A temple stood at the center of the cave chamber.
It was monstrous and exuded an ancient and eternal aura. The walls were carved with pristine white marble, the roof made with gold tiles, the doors made of light-colored wood, the windows made of pure diamond, and mana stones embedded to adore the temple.
In giant and flamboyant words, "Fearless Triumph Grand Magus" was written.
Henry's mouth opened wide in shock. He looked up from top to bottom and took in the beautiful scene before his eyes.
This place was illuminated by glowing mana stones embedded all over the ceiling of this massive cave chamber. It was like this place was outside because of the brightness.
Henry walked to the entrance and stared at the title of this temple.
It was the name of the magus who once occupied this place. It could be imagined that he was a fearless person in his life when he was roaming the world.
"A Grand Magus? That easy?"
Henry looked behind him and saw the hazing of the air at the cave passageway. It was very hot there, but it was not dangerous enough to lead to a former dwelling of a Grand Magus.
Henry could not remember much but a Grand Magus struck an awe-inspiring feeling within him. It was faint, but his instincts were telling him that this was too simple.
'It could be a trap,' Henry thought.
He took a deep breath and ultimately decided to open the two massive doors. An old and decaying wind spread out from within.
There were various pieces of furniture scattered about. They were all over the place. It seemed like a great battle took place here in the past.
Not only that, the wooden doors were rotten and the walls were covered in mold. It was a dilapidated temple.
Henry was astonished. He hurriedly went outside and looked inside the windows. He could see that everything was brand new and well-kept.
He entered again and saw the same objects, but they were scattered about.
"A time anomaly?"
Henry immediately realized what was going on. He only remembered a bit but a time anomaly is a fracture in the river of time in a location.
This led to illusions of the past and the future appearing in the present.
That also meant that Henry could be seeing the past inside or he could be seeing the future and the outside was the present. It was very confusing, so Henry went inside to take a look.
The temple was large.
At the front was a statue of a man holding a book. It was carved out of a giant piece of blue mana stone.
Henry was amazed as he looked at the book. He went closer to take a look and a shocked expression appeared on his face.
"Isn't that my magic tome?"
Henry looked up again and stared at the face of this person. He had no idea who this guy was, but he gazed forward, seemingly waiting for someone.
"It really is mine. Who is this guy?"
Henry was stupefied. Just who won that battle after his death? They seemed to have given his tome to a random person.
Although this guy was a Grand-class magus, Henry was sure that this person didn't deserve to own his item.
Henry looked around and found a pedestal. There was a paper there. It had writings written in an unknown language, or rather, it was written in the language of magic.
It was a page of the magic tome Henry owned in the past!
A sense of familiarity and longing appeared on his face. He took a deep breath and touched it. He ran his fingers across the paper and reminisced.
He could remember that he used to stare at this page in the past to understand what it meant. That was when he was still young when he first got the magic tome, and at that time, the magic tome was just a book he copied from a library.
Over the years, the magic tome became a powerful magic item because of Henry's work on it.
Thus, Henry was very familiar with this book. He could faintly sense the mana circuits he had carved along the page. They were imperceptible to the eye, but he could feel some parts that were particularly rough. Anyone else would think that was just a property of the paper.
"Book of Magic Essence…"
Henry smiled.
This was the 31st page. It described the method to alter time by using a great amount of mana.
This was also the place where the mana pathways of the world crossed and there should have been a mana nectar source here. Instead, they flowed into this page.
"It's time to return home, my book…"
Henry picked up the paper. Almost instantly, ashes fell down.
Time seemed to speed up and turned the whole temple into ashes. They rained down and the glowing mana stones stopped emitting light. Everything returned to dust.
The only light left was the faint glow of mushrooms scattered at the ceiling.
"Everything returns to the earth…"
Henry felt sad. He couldn't help but remember his past life.
He watched the beautiful but despondent scenery of the ashes swaying and falling to the ground.
A few minutes later, he shook his head and walked back to where he came from.
Instead of a temple, a huge pile of dust was there. Henry's previous footsteps could also be seen as he disturbed the ashes when he walked out.
The flow of time returned to normal. It was as if this place was like this in the first place.
"Maybe I wouldn't have gotten this page if I didn't force it earlier…"
Henry took a deep breath and waved his hand.
He waved to the past and said hi to the present. Whoever the Grand Magus was, he was long gone now.
Henry looked at the hot cave, and his face twitched. He would have to cross it again…