Chapter 68: Chapter 144 – A Puzzling Arrangement

Everyone present on the ground watched how Asterios and Bryn suddenly began descending from the sky at a rapid pace. The two figures nosedived towards them, switching positions plenty of times as they kept overtaking each other.

Soon, the girls realized they had no intention of slowing down and Selene quickly raised a simple spiritual barrier around them.

A fraction of a second later, two almost simultaneous explosions shook the bottom of the valley and a huge cloud of sand and dust rose from the mighty impacts. A few strong flaps followed and the obstruction soon dispersed, showing Asterios and Bryn in crouching positions.

The duo stood up and smiled at each other. Asterios was the first one to extend a hand to his rival.

“Congratulations. I stood no chance.”

Bryn took it with a smile and gently shook her head.

“That’s not true. I barely won. Even though I used only my physical strength and avoided drawing on my spiritual power.”

“Oh? You can fly even faster with it?” Asterios raised a curious brow at her.

“Of course. These aren’t just simple, animal wings but partially spiritual constructs, still counting as part of my body. I can use mana to enhance and influence them. It’s kind of similar to strengthening your body with magic,” Bryn explained.

Asterios rubbed his chin. “I see. Good to know.”

“Also, I feel like your wings are the same, Asterios,” she added.

He glanced back at his draconic wings, trying to compare them to Bryn’s angelic pair. Examining them with his spiritual sense just for a bit revealed that they felt like they had their own circuits inside. That made it even easier to guide mana through them.

“Thank you for the tip, Bryn.” Asterios nodded his head at the Valkyrie. “I might ask you to teach me about wings and flying a bit when both of us have some free time.”

“It would be my pleasure.” Bryn smiled warmly.

“Now then. Let’s get back to the main topic. Did we miss anything?” Asterios turned to the others.

Grea snorted. “Nothing important. Just my father being an idiot, as usual.”

Radir ignored his daughter’s remark and quickly approached him.

“And? Did you figure anything out?”

“Not much, but there certainly is more to this place than people seem to notice,” Asterios answered. “Magic of three colors fills the area, coming from the pyramids. There are various symbols on the blocks making them. And the magic is completely scrambled down here.”

“I knew it!” the demon man shouted victoriously. “I wonder if we have to do anything inside them in order to reveal the secrets of this weirdly-shaped recess.”

Asterios shook his head. “I think they are just a distraction.”

“From what?”

Asterios pointed down. “The actual important thing which has always been right under everyone’s noses.”

“From the beginning, I felt like this place was weird. The energy here sure is chaotic, but it flows in…” Svertaniel joined the discussion, rubbing his chin.

“Patterns,” Asterios finished for him.

“Exactly.” The ash-skinned demon nodded.

Radir scratched his head. “So, what does that mean?”

“Do you have anything important in your little hut?” Asterios asked.

“No?”

“I’ll show you then.” He smiled and turned to his companions. “I need anyone who is not in a pyramid out of here or somehow protected, and I need something to stop a literal sandstorm from damaging the Ring City.”

Grea, Radir, and Svertaniel seemed slightly confused but Ast’s companions looked between each other.

“All I can do is run fast and catch people wandering around,” Miria suggested.

~I have already finished marking everyone in the open. With a single technique, I can drag them to the pyramids or the city with my shadows,~ Umbra informed them.

“I won’t be of much use here, unfortunately,” Silvia admitted with a slightly sad smile, earning herself a hug from Miria.

“You can leave the protection to me, then,” Selene offered.

“Actually, I will need you for something else,” Asterios quickly interjected.

“Oh. So be it, my Lord. But who—”

“I can raise a strong barrier if you'll allow me,” Bryn joined.

The girls looked at each other for a few more moments and nodded altogether.

“Alright. Umbra, Bryn, you can start working on your parts,” Asterios informed them.

The shadowy raven took off into the sky and stopped high above their heads. Umbra’s shape froze with his wings spread wide. They could spot his misty body shimmering irregularly with some weird particle effect.

In the meanwhile, Bryn flew up too, much higher than Umbra, and started drawing golden symbols with the tip of her staff in a circle around herself. Line after line, she added more complex inscriptions as rings surrounding her.

When she finally finished preparing the spell, they glowed stronger, alongside her halo. Bryn spun her staff and raised it above her head. The circles made of symbols quickly expanded and soon reached the walls of the Ring City, attaining the diameter of the whole Tri-Valor Valley. 

Then, the inscriptions of light spread vertically. With around fifteen meters between each ring, they created a tall, magical fence before the first inner wall of the Ring City. But, that wasn’t all.

Bryn brought her staff down and hit a formation under her legs that had just shown up. Bright, golden, translucent light filled the space between the mysterious inscriptions on the border of the town. A tall barrier was erected, dividing the Ring City from the desert middle housing the pyramids.

The Valkyrie then returned to the ground. “This should be enough to stop two or three sandstorms.”

Asterios nodded. “Thank you. Now, everyone, gather up.” 

After all of them stood close together, he glanced at Selene.

“Would you mind cleaning this place up a little?”

She smiled alluringly. “How much is a little, my Lord?”

He sent her an answer through their connection.

Selene chuckled softly. “With pleasure.” She turned around and took a deep breath. “HAAAAAAAAAAP!”

Then, she suddenly entered the sixth stage of her awakening, releasing a violent, destructive aura into the surroundings, obliterating the ground under her feet. Asterios made sure everyone kept close while the fox lady was in the process of making insanely fast hand signs and still increasing the volume of spiritual energy she leaked outside. He surrounded them with his draconic wings, reinforcing them with mana.

Selene finished her seals and slapped her hands together.

“Four Records of the Lost World: First Cataclysm: Quakes of Armageddon!”

She raised her foot and immediately brought it down.

The whole world shook at once. The terrain all around began erupting in shattered pieces of hardened sand, clay, and light brown earth. Chunks after chunks blasted into the air from everywhere around the group while the ground trembled so strong they could swear the world was ending.

After a minute of the unbelievable quakes and inconceivable explosions of earth, Selene canceled the technique and made a few more signs before slapping her palms together again.

“Second Cataclysm: Winds of Apocalypse!”

Everyone knew things would only get worse and huddled up together even closer. And they were right.

Selene traced a half-circle towards the back with her foot, leaning herself a little forward during the motion, and thrust herself into an incredibly fast spinning motion. She immediately turned into a blur and unexplainable wind pressure exploded from her, tearing whatever of the ground was left around after her previous technique as it expanded.

In a matter of seconds, a gigantic cyclone came to existence, rising high into the sky, with the almighty fox lady in its center. It picked up all the sand and chunks of the earth as it kept growing, ripping more and more of the damaged land in the process.

It took over two minutes for the destructive force of nature to reach the barrier Bryn had erected. The golden shield glowed brightly under the immense assault but Selene gradually stopped spinning, in turn, slowing down the wide tornado too. 

They both stopped at the same time and all the collected debris slid down Bryn’s barrier, creating a tall ring of rubble and sand just in front of the inner walls of the city. Whoever had been looking towards the middle area must have been in for quite the show.

When the violent winds receded, Radir broke off the group and jumped forward.

“Why the fuck did you think it would be a good idea to destroy every—”

He began shouting at Asterios but paused the moment he opened his eyes. There was not a single grain of sand or speck of dust in the area. He thought the terrain would have become a mess, but, instead, they stood on top of a polished sandstone disc, at the bottom of the same, weirdly angled, regular valley, which also was now clearly manmade.

Additionally, countless shallow patterns, inscriptions, symbols, runes, sigils, and magic circles littered every piece of ground his eyes could land on. Even the slopes weren’t free of them. Tens of regular rings with squares inside them ran around the valley, each at a seemingly different rotation.

“What in the…” Radir muttered while constantly turning around in awe.

“I guess no one ever dared to clean the whole valley before.” Asterios chuckled as he passed by the demon man and walked up to Selene. “How are you feeling?”

She fell into his arms with a playful, pained expression, wiping a nonexistent tear from the corner of her eye. 

“It drained me so much, my Lord. I can barely stand with what little energy I have left.”

Asterios shook his head with a gentle smile and pulled Selene into a tender kiss. Her lips quickly curved into a satisfied smirk as she pursued his mouth back, wagging her now single tail extremely fast.

After they split, she showed a mischievous smile and lovingly pecked Ast’s cheek, truly happy that he had gone along with her little act. Even if Asterios had already known she was just being playful, he was enjoying more and more acting on his mates’ little antics.

“What about you, Bryn?” Asterios asked, stepping away from the naughty vixen. “Defending against that much force must have drained you a lot.”

With a very faint flush on her cheeks, the Valkyrie shook her head.

“No, it’s fine, really…”

Asterios chuckled a little. “A kiss isn’t the only way I can share mana if you aren’t aware.”

“But one of the best!” Miria happily interjected.

“Maybe for you.” Asterios flicked her forehead after arriving closer. “And Bryn is from a world with no men so she would surely not appreciate kissing one as much as you do. Go and try to kiss a Goblin.”

“You are not a Goblin, Master!” Miria argued with a pout, rubbing her forehead.

“You get my point, though. Anyway, we should focus back on the matter at hand while we are still uninterrupted.”

“I can uphold the barrier for a few hours if necessary,” Bryn informed.

He nodded at her. “Thank you. People will surely start to act if we take too long, though.”

“Do you have an idea what we are looking at, old man?” Grea turned to her father. “You have been researching this place for years.”

Radir broke out of his daze and stood up from the ground. He had been crawling over the patterns for a while. After dusting off his clothes, the man fixed his spectacles.

“I know this is some kind of a seal on this wide, round platform at the bottom of the valley. Parts of it match what I have found in the pyramids. The formations around seem to be partially related to the transfer of mana.”

“We might have to create a proper flow towards this spot, then. The spiritual energy is currently in complete chaos. There are three distinct magic circles down here. I bet each of them is supposed to receive mana only from the correct pyramid,” Asterios observed.

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“That could be it. Also, these rings over the slope look like they can be moved. Could you…?”

Asterios nodded at Miria and the panthergirl happily rushed towards the edge of the platform. She stopped in front of the bottom-most row of squares, examined it for a few seconds, and then drove her shortswords into the narrow gap between the tiles.

With a grunt, she tried to push them to the side, but since they were near the very ground, it proved to be difficult. So, she drew more onto her bloodline and decided to pull instead. 

The moment she did, the whole ring began turning at an extremely slow pace, but it was moving nevertheless. After Miria took ten steps, something made a loud, stony click, and she felt the mechanism fall into place. She had clearly moved the thing by one position.

That was enough for the confirmation and Asterios recalled her back, rewarding his hardworking mate with some ear scratches.

“Now, if only I could read the script woven between these runes…” Radir sighed. “I’ve seen a myriad of languages but I have never stumbled on this one even once in my life.”

“Asterios can, right?” Grea glanced towards the playful duo. “It’s the same as that one, isn’t it?”

As Radir looked at him with raised brows, Asterios nodded. “Seems like it. Just like on the throne, I can understand it but I don’t know the letters.”

“So, this place truly has something to do with Dragons, just like Mr. Radir said,” Silvia commented.

“This is getting so exciting!” Miria beamed a smile at the princess.

“Then, do you know what these inscriptions on the rings say?” Grea’s father asked.

“All I understand is that the symbols in the squares make words vertically. Even if it’s a completely messed up, possibly misspelled word, I’m still aware that it’s a word. For example, the column of symbols from the top to bottom over there spells mountain.”

“Hmmmm…” Selene wrinkled her nose as she pondered. “I think it’s pretty obvious we have to turn the ring on each level for the sequence to spell a correct word, which maybe will activate the arrays here? There are three outgoing, carved paths so I guess we need three words, one above each line.”

“Good luck guessing them. With almost twenty rings, the combinations are almost infinite.” Svertaniel gestured with his hand towards the ledge high and far above them.

“What about the pyramids? You said they had symbols too, right?” Bryn glanced at Asterios.

He nodded. “Yes. I think we need to get out of this hole. This is clearly the last stage of the puzzle. The first one might be up there.”

“Alright. This is all extremely interesting, and I would love to accompany you guys as you solve this, but unfortunately, I have shit to do at the school.” Grea groaned.

“Understandable. Thank you for your time, Grea. I really appreciate it.” Asterios smiled as he walked closer to the red-skinned woman. “I’ll keep you updated.”

He offered a handshake and Grea gripped his forearm.

“Anything for my cute ex-student.” She winked and the connection was cut.

After Grea left them, they scaled the sloping walls with some effort and reached the top again. Instantly, everyone noticed another batch of formations and arrays between each of the pyramids and the center which they had just climbed out. Flat trenches ran between those elements too.

They moved as a group and stopped over the patterns in front of the pyramid with the green flame on top of it.

“There are three interconnected circles on the ground here too,” Selene observed.

“They look like they can be rotated but they don’t even budge,” Miria added after trying to push one of the circles with her foot.

Meanwhile, Asterios activated his Draconic Sight again and looked at the impressive structure. As he had noticed earlier, a few of the blocks had words on them.

“Who does this tomb belong to?” he asked.

“Eyla the Ingenious,” Svertaniel and Radir answered at the same time.

“Hmmmm…” Asterios rubbed his chin. “Selene, can you destroy that block over there? Eleventh row, second column?”

She counted the big sandstone bricks and nodded. “Piece of cake.”

Without even bringing out any additional tails, Selene extended her left arm forward and turned a bit to the side. A spiritual longbow materialized in her arm. She began drawing on its invisible bowstring and a javelin of violent spiritual energy began forming at her fingers.

She reached the full extent of her draw and released the furious projectile with a loud thud and small explosion of air that caused everyone’s clothes to flutter. The impromptu arrow whizzed towards its target and crashed into the correct block.

“Whoa!” Silvia suddenly gasped and everyone glanced at her.

The circle under her feet began turning, causing the princess to almost lose her balance. But, she quickly jumped away and they all observed the change to the accompaniment of the sound of stone scratching against stone.

After it finally stopped, the formation glowed in the same shade of green as the flame on top of the pyramid.

“It’s part of a word,” Asterios said. “One-third, more or less.”

“This might be the answer we are looking for, then,” Svertaniel suggested.

“How did you know we had to destroy exactly that brick for it to activate?” Radir raised a brow at Asterios.

“There were four words written on the blocks in that row. They said smart, innovative, quiet, and manly. I think you can guess which one seemed off.”

“Ohhhhhhhh. Since Eyla was a woman, it was manly right, Master?” Miria tilted her head adorably.

“Correct. As for destroying it, it was just a hunch, honestly. The pyramids survived Selene’s previous techniques without a scratch so I wasn’t worried about damaging them with just this.”

“Great!” Radir pumped his fist. “There should be two more of these, right?”

Asterios nodded and moved his gaze to another row of words.

“Vials, daggers, book, staff,” he recited.

“Is this about the weapon she used?” Selene pondered.

“Definitely,” Svertaniel replied.

“The other woman was a mage so definitely not the staff,” Miria shared her insight.

“And that’s what most people would think.” Radir chuckled.

“Indeed,” Svertaniel agreed. “Even though she wielded powerful magic, Nyra didn’t use a staff as her focus. Supposedly, it was Eyla who loved carrying a big piece of carved bone which was a gift from her beloved Drahan.”

“So, this time we have to destroy the correct answer?” Silvia asked.

“Seems like it,” Asterios replied.

After receiving a nod, Selene shot another javelin at the brick selected by Asterios and another circle under their feet began turning until it glowed green. Only one remained unsolved.

“Quickly! Read the last group of words!” Miria urged Asterios joyfully.

He chuckled at her and quickly located them. But, he hesitated a little before reading them out loud this time.

“What’s wrong, Master?” Miria glanced at him curiously.

“Well… How do I say this… They are… sex positions…”

The timid panthergirl blinked a few times in quick succession before turning completely red. Selene chuckled softly behind her slender hand while Asterios could only smile wryly. Those were some advanced positions too.

Svertaniel cleared his throat, capturing everyone’s attention.

“It’s of no doubt that Eyla… was the most open out of all of the three. So… The actual answer would be something akin to… all of them.”

Asterios glanced at the pyramid again, squinted his eyes to see a bit better, and noticed a thin line connecting all of the blocks. He shared his vision with Selene and the fox lady nailed a smaller projectile right into that recess.

That seemed to work and the third circle snapped into place. Additionally, the completed formation sent out green energy over the shallow channel leading towards the slanted pit in the middle.

“What’s the word, Master?” Miria couldn’t wait for the reveal.

“Ocean,” he read.

Both Svertaniel and Radir nodded knowingly.

“That checks out,” the former spoke first. “One could say Eyla was like the ocean. Calm, serene, beautiful, but also furious, dangerous, and unpredictable.”

“Let’s get the other two before going back down,” Asterios suggested.

Everyone agreed and they moved to the arrays in front of the pyramid with the blue flame. Just like before, the puzzle followed the same pattern. 

For the incorrect block from the first batch, it called the female magician cunning, and the demon men revealed that she had been anything but, often charging into battle even more recklessly than Drahan.

For the correct pick from the second set, it spelled ring, which was the magical focus she had used and was also the same one Drahan gifted to Nyra during his proposal. She had been a very sentimental person and held such memorabilia very close.

The last part, this time, was all wrong instead of all right. The words spoke about various dishes containing meat and Nyra had supposedly been a vegetarian. 

Her password was revealed as volcano, because, as the duo of demons said, she had been warm, hot, and passionate, but also could explode at any moment and wreak havoc in her vicinity.

Then, the group moved to the tomb of the only man in their relationship and learned that Drahan was actually anything but selfish, trying to help literally anyone the trio had stumbled on during their journeys, that his weapon was a greatsword, and that he couldn’t stand arachnids.

The final keyword was abyss, because he had an endless appetite for everything in life, be it food, drinks, sex, battle, exploration, or helping others.

So, with the three words noted down, everyone quickly moved back into the pit and divided into three groups to handle one combination each. Asterios stood in the very middle and gave instructions to the others on which way and how much they had to turn the rings containing the draconic letters.

Miria’s team was first to complete the word abyss, and yellow energy flowed down the pathways, lighting up each symbol until it reached the very bottom, spilling into one of the big magic circles and illuminating it in a golden shade too.

Then, Selene’s group finished next and spelled the word ocean, bringing the green color to the mix.

Finally, Bryn’s gang got done with volcano as the last one. As the blue mana trailed over the inscription, everyone arrived at the platform with the three formations together, watching the lines slowly reach the one array not yet lit up.

As all three sections glowed in their respective colors, the ground shook and every single ring began turning in a seemingly random direction, spinning faster and faster until the glowing symbols became a blur.

“What is happening?” Silvia asked, looking around at the flashing lights.

“Look! Below our feet!” Miria pointed out and everyone glanced down.

The three extremely complex magic circles set up in a pattern of a triangle around the edges of the platform started revealing even more formations between them, quickly crawling towards each other. In the span of a few seconds, everyone stood over a gigantic tri-point array that began turning white.

Ast’s eyes widened as he recognized some of the arrangements.

“Oh, come on, not this shit agai—”

*FLASH*

With an explosion of blinding light, they were gone.

 

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