"Hmm..." Brangara frowned the mont the curtain of night ca into view. His expression mildly shifted upon seeing Wally’s casual display of confidence. ’This might be a bit more of an issue than I thought.’
His gaze then lingered upon Nirat for a second longer, ’He’s plenty strong, but I can’t expect him to hold a candle against these two. Most of all, he isn’t an ally.’
Brangara had reached the Death Tentacle Ruins earlier than the duo of Wally and Zhya. It was thanks to his travel speed using his Empyrean Boar King form, coupled by a psychokinesis boost.
He had entered the Sandy-Grey Void patch to explore, only to exit in frustration, for he was unable to find the ruins. Irrespective of which direction he charged into the region, he failed to make contact with any concrete structure that could resemble a Mystic Tentacle Ruin.
After a few hours of repeated failures, Brangara arrived at a conclusion. The Death Tentacle Ruins was buried within the grey sand. And a certain key was necessary to open it.
Without the key, it was impossible to enter the ruins. After all, even Brangara wouldn’t succeed in digging through the grey sand, for it would keep consuming his body. And in the darkness, without light or sound, it was impossible to make heads or tails of the situation either.
If he were to stay stuck within the Sandy Grey Void, and worst of all, lose his sense of direction, then he’d be consud whole eventually, despite his resistance. He could build up resistance, which was a Mystic Human characteristic. But immunity wasn’t part of the build.
After his failure, Brangara searched through the Drenta Human Alliance in search of clues and figured out the alliance conducted large raids at least once a century, after imnse preparations. He also ca to know about the existence of a key, which would reveal the ruins.
However, there was just one key. And this key was in Nirat’s possession. Brangara approached the other party to ask for the key, only to be stalled by Nirat, who didn’t seem to budge in the slightest against trade, threat, bribe, etc.
So in the end, he simply decided to wait until the stakes were more in his favour. And they did turn in his favour the mont Wally and Zhya arrived.
Nirat was confident in stalling Brangara for as long as possible on his own. Linked Transfer gave him the necessary edge to last against Brangara, especially after linking himself to the other party’s Tertiary body.
Of course, he would still be defeated by Brangara in the end, but once the Drenta Human Alliance’s powerhouses join hands with him, they should be able to last against Brangara.
But that all changed when Wally and Zhya entered the mix. The mont Nirat saw the duo, he knew he couldn’t even stall for ti against them, must less offer a decent amount of resistance.
Even if he were to link himself to Wally’s Subtle Terrain Domination, it would take him a while to get even decent with the Nature. Being decent was no different from not having the Nature, especially against Wally whose skill level in terms of Subtle Terrain Domination had reached the peak for Empyrean Snappers.
Zhya’s Primary Nature was sothing he could handle, but it was an accumulative Nature. Without sufficient resources, it was impossible to do anything with it. Her Secondary Nature of Accel Growth was pretty useful, to the extent Nirat wanted to obtain a similar variant in his build, but even that would do nothing against the duo.
"Please stay within a five-tre radius of ." Saying so, Nirat used his Human Avatar form on his index finger. It began to release a tinge of heat and light as the rope ladder closed in on the Sandy-Grey Void patch.
’I can only hope to explore the ruins with them and gain benefits along the way. At most, I can hope they aren’t interested in the items the Drenta Human Alliance needs.’ That was Nirat’s thought process.
The rope ladder entered the Sandy-Grey Void patch, and imdiately in response, Nirat’s expression paled. Without hesitation, he bellowed, "Run up!"
He punched forth a Spirit Weapon at the rope ladder and pushed himself up against its height. He quickly scaled upwards with a frightened expression.
Zhya and Brangara too followed suit without hesitation. Rather, even though they took action a tad later than Nirat, they moved past him before his first jump.
Wally lingered at his spot a mont longer and eyed the curtain of night before him. The section of the rope that had entered the curtain of night seed to be losing its tension. He felt its fibres transforming into grey sand and frowned, ’This speed is faster than the grey sand available at the border.’
The progression of the grey sand’s effects through the rope ladder stopped under Wally’s will as he turned around and addressed Nirat, "With here, the Sandy Grey Void isn’t a threat."
"No," Nirat shook his head in a hurry, "There’s a grey sand storm inside. It is exceptionally risky as it can harness its strength to attack us."
"Oh," Wally’s lips curled up into a smile as he waited a few seconds for the rope ladder to continue its descent and then entered the Sandy-Grey Void.
Once his surroundings turned pitch-black and grew silent, Wally released his Prana detection ans, observing a storm of grey sand in his vicinity, like a monster intending to devour him. The Prana used in the detection ans was assimilated by the grey sand, so he couldn’t detect farther into his Spirit Weapon range.
Chomp!
The grey sand suddenly curled into a jaw and snapped shut upon him. Jagged teeth in the form of mini tornadoes covered the jaw, drilling into the barrier Wally had erected. He was employing a film of grey sand to resist the attack, watching as the grey sand under his control was steadily being assimilated into the ambient grey sand.
’Hmm?’ Wally noticed a droplet of sweat trickle down his temple as in his Prana detection ans, the visage of a jaw’s insides was getting more and more defined, ’A Transcendent’s influence has shaped this grey sand to behave as such. It’s nothing new to .’
"Get...lost!" Wally grunted and spiked his power to disperse the grey sand jaw. He sensed the grey sand fall onto the ground and not get up again. Now, his Prana detection ans was able to scan the entirety of 180 tres.
The skin prickles only detailed a sandy ground. In the air were faint particles of grey sand that were steadily falling down.
Wally grabbed the rope ladder and pulled himself out, "It’s safe now."
He stared at Nirat’s obviously startled expression and smiled faintly, "Shall we get going now?"
’That storm...was dealt with?’ Nirat staggered, unable to calm down, ’How many...just how many droves and droves of people did we sacrifice just to get past this point...!’
The grey sand jaw was the first threat the Drenta Human Alliance had to deal with upon entering the Sandy-Grey Void. They had teams ready to sacrifice themselves just to endure the grey sand jaw long enough for the rest to run past.
In their records were tales of innurous deaths, of Free Humans to the jaws. And that threat...was so casually neutralised by Wally. Not figured out an escape route, not diverted it sowhere else, nothing of the sort. He basically endured the jaw was no more.
Secondary Nature—Subtle Terrain Domination!
Nirat had subtly linked his Secondary Nature slot to Wally’s Primary Nature. The other party didn’t even sense any fluctuation when this happened. The connection ford instantly, the mont Nirat thought of forming one.
In silence, he led the team into the Sandy-Grey Void patch. And the mont he set foot inside, tears stread down his eyes, ’The world...is unfair!’
His Prana detection ans created a distorted imagery of a mini tornado, barely a few centitres tall form near his feet. The Prana he used in his detection ans was getting absorbed by the grey sand upon contact, hence the distorted imagery.
However, upon employing Subtle Terrain Domination, the distortion vanished. Now, there was a clear imagery, as if he were sensing not the infamous grey sand, but regular, harmless sand. That wasn’t all either.
Nirat observed that, through the gaps between the particles of grey sand, his Prana was able to seep inside and create an imagery of the ground too. Of course, his Prana eventually dispersed too thin among the gaps and couldn’t maintain itself any further.
But by then, he could scan the grey sand up to a depth of four tres. FOUR TRES! That was insane in his perspective, for no detection ans was capable of even perceiving the surface clearly, much less the depths.
A region so terrifying that tens of thousands of their strongest died futile deaths now beca a strollable scenery to Nirat. And this was all due to the Nature he had linked himself to. ’Dangerous! He’s too dangerous!’
A warm light emanated from his index finger and illuminated a radius of five tres around himself. This light wasn’t quickly consud by the Sandy-Grey Void, allowing Nirat to illuminate his imdiate surroundings.
Though extrely dim, they were able to see now.
"Hoh?" Brangara whistled upon seeing the light and walked a bit closer to Nirat. His interest was garnered, for unlike the sibling duo, he recognised what Nirat was employing, ’It’s similar to Mahira Tusk’s inheritance!’
Dance of Annihilation!
It was left in the Brimgan Empire, within Mahira Tusk’s damaged tusk. The inheritance resembled an Empyrean Tusk in the mind space, one that could move on its own will. Virala had used this to defeat Brandal Brimgan, which otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.
Because at that point in ti, Virala wasn’t even a powerhouse in the top hundred, while Brandal Brimgan was the fourth strongest on Sumatra.
’So, that inheritance wasn’t a Mahira Tusk exclusive, huh?’ Brangara thought in interest as he eyed Nirat, ’A Mystic Tentacle’s inheritance...I wonder what all it holds.’
If the Death Tentacle Ruins had another of such an inheritance, he wanted it. Even otherwise, it didn’t matter, since he had the Mystic Human Stamp. He could take Nirat’s inheritance.
He then felt a spike in presence fluctuation through his eyes, growing alert imdiately, ’It’s almost ti, huh?’
’I should hurry then.’ He stared at Nirat to ask, communicating using sign language, "Can you make the ruins show itself?"
’The Seat is about to reveal itself now.’
Reviews
All reviews (0)