The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 296

Chapter 296: Inside the Temple

 

Hao Ren looked and the temple was in front of him. He was amazed, not just because of its majestic beauty, but its existence since the ancient times of Earth. If it was revealed to the outside world, chaos would have ensued—humans’ perception of the world would be rewritten. However, the temple had been quietly withering away with time in the hidden, otherworldly space. Hessiana just discovered one of these temples but, how many more secret places were hidden away in some unknown corner of the planet? Nobody knew.

The temple was rectangular and divided into many sections. There was no way of telling what its original function was. Its exterior wall was carved with reliefs and a large number of ancient Greek sculptures. The life-like sculptures of heroes and gods were inlaid into their respective alcoves with arched roofs. The exterior wall was interjected with columns of huge, white stone pillars, which supported the heavy dome of the temple and kept the temple on its feet.

They were standing at the end of the cloud trail. Going forward, there was a broken stone trail floating amid the clouds. The cause of the broken stone trail was obvious: the temple was slanted at an angle of 15° in the air however, it was not like that in the beginning. A bloody war had damaged the balance of the temple, tearing apart the path that linked the cloud trail to the temple.

Hessiana manoeuvred across the broken trail with ease. As she reached the steps of the temples, she waved to them. “Come on! Those stones are pretty stable. You’re not going to fall!”

Hao Ren put his foot on a floating stone nearest to him. It sank, but just a little. His movement was not as agile as Hessiana’s but with his physical state right now, manoeuvring such a trail was not a problem at all. Hence, he made it across. Lily followed and she was not afraid at all, hopping from one stone to another like a puppy. Soon after, she landed as well. Next were Vivian, Zeon and the nimble Becky. Y’zaks was the last; a single prance and the giant landed on the other side. He made a three-inch pit as a result…

It ached Hessiana to see the damaged steps. She cried out, “Be careful! This is an artifact!”

“What artifact? What’s the use of mentioning the artifact before me?” Vivian shot Hessiana a glance before she raised her hand and waved at Nangong Wuyue, who was still at the end of the cloud trail, looking hesistant. “Why are you still standing there, Wuyue?”

The siren maiden looked at the broken slabs, hesitating as she wondered what kind of cloud could support her weight. After a long while, she finally said, “I’m somewhat nervous… Give me a second, I’ll change into a something with more fighting power!”

While Hao Ren looked at, puzzled as a curtain of water suddenly formed around her. While the water curtain slowly disappeared, she turned into a five-metre sea serpent. Nangong Wuyue carefully coiled herself into a spring and warned them. “Move… I’m about to jump over!”

Hao Ren was in awe. “You’re almost as creative as me!”

Nangong Wuyue coiled and compressed herself as she got ready to spring. She shouted, “Huzzah!” and a graceful parabola swept across the air, over the trail of broken slabs.

Becky witnessed in surprise. “Whoa, cool!” She gave Nangong Wuyue a jab on the tail with her sword: she had never seen anything like this before in The Plane of Dreams.

Nangong Wuyue was hanging on a beam of the temple. She tossed her ball of clothes to Hao Ren and at the same time, whacked Becky away with her tail. “I’ll remain in this form, at least it has a better survival ability. Please keep my clothes. By the way, I think I need to practice my accuracy.”

Hao Ren shoved the ball of clothes into the Dimensional Pocket. Nonetheless, the entire time, his eyes were on Nangong Wuyue, who was still hanging on to the middle of the beam with much difficulty. She was looking for a way to get down. So, he asked her, “Need help? I can help pull you down.”

Nangong Wuyue rolled her eyes. She used her tail to grab the beam then slid down the pillar. “You’re underestimating me. Even if you’ve never seen a siren before, haven’t you watched Animal World?”

Hao Ren was speechless.

The entrance to the temple was wide open and there were no signs indicating that traps were laid. The mysterious, old temple had been there for thousands of years, quietly awaiting the arrival of its visitors. Inside, a huge and long gallery was lined with sculptures of heroes, gods and goddesses on both sides. They looked like they were keeping an eye on the visitors’ every movement.

Becky’s mercenary instincts were keeping her on alert. Her eyes were constantly on her surroundings, looking out for traps. However, the others were much less discreet. Lily was getting her hands on every gap in the wall to quench her curiosity. Luckily, she still retained the feeling of shame and did not mark her territory with pee.

Zeon Lucas was in front as the group explored the mysterious temple. Meanwhile, Hessiana had made sure that she stuck with Vivivan all the time. “How much do you know about this temple?” asked Vivian.

“Not much.” Hessiana scratched her head. “The structure of the temple is complicated. Something seems to be still running in there. We were concerned about safety, so we didn’t go deeper. Based on the observations from our previous explorations, some unique phenomena certainly exist in here.”

Hao Ren looked at the sculptures on both sides of the gallery; they were imposing and magnificent, but also spooky at the same time. He gave Vivian a glance and said, “Do you know whose temple this is? Didn’t you know Zeus well?”

“Not as well as you might think. There wasn’t much thing to do back then, not many otherworldlings liked to talk. I was here just for the food.” Vivian frowned. “Besides, I’ve never seen this temple before—not even once. I haven’t got the slightest impression. There’s nothing like this on Mount Olympus.”

“You don’t know?” Hessiana looked disappointed as she mumbled, but it lasted just for a moment. She had a quick change of heart as she said, “Can’t blame you. Mount Olympus is a big place and Lady Vivian, you have a bad memory too…”

The empty gallery was resonating with the sounds of their footsteps. Hao Ren felt that there had to be some kind of artificial gravity there,which was obviously still at work. The temple and the clouds were on a slant of more than 10° but they did not feel it; that was gravity at work. So, based on the theory that the unusual creatures came from The Plane of Dreams, did it mean that the previous civilisations in The Plane of Dreams had already mastered the technology of artificial gravity?

But Hao Ren had no idea how the technological tree of the magic civilisation in The Plane of Dreams looked like. He also did not know what level of technology that magically-created artificial gravity belonged to. Therefore, he could not hastily make a conclusion on the status of the previous civilisation in The Plane of Dreams.

He was not going in blind. In fact, he had gotten the MDT to scan the otherworldly space for movements of energy. It seemed the strange force was coming from within the temple itself. The source of energy was hidden somewhere in the deepest part of the temple and energy was radiating from its core.

The team then went deeper into the gallery. Vivian wanted to explore every corner of the temple to search for any clues regarding the ascriptions and functions of the temple. Of course, Zeon complied happily; he had been wishing for someone to tell him what the temple was all about, so he guided her with great enthusiasm. They passed through the outer gallery and into the inner court, where Hao Ren noticed some changes; the sculptures here were different. These sculptures were not of ubiquitous, heroic faces like those in the outer gallery, they were more unique, realistic and lesser in number. These scultures were scattered around the inner gallery, consisting of both males and females. A glimpse of nostalgia was on Vivian’s face as she said, “It looks like we’re at the core area. These are sculptures of the Oympians. They were actually the ones who made these sculptures of themselves during their free time. This is Ares, next to him is his uncle, and the next one is Poseidon’s brother-in-law. The two standing right there are Aphrodite and Hera. Squatting at the corner is Demeter’s pet dog; it’s named was Propter or Fatso or something like that…”

Hao Ren listened to Vivian as she identified the sculptures one by one, cold sweat trickling down his neck. He said, “There goes the sense of mystery…”

“Myths are just distorted visions created by humans,” said Vivian as she spread out her hand. “Those in-the-know knew that the subject of these myths was just a dysfunctional family. They greeted one another and patted each other on the shoulder when they met. They would gather in a gang and have booze at Dionysius’ house. Even Ares was a p*ssy before his wife—he was a henpecked husband.”

Nodding his head, Hao Ren listened attentively. Suddenly, Lily scurried before them and screamed. “Hey, get over here and take a look! Something’s on the wall!”

Hao Ren quickly pulled and in a corner at the end of the gallery, there was a row of characters on the wall.

They were Letta runes.

Chapter 297: A Big Discovery

 

It was not a surprise for Hao Ren to find Letta runes in the strangest of places. The ancient and mysterious written language was bound to exist where otherworldlings had existed. If not for their rare appearance from years of supression by the demon hunters and the church, perhaps these magical runes would have become part of the human civilisation, or even altered the course of human history. Nonetheless, the runes were buried in the sand dunes of history and maybe, this was a good thing for the human civilisation.

After all, the runes were not particularly suitable for humans. Hao Ren got the hunch that anything to do with The Plane of Dreams was not particularly safe.

Rows of Letta runes were discovered on the wall, just in the corner at the end of the gallery. The runes almost covered an entire three-by-two-metre slate. Vivian got closer and started deciphering the runes. Meanwhile, Hao Ren allowed the MDT to sync with his vision and had the runes on the wall recorded.

Letta runes were hieroglyphs of a previous civilisation. It was widely used in the area where the Kingdom of Holleta was presently situated. But this was not the only language the ancient era of The Plane of Dreams used. According to investigations as well as recounts by Vivian, a few other languages had existed at the same time and they were spoken by a few major groups of unusual creatures. These users had to have existed in some other kingdoms within The Plane of Dreams. However, Letta runes were the only written language that possessed special power. So, Hao Ren thought that these runes had specific usages like in prayers, magics and other rituals; runes were not found to exist in other places.

The runes on the wall had caught his interest.

“The grammar is weird. It doesn’t look like a spell. It’s probably a record,” Vivian slid her hand across the surface of the runes, mumbling to herself. Though there was a weathering process in the other dimension, it was far slower than that in the Surface World. Most things in the temple, including the runes, were still perfectly intact. “The architectural practice at that time was fond of inscribing the deeds of the house owner and an introduction to the house on a slate. The slate would then be imbeded into the house. But this is the first Letta rune record of its kind that I’ve ever seen. This must be an important place… Wait a second, I’ve found the starting point and the phrase rhythm.”

Letta runes were very different from normal languages in that its writing and reading method were very strange. The first sentence was not always the starting, it was somewhere else. Sentences were made up of many phrases, in which readers used to determine the starting point with their rhythms. This reading method was cumbersome and it was rarely used for other purposes other than in various rituals. Vivian pointed to a paragraph as she slowly deciphered it, “…The ancient thing, the origin of the thing, kept in the deepest place of the long gallery. Under the protection of the obsidian hunting dog, no outsiders shall trespass thereinto… the Scholars’ Hall shall remain closed and always linked to the long gallery, dossiers…. the responsibility of deciphering this writing shall be on Athena in finding the origin, or restoring order, or suppressing every unclean…”

As Vivian read, she stumbled upon some nonsense-sounding phrases. She skipped the last part of the writing and found some descriptions about the functions of the temple. “Storage, research centre, dossier archives, and… umm, prison?”

“What the hell is this place?” Lily used her claws to scratch the wall. “Did those ancient people really know how to write and speak properly?”

“It most likely means that something is being stored here.” Hao Ren dragged Lily away by her ear to stop her vandalism. “And it seems that the goddess of wisdom, Athena was assigned to study that particular thing…”

“It also mentions ‘origin’ and ‘ancient’,” Vivian rubbed her chin as she mumbled to herself. “Something that was considered ‘the origin’ and ‘ancient’ even by the old fellows must have been very important. Landlord, what are your thoughts?”

Hao Ren twitched his mouth slightly and said, “I think we’ve come to the right place. It must have something to do with the home of the otherworldlings. But one thing I don’t understand; have otherworldlings no memory of the other side? Why were Zeus and his family trying to find their origin? They must have found out that they weren’t originally from Earth before they even thought of searching for their roots.”

“I’m not sure what exactly happened back then. But towards the end of the Mythological Era, right before Mount Olympus was plunged into choas, the ‘gods of the moutain’ were all behaving really strangely.” Vivian frowned as she tried to recall every memory of the past. “I remember Zeus being very anxious and Athena barely showing her face. But one month before non-believers under the leadership of the demon hunters launched an attack on Mount Olympus, in a baffling fashion, Zeus and his family held an overnight party. Their actions gave the impression that they had all given up resistence. I also remember that when I visited Hera, she wasn’t in her right state of mind; she even told me to go into hibernation because ‘the world is going to be in choas and everything is destined’.”

“And?” asked Hao Ren curiously.

“And then they were all murdered.” Vivian spread out her hand. “The demon hunters were ruthless. Even the poor dog wasn’t spared, it was like they dug Cerberus out from its crypt and cooked it. When I arrived at the scene, all I saw were bones.”

Lily was digging at the gap on the wall, probably trying to figure out how the stones of the temple were staggered up. When she heard what Vivian said, her tail puffed up as if she had just heard some horrible ghost story.

Hao Ren was at a lost for words.

Hessiana heard them muttering to themselves about these strange things. “What the heck are you guys talking about? I don’t understand a thing.”

Vivian waved her hand and walked away. “It’s none of your business. Just some old stories. Tell you next time.”

Zeon did not bother at all. He was a typical vampire, he only cared about the temple and its power. “How strong were these Olympian Gods? Did their power come from the thing they were studying?”

“They were a branch of the Thunder Colossi, a medium-sized Thunder Colossus. It was a small species the size of a human. They had strong magical powers and a natural affinity,” said Vivian as she shot a glance at Zeon. “Are you still interested with the power here? Like I said, it’s probably not a good thing.”

Zeon was straightfaced. “Thanks for the advice, but I know what I’m doing. You shouldn’t meddle in the business of others even though you’re an elder. We will deal with whatever comes to us, by ourselves.”

Vivian scoffed at him. “Heck, for power’s sake? You haven’t learned, have you? Yes, it’s none of my business anyway, but I’m just giving you a reminder.”

“Lady Vivian, Lady Vivian!” Hessiana came up to her. “Can I also study it a little?”

“No!” Vivian stared at her. “I can’t control him”—pointing at Zeon—”but you, I can.”

Hessiana then withdrew to the rear of the team and sank into a stupor.

“According to the runes, there is a storage chamber and a study chamber. These chambers are connected to the long gallery.” Hao Ren finished scanning the entire temple and found that the temple had some sort of flowing energy. There were more than one energy hotspot scattered throughout the temple, hidden inside the staggered stone walls. He needed to find an entrance. “Where’s the gallery?”

“Right ahead.” Zeon pointed to a faint light at the end of the corridor.

They hustled through the deep and long corridor, coming to the end of it. As they arrived, an entirely bright, different world opened up in front of them.

It was a big gallery, rectangular, with rows of white colums on each side. The wall between the columns had ancient reliefs depicting various battle scenes and parades. No columns were present in other places and the centre of the gallery was completely empty, making the place look even bigger.

The space was filled with a soft tone of bright light, which came from nowhere.

Hao Ren was not interested in the stone columns or the reliefs on the wall, his eyes were affixed on a giant sculpture at the end of the gallery.

The sulpture was of white stone, exquisitely luxurious and lifelike.

It was a sculpture of Vivian.

Chapter 298: Great Danger

 

Standing within the long gallery was a giant sculpture. For a couple of moments, Hao Ren was rooted to the spot. He then turned his head and asked, “Is that you?”

Vivian was puzzled. “…It looks like me but, I can’t remember the Olympians ever making a sculpture of me. They were very strict about things like this.”

Hessiana and Zeon were even more surprised. They had joined the expedition team, exploring the space a few times yet, they did not recall the existence of the sculpture. Hessiana scratched her head. She asked Zeon, “Hey old fogy, was this thing here the last time we were here?”

Zeon shook his head. “No, I’m sure it wasn’t. I would have seen it if it was here. This place was empty the last time I came.”

“So, that means this sculpture just popped out recently?” In disbelief, Hao Ren went up to the sculpture and examined it closely. It was about five metres tall—an unusual size in ancient Greek sculpture standards, which were mostly life-size. But, the sculpture was meticulously carved and lifelike; it looked like the real Vivian save for the lack of colours. This sculpture looked somber, which was another weird attribute; ancient Greek sculptures were mimics of various figures from their physical appearance down to their facial expressions, so they were rarely of stoned face.

However, the most notable feature of Vivian’s sculpture was its attire: it was dressed up to the nines. The attire looked like some costume of special religious significance; its towering collar, complicated laces and decorative patterns were unlike any ancient Greek fashion.

Forget about ancient Greek, even in MMORPGs, you would have to get a 20-year membership subscription before you could even dream of getting clothes like that. The laces on the collar, Hao Ren suspected, would need at least a +13 enhancement. Apart from use in religious rituals, would you actually to wear such an attire on the street? Any wind higher than Category 6 would blow you up in the air like a leaf…

If it had not been for the fact that Vivian’s face was carved into his mind, Hao Ren would not have believed the sculpture to be her. The sculpture was dressed up like a homegrown, browser game, lifetime member compared to the penurious Vivian. He rubbed his shoulder against hers and asked, “Don’t you feel anything?”

“Not the slightest.” Vivian was awed by the clothes on the sculpture. “If I had these clothes back then, I wouldn’t have had to beg for food!”

It was a sad statement, and Hao Ren felt so sorry. He tried to comfort her. “Let bygones be bygones. We’re not going to live like rats anymore…”

Becky took a walk around the base of the sculpture, hoping to spot any hidden switches with her mercenary instincts. Soon enough, she spotted something unusual; there was a subtle difference in colour between the base of the sculpture and the floor. She used her blade to scratch it. “It doesn’t look like stone… See that powder? It’s like some sort of instant artificial material.”

Hao Ren went up to it and grabbed some in his hand; it felt like finely-ground stone powder. The sculpture was softer to the touch than it looked. He recalled Hessiana saying that the sculpture was not there the last time she came, so he had a bold suggestion. “Don’t you think that this sculpture was hastily made in the last two days? When did you last come, Hessiana?”

Hessiana did not want to play ball with Hao Ren, but somehow, she felt compelled to answer the question. “About four days ago, more or less. But what you’re saying is ridiculous. Look, the old fogy and me hold the keys to the entrance. Only the both of us together can open the door. So, who could have brought that sculpture in here? Even if there are another set of keys, would anyone risk being pursued by the Blood Clan just to place a sculpture in here? It would be more convincing if I told you that I was the one who who brought the sculpture here, after all I’m Lady Vivian’s brain-dead fan…”

The maiden spoke in such a matter-of-fact manner, leaving Vivian widemouthed and speechless. Meanwhile, Zeon glanced at Hessiana suspiciously. “Tell me the truth; did you put the sculpture here? I think you did…”

Hessiana waved it off in dismissal. “No, no… I wish I did, but Lady Vivian would surely be mad at me. She doesn’t like it. Look at the design of the clothes, does it look like I can make something like that? It looks more like Andrea’s work; she’s a fashion freak, even her dog’s wearing Van Gogh’s artwork…”

As listened further, Lily became a little impatient. She then started to spew her nonsense, “Let’s not be too engrossed with this. Battie and Zeus were good friends back then, the sculpture could be Battie’s birthday gift from Zeus. They probably didn’t manage to send it out before the demon hunters came and finished them off. As to why the sculpture is here, we may as well just treat it as a plot of the story…”

“Nonsense!” Hao Ren and Vivian scoffed at her in unison.

Lily lowered her head, squatted down beside the sculpture, and started scratching at it with her claws. “Bully… bully… I’m going to gouge your sculpture…”

Leaving Lily alone with her “manicure treatment”, Hao Ren and Vivian went on to search the long gallery for hidden switches and secret doors. If the written record on the slate was anything to go by, the long gallery would surely contain access points to the research and storage chambers; the storage chamber contained the relic, which the Olympians had been studying for a long time. It may also be related to The Plane of Dreams and the source of energy in this dimensional space. That relic was the bullseye Hao Ren was looking forward to. After a round of scouting, they found nothing. Though the MDT scan had found an energy source in the gallery, it was drowned out by the noisy environmental radiation and constantly shifting location. Apparently, it was not simply a physical coordinate.

“Probably, the connection of the storage and research chambers to the gallery isn’t actually physical.” Y’zaks opined after their furtile search. “There must be some sort of dimensional structure for security reasons…”

Suddenly, a thought struck Hao Ren’s mind. He recalled when Vivian read the last part of the runes, about the functions of the temple; the temple was not just a storage chamber and a research facility, but also a prison. He could not make anything out of it back then. Y’zaks’ suggestion, and also the abnormal reaction Vivian had when she sensed the environment’s energy made him think of something.

What the gods of Olympus were studying had to be some nasty stuff!

He quickly got the MDT to dial up its scanning power, looking for hidden structures in the spatial gap. The MDT warned, “There’s a risk that this unstable enviroment, which contains spatial gaps could be rigged with traps. It’s easy to find the door, but not so easy to enter, I’m afraid—”

Before the MDT could finish its sentence, Lily screamed, “Look! Look, what I’ve found!”

Hao Ren scurried over. He saw a large chunk of the sculpture was gouged out by Lily. Innocent is as innocent does—the bored husky became an accidental hero. The chunk of powder which had been gouged off was vibrating; it floated in the air before it returned itself to the sculpture.

Lily continued to scrape at the sculpture with her Frostfire Claws, leaving behind a few claw marks on the sculpture as the white powder fell off. But before long, the powder floated up and back into the sculpture.

The sculpture was like a precisely-designed magnet, it attracted everything that fell off its body back to maintain its form.

“I think I’ve figured out where this thing comes from…” Hao Ren could vaguely guess it, but just as he was about to touch the sculpture, a tremor shocked the temple!

At the same time, a roar out of nowhere increased in intensity as the temple shook. Dust fell off the roof and everyone suddenly felt an electrical shock on their skin. Becky had the most sensitive skin of all of them and she screamed in pain.

Hao Ren quickly noticed a glimmer of white light covering Becky’s exposed skin. Her skin was noticeably turning red under the glimmer. In this critical juncture, a mist suddenly came from all directions as Nangong Wuyue summoned a shroud of mist to act as a protective shield. The scales on her tail were emanating a glorious, blue glow under her strong magical power. “Radiation! Radiation!”

The MDT sounded its warning incessantly. “Hazardous levels of radiation! Hazardous levels of radiation! It’s increasing. It’s almost at the limit where the team can endure. Immediate evacuation is recommended. Why are you still rooted to the spot?! The reactor has long passed it expiry date!”

Chapter 299: Huge Turn of Events

 

Things were happening too quickly and getting worse by the second. A roar resonated throughout the temple as though the ancient structure was about to crumble at any moment. The air was filled with an energy field of ever increasing strength. As soon as Hao Ren summoned his own protective shield, a layer of sparkling light quickly covered the shield’s surface. The situation was worse than radiation—it was in fact a meltdown.

Nangong Wuyue was the only one who could build a protected area large enough for everyone. For the time being, she used her magical powers to summon her Mist Shroud Barrier to hold back the harmful energy outside. Hao Ren finally witnessed with his own eyes how fast a snake could move—the siren was slithering forward with her tail on the ground as fast as Vivian’s speed whenever she was flying. Just that, it looked a little too horrible though…

With the protection of the Mist Shroud Barrier, everyone scurried towards the exit. Hao Ren could not help but look back at the sculpture at the end of the gallery. It began to disintegrate and then, it turned into a tornado of white powder. As the glimmer disappeared in the air, the face of the sculpture started to become blurry. Somehow, Hao Ren noticed a cold smile on the disintegrating face, but it disappeared quickly, like an illusion. The real Vivian was just standing beside him; she grabbed him, pulled his sleeve and said, “Stop looking at it and keep running! You can stare at me all you want when we get home.”

Hao Ren was dragged out from the gallery. But before that, he had a last glimpse of the thing; the sculpture had disintegrated almost completely, revealing a human-like figure glowing in the light. It looked unrealistic like a flimsy hologram.

As the hologram disappeared, the sculpture completely crumbled.

Everyone rushed through the corridor, across the outer gallery and came to the exit of the temple; everything was falling as they ran. The roaring sound was accompanied by the crumbling of the temple, which sounded really scary to the ears. The ancient stone structure had finally come to its belated demise. Whatever secrets that were hidden in there, Hao Ren would never be able to decipher them anymore with the collapse of the temple . The strength of the strange energy was increasing and becoming the biggest threat to them at that moment—more dangerous than the crumbling walls and roofs. Hao Ren could even see flashes of lightning in the air around him. If they ran even a tad slower, they would be toasted before being buried under the piles of rubble.

Y’zaks was engulfed in flames—it was his Fire Shield. He was one size up and his clothes were like an under-sized demonic armour. The three-metre-tall, flaming giant was running in front of the pack, still unafraid of the energy field. Like a drilling machine, he used his shield and moved forward against the energy storm as the rest of them followed him from behind. They then came to the exit after going through several walls.

The towering temple door was finally in sight, but once they got through the door, what they saw was even more stunning.

There was lightning everywhere in the other dimension. The once slow-moving energy was now clashing with the clouds beneath. The violent energy was running amok and the situation outside was just as bad as, or even worse than the one inside the temple.

It was like the other dimension was in charging mode.

Looking at the sparks between the heavens and the earth, Hao Ren immediately found that he was pretty much sitting in a microwave. “What the heck is going on here?”

“We need to leave immediately.” Hessiana spread her wings. “Go to the dimensional door!”

She did not bother about the broken path anymore because with one flap of her wings, she was already on the cloud trail. Suddenly, Hao Ren became anxious looking at the rest of his team; most who could not fly would be able to manoeuvre across the broken stone trail against the energy storm, but not Becky and Nangong Wuyue.

Becky in her human body could no longer withstand the strong radiation, she had to stay under Nangong Wuyue’s protective barrier. But the problem was, Nangong Wuyue could not possibly jump across the broken trail and carry Becky along at the same time.

“What if I curled myself up with Becky in the shape of a ball and have Y’zaks throw us over to the other side?” said Nangong Wuyue hurriedly. “The rest will be able to cross by themselves. I’ll open up the aqua shield once we’ve crossed.”

Becky took a peek at the sea of clouds beneath them, freaking out. “What if we miss the landing site?”

Brain dead is as brain dead does. You could not possibly explain why she thought what she thought.

Hao Ren suddenly realised that he had his MDT and its teleportation function. He took the PDA and threw it over to the other side. “Bring us over!”

The MDT hung around there for a moment before flying back. “Negative! Teleportation will cause extreme dizziness. Nangong Wuyue will not be able to keep her protective barrier under such circumstances. Becky won’t survive the energy storm even for two seconds!”

Being an attacking mage swordswoman had its downside. Becky now regretted she not learning some defensive skills.

It was hard for Hessiana to stay in the energy storm any longer without being toasted. Seeing that, Nangong Wuyue curled Becky up into a snake ball and called out to Y’zaks, “Do it! Now!”

Without saying word, Y’zaks grabbed the ball and threw it to the other side. Presto! It landed where Y’zaks had intended it to without mowing down Hessiana.

Without the Mist Shroud Barrier, Lily could see her tail puffing up. She scurried over to the other side like her tail was on fire while Hao Ren and Y’zaks followed her closely behind. They all escaped from the temple and hustled on the cloud trail back to the hill.

But what they were about to see left them astonished:

The light film connecting to the Surface World was gone.

Hessiana jumped, her voice shivering in fear. “The dimensional door is closed!”

“Something happened on the other side.” Zeon quickly thought of a likely situation. “Someone wants to keep us in here!”

“Who would want to do that?” Hao Ren stared at the two vampires. Both vampires said in unison, “Too many of them.”

The dimensional door was closed and the other dimension was ravaged with a violent energy storm, which was worsening with time. Nangong Wuyue’s face looked terrible and the scales on her tail were quickly losing their lustre. The Mist Shroud Barrier had shrunken so much that Hao Ren and Y’zaks were no longer within its protection. Not even professional support could hold on any longer.

The energy storm had reached a lethal level. Hao Ren and Y’zaks aside, not even Hessiana could withstand it—even for a few more seconds. In fact, Nangong Wuyue’s Mist Shroud Barrier was a defensive skill she inherited from her forefathers, without which she would not have survived till this moment.

Perhaps Vivian could hold on longer with her own strength, but the energy storm showed no signs of slowing down. Instead, it was increasing in intensity.

Lily pulled Vivian by her sleeve and yelled, “It’s all your fault! You told the story about Cerberus being cooked by the demon hunters! Now, I’m being cooked!”

“Wait a second, I have an idea.” Hao Ren took out the MDT and glanced at Zeon as well as Hessiana with a very strange expression. “Actually, I was doing some recording just now…”

The MDT emitted a faint, blue glow. Space under the glow began to warp and a layer of light film appeared as if by force.

Hessiana looked at Hao Ren, widemouthed. “You made an excuse so that you could watch the altar…”

Feeling embarrassed, Hao Ren turned his face away. “It’s nothing malicious. I was just saving it for when we need it the most…”

“Let’s not talk about that now.” Zeon waved with his hand. He glanced at Vivian and Hao Ren, understanding the message. Then, he walked up to the light film and crossed it to the other side.

They finally escaped from the hellish dimension and got back to the Parthenon.

However, it was also a mess there. Dead bodies of Blood Clan members were everywhere.

Hessiana and Zeon’s faces were grim: the fallen ones were all their trusted men!

“Mistress…” a weak voice came from a close distance. It was the male vampire whom Hessiana sent to the Lucas Family the other day. He leaned his hand against a pillar and pointed to the altar that was used for the entry ceremony. “Bethanos snatched the key…”

Chapter 300: Unusual Behaviour

 

“Bethanos?” said Hessiana with wrath in her eyes. “He took the key?”

As soon as Nangong Wuyue caught her breath, she examined the vampire for any injuries, thinking to heal him with her siren skills. But, she quickly noticed that there was no external wound. “Where’s the wound?”

The male vampire leaned against the pillar, looking weak and embarrassed as he turned his head away. “It’s an internal injury. It will heal itself in no time.”

Hessiana kicked him in the stomach. “You f*cking coward, did you play dead again at the first opportunity you got? Get the f*ck up and talk!”

The kick was so hard that the male vampire almost suffered the internal injury he had been pretending to have. But, he still grinned like a clown without the slightest hint of embarrassment. “I wanted to stay alive to tell you what happened…”

Hao Ren did not know what to say about Hessiana’s clownish subordinate, but it was not the time to complain. Zeon quickly examined the bodies of his men for fatal wounds, then nodded at Hessiana with a serious face. “It’s the Higher Shadow Blade.”

Hessiana looked at the mess of the aftermath, her eyes filled with fury. “Has Bethanos gone mad? Is he declaring war on the two families?”

“Could this be the reason for the energy storm in the foreign dimension?” asked Hao Ren. Suddenly, many things came to his mind. It began to dawn on Zeon and Hessiana too as they gnashed their teeth in anger. Hessiana gave her lone surviving man another kick and said, “Inform everyone to gear up; holy water and everything. We’re going for Bethanos! The Hessianite Family has not been in a fight for three years, so they think we’re easily bullied!”

“Calm down. You’re not going to go in blindly.” Zeon stopped Hessiana. “Bethanos knows more about the relic than we do and he has taken the key. He wanted us dead in the foreign dimension. He came prepared!”

Hessiana stared at Zeon. “Then what should I do, old fogy? Do we just let him do whatever he wants?”

Zeon frowned and pondered for a while. He then turned around and shouted at a body on the ground. “Andrea! Stop playing dead! Go back and inform everyone to get ready for a face off with Bethanos. Another thing, send William on recce; I want to know what the Shadelings are up to before we take action.”

A flirty woman rose from among the dead and jumped to her feet before nodding at Zeon. She then spread her bat wings and flew downtown in the dark.

Hessiana gave Zeon a silent glance and said, “…Looks like we have a common ground here.”

“Shut up.”

Hao Ren was speechless. He felt like he could no longer stand it; the dead bodies and their facetious attitude towards death had all crushed his perspective on life. He desperately needed some quiet time to reflect and ponder on whether these otherworldlings were seriously brain-dead.

Soon, the flapping sound of wings broke the night as a bunch of vampires from the Hessianite Family arrived. They came to clean up the scene as soon as they got wind of the situation. Hessiana grabbed one of them and asked anxiously, “What are the Shadelings doing?”

“The Shadelings in the city are gone,” the lesser vampire answered. “We’ve got intel that the Bethanos Family has retreated to their hole. At the moment, all areas controlled by the Shadelings have been locked down while the little recce bats have been shot down.”

“Any movement?”

“No, for now.”

Hessiana let go of her hand. “Clean up this mess, then arm yourselves with weapons. We’re going to war.”

She then turned her head and nodded at Hao Ren. “Will you help us? You can go now if you don’t want to. Follow me if you do.”

The maiden had totally turned into another person—ferocious and resolute. Hao Ren finally realised how a brain-dead, mini version of Vivian could fight her way and conquer half of the city back then. He nodded without hesitation. “Count me in, of course. We were almost toasted by the energy storm earlier, don’t you remember?”

They hurried back to the Hessianite Family’s station in the city with Zeon tagging along. The Hessianite Family’s place was not far from the Parthenon, which was on a hill. The Lucas Family’s place was on the other side of the city, so Zeon thought it would be more convenient to first have a discussion in Hessiana’s place, after which he would go back to his place to assemble his army.

While on their way there, Hao Ren recollected the intel he received on the Bethanos Family, and every other intel about the incident.

Shadelings were a cross between humans and demons. Some people speculated that these creatures were descendants of demons and humans; some said their ancestors were fanatic sorcerers who were crazy in the pursuit of demonic power that they themselves became cursed and mutated into a new species. Like most unusual creatures, shadelings could be in human form but still retain the combat form of a demon. They were skilled in shadowy powers and various curses. Not to mention, their vitality was second only to werewolves. They were indeed a difficult opponent.

The most notorious characteristic of shadelings was greed—greed for energy, greed for power and greed for forbidden knowledge. Shadelings would do anything for power. They were very susceptible to the temptations of shadow powers and various forbidden knowledge. They had launched wars against other unusual creatures and even their own kind, mostly for the sake of power and knowledge. Their craving for power was akin to the pure-blooded demons while their fanaticism towards forbidden knowledge could rival maniacal human sorcerers. It was no wonder that people had suspicions of shadelings’ ancestors being humans who had a covenant with the demons.

But shadelings and the other unusual creatures had gone dormant post-Mythological period. They were not idiots and they knew when to lay low. Shadelings who hid in the sanctuary did not cause much trouble; they began to mingle with other races. But no matter what, they were still a dangerous element.

Actually, other races were not any less dangerous; be it the blood-sucking vampires or the reckless werewolves, even the lone demons who were the minority. They were just as irascible, and would cause trouble for others as well as themselves from time to time. Since everyone was some sort of volatile element themselves, no one blinked an eye when shadelings sought sanctuary in the Shadowy Divide. But due to their notorious capriciousness and greed, other races were more cautious towards them.

The Bethanos Family was the only shadeling force of influence in the shadow Athens. Under normal circumstances, these shadelings would not allow a second shadeling force to exist. So most of the time, there was only one shadeling family in each sanctuary. The Bethonas Family, like the Lucas Family, was also an established force. Their leader, Bethanos had been living there since the establishment of the shadow Athens, and in Hessiana’s words, was a fogy as well as a freak who dethroned Zeon Lucas from claiming the top title.

When news of the ruins’ discovery by the Hessianite Family broke, Bethanos began to covet the treasure. He had been making various excuses in numerous occasions, trying to poke his nose into the matter. But Hessiana was very smart and shared the secret of the relic with the Lucas Family from the very beginning. Although she was displeased about it, the alliance of two vampire families in securing the relic was better than letting Bethanos get his hands on it. Everyone knew the shadelings’ nature; once they came into the picture, destruction was imminent.

Even so, they had underestimated the ability and guts Bethanos had. Zeon Lucas did not expect Bethanos to be so daring either, openly snatching the key away and trapping the two heads of the Blood Clan in the other dimension.

Getting the key was easy, but what was next? The influence of Hessiana and Zeon’s families would still remain, they would not just suddenly crumble when their leaders disappeared. Even if choas were to erupt, the Bethanos Family would not be able to fight a multiple-front battle; other ancient ones guarding the city would not just sit by and watch—the shadelings in the city would be slaughtered. Perhaps, Bethanos wanted to hide in the ruins with his henchmen after snatching the key? Did he think that he was going to acquire an unprecedented power in the ruins and come out invincible? These presumptions may be a little far-fetched, but considering Bethanos was a cunning old fox, it was certainly not luck that he could survive till this day.

What was even more important was the level of security Hessiana and Zeon had put in place at the entry ceremony. The guards were trained to handle the unexpected, yet it seemed that Bethanos had brought out all of his best men for the key, betting the lives of his entire family on it. What kind of treasure was Bethanos after that he was so willing to sacrifice everything for it?

The behaviour of the shadeling family was indeed unusual.