Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

As Simon witnessed all the scenes, he felt his body revert back to its physical self and instinctively knew that the historia had ended. He was finally aware of the events, the trail was trying to convey and at the same time got a glimpse of what had occurred here in the past.

However, even when the Historia ended, there was still a concern in him that still remained. His concern was related to none other than the hand which now had the self-consciousness of the being.

No, calling him being was inappropriate when he knew its name. Ozymandias, that should be the name of the entity that had fought with Yela and also the source of all the negative curse energy inside the tomb.

After Simon sorted out his thoughts, he finally laid his eyes on what lay in front of him. The wide pristine hall with the statue of a six winged angel in the middle, was something that he had seen in the historia.

This place was precisely where that Armageddon like battle took place.

"The Roof?" Simon muttered as he looked up towards the ceiling only to find a layer of soil replacing the wall as the ceiling. There was no mistake, this place was definitely one of the part of the mausoleum which held Yela's crown.

Simon stepped forward and started carefully observing the place. In the memories of the Historia, this place looked extremely clean, white and pristine. However, right now its condition could only be described as dilapidated with dirt and cracks spreading towards every corner of the place.

Simon kept examining the place before his steps ultimately led him towards the large statue in the middle. He did not know how or why, but the statue was the only intact thing in this place.

When Simon gazed at the vague figure of the angel in the statue, for some reason, he felt uncomfortable leading to him frowning his brows in consternation. Observing the statue carefully, he sensed a vast power that made one bow their heads in worship involuntarily, coming off from the statue.

What was the reason for it? Why was it placed here and who the person was? Simon had no idea; however, for some unknown reason, he did not have any good impression of it.

After walking past the statue, Simon saw a path at the end of the hall which led deeper towards the mausoleum. As he approached closer, he felt a terrible amount of curse energy gushing out from inside the path.

Recalling the information before the Historia started, Simon knew that whatever was inside there, was the subordinate of Ozymandias. A being who could tear the sky and cause natural disaster just by a few simple movements.

There shouldn't be any doubt that its subordinate who is on the search of Yela's crown will be extremely powerful too.

Simon took a deep breath, composed himself before walking inside the path that led deeper towards the mausoleum. The moment he was exposed to that unending, overwhelming negative curse energy, he felt all his pores open up and a sense of dread grasped his heart.

The energy kept on getting stronger the deeper he went which spoke volumes about the being inside.

After walking through a narrow dark pathway for a while, a heavy double door appeared in front of Simon. From the way it had dents and was heavily displaced, it could be seen that somebody had entered through it forcefully.

There was no need to question as to who that being and how powerful it was. Just from the mere whiff of its aura, was enough to tell Simon that its strength was beyond the capability of the current him to contend against.

His senses were on high alert screaming him to run away from here immediately; nonetheless, he suppressed those emotions and calmed his strained nerves.

No matter what, he has to complete the trail to get a transit rock to return. He had no path other than moving forward. Plus, how could he just give up when he was so close to completing the trail.

Simon thought over it for a bit before deciding on using the Ice Phoenix's sigh to cover up his presence and proceed with extreme caution. He stealthily opened the door and peeked inside only to see a grey figure banging on a barrier that lay ahead.

What was bizarre about the grey figure was that although it had a humanoid appearance, it was entirely in grey and had no eyes or mouth whatsoever. It looked so creepy that if someone called it a humanoid piece of flesh, no one would argue with that.

It could also shapeshift a part of its body creating something like a huge hammer with its hands and legs.

<strong>BANG… BANG…</strong> SPARK… it continued to slam its fist on the barrier creating intense sparks in the process.

"That must be the subordinate of Ozymandias" Simon said sensing the vast amount of curse energy it was releasing.

When he sneakily used the [Analysis] on it, he was astonished to find that the thing was called Fifth Finger. Since the entity's level was many times higher than him, his skill failed to provide any other information.

No, it would be wrong to say that it did not provide any other information, since it did tell him that the entity was currently in a weakened state right now. Though even if it was weakened it would be foolish for him to even assume that he can defeat it.

After Simon finished observing the entity, he shifted his eyes on the barrier which was holding an entity of such level, outside. It must be said that whoever created this barrier must be insanely powerful themselves.

<strong>BANG…</strong>

<strong>ZZzzTTtt…</strong> the entity named Fifth finger, shape shifted one of its arms into a huge hammer oozing out with curse energy before ramming into the barrier. Although the barrier did not break, due to the entity's relentless effort, there were some minor cracks starting to appear on the barrier.

Simon was sure that if the Fifth Finger kept on attacking the barrier like that, it would soon collapse.

Beyond the barrier, was an untouched coffin. The moment, Simon saw that coffin, he immediately knew that was where Yela's body and the crown was stored. However, what was troubling about the situation was that the entity had appeared here before him and as long as it was there, Simon had no chance to get the crown and complete the quest.

Worse, if he did nothing the barrier would break and Ozymanidas' subordinate will get the coffin where Yela's crown was before him and break it leading him to fail the trail automatically.

He cannot fight it since the power difference was just too much nor did he know if he can distract it. In the first place, even if it was possible to distract it what was he supposed to do about the barrier protecting the coffin.

No matter what he could think of, all his options seemed to be closed and completing the trail seemed almost next to impossible.

Simon was just cursing about how insanely hard the difficulty level was when suddenly he noticed that his space was starting to heat up. Searching inside the subspace of the space ring, he soon found the thing that was inducing this reaction.

At the same moment, looking at the item, he finally understood how to clear this round.

Just like always, the trail was set up in a way which always left an option for the challengers to clear the hurdle and in this case, it was the glistering crystals he had gathered from the previous two tombs. To be more exact, from the previous two parts of the mausoleum.

Simon took out the glistering crystals from his space ring and observed them using his [Analysis] skill.

Item- Glistering Crystal, Quest Item.

Just like Crimson Bead, the Analysis was only able to provide him with the most basic information. Although it did not say anything else, it was enough for Simon to understand where to use the item. And from how the crystals were reacting, he was sure of it.

The trail made him gather the first two glistering crystals before he could get the last crystal and the crown for a reason. Deciding to trust his reasoning, Simon entered through the door and disabled the effects of the item Ice Phoenix's sigh.

The moment effect of the item disappeared, his presence was immediately sensed by the entity in front of him. What's more, the pressurising aura that it released naturally was now turned towards him.

This kind of pressurising aura, was much more powerful than Davis Hall and was on par with the Ancient Titan Treant.

The Fifth finger stopped what it was doing and turned towards him. Since it had no face, Simon couldn't tell if it was staring at him or not, but from the hostility and killing intent it was releasing, it was clear that it was ready to fight.

One of its hands that was shape-shifted into a hammer changed shapes once again and became a huge blade of a scythe. The scythe radiated off a huge amount of curse energy and was incisive enough to even contend against his [A] tier Crimson Blade.

'No good' Simon thought internally, he cannot allow the entity to make the first move or else it will be game over. He had to be the one to make the first move.

Before the entity could swing that menacing scythe of its, Simon who was holding onto the glistering crystals, flashed it in front of his enemy.

At this moment, the glistering crystals which had been acting unusual all this time, released a bright golden light that clashed against the vast amount of curse energy the entity was releasing dissipating it little by little.