Chapter 181: Hidden
Something strange seemed to be flowing inside the rock. It was like a reddish liquid and seemed to contain strange iron particles.
It was like blood and iron, to be exact. But in reality, it only "seemed to flow."
It didn’t actually flow; it just gave that illusion.
He had never seen anything like it before, but he found it curious, so he began to explore further.
There were many rocks here, and some seemed to be slightly damaged, giving the impression of a small collapsed structure.
After passing the area visible from the cliff, they entered a peculiar forest with many rocks and trees.
The trees seemed to grow from inside the rock, forming huge trunks.
They were all like that.
He approached one of the rocks and touched it in different ways.
"They really are structures," he said and drew his sword.
He hammered it and made a round hole to see inside. Although he couldn’t see anything, just that strange red color with iron.
It was on the rocks and trees, which were strangely large.
He couldn’t describe what he was seeing, beyond: it’s something unique.
"Should we destroy these rocks to see inside?" Jenna asked, curious.
But Elliot shook his head.
"It’s something valuable to archaeologists, surely. I can see traces that it has been investigated before." He took out the book he had brought and leafed through it, reading some information.
As he read, he walked through the rocky forest.
After checking many rocks and walking for a long time, he looked back. He had reached the end of the book.
He turned back.
"Seen from here, it looks a lot like a city," he said.
Jenna agreed.
"But everything seems to have turned to stone, and it’s hard to make out the inside when all that red stuff is covering most of the inside of the rocks and trees."
Elliot agreed, but looking at it from the side, he frowned.
"Don’t you think there’s some kind of pattern?" he said suddenly.
She looked more closely, but couldn’t see anything. "No?"
She tilted her head. "A construction pattern?"
"No. I feel like it’s more of a magical pattern." He approached the rocks once more.
He hadn’t wanted to damage an entire rock because archaeologists might want to study this place, but now he had no choice.
He had to damage at least one rock.
He struck it hard, destroying everything rocky. Suddenly, something strange remained in the place of the rock, connecting to a part of the tree.
It looked like a red structure with fragments of iron. It gave the illusion of flowing like blood, but in reality, it wasn’t moving. It was a simple visual illusion caused by unknown reasons.
Symptoms of magic. He hadn’t noticed it before because he thought it was some peculiarity of the ancient city, but even though there are remnants of strange constructions under the rock, they have nothing to do with that red thing.
Although they could have a lot to do with it.
A faint magical light emerged from this structure, which lacked form but seemed to take the shape of the rock that once surrounded it.
Jenna couldn’t see it, but it was clear to Elliot.
He followed it, and it seemed to disappear into another rock/tree.
He went to that place and did exactly the same thing as before: he broke the rock, revealing a similar structure.
Just then, the dim light coming from the other rock connected with this one, and at the same time, another light came out from the other side.
’As I suspected, this is a magical pattern,’ he thought.
Jenna couldn’t understand why he was destroying something he had said couldn’t be destroyed, but she didn’t object, as she found what was under the rocks intriguing.
She stared at it for quite some time, while Elliot was breaking rocks, and suddenly...
"This is blood, I’m sure of it," she said.
Elliot was about to destroy a rock when he heard her words. He turned and looked at her.
"Why are you so sure?"
"The composition is that of blood. It’s just petrified, somehow."
He tried to look at it more closely. "So that movement you see isn’t an illusion, but the movement it should have. Right?"
"That’s what I think." She approached him and touched the red part. "Look at this." Suddenly, she activated her dark magic.
For a brief moment, the red part seemed to react to her and move slightly, but suddenly, the iron glowed, and everything became still again.
"Oh." His eyes sparkled with interest. "That movement is from blood. But why?" He moved toward another rock, thoughtful.
"Are these rocks connected?" Jenna asked suddenly.
"Yes. There’s a magical pattern that connects them."
"And the increase in heat is because you’re activating them?"
He turned to look at her. "Increase in heat?"
"Yes." She nodded. "The temperature has been rising since you started; it’s quite hot." She even fanned a little on her chest, as the heat and sweat proved that what she was saying was true.
Even in those hot trials of the dungeon of two extremes, she had never felt such heat as she did this time.
The heat didn’t seem to come from the fire here, but it was intense.
Elliot was surprised. He honestly wasn’t aware of it.
For him, it wasn’t hot at the moment.
Perhaps the temperature had changed slightly, but it wasn’t hot like she described it.
’Is it because of the fire training?’ he thought.
He had to assume it was.
"Let’s finish this quickly. I want to see this pattern and where it will lead us. There’s no mention of it in the books."
He moved among the rocks and began to destroy them quickly, with bold and perfectly controlled movements.
In no time, he managed to blow the last rock to pieces.
Then the light joined it...
And suddenly, a tremor emerged above them. Rocks and nearby trees began to tear up the ground for a moment, until suddenly...
In front of them, one of the mountains they had previously used to climb approached them.
They were both so frightened that they took several steps back, but a large figure carved into the rock appeared. It was an incredibly large statue, resembling a giant.
It held a sword in its hands, which was stuck into a huge structure with an extremely sturdy bronze door.
Two enormous wings emerged from its back, which looked incredibly realistic.
These wings absorbed the blood from the pillars Elliot had uncovered from the rock and began to drip.
A terrifying feeling of oppression enveloped them, at the same time as the sword held by the statue shook and was filled with blood.
This blood fell onto the building, illuminating a huge word on the facade: CLARK.
At the same time, it fell onto the bronze door. The protrusions on the door filled with blood like real veins, and suddenly it burst open.
The sound of the impact echoed and seemed to reverberate...
Just then, Elliot felt his sleeves being pulled.
In two different places.
He shuddered at this, but looked behind him. Jenna was dazed, looking around.
"W-where are we? I-is this another ruin?" she asked, stammering.
It was then that Elliot noticed that everything around him had changed.
The forest and rocks from before, those red things and all that, had turned into a vast cave, with a structure that evoked antiquity, power, and distant glory... completely impossible to know its location in time.
They seemed to be standing on top of an enormous wall of what could have been a city. But beneath them, there was nothing. It was a huge black hole, whose origin and end were unknown.
Anyone could feel dizzy just looking at it, as it gave the impression that you would have a very bad time if you fell in.
All of this was built with some strange rock, which is very resistant and capable of withstanding even the passage of millions of years.
And in front of them stood a castle on the rock. The colossal statue there, which was still bleeding, looked like some kind of god or angel and was built right in front of the castle, covering much of its front.
And to connect the castle wall, a bridge was large enough for a train to pass over.
Just as he admired the beauty of this unique, mysterious, and dark landscape, he felt someone tugging at his sleeve again.
But this time...
From his pants. On his left foot.
He turned abruptly in that direction and was stunned.
There were piles of bones scattered all over the place. They appeared to have died of starvation. And a corpse... no, it wasn’t a corpse yet.
A man, with one foot in the grave or both, who seemed to be looking at him.
"...Another...victim...of a city...ruined...by..."
"...God...you see?"
"I.t.w..g..."
The words were broken, so it was difficult to understand anything after his first words.
After that, he died.
He couldn’t hold on for another second.