CHAPTER 108 MYSTERIOUS PAINTINGS (PART ONE)

"Elsa, what did you see?" Darren asked. He had tried to use his mind to explore the palace, but he

didn't find anything.

Staring at the expanse of darkness with a blank expression on her face, Elsa blinked, her eyes

quivered nervously. After she snapped out of her brief trance, she finally replied, "I saw a guy over

there. He was wearing a black robe. When I tried to watch clearly, he suddenly made a slight

movement. But it's totally dark in there, so I am not sure if my eyes have just deceived me." Darren

went silent for a moment.

"Maybe…" he started. He cut himself off and looked away.

When he looked up, he found that numerous black chains were interlaced on the ceiling. Now that it

was called forbidden area, he felt that it might be far too risky to walk into it as it might be hard for them

to get out again. They were facing an extremely dangerous situation, and he needed to think things

through with caution.

"Elsa, you should just stay here and wait for me. I will try to find the way out by myself," Darren bravely

insisted.

Since the three sides of the palace were blocked by the walls that were plastered with an abundance of

mysterious runes, they could only find a way out from the front of the palace. However, the road at the

front was in total darkness, so he had to believe in himself and to venture out and take the risk for them

both. After looking around and finding nothing strange, Darren decided that they were presently staying

at a relatively safe place. Since the place was safe from the danger and violence that threatened them,

he wanted Elsa to stay.

"No," Elsa firmly replied.

"Don't worry, Elsa. I will be careful," Darren assured her.

"Oh, I'm not worried about you. I'm just afraid of being alone in this gloomy palace. What if I'm in

danger and you're not by my side?" Elsa coyly protested.

She then grabbed Darren's arm and strode towards him with an innocent smile on her face.

Darren couldn't help smiling at Elsa's antics. His affection for the lovely girl grew with the passing of

time. With a slight shake of his head, "All right," he said, giving in.

They gingerly felt their way along the dark passage, careful not to touch the black iron chains.

Four hours had passed. As they kept on moving forward, numerous stone pillars retreated behind

them. The journey seemed endless and Darren was afraid they might get lost if they continued ahead.

By this point, Darren had become fully aware of the current predicament they were facing.

"We're completely lost," Darren announced. "We're back at the same place we started in. We didn't

even move forward at all." NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.

Elsa nodded in agreement. "I've already noticed it, but I wasn't sure whether my speculation was right

or not, so I didn't say anything," she replied.

"If I guessed correctly, we're completely lost in a maze right now. If we don't find out a way to escape,

we might never find a way out. We might end up using up all our strength and die from insufficient

spiritual energy," she added. Darren nodded his head, agreeing with Elsa.

As Elsa glanced away from Darren, something suddenly caught her eyes. "Darren, look! There's

something on the stone pillars and the walls!" she eagerly exclaimed, as she pointed behind him.

Looking at the direction where Elsa was pointing at, Darren noticed that something was partially

covered with dust and dirt. "Great eye, Elsa! If you hadn't told me, I wouldn't notice it at all," he said as

he turned to praise her. "It may have something to do with the maze. Hopefully, it could help us figure

out the problem."

And so, they changed their direction and walked towards the huge stone pillars.

As they reached a stone pillar, Darren stretched his hand forward and aimed towards it. The power that

emitted from his hand instantly blew away all the dust and dirt that had built up on the pillar, and the

stone finally revealed its real identity.

They found various ancient patterns carved onto it.

Darren then began to dust out the other stone pillars and the walls, stripping them off of all the dirt and

grime, just as he did with the first one.

"Elsa, look. The same patterns keep emerging again and again when I move further forward. It could

probably mean that we're going in the wrong direction and will stay stuck in the same place," he

hypothesized. Darren was absolutely certain that if they kept on moving forward, all their efforts would

be in vain.

"Smart," Elsa agreed. "So, what should we do now?"

Darren didn't reply. Instead, he started observing those mysterious patterns on the first stone pillar. He

wanted to figure out the hidden meaning of the patterns and get away from the palace as soon as

possible.

He soon realized that they were paintings realistically depicting the grand wars. Human beings and

various strange creatures were painted on them.

Since the paintings were enormous and there was an innumerable amount of them, it was too

mundane for the human mind to comprehend those paintings. Even though Darren was super talented,

it still took him three days to completely understand them. Elsa also did not just goof around. She went

down to business as she read all the patterns and tried deciphering them with Darren.

"Well… What do you think, Darren?"

Elsa prodded at Darren after going through all the patterns and paintings.

"From what we've gathered, the war started with an unknown mysterious creature. It triggered the start

of a war that lasted for over tens of thousands of years. Also according to the patterns, people who got

involved in the war were exceptionally strong and only a few people were able to match their power at

that time. Those people had died in the war and that whole affair was now in the dim and distant past,

and still, not many men have achieved the same greatness in talents as they had," he slowly

enumerated.