Looking at the old man stepping towards the vortex and vanishing within the swirling waters had Hao Ren stunned. Gelton looked like he'd kick the bucket any time soon, but Hao Ren never thought that old man still had nerves of steel, he didn't even hesitate when he stepped into the vortex.
He had thought to call the MDT to scan the vortex.... but that doesn't seem to be necessary now.
The magus, regardless if they belonged to the church, or were under Ophra's command was stunned by the old bishop[s bravado. Even Vivian couldn't help but frown, "... Piety is a good thing, but the old bishop didn't need to do this... he could use another way to check what's at the bottom of the vortex..."
At the same time, a faint gold pillar of light shot up from the vortex and broke Vivian's speech. Ophra nodded as she saw the light. "That's the signal from Bishop Gelton, seems like it's safe down there."
As she said that, the general adjusted her gear and turned towards her men, "Wait here, if we cannot return normally we'll use the teleportation runes to teleport back to the church. If that happens, the usual contact protocols."
After finishing giving her orders, she looked at Hao Ren and his group. "Seems like the situation here is worse than we thought. It's hard to determine what's exactly going on under there. You have the right to withdraw from this. As mercenaries, you had already went beyond the call of duty of your kind. No one will ridicule you for taking a step back..."
Hao Ren interrupted her before she could finish, "What the hell are you on about? We're the Good... company that always keeps our words. If we promised to come along, we'll bloody well see it to the end. So.. who first?" He had to keep up the heroic pose, as the four ascetics were right behind them. Given how stubborn these four are, they will probably drag the chosen into the vortex themselves if push comes to shove.
Ophra took a deep look at Hao Ren, there were all sort of complicated thoughts in her eyes. She did not say anything else and turned towards the vortex. An aurlike shield emanated from her as it pushed aside the lake water and she too disappeared into the vortex. The old werewolf behind her jumped it not long after.
Becky grabbed Hao Ren's hand, "Please make sure that 'emergency stop' button outside is working..."
Before she could finish, Lily dashed forward excitedly, "LETS GOOOO!!!" and rammed the whole group down into the vortex.
"The Goddess preserve us." The ascetics made a prayer gesture on their chest before jumping into the vortex.
The whole group quickly vanished in the vortex as the storm the continued.
Hao Ren felt that the world was turning upside down for him. Even if his shield could block out the lake water, it could not save him from being spun about like a rag doll in the vortex. Almost like clothes in a washing machine. He could no longer tell the direction and could only rely on the dimming light to know that he was fast approaching the bottom of the lake. How he wished that Wuyue was here. If the Siren was around the journey to the bottom of the lake would've been a stroll in a park. He really missed that water-manipulating super support character!
After being thrown about in the water for a while, Hao Ren saw a flash of light and he started falling, almost like being carried down a waterfall into a deep pool. After struggling for a while he managed to float to the surface..
Lily's voice followed soon after, "PFAHHHH!!!! I thought I'm gonna die! That feels like being strapped to the ceiling fan at top speed..."
Hao Ren suddenly felt a furry head plonking into him. Lily was still dizzy and after paddling in the water for a while she had relied on her innate sense of smell towards the most familiar scent.
"Are you guys alright?" Hao Ren tried to reorientate himself as he called out the rest. Vivian and Ophra responded from nearby. A few moments later a rather loud plunge rang throughout the place and Y'zaks got up the surface. "I'm here too..."
He demurred for a moment before he went underwater again as if to grab something. "I think I knocked into someone..."
Hao Ren immediately had cold sweat the moment he heard that. He knew Y'zaks was a giant and a fall from that height he was almost like a cannonball, and he did not know which unlucky sod that he knocked into. As he was wondering who the poor fellow as, Big Beardy surfaced near Y'zaks. "No worries, no worries, this is a test from the Goddess..."
Hao Ren turned around to look, and exclaimed, "Master, lets stop the bleeding first..."
"No worries, no worries, her trials are always sudden..."
"Nonsense! She's not putting your ability to resist tetanus to the test!"
After ensuring that everyone was safe that Hao Ren had the time to survey his surroundings and look for the shore. He turned his head about and realised that he was in a massive, awe-inspiring giant cavern!
From the looks of things the cavern was almost a full circle, he couldn't tell the exact diameter but the scale of it was massive. The cavern walls were encrusted some shiny objects, not sure whether they were minerals or glowing algae, but thankfully because of that, the whole pace was not pitch black. With Hao Ren's enhanced vision, he could move about the place unhindered by the darkness. He noticed the cavern walls in the distance had may tunnel-like holes on them and figured that they will probably lead them quite rather way, perhaps all the way to the Gnarled Grove.
The center of the cavern was a concaved shape and water had pooled into a mini-lake. The reddish water is proof that the water was from the blood lake. Hao Ren looked up towards the top of the cave and found a structure almost too neatly placed together, almost as if man-made. The reverse-dome was at the very top of the cavern and the middle part had cracked open, the lake waters gushed down like a waterfall from there and the gushing sound echoed throughout the cavern.
There was were the group had fell into.
Hao Ren saw that Ophra and Gelton had already made for shore and he quickly swimmed over. Before he got far he felt a tug on his back and a group of bats carried him all the way to shore. Vivian then reformed beside him as she put him down. "You're the captain, you need to keep your heroic poise here. I never thought you're such a poor swimmer without Wuyue's help."
Hao Ren had no words to retort. At the same time, Lily had struggled as she paddled to shore. Pouting at Vivian, she complained, "You're bias! Why you didn't help me!"
Vivian smirked. "Your dog paddling is rather... stylish?"
Hao Ren ignored the bickering duo and looked back towards the pool, the water from the top of the dome was still gushing into it. From a glance the pool may not look big, but it was indeed massive. If the crack on the top of the dome did not expand any further, Hao Ren was confident that the place would not be flooded any time soon. Hao Ren realised that with the tunnel system on the walls that this underground world is much much bigger than he first thought. Even if the whole lake were to be drained the place may not even be half-filled.
As everyone had their own ways to ward off the water - even Becky had got a outer space life-support shield generator from Hao Ren - So no one had to dry their clothes after getting ashore. After getting their bearings they started exploring the place. Big Beardy and the res of the ascetics were rather excited, this cavern was like a divine remnant to him, and clearly fit the bill of the 'Sacred Cavern' that they knew of. And that reaffirmed their belief that Hao Ren and his motley crew were indeed the chosen of the Goddess.
Hao Ren muttered to himself, even he was awestruck by the scale of this underground cavern and had believe that the first pope who had found this place deserves some respect for that. He softly said to Vivian, "Can it be true that we are really the chosen ones that we had access to such an amazing place?"
Vivian looked upwards towards the rock patterns on the dome, and her expression suddenly changed. "I'm afraid not... Seems like we screwed things up rather royally..."
"Eh?"
Vivian pointed towards the shining lines on the dome. "That's some sort of magical circuit, while I've never seen one like this.. I think it's just to detect the chosen of the Goddess... it has the features of a long-range reconnaissance spell..."
Hao Ren had no idea what Vivian was on about, "And then?"
Vivian pointed towards the hole on the dome. "The magic circuit was not activated because it detected the chosen, but... it was destroyed when the ship exploded. I'm afraid the true chosens have yet to even arrive!"
"..."
It seems true that you just cannot take those man-made legends at face value, whatever thing they had about 'the chosen one' to open a sacred treasure is clearly nonsense. In the face of 'fate' any big KABOOM of sufficient strength can solve anything. The entrance towards the Sacred Cavern was not opened due to the arrival of the chosen ones. It was because it was blown apart.
Hao Ren wiped off the cold sweat on his head. "Lets not tell Big Beardy about this yet..."