Alacryan Arthur

Chapter 26

Arthur Leywin POV

I couldn't see anything. As soon as I exited the portal, I was left in complete darkness.

I thought about making a fire, but decided not to, as it would alert anyone nearby and potential enemies and beasts would be able to see us.

Instead I opted to use the waterspell I had just learned. As I activated 'Water Detection' I was able to imagine the space around me. Caera stood a couple meters to my right and a few beasts, as tall as rabbits, chased smaller beasts some dozen meters away.

Other than these signatures I wasn't able to feel any life in 100 meters in every direction. Now that I knew we were not in immediate danger I bent down, and let my hand touch the ground. I could feel the cool rock we were standing on. I sent out a pulse of earth mana, to get an idea of how the terrain was.

The feedback of this earth pulse came fast and it seemed we were in some kind of cave. Since there was no danger nearby I decided that I could cast a fire now. I started with a small flame and let it grow over time, as our eyes were already acclimated to the darkness.

"There is no danger nearby and we are in some kind of cave." I informed Caera, who was still ready for a fight, with her ruby sword drawn. She relaxed at this information and put her sword back into her ring.

"Do you have any idea where to go?" She asked me.

"There is only a single tunnel leading out of here, so I would follow that one. But I will cancel the fire spell, so we don't get immediately spotted. I have a spell that allows me to see nearby organic life. With it we should be able to continue in the darkness. If it is safe or we get into a fight I will start the fire again, so you can see."

I also cast a rope of mana, tying us together, so we wouldn't lose each other in the darkness and we continued advancing.

While we explored the cave I noticed that something was off. The mana in this place was different from the mana anywhere else. It took me a second to figure it out, since I didn't want to use realmheart.

There were no ambient fire particles. Not a single one, which of course meant that I was limited in the fire and lightning spells I would be able to cast, since I would only be able to use the particles in my core, without a chance to restock them, at least in this zone.

We entered a large cave that, to my surprise, had an entire city in it. Because of my pulse spell I was able to count at least 200 houses, all built in style I would have expected in a desert, but not in a cave.

I pulled on the mana string, to let Caera stop in her movement. I used the water-detection spell, but couldn't see any beings, except for a few beasts, like the ones from before.

Since the situation had changed, I decided to tap into Realmheart. The will washed over my body, transforming it and activating the rune. Even the small glimmer from my rune lighted the area a bit, allowing me to see Caera, who surveyed the area in a desperate attempt to discover anything, now that there was light.

I could hear a "but Seris said, that you didn't have any runes", more to herself, than to me.

"I don't have any alacryan runes, this one is a bit different" I answered her nonetheless. Now I was able to see all the mana particles, and as I noticed earlier, the whole earth was filled with earth particles, with a few wind and water, but no fire particles. Strangely I was able to see remnants of cast spells in the center of the city, but there were still no mana signatures present.

Maybe someone had cast the spells and completed the zone, but somehow I doubt it.

Anyway, we were only going to find the exit, if we kept searching and this basically screamed like a place to start. I nodded toward the location.

"Over there. Someone had cast a spell, but I can't sense any concentration of water nor mana signature. "

We carefully approached the spot and entered the city. The streets were in exceptional condition, same as the buildings. If I didn't know any better, I would have guessed that this place was built yesterday and we were the first people to ever walk down the roads.

After a few meters I felt a hand touching my shoulder. I turned around, expecting to see Caera, but she was still a bit behind, way out of reach. A shiver ran down my spine. I could have sworn that I felt something.

But I couldn't see anything in the 5 meter radius, my rune illuminated and there were no signatures nearby, so I shrugged it off and stopped my will, as I didn't want to build up my fatigue.

So we continued down the road toward the center of the town. The town hall square was huge, 200 meters x 100m, if I had to guess. In the middle of the square stood a white portal frame with a purple portal shimmering in it, similar to the ones we had used to enter the previous zones. While the whole city was in perfect condition this place was scarred with erosions, burn marks and even a few earth spikes. I decided to take a closer look, but Caera stopped me.

"WAIT!" Caera warned me. "It can't be that easy. The Relictombs are there to test the ascenders. Something stinks"

She was right. This zone hadn't done anything, the only thing we did was walk, while I checked the surroundings a couple of times. From what I read the zones were not that easy. Once again I used the will.

The whole square was filled with remnants of spells, I could see distorted particles all over the place, as well as fire particles that could have only gotten here in the core of a person. I noticed the patterns of the spells and discovered that all spells were directed toward a single location: The Gate.

At the same time I noticed how the area around the gate was left unharmed by the battle remnants.

No, it wasn't just left unharmed, multiple burns and eruptions in the stone stopped in a perfect circle around the gate.

I cast my sword. This thing was fishy as hell, but there was only a single way to find out. I cast a small ice lance and threw it toward the portal, aiming for a spot in the circle, but away from the portal.

My eyes followed the projectile, only to see it shatter against an invisible wall. But there wasn't a wall, no mana, no nothing. I tried again, but used a wind bullet this time, as it didn't have a physical form and was a projectile of mana itself.

Just like before the wall blocked the spell, but I saw how the mana was stopped. It seemed like the bullet dispersed right as it hit the wall. It wasn't like an arrow that just tumbled of course, but more like the spell dissolved at the spell, robbing me of any control I had over it.

"Caera, can you try?" I asked her. Maybe this was only a problem I had, and she was able to penetrate the barrier. She cast a windspell as well, but the effects stayed the same.

"Now that's not very nice" I heard a voice from just behind me and flipped around, to where the voice had come from. But like before, I saw nothing.

"Did you discover something?" Caera asked. "No, but the voice.."

Caera gave me a confused look. "What voice?"

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>1.3k words

Sorry for the break, but now I am back. The exam went pretty well, but I still want to focus a lot more on uni, so I will have to reduce my uploading schedule a bit.

I am planning on publishing a chapter each Wednesday and Saturday, although there might be some chapters in between.