"Let's go with that plan then, I guess," Senzo muttered, looking at the three horsemen in front of him.
After a short but very fruitful discussion, they all came to the conclusion that sending Death in as the vanguard and waiting for his sign was the most efficient way to tackle this problem.
Senzo crossed his arms in front of his body with a dissatisfied expression on his face; it felt like letting War get his way, but it was a rather solid plan. And he couldn't come up with any better ones.
"Don't worry, master; while it may feel bad, War has always been the best out of all four of us when it comes to creating plans for situations like these."
Death tried to comfort Senzo; he could easily see that he was not satisfied with something, and thinking about it, there was only one thing that came to mind right now.
Famine just kept his mouth shut while staring at the large blue gate right in front of them. War was the same, but he was tightly grasping his blood-red greatsword.
He could hardly wait to charge into this unknown, but unfortunately he tried too hard to annoy Death, and that made him lose the opportunity to charge in headfirst alone.
"Yeah, yeah, just go now. And remember, if there's an enemy, let War and Famine know immediately; we should be close to the end of this dungeon," Senzo cautioned one last time before also steadying his mind.
Now wasn't the time to let petty feelings ruin everything; he couldn't afford to make a single mistake after getting this far.
"Understood, master."
After saying that, Death grasped his small scythe and slowly made his way toward the blue gate, and while he shouldn't be able to die from what was on the other side, that didn't make it any easier to just charge in there alone.
I'll get you back for this, you red bastard!
When he was right in front of the blue gate, he took one last glance at War's large frame and cursed him out in his mind as well.
And just like that, he stepped into the portal. Even though he didn't have a heart or any organs for that matter, it still felt like his heart was beating in his throat for some reason.
Am I, the great Death, actually nervous over something like this? I must have lost my touch after not fighting for who knows how many years.
While he was ridiculing himself, he suddenly arrived in a massive room; even compared to the two forests they had explored on previous floors, this room was much larger than both of those combined.
And there was a massive creature a couple hundred meters in front of him—a towering, humanoid-looking monster.
He had a single eye on his head that was at least a couple hundred meters in diameter, and arms so long that they touched the ground; in both of those massive hands he was holding what looked like pillars.
But Death had no idea what material they were made of; he had never seen anything like it. Both pillars constantly changed colors, and just looking at them gave him an uncomfortable feeling all over.
He wore simple pants covering only his nether regions, his clearly defined massive muscles visible to all.
Even in this massive room easily a couple kilometers tall and wide, you wouldn't be able to miss this beast that was now staring straight at Death with his single eye.
"Wow..."
Death was lost for words; the pressure that monster was giving off was no joke, and compared to everything they had faced earlier, this was easily a dozen times harder.
But he couldn't call Senzo and the other two in just yet; the time it had taken for the spectral warrior to die hadn't elapsed yet, and even though there was a high possibility for that monster to have killed the warrior, he couldn't rule out that there could still be traps hidden.
"Guess I'll just wait here for now and see what happens," he mumbled to himself, keeping his eyes glued to the massive giant in the middle of the room.
He was also doing the same, staring straight at Death without a care in the world.
"Interesting, so you're the challenger this time?"
"..."
Death completely stiffened up, hearing the monster speak.
"Y—you can talk? And understand me!?"
Death couldn't believe it; monsters that could talk were much more dangerous than ones who couldn't. He had clearly underestimated him.
"Why wouldn't I be able to talk and understand you?"
His deep, raspy voice echoed throughout the massive room; just the pressure from him talking was immense already.
"Are you the boss here, or is there another one we'll have to kill after getting rid of you?"
Death tried to stay calm and gather any useful intel he could in this situation.
"Hahahahaha!"
The giant monster suddenly burst out laughing. He could hardly believe it, The little pipsqueak in front of him actually believed it could kill him?
"Well, aren't you confident? Fine, I'll tell you because it's been a long time since I've had any proper company..."
After saying that, it moved slightly over, revealing a massive golden ball in the middle of the room. It was completely surrounded by glass and seemed to be alive, as if it was a beating heart.
"What!?"
When Death saw that thing, his eyes widened in disbelief. That's a dungeon core!? And one that big must mean...
"Hmm, looks like you know what this thing is, huh? But how is that possible? This dungeon should be one of the first ones in this world..."
The giant looked at Death with intrigue; that small little skeleton was a lot more interesting than he expected.
"What do you mean? I have no idea what that thing is."
Death immediately denied the giant's words, and even though he would have liked to continue chatting some more, it was time to clear this dungeon.
With a simple thought, he alerted War and Famine on the other side of the blue gate and braced himself for the battle that was about to start.
The giant in front of him suddenly tightly grasped both pillars, and his earlier relaxed attitude vanished as well; seeing the change in Death, he knew a battle was inevitable.