Chapter 10: Ancient Murals
A while after seeing that its new master that peacefully spared (enslaved) it be lost in his own world, the Corrupted Leopard cautiously purred.
Then, noticing that its actions didn't elicit any response from the man—it took a step back.
…It was going to take its chance to escape while its new master (devil owner) was lost in his own world.
It was going to do it.
Then the second step. There was still no response. At this point, It was already imagining its plans for the future after escaping.
Then the third. Like a rekindled flame, its desire to escape burned evermore brightly.
Then the fourt—
Thump—! Thump—!
Before it could take another step, a loud ringing sound suddenly erupted on its ears, making it tremble all over its body.
An intense sensation of danger brushed through it.
Only when it recognized a familiar hand caress its neck did the Corrupted Leopard realize where the noise—the danger came from.
"Where are you going?"
The devil whispered.
The loud ringing on its ears was not from anything in the surroundings. It was its own beating heart, profusely shaking as though loudly warning it of its actions, threatened with its own death.
…Instinctively, the Corrupted Leopard knew that one more step, its death was guaranteed.
The Corrupted Leopard purred and slowly turned around while shaking.
"You were not trying to escape your master, were you?"
The devil asked while caressing its fur.
The Corrupted Leopard shook its head profusely.
The devil–Lucas stared at it for a moment before smiling softly.
"Good cat."
The Corrupted Leopard whimpered.
***
After reading through most of the Oversoul System's contents, Lucas stood up satisfied.
The description gave him a lot of progress in his understanding of soulforce. In fact, just from the description alone he already had a few soul art created in his mind.
But he'll experiment with them later. Exploring the area around comes first before everything else, he needs to find an exit before he dies here.
But blindly exploring was no go either. He needed to have significant clues quickly.
As for how he can make his exploration more efficient…
Lucas looked at the trembling Corrupted Leopard beside him, smiling at it softly.
He just has the right pet for it.
"Guide me to this land."
Lucas said, walking outside the mausoleum.
"You know somewhere to go right? Lead me to a good place and I'll happily release you."
The Corrupted Leopard brightened its eyes.
Thinking of a place in mind, it nodded profusely before walking in front of Lucas.
***
In a place filled with fractured buildings, collapsed pillars and ancient statues, debris gathered and spread all over the place.
However in the middle of it all, far from the collapsed and torn down state of other buildings, a massive temple-like structure was situated.
In the entrance of that temple-like structure in particular were two silhouettes.
One was a black haired man with a cold complexion, his brows and eyes pure unfettered black in contrast with his pale ashen white skin.
The other beside him was a four limbed beast with dark fur and a lithe body. It was easy to mistake it as shadow if one didn't see its appearance upclose.
"This is the place?"
Lucas asked, intrigued.
The Corrupted Leopard purred and nodded excitedly.
"I see, then lead me inside."
Lucas smiled softly while staring at the entrance of the temple-like structure. It was truly a great decision to keep the little cat alive.
He had a feeling something inside will greatly pique his interest.
The Corrupted Leopard which was ready to be released, suddenly froze.
"What? You didn't think I'll release you if I haven't confirmed if it was worth my time, did you?"
Lucas looked at it and chuckled.
Reluctantly, the Corrupted Leopard with 'all its heart' walked in front of Lucas and led the way inside the temple-like structure…
***
The inside of the temple-like structure was massive, complimentary of its massive appearance outside.
In a wide, spacious path, silent and calm footsteps rippled out through the quiet darkness.
A black haired man with a charming face along with a leopard walked towards the side of the path, eyeing something from the dusty walls.
Lucas faintly brushed his finger over the walls.
The walls depicted several illustrations, seemingly from an ancient historical past.
In the first section, the image of a glorious world filled with magnificent magic and wonders was drawn.
Something that made Lucas extremely intrigued was the large thing that floated around the world.
It was a symbol of infinity with a large appearance that can seemingly cover the whole world. Under the symbol, the civilization beneath was forever still.
The next image was more strange. Several figures, clothed in ashen white robes, gathered around a palace of blood and created something.
The palace of blood was filled with torn apart limbs, eyes and organs. But none of the white robed figures seemed to care and gave all their attention to the altar in the middle.
Near them, some others were kneeling in worship towards the thing within the altar. The thing in the altar was undescribable. It was chaos, in simple words.
Imagine a whole random of concepts thrown into one box, that was the appearance of it. It was a foreign mystery, incomprehensible by the human mind and unreachable by mortal imagination.
Even Lucas, with his great control over his mind, would seemingly forget the appearance and image of the thing within the altar after a few seconds.
Leaving things be, Lucas walked forward to the last section.
The last image was cut short, making Lucas pause. This time… it took a darker turn of events. The glorious civilization was suddenly destroyed and shattered, its wonder light losing luster.
As for what destroyed everything, that part was strangely missing. Perhaps it was intentionally left out or not, but he couldn't help but feel nostalgic.
Somehow, it reminded him of his own territory in his past world. Before his inevitable death, he did genuinely try to develop his own city.
Not because of honor for his ancestors or pity for the inhabitants within it, they were the least of his concerns. The territory under him was akin to an experimentation ground where he could do anything at his will without consequences.
It was useful and thus he developed it well.
Lucas shook his head before continuing on.
From the remnant images that he saw, he could infer that there was once a thriving glorious civilization in the past. The civilization was particularly powerful and advanced to the point of being able to control concepts and touch the incomprehensible.
And then, somehow the civilization was destroyed.
"Murals… destroyed civilization…"
Lucas muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"....Did I perhaps transmigrated to a destroyed world?"
It was plausible. There were no signs of a proper civilization. He had been exploring this place where he woke up for a while now. Other than the strange wild entity he had killed and the ancient murals depicted on the walls, there were no signs of other sentient life.
It was like everything about this place was abandoned and destroyed.
"It seems my situation is getting trickier and trickier with more information."
Lucas pursed his lips, unamused.
"However, if this is a destroyed world… no, it's still too early to tell."
That would be horrible. It would be truly an inconvenience if the place he was truly standing on was a destroyed world.
If that was the case, then there would be a huge absence of resources, by proxy making his research progress infinitely slower.
That meant it would not only take him years and beyond to progress, he would have to risk through exploring every single little thing.
Until there's substantial evidence that this place is indeed a destroyed world, he wouldn't hope for it.
As much as possible, if he can't find an exit to this place he would switch his goal to trying to find sentient life.
If its sentient life—there should be one. No, there must be.
After a while of walking, they finally arrived at the end of the path.
Lucas stopped his steps, staring at the strange sight in front of him.
In front of him, a strange one-way door with complicated markings all over its design was situated.
Upon closer inspection, the markings all over the door were akin to characters in an undecipherable ancient language, seemingly containing undescribable rhythm in each stroke.
Lucas raised his brows, intrigued.
But the most notable part was not the markings themselves—it was the blunt hand-print carved in the middle of the door.
It was like an obvious sign bluntly telling the visitor to place their hand on the carved hand print if they want to enter.
For precautions, Lucas asked the Corrupted Leopard to be a heroic volunteer.
Not being able to reject, the Corrupted Leopard begrudgingly agreed—it raised its paw and landed it on the hand print.
…However, after a few seconds of silence, nothing happened.
The door didn't open. No trap or mechanism was activated.
The Corrupted Leopard pulled its paw back and purred.
'Hm, I was hoping it would work..'
Lucas mused. Then again, it was foolish to even think of putting a cat's paw in what evidently seens like a human hand print.
In his defense, he truly didn't want to put his own hand in there. Who knew if some kind of mechanism, worst a trap, activated upon touch.
However…
Lucas sighed and shook his head.
He figured he was not going anywhere with his too much of a prudent approach. He would need to take some risk—if he wanted to advance, that is.
"You. Take a step back."
Lucas turned to the Corrupted Leopard before pointing at the area slightly away from him.
If something truly goes wrong, then he still could use the little cat as a meat shield of some sort. Of course that was depending on the kind of trap or mechanism that will activate.
Best case scenario, there was no trap and the door will open.
Even Lucas hoped for that.
After the Corrupted Leopard retreated to where he was pointing, Lucas patted away the dust from his clothes and stared at the door in front him.
"Well, here goes nothing.."
Lucas raised his hand and dropped it on the carved hand print. Oddly enough it was a perfect fit.
And just in time—a rumbling erupted. The markings all over the door shone brightly. Before Lucas could even react, something occured.
The door opened and something pulled him over inside.
…Evidently, Lucas was cursed by the destiny to never have any hopes up.
After he was pulled inside, the door abruptly shut and the carved hand print vanished. Silence retained in the prehistoric ancient temple.
The Corrupted Leopard was struck with immense disbelief.