Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 401 The Forbidden Door
Time goes back to one night ago, inside the Watcher Fortress.

"My Lord Bishop, the dungeon is ready," said a high-ranking monk wrapped in protective clothing in the bishop's study on the top floor of the fortress. "But would you please consider it again? At this juncture, it's best if you don't take the risk yourself."

Arganti raised a hand to stop the monk from speaking, and said, "Those in the dungeon are not monsters. They are our comrades, our closest companions who have fought bloody battles with us."

He stood up and walked towards the dungeon without any hesitation.

"Let's go. As long as there is still a chance of saving everyone, we must not give up."

A quarter of an hour later, after passing through numerous blockades and taking an old, dilapidated black iron elevator that creaked down to the bottom of the dungeon, the two finally arrived at a place that was only separated from the so-called "danger" by a wall.

With the help of the guards, Arganti first put on a layer of light protective clothing engraved with magical runes, and then put the whole body into a five-centimeter-thick special black steel heavy armor.

This set of armor is not only equipped with a closed visor, but also has quartz glass shields inlaid on the eyes. All joints are also sealed. Two gas tanks are installed on the back, supplying pure oxygen-rich air to the mask through built-in air pipes.

Inside the armor shell, the craftsmen have integrated almost every divine effect and enchantment effect that can be miniaturized, including but not limited to Breeze Shield, Holy Purification, and Golden Healing. Any of these consumes a lot of materials, not to mention the huge labor costs. Even the Watcher Fortress, which occupies nearly half of the Flame Temple's material rations, is only equipped with one set of armor of this level.

This suit was originally designed for Arganti and seven archbishop-level heroes to fight in extreme conditions on the top of the Giant Mountain. Now, after a temporary modification, it has become a protective suit to isolate "pollution".

Keng——

Arganti fastened the last buckle on the visor, waved everyone away, and came alone to the heavy steel door that was half a meter thick. He input the secret code of divine power into the door lock. The door rotated and retracted into the side wall with a rumbling sound, and then closed with a bang after he stepped into the door.

The magic crystal lamp lit up automatically, and a hellish scene came into view.

This dungeon is extremely spacious. After entering through the gate, a ten-meter-wide avenue extends hundreds of meters away. On both sides are stone steps that are slightly two inches higher than the road, and continue to extend to the left and right to form a ten-meter-wide platform.

The cells made of cold iron are distributed on the platforms on both sides. The deepest ones are even made entirely of black steel. Even ordinary heroes cannot break through from the inside.

At this moment, nearly a third of the cells are full - physically full.

One hundred and fifty-two fire monks, no, it should be said that the living beings that were once fire monks were packed in these steel prisons.

They had long lost their human form. Massively proliferated bones, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, skin and even hair broke through the body surface in an irregular manner, stretching their original skin into all sorts of bizarre shapes that were difficult to describe even in nightmares.

Tumors and horns are only the most basic mutations. Manes, scales and bone armor appear on a large scale on these monks. In severe cases, they will also grow fins, wings, bird beaks and even tentacles.

These proliferating organic tissues filled the space in the cell, and individuals that had mutated for a long time were still continuing to grow outward. Their flesh and skin stubbornly emerged from the gaps in the cell grilles, and were spread out on the central aisle like sausages cut by a guillotine in a food processing plant, looking like rectangular octopuses with a thousand claws.

At the same time, every inch of their skin and every hair exudes a high temperature that is high enough to burn normal humans. However, this temperature not only does not kill them, but instead makes them moan with pleasure and trembling, as if it is not torture, but the ultimate enjoyment that reaches the soul level!
Arganti wore a half-ton protective armor and walked towards the depths of the dungeon with heavy steps like a mountain. In the dozens of cells at the front, the prisoners had mutated relatively recently and could still maintain some vague cognition. When they saw him, they would subconsciously stretch out their palms, open their lips cracked by the high temperature, and hoarsely tell something.

Another hundred steps forward, the monks on both sides had already lost their consciousness as human beings. They frantically opened their mouths of various shapes - or should they be called mouthparts, and made all kinds of strange shouts.

Some monks regarded Agontis as one of their own kind, and their voices were friendly and joyful; some regarded him as an enemy, and their voices were full of threats and fear; some went even further, as if they regarded him as prey, not only making excited and strange roars, but also dripping large amounts of saliva, which was instantly evaporated into white smoke by the high temperature.

By the last area, it was hard to say that the monks who had mutated the longest were creatures with independent thinking capabilities.

The disorderly proliferation of physical tissue far exceeded the carrying capacity of the brain, not to mention that their brains themselves had also undergone more or less mutations. Rather than being a group of organisms, it would be more like a bunch of organic tissues that barely had biological reactions.

Ding ding ding.
Suddenly, a crisp bell rang at the entrance. Arganti frowned and turned to the door. The movable shutter used for phone calls was opened from the outside by his subordinates.

The senior monk reported: "My Lord Bishop, two more brothers have fever all over their bodies. It has been confirmed that this is a sign of the beginning of mutation. Would you like to leave here first? We... we can take them directly to custody?"

In the absence of any cure, and even the cause of the mutation cannot be determined, detaining them here is only a slightly milder measure than immediate execution.

The first group of monks who came here a month ago have long since died, and the highest survival record of the mutant individuals after being detained is only twenty-one days.

"Don't detain him. Don't detain him right away." Arganti stretched out his hand to rub his aching temple, but was stopped by the heavy armor. "You guys retreat first. I'll observe for a while and make a decision after I get out."

The high-ranking monk outside the door leaned in and looked worriedly inside the dungeon. After confirming that there was nothing wrong with his master's protective armor, he responded in a dull voice, closed the gate window again, and left temporarily.

Turning around, Arganti leaned against the door, his heavy body slowly slid down, and he sat down on the ground with his back against the round steel door.

If someone could see through the black steel mask, they would find that Argonte's expression at this moment was not lonely, let alone sad - there was only a gloomy look like a dark cloud covering a city, and an almost uncontrollable rage deep in the clouds.

why!
Why did he fall in such a ridiculous position when he had clearly walked to the door and was only one step away from cracking the lock and seizing the power within?
Is it because these children are not strong enough?

No, it's impossible. If it was such a stupid reason, how could those ice mountain goblins, who were even more despicable than wild dogs, grow into real giants? How could that old duplicity of Pilak burn himself to a charred corpse?
Without the spark of fire, it is impossible to rely solely on one's own faith to forcibly fight against that force. Pyrak is a lesson for us.

But if we don’t resist, will we all become mindless rotten meat like these children in front of us?
Or——

He risked his life to try to forcibly condense the fire, and then use the fire he differentiated to lead all his subordinates to complete the evolution together.

If what the giants said is true, then it would be Aragone himself who would become the new ancestor?

(End of this chapter)