Chapter 249: Chapter 234: Eternal Silence Corridor: Fallen Court of Ascalon (2)
Ian turned back, his gaze calm.
Gaga gripped his shoulder, its small claws tightening slightly. "Ian..."
"Don’t be afraid," Ian said softly.
"This time, we’re prepared."
The words had barely left his lips when they plunged into the darkness beyond the door.
In an instant, all sound vanished.
The sound of the waves, the wind, the whoosh of other Wizards cutting through the air... all of it was shut out.
All that remained was a dead silence, like being in a vacuum.
The light grew strange. Though the sky outside the door had been bright, inside was only a gray dimness, like a faint light shrouded in dust.
As far as the eye could see, a wide corridor stretched out before them.
The walls, floor, and ceiling of the corridor were all composed of some kind of cold Memory Material.
The surface was smooth, with a grayish-white luster, but if you looked closely, you could see blurry images floating deep within the material.
A humanoid creature was running, then its body suddenly froze, and it began to melt from the feet up.
A group of people in strange Long Robes were kneeling around a glowing Crystal, and the next second, all their heads exploded simultaneously.
A High Tower collapsed in purple flames, the moment its spire fell frozen in time...
Bas-reliefs of death’s final moments.
There was no sound, yet it was more horrifying than any scream.
"Don’t stare for too long."
Herman’s voice echoed in the dead silence. He walked at the very front, a silvery light flowing around his body, forming a thin protective layer.
"This Memory Material will corrupt your perception. Pick up the pace."
He had entered here once before and was very familiar with the place.
The seven of them followed him closely, but Ian could feel that the other six were not entirely focused on Herman.
Some were warily observing the surroundings, while others had fingers twitching inside their sleeves, clearly preparing some kind of Witchcraft.
Still others had flickering eyes, as if they were plotting something.
’This is what a normal team of Wizards is like.’
’Each with their own agenda, each fighting for themselves, only temporarily walking the same path.’
Ian walked in the middle of the group, observing as he went.
Occasionally, forks in the path would appear on either side of the corridor.
Some extended upwards into spiral staircases, some sank down into darkness, and some even led directly into a wall.
The surface of the wall rippled like water, clearly the entrance to a spatial fold.
’The Space Rule is warped, as expected...’ he thought.
Gaga perched on his shoulder, its small eyes warily scanning the surroundings, when it suddenly transmitted a message through their Soul Link.
"Ian, something’s not right with the shadows."
"What do you mean?"
"They’re... moving." Gaga’s voice held a mix of confusion and a hint of unease.
"Not moving because we are, they’re moving on their own. Look at that patch in the corner on the left..."
Ian looked in the direction it indicated.
In the corner, a patch of shadow that should have been still was squirming with excruciating slowness.
Like a living, viscous liquid, its edges rippled slightly as it receded away from them.
"Shadow Binder..."
Ian recalled the information Alevia had given him, and his eyes narrowed slightly.
Just then, a muffled grunt came from ahead.
A Warlock on the far left of the group suddenly stopped, clutching his forehead. His face instantly turned deathly pale.
"What’s wrong?" Herman immediately turned back.
"I... I hear voices..."
The Warlock gritted his teeth, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
"So many voices... screams, explosions, and... and someone chanting spells..."
"Echo Mirage Spirit."
Herman’s expression darkened. He raised a hand and pointed a finger at the center of the Warlock’s brow.
"Fortify your Sea of Spirit! Those are fragments of environmental memory, not real!"
A silver light sank into the Warlock’s forehead. His expression relaxed slightly, but his eyes remained dazed.
"Keep moving, don’t stop!" Herman shouted.
"The longer we stay here, the more we’ll be affected!"
The group started moving again, but the atmosphere had clearly grown more tense.
Ian silently circulated the power in his Sea of Spirit. The faint golden points of crystallized light glowed, isolating his consciousness from the chaotic "echoes" trying to invade.
His [Spirit Devourer] trait fluctuated slightly, Devouring and Purifying the trace amounts of spiritual contamination.
After walking for about another ten minutes, the path ahead changed.
At the end of the corridor was a spacious hall.
In the center of the hall, three twisted skeletons lay on the ground.
Around the skeletons were scattered some broken Crystal Bottles and charred Metal fragments.
A long time ago, someone must have come here and met with a terrible fate.
Herman raised a hand, signaling for them to stop. His gray eyes swept across the hall.
There were six passages leading out of the hall. Three were blocked by collapsed crystalline rubble.
The other three were pitch-black, their destinations unknown.
"Split up," Herman said concisely.
"Three passages. Each of you pick one. Team up if you want, or go alone if you prefer.
"Regroup here in an hour, whether you’ve found anything or not. If you still want to, that is."
The moment he finished speaking, the six Liquidation Wizards moved almost simultaneously.
Breaking into pairs, they quickly chose the left and right passages, disappearing into the darkness without a backward glance.
No hesitation, no discussion. It was as if they had been waiting for this exact moment.
In the end, only Herman and Ian were left.
Herman looked at the middle passage, then at Ian. "Together?"
Ian shook his head. "I’ll go alone."
A flash of surprise crossed Herman’s gray eyes, but he quickly regained his composure. "As you wish."
He turned and walked into the middle passage, the silver light swirling around him, and soon vanished into the darkness.
Ian stood his ground. Only after everyone had left did he slowly walk toward the left passage.
Two teams of Liquidation Wizards had chosen the right passage. He chose the less-crowded left to avoid an immediate encounter.
Gaga flew up from his shoulder, its small eyes glinting with a faint light in the gloom.
"Ian, we need to be careful... The way those people looked at us wasn’t quite right."
"I know," Ian said calmly.
"In the ruins, everyone is a potential enemy. Including ’teammates’."
He walked into the passage.
The passage was much narrower than the previous corridor, only three meters wide and with a low ceiling, creating a repressive, suffocating feeling.
In the Memory Material on the walls, the images became denser and more frantic.
Countless hands reached out from within the walls, trying to grab something.
Twisted faces screamed silently, the light of explosions frozen at the moment of their bloom...
"Don’t look," Ian said quietly to Gaga.
There was something deep inside the passage.
But it wasn’t alive, and there was no Energy fluctuation.
’It’s like some kind of... "void"?’
As if a piece of space was missing there, radiating an aura of dead silence.
Ian stopped.
About fifty meters ahead, the passage was completely blocked by a large mass of grayish-white vines that spread across the walls like blood vessels.
The vines were motionless, their surfaces covered in fine thorns that glinted with a cold, metallic sheen in the dim light.
"Silent Extinction Vine." Ian’s eyes narrowed.
The files had mentioned this thing. It released a Silent Field that devoured sound and Magic Power fluctuations.
Furthermore, its attack speed was extremely fast, and its thorns possessed a terrifying Annihilation characteristic.
Just then, he heard the extremely faint sound of footsteps from in front of him.
Very light, but in this dead-silent environment, they were sharp and clear.
Ian’s Spiritual Perception began to spread out as he raised his guard.
Two people.
It was the pair of Liquidation Wizards who had entered before him.
Comments