‘This is not the most welcoming place.’

The moonlight was filtering from the left and through stained glass. Its light refracted forming countless shapes, illuminating the altar.

Izo didn’t get a fine look over it but the granite structure was also a book. It was open with a V-shape space enough for a human being to lay down.

He gulped as he observed the top of the church. Its high arcing ceiling had statues of a man in a scorpion position with his foot touching his head from behind. There were three others but all of them were destroyed except for one which had no head and shoulders. Despite that it had two more arms from its ribs holding parchment.

Maybe it was just him but this church didn’t seem to be very holy. The stale dust filled air made it even more ominous.

The problem was the loud sound from the door falling was certain to attract the skeleton warriors so even with Izo’s dislike for this place, he might just have to hide.

‘Still nothing from the suit’s censors. I’ll just have to trust, I guess.’

The space from the door that had fallen was barely enough for the Ural armor. He immediately climbed the left stairs as he didn’t like approaching the altar.

Since the suit’s feet were larger than the steps, Izo had to slowly climb like he was using his tippy toes. It felt weird but he could hear the clattering of metal on pavement.

The second level of the temple was a four meter from the wall flooring then the handrails. From the copious use of silver and single seat chair, this place seemed for the richer worshippers.

‘Is silver an important metal here?’

There were four balconies on the four square sides of the temple. There were also four mini obelisks from the plaza just before each balcony. Statues were also here and just like below only the scorpion man wasn’t destroyed.

The desolate nature of the city plus the visions from the rifts before he arrived here was telling of a big event. Big enough that through all those rifts, he saw none of the humans (or any other race) that built this city except for the undead.

‘Interesting but scary. If I can, I would like to solve this mystery.’

Up to a certain point only. If it was too dangerous, Izo wouldn’t mind leaving it unsolved.

The sound of boots falling approached the church. More than one patrol group it seems.

Izo laid down on the platform area above the door. This meant that he was near the obelisk. As the skeletons continued doing whatever they were doing, he saw inscriptions written on the base of it.

It wasn’t any language that he was familiar of.

[ Not enough sample size to translate language. ]

‘As expected of an expensive survival suit, it has many essential functions.’

Izo had physical notebook written by Sun Hee and Jane about his equipment. They also had a chip that could inserted in the suit to make convert it to digital. He resolved to check it later.

For now, he was completely unsure of what the skeleton warriors were doing or how their thought processes work but he had to wait for five minutes while they crowded around the temple door.

‘I could use this tendency.’

Just like the skeleton giant, these monsters seemed very simple minded and incorrigible. These however pointed to a puzzling conclusion.

‘These things are easy to beat even with medieval weaponry. A warhammer or rocks would be enough to crack their bones. What wiped out the inhabitants of this city?’

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Izo thought as they left the vicinity in their own groups. Continuing the scouting mission, he went the balcony near him and gazed over the city.

‘What in the fuck?’

From the plaza to the church then the higher elevated parts of the city were normal. Mostly two to three story houses with shops lining the center.

The other side from the plaza however was plagued by cracks on the ground. The main street of the city had a soft decline but at some point, it became a 45 degree then a 90-degree edge that led to a giant hole replacing the other half of the city.

The already dim moonlight was sucked by it with nothing visible from its maw.

A fortress sat dangerously above the hole. Whatever overhanging ledge was allowing it to not fall was one rainfall away from dooming it to the abyss.

‘Is that the gate of hell?’

Who knows but Izo didn’t want to find out. He had the sudden and justified instinct to leave the city right now.

‘I don’t want to fight anything that comes out of that place.’

He stopped observing it out of superstitious fear and calm himself. The surveying of the more welcoming parts of the city continued.

‘Three gates in the north, west and east respectively.’

The northern gate was on the mouth of the valley while the other two were dug from the sides of the cliff. The tunneling process must have a laborious and expensive project that provided two new entrances to the city.

On the north gate was a compound of buildings where the spires were located. In its center is what seemed to be a magic tower.

Other than that, were more large buildings that he didn’t quite understand the purpose but what he saw was enough to make a simple map.

“Do you have a map function?”

He spoke to the battle suit loud enough but making sure to be quiet. Izo wasn’t sure if it dampened his sound so he could do this to be safe.

The HUD on the helmet changed to a 2d map of what he saw. There were still large parts that were blank but most of the main avenues were marked. It seemed some parts could be turned into 3d too.

‘Very convenient but I should still make a physical copy.’

So just to be safe he used his mind to open the lower left compartment of the armor. There was the compass, erasable pen and sheets of paper. The problem however was the Ural’s hands were too large for holding it.

“How can you help with me drawing this map?”

[ User may order the armor to perform a movement. ]

“Move right hand in a circular motion.”

The Ural’s right hand made a circle in the air. That wasn’t what Izo was thinking however and he needs to be more specific.

This time he ordered with his mind and the Ural’s right hand moved in a continuous circular motion. Izo ordered it to draw a replica of the map from before.

The Ural held the pen in an awkward index and middle finger grip then began drawing. It was an ugly scribble akin to modern art.

‘There’s a limit to the specificity. Still could be useful in some situations where I need to think while keeping moving.’

He postponed the physical map for now since Izo would have to get out of the suit to draw it.

‘Now what to do.’

If Izo plans to leave this place then the gates would be the exits. There were walls and cliffs all throughout that he maybe able to scale with the Ural’s thrusters. On Earth’s castles, there were cases of secret tunnels beneath.

‘I’ll try the North gate.’

Maybe it was his animal instinct but he wanted to get to higher ground if possible.

Izo got down the stairs and left the temple area. While hiding from the patrols, he moved North using the alleys and made sure to travel with speed but prioritizing stealth. There might be other more powerful monsters here.

Turns out that this was the smart action as when he got close to his destination, there were new types of enemies. A shadow figure enclosed in black armor with a winged helm. They travelled in teams of threes with one of them having a bow or crossbow. Despite the supposed heaviness of the armor, they were quiet as city.

Izo almost had a heart attack when he crossed a particularly large alley and saw a team of this black shadow knights. Luckily, their backs were turned to him so he just continued crossing then slowed down.

Izo made sure to take his time to analyze these enemies, who knows what helpful thing he could learn.

In his infrared vision, the most red with heat output was, like the other skeletons, their heads. He ordered the Ural to show their temperatures and it was jumping between 900˚-1600˚ C. Comparisons images were shown of mostly different types of flame and heated metals.

‘Just like the skeleton giant? They also contain flames?’

He noted this peculiarity as he watched them move farther down the alley. It seems this place was a market of sorts since there were tarps and small stands that were rotting here. In fact, this was a trend since the closer Izo got to the gates the more shops there were.

When he finally got to the gate, he had to stop in fear.

‘Is that a giant ostrich?’

Well, that was the closest thing that he could match. Its legs were shorter but way fatter. Its nech was the same and both these limbs were ringed in wrinkled fat. It was barely able to lift its head thus its breathing was labored. It looked disgusting as it rested there in its bus sized bulk.

Izo doesn’t know if he could beat that though there might not be a reason to just yet. There was a grey mana looking barrier covering the gateway. Not only that but it stretched high up the walls were it only faded 50 meters in the sky.

Even more of a deterrent were the black shadow knights in the gateway, the tower/guardhouse leading up the wall and on the wall itself. A thousand or more it seems, stalwart as a statue, ever vigilant effigies.