"Here, we are going to stop here!" Jessie said, ignoring the immediate weird look coming from Viktor.
Previously, they passed a few ruined towns and settlements visible along the river line, but Jessie told him to park the yacht in the middle of nowhere. Seeing the look on Viktor's face, Jessie seemed to know what he was thinking.
"No, silly. Of course not literally here." Jessie pointed her finger in a certain direction, "Do you see that gorge? We are going to park the yacht there."
Viktor turned his head to where the brunette's finger was pointing at. There, he saw a small cave seemingly just enough to park the yacht right under a cliff. Now that the parking location was determined and visible to the eye, the yacht quickly made its way over and docked in the cave.
The group immediately got off the yacht and walked out of the cave towards the riverbank. Viktor watched as Jessie deliberately put some dry trees to cover the entrance of the cave and, additionally, their yacht.
"Why do you do that?" Viktor asked when Jessie had caught up with the others.
The brunette explained that although the place they were heading to wasn't too far away, being seen on a yacht would cause a number of unnecessary troubles.
"You see, if you're not careful, people will steal this yacht from you. Some ruthless ones are even willing to take your life in order to get it."
Victor nodded when he heard that. He decided to listen to her, not only because her explanation made sense, but also because this was the reason he needed her in the first place.
Seeing Viktor not asking anymore, Jessie smiled. She looked up at the sky and then said, "It's getting dark. Let's hurry!"
With Jessie and Kosta leading the way, Viktor and the others traveled through a forest path near the riverbank where they had stopped. After half an hour of running, Viktor finally saw it in the distance - something that both shocked and amazed him.
"What the fu*k"
It was a pitch-black towering structure that seemed to have reached the sky. It was roughly the size of a 50-floor skyscraper, and it definitely looked like it was out of this world as its dark surface covered in numerous mysterious lines emitted an eerie glow in the sky of the dusk.
Not just Viktor, Eva and the others also displayed a similar reaction; all of them were mesmerized by this unbelievable sight.
Seeing their slack-jawed expression, Jessie said, "Now I finally believe that this is the first time you saw these doomsday pillars."
It took Viktor a few seconds before his mind returned and he finally regained his bearing. Turning his head to the brunette who was busy looking at the others' expressions, he asked, "There are hundreds of that thing all over the world?"
"1008; that's the number," replied Jessie without looking back at him. "Let's go. It's almost dark soon. Those people at the settlement might make trouble if we arrived after dark."
The group woke up from their daze and swiftly rushed towards the towering structure. A few minutes later, they finally arrived at their destination and saw it; a three meter high wall made of stone surrounded the place, with dozens of figures could be seen above it.
"In case you were wondering, the wall was made through magic," said Jessie, achieving her purpose of being a very thorough tour guide for the group.
There was another who gave him information.
<all of those guards are sky realm> said the Djinn.
Viktor was quite surprised by this information. There was only one sky realm individual in Arkhangelish, but from the scan, he discovered that there were three dozen of such existence and about a hundred earth realm figures with only a few mortal realms in the settlement behind that wall.
Just as the group was about to enter through the gate, one of the sky realm guards quickly stopped them and began to interrogate. However, Jessie easily solved this issue and got them a pass with the help of her charm and, most importantly, two pieces of yellow spirit stones.
After sneakily accepting the stones and warning them not to act rashly during their stay, the guard let Viktor and the others in. Not once did the man ask their personal identities.
Evidently, these people did not really care who it was, as long as they paid and didn't cause any trouble. For 20 white spirit stones, a person could get a one-time pass inside the wall, however, the guards could not guarantee their safety.
Viktor was a bit intrigued by how these people charged an entrance fee like entering an amusement park. But for now, he just quietly followed Jessie as she led the group into the settlement.
Upon entering, Viktor and the others were immediately greeted by the sight of several odd-looking houses and dozens of camping tents spread out within a mile radius around the enormous black structure.
A sweep of his gaze, and Viktor could see that almost all of these people were fighters. In this place, there were hardly any civilians in sight at all.
Jessie seemed to notice Viktor's confusion. "This is actually a common sight in every doomsday pillar."
She went on to explain that this place was one of the popular pillars used by the people of Pern - one of the surviving Russian cities located just 100 miles south of this pillar. Many of the people who lived there would sometimes come here to buy artifacts or to train themselves.
"Train?"
"Yes, train." Sensing Viktor's gaze, Jessie said, "I'll explain more later. For now, let's enter the pillar."
Viktor nodded because this was the main purpose of this trip. Together, he and the others approached what seemed to be the entrance, a symbol engraved right above its full arch structure.
Jessie stepped closer and casually touched the black wall under the arch, which had a similar but smaller engraving. Immediately after, the solid wall rippled like water before turning white-translucent. Then, under everyone's gaze, Jessie's hand was able to pass through easily.
This sight once again amazed the group.
"Let's go," said Jessie before she stepped forward. Her entire body was immediately swallowed up by the white light and disappeared from everyone's sight.
Seeing this inconceivable occurrence, the group quickly became nervous. However, under Viktor's watchful yet intense gaze, they entered one by one before Viktor himself finally entered.
In what might have been an instant, Viktor found himself reappearing in what seemed like a long tunnel. He quickly swept his gaze around, trying to figure out his surroundings.
The inside of the pillar was riddled with black walls and streaks of light ran through everywhere within the walls, just as it appeared on the outside.
Viktor's eyes searched for his companions, but found them nowhere. His attention was quickly distracted by a faint sound - similar to the sound of water droplets - in the distance. It's a unique sensation, like being in a cave.
As Viktor followed the path, he once again swallowed by the dark wall and enter a large hall. The hall was also made with the same black walls and streaks of light flowing within the carvings on its surface.
There, he finally found Jessie, Eva, and the others.. It seemed that they had all managed to enter the strange structure.
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