It took less than an hour for Pierre to arrive. It was already night, but the captain still seemed to be on the job, judging by his uniform and countenance. He met Red downstairs, looking around the cellar with an inquisitive gaze.

“You already have results?” he asked.

“Partially.” Red nodded. “I need to verify something, which is why I asked for you.”

“You want to dig down?”

“Yes.”

“For what purpose?”

“As I said, I need to verify something.”

Pierre sighed, but didn’t question it further. Instead, he pointed at the formation.

“Won’t this ruin the formation?”

“There is nothing to be found about this formation.” Red said. “Your preliminary observations were right - this is a summoning circle. However, it might have had a hidden function.”

Pierre raised his eyebrows in curiosity. “And that is what you need to verify?”

“Exactly.”

The guard nodded before looking back at the stairs. “Jonas, come here!”

A guard came down the steps after he heard the shouting. He looked at the formation with a weary expression, but tried his best to maintain his composure.

“Yes, sir?”

“Bring me the sealing box.” Pierre said. “We are disassembling the formation.”

“Yes, sir!”

These words seemed to come as a relief to the guard, who went back upstairs. Soon enough, he and his companion brought a couple of heavy steel boxes down to the cellar. They were plain and solid, but Red could see a sheen of spiritual energy covering their surface.

As eager as they were to get out of this oppressive room, the guards still were meticulous about their job in storing the demonic materials. It looked like they were dealing with a bomb that was set to explode at any second, and in some ways, that wasn’t too far from the truth.

Half an hour passed before the guards were done. As soon as the last corrupted item was stored and the box closed, they ran out of there, leaving Red and Pierre alone.

“How far down do you need to dig?” Pierre asked.

“Hard to tell.”

If the cultists wanted to avoid detection, they would try to dig the hole as far down as they could. That being said, there might be a certain range limit to the formation, or they might lack the means to dig too far down.

Pierre nodded, unbothered by the vagueness. “Step back.”

Red looked at the man for a moment.

His expression was hidden behind his mask, but the captain seemed to guess his thoughts.

“I can dig this on my own.” he said.

Red’s doubts were evident. Even for a Lesser Ring Realm cultivator, digging down into the foundations of the city would be a tiresome endeavor. He thought that Pierre would have brought his subordinates to help, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

Still, if the man was confident, Red wouldn’t stand in his way. He stepped to the side and watched as Pierre walked up to where the formation was set.

The captain took a deep breath, and the air around the room changed. A sheen of dark yellow light covered his body - a sign of Spiritual Energy - before quickly gathering towards his hands.

Pierre then knelt down and touched his palms to the ground, and a pulse of vibrant energy spread from the contact.

The building shook for a second, before the immediate area around him suddenly sank. Earth and stone were displaced to his surroundings, gathering around the edges of the half-meter deep depression Pierre had formed with his techniques.

Red, who watched this carefully, couldn’t help but be surprised.

Other than the initial ground trembling, which seemed to only affect the immediate area, there were no other disturbances from Pierre’s actions. He managed to move quite a substantial amount of earth like it was nothing, forming a three meter wide hole around himself.

This didn’t seem to be the end of his technique, though, as he closed his eyes and took another deep breath. The aura around his hands, which had decreased with the use of this Spiritual Art, once more gathered around his palms.

Pierre pressed down again, and the same scene from earlier repeated. The ground beneath him sank another half-meter, and earth and debris were thrown out of the hole.

A large amount of dirt gathered around the hole, and Red, who could already see the issue, waved his hands. A gust of wind blew against the rising mounds of earth and blew them towards the edge of the room, granting Pierre more space to work.

The captain repeated this process quite a few times, until the hole was almost five meters deep. The drain on his energy was quite visible, as his breath became heavier and beads of sweat rolled down his face.

Red, who was watching and assisting with the process, couldn’t help but frown.

‘Was I mistaken?’

Five meters might not seem like much, but the deeper down one went, the harder it became to dig. This went for both Pierre, and for the supposed underground chamber Red was looking for, making the chances that his theory was correct decrease by the second. He also took the time to examine the dirt, hoping to find any signs of corruption in them, to no avail.

However, if Pierre was thinking of giving up, he didn’t show it. He was about to use his technique again when he suddenly froze. The aura around his hands dissipated, and he stood up, looking at the top of the tunnel where Red observed his work.

“There’s something beneath here.” he said.

“A chamber?” Red asked.

“Hard to tell. I just felt a sudden increase in resistance from the ground, which tells me something tougher than dirt is beneath this.”

“Can you break through?”

Pierre nodded. “Yes, but we need to make preparations.”

Red understood his meaning. Since they were dealing with a demonic matter, they needed to be extra careful. Who knew what was waiting for them beneath there?

“It’s best if you get up here, then.” He said. “I can try breaking whatever is beneath from range.”

Pierre nodded in agreement. With a leap, he jumped out of the hole and walked to the side.

He looked at Red. “I don’t have any items to protect against corruption on me. Do you?”

Red shook his head. Magical items that could shield one from corruption were rare and expensive. They were the domain of the sects, who specialized in hunting demonic cultivators, and the most common cultivators could get were containers like those steel boxes that could seal small amounts of corruption. Anything stronger than that was hard to find, not to mention shields meant to protect individuals.

Pierre frowned, showing some hesitation in his expression. Still, that was soon replaced by conviction.

“Be prepared to run.” He said.

Red nodded. Their cooperation and similar understanding of the situation made it easy for them to decide on a course of action.

He peered over the hole and began to circulate his azure energy through his veins. A few seconds later, a blade of wind formed in front of him, before shooting down towards the bottom of the hole.

An explosion happened, shooting earth all the way to the top of the hole. After the dust and debris had settled down, something else was revealed beneath all that dirt.

‘Bricks.’

Stone bricks, rough and worn by time. His wind blade had made quite a dent at this built surface, but it couldn’t break through in one go. Still, this proved that Pierre’s assessment was correct.

Red didn’t hesitate and formed another blade of wind, before shooting it against the brick surface. Another explosion happened, and this time, the wall blew apart, revealing a glimpse of a chamber beneath it through a rift.

None of them had time to consider it though, as a dark purple mist shot out from the same gap as soon as it appeared.

“Get back!”

Pierre’s shout reached him, but Red was already moving. The two of them barely had time to react as they jumped back from the hole.

The purple mist shot up the hole like a geyser, hitting the ceiling of the cellar before either of them could run out of the room. Still, it didn’t spread through the room as Red was expecting. Instead, the energy seemed to seep at the stone surface, corroding it into a black mush and creating a large hole as it continued upwards.

It then hit another ceiling, this time the one from the ground floor, corroding it in the same manner, albeit somewhat slower this time. It was only when it reached the roof of the two-story building that it seemed to lose force and dissipate into the open air, but not before eating away at most of the structure and leaving a large hole behind.

Red, who was watching it from below, felt a cold sweat run down his back. His reactions were on time, and avoided the mist, but the terror of the situation wasn’t lost on him.

‘If that had touched me…’

He didn’t like to think about what could have happened

Pierre didn’t seem to be in a better state, as he was also trying to recover from what happened.

“That… thing. It had no Spiritual Energy.” He said.

Red frowned. He didn’t have the opportunity to investigate the substance in the brief moment he saw it, but he could feel no signs of energy from the mist. This was part of the reason both of them were taken by surprise by it.

Of course, this made little sense. The stronger a substance or element was, the more suffused it would be with Spiritual Energy. This was a fundamental truth of the world, and considering how powerful this mist seemed to be, it should have been emitting a lot of energy.

Since one option was impossible, that left Red with just one conclusion.

“It had to have Spiritual Energy.” he said. “We just couldn’t sense it.”

Pierre’s expression worsened as he seemed to arrive at the same conclusion.

“A trap?” he asked.

“Possibly.” Red nodded. “But it seems pointless.”

Once this trap was released, the underground chamber would already have been revealed to the city guard, even if it killed someone.

Pierre snorted. “They’re cultists. They would delight in taking down even one of us in their petty revenge, no matter how pointless it seems.”

Red couldn’t refute his logic.

Footsteps could be heard upstairs, as the voice of a panicked guard called for them.

“Captain! I-Is everything alright?”

“I’m fine.” Pierre said. “Send someone to the headquarters and report on what just happened.”

“I-I will, sir, but… What exactly happened?”

The captain sighed. “Just tell the General we made a new discovery on the demonic formation.”

“Yes, sir!”

Another set of hurried footsteps, and Red felt the guard distance himself from the building as fast as he could.

He looked over at Pierre. “You won’t report this to Leon first?”

“I can’t possibly hide this from my superiors long enough. People might have seen what happened and are likely to report it. By then, if I’m not the one my superior hears from first, I will be reprimanded.”

Indeed, some of the purple substance had shot through the roof and dissipated into the air above. While it was still night, the city was a well lit place, and any curious eyes watching the building might have seen what happened.

“We need to investigate what happened before your superiors arrive, then.” Red said.

Pierre shook his head. “That’s reckless. We don’t know if that’s the only trap down there, and we have no way to counter any corruption.”

“Then do you think we will be able to investigate it after your superiors arrive and learn what you might have been doing behind their back?”

There was a prolonged silence from Pierre at these words, as he showed a grim expression.

“… It’s risky, and you have already done your job.” he said. “There’s no reason to risk yourself anymore.”

“I haven’t done my job yet.” Red said. “I still need to figure out what the formation was for, and this might be the only opportunity to do it.”

This was not to mention that he hadn’t forgotten the sense of recollection he felt from the demonic energy. If he didn’t take this chance now, he might not find out about it in the future, and he could be missing a vital piece of information.

Pierre frowned. “The circumstances have changed. Leon wouldn’t want to risk the life of someone he hired like this.”

“Yet, it must be done, and I have already been paid.”

“… Fine.”

The captain relented, not wasting any more time in discussion.

Red admired his stance, as even if Pierre doubted his motives, he was decisive enough to not hesitate and take the opportunity presented to him to further their goals. To his surprise, though, the man approached the hole before him.

“Let’s go.” Pierre said. “We need to be quick.”

“… I can go on my own.” Red said.

“Not happening.”

It was Red’s turn to hesitate. He had some resistance against corruption, while the captain didn’t. Who knows what could happen to the man down there?

Yet, he let go of his doubts a few seconds later. Whether out of a sense of responsibility or mistrust, Pierre would accompany him down there, and the youth couldn’t waste time convincing him otherwise. He needed to be decisive as well.

With a nod, Red approached him and looked down at the bottom of the hole.

“I’ll go first.” He said.

Pierre nodded.

With no further exchanges of words, Red jumped down towards the underground chamber, ready to face whatever waited for him there.