Way to the ritual -1 

After flying at full speed, they reached a location at midnight. The place was infested with flying type mana beasts that attacked them on the way but solved by Julian with one or two spells.

The place was a cliff beyond which was the ocean, as far eyes could see.

This was a part of the grand magic zone near the border of the Heart Kingdom. Due to the chaotic mana in this place, large mana fluctuations could go unnoticed unless it's a dungeon.

The cliff had flowering plants that only bloomed in the night near two tombstones that belonged to the great ancestors of Olivia's family.

Julian and the others had to support themselves with mana because of the strong wind that would make any normal person lose their balance. The shore below the cliff was filled with black rocks. Julian asked Luck and Lucis to fire shots of mana into the ocean and found that it was very deep even near the shore.

He felt like the island in question was divided from the place they were standing due to the structure of the cliff.

Julian turned towards Olivia

" Now what? "

"According to the map in family, the island should be beyond this cliff "

This place was far from civilization because of strong winds and non-fertile soil. Surely earth mages and water mages can make the soil fertile but people avoid building a civilization in these places. These places are prone to natural disasters and the perfect places for shady business.

As for finding the island, there should be a way to unlock the path.

Blindly flying in the ocean will be disastrous so there should be another way to the island.

Julian instructed everyone to search the cliff carefully for any blood stains or mana signatures around.

Julian made additional hands with mana and started digging where he felt like the soil was a little different. Out of all of them, only Luck and Julian could feel the soil was different due to their high sensitivity towards mana.

After half an hour Luck found some mana signature in the soil at one place which indicated that magic has been used. Everyone began digging solely in that place where the soil was made from mana. The hole kept getting bigger till they reached from the cliff to a deep underground path.

All of a sudden Julian's senses rang so he summoned my strongest shield all around everyone.

Luck too felt his instincts scream at him to run at all cost but it was too late to run.

'Not enough' he recast the spell and summoned three more shields. Lucis wanted to ask why Julian summoned a shield but before he could say anything…

"Boom"

The area around them exploded with such a force that three of the four shields broke into the attack while destroying the entire cliff.

They were propelled high into the air while a mushroom cloud formed from the place of the explosion.

Tentacles emerged from the back of Julian which held everyone from falling.

The power behind the attack was enough to critically injure even a captain. If not for the three additional shields, they all would have been dead. Julian, Charmy, and Luck were calm but the same could not be said for the other two as their face had paled from being so close to death.

'What did I get myself into' wondered Lucis and Olivia.

'Seems like we are in the correct place' Julian said as he looked at the site of an explosion that was now filled with poison enough to melt anyone's skin.

'I am sure this mana belongs to Marcus'.

Julian waved his hand and a wave of red flames covered the entire area that was under the effect of the poison. The devouring property of the red flames activated and destroyed all the poison present there.

Julian gave them some time to breathe and began looking around the destroyed place if he could find anything.

After searching for a few minutes, he found something interesting. A metallic place that was unharmed even after such a large-scale explosion.

"Luck do you sense it too? "

"Yes, the metal plate is emitting very minuscule spatial fluctuation"

" That's our family crest! " pointed Olivia at the design of the metal plate.

" Ovilia put a drop of your blood on the alter, this may trigger some mechanism, " I said.

It was said that the island was protected by a barrier only which the inhabitants were able to enter so it should have to do something with their bloodline.

As soon as the drop of blood fell on the altar, Julian and Luck felt mana fluctuations from the ocean.

The mana fluctuations created cracks in the air which developed into a red portal releasing large around of mana.

'Naturally formed dungeon' I Julian. So the island was disappeared because it formed a natural dungeon by the residual power of the beast.

"Everyone ready? , once we enter there is no going back " said Julian

" yes! "

Julian took the lead and jumped into the portal followed by everyone.

Instantly the portal opened to the other side but as soon as they landed on the island they all felt blood lust coming but the most affected was Olivia. Seems like even after death the beast hates her bloodline.

She was sheltered from the beginning she didn't have much battle experience or witnessed life-threatening situations, so the bloodlust affected her deeply. Lucis and Charmy too had a low tolerance for bloodlust but they were a little better than Olivia.

While she was adjusting, Julian looked around. As this island was now a dungeon, it gave rise to new vegetation never seen before. The sky was completely red with some clouds here and there. There were scorched trees and destroyed buildings all around. Far away from where we were standing was a hill radiating a high amount of mana. Julian didn't know the situation of her family but if the blood of the person can be used to open the gates to this place then the chance of them living is very less.

After she adjusted it was decided that Julian and Luck with taking the front line, Lucis and Olivia in the middle, and Charmy at the end with her sheep summoned.

They moved forward towards the plateau at a normal pace. In front of them was a forest with black trees. On the way, they saw many mana beasts and plants never seen before. Julian used a meager amount of mana pressure to keep away the mana beasts from them without anyone sensing.

As they moved forward both Luck and Julian detected people around them. All sorts of spells dawned upon them, Julian created blazing shied and blocked all of them. Luck took the left and Julian took the right and started destroying those people. Tentacles emerged from his back, with each one of them having the sharpness of a sword, and started destroying the person around.

His mana covered the area so detecting everyone was easy. His danger sense was increasing, he felt like something major was going to happen so he hurried ahead.

Just as we got near the foot of the hill, a beam of lightning shot from the top of the hill into the sky enveloping the entire red sky with thunder clouds.

A giant portal opened out of which came around 30 mages.

"I am sure the bomb exploded, how are they alive !! "one of them exclaimed.

Julian didn't have time to deal with them so he released his mana pressure at full power towards the crowd. One by one man started dropping until only was left standing.

Lucis and Olivia were dumbfounded by what Julian did as they had never seen mana pressure in action.

Julian figured that the standing mage had used the device Marcus used. He kicked the ground and a giant golem emerged and charged towards them.

As they prepared to fight, Julian felt something and dodged an attack that made a giant pit where he was standing. He noticed it was done by a spatial mage who emerged from a portal nearby.

'So they were here to buy time.'

" Luck and Charmy senpai deal with them and move to the top, I will go deal with the other enemies. ".

Julian flew towards the top but on the way, he was attacked by hundreds of small snakes which he destroyed by covering the area around him with fire.

"This is getting dangerous, go hide somewhere Secre," Julian said by casting a shield around her powered by mana zone. This shield was a bit special as it would repair itself by absorbing mana from the surrounding. This spell was not complete yet so it could only cover Secre for now.

He noticed the figure that attacked him, Julian dropped in the forest and swiped his dagger at him which made the figure burst into the smoke of poisonous gases.

" We meet again Marcus, don't think about getting away this time "