Chapter 146: Lost Ruins, Buried History
The ruined city of giants was shrouded in darkness, buried underground for who knew how many years. Wayne looked at the distant obelisk in befuddlement. It was massive and magnificent, piercing straight through the mountain top and standing even taller than Element Mountain itself. So why hadn’t it been discovered?
Wayne wasn’t talking about the members of the Church of Death. They didn’t count since they were latecomers to this era, just like him. He meant the ancestors before them.
The monument was so huge that it could be unearthed with little digging, promptly cut up and moved to the Windsor Museum for exhibition as a demonstration of the nation’s prowess. So why hadn’t anyone discovered it until now? It wasn’t even difficult to get in!
He couldn’t figure it out. Perhaps there was more to the place. Instinctively, he conjured an earth wall, blocking the fissure in the rock wall they had come through.
The trigger traps he had set up were being dismantled one by one. The combination of hallucinogenic spores, sleep-inducing spores, and parasitic spores would certainly take ordinary people down, no matter their numbers, and mages would take a serious hit to get through all of them, if not killed outright. There was plenty of time to search for the stone tablet.
“No time to daydream. I have good eyesight and spotted a big one. Let’s check it out.”
Wayne flicked a fireball from his fingertips, suspending it ahead to illuminate the ground. Then he led the way while keeping Mona in front of him.
Move quickly, but be careful not to step on any traps.
The ruined city of giants was abundant in four elements, around twice the amount in Londan’s sewers. If the entire mining area was so incredibly dense with elements, Element Mountain would truly live up to its name.
“Mona, do you know how the Element Mountain got its name?”
“Not sure.” Mona shook her head. As Element Mountain wasn’t a strategically important location, it was rarely marked on maps that covered larger areas.
When the copper mine was still operational, people would mention it from time to time. After the mine was abandoned and the residents of Silent Hill moved out, mostly to work in factories in the big cities, it fell into obscurity.
As for how Element Mountain got its name, Mona applied what she had learned, telling Wayne not to be limited by a mage’s perspective. Gold, silver, copper, and iron were elements, too!
“Oh, you learn fast.”
Wayne didn’t get his answer and was too lazy to waste his brain cells on theorizing. Whether the mountain used to be a great training site didn’t matter to him. What if it was? He wasn’t living in that era anyway.
The two moved faster through the darkness, triggering no trap along the way. Perhaps the mechanisms had deteriorated over time, or perhaps the traps only targeted large beings like giants, or perhaps there simply weren’t any traps here. Wayne arrived at the obelisk half an hour earlier than expected.
It was a square pillar with a pointed top. From a distance, it looked tall and magnificent; up close, he couldn’t see the top even when he craned his neck to the limit. He roughly estimated that one face of the square base exceeded three hundred meters in length. The overall height... well, it was definitely much taller than Element Mountain.
It wasn’t his first time encountering folded spaces. Klofron, the town fixed by death, the misty world that he encountered during his drive to Cambrook County, the ruined ancient city where the Thousand-Eyed Demon descended, and the molten territory swallowed by the gates of hell were all examples.
The Chosen Land was not stable and was easily disturbed by outside forces!
Wayne circled the obelisk and saw numerous horizontal and diagonal grooves on all four surfaces, crisscrossing like energy pathways with a distinct sci-fi feel. He blinked, imagining a planet-destroying cannon powered by the four elements. Perhaps one shot would destroy the moon. Poor Goddess of Moonlight!
Wait, the neighboring town was called Eclipse Town, so the cannon should be meant to blast the sun!
He put on gloves and felt the surfaces of the obelisk. The rocky texture was obvious to the touch, telling him that the structure wasn’t made of metal. He tentatively injected the obelisk with some mana. White light rippled across the stone surface, the glow fading after spreading around ten meters. The material had excellent magical conductivity!
This was certainly a celestial body-destroying cannon. Some criminals wanted to fire at the goddesses!
Mona followed suit, trying to find inscriptions on the obelisk’s surface, but no luck. Both she and Wayne busied themselves for about ten minutes, but neither found anything.
“The stone tablet might not be here.” Mona looked at the pitch-black ruins of giants, worried. “Let’s go. Even with thousands of people, it would be hard to search through the ruins in a short time. We should leave now to avoid being trapped by the followers of Death.”
Hey, can it be that this obelisk is the stone tablet?
Wayne looked up at the sky. For humans, a stone tablet would be around thirty centimeters long and wide, at most the size of a tombstone, but the ruins were built by giants. They wouldn’t have made stone tablets the size of their fingernails. Judging by the architectural style that screamed bigger was better, the more important something was, the larger the giants would make it. Imagine how big their stone tablet would be.
If his guess was right, the question was whether the followers of Death knew that the stone tablet was the obelisk. If they knew, how would they transport the obelisk, and where would they take it? Such a huge thing would be conspicuous wherever it was placed. There had to be a way to shrink it.
As Wayne pondered, a loud boom suddenly came from the distance. The earth walls he had constructed were violently shattered. The explosive noises were particularly loud in the silent ruins, where even a needle dropping to the ground would be audible.
“They caught up.” Mona frowned. After several hours of rest, she had recovered from her spell of dizziness, but she would still be a burden in an intense fight.
“Let’s go. Hide first and find a high ground. Leave them to explore the ruins. If there are too many of them, we’ll run.” Wayne patted Mona and made it straight to the dark area behind them. He planned to set up an ambush first. Whether they could recover the lost stone tablet today depended on how well the Death followers did.
He hoped that they wouldn’t disappoint him, or he would get angry and transform into the Death Knight. Things would get ugly then.
Mona moved quickly, following Wayne two steps behind. Seizing the opportunity, she reached out and grabbed.
Got it!
Wayne stiffened and stopped in his tracks. He slapped away the hand on his behind, speechless. “Detective Mona, what are you doing?”
“It’s so dark that I stumbled and accidentally touched you. I’m sorry.” Mona apologized repeatedly. She didn’t mean to do that. Her foot just slipped.
Like hell I’ll buy that!
Wayne rolled his eyes and quickly ran west. He knew what Mona was doing, of course. Relying on her memory, she was trying to find the right butt. Ridiculous, when he disguised himself, he had modified his body from head to toe through changing his life essence. His bottom had been completely altered, and it wouldn’t even feel the same when grabbed. How could she possibly recognize him?
He was confident in his disguise. Even if Mona felt him up a hundred times, she wouldn’t identify him.
That said, he was still a little wary. The detective moved quickly, precisely, and ruthlessly. She had clearly gotten suspicious, which puzzled him. He didn’t remember exposing himself in any way... If it was because he had patted her behind when carrying her, any psychologically healthy deviant would do the same. That shouldn’t be grounds for suspicion. Where exactly did things go wrong?
Wayne couldn’t figure her out. Smart women were too troublesome; he missed his three future girlfriends.
Mona frowned as she followed him, occasionally looking at her hand. Though it felt wrong, her feminine intuition told her that Wayne and Bruce were likely the same person.
“Wayne, why are you so quiet? Are you—”
“Call me ‘boss’!”
“Boss, why are you so quiet? Are you mad at me? How about you touch me back—”
“Shut up!” Wayne interrupted her irritably. “Detective Mona, you’re a clergywoman, are you not? You shouldn’t act so shamelessly as a member of a church. If there’s a next time, get ready to pack up and leave my agency.”
His tone was serious, which only made Mona’s heart race; Bruce had scolded her in the same way.
They seemed more and more similar!
While speaking, Wayne noticed that the surroundings were getting considerably brighter. Even without super vision, he could make out the outlines of the architecture.
“Kekeke—”
Eerie laughter echoed from above. He looked up to see a huge skull in the air, right above the ruins. The magical construct was about ten meters tall. It continued to rise like a small sun, radiating deathly cold grey light.
Under the energy’s influence, Mona’s complexion became extremely pale. She said through clenched teeth, “It’s a Gold-rank mage. Ordinary people will be converted into undead creatures from prolonged exposure to the light.”
“Find a room to hide in. It’ll be fine as long as we don’t get exposed to it.” Wayne quickened his pace.
***
At the entrance to the ruins, the members of the Church of Death had violently enlarged the crevice, making it wide enough for several people to pass through side by side. Rows of skeleton soldiers entered first, followed by the church members with Sebastian taking the lead. Looking at the pitch-black underground ruins, Sebastian raised his walking stick.
The skull ornament at the tip shut its jaw bones, and translucent energy rose into the air, expanding by ten meters and radiating light to dispel the darkness, allowing everyone to see the world more clearly.
So big!
The incredible visual impact made everyone’s eyes widen. They gasped in amazement while breathing rapidly.
“Fuck!”
They cursed in a chorus.
The scale of the ruined city of giants was self-evident. Any random path was wide enough for all skeleton soldiers present to march abreast. Sebastian tapped his walking stick on the ground and chanted briefly, summoning his three prized skeleton riders.
All three wore black armor, almost identical to that of the Death Knight. Their swords also hung from their horses’ backs. However, looking similar didn’t mean having equal strength. To enhance the three riders’ power, Sebastian had equipped them with modern weapons.
Two carried heavy machine guns with ammunition belts wrapped around their arms, while one carried a sniper rifle on its back with two rows of grenades around its waist.
Times were changing. Mages had to keep up, or sooner rather than later, they would get their heads blown off by sniper rifles from eight hundred miles away. In that regard, Sebastian was clearly superior to other Gold-rank mages.
It was only a matter of time before planes, cannons, and battleships would be enchanted!
Through the airborne white skull, Sebastian’s vision extended. He looked down from above and took in the entire city of giants. Within ten seconds, he spotted the two mice fleeing west.
“Oscar, two mice in the west. Take a squad of skeleton soldiers to deal with them. If you can capture them alive, bring them to me. I’ll personally convert them into skeletons. If not, bring their corpses.”
At Sebastian’s order, a burly miner stepped out from the group. His fierce features made him perfect for a villainous role without needing any makeup. It was a face that would make Wayne green with envy.
Oscar took his subordinates and fifty skeleton soldiers away in a grand procession. Sebastian frowned slightly, remembering Dunn, who was killed by the Nature mage. Just to be safe, he began chanting a complex, lengthy incantation.
High above, the giant skull’s eyes blazed with black light as it cackled with eerie laughter. Two pure black ravens of energy flapped their wings and flew out, heading toward Wayne and Mona’s location. With the curse of Death, Sebastian would secure their victory!
“The rest of you, follow me...”
Sebastian turned to the obelisk in the distance. The divine oracle the Death Knight had relayed was indeed true. His lips curled up slightly. “Lost ruins, buried history. Everything in the past must ultimately return to Death’s embrace. Isn’t that fate, too?”
***
The white skull cackled insidiously. Two black crows flew from its eye sockets straight toward Wayne and Mona’s hiding spot in the heart of the ruins. The buildings were exceptionally tall. Wayne had just climbed up a high wall when he saw the curse descending from afar.
The Goddess of Death reigned supreme, with three subordinate gods wielding divine power, governing the Divine Realm for the goddess. Accordingly, the curses of Death generally came in three types.
Wayne had the fortune of experiencing Grau the Observer’s curse once. His condition wasn’t serious—unlike the truly unlucky victims, Vera and Kristen. The former changed sex, while the latter not only changed sex, but species as well.
The Observer’s curse hadn’t killed Wayne or anyone else, which related greatly to the Observer’s personality. They wouldn’t directly kill their targets through curses, preferring to torment them until they broke down on their own. Hence, Grau was also known as the Misfortune Spider.
In comparison, Saigner the Judge wasn’t one for elaborate tricks. The Soul-Devouring Crow was as vicious as the name would suggest, going for the kill simply and directly. It was a difference between instant death and a slow agonizing end.
Mona climbed up the high wall and tensed when she saw the rapidly approaching ravens. She dug deep and forcibly cast holy light magic to defend them. It used up the last of her thoughts!
Wayne didn’t stop her, quietly waiting for her to conjure the wall of holy light. The strange cawing drew closer, and then two black ravens plunged into the holy light one after the other, their momentum suddenly killed.
One flew out a moment later, its eyes blazing with red light as it dove right into Wayne’s chest.
“Ah, I’m dying!” he cried out softly, his face turning grey like he was on the verge of death.
Mona collapsed from the dizziness, her eyelids twitching. She bit her lip hard in an attempt to stay conscious. She had no time to worry about Wayne since the second raven was already crashing into her with its wings folded.
She couldn’t do anything but close her eyes tightly.
Three seconds later, she slowly opened her eyes, staring in shock at the man in front of her.
“Wayne, are you alright?”
She wasn’t sure how Wayne had diverted the curse, but the effect of being hit by soul-devouring crows twice in a row wasn’t as simple as one plus one equaling two.
His straightened back swayed. He spoke weakly, sounding like he was suppressing pain. “I’m fine. What matters is you. If you’re tired, just sleep. Don’t push yourself.”
He was more than fine. He was fantastic, in fact. The crows entering his body were right at home. They immediately reconciled with him after realizing that it was all a misunderstanding, then they promptly became the Book of Greed’s snack. While it wasn’t much, it was better than nothing.
Wayne urged Mona to go down quickly. There were many opponents, and he was eager to transform into their boss!
Mona refused, pushing her exhausted mind to make herself stand up. Her legs were weak and trembling, and she only avoided falling by grabbing Wayne’s sleeve. “I still have some thoughts left. Let me try to transfer the curse. If it’s you, you can definitely escape.”
Wayne was shocked by her willingness to sacrifice herself. Her nobility was so dazzling that it made him feel ashamed. Looking on the bright side, at least his judgment was correct.
“Sleep. Maybe everything will be alright once you wake up,” Wayne said gently, reaching out to touch her face.
Sweet floral fragrance spread, making Mona’s eyelids grow heavy. Her breathing thickened as she slipped toward unconsciousness. She grabbed his collar roughly and said, “I may never wake up. Tell me, are you... are you Bruce?”
“I’ve never heard that name. You’ve got the wrong person.”
He pinched her neck and laid her limp body flat on the ground. After thinking it over, he found it a little inappropriate. He picked her back up and leaped down, rolling through the gate-like window into a room designed for giants.
He placed her on the floor and raised four earth walls, ensuring she wouldn’t be affected by the ensuing battle. Only then did he shift his gaze to the obelisk.
“The hunt begins!”