Chapter 238: The Forgotten Temple
Mirabella stood suspended in the sky, defying gravity with casual ease. Her arms were crossed, her eyes fixed on the massive, roiling sand storm moving towards her. This unnatural weather event carried the heavy, abrasive energy typical of the Southern Region’s most dangerous hazard zones.
Cupcake, who was currently in her cat appearance, sat perched on her right shoulder, her feline gaze fixed nervously ahead.
"Master, What are you thinking?" Cupcake asked.
"Huh? I am not." Mirabella said. To Cupcake, it appeared she was staring blindly at the destructive storm, while in reality, Mirabella was simply staring at the translucent system map hovering in her vision.
’I got this map after killing those monsters... Before the map was blank, but now... There is a desert,’ she thought, turning her head north, her mind analyzing the sudden geographical update provided by the interface.
’But why can’t I see this Knight’s statue on the map?’ Without a second thought, she flew towards the storm.
"Hey! What are you doing, Master?!" Cupcake yelled in shock, her claws instinctively digging into Mirabella’s uniform, completely not expecting Mirabella to fly directly into a catastrophic weather.
"Our form are well hidden, so you should be quiet." The moment she reached the outer wall of the sand storm, the impossible happened. The raging vortex of grit and wind mysteriously made way, seamlessly dividing into two halves, not daring to touch her. It was as if her very existence commanded the environmental hazards of Galaxy Fall to yield.
"....?!"
Mirabella and Cupcake froze midair, staring at the storm. It was still moving with devastating force all around them, but not a single grain of sand dared touch her skin.
"Um... Master, are you using any skill?" Cupcake stammered, moving her gaze all over the place, utterly bewildered by the lack of active energy fluctuations.
"I am not." Mirabella turned her head to the side, her enhanced perception picking up an anomaly. She was seeing a red light shining deep within the dense, dark wall of the sand storm.
"What is that?" She asked in confusion, pointing her finger at the pulsating red light.
Cupcake turned her head to the direction, but her familiar-eyes saw nothing but the swirling, abrasive sand.
"Huh? Where?"
"You can’t see it?"
"See what?" Cupcake was getting more confused.
"Forget it."
Mirabella said, and flew towards the light, pressing deeper into the anomaly, all the while the sand kept avoiding her like she was a plague.
___
Mirabella flew for ten tense minutes through the howling corridor of sand before reaching the end of the storm. The moment she flew out from it, she paused midair. The atmospheric pressure had shifted drastically.
"Huh?" Cupcake was stunned.
Mirabella moved her gaze around the place. They were no longer in the endless dunes of the Hell Desert. Rather, they were staring at a huge ancient temple, which was sitting silently on a vast expanse of dead, black soil. It felt like an instanced zone entirely disconnected from the rest of the continent.
Mirabella slowly descended from the sky, and her boots lightly touched the ground of the black soil.
"Are we still in the southern region?" Cupcake asked in mild confusion, sensing the profound shift in the ambient world energy.
The Map appeared in front of Mirabella, a glowing projection of her interface, and she held both sides, staring at the location pin which now hovered over a Knight statue.
"I think so."
She raised her head to the colossal statue before them, but the monument in front of her was headless, ravaged by untold centuries. Yet, the martial stance was exactly the same as the icon on her map.
"Master, Isn’t that your sword the knight is holding?" Cupcake exclaimed, pointing her paw at the huge stone weapon.
The Knight was standing twenty meters tall, an imposing relic of a forgotten era. His two massive stone hands were resting on the handle of the sword, which was plunged deeply into the ground... Around it was the sprawling ruins of the temple.
"You are right, that’s Sunder." Mirabella brought out her cracked sword from her inventory, staring at the battered, unassuming blade, then up at the monumental one in the Knight’s hand. Although the statue’s weapon was made of solid rock, the design, the guard, and the exact proportions of the two swords were exactly the same.
"Is this about the Sun family?" She murmured. The history of Galaxy Fall was deeply tied to her lineage, and these ruins felt intimately connected to that ancient bloodline. She walked towards the Knight, stopping in front of the huge stone sword, staring intensely at the sealed door carved directly onto the sword’s surface.
"Master, are we really going to enter this place?" Cupcake asked in a low voice, her survival instincts urging caution.
"What? Are you scared?" Mirabella teased, staring at the closed door before her, her eyes narrowing as she spotted a distinct, blade-shaped hole in the center.
"I need a key." She announced.
"Key? Do you have any key?!" Cupcake yelled at her, her tail puffing up. They hadn’t seen such a place in any of the Empire’s records, let alone possessing a key for it.
Mirabella stared at the massive stone blade, then at Sunder in her hand. The resonance between the two was undeniable. After some thought, she raised Sunder, and confidently placed its tip in the hole, and pushed the blade inside.
DING!!!
"...?!"
A heavy, mechanical sound of countless ancient mechanisms unlocking sounded all over the desolate place, and the huge stone sword started cracking, glowing runes bleeding through the fissures.
Mirabella blinked, immediately sensing a shift in the surroundings energy, and tried to pull Sunder out, but the sword didn’t budge an inch.
"This?!!"
Before she could use her monstrous strength to yank it free, the blade was dragged violently forward. The sudden, unexpected action removed the hilt from her grasp, and before Mirabella could even process the thought, Sunder entered the stone wall completely, and vanished into the mechanism.
"....?!!!"
Mirabella and Cupcake were stunned in place, staring blankly at the wall before them.
"What the?!! Hey!! That’s my sword!!!" Mirabella yelled at the door, her usual calm completely breaking.
CRACK!!
She and Cupcake blinked, watching as the heavy stone door slowly moved to the side, grinding against the earth, revealing a pitch-dark entrance.
"Come on in, I am waiting."
A smooth, echoing female voice sounded from within, reaching Mirabella’s ears with crystal clarity, the words freezing her in place.