Suspecting that the Second Floor's boss was now close at hand, Greg gave Ellie a meaningful look.
"Get ready."
Ellie nodded in understanding and tightened her grip on her longsword.
They both reached out, pressed their hands against the enormous metal door, and pushed inward with all their strength.
The metal door gave a low rumble and slowly opened to either side.
The scene beyond gradually unfolded before them: an exceptionally spacious hall with a soaring vaulted ceiling, well over a hundred feet high.
The hall was laid out like a church, with dozens of rows of long wooden pews on either side, an intricate hourglass pattern carved into the end of each pew.
A deep red carpet covered the aisle between the pews, extending all the way to the front of the hall.
White candles burned all around the hall, their flickering flames casting warm, gentle halos of light that enveloped the entire space in a sacred, solemn atmosphere.
And at the very front of the hall, there was indeed a statue for worship.
It was a stone statue of a woman. Unlike the damaged, incomplete statue in the Academy Dungeon's Shattered Temple, this one was intact.
She stood on a stone pedestal roughly two meters high, her posture upright and elegant. She wore a flowing robe whose hem fell naturally onto the pedestal, its folds carved with lifelike detail.
Although a stone-carved strip of cloth covered her face from the eyes upward, making it impossible to see her full features.
Even so, the statue radiated an indescribable beauty.
Greg guessed that this must be a statue of the Mother of the Clepsydra.
The two carefully surveyed the hall's interior, but neither saw any other suspicious figures.
"Strange. Could this floor's boss be somewhere else?"
With a hint of