The collapsed crevice was dark and gloomy.
Hissing sounds came from the pitch-black darkness. The edges of the cracks on the ground were uneven, as if they were trying to mend themselves. Nicole Robin half-squatted down and stuck half of her head into the crack. A cold and moist air brushed against her face.
She retracted her head and took the flashlight from the Baroque Studio agent. She shone the light inside, but the light beam was narrow and could only illuminate a small area in front of her.
The dead darkness was too far away for her to see clearly, but she could vaguely see some intertwined silhouettes, like the shadow of a huge monster.
"Do you want to go down?" Von Kray asked.
Crocodile had ordered that Nicole Robin would be in charge of the operation. Although Von Kray didn't want to jump, the final decision was in Nicole Robin's hands.
As an archaeologist, exploring the unknown and peeking into buried secrets was imprinted in Nicole Robin's bones. Curiosity and the pursuit of the truth were Nicole Robin's answers. Besides, the Poneglyph had fallen into the crevice. She had an obligation to find out what was underneath.
"The secret hidden by the ancestors of the Nefertari royal family?"
Nicole Robin frowned suspiciously. She thought for a moment, then turned to the Baroque Studio agent and said, "Let's go down and see what's hidden inside."
The Baroque Studio agents were a little nervous, but they immediately carried out the order. Some slings and cables were fixed to the walls of the tomb palace, and then the other end was thrown into the crevice.
The hundred-meter-long rope kept falling, and it seemed to hit something in the middle. The sound of the collision echoed in the empty space. The darkness was bottomless and unusually empty.
"Down!"
One by one, the agents of the Baroque Studio slid down the ropes like prawns on a skewer. After a while, there was the sound of a steady landing. Several torchlight beams below pierced through the dark shadows, and they stepped on a huge black vine.
At least, that was what they thought. Thick black tentacles that were as thick as trees extended and coiled around the ground like the roots of some kind of plant. Some coarse sand stuck to them, giving them a contradictory feeling of softness and firmness when they stepped on it.
There did not seem to be any danger, except for the hissing sound that came from somewhere deeper in the darkness. Nicole Robin and von Kray looked at each other and slid down the rope one after another.
After going deep into the ground, Nico Robin stared at the endless emptiness. There were black roots everywhere. She looked up and saw that the Nefertari Royal Family's underground tomb was like a hollow cube that was being held up by those roots.
Suddenly, Nicole Robin felt that this vast darkness might not be the inheritance of the Nefertari Royal Family's ancestors. She retracted her gaze and continued to jump down. The strange roots were like stepping boards. After jumping back and forth, the group finally landed on the ground. When they raised their heads again, they could no longer see the outline of the tomb.
"There's something over there!"
Von Kray's pupils shrank. He saw a tall wall erected in the distance. Beneath their feet was a thick layer of sand. They did not notice that the hissing sound had suddenly disappeared. However, at the bottom of the sand, there were black threads that were quietly wriggling. It was like a sentinel that had poked out from the darkness and was silently watching this group of intruders.
It was so strange and empty that Nicole Robin began to feel that something was wrong. She looked at the vast space and wondered if this was really the masterpiece of the Nefertari Royal Family.
"Where's the stele?"
Judging from the direction it fell, the Poneglyphs should have fallen around here. However, when the torchlight shone, there was no trace of the stele.
Nicole Robin furrowed her brows and walked in the direction that Von Kray was pointing at. It was a sand wall, or rather, a continuous sand wall. The sand wall stood there quietly, perfectly smooth and without any gaps.
"Why is there a sand wall underground? It's man-made!"
At the same time, a vertical line appeared in the middle of the sand wall. Then, sand fell to the sides, and an entrance that could fit everyone appeared before them.
"The wall opened!"
"Did it trigger some kind of mechanism?"
"No, it opened on its own!"
Nicole Robin stared at the entrance of the sand wall that was close by. She looked inside and saw a sand corridor. On both sides of the corridor were walls made of sand. It stretched silently.
Inexplicably, Nicole Robin felt that someone was watching them. She glanced at von Kray and saw the horror hidden in his eyes. They could tell that the entrance of the sand wall had opened on its own. It seemed to be inviting them in.
"Did it open on its own, or is someone controlling it from behind?" Nicole Robin scanned her surroundings and the top of her head. The deep darkness was like a dormant monster with its mouth wide open, breathing eerily into their ears.
"Something's not right. Should we go in?" von Kray asked.
"If we leave now, I'm afraid something even more dangerous will happen!" Nicole Robin's intuition told her that if she were to back out now, she was afraid that something terrifying would happen in the next second.
"Let's go in and see who's welcoming us!"
Nicole Robin let out a long sigh of relief. She was the first to enter in her high heels, followed by Feng Kray. Behind them, the agents of the Baroque Workshop entered in a single file. The crack in the thick sand wall quickly healed.
Von Kray's face changed. He turned around and kicked the sand wall, but it was like he was kicking the sea. Sand and sand splashed everywhere, forming a hole. Then, in the next moment, sand flowed in from all directions to fill it up.
Vaguely, von Kray saw some black threads mixed in the sand wall. He turned to look at Nicole Robin and said in a low voice, "We can't get out!"
Nicole Robin stared at the sand wall, her heart pounding. She realized something else. "This place is alive."
"Go in!" Nicole Robin said calmly. She could now tell that this was not the work of the Nefertari Royal Family. At this moment, there must be someone watching them from behind the darkness.
They walked along the sand corridor for an unknown amount of time. Nicole Robin, who had been calculating the distance, could not help but suspect that the entire underground of Alpana had been hollowed out.
Suddenly!
A hole was torn open in the sand wall, and a figure walked out from the flickering pitch-black electric arcs. The dark scepter and the trembling thunder drum were reflected in their vision, and a heart-palpitating sense of oppression swept over them.
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