08-Ruins

Susan looked at the scenery in front of her, this part of the forest didn't appear to be much different from the others she had seen, if there was one difference then it was that the plant life wasn't as dense, and it was possible to see a few piles of rocks that could have been once a wall.

"Well, it seems... Ruined..." She said as she glanced at the sprawling remains of what might have been a village or a town one day.

"Yup," Adam said joyfully.

"I don't really think that you will be able to find anything interesting or useful at all," she continued.

"Who knows, you would be surprised of what can be found in places like this," answered Adam as he looked around him with clear interest.

"Let's rest and eat something for now, we will enter and take a look after that," Adam said to Susan.

They had walked for most of the day, the day before and started their journey again in the morning without stopping till that moment when they reached the ruins at midday, so it was a good time to rest for sure.

As they had lunch, a bit of jerky and some wild fruit and vegetables Adam had gathered on their journey, Susan couldn't stop her mind from wandering towards what happened to her these last few days, the things she had been through and all that she lost.

As she thought of that she felt a lump in her throat and found it hard to swallow the already hard jerky, yet she couldn't let herself cry again, she didn't want to keep on crying time and time again with no moving forward.

She already felt a bit better, as long as she didn't think much about what happened, that's true, but it was still an improvement nonetheless.

Adam's 'lessons', as he called them, did help her keep her mind of places it didn't need to be in right then, and she gladly used those lessons for what they were, a distraction.

As her thoughts wandered to Adam, she threw the self-proclaimed livitus a glance and noticed that he was looking at her, her feet exactly.

Feeling her looking at him he lifted his eyes and gave her a small smile.

Susan lowered her head and looked at her feet herself, remembering her injuries and how they appeared much better that morning, she guessed that she only needed a few days more for them to heal completely.

After that, they fell into a bit of awkward silence as they ate what was left of their simple meal.

That done, Susan lifted her head and looked at the sky.

"They are still there..." She murmured to no one in particular.

The branching lights were still there in all their glory, still dominating the sky even at day and they showed no sign of disappearing at all.

Adam didn't have to ask her about what she meant, all he did was look up and study those gigantic branching rivers of multicoloured lights.

Ever since the Luminous Rivers reappeared two days ago, they never disappeared again, and Adam had a feeling that they were never going to, with the Beasts' Forest becoming just one of those areas where the Luminous Rivers covered the sky in everlasting multicoloured branches.

"... Usually, they would remain for around a day before disappearing again... Their appearance marked the beginning of the light's festival in the village... I... I used to look forward to it each year..." Susan continued her murmuring in a sad dreamy sort of way.

Seeming unsure of what he should say, all Adam did was keep looking at the sky in silence, giving the young woman the time she needed.

A while after they had their rest and with their lunch done, Adam stood up and said to Susan:

"Usually, depending on what the ruins were before, there might be deadly traps in places like these, but I don't think that we have any need to worry about that here, some explorers were already here and there are no records about any real danger, so there's no reason to worry, we still have to be careful anyway though, who knows what would happen, and it's never bad to be so."

Seeing Susan nod, he continued:

"Okay, let's get started," saying that, he had Susan stand behind him, unsheathed the sword at his waist and stabbed it at the ground.

Susan couldn't help herself from throwing the sword that had been unsheathed for the first time since she met Adam, a glance and she was surprised by how it looked.

The sword wasn't anything like how she thought it would be, first, it wasn't silvery grey as most swords she saw were, but it had a bright golden colour as if it was made of pure gold. It also didn't have an edge. Another thing that piqued her interest was the many densely engraved runes running all over the sword.

She opened her mouth wanting to ask Adam about it, but before she could say anything, she felt some kind of a quake under her feet, as if something just passed under her.

Lifting her head in shock from looking under her feet to stare at Adam, she noticed that his eyes were closed and that he had a small frown on his face.

Susan felt the wave-like quake passing under her four more times before Adam stopped whatever he was doing and looked at her with the small frown still there on his face.

"Did you feel anything?" He asked.

"Yes... As if something moved under me.." She answered hesitatingly.

"Hmm..." Adam continued to frown as he looked at her, it wasn't clear what he was thinking of, finally, he shook his head and said:

"It really seems as if there's nothing here, but... Here follow me, let's go check somewhere."

Susan just followed after him while looking at what was left of the village around her, she could almost imagine how these ruins were a long time ago, but now there was nothing left but piles of rocks and barely standing walls reclaimed by the forest.

As she took in all of that, she suddenly felt a pang of pain stab her heart as it clenched, she knew that probably, her village was going to become a ruin like this, covered in weeds and forgotten by the world.

She felt like crying as tears filled her eyes and her vision became blurry, but she held herself and took a deep breath, she wasn't going to cry there.

"It's there," suddenly, as she was still drowning in her thoughts, she heard Adam's voice.

Following his eyes, she saw the half-standing remains of what seemed to have been a great tower at one point, only a small part of the outer wall of the tower was left, but that, along with the area around it, was enough to show how big it must have been at one point in time.

"What's weird about this place..." She started asking before it hit her.

"Wa... Wait, how come we didn't notice this place before? It's as if it wasn't here before you led me to it."

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She looked around her as she started to panic a bit, something wasn't normal about this place, she should have noticed this wall standing here, it was the biggest one in this area and quite clear from where they were standing before, but before Adam led her there, she didn't notice it at all.

"Exactly," nodded Adam with a thoughtful look on his face, "when I was scanning the area earlier, I neglected this part here, as if something wasn't allowing me to notice it, and I would have just disregarded it if the influence wasn't a bit crude as if..."

Adam fell into deep thoughts for a bit before returning to himself and starting to laugh lightly.

"There really seems to be something here," there was an unconcealed excitement in his voice and eyes as he looked at the ruins of the tower in front of them.

Done speaking, Adam lifted his hands and murmured something under his breath, his two blue embroidered gloves shone with a milky white light before the two gigantic hands appeared above him.

"Stay behind me," he said while the two gigantic hands moved forward and started removing the big rocks that filled what was one day the centre of the tower.

Susan watched as Adam moved the huge rocks with ease using those two hands, seeing that was shocking and made her remember that the person she has been with wasn't a normal human at all, but someone who was able to make a group of the best soldiers in her village retreat easily.

After removing all rocks and similar obstacles that were easy to move, Adam lifted what he could of the soil and dirt using the gigantic hands before dismissing them in a puff of milky white light and summoning a strong gust of wind to deal with what was left.

Finally, after what appeared to be the old floor of the tower was uncovered, Adam turned toward Susan and said:

"Let's get closer," Susan nodded lightly before following him to the floor.

With her following behind him, Adam advanced till he made it to the centre of the floor, then he again stabbed his sword in the ground, and again, Susan felt the same waves pass under her for a few more times before Adam opened his eyes.

"There really is something here... But it's somehow hidden just like how this place was hidden from us, again I wouldn't have felt it if not for that elementary mistake..."

At first, it seemed as if Adam was trying to give Susan some kind of explanation about how he was able to notice whatever was affecting them, but then it appeared as if he had noticed something and the frown on his face grew as he started looking around him seriously.

The way he was acting made Susan worried for a bit and she couldn't stop herself from looking around with a bit of fear as she asked:

"Wh... What's wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh, no nothing, I just thought of something for a minute there," Adam came back from whatever got into him and waved his hand dismissively.

After that, he returned his attention to the ground under them and continued:

"I'm not good at runic glyphs, but not being able to notice any magic circle or engravings at all is still pretty weird... Hmm... Susan?"

Susan was listening to what Adam was saying with interest, so she didn't expect to be called, and when Adam did that, she almost jumped out of surprise.

"Oh! Yes?" She asked.

"Can you touch the floor with your hand?" Asked Adam with a bit of hesitation.

"!?" Susan didn't know what to say, all she did was look at him in confusion while dozens of thoughts passed through her head

She didn't know if there was any danger and he decided to use her to test it, or if she was going to be sacrificed somehow if she did that, or what other thing he might have in mind, but what she did know was that she had a choice to make.

Seeming as if he saw through what she was thinking, Adam tried to calm her down and console her:

"Don't worry, nothing bad will happen to you, hell, nothing will probably happen at all."

"... Okay," Susan thought about things for a bit before answering him.

She then took a deep breath, crouched down and extended her hand slowly to the ground towards the floor below her.

As her hand moved closer and closer to the ground, her heart started beating faster and faster and the sound of it drumming in her chest was the only thing she could hear. When she could finally feel the cold ground from the tips of her fingers, she held her breaths as she waited.

But except for a bit of cold moving up her fingers, she felt nothing else at all and nothing else happened either.

She turned her head towards Adam and seeing him looking at her hand that touched the ground with a frown, she asked:

"Is that enough for now?"

"Yes of course," he answered with a smile, before adding, "come now, stand behind me."

Susan stood up and moved to stand behind him. After she did, she noticed that Adam had at some point summoned the two gigantic hands and the semitransparent barrier around them, and after that, he pulled his sword and stabbed its point to the ground.

As expected, Susan felt those weird waves again, except that they were a bit clearer this time.

After those waves passed, Adam moved those hands to a far side of the floor from where they were, and lifted his own gloved hands, before bringing them down fast, and by extension, the two gigantic hands did the same.

Bang!

It only took one hit for cracks to start appearing all over the old floor, including the part where they were standing.

"Adam!" Susan saw Adam's gloved hands move up again and shouted.

She felt that the floor won't be able to take another hit, and him destroying the floor while they were still on it was an idiotic thing to do.

But Adam wasn't listening to her, the gigantic hands continued on their path before coming down again.

As she expected, the floor under them couldn't take another hit and it started caving-in starting from the place where the two hands hit and heading towards where they were.

"Adam!!" Susan shouted as she held Adam's upper arm as the ground broke under them.

But to her surprise, neither she nor Adam fell with the destroyed floor, but they remained floating in place. Looking under her, she saw that the barrier that was around them extended to the space under their feet and that they were standing on it right then.

"Why worry?" Adam asked in an innocent joking tone of voice.

"Bastard..." She whispered under her breath as she released his arm.

Adam laughed for a bit before creating two shining balls and sending them to see what was down below.

Below them, where the floor fell, they were able to see what seemed like a big hall, and a door.