Mystical Journey
chapter-520

"Nine-headed Snake?" The green figure that was leaning against the wall this whole time was now slightly surprised.

"This is our first time meeting each other, right? Divine God Palace Master." Garen’s bright gold hair reflected blinding golden light under the sun, and his vision was focused accurately on the position of the green male figure.

His opponent looked agile and tranquil, as if he had become one with the forest. At first glance he resembled a regular forest ranger, and did not fit the title of Divine God Palace Master. He was once assumed to be an impressive force, an incomparably terrifying dictator-like character, but now, there was actually a huge difference between his true image and the one that had been visualized.

"Wasn’t the original plan to get Phiroth?" Divine God Palace Master raised his eyebrows slightly while looking at Cthulhu King.

"Are you saying I’m not qualified?" A cold smile appeared on Garen’s face behind his mask. Suddenly, both of his eyes seemed as if they had been dyed black by ink, completely turning into two pitch-black demon’s eyes. Dark red mist drifted out from his body silently.

He took long strides and walked towards Divine God Palace Master, and every time he raised his feet, fragrant black smoke wafted out of the footprints that he left behind. The stones and tree branches on his footprints would melt into sticky black liquid in less than a second.

Every step he took would leave a black smoke footprint on the ground, and poisonous fumes would waft out of it slowly, like burning smoke.

"Enough." Divine God Palace Master narrowed his eyes and waved his right hand gently, before a green seed shot out, landing beside Garen’s feet accurately. The seed seemed as if it had fallen into water, as it formed green ripples on the floor where it landed, before disappearing completely.

Garen was slightly shocked and turned his head, before noticing that his own poisonous footprints had suddenly disappeared completely, while the tree branches and stones that melted earlier had returned to their original states as well.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, as his mind had started to gain more knowledge about Divine God Palace Master’s power. When he voluntarily released his poisons earlier, he was merely testing the waters, and did not expect that his opponent’s previously unconcerned reaction would lead to him displaying a part of his powers.

Garen glanced at Cthulhu King who stood beside the stone carvings, before both of them exchanged glances quickly.

Cthulhu King was unable to defeat Divine God Palace Master, and thus he wanted him to form an alliance with him. He even let go of his grudge against Garen that spanned over ten thousand kilometers because of this. It was clear that Divine God Palace Master had left a deep impression on him.

"Alright, prepare to enter." Divine God Palace Master stood up immediately, and turned to walk towards the front of the stone door.

He stretched his hand out and pushed gently.

Ka-ka…

The stone door was pushed inwards easily, exposing a dark passage inside, while dust and a strong moldy smell wafted out.

Divine God Palace Master walked in without any hesitation, before his figure disappeared quickly.

Cthulhu King followed behind quickly, while Garen turned his head and scanned his surroundings, as the last person to walk into the stone door.

Behind the door was a dark, black hall. It was square, and there was a deep square pit in the middle of it, with by a seven-or-eight meter tall ashen stone sculpture inside.

The stone sculpture depicted a beautiful girl in chiffon garments, with loose long hair, posing with both her hands carrying something, but the strangest part, was that an extra eye had been carved on her forehead.

White mist wafted inside the hall, mixing with the dust, and making everything blurry.

The three people entered the ruins together, before the stone door closed itself behind them slowly.

Standing in front of the large stone sculpture, Divine God Palace Master turned around to face both of the others.

"According to the previous exploration, the Living Secret Technique should be located at the bottom of the third level of the ruins. However, we weren’t able to find the right method to enter the second level last time."

"Why can’t we just use force to break through and enter the ruins?" Garen interrupted and asked.

"This place imprisons all forms of extraordinary force. But you can try," replied Cthulhu King simply.

Garen’s expression darkened slightly, as he reached his hand out, laid his palm flat, before the Black Water True Technique’s water vapor mobilization ability started flowing suddenly.

But his palm did not move at all.

"No wonder this place was well preserved…" He could not help but laugh softly, and did not question any further.

Divine God Palace Master remained indifferent, and continued speaking. "The way to enter the second level is to secure all three stone switches at the same time, not allowing any of them to close up again. The three of us will concentrate on one switch each, as the switches require sufficient amounts of fused Form 5 powers."

He stopped speaking and looked at Cthulhu King.

The latter nodded, removed a black fibrous paper scroll from his arms, opening it slowly, exposing a pitch-black sheet completely devoid of anything else. But as it was opened, white coordinate dots floated up and slowly appeared on the paper. These coordinates began to move, clearly forming multiple white lines, before a complete map was quickly drawn on the paper.

Cthulhu King waited until the coordinates had almost disappeared once they had finished drawing before passing the map to Garen, while the latter glanced across it carefully, then passing it to Divine God Palace Master.

"The terrain here changes on its own every time, but this map originated from this place, thus it is able to sense the changes and form a corresponding map automatically every time it enters. Therefore, we need to remember the new map everytime we enter," explained Cthulhu King.

"There are three roads, and because the terrain here is extremely vast, according to my estimations, the entire first level of the ruins probably has an area of over ten thousand square kilometers, moreover we can only enter the ruins through the entrance, and if we were to dig underground from the outside, it would be impossible for us to find the existence of the underground palace." Cthulhu King had obviously done a sufficient amount of investigative work. "Therefore each of the three roads will require a certain amount of time, in order to avoid any risks."

He immediately took out three blood red button-like things, each of which had been engraved with maggot-sized red symbols.

He distributed the little things to the other two, giving one to each of them.

"Divine God Palace Master has used this before, so I won’t say too much." He looked at Garen immediately. "This is the only tool that will not be imprisoned that I managed to find after searching for a long time in the outside world. Its functions are very simple, and there’s only one: color changing. Once you’ve reached a switch point, and you’ve opened it, please press this button five times consecutively within two seconds, so that a green road will appear automatically. A green road will also appear from our own buttons as well. Similarly, once our switches have been activated, just like before, you will be able to see our progress through this thing."

"Within ten days, if we find the switches successfully, we should be able to enter the second level. The dangers on the first level have been cleared completely, and should not be an obstacle," Divine God Palace Master interrupted and said. "Let’s go."

He was the first one to walk towards the only pitch-black passage in front of the hall.

Garen and Cthulhu King followed behind him closely, and all three of their figures completely disappeared in the darkness.

*********************

Time passed day by day…

Due to Cthulhu King’s absence and the shrinking of the Cthulhuism Society’s forces on all fronts, the conflict between Daniela’s royal family and Obscuro Society grew fiercer. The support of the Royal Alliance of Luminarists became stronger as well.

No one anticipated Obscuro Society’s fearsome tenacity that led to the formation of Totem seas, made up of many Silver Totems constantly battling against Daniela’s armies, killing them.

High level individuals from both sides suffered serious injuries. These were unavoidable casualties of war, and would continue until the war was over.

On the fifth day after Garen entered the ruins.

Obscuro Society’s terrifying powers finally broke out, and Hellgate attacked personally, causing two of Daniela’s largest core armies to collapse immediately, while the allied forces of the three territories slaughtered countless army generals before pressing forward to the Ancestral God Grounds.

All of Daniela’s strength collapsed completely at once.

The War of Destinies has begun.

********************

On top of the tall Ancestral God Tree, Phiroth stood on the largest branch, looking at the black shadow that floated in the sky from afar. That was Hellgate’s Secret Technique illusion. The large, black robed that resembled the God of Death, held a decaying red sickle in its hand that looked as if it would break any moment. It was actually a terrifying weapon of war that had destroyed countless armies, and more than ten thousand allied troops within three days.

Countless transparent bubbles flew around the Ancestral God Tree, but no one was inside anymore.

The battle between the two strongest people from each faction had already eliminated everyone else, leaving only the both of them.

The winner would live, the loser would die.

Nothing more.

The evening sky was dyed red and gold by the sunset. Countless clouds resembled waves that floated their merry way along.

Phiroth looked up at the sky.

"Really, I haven’t seen a sunset like this in so long…" Traces of a smile formed at the corners of his mouth.

"How unfortunate, just give me a little more time…"

Boom!!

The sky darkened immediately, as countless dark clouds gathered over. The sky turned from golden-red to black, almost as black as the dark, nighttime sky.

The countless rolling clouds soon resembled boiling water that bubbled up continuously.

Phiroth straightened his body and waved his right hand in the empty space, before a dark green, three-pronged pitchfork appeared in his hand.

All of the Ancestral God Trees on the Ancestral God Grounds lit up, as if they were stars that were suddenly illuminated.

Boom!

Green light gathered below his feet into a pillar of light that shot upwards, piercing through the sky.

The rays of green light gathered and formed an incomparably large, green human-like figure that also held a three-pronged pitchfork in its hand. Its thousand meters tall body resembled the giants from the ancient legends.

"Only one can be the strongest!"

Phiroth could not help but laugh maniacally, even though fresh blood was constantly gushing out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

Kachak!!

A lightning bolt flashed past, before the giant human figure raised its three-pronged pitchfork suddenly, piercing it towards the sky.

Kachak!

A crunching noise could be heard, and somewhere in Daniela’s deep underground area, a young man fell on the ground, choking with sobs while looking at the Life Gem that had cracked open in front of him.

Singing noises could be heard floating down from the sky occasionally.

"~~ Faraway dreams, when will you let me awaken. O’ king, forget all your dreams, when will you finally awaken… There was never a time, when the sky looked so pretty. There was never a time, when your eyes looked at me with such happiness…"

Within the ruins.

Garen’s body jolted suddenly. He raised his head, as if he had heard that singing noise. The senses from the Seed of the Ancestral God allowed him to see Daniela’s final scene.

The Ancestral God Grounds turned into a bottomless, pitch-black abyss-like crack.

Daniela’s First Concubine was holding Phiroth’s corpse, her silk garments resembling the wings of a butterfly as she leapt into the abyss.

"Daniela, gone."

Garen closed his eyes.

At the same time, the two other people inside the ruins stopped in their tracks as well. The songs that transcended everything accompanied the collapse of the Ancestral God’s powers, spreading out towards every corner of the entire East Continent.

Following Phiroth’s death in battle, the Ancestral God Grounds’ destruction was complete, and the previous Ancestral Gods ceased to exist along with it. The gloomy shadows that originated from Hellgate hung like dark clouds, covering the skies of the whole world.