Chapter 54: Chapter 53 – The Ancient Temple

—Cole POV—

After spending an hour or so wandering the jungle, we stumbled upon the ruins that Senko told us about. Made of finely chiseled stone, similar to ancient civilizations from Earth, the structure was almost entirely buried due to centuries of overgrowth and erosion. Using Earth Flow to clear away the stone stairway, we found ornate carvings chiseled into the stairs themselves.

 

“Oh my…”, Alpha gulped seeing some gruesome depictions, “Do you think…they carried out sacrifices here? Maybe the spirits of those sacrificed here still haunt this place!”

 

“Oh come on, there are no such things as ghosts. If there were no ghosts in our worlds, there is no way they exist here!”, Leona proclaimed as she walked towards the entrance, “I guarantee the only problems we will have here are of the monster variety.”

 

Jumping out of the entryway Silva and Repune barked at her catching the poor feline completely off guard. Watching Leona jump ten feet into the air, I rushed forward and caught her before she hit the stone stairway. Petrified for a few moments, as soon as Leona regained her senses she glared at the two snickering Silver Wolves.

 

“You assholes, what’s the big idea scaring me like that!?”, she hissed as she pointed at them.

 

“Come on now, it was all in good fun.”, Repune refuted, “Seeing a proud, powerful Lion kin jump like a scared kitten is hilarious. You need to relax a bit, and just laugh it off.”

 

“Uh huh…I will laugh it off alright.”, Leona said already thinking of ways to get back at them, “Anyways, thank you for catching me, Dear. I don’t think I would have stuck the landing this time.”

 

Giving her a kiss on the cheek, Leona blushed and asked to be put back on her feet. Setting her on the ground, as the three women returned to their human forms, I told them not to pull any pranks inside as the structure may be booby-trapped. Agreeing to a temporary ceasefire, Silva and Repune informed us that the entryway was already swept for traps. Thanking the two women, all of us entered the structure to investigate further.

 

The entryway was in pretty rough shape as the stone had been worn away over centuries of erosion and looting. Judging by the fixtures we could see, it appeared that they held ceremonies here for unknown reasons. Moving down to the first level, we found dozens of massive granite pillars that held up the top floor. Unlike the entryway, the stone here was in very good condition allowing us a glimpse into the writings of the people that built the temple.

 

“Can you please illuminate the area, I can barely see the pillars around us.”, Purlin requested as she squinted her eyes to see better.

 

Creating several balls of light, I cast them around the room to light up the floor. Splitting up to look for information or relics, Alpha and I stayed to examine the pillars themselves. Attempting to read the writing for a few minutes, Alpha gave up and just asked me to translate.

 

“Is it buried treasure or historical documents?”, Alpha inquired out of curiosity.

 

“From what I am seeing, the words are just names of people…”, I stated unsure if the translation ability was working properly, “If I were to guess, maybe they were soldiers or something?”

 

“So then…maybe the carvings on the front steps were from a battle?”, Alpha suggested, “The top floor may have been for mourning the deceased…so there are Ghosts here!!”

 

Nodding my head, I agreed with her assessment of the carvings but brushed off her ghost comment. It seemed like the temple was dedicated to a war fought hundreds or maybe thousands of years ago. Not recognizing any names from the pillars, we decided our time was better spent looking for relics. Finding only broken pottery and rusty candle holders, I continued down to the next level where we found the exact same things. After descending two more levels passed that, the women were ready to leave but I wasn’t. Sensing a high amount of magic below us, my curiosity took over.

 

Hurrying down the stairs, in case it was the pocket dimension, my wives chased after me thinking I found something. Stepping into what must have been the bottom level, given there was no stairwell leading further down, we discovered a large magic circle in the middle of the room. Finding massive groupings of magic crystals, Purlin’s eyes started to sparkle with excitement. 

 

“Hehe, those crystals must be worth a small fortune! I have never seen such massive magic crystals before, we could be set for several lifetimes!”, she purred with delight, “Let's start gathering them up right-”

 

Grabbing Purlin by the collar of her shirt, I held her back before she ran over to them. Something felt off about them, but I couldn’t be certain. Just in case it was a trap, I didn’t want her touching them till I had a chance to check them out.

 

“How about waiting till after I confirm they aren’t traps? It’s weird that no one came down here to harvest them so this might be a trap room.”, I sighed glancing over at the circle, “Let’s start with the Magic Circle then worry about the crystals.”

 

“Oh right…”, Purlin replied with a deflated tone.

 

Following me over to the circle, I used my skills to break down the enchantments into their basic components. Thanks to decades of research in my second life, understanding what the spell was designed to do made things very easy for me.

 

“It’s a Magic Transfer Circle…or rather was a crude attempt at one.”, I remarked, “It’s incomplete, the spell is missing crucial things like a method to stabilize the portal and an actual destination. They must have been desperate to risk their lives like this, there is nothing stopping something from coming through the other side of the portal. It could have linked up to the ocean, and flooded this place in a matter of moments.”

 

“So it wouldn’t have worked when they used it, so whatever they were running from got them. Why don’t we see corpses or signs of a struggle?”, Repune inquired.

 

Looking over the circle’s enchantments again, I looked back at the crystals as I realized what happened.

 

“I don’t think these are Magic Crystals, these are corpses.”, I stated with a tense look, “The magic that would have powered the circle was released all at once. These people they-”

 

“Magic Crystallization Syndrome…what a painful way to go.”, Purlin gulped cutting me off.

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Magic Crystallization Syndrome was a serious condition where magic builds up in the body faster than it can be used/expelled to the point that it creates magic crystals inside the victim. It is an incredibly painful experience, and if the victim is unable to remove themselves from the area…they will be turned into a massive magic crystal within minutes. The only way to avoid it is to have Magic Manipulation Training or by wearing special equipment to absorb the energy in place of your physical body.

 

“There’s a way to undo the condition, isn’t there?”, Leona remembered, “Rebecca said something about siphoning away the raw magic, and leaving the person behind…”

 

“Yes, the problem is the crystal needs to be intact and completely filled with the same energy it started with. Every MP it’s missing means a piece of that person will be missing…whether that is physical or mental is completely random. I’ve only heard of a few cases where people were successfully revived from the crystallized state.”, I remarked, “I really think we should leave them be, I might be able to revive them but they may be mentally scarred for life.”

 

“Well try it on one of them, and see what happens.”, Silva insisted.

 

Not really happy with the idea, given the person may be traumatized from the experience, I decided to give it a whirl since they might lead us to the bastards we were after. Pulling Excalibur out, I decided to use its ability to absorb/release infinite amounts of magic to my advantage. Slowly siphoning away the magic, a humanoid person started to appear from within the crystal.

 

Releasing a Demi-Human man from his crystallized state, it took him a few minutes to wake up from his slumber. When he did wake up, he immediately threw a punch at me out of sheer terror. Smacking his fist away, I told him to calm the fuck down before I knocked him out again. Realizing that we were speaking the same language he calmed down for a moment before becoming frantic again.

 

“We need to leave now, those monsters are nearly upon us!”, he shrieked in fear, “Where are my wife and children!? They were just here a moment ago!”

 

“Sir take a moment to collect yourself, we just cured your Magic Crystallization Syndrome.”, I Alpha told him, “We need to know what is going on.”

 

Giving me a confused look, he looked around the room and realized that none of the people he knew were there. Instead of people, there were dozens of magic crystal formations around the room where they should have been. Remembering what happened now, he grabbed me by the shoulders and pleaded with me to save his family.

 

“Human, I beg of you for mercy! Please save my family, I know your kin hate Demi-Humans but I-”, he started to say before Silva cut him off.

 

“Ahem, Cole here is married to several nonhumans so you can rest assured he doesn’t hate us.”, she said with a calm voice, “We can save your family, can you explain what happened while we turn everyone back?”

 

“O…of course!”, he agreed as I switched to using my lightning to siphon off the magic into the blade.

 

Telling us his name first, he introduced himself as Jubbo a Black Wolf Beastman. He was born shortly after the Waves began appearing on the original Sword Hero’s world. By the time he was sixteen nearly half of the world was destroyed by the Waves and people were just waiting for the end to come.

 

“The Sword Hero fought bravely against the Waves, but he was overwhelmed without allies to aid him. Shortly after that the Bow Hero arrived in our world and killed the next Sword Hero in his bed while he slept.”, Jubbo told us, “After our worlds merged, the natives of the Bow Heroes world began taking land from natives of our world. All of us were forced from our homes and retreated to strongholds in the wilderness. One by one they hunted us down till eventually, they encircled this temple and started making preparations to burn us alive in here. Our Queen hurriedly tried to use a Magic Transport Spell to take us away from here, but they broke into the temple before she could finish. She activated the unfinished spell out of desperation and we-”

 

“Turned into crystals, got it.”, Purlin said looking at me, “I don’t understand, why aren’t their other crystals on the floor above us?”

 

“Probably hauled off centuries ago for war materials, these people are lucky to still be intact.”, I stated freeing the last few people, “Which one of you is the leader here?”

 

Staggering to her feet, a woman spoke up and voiced she was the Queen. Looking at the red-skinned woman, I saw the Succubi's signature heart tail and two horns on her forehead. Sprouting her wings to steady herself, she looked over at me to speak.

 

“That would be me…”, she groaned as she stabilized her magic, “Thank you human for freeing us, I suspect you will want some sort of reward?”

 

“Not really, if you have any information on Ancient Gods that would be great.”, I told her.

 

“I am afraid the Gods died a very long time ago…that is why our world fell into chaos. A Great War happened prior to the Waves, a group of powerful people came and slew the Gods of our world. When they were gone we had no way to resist the Waves of monsters that plagued our world.”, she informed me, “Before you ask, I don’t know anything about the people who killed them.”

 

“Were there any Holy Sites you had where the Gods used to dwell?”, I pressed her.

 

Nodding her head, she said that there were dozens of them around the world each dedicated to specific gods. The one we were in now was dedicated to the God of War, and those that fell in his name during the war. 

 

“We ended up desecrating this temple to survive, but clearly, it didn’t work out as I hoped.”, she sighed.

 

Consoling her, I assured her that her people integrated with the people of the Bow Hero’s world eventually and founded the nation of Siltran. Telling her that it existed today as the country of Siltvelt, the people looked relieved to hear that they weren’t the only ones left.

 

“Come on, let’s get all of you out of this place. You can mark down the Holy Sites after we get you to a settlement or city.”, I told them with a grin.

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