Online Game: I Started with Max Charisma and Caught the Goddess's Eye - Chapter 497 497: The Annihilation of an Ancient Noble Clan

Luca took a step back, putting some distance between himself and Lucas.

Although Lucas had just spoken in a logical and orderly manner, that alone could not prove he hadn’t already turned into a monster.

“We do indeed need to cooperate fully,” Luca said coldly, “but I think it’s best we keep a proper distance between us.”

Lucas, though somewhat anxious, knew he couldn’t demand more. He himself had noticed that there was something strange about his own condition.

So he nodded and replied, “I understand. I’ll keep an appropriate distance from you.”

Thus, the two of them continued moving deeper into the pitch-black passage, keeping several meters apart.

This time, they did not travel long in the darkness. Barely a quarter of an hour later, they reached the end of the shadowy corridor.

Before them stretched a vast underground hall.

The entire hall was cluttered with chairs scattered in disorder.

Some of the chairs even had people seated in them.

Neither Luca nor Lucas dared to step into the hall recklessly.

Both could sense the ominous aura lurking within.

After a moment’s thought, Luca activated his flame magic runes. A blazing fireball shot forward, flying into the hall.

The hall was instantly illuminated by its glow.

Only then did he finally see everything clearly.

The chairs arranged in chaos were blanketed with a thick layer of dust. On some of them sat figures who had already turned entirely into skeletons—clearly, they had been dead for a very long time.

“These must be the former masters of this abandoned manor,” Lucas quickly said. “They should all be members of an ancient noble family that had long since fallen into decline.”

Luca nodded expressionlessly.

Still, he had no intention of stepping into the hall.

Instead, he pondered whether there might be another passage leading out.

Lucas, seeing Luca make no move, grew even more restless.

“Shouldn’t we go inside and investigate more carefully? Perhaps the passage we’re looking for lies within that hall.”

But his suggestion received no response.

Luca remained frowning, deep in thought.

When the hall had been lit, he had not only seen the disordered chairs and the skeletons seated upon some of them—he had also noticed a peculiar symbol branded into the backrests of certain chairs.

That peculiar symbol was exactly the same as the one engraved on a clay jar Andrew had treasured.

And the symbol on that jar represented the Goddess of the Night.

If his eyes were not deceiving him, then this proved that the owners of the abandoned manor—that long-fallen noble family—were either descendants of the Goddess of the Night or her devoted followers.

The entire noble clan had already been utterly annihilated. The skeletons scattered throughout the hall were likely the very last members of that bloodline.

There had to be something suspicious about all of them dying here.

It was possible that something exceedingly dangerous still lurked within this hall.

Until he figured out the truth of the situation, he had no intention of stepping inside so carelessly.

Just as he was deep in thought, a thunderous boom suddenly echoed from behind.

Luca and Lucas simultaneously turned toward the passage behind them—

their pursuers had already entered the corridor.

“Stop hesitating! No matter what dangers lie in this hall, we have no choice but to go in!”

Lucas’s mental state finally collapsed completely.

He could not bear the thought of being trapped in a dead end again.

Without consulting Luca, he rushed straight into the hall.

The very instant Lucas set foot inside, the hall was suddenly bathed in a silvery white radiance.

At its very center, a pitch-black orb materialized.

At the same time, the chairs that had been scattered in disarray began to rearrange themselves with frightening speed, lining up in unnervingly neat rows.

The chairs with skeletons seated upon them merged into a single row, placed squarely in the middle of the chamber.

The transformation of the hall filled Lucas with dread.

He lingered uneasily near the entrance, unsure whether he should press forward.

While he hesitated, the skeletons seated in the center slowly began to stir.

One by one, they crawled toward the black orb, raising their heads to gaze upon it.

Their bony hands clasped together, lifted high above their skulls, as though in fervent prayer to the sphere.

As the skeletons formed a ring beneath the orb, the black sphere suddenly pulsed outward with a sinister crimson glow.

All of the praying skeletons let out a hideous, bone-chilling roar in unison.

And then, in an instant, the empty chairs throughout the hall filled with shadowy figures.

Men and women, clad in garments of every conceivable style, as if gathered from different eras entirely.

Every one of those apparitions turned their gaze upon Lucas and Luca.

Their expressions were twisted with mania, their eyes burning blood-red.

A mass of illusory figures surged toward Luca and Lucas, shrieking as they charged.

Lucas froze in place, too terrified to make the slightest move.

Behind him, however, Luca dashed forward straight into the oncoming phantoms. As he passed Lucas, he grabbed him firmly and yanked him along.

“Weren’t you so bold just a moment ago? Why are you petrified now, unable to even move?”

Lucas gave no reply. His mind was still clouded, trapped in shock, unable to regain clarity.

Dragging Lucas with him, Luca pressed onward through the hall at speed. He activated his defensive magic runes, forcing back the swarming apparitions’ attacks.

Though the phantoms were countless and every one of them appeared utterly deranged, their assaults were not truly lethal.

By the time Luca had hauled Lucas through the tide of spirits, the defensive runes still had not been depleted.

The two of them now stood not far from the black orb.

At last, Lucas snapped out of his daze.

He hurriedly spoke to Luca:

“On the other side of the hall—there’s a door! We should ignore whatever’s happening here and leave through that door immediately. This place is far too sinister!”

But Luca, of course, had no intention of heeding Lucas’s plea.

Their mission was to eliminate all the anomalies within the abandoned manor—and the disturbance in this hall was clearly tied to the Goddess of the Night.

“You go on ahead. I still have matters here to deal with.”

With that, Luca gave Lucas a firm push forward.

He himself remained behind, eyes locked on the black orb and the skeletons kneeling beneath it in fervent prayer.

Lucas hesitated for a brief moment.

Yet after a short struggle of thought, he decided he had to flee at once.

Staying here any longer was simply far too dangerous.

Thus, Lucas darted through the door at the rear of the hall and ran swiftly out.

Their pursuers, still chasing from behind, were a long way off yet.

That gave Luca ample time to carefully investigate the hall.

“This black orb must contain the immense power of the Goddess of the Night,” he muttered calmly, circling the sphere as he spoke.

“The skeletons praying to the Goddess of the Night must have been her descendants. It seems they were faced with an overwhelming crisis and desperately sought her aid. But in the end, the Goddess of the Night did not grant them enough help. Every member of their family met a tragic fate.”

Sophia’s voice resonated in Luca’s mind.

“What I want to know,” Luca asked her bluntly, “is when exactly this family perished. Can you tell anything from the clothes on these skeletons?”

“The garments on these skeletons were the most fashionable style over two hundred years ago,” Sophia answered swiftly. “But according to the records, the Goddess of the Night vanished three hundred years ago.

That means this family prayed to her a full century after her disappearance. I think the entire family must have gone mad. They would have been better off praying to the rulers of the All-Beings Empire.”

Her quick assessment, however, only raised more mysteries.

“As one of the old noble houses of the All-Beings Empire, they were already wealthy and influential enough to own such a luxurious manor two centuries ago. That suggests their rank was not low.

So what sort of calamity could drive them into such despair that they prayed to a goddess who had already been gone for a hundred years? Or was it truly as you said—that the whole family simply lost their minds?

I do not believe every member of the family went insane. From the phantoms that appeared just now, it’s clear that the souls of nearly all the family’s members are bound here.

That means, when they prayed to the Goddess of the Night, the crisis they faced must have been far beyond imagination. Otherwise, there would have been no need to sacrifice the souls of the entire bloodline as the price.”

Luca quickly voiced his judgment.

Both of them realized that this mysterious ancient noble family must have encountered a catastrophe of unimaginable scale.

But what exactly that crisis had been—they had no clues.

Meanwhile, the black orb continued to radiate power, a force that neither Luca nor Sophia had any means of controlling.

The number of phantoms in the hall kept growing.

Worse still, these illusory figures were growing stronger with every moment.

Remaining here any longer would clearly bring about even greater peril.

“It seems we can only continue searching the abandoned manor for more useful clues. Once we’ve gathered enough evidence, we’ll return here again!”

Having made his decision, Luca quickly moved toward the door at the back of the hall.

The instant he passed through the doorway and left the chamber, the skeletons that had been kneeling in prayer beneath the black orb suddenly rose to their feet.

One after another, they began advancing toward the very door Luca had just crossed.

It seemed they intended to pursue him.