"What are we going to do?" The people from the Supreme Devil Organization panicked when they saw Noel leaving the battlefield and heading straight to the ruin.
Not only the people from the organization but Legolaz were also shocked to find Noel's movement.
"Is he going to enter the ruin by himself?" Legolaz gritted his teeth. On the one hand, he understood that Noel was forced to do so because he was attacked by these mysterious people. On the other hand, he couldn't allow Noel to enter the ruin.
After all, there was a chance that Noel would be taking what they wanted from this ruin. Still, he couldn't rule out the possibility that numerous demons would emerge from the ruin if he opened it recklessly.
Obviously, Noel understood that fact as well, considering the previous ruin he explored had multiple Superior Demons inside.
If he wasn't careful, he might lose his life inside the ruin instead. However, this was the only safe place.
He didn't plan to get captured by the Supreme Devil Organization, so he opened this door filled with possibilities.
"Stop!" Legolaz shouted.
Noel didn't wait for him. Since it was impossible to open it manually, he had to strike the door with all his power, blasting the door.
The ruin itself was a small cube building, which didn't seem to hold a lot of things. There was a thick metal door blocking his way. Noel could see a few weird mechanisms around the door, which he didn't understand.
If he studied this mechanism first, the organization would capture him. Hence, he placed his hand on the door and released his Undying Fire.
The fire flared up and enveloped the entire door. Noel, of course, skillfully controlled the ability so that it only melted the door. The Undying Fire showed its might by melting the door at a rapid rate.
The people from the organization had left the encirclement and were about to stop him. With his left hand controlling the fire, his right hand summoned forth multiple ice blocks.
"!!!" The Spirit Masters stopped while the Spirit Grandmasters broke apart the Ice Mirrors, not bothering to stop. But that was enough because Noel only wanted to cover their eyes for a second.
When the Spirit Grandmasters went through, they saw Noel forming two runes. The first one was the Rune Strike.
Noel shot out a concentrated Spiritual Energy into the Rune Strike. The rune then absorbed it before splitting them up into multiple strikes.
Each Spirit Grandmaster had to stop two of the strikes, forcing them to stop because of this weird ability. They also understood that Noel was the author of the rune book. It was clear that he understood runes more than they did. And if they were careless of him, Noel could form a rune so unique that they didn't know how to handle and kill them.
But that small hesitation had given Noel enough time to melt the door.
Noel activated his Moon Blessing as the darkness inside lit up. He could see several important things inside. There was a small hole that had been covered with glasses on the opposite side of the room. On the left side, Noel found a big table and a weird gate that didn't lead anywhere. On the right side, there were a few suits hanging. The suits were white and would reach the knees. It looked like the white coat that the healer usually wore.
Without hesitation, Noel knew where he had to go. Since there was a hole, there must be a way.
He formed an Ice Lotus above his head and let the petals drop right in front of the gate while Noel entered the ruin. He stomped the glass, breaking it apart. Meanwhile, the petals formed ice crystals, blocking the entrance.
Noel saw multiple doors inside the hole. All of them were closed with a thick metal door.
"Ten meters?" Noel frowned. He saw four doors before reaching the bottom. He didn't know if they were connected or not, so he jumped down while maintaining his Phoenix Wings.
Since it would be troublesome if the enemies knew where he was hiding, Noel extended his fire from all his limbs. The left hand burned the first door, the right hand ignited the second door, the right foot injected the fire on the third door, and the left foot shot out fire at the fourth door.
All four doors were being burned at a rapid rate. But surprisingly, Noel didn't sense a single demon inside the facility. Even the Demon Hunter Medal didn't pick up anything.
What he searched for in this location was an item that allowed Heisk to evolve. So, it should be an item made of Spiritual Energy.
This wasn't something that the previous civilization had, considering all the legends about that civilization stated that they didn't have to use any Spiritual Energy.
So, it was supposed to be impossible for it to occur naturally. Yet, he could feel the cold temperature inside the building, unlike the hotness of the desert. Additionally, there was a dense Spiritual Energy that enveloped the entire building.
There was only one possible explanation for all these phenomena. There was a mutation of normal items from the past civilization due to the influence of Spiritual Energy.
Noel took a deep breath, choosing to go to the third door because he didn't want his move to be that predictable.
After entering the third floor, he was quite shocked by the sight.
"Hmm?!" Noel looked left and right, seeing a monotonous sight. The room itself was spacious. They could easily cram a thousand people inside. Yet, Noel could only see a total of a hundred long tables getting lined up in this place. There were numerous chairs, but not a single person left a trace there.
The entire room was clean, and there was no sign of destruction. It looked like it had been abandoned, but there wasn't any sign of demons or normal animals like bugs or insects.
There was a long counter on the opposite side of the room. Without hesitation, Noel went straight to the counter to see if he could hide behind it, but he noticed that there were a lot of empty trays.
If he looked at the number of tables and this counter, he could see what kind of room this place was.
"Don't tell me, this is the previous civilization's dining hall?" Noel frowned. "A few hundred people can easily come here to eat. And…"
Noel noticed another door not far from the counter. It had a thin vertical window on the door, so he could take a peek inside. As expected, he could see a few cooking utensils.
He determined that this place was the dining hall.
Bam!
Before his ice shattered on the surface, he could hear a loud bang, followed by a shout that echoed through the vertical tunnel earlier.
"Who are you people?!"
It seemed that Legolaz was angry. Even though he was only a single Spirit Grandmaster while the enemies had four, they wouldn't be able to defeat him easily, and the news would definitely reach the Grand Protector's ears, causing a fuss between the two countries. So, the Supreme Devil Organization couldn't handle this easily, giving more time for Noel.
Noel used this opportunity to scan the entire room. Aside from the door that led to the vertical tunnel, Noel saw a few other doors. Since he knew he had to move up and down to confuse the enemies before killing them, he decided to inspect every single door.
The first door also had a thin window on it. When Noel took a peek, he found a lot of boxes. Most items had been decomposed, but he could see some rotten things that hadn't been decomposed yet. He wondered how it could be that way, but he just thought it was the wonder of the previous civilization. Since this place looked like storage, he moved on to another door.
This time, there wasn't a gap to peek inside, so Noel tried to open it, which surprisingly wasn't locked.
"!!!" Noel covered his body with Spiritual Energy while opening the door, ready to block any kind of attack.
He was shocked to find staircases leading both up and down. It seemed that all floors were connected not just by that vertical tunnel but also by these stairs.
"If that's the case… I will be found out sooner or later. Should I go down instead?"
After carefully considering his actions, Noel decided to go down, which surprisingly didn't end with only a single floor. Yes, he saw only four floors, but surprisingly, when he reached the fourth floor, he saw another stair leading deeper underground.
"Seriously?" Noel hesitated. He wondered why the fifth floor didn't exist in the vertical tunnel. "Should I really enter?"
On the one hand, Noel was hesitating because there might be another conspiracy. There was also a chance that the enemies used this ruin to bury him underneath. On the other hand, he knew that the enemies would be doing their best to capture him and they would definitely enter this place sooner or later.
Since he had no other choice, Noel decided to go down to the fifth floor, only to find another floor beneath the current one.
Noel now had to face a dilemma, wondering how many floors this underground facility had. The deeper he went, the more eerie the feeling. Even Noel wasn't prone to negative feelings that this facility was hiding something important, and it might kill him in a way he knew nothing about.
There was only one way to do this. He believed in Ardagan's Undying Fire which was said to be able to expel anything bad from his body. After covering his body with fire, he chose to descend even further.
