Chapter 579 Cut Off
Nial was still a little baffled about the voices in his head but he didn't hesitate to kill the Originals around him. Spikes manifested of darkness pierced out of the ground and dug deep inside the body of the Originals, whose voices resounded in his head over and over again.
Their gratefulness could be sensed clearly, and, even more so, the suffering and pain they had gone through for countless years before he freed them of it.
Nial chose to ignore gratefulness because he would have annihilated the ancient civilization whether the members of the ancient civilization would be grateful or not. Their emotions didn't impact the course of events in the slightest.
He had emptied the library, killed everyone within, and made his way outside it not long after. There were a few more places he had to visit while the Shadow Monster Army obliterated the entire ancient civilization from its roots. Not a single being would be left alive, which Nial perceived in a crystal clear way as he visualized that hundreds of Originals were getting overwhelmed and torn apart by his Shadow Monsters.
His Shadow Monsters were at a numerical advantage. There weren't even half a million Originals left in the humongous city, yet the number of attackers ranged in the numbers of 30 million! There may not be many powerful Shadow Monsters but there were also Erio, Ryu, Kaeldur and Tyrant in his group.
Erio alone was already enough to deal with the Mythician Originals, especially due to the advantage of his elemental affinity. It was only obvious but Erio's Eclipse Fire was terrific. It was much stronger than nature and plant affinity of its ancient civilization's counterpart. No matter how strong they were, Erio's Eclipse Fire burned down everything.
It was only a matter of time before the entire ancient civilization would be annihilated. Nial waited for this opportunity without remaining idle. He visited a few more places in the humongous ancient city, including the impressive constructions of the various temples that had been constructed within the city.
There was something old and incomprehensible about the ancient temples, something that pulled Nial inside them like a magnet. The temples followed a pretty simple infrastructure, or so Nial perceived at the first glance. He was not able to perceive anything about the insides of the temples at first. His Mana Sense was restricted to perceiving and visualizing the outside of the temples down to the finest details.
But that was enough to attract Nial's attention. The temples stood tall and proud, their stone walls adorned with intricate carvings and murals depicting what Nial presumed to be the Gods and heroes of the ancient civilization's mythology. Most temples were built on a large stone and earthen platform, with an impressive, large staircase leading up to the main entrance, which was guarded by grand statues made of stone and covered with moss. The pyramid-shaped temples had four sides, each flanked with pillars and once colorful but now worn out feather banners.
Meanwhile, the top of the temple was crowned with a stone shrine, which was also where Nial ended up after he ignored the old stone statues that exuded a menacing aura, causing chills to run down the spines of those who were brave enough to walk past them.
"Now show me what you got!" Nial mumbled with a trace of excitement. His hands reached out to the stones of the shrine while he inserted some dark energy into the Mana Sense to find out more about the treasures he could hopefully procure from within the temples. His senses were fully focused on the shrine in front of him but there weren't many things he perceived.
Rather than finding something of value, Nial could clearly sense that the stone shrine wanted his energy and blood as a sacrifice instead.
'You won't provide me something, even if I were to give you my blood and dark energy?' Nial wondered while contemplating whether he should destroy the temples or not. If something was hidden within the temples, he should be able to find it by searching through the entire temple, even if he had to tear it brick by brick. However, it was also possible that he would cause quite a few problems the moment he awoke something that had been hibernating inside the temples.
He didn't want that to happen, even if the chances were quite low, to begin with. Thus, he turned around and prepared to leave the temple without making a change in the temple's structure or anything else, when he sensed an immense suctioning force from the inside of the stone shrine.
Nial's exuded dark energy and the mana within the proximity were devoured in an instant. Nial was forced to seal the dark energy inside his body to prevent the stone shrine from devouring more of his precious energy.
His head flicked back to the stone shrine, just for his head to feel like it was about to explode. He began to groan in utter pain, his legs gave in and he found himself twitching on the ground not long after, bleeding out of his nose and ears.
"Wh–what…what the hell is…going on?!" Nial cursed out loudly, unable to hear a thing around him. His senses were restricted and it grew increasingly more difficult for him to stay conscious.
For a while, none of his senses seemed to work properly, not even his mana perception.
Nial was not sure how much time had passed but he began to hear a new voice in his head. The new voice was not filled with the gratitude of finally being freed of their suffering. On the contrary, the new voice seemed displeased and angry as it spoke straight into Nial's head.
[To think that there is an existence that can survive my Sight of Vermillion while being at the Keltia rank.] The new voice was hoarse and clearly upset. However, it also felt like the voice was gentle and calm. Countless emotions were mixed into the voice that sounded as if the voice of hundreds of men were overlapping each other.
It was a feeling that could hardly be described by Nial, whose senses were currently strained to their limit, rendering them useless.
[Your Shadows are dead and those creatures created with your energy are on the verge of death. Your energy protected them just like it protected you without your realization. Very interesting.]
Nial was trying to get up from the ground but he stumbled and fell down the long winding stairs that stretched for more than thirty meters. He tumbled down the stairs but was not hurt when he landed on the earthen platform of the temple but his confusion was certainly noticeable.
[Something about you is very familiar. It reminds me of something very interesting…and I don't mean the dark energy of the God of Darkness. This idiot died a long time ago for a matter that was not even worth dying for. Sacrificing oneself for the sake of those who wanted to see you dead is not exactly a wholesome death. But…whatever.
You ruined my plan, little rat!]
The voice in his head seemed extremely old at one point, and that of a child the moment after. The speaker seemed to have a lot of mood swings going from angry to calm in an instant.
Nial had no idea what to expect from the voice, but he could tell one thing for sure.
'This one is dangerous!'