Clang, clang.
In the deep, dark passage, the sharp scraping sound of metal suddenly rang out. Lex saw a knight's armor, used for decoration, as if filled with flesh. From the gaps in its metal visor, two flame-like red lights shone through, and then it began to walk, moving to the middle of the passage.
"It seems Lady Christie has found me."
Lex showed no panic. He was no longer the rookie who had just entered the mysterious world back then. So, when the knight's armor suddenly stepped forward, approached, and brought its broadsword down heavily, Lex agilely retreated, raising his hand to point.
A stream of orange-red flame shot from his fingertip, striking the knight's armor instantly and erupting into a ball of fire.
The knight's armor only had its chest scorched red, but it broke through the flames without hindrance and continued to close in on Lex.
Lex raised both hands, joining his index and middle fingers, with his thumb pointing up, forming a pistol gesture.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
Small bursts of flame, like machine gun fire, continuously shot out from Lex's fingertips at an extremely high frequency, raining down like a storm on the knight's armor's chest, helmet, and other areas.
A sound like popping beans echoed in the passage. The knight's armor was blasted by Lex's Fire Finger Gun, its body constantly trembling and swaying, its metal plating turning red and dented.
Finally, the helmet on the knight's armor was knocked off, revealing the fact that the armor was hollow.
But even after a round of bombardment from the Fire Finger Gun, it couldn't extinguish the armor's desire to 'get close' to Lex. It strode forward again, sweeping its broadsword horizontally towards Lex's waist.
Lex agilely leaped up, even stepping on its broadsword to gain leverage for a roll, passing over the knight's armor.
As he passed, he threw a compressed, eyeball-sized, blazing white fireball into the knight's armor.
When Lex landed, the knight's armor behind him exploded in crimson. Flames gushed out from within, completely shattering the armor. The deformed, scorched armor plates clattered to the ground, the sound echoing endlessly.
Clapping his hands and standing up, the relaxed Lex soon heard continuous metal scraping sounds echoing in the long passage, quickly replacing his easy expression with a grave one.
Moments later, he saw knight's armor approaching him from both ends of the passage. Red flames floated within the visors of these entities. They held their broadswords upright before their chests, walking coldly but persistently towards Lex.
Lex didn't want to waste his strength on these inanimate objects. He looked up and threw a fireball towards the passage ceiling. He wanted to blast open the ceiling and go directly to the upper level.
The fireball struck the ceiling of the passage, red flames surging, but after the flames dissipated, not even a crack appeared in the rock of the ceiling.
Lex frowned. This castle was sturdier than he imagined. He glanced at a wooden door nearby and rushed towards it.
Before the knight's armor could get close, Lex crashed through the wooden door. Behind the door was a living room where Lady Christie, straddling a man, was furiously beating the man's head with a decorative bronze sculpture, leaving him covered in blood.
Lex walked straight through the living room, ignoring Lady Christie, who had looked up at him, because he knew that the real Lady Christie was not here.
He threw a fireball at the window ahead, and the flames exploded, shattering the window.
Lex passed directly through that window, instantly arriving outside the castle. Prepared, he spewed flames from the soles of his feet, supporting him as he hovered in mid-air.
When Lex turned around again, he saw that the flames were receding from the window he had blasted open. The scattered glass shards flew back along their original trajectories, like a video playing in reverse, then reassembled into a complete window.
Lex looked around, then suddenly froze.
He saw window after window, densely packed, rising layer upon layer, seemingly hundreds of them.
And what lay before him was no longer the castle he had seen in the painting, but a skyscraper!
If each window represented a room, then at this moment, nearly a hundred rooms were presented before Lex's eyes.
Finding Kaven in all these rooms was a daunting thought.
Just then, a figure appeared behind the window from which Lex had emerged.
It was a woman, but not Lady Christie. This woman clearly had the characteristics of an Intis female. She was pressed against the window, staring blankly at Lex.
After a moment, she began to pound on the window and open her mouth, calling out something.
From her appearance, it seemed she wanted Lex to help open the window and let her out.
Lex found it incredible. From inside the castle, opening a wooden door revealed Lady Christie, who had replaced the original owner. But from outside the castle, he saw the spiritual bodies imprisoned within the castle.
Perhaps Josh and the others were behind one of these windows.
As if hearing the woman's pounding, figures began to appear one after another behind the many windows of the castle. Among them were men and women, old people and children.
They wore various outfits, appearing to be people from different eras. Without exception, upon seeing Lex outside the castle, they all began to pound on their windows, all letting out silent shouts.
"Step back!"
"Everyone, step back!"
Lex shouted loudly, accompanied by gestures, to make the spiritual bodies behind the windows retreat.
Then he used his Fire Finger Gun, spraying small flames from his fingertips like a machine gun, sweeping left and right across the windows, blasting and shattering them.
As soon as the windows broke open, the spiritual bodies immediately streamed out. The moment they emerged from the windows, they instantly transformed into a grey-white Light and flew towards the sky.
Not long after flying into mid-air, ripples appeared in the sky, and the Light formed by the spiritual bodies vanished within those ripples.
Seeing this scene, Lex understood that the spiritual bodies had been liberated!
They were finally able to escape this painting!
Understanding this, Lex began to wreak havoc, smashing and shattering the castle's windows, liberating more spiritual bodies.
Hundreds of spiritual bodies transformed into grey light, whistling as they flew into mid-air, like a fantastical fireworks display, beautiful but unreal.
Just then, Lex felt the light dim above his head. The previously clear sky had inexplicably grown dark, and large patches of dark clouds gathered above the castle.
Then, those cloud formations actually formed a face.
Lady Christie's face!
Suddenly, the flames beneath Lex's feet vanished, as if someone had stolen them.
He fell uncontrollably.
He quickly tried to spew flames again, but there was no response. Fortunately, he caught a window ledge and didn't fall straight down. Lex quickly rolled into the self-repairing window, landing on the floor of a room.
He looked up at the giant face in the sky outside the window, recalling Lady Christie stealing people's memories, and now his own flames inexplicably disappearing. Lex suddenly remembered the name of a Sequence Potion.
Prometheus!