Madame Dembe's group was approaching where the sounds came. But when they emerged from the tunnel into a cavern with two giant crystal formations, the combat that everyone was listening to ended.

“Prepare yourselves” said Madame Dembe in a calm voice.

Each of the quinoids pulled out their respective weapon. Some had swords or sabers, others carried mallets or axes, there were even an archer who readied his bow and a magician who took out his grimoire.

The group of quinoids began to walk through the large pieces of glass that came out of the cavern floor. There were places that they had to jump and another’s where they had to break some in order to advance.

Arriving at one of the two great pillars in the cave they decided that it was a good place to wait for whoever was fighting.

Of the three tunnels, the first was the one they had reached, the second was the one that continued to descend, and the third was the one in which another team or teams had apparently used to venture into the caves.

While they waited Madame Dembe grabbed one of the several talismans that she kept in her pockets. Becoming completely invisible to all but her allies. For the turtle quinoid ensuring her own safety was the highest priority.

“Boom!”

The tunnel they had been observing exploded, throwing crystals, rocks, mushrooms and plants everywhere. A cloud of dust began to cover the cavern where they were, but a quinoid with bird characteristics moved one of his hands, causing a wave of wind cleared the dust.

In what was once a complicated terrain of crystal formations lay a crater. Inside this crater, the inert body of a giant spider was found facing up. Its legs twitched from time to time due to post mortem spasms.

“I recognize you as someone who could beat one of my men,” said a voice in the depth of the tunnel that had just exploded.

Nine figures appeared walking, they were the voidmaws led by Zihan. Eight of metal creatures stopped before reaching the crater, leaving their leader to approach the body of the opponent who he had defeated on its own.

" Now you will be part of me, " said Zihan kneeling in front of the spider's body.

“We will be stronger together.”

He opened his mouth and like a wild beast began to devour the spider's body with big bites.

When he finished: without even cleaning himself, he turned his head and looking at his companions and said:

“Kalio has been avenged!”

“May his soul cause the Titans nightmares!” The other Voidmaws replied cheering.

After entering the moissanite bears den, the group from Zihan reached a wide but tangled section of interconnected tunnels that were full of webs. The ten voidmaws engaged in one against a hundred battles against various kinds of spiders; until reaching a crypt where the leader lived. Kalio, the youngest of the voidmaws asked for the right to face the creature alone. Zihan and the others accepted without any problem. But the spider was more cunning than what they expected, killing the young and promising Voidmaw in sneak two attacks.

Zihan was very upset when he realized that: the surprise caused by the ingenious attack of the spider had prevented him from arriving in time to save Kalio.

A wrathful blow of Zihan killed the spider, collapsing great part of the chain of tunnels that were behind them and widening the entrance of the cave that was ahead of them.

“Clap!”

“Clap!”

“Clap!”

Madame Dembe, who had released her talisman while watching Zihan devour the spider, began to cheer with a smirk.

“I couldn't expect anything less from the leader of the Jinshu mercenaries.”

Zihan looked up and couldn't hide the annoyance caused by seeing the old turtle.

“Are we going to fight?” Asked the voidmaw clearly showing his hostility.

“Hahaha Why would we have to face each other when there are several creatures spying on us that we could fight together?” scoffed the old woman.

“Is there someone spying on us? Why I don't feel anything?”

“I’m not lying to you. Look at what attracted your noisy battle with the spider.” Madame Dembe answered looking up.

Zihan followed her gaze and as he raised his face he saw how the ceiling of the great cavern was full of giant semi humanoid floral creatures. was the first thing Zihan thought when he saw them.

When he used his internal energy to examine them, all he detected was that there were normal flowers on the ceiling. If it wasn’t because he could see them in the dark, Zihan never would have believed the crafty turtle.

“Today we will bathe in acid brothers!” Zihan celebrated when he saw that the battle that followed was going to be quite difficult.

On the other side of the caverns, the group of Darthañan had managed to surround the mysterious second magnitude creature. The process was slow and stressful, with each step they felt the monster waking up.

Upon entering the next tunnel, everyone was drenched in sweat. Darthañan had to sit down to regain his energy. Continuously using magic to cancel sound and grant night vision to everyone was much more exhausting than he had calculated.

After what seemed like several hours they resumed their journey, arriving at a new cavern where the environment became colder. The flora and fungi that had accompanied them until now stopped appearing.

In this new cavern they found no further complication. So they continued their journey with ease arriving at another new cavern, this one was the same size as the cave where they found the second magnitude creature. But unlike all the places they had been here, the temperature was too cold. So much so that they could see their own breath when they breathed.

Inside the cavern were several lakes of different sizes of fresh water. The water was so clean that they could see the bottom. There were no plants or animals in any of the lakes through which they passed.

“What a wonderful surprise” said a mysterious voice that started sounding like a middle age man and ended up sounding like a woman.

“There is nothing better than receiving fresh sacrifices, after bathing in crystal dew” it continued now with the voice of a girl passing to the voice of a boy.

The group turned to look at the tunnel from which the strange voice came. If they hadn’t detected a single presence they would have thought that four people were approaching. The strange being looked like a lepiota in the same armor that they were wearing. But in another moment, when it turned to look at the others, it changed its shape to the same as them.

It changed its appearance to the one he was looking to without any effort, almost as if it was natural.

“I still need to clean another bit of mold before I finish with those annoying plants,” said the being with the voice of an old man that transitioned to that of an old woman, walking towards where they were.

“So I will have to end your lives in a hurry. Forgive the lack of courtesy, in other circumstances I would take my time to torture you.” He apologized with the voice of a woman that turned into one of a man.

“Poof!” At that moment he disappeared from where he was.

Darthañan and Frigglene were the only ones in the group able to react in time. The mysterious being appeared in the mid of them and ended the lives of the lepiots that had been accompanying them with one move of his hand.

Darthañan had been leaving teleportation marks in case they had to escape, but the distance he could travel due to the depth could only take them both to where the second magnitude creature was.

But that would not be enough, this being was much stronger than them, it was in the third magnitude, it would reach them running in a few seconds. Worse yet, the sound of the teleportation would alert the creature that was sleeping in the other cavern.

“My love, I need to touch it,” said Darthañan looking at the being that was sucking his bloody fingers.

“Weak, everyone here is very weak. None of this is worthy of my awakening” the creature complained with the voice of a boy than turned into the one of a girl.

Then it turned to look at Frigglene and took her form.

“You two are weak too, but I don't like to waste food.” He said with the voice of an old woman that turned into the one of an old man.

“Poof!”

The being disappeared again.

Frigglene had grabbed a small talisman that she used as an earring, ripping it off, activating it and tossing it to the side.

The powerful creature appeared behind Frigglene, but when it prepared to kill her, she disappeared. The talisman she had used was a creation of her husband that allowed them to change positions if the people who had the talisman pair activated them at the same time.

Darthañan appeared where Frigglene had thrown the talisman and reaching out to touch the mysterious being on the shoulder.

“Zap!”

The creature of different types of voices disappeared.

“Fuuuuu,” exhaled Darthañan sitting on the floor.

“That was very close, we are the only ones left alive.” He said without even believing that they almost lost their lives.

“Where did you send it?” Frigglene asked appearing next to him.

“Where our sleepy friend. I don't know if you noticed, but he had scars that wouldn't go away no matter what shape it took. Something tells me that the second magnitude creature will at least be able to keep it entertained.”

Frigglene sat next to him.

" We have to move, " she said, checking her husband's body and breathing calmly when she saw that he was not injured.

“Give me a moment I need to get my breath back. Who would say that the fucking object we were looking for was a serial killer? And to top it all, now we are trapped here with him” Darthañan complained getting up and offering his hand to his wife.

“Well! Now we have to see how can we solve this fiasco,” he added starting to walk with Frigglene.