Digitize: Rebirth of the Silver Death God
Chapter 136: The Strange Palace Door

It didn't take long for Nero, Elly, and her newfound companions Lily, Ivy, and Mikan to arrive before the towering doorway that led towards the palace interior. It was an old heavy ornate door found typically on Old English mansions or palaces in Earth's older era, but looking at its scale of a few dozen meters one could easily tell that their differences were more than just a world apart.

After giving it a good look, Nero walked up to it and gave it a hard push, but unlike expected, the door remained still as if was firmly sealed. Nero made a puzzled look like this as he didn't expect such a scene.

"Hmm, it's not opening, didn't you say that some others had already gone by here?" Nero said as he looked at the door before turning his attention onto Elly.

Elly had a slightly awkward look, but she snorted and replied, "Well, of course I did, but how would I know if they even entered or not?"

Nero sighed and did a facepalm, he stared at the others and asked, "What about you guys?"

Ivy and Lily looked at each other before Ivy replied with a thoughtful look on her face, "Elly's right, they did come up here before us, but I have no idea where they went, maybe there's some secret or it's likely that the door might have closed once they found the special method to enter it."

Lily also gave a nod of agreement, her eyes flashed with a slightly playful look as if she found the current change exciting as she spoke, "Hehe, indeed, but for all we know, they might have gotten eaten by some passing guardian."

Listening to the words of the two girls, Nero shook his head while Mikan remained silent, his eyes at this time were looking around with a hint of uneasiness within them.

"Alright, since it's so, I'll try replaceing its secret."

Nero said as his attention once more fixed onto the door, he inspected it for a moment and felt bits of energy from behind it as he used his Spiritual Awareness. However, he still couldn't quite understand it.

After a short while, Nero's eyes fixed onto the brass iron door knockers on both sides of the door and made a thoughtful look while he contemplated.

'Maybe I should knock it to ask for entry, it's probably that this dungeon is a place with certain rules.'

With that in mind, Nero took a step forward and reached his hand towards the doorknocker.

Elly looked at this with a serious look on her face as she gulped, even Ivy and Lily, no longer had a lax mood, though they were previously a bit easy-going, especially Lily with her statement, they knew better than to underestimate a dungeon.

"I really hope nothing bad happens..." Mikan muttered as he stared at Nero with a hint of worry in his eyes, but as he saw his sister nearby, his eyes firmed up as he was determined to protect her at all cost.

Finally, Nero's hand touched the door knocker, he made a pull and knocked it on the door three times before removing his hand and staring at it in silence and caution.

Seconds pass and nothing changed, but the air only grew stranger in their surroundings. In fact, if one looked around them, one would notice that the mist had collected in enormous quantities, shrouding the scene from behind them. However, as everyone's attention was on the door, no one paid this any mind.

"It's still not opening, what could I be doing wrong?" Nero said with a hint of anger in his voice.

"How strange..." Ivy said as she started to contemplate.

Lily also made a confused look, but her eyes soon shifted elsewhere as if she was distracted by something.

Elly seemed to have grown impatient as she stomped to where Nero was and spoke, "Hmph! I know why it's because you didn't knock it properly, I'd almost mistake you for some sissy, I'll show you how it's done!"

Nero rolled his eyes at this and took a step back as he complained, "Well if you think you can do better then do it!"

"Watch me!" Elly said with a confident smile as she reached her hand towards the doorknob.

At this moment, Mikan had a look of relief seeing that nothing happened, but he soon felt strange as he saw Lily staring at the ground with a thoughtful look on her face.

He soon did the same before noticing that the ground around had formed a runic diagram that glowed in a strange dim light. With a look of alarm, both Mikan and Lily, who seemed to have understood everything, turned to Elly and shouted.

"No! Don't knock it aga—"

They tried to say something, but sadly, their attempts were in vain as Elly grabbed the handle of the doorknocker and smashed it against the door with three resonant bangs.

Following this, the entire area began to shake as if the world was undergoing a tremor, Elly smiled as she spoke, "Haha, see, I told you that you should've—"

Nero seemed to have finally understood the situation stared at Elly and shouted along with the others to cut off her words, "Elly! What have you done?"

"Huh? What now?" Elly said as she made a confused look as she innocently placed one finger on her cheek while tilting her head to the side.

She didn't know what they were so angry about, but it didn't take long for her to understand as the tremor got worse. Soon, she looked down and saw that a once dim diagram had now started to shine brilliantly, but rather than being in a state of order, the diagram and the ground started to shatter into bits.

"Oh no!" Elly shouted in alarm as the ground soon gave in as a bright light shone across this area.

Nero and the others found themselves helpless to this change, as they had previously tried to jump and escape but found that their energies were sealed.

As if an angry god had woken up due to Elly's rudeness, it tore open the earth which soon after swallowed everyone, leaving behind only the vaguest of their dismal voices that soon after faded to its depths.