Ruins

" You need to bury the dead guards who came with you."-Warren said.

"As soon as I find the bastards behind this, I will avenge you, my brave warriors, I swear!"-Nila said firmly.

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Standing near ten freshly dug graves, Warren asked Nila- " What are you going to do now?"

"Of course, from now on, I will be by your side! "- the girl replied.

"Is that so? And you don't care that I'm not going back to the Chaos Empire?"- the guy continued to ask.

"I don't care at all, I accepted you as my husband!" -the girl said.

"Heh, whatever you say! Let's get out of here."-He turned to the girls, and as if to confirm the truth of his words, Eli's stomach rumbled.

"Husband, let's go hunting already!" - Eli began to call.

"Haha, of course!" the guy laughed, amused by the girl's appetite.

After a while, the three of them followed the trail of another deer. The tracks led into the gorge, and they followed. When they entered the gorge, Warren suddenly stopped, raised his hand, signalling to the girls- "Stop! Can you feel it?"

"What happened?"-The girls asked in unison.

"There's terrible energy in the air here! Can't you feel it?!"-Warren had an incredible sensitivity to energy, and he almost immediately picked up on this evil aura.

"I don't feel anything!" said Nila, and Warren turned his head to Eli.

"I think I can feel something, but I can't make out the aura signature."-Eli had higher cultivation, and therefore her sensitivity was higher than Nila's, but she was still significantly inferior to Warren.

"Let's keep being careful!" said Warren.

"Why don't we turn around and get out of here?" she asked, feeling nothing, but trusting Eli and Warren. It wasn't that she was afraid, but she preferred not to risk it for nothing.

"Don't worry, don't get into trouble and nothing bad will happen!" -Warren reassured her, he was still attracted to the unknown in his previous life, most of the best techniques and artifacts he received just in the course of such adventures.

"Nila, don't worry, your husband will protect you if anything happens."-Eli wasn't the least bit worried, she knew about Warren's true identity

and had absolute faith in him.

They continued to go deeper into the gorge, and after a while, they saw a mountain of bones and the corpses of animals.

"And here it looks like our deer."- the guy said and pointed to the corpse of the hapless animal.

Nila laughed, and Eli and Warren looked at her strangely, and she stopped immediately.

"Really? Did even that make you laugh?"Warren began to realize that the girl was hopelessly in love with him.

"Well, I just..." -Nila was embarrassed and began to justify herself.

"Hihi, you don't have to explain anything! I understand."-Eli interrupted.

"From now on, we must be extremely careful. Follow me in your footsteps! Oh, and, Eli, surround us with a barrier! " - Warren became serious again and warned the girls for the second time.

"Good!"- the girl immediately agreed.

They continued deeper into the gorge. After about half a kilometre, a dilapidated structure appeared in front of them.

"Damn it, this place is very ancient! There are strengthening runes on the walls, and quite powerful ones at that. It would take hundreds of thousands of years for this structure to collapse like this. " - Warren was extremely surprised, he never thought that there would be something so ancient in this Lower Realm.

"How much-how much?!"-Nila was surprised, but Eli was calmer. Nila noticed that she was the only one who was so surprised and found it a little strange.

Warren began to approach the entrance to the building.

"There was a protective barrier, but during this time it has weakened so much that I do not even need to do anything with it so that we can enter." - the guy told the girls.

They went inside the ruins, the evil energy here was much stronger, the barrier that Eli had set up began to consume much more energy, and she suggested-" Maybe the barrier wasn't supposed to stop us from entering, maybe it was supposed to not release energy from the inside?"

"Maybe you're right."- the guy found her arguments logical.

He began to look around and saw something, then he exclaimed- " Impossible!"

"Is something wrong?"- asked Nila. The guy pointed to a sign with half-erased symbols. Nila looked closer and realized that she didn't understand anything.

"What are these symbols?"-Eli asked.

"This is a dead language that was used in the Divine Realm of the Stars back in the time of the Primordial Gods. Now, even among the gods, only a few know this language!"- said Warren.

"Do you know that one?"-Eli kept asking.

"I know, I had to learn it in my time."-Warren said.

"I'm sure it's quite an interesting story!" said Eli, who wanted to know more about Warren's past adventures.

"Yes, I will definitely tell you some other time. And what? Are you interested in the Kingdom of the Divine Stars? "- the guy said and turned all his attention to the tablet.

"No, I mean yes, but I'm more interested in your past."- said the girl.

"Wait, what the hell are you talking about? What is the Divine Kingdom of the Stars, what are the gods? I don't understand a damn thing!"-Nila cut in.

"Never mind, if you earn your husband's favour, maybe he'll tell you."-Eli said cryptically to her.

"Shadow Trial! It's written on the sign!"-said Warren, he began to reason and noticed something- "Maybe... Do you happen to know why the Forest of Seven Shadows is called that? "

" The Forest of Seven Shadows has always been called that. And what? Is it important?"-Nila replied, but Eli just shook her head.

"I have a guess. I think the name of the Forest of Seven Shadows has something to do with these ruins."-Warren expressed his thoughts.

"Why seven shadows, then?"- asked Nila.

"Maybe these ruins aren't the only ones here? If my guesses are correct, there are 6 more similar places in the forest! "- said Eli.

"Isn't that a bit far-fetched?"-Nila expressed her doubts.

"I think there is something in this theory. If there's anything interesting here, maybe we can stay in the Seven Shadows Forest and look for the rest of the ruins."-Warren found Eli's argument reasonable.

"Oh, come on! Just based on the fact that the shadow is mentioned both here and in the name of the forest, are you going to look for God knows what, God knows where? " - Nila considered this idea absurd.

"Nila, why do you care so much? We haven't even looked at these ruins yet, and we'll worry about the rest later. All right?"- the guy asked.

"All right."-the girl agreed.

"So what about the test?"- asked Eli.

"The sign says just about the Shadow Trial, nothing more. We need to go further if we want to know something. Eli, how are you? Can you still maintain the barrier? "- asked Warren.

"Of course, my husband! Don't think I'm so weak."-Eli replied.

"I'm not worried because I think you're weak, but because this place is very strange. This dead language indicates that either it was created in the time of the Primordial Gods, or that someone who knows this language created it after. Although I said that the place is very ancient, but not so much that it remains from the time of the Primordial Gods! So someone created this place later. " - explained Warren.

"Isn't that good?"-Eli asked.

"Well, that's not a fact yet!"- the guy said.

"So what? Will we take a chance? "- the girl asked him.

"Of course! Why not? Nothing ventured, nothing have! "- said Warren.

"Then let's go!"- called Eli.