Chapter 218: Varona
[Location Details
Realm: Varona
Star System: 73964
Planet: Searching....]
Arthur looked away from the software’s custom display that was added for the sake of the realm expedition. He turned his gaze around and found himself to be in a desert of some sort.
Looking behind him, he saw the ruins of what looked like a small town. The buildings looked like they were made of red clay and were cracked in various places.
The roofs of a few of them had collapsed inwards while some were missing a few walls. The place looked like it had been abandoned for centuries.
’It really can’t be that easy...right?’
Arthur was gobsmacked. He expected the realm gate to carry him over to another area from where it was taking Layla and the others, presumably the area where the ruin was.
However, seeing the ruined structures in front of him, it seemed like it took him right in front of the ruins he was looking for.
"Convenient, way too convenient..."
He found himself saying the same words Esna said when she found out about the ’Third Magic’. He spread out his magic power and tried to probe the surroundings for anything but he received no responses.
"Let’s go in first..."
Flicking his fingers, Celestia appeared in his hand and he gripped the sword tightly as he walked into the ruined town.
He looked around and occasionally spread out his magic power to see if he could find anything suddenly coming to life but the results were the same as earlier.
After nearly ten minutes of searching, he then walked towards the structure in the middle of the ruined town.
It was a building he presumed was the town hall or town mayor’s house/office. After all, it was the largest building and the one with the most sophisticated design.
The building’s style was a neoclassical style, with triangular pediments supported by tall columns and a giant domed roof.
If one were to stand at the top, one would be able to see the roofs of all the buildings in the entire town. The building was just that tall.
Arthur entered the double doors of the building, of which one was partially unhinged. He walked into a large and long hallway.
He couldn’t help but let out a voice of surprise as the hallway was larger and longer than the building’s appearance would suggest. Arthur suspected the use of spatial expansion magic.
The ceiling was visibly over 850 meters high and the walls were about 500 meters apart. Hanging from the marble-painted ceiling, were small multiple chandeliers at regular intervals.
However, he didn’t have the time to dwell on it because his eyes caught the appearance of a few statues lined up on the two sides of the hallway.
They were tall statues of medieval knights dressed in full body Armor. Each of them was about 2 meters tall and had a different weapon from the last, making it so that no two knight statues had the same weapon.
These statues were not the only thing weird about this hallway. Unlike the interiors of other buildings, this one’s interior was neat, as if people were living within.
The floors were tiled and the walls were marbled. The statues of the knights were polished, and they reflected the light of the chandeliers hanging from the roof of the hall.
Arthur studied the statues and was about to walk close to one of them when he suddenly sensed something that made his hairs stand on end.
***HUMMMMMM
With a low humming sound, enormous amounts of cosmic energy was pulled in from the surroundings, and absorbed by the knight statue with a spear.
Arthur didn’t even bother to question why there was such an abnormally high concentration of cosmic energy inside the building as he was too busy formulating escape plans.
’If that one is like this, then all of them are...!’
The knight statue suddenly came alive as two red lights glowed from within the visor opening.
Looking at its chest, Arthur could now see that there was a glowing multi-coloured crest circle that was spinning around.
The knight statue was actually a knight golem, one powered by cosmic energy at that.
Remembering what Creusery told Arthur when the young prince asked his uncle about the ruins he gained the concealment ring, Arthur couldn’t help but think this was similar.
If this was that exact same ruin, and these knight golems were the guardians Creusery spoke of, then it would be unwise of Arthur to even dream of fighting them.
’One of them could put uncle Creusery who was a mid-tier deity, on the verge of death. I’m only half an Epic, it’d kill me with a swat of its hands...!’
The knight golem took slow and steady steps towards Arthur while spinning the spear in its right hand at its side.
Arthur wanted to raise Celestia but he reasoned the golem might perceive it as a hostile action and attempt to end him instantly.
’I can’t survive that...’
He dropped the sword to the ground and the golem also stopped moving. It stabbed its spear tip into the ground and stared at Arthur in silence.
Arthur then created a small aura blade with his finger and the golem grabbed its spear immediately. He hurriedly made a cut on his finger and blood dripped out onto the ground at the same second the golem kicked off the ground towards him.
**WHOOOSSHHHHH!!!
**BAMMM!!
A gust of wind sent Artur flying backwards as he crashed into the door of the building, he ignored the pain he felt and looked up hurriedly, only to see the golem in a thrusting stance with its spear’s tip right before Arthur’s eyes.
The distance between Arthur’s head and the spear was not more than 15cm.
That was how close he was to getting impaled in the head by the knight golem. While he was wondering how he survived, the ground began vibrating and he looked down to see one of the most intricate magic circles he had ever seen in his life.
There were so many shapes and curves in this magic circle, all coming together to form a complex magic formula crest that he had never seen before.
It flashed dark red, contrasting with the white-marbled floors.
Looking up once again, he saw the two red lights coming out from the visor opening of the knight golem turn green.
It then turned around and walked back to its position on the wall before deactivating once again. The cosmic energy it had gathered in its body dispersed into the surroundings, making Arthur feel the full brunt of the pressure from the high concentration of cosmic energy in the area.
"Return"
He rose his right hand and willed Celestia back into his hand, before using the sword as support to stand up.
Slowly walking down the hallway, he carefully watched the golems to see if they would react but none of them moved an inch.
He then moved down the long hallway, heading for the door he could see from the distance. There were more knight statues on the wall and within 3 minutes of walking, Arthur had counted more than forty knight golems with different weapons on the walls.
The thought of forty knight golems all with the power of a high-tier deity realm expert, casually standing around on some unknown planet, made Arthur fear the outcome if these knight golems were to possibly go on a rampage.
Looking at his watch, he realized that the watch could not discern his location any longer as all he could see were errors.
[Location Details
Realm: @^^%&^
Star System: "£&(O*
Planet: &!@#~!]
’Well, that’s kinda expected.’
After a few minutes, Arthur finally reached the end of the hallway and cautiously walked through the double doors there.
Inside was a large throne room that had huge braziers encircling six limestone columns, lighting up every part of the throne hall and shrouding it in a dark red radiance.
The gems of the many artworks on the arched ceiling danced in the flickering light while carved images and statuettes looked down upon the mahogany floor of this ceremonious hall.
A towering throne sat atop a slightly elevated platform and was adjoined by the statues of two double-headed hell dogs.
Seated atop the throne, was a man seated with his legs crossed. He wore a casual office shirt and trousers and had a black blazer resting on his back.
His eyelids fluttered open to reveal a pair of red eyes as he ran his hand through his silver hair which had streaks of red in it.
The man then chuckled upon seeing the look of shock on Arthur’s face before speaking.
"The look on your face says that you know who I am. That’d make things easier for me."
His words did nothing to bring Arthur out of his shocked state. That was only natural, the being in front of him was supposed to have been dead for over a dozen millennia.
Seated atop the throne, was none other than the previous devil king and Arthur’s great-grandfather.
Devil King of Destruction.
Lucifer Morningstar.
