Footsteps echoed wildly across the spiral stone stairs.
The howls behind them drew closer and closer. The earth shook as over a hundred awakened desert beasts chased them down the passage.
"Run, run!"
Leorio was panting heavily as he ran. When he glanced back, his face had gone pale.
"There are way too many! We'll never finish fighting them all!"
Gon ran while throwing stones over his shoulder, knocking down several Venom-Tailed Scorpions charging at the front, but the beasts behind them kept coming without end.
The farther down they ran, the higher the temperature climbed.
At Gang's beginning, it was merely warm. But as they ventured deeper, the air gradually filled with the smell of sulfur, hot enough to make their skin ache.
Strangely, the howls behind them were growing quieter.
"Huh?"
Leorio looked back again and froze.
"Why aren't they chasing us anymore?"
Everyone stopped and looked back.
All the beasts in the passage had stopped halfway down. They lay on the stone steps, not daring to take another step downward, whimpering lowly toward the depths as if they were afraid of something.
Killua furrowed his brows, his expression solemn.
"They don't dare come down."
"There's something at the bottom that terrifies them."
The King of the Pyramid.
Those four words surfaced in everyone's minds.
If even the beasts on the entire level were this terrified, then how powerful was the giant beast at the bottom?
"What's there to be afraid of?" Gon clenched his fists, his eyes shining. "We'll find out if we go down and take a look!"
He took the lead and continued running down.
The others exchanged glances before following him.
They ran downward for another ten minutes or so.
At last, the stone stairs reached their end.
A gigantic stone door dozens of