Eric's laughter was cut short when a part of the ruin fell over, and something began to approach them.
"Are you sane?" Olivia shouted, clearly irritated.
All Eric could do was ask himself the same question, 'I may be going slightly insane… or perhaps I already am.'
There was no time for feeling regret, as heavy footsteps shook the ground, and something began to approach.
A golem, about 4 meters in height, revealed itself. Its body was made from black stone, and a gem was shining in its head.
There was also what looked like a glowing rune on its back.
Without hesitation, Aria summoned her sword and slashed, sending an arc of light trailing forward towards the giant
Olivia used her whip to wrap it around the giant's legs, preventing it from moving.
Then the arc of light that Aria had created collided with the body of the giant. It didn't cut it in half, but it made a devastating wound.
Tough, unsurprisingly, being a golem and all, it didn't bleed, so it didn't bother the giant much.
At least it shouldn't have, but while the girls distracted the giant, Eric had moved on pure instinct, appearing just behind the giant.
Summoning his sword, he gritted his teeth as his desires were amplified, then slashed at the glowing rune on the back of the giant
At the same time, a second arc of light that Aria had created reached the glowing gem on the head of the giant.
Both the rune and the gem stopped glowing, and the giant collapsed to the ground, dead—or considering that it wasn't alive, maybe it was more accurate to say that it was deactivated?
Olivia statred daggers at Eric, her vocie firm as she spoke, "don't do something as stupid like that again,"
All Eric could do was nod silently.
Trying to change the subject, he spoke, "But why are there runes in the middle of the volcano?"
Both of the girls were silent for a moment until Olivia cursed and used the gem to open the map. Mimicking the gesture, Eric did the same thing.
The map, being two-dimensional, still showed that they were about a kilometer away from reaching the cathedral.
"I didn't want to consider it… but now," Olivia spoke, her voice filled with anger.
"The guardian may be stronger than we were told," Aria finished.
Eric raised an eyebrow. "Stronger than expected? Why would you think that?"
Aria met his gaze as she explained, her voice firm.
"The first clue was the map acting irregularly. Usually, there could be a lot of different reasons for this, but…"
"Now that we have seen ruins," Olivia continued, "something that is clearly man-made in a volcano, a place where no man would build such a thing, it could only mean one thing."
"The guardian most likely has the ability to manipulate time and space," Aria muttered, gripping her sword tighter.
"Time and space?" Eric asked, a little shocked. "Isn't this impossible to manipulate?"
"Usually yes, but if the creature is strong enough...," Olivia muttered as she inspected the body of the golem.
"How strong are we talking about?"
"Before we began the expedition, we were told that the guardian would be Mid-Grade 5 at most… but now it seems it's High-Grade 5 at least."
"This is just one tier difference, right? It's not even a whole grade, so it shouldn't be that big of a scale in strength."
"One tier difference becomes a large jump in strength when we're talking about the higher grades, Eric," Aria explained.
"For instance, there are some grandmasters who could take on Mid-Grade 5 in a fight, but to defeat a single High-Grade 5, you would need at least several grandmasters, and this is if you get lucky."
Eric was lost in thought. This whole expedition was supposed to be possible on the premise that he could scratch the guardian with his sword and slowly kill it with his Soul Flame.
If that creature really was that overwhelmingly powerful, that he couldn't even reach it or pierce its tough skin, how could they stand a chance?
"Alright," he spoke. It was clear the situation was turning from bad to worse, so all he could do was try to act calm, like they were somehow going to get through this.
"I suggest we take a rest in these ruins while we think of some kind of plan."
The girls didn't object, so after checking if the ruins had any more surprises, like the sleeping golem, they made themselves comfortable.
Or at least as comfortable as a person could be in the death zone.
*****
Eric was sitting on the ground with a grim expression. Maybe he would have explored the ruins, tried to uncover some of the mysteries of this world.
But now he was in too bad of a mood because of everything going on.
He shifted his gaze to a window that was always present.
-----
[Current Essence: 87]
-----
His time was running out. Staying in one place meant that the thing that was supposed to hunt him was drawing closer.
And he had to fight an enemy that somehow could manipulate both space and time?
His essence was dropping, so he couldn't just leave the volcano and try to challenge another cathedral in such a short amount of time.
He was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
And no idea was coming to him.
He opened his status with the hope it might give him some sort of clue.
He hadn't checked it in a long time, fearing the loss of his essence, but seeing as the end was near, there was no need to be careful anymore.
-----
[Status]
Race: Human
Name: Eric
Traits: Blinding Star, The Last One, The Cursed One, Punching up, Charmed, Fearless (evolving), Last Stand
Soul: Faint (evolving)
Miracles: The Cursed Set
Reminisces: EMPTY
-----
As he scanned his status window, his eyes froze as the gears in his head began turning.
He began muttering gibberish to himself, which caught the attention of the girls.
"Eric, is something wrong?" Aria asked, looking at him with concern.
Hearing her voice, he slowly turned his head towards her, his eyes suddenly shining darker crimson as he spoke.
"I think I know how to liberate the cathedral."