Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

A large circular hole opened on the floor, revealing a spiraling staircase going down.

Allen was still shaken that he had not been the one to find the switch, so Zew had to move things forward.

"Hmm, there might be something involving the fragments of the sun and moon in there. Let's go down everyone!"

"Yessir!!"

Hobah was the first to reply, following right behind Zew.

"Allen, snap out of it already. We're going down, there could be something down there."

Cecile was afraid it was not safe down there, so she wanted Allen to come along too, since maybe the Ten Heroic Beasts would not be strong enough to hold it back.

"Ah yeah…"

Allen somehow managed to flip his restart switch and followed the rest down the stairs.

The large hole had a radius of tens of meters, and they went down for hundreds of meters.

But the walls there were shiny too, so they could see all the way down to the bottom.

(That was quite a walk. It would've been better if we just jumped off to fly down here. Oh wait…I guess I took too long to snap out of it.)

After around half an hour they reached the bottom and Allen realized how much he had been trapped by his own thoughts. He needed to be ready for that to happen again though.

There was a small room at the bottom of the stairs, with an entrance in front of it.

Everyone looked at it. It was a narrow entrance, only as tall as a beastman, and with the width for two beastmen to stand next to each other. It was the smallest corridor so far.

Everyone knew it could be dangerous, as it would leave no room to escape if things went bad.

"Lord Zew, Allen, please let me go in last."

"Do as you wish."

Hobah offered to go in last as a shield for attacks from behind.

There were many like Cecile, Sophie, Temi, Fui, and other rear liners with low defenses.

In the worst case scenario, Hobah would sacrifice himself for the rest to escape.

They walked for another half an hour through the long and narrow corridor.

Eventually the walls seemed to get brighter and they came out to a room with a tall ceiling.

But they could feel something else there.

"Stay alert, everyone!"

Some humanoid figures that were 10 meters tall were waiting for them, so everyone took their weapons.

"Why are there enemies all the way here?"

"Hm…wait, they're statues."

Drowning out Cecile's complaint, Zew examined the figure in front of them.

It was a statue of a magnificent warrior, posed ready to strike, almost like it was about to move.

There were around 10 of them, arranged in a circle, and something was glowing in the center.

It was another statue with a hand aloft, holding something glowing in its hand.

"Hey, stop that! Don't push me!"

"Sorry but I also want to take a look at them!"

Lepe was also looking at the statues when he was tackled from behind. Hobah had pushed his way through the corridor to see the statues as well.

"What is this place? And that light…"

"It seems to be holding something."

There were 8 statues encircling the statue of a goddess, which was holding something glowing, that was bright enough to light up the entire room.

Everyone went to look around the room while Allen went with Cecile and Sophie to examine the statue. It was a woman in her mid-30s, wearing a sensual robe with a confident smile.

"Master Allen, there's a name inscribed here!"

Sophie noticed some writing at the foot of the statue.

"Huh? God of Light Amante? That's the God that created the light of day!"

The statue depicted the God of Light Amante, who had once held a position above all Higher Gods, but had vanished.

(I guess this is an altar then. The 8 statues are Gods serving Amante then?)

It was hard to know why they were all hidden so deep in the pyramid, but there was something special about them. Then there was the glowing thing in Amante's hand too.

"Let's check it out."

Allen flew up with the Bird A's Blessing [Flight], reaching the top of the 10 meter tall statue.

(What's this? A gold nugget? I should take it if it's valuable.)

"Hey, Allen! Be careful!"

"Please be careful, Master Allen."

"I know, but I won't know what happens unless I touch it."

It could be a trap, but there was nothing else they could find there.

Allen reached out for the thing in the statue's hand.

(Oh? I'll take it.)

It was a ball similar to the Sacred Beast Stone, and was not fastened in place, so Allen easily picked it up and took it down to the floor for Cecile and Sophie to see.

"What's it?"

"I don't know. Maybe I can get Merus to…wait no, I can see its name if I put it in my Inventory."

For a moment Allen considered bringing Merus to Appraise it, but he was too busy helping to hunt ghosts. So instead he opened his Grimoire and stored the metallic orb.

Then he closed the Grimoire, and silver letters appeared.

'Fragment of the Sun has been stored.'

The long awaited words appeared there.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

"We did it! It's the fragment of the sun!!"

Cecile quickly used all her strength to pull the Grimoire from Allen, wanting a better look at it..

"Good for you, Cecile."

"Yes. Just one more fragment and my trial is over! Wait, there's something more…"

The God of Magic Isiris had also requested a fragment of the moon, so they had to find that.

"What is it? Let me see…"

There were more logs appearing on the Grimoire.

'Fragment of the Sun being analyzed.'

'Fragment of the Sun's components fully analyzed.'

'Components of [-] S summon found.'

'Fragment of the Sun must be absorbed by Sacred Beast Stone for [-] S summon to become available.'

'Absorb the Fragment of the Sun?'

'Yes/No'

"Hmm…"

Seeing that, Allen slowly reached to press Yes.

"Hey, what are you doing!!"

Cecile's veins seemed about to pop as she snatched the Grimoire away from Allen with all her might.

"I mean, it's a component I need."

(It's the only choice.)

"That's mine! Take it out of the Grimoire!!"

Cecile was afraid that Allen would impulsively get rid of the Fragment of the Sun.

So she threatened him as much as she could so he would take it out.

"That's quite worrying though. That item seems to be important to both Master Allen and Cecile."

"It seems so. Let's hope that the God of Magic Isiris will return it when her research is done."

Cecile wanted to complete her trial at least.

"That's true. Allen, should we go to the research facility for a bit?"

Cecile asked what to do next while storing the Fragment of the Sun in her magic bag.

She would continue feeling restless until they gave it to Isiris.

"Hmm, we could… Oh, maybe Zew has found something."

Maybe they had found something else that they could use on top of the Fragment of the Sun.

"Have you found anything?"

"It seems this is a statue of a Demon General. Why would they be praying to one in the divine realm though?"

"A Demon General? Hm? Wait, I think I've seen this one somewhere."

Allen looked at the 10 meter tall statue, which depicted a man with bulging muscles and a cape, his hands on his hips with his chest puffed with pride.

Allen felt like he had fought someone like that before.

"Wait, isn't this who the Demon King called the highest commander of the Demon King's Army?"

"It's true. It also says the name Ordo here…"

Cecile felt like it could not be possible, but then Sophie found a name engraved at the foot of the statue, which read Demon General Ordo.

"Why is the leader of the Demon King's Army serving the God of Light?"

Ordo was also the leader of the Demon King's Six Fallen Angels.

It was hard to know how that was related to the God of Light, so they looked around more.

"This statue looks like Bildiga."

Sophie saw another statue, which looked like the Demon General Bildiga they had fought.

"It says, Insect God Bildiga!"

Cecile looked at the bottom of the beetle statue standing upright on 4 legs.

Its name was Bildiga, the same as the Demon General Bildiga who they fought, and was immune to magic.

"This is the Mountain God Onuba… That black sword Basque had was also called Onuba."

Allen looked at the statue that looked like a person emerging from rocks. The Mountain God also used to live near to where Albahar's village was located.

It seemed like the Cursed Sword Basque had used was the Mountain God Onuba.

(They're all protecting her?)

Allen remembered what Hobah had done earlier. He had gone around the group to protect them, just like the 8 statues did to protect the God of Light Amante.

Just when Allen had found the Fragment of the Sun, they found even more mysteries about the Gods.

"

The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel