Chapter 14: Ruin

   Golden Lions were known to be cautious, they send multiple scouting teams to ruins they discover in order to preserve their strengths. Among the star lions in this team, one will wield a skill related to doors for escape, another a skill related to divination the last was for luck. The other planet paths Lions were for suppression and support while the sun lions only thought of burning everything.

  The volcanic mountain seems to contain something of attraction to high level sun path warriors almost to the consciousness level. The lions that occupied the range were first evenly distributed among different paths but generations of new born sun path Lions were directly born as rank 9 sun lions despite the parents being rank 5.

This led to the lions mostly switching to the sun path. The golden eagles and burning apes came in later to occupy the other extended parts of the mountain that the lions could not guard.

After opening the spatial tunnel though unstable, starlight patterns lit up on Aster’s and another lion bodies. These patterns were like a network of tunnels leading to an unknown destination.

Learning from past experiences, the current residents of dell plane and other connected planes knew not to open a stable door to a spatial ruin or dungeon without knowledge of what was in it, even after different explorations, they still needed to be sure the ruin was stable and not one that will eventually fall back into the void.

Rank 5 star paths are usually invited for this task, ruins that it’s value has been exhausted were usually only temporarily opened because the methods of rank 4 creatures are unknown. From the various artifacts present in the planes, they only had one conclusion to their strengths… terrifying.

Entering through an unstable ruin tunnel will send those coming in into different places leading to a separation, Aster’s and the star lions wanted to move everyone to same area.

The tunnel became they opened became fixed and the rest of the team entered,

The leader of the golden Lions gave Xander a knowing look and said, “we will see ourselves after we get what we want later, don’t forget to trade with us first if you discover something we need.”

Xander did not respond only giving an ok sign before entering the tunnel.

The dungeon was a little quiet when they entered, everywhere was bright but there was no sun or moon hanging over the ruin.

Xander turned to Aster after looking around, “you can use the opportunity to advance to rank 6, this place might be destroyed anyway, let’s drain the entire energy here.”

Aster did not show it but her face lit up when she heard it, other major forces did not care about this ruin which meant they either did not really care of there is something dangerous in this ruin. Thinking of this she said, “ we need to be careful and cautious.”

They advanced through the dilapidated buildings quietly, the ruins had few vegetation which is rare because most living things have developed sentience including plants.

In the dark forest, there is a legend of flowers that randomly appear, they pull in individuals who have been bewitched and after devouring them they disappear.

Leylah’s eyes lit up in bluish gold, she waited a little to determine her intuition was not been blocked before she nodded at Aster. Suddenly this surroundings became quiet, they felt the a summoning force coming from an unknown place.

Xander who sensed the change in the ruin laws immediately tried to resist the influence. John released purifying flames and ravens, an attempt to supplement Xander’s effort.

From rank 7, the sun path has more purifying abilities almost at the level of mutated skills, any skill at magnified this effect will make it equivalent to a rank 6 or rank 5 attack if the skill owner is a rank 6.

Aster’s eyes revealed the lions retreating backward trying to escape the inexplicably influence, she frowned a little before she stopped looking, turning to her sea of consciousness and spirit body.

The symbols in her consciousness were filled with falling stars, spatial runes, void storms and at the edge shadowy runes and patterns slowly took form.

While she absolved the energy from this ruin, she also isolated the team front the suction force.

“The effect of the isolation is limited, I think this suction is caused by an artifact with living characteristics. We should be quick and leave.”

She removed the isolation and while still absorbing energy, they continued moving forward.

Xander opened his bag and took out a compass, shadowy veins and lines were all over this artifact, the suction force began to act when this artifact was brought out.

Lucky compass

An artifact formed from the collapse of a star path creature, according to records before this artifact was exchanged, the artifact despite not possessing living characteristics led anyone who held this compass to danger, the main body of the fallen creature displayed varying degrees of madness leading to its sealing in the forbidden realm.

The former tyrant team leader exchanged for this artifact because he was led by his intuition to it and his intuition proved him right, the artifact did not show or display any abnormalities after it was brought over to the dell plane.

The rank of the compass has been determined to be rank 5 but it effect could rival other rank 4 artifacts.

This artifact depending on the request of the user can determine the location of treasures. It will lead the wisher towards their request but it is unknown what the payment will be.

The actual size of this compass has been determined to be the size of a building, however, the pointers and the glassy screen on the compass can be held with one hand.

The wielder will feel as if he is carrying a heavy load and an observer will see an online of a huge shape within the wielder’s shadow.

Xander liked this artifact because it did not have a living characteristics and also because it is a rank 5 artifact. Rank 4 artifacts with strong powers always give the owner a feeling of superiority and arrogance which is dangerous for their profession.

The suction force around them weakened after the compass was completely activated, the shadow behind Xander became even heavier as if the shadows replaced the compass suction target. They continued going forward in the direction the pointers showed.

The area of the ruin is actually not big, they could completely explore the entire area within a day. But the space in this ruin was very chaotic making simple actions like marking locations difficult due to the possibility of changing when they pass again.

“It must be that artifact doing, I keep having a bad feeling about this place, we need to move faster.” John gritted his teeth as he said this.

Xander was looking thoughtfully at a temple when he heard John’s words, his intuition too was ringing but he chose to believe in Leylah because she had already proven herself multiple times.

He was waiting for Leylah to give him the go ahead before he took any action.

Leylah looked around thoughtfully, she voiced her thoughts frowning at Aster’s silence, “this place suppresses star path intuition ability, I think our target is right in front of us, let’s get what we want and leave.”

….

  Gunvor walked silently with Suli, cars were on the street driving into different streets but they gave him an empty feeling, “it feels like going through a loop.”

Skyscrapers were around him with planes and helicopters flying overhead.

The skyscraper was reflecting a flag that showed part of what used to be the European Union, he wanted to look deeper but Suli suddenly smiled.

He immediately turned to where she was looking at, his four teammates were looking at him and the girl in horror, they used their strength and gazes to tell him to look upward.

Gunvor immediately became alert, “the sky, I kept on forgetting that I needed to look at the sky, why?”

He slowly looked at the giant moon that occupied the entire sky, the moon was filled with terrifying cracks, the moon was so bright he thought it was the rank 2 sun path warrior hanging in the sky.

Just as he wanted to look downward to ask for what was going on, the entire area began to shake violently.

Suli just watched as a force ejected them out of the book world.

The five member team got their bearing after a few minutes but the look of horror on their face did not change, they wanted to immediately return and report what they saw.

The zombie filled city became abnormally quiet, the moon silently hung over the city. A statue in the city reflected the moon like it was wearing this moon on the head. The zombies in the city, the trees, the buildings and other structures suddenly turned towards the intruders.

From a tree that was extremely far away, giant tentacles through the air at a speed the five could not imagine, before they could even react, the tentacle smashed the room.

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