Chapter 771 - 792: Mysterious Stone Statue
Lancelot unlatched the heavy door and led his companions cautiously inside.
Behind the door was a rather spacious room lit by torches crackling on the walls, allowing everyone to easily see inside. The left half of the room was set up like a dining area, with four or five rectangular tables and chairs, enough to accommodate dozens of people dining at the same time; the right side of the room, however, was filled with life-sized statues of men and women. The craftsmanship was incredibly detailed but clashed somewhat with the surrounding environment.
Opposite the room, there was a door wide open, leading down a set of stairs to the second underground floor of the building. According to the visions they had seen in the Prophecy Spell, Uncle Barrend was being held in a cell down there.
’Brother, there are people hidden behind those statues.’ Due to an unexpected master-servant pact, Little Isha could communicate with Lancelot through telepathy, ’It’s the scent of blood, I can smell it...’
’I know,’ Lancelot silently replied while walking towards the statues with an appearance of no defense, reaching out to touch the chest of one of the statues while loudly saying, "Guys, look, these statues are so lifelike..."’
His voice drew everyone’s attention, and they immediately noticed the hand signals Lancelot made under the cover of the statues—there were enemies nearby. The well-coordinated companions didn’t show any signs of alarm, but they all tensed up quietly and kept their eyes on the shadows behind the statues. It didn’t take them long to spot fluttering robes, protruding boots, and...
Barely audible incantations.
Lancelot suddenly kicked out fiercely, hitting the female elf statue in front of him. The statue flew backward, crashing into another statue and causing a domino-like chain reaction. Screams followed, coming from the cultists caught between the statues.
Indeed, hiding fragile flesh and blood within a pile of solid, massive stones was not a good choice, especially when the stones were not particularly stable.
For most spellcasters, casting magic is a complex and delicate process, involving incantations, gestures, materials, and willpower to harness the omnipresent raw magic power, twisting, entangling, reshaping, and vibrating it back in a specific way before releasing it at a specific spot for the desired effect. This is why mages need to spend a lot of time preparing spells in advance, even though the actual casting takes only mere seconds—any disturbance during casting could lead to unpredictable, often disastrous outcomes.