Chapter 76: The Mechanical Guardian

"That’s it, Lilith! Keep going!" Chris shouted as he watched the enormous spider struggle against her control.

Lilith gritted her teeth and poured more demonic energy into the artifact. The purple energy surrounding the creature grew stronger, spreading across its enormous body, but she still couldn’t completely control its movements.

"Wait..." She narrowed her eyes as she concentrated on the spider. "Something is wrong."

"What is it?"

"I can feel my energy spreading through its body, but it doesn’t feel like I’m controlling a living creature. It’s almost as if there’s something inside it that is preventing me from taking full control."

Chris glanced at the spider, which was still struggling against the purple energy surrounding it.

"Do you mean it’s not alive?"

"I’m not sure. I can sense something inside it, but it feels different from the life force of ordinary beasts. It’s almost as if there’s some kind of mechanism controlling its movements."

Chris raised an eyebrow. He had never heard of anything like that before, but considering everything they had encountered in the dungeon, he wasn’t going to dismiss the possibility.

"Could it be that you need more demonic energy to control it?"

"Maybe. I can feel my energy reaching almost every part of its body, but there’s something I can’t seem to influence."

"Then let’s try something else. I’ll keep attacking it while you concentrate on taking control."

Chris tightened his grip on his sword and gathered his energy. The familiar crimson aura appeared around the blade as his Gwenor and demonic energy blended together.

Without wasting any time, he swung his sword and sent another wave of crimson energy towards the spider.

The attack struck its enormous body, leaving a deep mark across its body. The creature released another terrible screech and tried to move, but Lilith immediately focused more of her energy on restraining it.

Chris continued attacking, sending several more crimson waves towards the creature. Each time one of his attacks landed, Lilith felt her connection with the spider growing stronger, as if the crimson energy was somehow helping her penetrate whatever was resisting her control.

"Again!" she shouted.

He nodded before swinging his sword once more, sending another wave towards the spider’s head.

This time, the purple energy surrounding the creature suddenly spread deeper into its body. Lilith’s eyes widened as she felt something change, and she quickly poured more demonic energy into her artifact.

"I can feel it!"

"Can you control it now?"

"I think so!"

She raised the artifact with both hands and concentrated on the enormous creature. After a few moments, the spider finally stopped struggling, and its numerous legs slowly lowered towards the ground.

Lilith released a long breath as she looked at it.

"I did it! I can control it now!"

Chris smiled at her accomplishment, although he couldn’t help noticing how exhausted she looked.

"That was quite a struggle. Are you alright?"

"I’m fine, but..." She glanced at the spider. "It’s still incredibly difficult to control. I can make it move, but keeping it under my influence takes a lot of concentration and energy."

"Well, at least we don’t have to fight it anymore."

He looked at the enormous creature before glancing towards the mountain from which it had emerged. An idea suddenly crossed his mind, and he began wondering what might be hidden beneath its surface.

"By the way, can you make it return to the mountain?"

Lilith looked at him with curiosity.

"Why?"

"I want to see what’s inside. We already know that this thing came from beneath the mountain, so there might be something interesting in its nest."

"You’re planning to go inside?"

"Of course. We’ve come this far, so it would be a waste to leave without investigating."

Lilith nodded before concentrating on her artifact again. The spider slowly turned around and began crawling towards the mountain, its enormous legs moving one after another as it followed her commands.

Chris watched carefully as they approached their destination, but just when the creature reached the mountain, something happened.

The upper part of the mountain began moving, separating from the rest of the structure before slowly opening like a giant cap.

"Whoa! So that’s how it works! There must be something that senses when the spider comes close."

Chris stared at the opening in amazement before quickly turning towards Lilith.

"Stop! Don’t let it go inside!"

She immediately stopped controlling the spider, causing it to remain motionless just outside the opening.

"What are you planning now?" she asked.

"Let’s take a look first. Azreon, fly inside!"

The dragon spread his enormous wings and immediately headed towards the opening. Chris and Lilith held on tightly as he entered the mountain, but neither of them expected what they were about to see.

Instead of a natural cave or some kind of underground nest, they found themselves inside what looked like a man-built facility. The walls were made of enormous stone blocks, carefully arranged on both sides, while several pillars supported the high ceiling above them.

There was a huge open space in the middle of the structure, large enough to accommodate the enormous spider. Chris looked down and noticed several strange markings covering the floor, with some of them forming circular patterns that seemed to indicate where the creature was supposed to stay.

"Is this where the spider lives?" Lilith asked as she examined the surroundings.

"That’s what it looks like. Judging by the markings on the floor, this entire place was probably built specifically for it."

Chris continued looking around until his attention was drawn to something at the far end of the room. There was a table standing against the wall, and from their distance, he could see several objects scattered across its surface.

"Let’s see what’s over there."

Azreon slowly descended, allowing Chris to jump off his back. Lilith followed him as they approached the table, which appeared to have been abandoned for an incredibly long time.

Numerous sheets of paper were scattered across it, although most of them had turned yellow and were barely recognizable anymore.

"Someone must have worked here," Chris muttered as he examined the papers.

He reached out and tried to pick up one of the sheets, but the moment his fingers touched it, the paper crumbled into dust.

"Well, that’s unfortunate."

Lilith approached and looked at the remaining papers.

"They must have been here for a very long time. I doubt there’s anything left that we can read."

"Yeah, it doesn’t look like we’ll get much information from these."

Chris looked towards the wall behind the table and noticed several strange markings carved into the stone. Unlike the papers, these seemed to have survived the passage of time rather well, but unfortunately, he couldn’t understand what they meant.

"Aura!"

A streak of light emerged from his beast pouch before taking the familiar form of a small fox.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Can you read these markings?"

Aura glanced towards the wall and approached it. She carefully examined the inscriptions for a few moments before nodding.

"Yes, I can understand them."

"Then what do they say?"

She continued looking at the wall before answering.

"These markings describe the purpose of this place. According to them, the spider is the guardian."

"The guardian?" Chris repeated as he looked towards the enormous opening through which they had entered.

"That’s right. Although I can’t find much more information here."

Chris rubbed his chin as he began piecing everything together. After a few moments, he turned towards Lilith and pointed at the demon artifact in her hands.

"I think I understand why the spider attacked us."

"Really? What do you mean?"

"Think about it. The spider only emerged after you activated your artifact and released your demonic energy. It must have been designed to sense that energy and react whenever someone tried to use the artifact inside this dungeon."

Lilith looked towards the enormous creature outside.

"So it was protecting the artifact?"

"That’s what I believe. It probably wasn’t supposed to let anyone take it out of the dungeon, which is why it attacked us as soon as you activated it."

She nodded slowly as she considered his explanation.

"That would make sense. But who could have created something like this?"

"That’s exactly what I’d like to know."

Chris looked around the enormous facility once again. Whoever had built this place must have possessed incredible knowledge and abilities. Creating something large enough to house that spider was already impressive, but making a creature capable of fighting was something else entirely.

Lilith shook her head. "I’ve never seen anything like it before."

"Well, whoever did it was certainly no ordinary person."

Suddenly, Aura’s ears twitched as she looked towards another section of the wall.

"Wait! There’s something else here."

Chris turned towards her.

"What did you find?"

"There’s something hidden on this wall. Come closer."

He approached the area she was looking at, but after examining it for a few moments, he couldn’t notice anything unusual.

"Where? I don’t see anything."

Aura pointed her paw towards a small symbol that was almost indistinguishable from the surrounding markings.

"Press this symbol."

Chris looked at it before placing his palm against the stone and pushing.

*Click!*

The stone sank slightly into the wall, almost as if he had pressed a button.

"Whoa!"

Before he could say anything else, a low rumbling sound echoed throughout the room. The stone wall slowly began sinking deeper, revealing a hidden opening behind it.

A moment later, a bright light emerged from within, gradually forming what appeared to be another portal.

Chris and Lilith stared at it in surprise.

"So there’s another portal hidden here?" she asked.

"Looks like it. So maybe the spider wasn’t the boss at all. It was just a guardian someone had created to protect this place."

Lilith nodded.

"Good thing we decided to investigate before killing it. Otherwise, we might have missed all of this."

"Exactly. But there’s still something I want to check."

Chris turned towards the entrance.

"I want to make sure that our suspicions are correct."

He jumped back onto Azreon’s back, and Lilith followed him before the dragon flew out of the mountain. The enormous spider was still waiting beside the opening, and Chris immediately looked towards its head.

"Lilith, can you make it lie down?"

"Of course."

She concentrated on her artifact and sent another command to the creature. The spider slowly lowered its enormous body until it was resting on the ground beside the mountain.

Chris nodded before jumping off Azreon’s back and landing on the spider. He carefully walked across its hard outer shell until he reached its head, then pulled out his sword and gathered his energy.

The crimson aura spread across the blade, and he began slashing at the spider’s head.

It took several minutes of continuous attacks before he finally managed to cut through its outer layer. Once a large section separated from the rest of its head, Chris noticed something underneath that made him smile.

As he had suspected, it wasn’t flesh as he had expected, but a metallic layer that covered the inside of its head.

"Just as I thought..."

Lilith approached on Azreon and looked at the exposed surface. "What’s that?"

"Take a closer look. This thing is definitely not an ordinary beast."

Chris continued cutting through the metallic layer with his crimson energy. After several more attacks, he finally managed to open a large enough section to see what was inside.

Numerous tubes and metal pipes were connected to different components within its head, forming a complicated structure that he couldn’t begin to understand. Some of them were still glowing faintly, and he could even hear a strange humming sound coming from deeper inside.

"What in the world..." Lilith muttered as she examined the interior.

Chris noticed something glowing between the pipes and immediately leaned closer. However, the object was much larger than he had initially thought, and he couldn’t simply pull it out because of its size.

"What’s that?" Lilith asked as she approached.

"Let’s see..."

He moved some of the tubes aside before using his sword to cut through the remaining metal surrounding the object. After several strikes, he finally managed to expose most of it.

As soon as he saw what it was, his eyes widened.

It was an energy crystal!

He had seen similar crystals before, inside another demon dungeon, but this one was considerably larger than any he had ever encountered.

"An energy crystal?!" Lilith exclaimed in surprise as she examined it. "I’ve never seen one this big!"

"Neither have I. This thing is enormous!"

Chris looked at it with interest, but before he could examine it further, Aura suddenly approached and carefully inspected the crystal.

"What is it?"

"The energy inside it is very faint. It seems to be almost completely depleted."

Chris raised an eyebrow.

"Almost depleted? How is that possible?"

"I’m not sure, but judging by its current state, it probably hasn’t had much energy left for a very long time."

Aura looked towards the enormous spider before continuing.

"Actually, you should consider yourselves lucky. If a crystal of this size were operating at full power, I can’t even imagine how strong this creature would have been. It would probably have had an incredibly powerful energy barrier surrounding its body, making it nearly impossible for you to defeat it."

Lilith’s eyes widened slightly.

"You’re saying we might not have been able to defeat it?"

"That’s right. Even the energy inside this depleted crystal is impressive. I wouldn’t want to imagine what it could do at full power."

Chris looked at the crystal for a moment before a strange smile appeared on his face.

"Is that so..."

He slowly raised his hand and placed it against the crystal, then began focusing his energy.

"What are you doing?" Lilith asked, noticing the crimson aura gathering around his hand.

Chris didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he concentrated on gathering his Gwenor and demonic energy before attempting to inject it directly into the crystal.

The crimson energy slowly spread across its surface.

Lilith stared at him in confusion before suddenly realizing what he was trying to do.

"Wait! Chris, what are you—"

He quickly turned around and grabbed both Lilith and Aura.

"Azreon! Fly!"

The dragon immediately spread his wings as Chris jumped onto his back, pulling the two girls along with him.

Without waiting for anything else, Azreon rushed towards the mountain’s opening.

They quickly ascended before diving into the enormous structure, and just as they entered the mountain...

*BOOOOOOM!*

A tremendous explosion erupted behind them, filling the entire area with a blinding flash of light and a powerful shockwave.

Azreon continued flying forward while Chris looked back at the enormous explosion with an excited expression.

Lilith, on the other hand, widened her eyes as she stared at him.

"ARE YOU CRAZY!? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?"

Chris couldn’t help bursting into laughter.

"Hahahahahaha! Don’t worry! I knew something like this would happen!"

"You knew!? And you still did it!?"

He continued laughing as Azreon flew deeper into the mountain.

Aura shook her head while looking at him.

"You’re really an idiot sometimes."

Chris simply grinned before turning his attention towards the portal they had discovered earlier.

"Come on, buddy! Let’s get out of here!"

Azreon increased his speed, and a few moments later, they approached the portal.