Chapter 268: The Ancient Ruins

Neither too fast nor slow, they flew at a stroll’s pace.

Black Isotta, Master Peranos, and Grimm circled the sky. After three hourglasses, they finally found the ancient ruins amongst the twisted forests from Grimm’s memories.

The “guardians” from the realm which used to catch Grimm and the other apprentices were now nowhere to be seen. Even the occasional buzz of the insects from his memories became eerily silent.

“Probably because the old sorcerer is here…” Grimm thought as he looked at the Black Isotta sorcerer in front of him.

There was a protruding rock in the middle of a field made out of an alloy of crystal and metal. Underneath the rock was an inconspicuous crevice, with enough room for one person to crawl within.

“This is it!”

Grimm cried out in joy and proceeded to land. He tucked his body into the crevice and looked around. Using the ultrasonic spatial scanner of his Mask of Truth, he confirmed the site to be the ancient ruins where he had acquired the alien’s calcified alchemy materials. He nodded at Master Peranos and the old sorcerer before being the first to enter the crevice.

Clang!

Grimm stepped on a metallic surface. The sound produced an echo throughout the large cavern. Dust flew around his feet. The dust was a seal to the history of the site; a thin veil of time.

After charging up his sorcerer’s barrier, Grimm managed to isolate the dust. Huff! He lit up a fireball to light up the mysterious, empty space.

There were innumerable opulent chandeliers well past their lifespan hanging from the metallic ceiling that stood at tens of meters in height.

There were columns of clear crystal devices that varied in height. The tallest was about fifty to sixty meters while the smallest stood at tens of meters. A metal cap was buckled at the top and bottom end of the crystal columns. Metallic tubes from the caps sprawled toward the depths of the cavern which was unreachable by the light from the fireball. It was utterly mystifying.

From the Mask of Truth, there were neon green lights faintly glowing within the crystal columns. They were mysterious skeletal frames that had no well-defined shape.

The general shape of the skeletal frame looked like a gorilla that had hooves. Yet, it had a squid’s brain and there were many strange joints that branched out from the skeletal frame. It was hard to accurately depict the structure of its internal organs.

All of the skeletons were semi-translucent, floating within the small space of the crystalware.

The skeleton itself had no apparent weight and was not as tough as imagined. Instead, the bones were soft and malleable.

However, Grimm, who had personally entered the crystal columns before to collect the alien’s calcified specimens knew that the toughness of these skeletons was beyond imagination.

As he stepped into the ancient ruins once again, he was less frightful. He was more awe-struck this time around.

He looked at the surroundings, taking in everything this place had to offer.

Grimm couldn’t stop thinking. Ancient sorcerers who had taken complete control of the world in a time when mechanical marionettes were still being used as fodder after the war with the Oceanic race; their campaigns against the mystically strong Nightmare civilization, where they collected alien specimens and studied them in such a huge laboratory.

The ancient sorcerers used their own wisdom to unravel a way of survival in their battles against powerful, unknown civilizations.

Perhaps…

The ancient sorcerers must have found some kind of fatal weakness from these aliens. That must have been how the weaker sorcerer’s civilization was able to take on the much stronger alien Nightmare civilization in the first civilizational war. That laid the foundation for the ancient sorcerers to experience the most prosperous and brilliant times before the second civilizational war.

At its peak, the sorcerer’s civilization had tens of thousands of territories of worlds, dominating all living creatures within the worlds’ boundaries. None dared to rise above the great sorcerers as they trembled beneath their feet.

The clueless and terrified soul slaves sang praises across the generations on how powerful the sorcerers were to the point where it was difficult for them to even think about rebelling. The countless soul slaves were cruelly driven by the sorcerers to erect block after block of sky cities on a grand scale.

Wherever the sorcerer’s principle would flow, submission seemed to be the only option.

Hence, the sorcerer’s will was the highest law within the dominated territories. One command and any world would fall!

It was the most cruel, dark, brilliant and glorious time of these ancient sorcerers!

Until one day, a highly advanced civilization that came from another world cluster clashed with the powerful ancient sorcerers. A battle soon waged between the worlds…

Grimm took a deep breath, trying to suppress the anxiety in his heart. He was immersed in the battle of the ancient sorcerers and the alien Nightmare civilization, attempting to reenact scenes from the highly advanced past civilizations.

According to Grimm’s understanding, after the first civilizational war, a more advanced elemental sorcerer was born from the ancient mechanical sorcerers and the dark sorcerers, which then gradually replaced the mechanical sorcerers’ dominating positions.

These were sorcerers that used Symbiotic Insects to cast their spells and gained leverage over the principles of the world using natural forces. When the elemental sorcerers ruled the world, they brought the whole sorcerer’s civilization to the height of its glory.

“The sorcerer’s civilization shall never be wiped from this world!”

His heart was pounding. Grimm raised his head and shouted, “Master, Lord Black Isotta, everything’s normal here, they have remained the same.”

“Hold on, Grimm, I’ll make the hole bigger.”

After Peranos’ reply, he gave out a shout. Boom! One of the metal ceiling plates above Grimm’s head started shaking.

Clang…

A large number of magical chandeliers and their crystal fragments were shattered. After a violent energy ripple, Grimm, who was covering his face with his hand looked upward. The hole didn’t seem to get any bigger. A faint light still shone from the outside.

As he shook his head, Grimm said, “Master, the metallic ancient walls are too hard. There’s no way they can be destroyed! Maybe we should not waste our energy…”

Boom!

Grimm was merely halfway through his speech when the impact from the energy ripple hit above him. Grimm let out a moan as he fell on the ground. It was as if a hill had crumbled on him.

Screech…

There was a piercing sound from the scraping metal. Grimm pressed both his palms against the metal floor and looked around the ruins in a dazzling daze. Beneath the Mask of Truth, he was stunned beyond belief.

Within Grimm’s sight, pure black energy in the form of a hand almost thirty meters in length went inside the ruins and ripped off the top of the ceiling with immense force. The huge patch of the metal ceiling was gradually torn apart as the faint light from the outside world shined in without obstruction.

The Black Isotta sorcerer had actually torn up the top of the ancient ruins!

After the ceiling of the cavern was torn off a good hundred meters away by Black Isotta’s dark energy hand, blinding light fell upon the underground area without a shade. Master Peranos and Black Isotta both descended beside Grimm.

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The collapsing spaces around the old sorcerer made a screeching sound as he landed on the metal floor. In a short time, the metal floor crumpled up like a piece of paper.

“Black Isotta’s probably at the edge of becoming a Level 7 being and couldn’t restrain his own powers.”

Grimm made the deduction.

After Master Peranos landed beside Grimm, he looked around but did not wander off by himself.

He knew that all the wealth in this area belonged to Black Isotta. He was but a servant. It was rewarding enough just to be able to have a glimpse of this moment.

Since light shone into the huge laboratory hall after the ceiling had been torn apart, one could now see the end of the laboratory.

This was an enormous laboratory that spanned over ten thousand meters in width and length. Tens of thousands of crystal laboratory devices, covered by a layer of dust were within the laboratory. It was visually stunning. Even in the sorcerer’s world, only the laboratories of a Holy Tower could possess such a colossal scale.

“Grimm, it seems like the value of the ancient ruins here is beyond imagination.” Peranos was still surveying the area as he mumbled in a low voice.

This place looked like a royal palace when compared to his laboratories on the ninety-ninth floor of the Black Isotta which looked like a commoner’s slum.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Each step Black Isotta took, the metal floor beneath his legs would crumple and warp in the shape of his footprints. They were somehow striking and intriguing to look at.

With such forces, Grimm felt that his body would be instantly dismembered to the point of no recognition if the Black Isotta were to throw him a direct punch.

Only such forces could explain how the Stigmata sorcerer could create a huge crater when they descended from the skies and create a holy basin of an exaggerated scale.

The old sorcerer stopped beside a laboratory device made out of a round crystal column. He swept away the dust by manipulating the natural forces and read the ancient sorcerer’s inscription at the side.

Alien, Infancy Stage, Specimen number: 0719. Danger level: Extreme.

“Hmm? Ah! Ah! Arghh…”

Suddenly, Grimm couldn’t control himself. He covered his head and screamed in pain.

Uncountable strands of red hairs appeared from thin air, densely packed. These red hairs neglected the sorcerer’s barriers and shot into Grimm’s body.

On top of Grimm’s skin, bruises that carried the mark of a claw started swimming around violently as if stimulated by an unknown force. They were pulling Grimm into the unknown Nightmare World.

Slowly, Grimm’s body started to become hollow as if he was about to vanish.

“Master…” Grimm turned his head. He looked weakly at Master Peranos, the person who was almost like a father to him.

“Grimm!” Master Peranos screamed at him. He wanted to help Grimm but was blocked off by a black wall of seal.

At the same time, as the black wall of seal stretched out and the multiple claw-marked bruises and red hairs started to emerge from Grimm’s body like bees out of the hive.

“Blargh!” Grimm started vomiting black hair from his mouth. It appeared that there was no end to the hair’s length.

Beneath his robes, Grimm’s stomach was rumbling as if something was dying to crawl out.

The horrific scene also appeared to be foreign to Black Isotta.

The old sorcerer was startled for a moment. He reached out his frail palm and wrapped Grimm up in a black sphere of seal that was almost three meters in diameter, drowning out every strange and terrifying object within the seal along with Grimm. At the same time, he looked toward another direction with a grim expression.

At the end of this hall, the old sorcerer saw a metal wall that had been hit with some kind of force that had it all twisted.

That was the last place Grimm had stopped when he was caught by the academy’s guardian.

There was a huge claw mark on the wall, left by a massive being. Including its hooves, the length of the mark was about ten meters. The mark protruded out from what was once a smooth, metallic wall, causing the surrounding metal to be bent like a crumpled piece of paper.

“Hmm? This place…”

The old sorcerer blinked and reappeared at the clear crystal window in an instant.

Boom!

A bloodied eye, measuring ten meters wide suddenly opened up in the crystal window. At the same time, on the crumpled metal wall, numerous twisted shadows that were densely packed extended into the shape of a hand. It was attempting to break out from the wall to leap toward the old sorcerer.

Grimm, who was surrounded by the dense twisted shadows within the black seal, semi-consciously thought, “So, this was where I got the infection.”

“Hee hee hee hee hee…”

Black Isotta started laughing wildly!

An indescribable energy ripple exploded suddenly! Thousands of meters away, the startled Peranos bellowed and hid behind the laboratory equipment.

Boom!

It was as if a force-twelve typhoon had just passed!

Bam! The metal wall in front of the old sorcerer, which originally protruded inwards and carried a claw mark was blasted away in the opposite direction. The thick wall of the crystal window shattered into tiny fragments the size of fingernails.

The old sorcerer raised his leg and stepped into the ancient battle hall, a place where Grimm had only seen through the window previously.

In the middle of the room was a great alien skeletal frame hanging over quietly that was three hundred meters in length. It exuded a faint green neon light and looked ridiculously dreamy and wonderful; like the sweet dreams of childhood’s past. It was mesmerizingly captivating.

Then, there were tens of thousands of smaller translucent skeletons hovering around the huge, strange, skeletal frame. There was a terrifying, ominous, and mysterious air on top of this beauty.

Innumerable machines and human remains covered the floor like a carpet. One could almost still hear the thunderous battle cries and the bloodbath of the ancient sorcerers.

The area that had been sealed off like an ember had finally opened!

In an instant, all of the twisted shadows in front of the old sorcerer disintegrated into dust. The old sorcerer looked across the ancient battle hall respectfully; a hint of greed in his eyes.

Grimm smiled pleasingly within the black seal before passing out.