Maria almost slipped over the pile of rubble she had left when she knocked the wall down. She had not wanted to do that initially but had decided to take the chance in the end. If she brought the cave down on herself then that was it. Maria had survived worse and she always had her magic to rely on.

And then she had found the elder brother and decided to join the coward. Her clumsy actions had caused Maria to slip and they also presented her with the perfect opportunity to tease her target.

Much to her surprise, the guy had snapped back. He did have a backbone and Maria had observed it before when he had tried to take Nao on. Maria only needed to ignite his spirit to get him fired up.

"By the way, how do we take down this barrier from the inside? I don't see any mechanism and your friends were less than helpful" the guy asked with a confused face. Not that Maria faulted him much. Nao was not the best of explainers and it showed far too often.

"We need to take down the seal formation that is holding the barrier in place. It's easy enough since you can just smudge the edges to get it away" Maria explained and she could feel it. The shock the man must be feeling.

The stronger a seal, the fragile it was. Except for some special cases, most of the seals that involved a lot of power were fragile enough to be blown away. It made sense why such a seal had been placed in a secure cave.historical

"Huh? Just like that? But even if taking the seal away is easy, I still don't know what it looks like. What if I accidentally trigger something wrong?" Samuel asked with legit concern in his voice. The worry was real for a human since they were fragile without magic.

But somehow, Maria knew that the man would be alright in the end. He would not mess it up and this feeling was something Maria chose to trust. Samuel would be alright in the end.

"Just follow your gut and destroy the seal that feels right. I will be with you the whole time but even if I'm not there, I know you'll be alright" Maria assured the man who looked slightly green in the face.

Maria had been trying to reassure the elder but those words seemed to have worried him even more.

"Don't say things like that or you'll make me even more nervous. Besides, you are no oracle so I should not listen to you about the future. The oracle is dead after all" Samuel replied and Maria felt the smirk on her face freeze.

Oh yeah, she had forgotten that she was legally dead for some time now and was difficult to recognize with her new appendages and shorter hair. Maria dodged a bullet there. Still, could the guy not trust her just this once?

"Fine, do what you want to but make sure you remember my words. My sixth sense is really strong, you know" Maria replied and that was it. There was nothing else to say and the pair started walking.

Maria felt the quietness close around herself and a weird sensation browsed itself inside her body. Maria felt the incoming message before she received it.

[User Notice. Key item - Gem of Requiem has activated its effect. Would the user like to take the key item out?]

Maria hurriedly opened her inventory and took out the golden gem. It was glowing in soft light but it was not aimed in every direction.

Instead, the light seemed to be curving toward one of the sides and Maria felt just the slightest tug to move in that direction. Maria hesitated a little but then decided to follow her feeling. She had to believe that Samuel would be alright on his own.

So Maria decided to follow her feeling and the golden light guided her. They both aligned in the same direction and the sensation tugging Maria increased in frequency. It almost felt like a second heartbeat inside her chest.

Maria followed it up to the place where a cave wall blocked her way. The surroundings she had reached were different from the previous ones and Maria made a small attack to check the waters.

Her attack did not even leave a dent in the wall which made her frown. She increased the intensity of her attack but nothing seemed to be helping before she got frustrated and accidentally threw the gem at the wall.

As soon as the gem touched the wall, a small explosion sounded and knocked Maria back into the wall. It had been violent enough to shake the whole cave and many wall segments fell.

And then Maria saw it, the red barrier she needed to cross to get to the node. The energy she could feel from behind the barrier felt familiar to Lady Karin which was surprising enough.

And as Maria approached the barrier, she did not notice the eyes watching her every move. Nor did she notice another figure slipping behind her and clutching her arm to get across the barrier. The key Lady Karin had given her and the aftershocks due to the Gem's explosion had left Maria numb.

Would Maria have found this barrier if she did not have the Gem of Require with her? Something told her that she would still have found this place anyway but the gem made it all easier.

Maria used her magic to retrieve the fallen gem and examined it. It had not even retained a single crack on itself, even after the huge explosion it had undergone. This thing was dangerous and reminded Maria of her chains.

But the barrier was down now and Maria slipped in before it could come up. The second heartbeat inside Maria gave a painful squeeze before Maria felt a pop sound and she was in. She was finally on the path of the node and the arm holding onto Maria finally let go of her.

And somehow, it all went unnoticed by the major party. There were two entities in the space where only one was supposed to enter and this event was a big deal.

Maria walked at a decent enough speed to reach into the deeper cave depth while she followed her magic and the key. The shadow behind Maria followed with a delighted smile on its face.

Finally, it's time. The door was opened and there was only one obstacle in its way. Its minions were ready as well and soon the hunt would begin. The mindless zombies had their own orders to carry out.

(Again, Do check out 'Sexretory of the Harem' on Webnovel but don't read it till it's at least chapter 15. Add it to your library so that you don't miss out on it)