Chapter 64: City Ruins
Without even waiting for others to get ready, Richard patted the dust off and fastened his footsteps in a particular direction.
Weather-worn stone pillars surrounded by dead clumps of grass appeared on the sides of the concrete roads. The half-crumbled ancient buildings, cracked blocks, and stones were broken up by meandering tree roots, pitted steps, and staircases were found all over the city ruins.
Thankfully, the other Mystics hurriedly crossed the stone wall in few seconds and followed after their new leader with hurried footsteps. Except for the strange excitement to explore this new ruin and sudden attachment to this ruined city, somehow, their minds acted normally.
While walking deep into the ruin, the Mystics also saw seven rectangular-shaped high-rise buildings stood in a particular area and got fascinated by the beauty for a moment.
'They are skyscrapers from the stories!' A thought appeared in their minds.
Beams of lights from the sun reflected on skyscrapers' steel curtains and ignited the city pathways as if they were in the Divine city of Miracles!
Unlike other half-broken buildings, those seven tall skyscrapers appeared in good condition and looked around 250 - 350 meters high.
'This looks like a real paradise.' A strange thought etched in their minds.
The Mystics even noticed some unknown inscriptions carved on the roadside pillars and became curious about this ancient city's origin. Most of the ruins they found in the past decades were from just 1,000 to 2,000 years old. So, the presence of an unknown-ancient ruin city in the Unexplored Forest startled them greatly.
"Is it belongs to the First Arcane Era?" Nicole asked out loud.
But due to the strange deafness, no one responded to her question.
'Although I'm not an explorer, I read something about First Arcane Era in the Holy Book of Life once. In the book, the author mentioned that the Unexplored Forest Regions appeared long before the First Arcane Era. So, this city ruin might not belong to the Fire Arcane Era at all.' She nodded inwardly and soon glanced at the buildings.
'Moreover, the ones who created used different architects from normal ones. These buildings are very tall and appeared very straight in line. Those inscriptions in the stone pillars look more like complex words used for writing secret letters. It looks more like a city from stories.' Nicole mumbled inwardly and soon frowned as she stared at Richard in confusion.
'Where is he going?' A thought appeared in her mind and soon disappeared like it never been there before.
After noticing that their current leader was walking in a particular direction, other Mystics, including Nicole, instantly dismissed other thoughts and followed his footsteps.
Richard and those thieves then walked on the rubble and broken concrete road through endless plies of dismembered buildings that sprouted smalls vines from the broken city wall.
After walking for a while, they saw a path to the seven skyscrapers and fastened their footsteps towards it.
One minute later, they arrived at the center of the seven tall buildings and glanced at the surroundings in curiosity and wonder.
A pedestal built on the right side, and on it was a single human-like stone statue.
It was also the area where Richard felt that something precious was hiding in there!
Turning around, Richard arrived in front of the large ancient-looking statue of a long-ear man and stared at it for a few seconds. Unlike the humans, he saw a strange red horn protruded on the long-eared man's forehead, and the man even had two black metal-like wings. The man in the statue had long wavy hair, wide-set eyes, and he wore a simple robe, a long pendant around his neck, and two unique earrings.
Although it was just a statue, the [Artisan], who created this statue, must have spent a lot of time and made this statue like a real person!
Other thieves also followed after his gaze and soon fixed their gaze at the statue in awe.
"Why this place looks cleaner? Moreover, who drew these circles around this statue?" At this time, Nicole touched Richard and other thieves and pointed her finger towards the ground.
Other thieves also startled by hand gestures and soon looked below. There, they saw strange writings were engraved below their feet and became puzzled inside.
Due to Nicole's sudden distraction, Richard became clear-headed once again and soon took a step back. He then touched his nose and started sniffing.
The next instant, his expression turned strange.
'I couldn't smell, I couldn't speak… Why did I come to this place?' He then cast a wary look at the strange long-ear human statue and soon stiffened up.
'I need to warn others about this strange hypnosis-' that thought instantly froze as Richard felt dizzy all of a sudden.
Before he could think further, darkness covered his eyes and completely blinded him!
Not only him, all those thieves suddenly lost their vision and got panicked. They then tried to move near but couldn't!
Richard felt that he was going through the most dangerous torture and got frightened.
He found himself standing in a void filled with nothing but darkness. He felt numbness, blindness, deafness, Anosmia, and so on!
He even felt that something was affecting his thinking and got scared!
He stayed still like a statue in the empty darkness world for a long time.
Time passed slowly like a snail. He felt that he stayed in the dark world for years without doing anything and started to lose his sense.
His mind turned blanker, and his memories started to disappear one by one. After an unknown period, he suddenly started to question himself, like, who was he? What was he doing in the dark world?
At that moment, the dark world started to crack a little and soon disappeared in front of his eyes.
With a numb expression on his face, Richard finally saw a human face.
The one who suddenly appeared in front of him was a red-haired man!
He had messy, long hair, almond silver eyes, and appeared around 174 cm high. He wore a tight black suit and looked very pale.
Upon seeing the man's face, Richard felt confused…
No, he just felt nothing but emptiness at that moment as he stared vacantly at the Red-haired man.
Meanwhile, the Red-haired man's almond silver eyes flickered as he looked into Richard's eyes for a second and then sighed.
"What a strong-willed thief." He said as he adjusted his black suit and pulled out a silver dagger from his waist.
Due to his lean body and average height, he looked more like a normal guy from the neighboring house than a powerful Mystic.
A second later, the corner of his mouth curved up and formed into a smile.
That Red-haired man's smile gave a sense of warmth and comfort feeling to Richard's blank mind.
'Master.' Richard subconsciously smiled in return.
His smile was one of happiness growing, much as a spring flower opens.
In a second, Richard's head suddenly began to bulge like a balloon and soon exploded, spreading blood, flesh, and brain matters in every direction!
Following him was Nicole.
One by one, similar things happened to all those thieves. All of them saw hope from the Red-haired man's smile before their heads began to bulge and explode!
A second later, the headless bodies swayed and soon fell. The bodies then began to twitch for some time and then lay motionless on the ground.
Once all of their bodies went silent, the Red-haired man knelt on the ground, clapped his hands together, and prayed in a strange ancient language.
As his voice resounded through the lone city, the ancient-looking statue suddenly let out a dim red light from the crown area and illuminated the surrounding area.
Then, all those scattered blood, flesh, and brain matter began to move in reverse and soon reattached to the headless bodies. In a blink, all those thieves returned to normal lively persons!
But there was a change, though.
Unlike earlier, the thieves' skin turned redder, and their eye color also changed into scarlet ones. Moreover, there was also a strange reddish horn that protruded on their foreheads.
"There are only 17 Chaos Beings. We still need 8 Mystics. These Chaos Beings are not enough to do the summoning ritual ceremony." The Red-haired man muttered with a frown as he stood up and soon asked.
"Twister, how long will it take for you to lead the Explorers here?"
As his voice fell, the silver dagger in his hand trembled for a moment and soon revealed a person's illusionary image.
That person was a male, who appeared to be around 18-years-old, had monolid eyes, and unique black hair.
His hair was done very nicely; he had some form of oil mixed in to give a short but noticeable wavy form to the black strands. His forehead was almost square, large, and imposing, but not laughably so.
A few lines were laid upon it, but they were dismissive as tricks of illusion. His eyebrows were impossibly straight, his eyes made of rich mahogany. Eyes that told many secrets but held them locked in a strongbox so vile that one wouldn't dare to open in fear of what they might find within.
The guy named Twister nodded his head and responded in a calm yet cold tone.
"'Sea' is leading a group of Mystics there now, so you don't have to worry about the sacrifices. They are all specifically picked by him, and all of them done atrocious crimes in their life. Hehe, he will be there on time, so you can go and start the preparations now."
He then raised his brows and asked while rubbing his temple.
"Now, what are we going to do with the Explorers? If my guess is not wrong, quite a few powerful people are in this Explorers' group, and most of them are from Life Church. One wrong move, our whole plan will fail, Sir. Twilight."
The red-haired man frowned deeply upon hearing Twister's words and soon asked,
"Where is Black's Incarnation?"
"He is with me. But I'm not too fond of that old foggy. I wonder why 'His Highness' selected him as the last member of our group." Twister shook his head and said in a distrustful tone.
"Although he isn't a trustful person, we can use his strength in many other ways." The red-haired man stopped for a second and soon asked,
"Did you contact 'His Highness'?"
"No, he and Evil are searching for Charles in every nook and corner of Riverdale City. Damn, even I didn't expect that he would grow at an unimaginable speed and would interfere with the plans of 'His Highness.'" An interesting smile crept on Twister's face as he said those words.
"At least we have an advantage." Suddenly, the Red-haired man took a deep breath and muttered.
His sudden words caused the Twister to furrow his brows. Noticing the puzzlement, the Red-haired man let out a chuckle and said,
"He didn't know anything about your real identity. Even if his character is completely changed, you're his only best friend. Hehe, I wonder how he will react when he found out that his best friend is his main enemy."
"It's not funny, Sir. Twilight. He is growing into a dangerous person, which is not a good thing for 'His Highness'. Moreover, I haven't contacted him after that kidnapping incident at all.'" Twister stopped for a moment as he suddenly thought of something and soon asked,
"Did you avenge your son?"
Upon hearing Twister's question, a trace of anger swells upon the Red-haired man's face, causing his nose to turn red.
"No, that's where the problem lies. That girl, 'Edith,' is not a normal one, and she seems to have some connection with Abel's sister, Emilia. When we entered the Mangrove woods, two thugs were somehow affected by the Chaos power earlier and turned into 'Chaos Beings.' At that time, Emilia suddenly said about how these Chaos Beings are created and instantly saw through our plan."
"Did you finish her off?" Widening his mahogany eyes, Twister turned his face serious and asked in a hurry.
"You are crazy. Don't forget who Emilia is. Once you kill her, ten Rank-4 powerhouses will show up here in 30 minutes and wipe us out brutally. Humph, I don't want to die like 'Mind' and 'Coward'."
Twister simply snorted coldly and then waited for him to continue.
Meanwhile, the Red-haired man raised his hand, touched his chin, and relayed the whole scenery about how they ambushed Luke and almost killed him.
"They even found out about Devil's identity, huh! But why is that 'Edith' helping the Life Church members? Something is not right…" Twister suddenly stopped for a moment and soon blurted out.
"What if Charles disguised as Edith and monitored you guys all this time?"
"Are you nuts? How can it be possible? No, there is no way that pretty girl is a Charles." The Red-haired man firmly shook his head and refused to believe those words from Twister.
Meanwhile, Twister became stunned by the Red-haired man's adamant behavior and soon felt something was wrong.
"Where is Devil-" As he was about to ask further, Twister suddenly stopped for a moment and soon said with a smile,
"Hehe, Emilia and others are coming towards our camp area. Hmm? Oh? My guess is right. Charles is here with Emilia and others. From the looks of it, the 'Holem's Crown' is also with him. Quick, send this information to 'His Highness' and tell him to start the plan. It's time to finish our long mission."
Upon hearing Twister's exciting words, the Red-haired man went wide-eyed and soon nodded his head in understanding.
"You should do your job properly and led the 'Holem's Crown' here. Meanwhile, Devil and I will contact 'His Highness' before awakening the Chaos Wanderer."
After saying those words, Daniel cut off the virtual communication by waved his hand, made the Chaos Beings sleep beside the winged man's statue, and then disappeared from there.
