After being killed, the Six-winged Gargoyle corpses rapidly faded into pure stone blocks and ultimately disappeared, leaving no trace of spirituality.
In the end, all that remained for them were three Human-skin Shadow characteristics.
"Damn it, they were just fakes!"
The female warrior said furiously. So far, their gains weren't enough to divide among everyone.
The others' expressions weren't good either. After experiencing a dangerous battle, the reward didn't match their efforts.
Silas paid them no mind, instead looking at Sharron.
"What's ahead?"
He asked, not forgetting their original goal was to explore further.
"A passage leading to the main burial chamber."
Sharron answered. "There are no other paths besides that."
"If there's only one path, how did you not run into these extraordinary creatures?
Human-skin Shadows being good at hiding is one thing, but you didn't notice these huge gargoyles either?"
Zoroya asked curiously.
"..."
Sharron looked at him with her delicate, emotionless face, silently expressing affirmation.
She indeed hadn't noticed.
In other words, these gargoyles had appeared out of thin air in the passage, then disappeared without a sound after being killed.
Everyone's expressions became somewhat strange.
"Can that even happen?"
The female warrior muttered.
"I've never heard of such a thing..." Best pushed up his glasses, appearing somewhat agitated.
"This tomb is completely different from any I've seen before. It's too strange..."
These mid-sequence Beyonders stood in the center of the dark tomb passage, silent for a few seconds.
An uneasy atmosphere slowly spread.
"Should we continue forward?"
After a moment, Sharron asked.
"I'm going!"
The female warrior bit her teeth and gripped her greatsword tightly.
The others couldn't accept returning empty-handed either.
The group proceeded along the pitch-black corridor toward the main burial chamber.
Along the way, Sharron identified where she'd just encountered and killed the extraordinary creatures.
That place was equally empty.
"Boom!"
Silas's palm emitted firelight, illuminating the end of the corridor.
The stone door of the main burial chamber faced the corridor directly, with a grayish-white disc embedded on it.
The disc was divided into twelve sections with a black pointer. Though similar to a clock, the sections weren't uniform in size, and half were painted black.
"This is the Amon family crest!"
Best perked up, pointing at the disc and chattering. "Legend has it this clock-styled emblem represents the authority their family wields..."
But Silas focused more attention on what was below the emblem. On the door's surface was a patch of mottled stone carving.
The carving had crude composition. Between two horizontal lines, five human figures stood. Some held greatswords, some wore robes, others floated in the air...
It appeared the scene depicted in the stone carving was exactly the corridor they currently occupied. Not only that, there were carved figures of the several of them!
"Watch out!"
Silas shouted because he saw the pattern on that carving beginning to change.
Some outlines were drawn out of nowhere on the canvas, as if an invisible chisel were etching on it, ultimately forming several huge monster patterns.
The next instant, several gargoyles materialized out of thin air in the corridor, crashing to the ground.
It's this stone carving causing trouble!
"Roar!"
The gargoyles roared and charged forward, engaging everyone in combat.
They looked solid and powerful, no different from living creatures.
More than that, similar monsters were continuously being carved, filling the empty spaces in the corridor carving.
"Boom!"
Silas knew fighting like this would be endless.
His body instantly transformed into a fireball, crossing the tomb passage distance to arrive before the stone carving on the burial chamber door.
When he faced the carving up close, he noticed more details.
"Hmm?"
In that brief instant, he seemed to discover something strange.
There were subtle differences in the carved patterns representing the five people.
The other three had normal limbs, but the figure holding the greatsword and the gentleman figure wearing a top hat both had fine trailing marks extending from their head portions, like insect tails.
Was the carving too crude, or was there another reason?
But before Silas could examine it closely, new patterns appeared on the carving.
As if sensing a crisis, the invisible hand urgently sketched.
Two crudely made monsters immediately appeared near Silas, attempting to attack him.
"Swish!"
No time to examine it carefully. Silas drew the Lava Sword and swept across the stone carving, destroying all the patterns on it.
"Hiss..."
An invisible aura seemed to dissipate from the damaged carving.
The numerous gargoyles immediately disappeared, as if they'd never existed.
The several Beyonders still maintained fighting postures, but their attacks only struck air.
"What the hell was that..."
The female warrior gripped her sword and cursed.
She appeared completely normal.
Silas deliberately observed her head carefully, then looked at the middle-aged gentleman Zoroya.
The high spiritual intuition of a "Secrets Suppliant" likewise detected nothing wrong.
Is the stone carving misleading me?
Silas thought, but still heightened his vigilance.
These Beyonders had been temporarily assembled by Sharron from various extraordinary gatherings.
It was hard to ensure they were truly reliable. Upon encountering precious treasures, would they attack each other?
The other four gradually gathered before the main burial chamber's door.
Best still wanted to study the family crest on the door, but the female warrior Kate walked up and pushed him aside.
"Move. I'll open the door."
She pressed both hands on the stone door. The muscles on the back of her hands bulged, and the stone door slowly opened under the force she exerted.
"Creak..."
The heavy stone door opened outward.
Orange-yellow light poured out from within, illuminating the tomb passage.
There's light inside the burial chamber?
But this is a tomb from a thousand years ago!
Silas looked inside. What met his eyes was an extremely spacious burial chamber.
A high platform had been built in the center, with a black coffin placed on top.
The chamber's light came from the walls, where numerous lamp stands stood with white candles, asymmetrically arranged left and right.
At the candle tops, the flames didn't flicker at all, as if frozen in a particular moment.
On the path from the stone door to the black coffin lay many corpses.
The corpses' clothing was basically modern in style, with top hats and uniforms, as well as workers' attire... These people were very likely the previous exploration team.
"How did they get in?"
Best's question voiced everyone else's thoughts too.
With so many dangerous monsters along the route from the antechamber to the tomb passage, these people's appearances looked completely intact.
It was impossible to guess how they'd avoided those dangers to enter the burial chamber directly.
What was even more surprising was that these corpses all appeared excessively aged!!