Rachel and Sabrina made their way through the musty, cobweb-filled passageway.
The former skillfully opened hidden mechanisms, pushed open concealed stone doors, and navigated through complex side paths, leading the latter slowly deeper into the mountains.
As Sabrina walked through the passageway, she kept fanning her face with her hand and asked softly, "Is it just my imagination or is it really true? Why do I feel like it's getting hotter and hotter?"
Rachel carefully avoided a fallen rock and said, "The mountain where the Elder Council is located is called Supuha. Do you know what that name means in ancient Semitic languages?"
Before Sabrina could give an answer, Rachel explained directly: "Supha is the fire god in Semitic mythology, who controls the power of earth fire and heaven fire."
"Earth fire? Heaven fire?" Sabrina suddenly realized, "You mean, what we're standing on is...?!"
Squeezing sideways into a narrow crevice, Rachel put away her torch and said, "The original road is impassable due to the landslide. I'm afraid we'll have to take some risks..."
Hearing the gurgling sound coming from not far away, Sabrina followed Rachel into the crevice. When she came out and saw what was in front of her, she trembled and turned pale.
A narrow stone bridge stands high in the air, with craggy cave rock formations overhead and molten lava flowing hundreds of meters below!
Watching the dark red, scorching magma, billowing with black smoke, flow relentlessly into the Earth's core through the fissures beneath her feet, and smelling the pungent odor in the air, Sabrina staggered back several steps, gripping the rock behind her tightly, and shouted at Rachel, "Isn't there any other way?!"
“As I said, that shortcut is no longer usable. This bridge is the only way to our destination.” Rachel stepped onto the stone bridge, and the hot stones emitted wisps of smoke as they touched her shoes.
Looking at this arched stone bridge, which is over 15 meters long, it is cracked and rickety due to years of disrepair.
Sabrina shook her head frantically: "You're crazy! You must be crazy! I would never step onto a stone bridge built a thousand years ago, especially with boiling lava flowing beneath it!"
Rachel turned to Sabrina and said, "I have a question that you, who have lived for a hundred years, may be able to answer."
Which kind of life is more valuable to you? To live a life of dullness and stagnation, or to seek the truth with a moment of courage?
Sabrina stood frozen in place, silently looking at Rachel.
Standing on the stone bridge above the flames, Rachel opened her arms and shouted to Sabrina, "Even if you give me endless life, but confine me to a tiny cage, what difference is there between living and dying?"
Sabrina's nails dug deeply into her palm.
"Open your eyes and look at this filthy and wretched world! Lies, strife, and killing are like poison, having already thoroughly polluted everything! You flee from death, afraid to face the hell after death. But! Have you ever considered that the world we live in is already an absolute hell!"
Rachel reached out her hand to Sabrina: "You're a little like me. We both have nothing left to lose; our bodies are no longer important to us. Don't you want to change? Don't you want to try to escape from hell?"
“Perhaps the world after liberation isn’t as wonderful as we imagine…” Rachel lowered her head, her eyes filled with loneliness, “but it will certainly be better than it is now.”
After hesitating for a long time, Sabrina finally took a small step forward. She stretched out her trembling hand and moved forward, ever forward, until she finally touched Rachel's fingertips.
Grabbing her hand and pulling her onto the stone bridge, Rachel smiled and said to Sabrina, "My sister, welcome to the truth."
After crossing the stone bridge over the lava river, Rachel led Sabrina into an ancient passageway.
The walls of the passage were inlaid with countless green gems, which emitted a gentle green glow in the darkness, guiding the two forward.
Looking at the piles of human bones at her feet, Sabrina murmured, "The dead have no wounds; they sit here quietly awaiting death. This scene is almost like..."
"To be buried alive with one's family."
Rachel walked quickly ahead, reminding Sabrina, "Don't touch those green gems. They're highly poisonous. I almost died from them once."
Sabrina looked at the emerald in the wall with some surprise, then followed closely behind Rachel and walked quickly forward.
The two walked forward for another ten minutes or so, and finally came to an iron gate hidden in the rocks.
Sabrina looked at the faintly visible words above the iron gate and struggled to decipher them: "Nascentes_morimur... To live towards death?"
Using the pale green light around them, Rachel pointed to a rotating keyhole on the iron gate and said to Sabrina, "I need your help."
The latter looked at the keyhole and asked, "Do you want me to open this lock?"
"This kind of lock has a compass-shaped lock cylinder inside, which even the most skilled locksmiths cannot open. But you, Sabrina, your blood can take on various forms, so this kind of lock should not be difficult for you..."
As Rachel spoke, Sabrina's brows furrowed even more: "I'm starting to really doubt your original intentions in inviting me. Maybe you just wanted me to help you unlock this lock."
Despite her complaints, Sabrina bit her finger, and semi-solid blood slowly flowed from the wound, seeping into the keyhole.
With each click of the lock cylinder turning, a muffled thud came from inside the stone door shortly afterward.
Rachel braced her hands against the stone slab and pushed forward forcefully.
Thick dust fell in a flurry, filling the entire passageway.
Sabrina covered her mouth and nose with her hand and followed behind Rachel through the stone gate, continuing forward.
After walking for another ten minutes or so, they reached the end of the passage. A gust of hot wind swept in from the other end of the passage, blowing against them so hard they could barely open their eyes.
Rachel shielded her face with her arm and shouted behind her, "Almost there! Just ahead!"
Sabrina, who was practically crawling on the ground, slowly made her way to the exit. When she looked up at the scenery outside the cave, she was so shocked by what she saw that she forgot to breathe.
The ocean of magma stretched as far as the eye could see, and the flames rolled endlessly like ocean waves. Everywhere you looked, there was a blazing crimson!
Rachel pointed ahead: "Our destination is there!"
Sabrina looked in the direction she was pointing, and in the very center of the 'Lava Sea', there was a black metal tower hundreds of meters high, rising from the bottom of the sea of fire, towering high and shining brightly in the firelight.
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