Chapter 1312: Great Shen Empire: Erkigal’s encounter II
Chapter 1312: Great Shen Empire: Erkigal’s encounter II
There were a lot of monsters, but none of them sensed or noticed Erkigal at all.
It was easy for her to mask her presence against such low-level monsters.
"If I’m not wrong, this is the location."
Erkigal muttered to herself, thinking about the information she had learned a few days ago.
Her perception covered a vast distance, sensing the movements of the monsters and everything else around her.
Soon, she found herself standing on the edge of a river, staring into its depths.
"This is the only place that my perception can’t penetrate. It’s impossible for there to be nothing underneath it."
With that, Erkigal walked onto the water.
Suddenly, she paused. Turning her head to the east, she felt the presence of other people moving through the dense forest.
It was to be expected.
If she could receive this information, then there must be others who had learned about it as well. She knew from the beginning that there would be others who would try to discover whether the rumors were true or not.
Erkigal’s gaze turned intense as she wondered if she should eliminate these people or not.
In the end, she shook her head.
Those people hadn’t harmed her, so she wouldn’t do anything to them. She would simply let them be. She wasn’t bloodthirsty, and she wouldn’t actively kill people who hadn’t tried to harm her.
Erkigal transformed into a wisp of red energy, descending into the depths of the river.
The river was huge, stretching across the land for several dozen kilometers like a snake. Numerous monsters lived here, and there would be battles between them every day. Most of them were Non-evolved and First Evolution, so they needed to eat more to survive and grow.
In the depths of the river, Erkigal found a human-sized hole that descended over a hundred meters underground.
She passed through it and found that the water from the river couldn’t flow inside. There were some kind of active runes preventing the water from rushing into the hole.
The hole was dark, its walls covered in moss, and the flow of energy was unexpectedly higher than normal.
"How come no one discovered this place?"
Erkigal was surprised when she arrived at the other side of the hole. From her point of view, as long as one had decent perception, they should be able to discover this place.
No, someone had already discovered this place and spread the rumor outside. That’s how Erkigal was able to learn about it.
Thud!
Her feet landed on the moist soil as her perception spread out, sensing what lay within this place. Erkigal stood calmly as cold winds softly blew through the surroundings, while the light seemed to gradually disappear into the darkness.
"Some kind of ruins... But it’s not that complicated."
Erkigal walked forward, observing her surroundings.
This place felt like it hadn’t been touched for hundreds of years. Almost everything was covered in moss, and even the runes were flickering as if they were about to disappear at any moment.
She walked around, discovering different chambers and rooms.
She was far away from the entrance, and the temperature began to rise. After passing through thirty rooms and chambers, the temperature reached one hundred degrees Celsius.
Of course, this level of heat was nothing to her, so she continued her exploration.
Soon, there wasn’t a single trace of moss on the walls.
Everything was burning.
The temperature reached one thousand degrees Celsius.
Ordinary people would instantly die in this place. There was nothing they could do to survive in such an environment. It was extremely harsh and unforgiving to the weak.
"I can feel it. I’m close to it."
Erkigal narrowed her eyes.
The walls, floor, and ceiling were glowing red, covered in extremely hot molten rock. The contrast between this place and the entrance was enormous.
Soon, she felt the presence of life.
Erkigal arrived in a huge chamber filled with intense waves of heat. She looked inside and saw a small floating figure with a pair of draconic wings. In front of her floated an ominous-looking, palm-sized dark cube.
Erkigal’s instincts warned her that there was danger. The danger wasn’t coming from the small figure. Instead, it was coming from the dark cube.
"This..." Her eyes widened.
The small figure turned her head, glancing at Erkigal from the corner of her eyes. She asked, "Who are you? And what are you doing here?"
This small figure was undoubtedly a spirit.
A fire spirit.
Erkigal didn’t expect that the rumor was true. She had only come here to see if the rumor was true or not, and she had concluded that the chances of it being true were small. But who would have thought that there really was a fire spirit here?
The chances of finding a spirit were extremely small.
They were incredibly rare, and there were only a few people on the entire continent who had a spirit companion.
"Great Spirit, I came here because I’ve heard a rumor about your existence here," Erkigal answered truthfully.
"You’ve heard?" The spirit widened her eyes, her expression becoming gloomy. "This is bad. Then it means that they already have the gist of my location."
"Why? Is there a problem?" Erkigal asked.
"You’re here for me, right? Unfortunately, I’m already contracted to someone, so even if you want to bond with me, there’s nothing you can do," the spirit said before explaining her situation. "If you’ve heard rumors about me outside, then it means that the one who spread them wanted to use other people to probe this place. After all, they didn’t want to blindly rush here."
Erkigal frowned, sensing the urgency in the spirit’s words. She could guess one or two things, but she couldn’t understand the whole situation.
She knew that the spirit in front of her had no reason to lie. She must be telling the truth, and spirits were generally known for their honest nature.
"Who are they?" Erkigal asked.
The spirit looked at Erkigal deeply before she answered, "The Gluttony Army."
"What?! The Gluttony Army?" Erkigal gasped, not expecting to hear those words in a place like this.
The Gluttony Army had left a deep impression on her mind ever since she encountered them in the three theaters.
"You’re now involved whether you like it or not since you’ve come here." The spirit paused before continuing, "Even if you say that you didn’t find anything here, they wouldn’t believe you. Even if you told them the truth, they would try to silence you so that you couldn’t spread this information."
Such was the way of the Gluttony Army.
Arrogance was carved deeply into their bones, and they didn’t care about other people’s lives.
They were unreasonable.
Erkigal took a deep breath to calm herself. She looked at the spirit with a serious expression and asked, "Since I’m already involved, then what is their goal?"
The spirit glanced at Erkigal one more time before looking at the dark cube.
"This is their goal. I’ve been suppressing it with my power, but this thing is dangerously powerful."
"What is it?" Erkigal focused her attention on the dark cube.
The spirit made way.
The flames in the surroundings dimmed.
Erkigal felt something moving in the darkness. Without her noticing, dozens of tentacles suddenly bound her limbs.
"This...?"
A suffocating sensation erupted from within the dark cube. Erkigal felt as if she had been isolated from the outside world as an immense pressure bore down on her entire body.
She turned pale, and her body instinctively trembled.
A higher existence.
She couldn’t do anything.
She felt as if her entire body was no longer under her control. Her mind felt like it was about to explode as various images flashed through it.
Ohm!
In the next second, an enormous eye opened in the darkness before her. It glowed with blue and white light, with countless dots flickering around it like stars in the night sky.
Erkigal was insignificant before this eye.
Suddenly, flames ignited in the surroundings, and the eye disappeared.
Erkigal fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Her entire body was shaking, and sweat poured down her face.
She raised her head and stared at the dark cube.
"A Monster Lord..."
The words escaped her mouth.
She was terrified.
"Yes, this is just a fragment of the Monster Lord, and this is the goal of the remnants of the Gluttony Army outside. As for what they’re trying to do with it... I don’t know," the spirit explained.
A Monster Lord.
An existence that was beyond them.
"How?"
"The power inside this cube isn’t active, but its mere presence is enough to terrify almost everything. So technically, I’m not suppressing it. I’m just masking its presence with my own power."
Erkigal understood. Perhaps this thing couldn’t be allowed to fall into the hands of the Gluttony Army.
Otherwise, blood would flow like a river.
Countless people would die.
The spirit turned to Erkigal and said, "You’re in this boat now. If you go out there, the remnants of the Gluttony Army will attack you. So you just have to stay here and wait for an opportunity."
"Opportunity?" Erkigal raised her eyebrows.