Chapter Six

"We've arrived," the muscular man looked upwards and saw a bizarre architecture standing tall in front of them. The ancient-looking thing stood tall amongst the trees, glaring to the eyes.

Kyle scoured throughout their surroundings, and after finding no traces of other humans nearby—he opened his dry lips.

"How could there be no one that came here?"

The building was tall enough to be seen from a distance, even from kilometers away. Its height was almost twice as high as the trees nearby. People who have seen it would without doubt try to at least find out what it was.

The sun was starting to rise, but they didn't put out the fire just to be cautious. Waving his torch around, the muscular man gazed at the strange carvings on the architecture, "We don't know the exact reason why, but people tend to unconsciously avoid this building."

'Strange…' Kyle looked up to the stone structure that was covered with strange, curvy lines.

He had never heard nor seen about something like this. Just how does this tall building differ from your usual house?

After thinking for a while, Kyle decided to stop worrying about it. The President told him that ancient Antisians were able to control an artifact without the usage of energy, perhaps this building is also one of their "advanced" technology.

When he woke up from his trance, Kyle realized that the "guards" had already moved forward without him. Coughing, he trailed behind them while scrutinizing the strange patterns on the building.

They appeared to be disordered, but the more he looked at it—the less disarranged they became. Even after blinking, they became even more tidy and pleasing to the eyes.

Fascinated, he unconsciously slowed down and tried to memorize these lines. But alas, he heard a girl's call for his name.

Disgruntled, he muttered softly under his breath and hastened his steps. Slowly catching up with the other two, the sight of them gawking at the stone wall entered his vision. Carrind and the muscular man were studying the murals on the wall with the help of their torch.

Kyle opened his mouth but shut them after witnessing the murals on the wall. They depicted scenes with human figures and other monsters inside of them. The Karland Association of Welfare members were discussing the contents of the mural before they heard footsteps coming from their backs.

They both turned behind them, and the young woman spoke.

"What took you so long—never mind, look at these pictures."

She pointed to the stone wall.

On the top left was a mural depicting human figures inside buildings decorated with strange markings.

Adjacent to that picture was a mural depicting human figures fighting off strange creatures using strange methods. Some blew fire from their mouths, some wielded glowing blades covered with strange symbols and some even used tools to fight against them.

A glance was all it took for Kyle to make his own assumption about the second painting.

"Are they using Authorities and artifacts to fight against these…creatures?"

Hearing his hypothesis, the muscular man and Carrind glanced at each other and nodded. Carrind opened her mouth to explain, "Nore and I think so too. They used their Authorities to combat these creatures. And if what you said was right, artifacts were also a part of their weaponry."

But before Kyle could respond back, she quickly spoke. "But this is only our thoughts. If the President was here, he would've been able to decipher it in even more detail."

'If he was here?' Kyle wondered.

"I thought he visited this place before we did?"

The muscular man—Nore denied his question. "No, the people who visited here was a member of our association, the President didn't come here himself."

With a nod, Kyle looked back at the painting.

The mural on the top right depicted large and terrifying creatures opening their mouths as if trying to consume the observer.

'Just monsters?' Kyle switched his glance to the drawing on the bottom left.

The mural on the bottom left depicted a human with a ghost on his back. The ghost looked cold and stern, the opposite of the warm smile of his host.

"What is this mirage behind the person?"

"We don't know, perhaps it's a representation of an Authority?" Carrind scratched her cheeks.

The mural on the bottom middle depicted humans fighting against creatures too. But this time, humans dominated most of the paintings—giving the impression that humans are winning.

The mural on the bottom right depicted humans taking away miscellaneous items, probably from the creatures themselves.

"The humans should be taking these treasures from the creatures they defeated," Nore said.

"Probably, either that or they are stealing them sneakily," Carrind spoke.

All of these murals should be arranged chronologically, which was what the three concluded.

After understanding what to be the gist of the murals, Nore blew out the torch he had been holding. Sunrise had just arrived, and his arms are starting to get sore from clasping the torch all night.

Carrind stared at Nore massaging his own shoulders and said to the two men.

"Should we rest before entering? At least six hours have passed considering the sun had just rose."

Although all of them are able to enhance their body using energy, fatigue won't be dispersed as a result. They would have to rest or they would tire themselves when exploring.

Of course, Kyle himself was exhausted from the journey they had been through. Although there was no incident—except for the armed group of men—he was in dire need to rest. He understood this point and kept his silence as approval.

The other two must've caught his hidden message, as Nore opened his backpack and grabbed three packages of paper from it. He distributed one to each person and opened his bag.

"The President packed us dry meats, this is the right time to consume them."

Looking at the dry, wrinkled, and brown beef, Kyle's expression betrayed him as his face crumpled. But even so, he still put the dry meat to his mouth. With some effort, he chewed the beef and savored it. The flavor of salty beef was so intense that his mouth felt uncomfortable.

After a swallow, he opened his free hand in Nore's direction. "Water, please."

"Here you go, don't waste it too much."

The water bottle wasn't that small, but they have to save as much as they could in case things go the wrong direction.

Kyle opened the bottle and took a few sips without putting his lips on the container's mouth.

The refreshing feeling of cold water flowing down your throat brings delight to everyone. Swiping the traces of water on his lips, Kyle threw the bottle back to Nore—which he almost failed to catch.

Ignoring the warning from the muscular man's eyes, Kyle laid down on the ground and closed his eyes.

----

"Great, shall we enter then?"

Daytime is closing its curtain.

Blankets of orange covered the sky, yet the Blynth Forest blocked most of them from reaching the trio.

They were standing in front of a hole. Surrounding that gap were walls carved with ancient patterns.

During the daytime, they had explored the area around the stone structure. Except for the six that they had found at the beginning, no other murals were seen after that. What they could witness, though, was the sight of those lines turning pleasant by the seconds.

Even now, they feel that these ancient lines looked great, Carrind and Nore even want to carve these patterns on their headquarters.

After confirming that there was nothing else to be scoured outside, they scrutinized the building to search for an entrance.

It was huge, according to Nore's description, this square building is at least thirty meters wide and fifty meters tall, defeating the trees nearby with ease.

Searching every crevice was in vain, as they weren't able to find an entrance to the building. It was luck that guided Carrind to push a button on the stone wall. The wall that was touched by her hand sunk inside, and the whole building shook.

They were about to escape before the tremor stopped. When it stopped, a hole appeared where the wall had sunk earlier—creating an entrance to enter the building.