"So, I guess we go in?" Shadow asked as the others all sighed before nodding.
They were interested in why Drayce had decided to become the head priest of the Buddhist temple, especially one that was so small.
Reign and the others opened the door, which was in fact a 2-meter wide gate. Upon entering the building, they stood in shock as they stared around them.
"Hey, I'm not dreaming, right?" Shadow asked as the others all shook their heads.
What was in front of them was the inside of an enormous building. The height of the ceiling was about 10 meters, and there were stairs on the sides which led up, meaning that the building was definitely higher than 10 meters.
The distance from left to right was over one hundred meters and the length of the building could be counted in the hundreds of meters.
Buddhist priests could be seen walking around, each of them wearing robes and tucking their hands in the sleeves of the robes. There were all kinds of priests, or one should say, monks inside the temple.
There were those that could be recognized in an instant, they wore gray robes that had no decorations on them, and their heads were shaved.
There were than others.
There were those that wore black robes and had shackles around their wrists and ankles, but they weren't prisoners, but a special kind of monk called the Ashen Monks.
The ashen monks were the disciplinary force of the temple. If any monk was to do anything that went against the temple, they would be the ones that would be sent out to capture that person.
There were also different kinds of monks that wore gray robes. There were gray robes that were a bit of a tighter fit for some, some had some decorations on the robes, namely silver lines that represented their status, some had weird-looking bracelets, necklaces …
Finally, there were monks that looked unlike any monk in the temple. They only had half a robe on, and the upper portion of their body was fully exposed, but there were some that also wore the upper portion of the robe, but compared to the robes the other monks wore, theirs was very different.
The sleeves were tight around the arms, and so were they around the legs. The robes were also not created from cloth but from some kind of mixture of leather and whatever the second thing was.
Those monks also did not have shaved heads, instead, there were all sorts of hairstyles that could be seen among them.
The biggest difference, however, was the weapons that those monks had.
Battle gloves, claws, and bats, the monks carried different kinds of weapons with them around the temple, something that shouldn't have been possible for monks to do.
"Battlemonks," Wolf said as the others all nodded in agreement.
"End of the building, third floor, I am expecting you guys." Suddenly Drayce's voice echoed inside their heads. Reign and the others glanced at each other before making their way to the end of the building.
The monks they passed by along the way acted normally, they thought they might be stared at by the monks since their clothes showed that they were definitely a part of the temple, but it seemed that the monks didn't care.
Even the battlemonks would simply walk past them, while some would nod in their direction, for an unknown reason.
Reign and the others had still not seen a single woman inside the temple, which probably meant that only men were working there. But even then, nobody seemed to care that Laura was here as well.
The answer was soon given to them, however, as they stepped onto the second floor after reaching the stairs. The entire second floor was only manned by women. It was pretty much the same situation as with the lower floor, there were gray-robed women that walked around, black-robed ones, and the battlemonks.
Contrary to their male counterparts, none of the female battlemonks walked around topless, however.
Reign and the others looked around in order to find the stairs leading to the third floor, but they were unable to do so. Laura approached one of the nearby girls and asked her about the third floor and where to find the stairs that led there.
The girl smiled at Laura and gave her directions, it seemed that one had to go to the end of the building before reaching those stairs as they led to where only the higher-ups of the temple resided.
Reign and the others thanked the girl before moving. It took them about 1 – 2 minutes to reach the end of the building and see the stairs, well, the staircase. It was being guarded by four battlemonks that simply nodded at Reign and the others as they approached and moved out of the way.
The team went up the stairs before reaching the third and final floor of the temple. Just by looking up, they could see that the ceiling was in the shape of a dome and it was made out of glass. The dome was some 15 meters high and simply by looking up, Reign and the others were able to see a sea of stars that was outside.
But that was actually a problem because it was daytime, so how were they seeing the night sky and stars?
They looked around and saw a lot fewer monks present on this floor, but each one was not only difference compared to the ones below, but their robes were as well. All of them had gold lines on the robes and the robes themselves looked of a higher quality compared to the ones on the lower two floors.
Huge bookshelves could be seen on both sides of the floor, tens of tables were on the floor and hundreds of chairs were present. Reign and the others could see monks sitting down and going through some books, while others were arguing about something.
They slowly made their way past the monks, and none even glanced at them. They went to the very end of the floor and reached a huge praying altar and a small office to the side.
Compared to the previous two floors where praying altars were visible everywhere and the monks were praying at all times, the ones here seemed to only occasionally pray to the giant praying altar.
The door of the office suddenly opened and Reign and the others were able to see Drayce sitting on a chair inside and waiting for them to enter.
They went in, and the door closed as they entered.
"Hello guys, it's been awhile, how you've been, were my rewards to your liking?" Drayce didn't even finish the entire question before a pair of socks and underwear were thrown on his face.
He slowly moved his hand and picked them off his face before sighing.
"I see that you didn't like them so much."
"No, but don't worry, we got something interesting at the end, so it's all good," Shadow said as he smirked at Drayce whose face changed a bit.
"Yes, I have noticed that be careful when using that thing, it can only be used once, only use it as a final resort, you understand?" Drayce asked them as his aura flared up and the air itself seemed to freeze from his power. Reign and the others nodded, a bit confused that he was actually not even trying to get the dagger back.
"Before I talk about the reason why I called you over here, you guys probably have some questions for me, huh?"
"Where is this?" Reign suddenly asked.
"What do you mean where, ohh, right, yeah, sorry," Drayce said before he suddenly turned to the wall behind him and snapped his fingers. The wall suddenly turned illusionary and Reign and the others could see a magnificent sight outside.
What they were able to see, was Earth.
"As you can see, we are currently a little bit away from the planet, the temple will stay here, as long as the connecting point is not destroyed."
"So, that small temple you had us build?"
"Well, that is what connects your territory and this place, without that small temple this one wouldn't be able to simply stay afloat like this, and neither would you have been able to come here, alright, next question."
"Can, can this thing really kill a Transcendent?" Beast asked as he took the dagger out of the inventory.
"Ah, well, yes, yes it can," Drayce said as the dagger suddenly floated over to him. He took hold of the dagger and looked at it fondly.
"It was a gift from my master, I had actually used it before, and now it can only be used once more before it turns to dust, but if you were thinking of killing me with it, then apologies, it won't work on me."
"So you are above the 5th Cleansing?" Reign suddenly asked as Drayce laughed.
"Hahahahaha, right, you guys are probably confused as hell with that, alright, sit down, let me teach you some stuff."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺