In front of a huge wall that stood proudly in the middle of nothing, separating a grand forest from a vast grassland from each other, Erys and Amy watched as Nash walked toward the creature and stopped walking when he was right below the curved gate of the wall.
At first, they believed he was simply waiting for the emerald skeleton to arrive, but when they noticed as the skeleton halted its steps the very moment Nash did, silently staring at Nash with its hollow eye sockets, the two thought maybe a huge clash will soon follow, but their hope didn't occur at all; they just simply stood where they were without none of them moving even an inch.
"What... is happening now?" after more than five minutes of nerve-racking silence which felt more than that, Amy was incapable of resisting the urge to open her mouth and ask her doubts with a rather confused expression.
Erys closed her previously scarcely open mouth upon hearing the question, her deep crimson eyes akin to rubies scanning both Nash's and the creature's figure in front of her.
'Nothing seems to be out of place as I still feel his control on me and neither of their life forces looks to be depleting. But then why does neither of them try to move?' Erys showed a pretty deep frown, making her somewhat adorable face look rather cold and scary all of a sudden.
As for Amy, she now looked completely calm maybe because she was protected by Erys, a being that reached the Warmaster Rank and was capable of destroying mountains with a single swing of her weapon too!
Time ticked by again, and seeing as none of them wished to move, Erys started to feel that things were not as simple as they seemed and slowly began to examine the wall before them.
At first sight, everything seemed to be normal with nothing out of the ordinary, but when Erys squinted her eyes and took a closer look at the surface of the wall, especially at the parts closer to the gate, she noticed several smaller carvings with a similar appearance akin to the bigger ones on the top were engraved, each of them holding a different meaning from the rest!
"There are even more Archaic Symbols all over the wall's surface!" Erys spoke out loudly, making Amy on her side look startled and ask, "Can you translate them?"
Erys gave a sidelong glance at Amy, feeling slightly irritated by her casual behavior with her, but as she too was curious what the symbols meant she just took a deep breath and once all calm and steady, began to read the ancient texture.
"Although I cannot understand every part as my knowledge about the Archaic Symbols are still at a beginner's level, as far as I can understand it, it talks about a land... a city that existed during the Ancient Era and was a place where..."
Amy listened to Erys's explanation in silence and her ears perked as she was curious to hear what she was saying, but when she heard that she suddenly stopped talking she glanced at Erys and showed a slight frown.
"Where? A place where? Why did you suddenly stop talking?"
However, her question was simply ignored by Erys as her complexion stiffened and showed disbelief while her thoughts also became slightly chaotic at the same time.
'No... Something is definitely wrong here... We are currently inside the Human Dimension so this must be impossible! Maybe I had an error while I was trying to translate, let's see...' thinking that she mistranslated the Archaic Symbols, Erys quickly focused on the carvings once again and began to translate everything word by word, making sure she does not make a mistake once again.
But alas, even after attempting to translate them for the fifth time, the results were all the same. She even went so far that she activated one of her 'useless' Domination Art to enhance her sight to see if she didn't accidentally mix the carvings together, but in the end, she always got the same result, something she could hardly accept even after the fifteenth attempt.
'Impossible... According to the records, the human race only opened their Ancient Path less than a thousand years ago! There is no way in all hell this must be real! Someone definitely tries to play a prank here and I won't fall for it!' with that thought in her head, Erys sneered coldly in her heart and without caring about the matter any longer she turned away and focused her attention on Nash and her surroundings instead.
As for Amy, she observed everything from the side in silence and with an indifferent face, looking to and fro between Erys and the walls from time to time. But as she had no knowledge of what the carvings could have meant nor did she have a clue why did Erys' complexion change between so many emotions so fast and why her eyes showed doubt all the time, she could only keep her guesses to herself as she was pretty sure she would not get any answer if she tried to ask her.
'Once Nash comes back, I am pretty sure everything will be answered.' Amy comforted herself with such thoughts as she shifted her attention back at Nash's figure, only to see something unexpected.
Thud!
"N-Nash?" Amy's eyes widened once she saw Nash's body fall onto the ground like a piece of ragdoll and her complexion got only paler when she noticed the trickle of blood flowing down the corner of his mouth for no apparent reason!
As she wished to run up and see if Nash was still alive, Erys suddenly grabbed her shoulder firmly, pinning her down with a force that didn't hurt but neither did it let her move; she was simply pinned down without any chance to lift her feet off from the ground!
"Let me go! Something obviously happened with him, we need to go and help him!" Amy turned to look at Erys with a cold glare, but the only thing she saw was a pair of indifferent crimson eyes, showing no sign of letting her go.
"You-" Amy wished to say something, but just as she was about to open her mouth, an almost blinding white light broke out from the direction where Nash was, forcing both girls to close their eyes hurriedly.
"Argh... My eye... Argh... It hurts..." a weak and hoarse voice sounded the moment the light began to fade, revealing as Nash who was once on the ground began to stand up slowly, his palm covering his face which now held a painful grimace.
"Nash? Are you okay? What happened?" Amy upon hearing the familiar voice opened her eyes and once she saw that Nash was alive she run up to him and looked him up and down with visible worry.
Nash obviously didn't notice the worried look on her pretty face nor the concern in her soft voice, as his vision and mind were too blurry to catch such minor details and instead shifted his attention at his surroundings to see where he was.
"I am back? So un the end I have succeeded, huh?" as different thoughts flashed through his mind almost at the same time, Nash looked at the spot where the creature was before his soul was transported to the Forgotten Lands, but to his great shock it was nowhere to be found, its body vanished almost like it was not even there to begin with!
"Where did the skeleton go?" looking at Amy who was the closest to him, Nash asked calmly while slowly lowering his hand as the piercing pain in his eye began to dissipate bit by bit.
Upon hearing Nash's question, Amy looked surprised which quickly turned into confusion as she too noticed that the creature indeed vanished and couldn't be seen anywhere no matter where she tried to look. As asó matter of fact, not even Erys was able to locate its aura even with her powerful Domination Art, meaning it must have escaped and was already more than a mile away from them!
As Amy and Erys were looking around to see if the skeleton was indeed far away and was not trying to hide in the shadows just to ambush them, Nash decided to focus his attention on something else, on the description of his newly acquired ability, the Soul Eye!
[Special Blessing: Soul Eye]
• Description: A simple but powerful ability acquired by challenging, surviving, and completing the seemingly impossible trial of the Forgotten Path!
• Blessing Class: Unclassified
{Ability}
° Soul Eye: A power capable of seeing and tracking the soul of everything and anything in existence in exchange for ancient energy once activated!
{Passive Abilities}
° Soul Light: An inactive ability to measure the density of one's soul!
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A/N: Hello everyone, hope all of you had an amazing holiday! Also, hope you like the story and if you do, make sure to leave your votes or comment behind as it helps me a lot and also shows that I should upload more chaps!
Thank you! <3