intense heatwave, she had to quickly retreat several meters away to avoid the steel-refining high-temperature Air Flow.

Medea stood in place, massive Flame Flow continued to surge from between her fingers, the sudden heat even created wind in the corridor, blowing her burgundy hair back behind, swirling with countless tiny sparks dancing up and down around her flowing hair.

"That’s it!" The Swordsmen in the mist-shrouded town church had, without a doubt, also seen the towering Flames.

"Medea?" Aske speculated internally, giving a signal to Richarter and the others.

The group hurried over and finally, before the entrance of a building, saw that the Flame Flow had already dissipated, leaving only a gaping hole in the roof.

"Is this the town hall?" Richarter looked at the building in front of him, took down his longsword from his back, and commanded, "All hands, ready for battle!"

Thus, all the Swordsmen proficiently drew their longswords and held them with both hands, vertical in front of their chests.

Richarter took the first step, stepping onto the town hall’s steps, then pointed his longsword forward and turned his head to respectfully say,

"Lord, please go first."

Aske, watching from the side: .........

Richarter did not speak—unless facing a formidable Swordsman, the old Sword Saint usually wasn’t much for talking (of course, it could also be that he wasn’t moved to recite poetry), and he indifferently stepped onto the stairs and walked in.

"Let’s go, Chief Aske," Richarter motioned and followed Richarter inside.

Aske followed them inside and saw signs of melting all around the walls. The air was still filled with a significant amount of High Temperature—the room temperature had probably reached forty to fifty degrees. The old Sword Saint seemed unfazed, whereas he and Richarter were already sweating profusely.

However, a Physical Power above Lv. 5 wasn’t likely to suffer heatstroke just from this. Everyone continued forward despite the High Temperature, passing through several rooms and corridors, until they reached the spot previously burned through by the Flame Flow.

It seemed like a storage room of sorts, only that whatever had been stored there had already been completely burned to ash. The large hole in the ceiling let in light and mist, making this place considerably cooler than the other rooms outside.

In the middle of the floor was another large hole, from which the Flame Flow had burned its way up. Aske peered down and saw a head popping out of the hole.

"Medea?"

"Squad Leader!" Medea called out as if delighted. Her Mind Body had already detected the others in advance.

"Hey hey hey, is that Aske?!" Nora’s voice came from below Medea, "...Ah! So hot!"

"Be careful not to touch the edges of the hole!" Medea warned her.

"You know each other?" Richarter asked in surprise, looking at the two beautiful girls in the hole, then turned back to Aske.

"Let’s confirm the password," Aske said, pulling out a crumbled piece of paper from his pocket.

The two girls in the hole also took out their pieces of paper, unfolded them, and held them up high.

Comparing the papers, there were no problems.

"So," Medea sighed with relief, "hurry and pull us up..."

Aske had already jumped down and turned his head to ask, "What did you say?"

"Nothing..." Medea smirked, "Because of the High Temperature left by the Flame Flow, the edges of this pit are scorchingly hot; we can’t climb up by holding on."

"No worries, it will cool down eventually." Aske peered into the passage, "What is this place?"

"An old passage," Nora answered.

"Where does it lead?" Aske asked.

The two girls looked at each other. Where does it lead? How would we know? Isn’t the priority to get out first?

"Um, there seems to be a huge iron gate inside," Nora whispered, "We didn’t dare get close..."

"We’ll have to go in and see," Aske responded. From a player’s perspective, a game instance wouldn’t likely have a useless tunnel—there must be some trick to it.

Medea wanted to say more but saw Richarter also jumping down, looking toward the end of the passage and saying nothing.