The Light illuminated the way down the crack of the cave as Leon completely exited the stinky goblin shithole to find himself in another shithole. The moment he cast [Air Magic - Aero Detection] to read the air around, his facial expression turned sunken.
"Another cave system."
He has both the equipment and the skills to go through a cave system but what he lacked was patience. The fact that he has to deal with a ring invading his mind, an enemy standing at the entrance of the blocked cave, and God knows what's hidden down here; he was already at his wit's end.
He couldn't do anything otherwise than sucking in his anger and pushing forward wherever that leads. The Goblin Shaman surely had an escape route hidden for itself down here.
The intertwined caves system under the forest wasn't as threatening as it gave off thanks to the fact that Goblins colonized the area above which left nothing even for the cave dwellers beneath them except for a few bug-type monsters which hid away from the light instantly as soon as they sensed it
But for how long was this going to keep going? Leon focused on detecting the air current around him but the more he walked, the deeper he descended. He can just turn around and get back to the area he entered from but he was certain someone will track him to the backdoor of the Goblin Den… it's written in the goddamn Mercenary Handbook; "Goblins always have backdoors."
Yet in a strange and weird occurrence, the ground beneath Leon started to feel a little bit different. Different from the sharp floor of the cave, this one was smooth… still under a few inches of dirt at some spots but clearly smooth.
Leon looked down and moved some of the dirt with his boots only to find more of that smooth ground on the same level with this floor.
He wasn't that knowledgeable when it comes to geology but that can't be called natural, can it now? Smooth cut stones in underground caves? No way it feels right.
Maybe a man-made structure? Who knows! If there is a floor then there at least should be a wall, a ceiling, or any other aspect of human presence… or anything logical to this world in that matter.
And he was right, he found a wall right away which seemed like a part of a ruin… a very old one. If he doesn't know any better, touching this many centuries-old structure may bring it down. Still, it looked oddly familiar.
"Holy Glyphs… again?"
The wall was covered with those things once again, this time however, it was a set of older glyphs. They carried the same aspects and had some rough ideas of the ones Leon saw on the Obelisk from the forest this morning.
The engravings, on the other hand, felt rather odd as they were not like the usual Holy Glyphs from the Holy Light Temple. If Leon's memory serves him right, the Holy Glyphs always associate the Sun as the Major Spirit of the Light and the object which delivers the Light's blessing to the land. That's why it is always engraved like various hands coming down with the rays of the Sun over the buildings and the living beings.
This one was quite the opposite. It portrayed an older style of engraving which looked more primitive compared to the artistic style adopted today. On that wall which Leon saw, there was a Sun, Sun Rays coming from it, and people and other creatures dotting the background. The illogical thing about the engraving is that instead of the Sun Rays extended its blessings in the form of the many hands down to the creatures, it was the creatures who held their hands up and joined them with the sun rays all the way up to form a big hand near the sun.
"Interesting to say the least… not my problem though."
Whatever it was, Leon's interest grew thinner as he was still focusing on finding the exit which the Goblin Shaman was after. Still, fate wasn't kind to him.
As he walked, he suddenly felt that some dirt was leaking through the cave's wall along with a few pebbles and minor signs of cracking appearing all over the place.
These cracks and dirt would increase periodically and systematically as if some giant was bounding the ground slowly in some area far away. Still, those bounds became clearer and clearer as their effect became more dangerous every minute.
"Fuck! It's collapsing!"
Leon hurried down through the cave but still found no exit in the complex tunnels eventually arriving at a dead end. A morbid feeling invaded his thoughts as he almost panicked… if he waits any longer, he will surely get buried alive in one of those tunnels.
Instantly, he used every bit of strength in his body to push himself backward through the way he came from. The bounding became clearer and the cave's integrity started to suffer. Just as Leon almost reached a safe area, he heard strange noises around him.
*Crack*
"Shit!"
As he feared, the cave's wall came down and some large stones rolled towards his head. In a desperate attempt, Leon pushed himself aside only to find it against the wall which was engraved by the Holy Glyphs. Magically, the wall moved itself as if it swallowed him… and it did.
***
"Alright! Clear the smoke."
By the Prince's orders, the students who can cast Air Magic cleared away the aftereffect of the spell he cast just now.
"Alright, one more time." The Prince stood in front of the blocked entrance, aimed his hand ahead, and shouted, "Fireball!"
*BANG*
With each spell he casts, parts of the rubble get eaten away.
He smiled vividly as it almost took him no time to clear this much.
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His aunt, the Archduchess, may have instructed that the Earth Element students start moving the rubble by themselves slowly. It was clear to him that she wanted him stuck here doing nothing while he could have already opened the path by casting some Fireballs. It may exhaust him but he was willing to do it in order to finish off the goblins. Those vile things that killed a woman that belonged to him.
Also, if it is to slap that arrogant woman on the face, so be it. He will surely open the cave and keep his prestige, take revenge for Pearl, and kill that black goblin from earlier.
And he can finally feel it, the entrance is almost clear. Just one last spell, all he needs is to go gather his Mana one last time and blast off the last of the rubble.
"Fireball!"
With all the remaining might he could muster, he let his spell blast into the rubble… he anticipated the moment when the Goblin Den is finally open, the moment where he leads a victorious raid, the moment when the monsters die from fear before the blades could even slice their heads off. That moment he desperately wants…
But…
… as he blasted off the rubble, the rubble was blasted back.
And here it was rushing towards him.
***
It wasn't just any normal wall, was it?
A trap wall?
That's something very rare to see even in Shady's line of work. As most ancient temples were built with large chunks of stone, they mostly survive whatever age throws at them and in these temples, some fake slaps of stones were placed to hide the secret tunnels and corridors. Lucky for Leon as the rocks almost fell on him in the tight cave, the old ruins nearby were actually leading to some other secret pass.
"So… this is where the rest of you were hiding." Leon took out his blade and aimed it ahead… menacingly.
Young and female Goblins hiding as if they are innocent civilians involved in some warzone. If not for the human arm those little goblins were biting on, Leon himself would have been fooled.
The appearance of a human was downright the scariest thing these goblins encountered to date. A man with a blade and no sort of remorse to their kind… ever.
"It seems there is no way out this way either else those pesky little shits would have escaped long ago." Leon sighed before coldly staring at the goblin females who were arming themselves.
If he had the Goblin Mask, he may have understood or spoken their language even. Instead of talking the language of reason, however, Leon was fluent in Fear.
He left the trap wall behind him open and instantly jumped in the middle of the Goblins.
"HAAA! COME GET SOME, YOU FUCKERS!"
With a few swings, he killed any goblin his blade could reach and started scaring them off. Strangely, rather than escaping deeper in the corridor, the goblins struggled to break away and all of them rushed through the trap wall.
Leon did that on purpose in order to make the goblins lead him out. They surely know which way leads where.
But it still got him curious… What is at the end of this corridor?
The answer to that didn't require him anything but a few steps in to witness…
"Holy! Shit!"
… something he could never even fathom.
A hall, a square hall made of stone with many Holy Glyphs covering the walls. They all belonged to the Light Temple but varied in style. Leon didn't understand what any of the engravings mean or rather… he didn't try to. Whatever it wanted to say, the room spoke a clearer message here.
Get the fuck out!
Yes, the room said so. How? Well, the answer can be a few hundred skeletal remains filling the ground of the Hall to no end all lying on the ground, raising their hands, and taking all the poses which can be associated with agony.
However, one more detail was left. Something was in the middle of it all, something powerful, something that caused everything here to just lose their minds trying to get a hold of it.
The skeletal corpses weren't all the same thing. Some were goblins; the recent ones; others were humans, a dwarf's skeleton was easy to distinguish as well, even an elf, a skeleton with a tail and a strange head, a skeleton with horns… there was a complete racial assembly here.
An Assembly of Doom.
In the middle of it all was a crystal, a gem… or a stone? Leon couldn't tell exactly what it is as the lighting wasn't perfect but he wasn't even interested right now.
He just wanted to step back.
*Crunch*
But that didn't sound like a step back, it was a step ahead.
"This is officially the worst day of my life."
He stepped backward again.
*Crunch*
"Motherfucker!"
Another step was taken in unfortunately confirmed by the sound of the bone he just stepped on.
This wasn't him, it wasn't him at all!
Just a few hours ago, he was being possessed by some murderous mask he made without knowing, now he is walking in a place that fluently screams "Death Trap! Fuck Off!" and he can't back away?
"What sort of forced plot is that?" Leon almost cried.
Nothing was making sense to him right now. This day in particular was like completely losing his mind and now he's officially out of control.
"Calm down! Just breathe! In! Out! In! Out! God, that place stinks."
He wasn't able to handle it at all and wanted to firmly hold his feet on the ground then push back…
*Crunch*
"Fuck me!"
That's the third step in and Leon suddenly became drenched in sweat. He is so fed up with his situation that he can no longer tolerate this.
He looked around carefully and spotted the behavior of the skeletal corpses around. They all seem to have been sliding on the ground rather than walking. Inspecting the ground further, Leon found the truth about the reason why all the corpses took the same pose.
Fingernail trails… everywhere.
"Fucking hell!"
Whoever discovers this place ended up dying here without having any ability to fall back no matter how desperate they grew.
"So… this is it?" Leon laughed, "I do all that and end up in a mass grave just… just because I took the long turn?"
He laughed but he sure as hell was feeling bitter in his heart. He was too bitter that it didn't seem like he has this much hope anyway.
Until it clicked.
"Sigh! You know what? I don't die crawling. I have my reputation to uphold here."
He threw his bag down and crouched down. Turning left and right, he saw the walls clearly.
"Dancing Lights!"
He reinforced the lighting around him by a few orbs of light floating around the room made of his magic and started looking at the walls around the room.
"Seen that! Seen that too! Seen that one as well. The usual stuff."
The engravings on the walls were the usual stuff seen in the Light Temple even though older in vibe and style. They were all about glorifying the blessing of the Light and such as the rays of the sun spread from the top to everywhere.
Leon found nothing new in these engravings but he awkwardly looked up just by chance and…
"Hello there!"
There were more engravings on the ceiling. However, this was the first time he saw such engravings so far.
"Two disks… and those are supposed to be stars. Sun and Moon? Wait, no. The Moon is where the demons come from according to the myth which makes those… Two Suns." Leon concluded, "The Two Suns from the nonsense two-suns myth."
There was no end to the bullshit in that myth which claims that the world was created so that it is always day and never night but the demons of the moon are the reason for the night.
Yet here it is, an official statement from the Light Faith.
*Crunch*
A fourth step!
"No, I wasn't trying to take a step ahead I…" Leon looked around and swallowed his saliva.
He tried to solve a puzzle by reading the room but it didn't seem to be working his way.
Yet this fourth step came with a new sensation.
Hot!
In this cold cave, everything around Leon felt like burning at the moment.
"The hell is going on?"
Leon felt like his mouth went dry and desperately tried to resist but this was a mistake.
*Crunch*
*Crunch*
Two more steps and halfway through, Leon was feeling as if he was in an oven.
"Shit! What's happening?"
It didn't stop there even, Leon no longer could focus on his Mana but that didn't take away the Light as it was being emitted from the middle of the room. From the strange gem inside.
Heat and Light, it was as if this is the worst summer ever. If he would take another step in, he was sure things won't be fun any longer.
Two Suns! Four Sides! Each side of the walls has a certain painting. There must be a clue.