Chapter 102: 102:Cave

My gaze swept around the cave, and fire lanterns, a source of lighting that was rarely used were scattered around the cave walls providing the dim lighting.

This just made it more apparent that the cave was old.

It was large but empty. There was nothing noticeable inside.

It was just a large plain cave with lights however it carried a faint smell of blood though barely noticeable through age and dust.

“Is everyone okay?”

I asked. My gaze swept the crowd for any missing person. Everyone was present and no one was hurt.

“What just happened?”

Seraph shouted in frustration her voice echoing in the empty cave.

“Look, the walls.”

Seraph said while pointing to the right. I walked over and leaned closer to see what it was.

Writings.

The words were barely visible having been erased by the passage of time.

The wordings had been carved into the walls hence the wear.

“What does it say?”

Kianah asked nervously. The previous event had really scared them. I blew on the wall causing a layer of dust to scatter leaving the wall clean and more visible.

I squinted my eyes as I tried to understand the small broken text. It was barely readable.

“To enter the world, one must pass ….. The remaining words have been destroyed”

I said outloud but the words broke off from there. My mind tried to make sense of this surviving text but nothing came to mind.

I turned back to the group who also seemed to be as confused as I was.

“What do you think that means?”

Seraph asked curiously. I shook my head, the sentence made little sense.

“I think we’re at the border or outside the world we’re supposed to enter. If I remember correctly there are different types of ruins and there are others that exist independently from the main world. Those are created from time and space. Basically a small independent world.”

I said. Saying it outloud made my assumptions make more sense but looking around the hollow cave, there was no door or a spell.

The last teleportation had made me conscious of spells and I had gotten the feel of an ancient spell.

There was no other spell in this room except for the former teleportation spell.

“Yeah I’ve heard about those, they’re believed to be left by the ancients but no one is sure about that.”

Seraph said in agreement.

“Let’s see if there is a mechanic somewhere. ”

I said and was startled to tap the wall where the words were directing my mana into the wall. The others saw my action and each started to do the same.

It didn’t take long before the sound of stone grinding against other stones came.

“Found it.”

Abeliin shouted. I should have expected that. He had an insane amount of luck. He was standing in the middle of the cave on top of a small rectangular sunken ground.

He had stepped on it.

The grinding sounds grew louder and louder as the wall facing Abelion started to detach itself until what looked like a door was formed.

It moved to the front then slid to the right slowly revealing what was inside.

“What in the world is that?”

Abelion shouted while scrambling out of the hole he was standing in trying to get as far away from the door as possible.

“It looks like a broken statue.”

I said while studying it from afar. I wasn’t about to step forward and see what it was at the moment.

Behind the door in a closee of room was a broken perfect sculpture of a woman. Its body had cracks spanning around like veins and the weirdest part was that it didn’t have a head.

At the place where the head was supposed to be was a withered bush but the flowers and leaves that were supposed to fall off were still on the bush.

It looked dead but strangely alive.

The woman’s hands were raised above her head with an unbroken jar above the flower in a motion of watering the bush.

Her breasts were also curved strangely, they weren’t breasts per say but looked like two moving snails that had crawled from her armpits and were moving downwards.

“This looks…uuh..ominous.”

Jeneviv’s small and hesitant voice echoed in the chamber. I agreed with her.

Everyone was quiet all of their gazes directed at me waiting for my instruction.

My detection searched through the statue but there was nothing hidden. I couldn’t find a spell or a hidden mechanism like the one Abelion stepped on.

“I don’t really think there is anything. ”

I said and walked towards the entrance. Seraph followed behind me her curiosity bleeding into me.

“What do you think this is?”

Seraph asked, her sword drawn. Despite her supposed cheerfulness she was still ready to fight if something occurred.

“I’m not really sure, stand back a little i want to see if there is anything hidden. ”

Seraph stood back as a small purple spell circle appeared on my hand.

’Lightning whip’

Purple twisted Lightning shot out of the circle and i swang it towards the statue.

The moment it made contact a crack appeared on the statue but nothing else happened.

With the spell still running i stepped past the door threshold and stood in front of the massive statue.

It was almost two times my size. From close the details were more intricate and I could see the precision and care that had gone into creating it.

I touched its leg but nothing happen. It was merely a statue.

’Clean’

All the dust was wiped away from the statue leaving the scupters resumed its pure white colour. The cracks were the only things that destroyed the perfection.

“There is nothing to worry about, it seems to be just a normal statue.”

I said reassuring them. I didn’t believe my words , there was no way we would be teleported here but find something utterly useless.

I circled the statue trying to find any clues on the walls or the statue itself. I stopped at the back of the statue and looked up since the front didn’t have anything but cracks.

Then I saw it, writings, too small nearly invisible.

They were written at the base of the neck almost covered by the dropping flowers.

’AS ABOVE, SO BELOW’

’Reviving the sleeping maiden will grant entry to the wonderland.’

I reread the world again and again as i tried to understand what it meant.

’So the statue wasn’t really useless, it was just dormant’

My gaze went to the others outside the door. They had all eventually lost interest in the statue after the initial excitement and were busy exploring the cave.

There was only one way I could genuinely think of as a way to revive the statue.

“Okay, let’s test this.”

I muttered softly to myself and cut my wrist just enough to draw blood. With blood manipulation, I pulled out a small amount of blood from my wrist and sent the ball of floating blood to the statue.

The moment it touched the statue’s back, the white stone glowed a deep orange at the place the blood sank in before it vanished into the stone.

“Guess I was right.”

I said to no one. And walked to the front of the statue to see that one leaf from the bush had turned green but the rest were still withered.

A small chuckle escaped me. As long as I get enough blood, the cave will open.

I looked behind me and met Luna’s haze. She had been observing my movements from the moment I moved and as perceptive as she was, she knew exactly what I wanted.

“Master..”

She nodded and turned to the others and drew her sword. This caught the everyones attention.

I walked up and stood behind her.

“Lucian, what’s wrong?”

Seraph and kianah who had been reading the text from earlier each looked at me in confusion.

I smiled reassuringly at them and turned to the barbarians who had been bunched together and watching us move around the cave.

All of them gulped as though sensing the imminent doom.

“What’s wrong young master?”

Boras nervously asked his gaze moving to the sword Luna gripped.

Luna stepped forward, and they all stepped back as they tried to hide. It was clear from Luna’s killing intent what was about to happen.

“Kill them all!”

I said coldly.

“Young master why!!!”

Boras shouted and raised his sword to parry luna but it was fruitless.

Luna slashed vertically with her sword and mana slicing through the scrambling barbarians.

“You didn’t think I was going to let you leave with all that disrespect right?”

I answered his question softly but he was already dead. I hoped eleven sacrifices would be enough

“Why did you kill them?”

Seraph asked curiously.

“The statue needs blood. ”

’Blood manipulation ’

Their flowing blood started to gather above them as it drained from their dead bodies. The bodies visibly started to wither until nothing but a husk of flesh was left.

“Will that be enough master?”

Kianah asked nervously her gaze shifting to the dead then back to the statue.

“I hope, I don’t want to kill the horses.”

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