257 Fall
“This place is the same.”
Rai said after glancing at the layout of the temple. It was the same. The exact same layout as the temple that was built in the jungle. The temple they were currently visiting was mostly destroyed, but they could still find the similarity.
The hallways, the patterns on the walls, the large room at the end of the hallway, the two statues standing guard at the entrance of the temple, everything was the same.
“Then, does that mean there is one of those artifacts in there?”
Team leader Dains asked Alan in a whisper as he pointed at a large area in the back of the building. There, they could see several rows of broken benches and a half-destroyed platform.
“There might be, and there might not. I’m not sure.”
Alan shrugged.
“Should we leave now? For Kairen to use his mana.”
Team leader Dains nodded at the deputy team leader’s question.
.....
“Yes. Everyone, gather here.”
At his words, all of the unit members gathered around him.
“We won’t go too far. If anything happens, we’ll come to your aid.”
“Yes.”
Kairen nodded at them.
“Your safety is the most important thing, so if you sense that you might be in danger, run away. You can even use the teleportation device, I will deal with things if there are any consequences.”
“Yes. I will be careful.”
Kairen nodded again.
“Well then.”
Team leader Dains started to walk away from Kairen and gestured for the others to follow him. In just a few minutes, the whole team walked so far away that Kairen could only see them as small dots in the distance.
‘They sure are scared.’
Maybe it would be better to call it being cautious rather than being scared.
‘Anyway.’
Kairen, now standing in the center of the area surrounded by broken stone benches looked at the platform before his eyes and then the wall in front of him.
ONGGGG
He then brought out his mana without waiting any longer.
ONNNGGG
ONGGGGG
ZZZZZZZZ
“Oh, it’s happening again.”
It was the same. The same thing was repeating again. What happened back in the Temple of Nature. It was the same thing.
There was a small vibration with a strange noise. As that happened, red lines started to glow on the wall in front of him.
Just like before, the line of red started from the dot in the center of the symbol on the wall. A red line grew bigger and shone as if someone was drawing it as if red ink was spreading on paper. The red line changed directions and enveloped the whole symbol. Then it spread through the wall and just like a drop of paint that has fallen on oil, all of the symbols on the wall gradually turned red.
The red line then moved again, this time turning the symbols on the ground and on the platform the same color of red. The whole place was shining red.
“....”
Kairen had long cast shields around himself as he knew that an explosion would probably happen at any moment.
ZAAAAAPPP
Just like last time, there was a blast of red light. This time, however, Kairen was not pushed back as he was already prepared and cast several barriers around himself.
‘Will another artifact pup up again?’
He wondered.
ONGGGG
ZZZZZZ
As he was standing still behind his shields, he stared at the platform at the center without even blinking.
ONNNNGGG
ZZZZZZ
Now, he could see a small and faint white light starting to shine in the center of the platform.
‘Is that...’
Kairen cast a spell again, this time creating a shield around the whole temple. As if that was not enough, he created one more, and more, and more. He wasn’t sure if his shields would really be helpful, but if the thing that was coming up while shiting white was an artifact, he wanted to at least try to block it from moving to his team.
ONGGG
ZZZZ
The small white blob that was shining all over moved in the air, glowing and quivering nonstop. After moving up a little bit, the orb-like thing suddenly stopped moving and stood still in one place.
The orb, still vibrating, floated in the air for several minutes, before the glow around it started to decrease gradually.
The whole time that this was happening Kairen was standing there like a statue and watching things go on. He wondered if that thing really was an artifact or something else. He also wondered if he had to reach out and grab that thing, but he was scared so he didn’t do so. He decided to wait a little bit more and if nothing happened again, use a spell to grab the thing and see what it was.
But the thing then started to lose its glow and the vibrations also lessened. It happened slowly but there surely were changes.
-Kairen, is everything alright?
“Yes, team leader.”
Kairen answered the team leader, who would check on him and ask the same question each passing minute. They were far away, but they were still observing things.
ONGG
ZZZZ
After a few minutes, the orb, or rather the thing, was almost not glowing anymore. There was still a little bit of light around it, but that was too insignificant compared to how it shone moments ago.
And now Kairen could clearly see what the thing was.
‘A necklace?’
That looked like it. A necklace.
Kairen didn’t need to check things twice to know that it was one of those ancient artifacts. He could clearly see the familiar patterns and design on it.
‘Can I touch it now?’
Kairen was a little bit scared, but he slowly moved his hand towards the artifact that was floating in the air. He held his hand right below the floating necklace.
ONG
ZZZ
And after a few moments, the necklace, now completely lost its glow, fell down. It fell right on Kairen’s palm.
“....”
Kairen stared at the necklace on his palm.
‘So there really was an artifact here.’
He was glad that they managed to get the artifact sooner than Philomns. He didn’t know how to activate this thing, neither wanted to know it, but he was still curious about how Philomns managed to use those two artifacts on the day of that incident so easily, without the users of it being bound to it like Kain.
-Kairen, is that an artifact?
He heard the team leader’s voice in his ear again. As soon as the artifact fell on his palm, all of the light and shaking disappeared so the people standing outside the temple could also see the thing in his hand, though they were too far away to clearly see what that thing was.
“Yes. I think it’s one of them. A necklace.”
Kairen said as he looked around. The red lines had also disappeared. It was as if nothing happened here at all.
-Good. Then, it’s finished.
“Yes.”
They had come here only to find out if there were any artifacts here and take them if there were. With this, their job was done.
-Alright then, come here. We should leave.
“Yes.”
.....
Kairen didn’t wait any longer. Stuffing the necklace into his inventory item, he turned around and started to walk toward his group in the distance. As he did, he started to cancel his shields. Starting from the ones who were surrounding the whole structure of the temple to protect his group, he removed them one by one.
“Huh?”
But then, he stopped. He stopped both walking and removing his shields.
“What?”
It was because he had suddenly got a strange feeling. A strange, scary, and ominous feeling. It was not only a feeling, there was a strange pressure as well. He could sense a huge pressure appear somewhere near him. He couldn’t feel something like this seconds ago. It was like something popped up out of thin air just now.
‘It’s similar to that time with that centipede...’
It was a familiar kind of fear. He had felt this kind of pressure before.
But, comparing the pressure he felt from the centipede and what he was feeling now... It was as if comparing a soil particle to a galaxy.
‘Holy shit! What is this!’
“Gasp!”
He gasped, out of fear or maybe because of the pressure, and staggered a little bit at the sudden dizziness he got.
-What is wrong, Kairen?
‘What is wrong?’
Kairen looked at his team, sweet dropping his forehead. They were completely unphased.
‘Seriously? Can’t you feel this? Can’t you feel THIS??’
But he had no time to be surprised by the fact that his team didn’t feel the pressure. It was because the pressure was moving. It was getting closer and closer to him at a fast speed.
Kairen looked up.
Up, in the sky, a tiny something was falling down.
“Huh?”
It was falling down right at where Kairen was.
‘Wait-‘
Kairen didn’t have the time to create any more shields or cast any defensive spells. The only thing he could do was to throw his body back. And just when he hurriedly kicked the ground to move back.
BOOMMMMMM
Something landed on the ground right before him.
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