As the Praetor's body exploded, a powerful energy shockwave erupted all around it. I instinctively lifted my arms to defend myself, as did the girls, but I soon realized it didn't affect us at all. It passed straight through our bodies and rippled across the air, striking the other Hex.

Immediately, the Hex Troopers spasmed a bit, as if they'd been hit by some sort of electromagnetic ray that caused their insides to go haywire, and the single eye-like displays they had on their heads flickered a bit before fading out. The Troopers fell to the ground, immobilized and disabled, and making them completely vulnerable.

The girls didn't let go of this opportunity, naturally, and moved in to finish them off with a good few attacks on the core hiding within their exposed backs, guarded only by a metal gate. Several smaller explosions ensued, none of them affecting any of us, and soon, all the Hex on this floor had been cleared.

The girls and I regrouped, reholstering our weapons, and took a moment to analyze what just happened.

"So… those are the Hex, huh?

" Feng Mian muttered.

"Powerful indeed, just like the book states. My attacks barely left a scratch, be it physical or magic.

"

"Even with my boosts, too,

" Qing Yue said with a sigh.

"But luckily, it seems they have a weakspot, at the very least.

"

"Mhm~ on their backs. That metal gate is tough to get through, but for me, it's easy~

" Axilia said loftily, twirling her scythe around.

"Once we break that, hitting the core will make them go bye-bye~

"

I nodded.

"Yeah. And not just that… when Praetors have their cores destroyed, they release a powerful shockwave of energy that paralyzes all nearby Hex units. I'm not sure if that's intentionally designed on their part or not, but either way, it's of great benefit to us. If it comes down to direct conflict, we should target the Praetors first—that way, when we take one out, a whole field of Hex surrounding them will become disabled.

"

"Correct. But I doubt it is intentional,

" Feng Mian said with a smile.

"There's no reason for them to create such a big weakness amongst themselves like that. If I had to guess… it has something to do with the energy that they're using to be this powerful. The energy that charges their cores, their weapons, and those energy barriers that Praetors have.

"

"Hm… speaking of…

"

I narrowed my eyes and walked over to where the dead Hex bodies lay, spread out and burnt to crisps. Their originally blue bodies were turned dark grey from the explosions, but one tiny bit of blue light could still be seen being emitted from the Praetor's body.

The Troopers were goners, but this Praetor's body could still be salvaged—especially the core. With some effort, I managed to pull the core out of the Praetor's body—it was faint, but it was still glowing, signaling it could still function and be used. Then, storing it inside my Space Locket to freeze it in time for preservation purposes, I began working on the rest of the body.

Hauling it into the Space Locket was a pain, but I much preferred doing that then cutting it up into pieces then taking it inside one by one. This was faster anyway.

In any case, with this salvaged, we now had a lead as to how to effectively counter the Hex. Once I brought this into the Infinite Realm, Hephestus could analyze it and perhaps design something to counter it. If that happened, the war against the Hex—if it came down to it—would be greatly improved in terms of winning chances.

But of course, for now, we still had another task in mind.

Peering down below at the next level, we spotted several more Hex Troopers, loitering around. There seemed to be about a dozen total, but thankfully, there were no Praetors. The girls and I exchanged glances and nodded, before each diving down in a different direction in pairs—Qing Yue with me, and Feng Mian and Axilia together.

We swept the Troopers in a coordinated flank attack—now that we knew what their weaknesses were, it was quite simple. On their part, Axilia took down the gates while Feng Mian destroyed their cores, and on our part, I simply shot Chaos arrows that pierced both gate and core. The Troopers fell one by one, weak and feeble.

Of course, that was only for us, with our Chaos-boosted powers. The girls had been by my side for a long time, so they too shared a little bit of the strength amplification. To the average, normal person, breaking that gate is next to impossible, unless they poured all of their power into it. And only then it would just be barely possible.

In other words, these Hex were extremely tough and troublesome opponents. The only reason we were breezing through them right now with ease was because of our special powers.

Once all the Hex were down, I went around collecting the few still-salvagable parts for more samples for Hephestus later, and stored them within my Space Locket. And now, it was time to lower the water level once again.

As expected, the puzzle was similar to the previous one. However, as we stepped on all eight pressure plates together, thinking it would unlock the button mechanism, nothing happened. I raised an eyebrow.

"… Uh, did we break something during all the fighting?

" I asked, but Feng Mian shook her head.

"No, I don't think so… this one seems to be slightly different from the previous,

" she said.

"Let me see what I can find…

"

Concentrating, she activated the spell Shadow Vision, and looked around. Her purple eyes glowed brightly like fireflies in the dark ruins we were in, and after a few seconds, her gaze fell upon the ceiling above us.

"… There,

" she said.

"Step on the four corner plates, that's it.

"

The rest of us did as told, and immediately, the button mechanism unlocked, allowing us to press on it and further lower the water level.

"Huh… so they are capable of changing methods slightly, at the very least,

" I muttered, memorizing this to heart.