The path to the Archive was not long, but it felt that way to Kieran and the rest of the Thirteenth Dawn.
Whether it was because of all they had experienced in the Dying City.
Or it was because of the fear that was in their hearts.
Or because that was what they were truly feeling.
They had no idea, but the closer they got to the towering Archive, the heavier the weight in the air was.
It was not enough to cause them to suffocate or cause their instincts to flare up, but it was enough for them to be wary of what they could encounter.
Although in the eyes of others, the Archive just looked like an ancient ruined building, Corey could see how vastly different it was compared to before from his Eyes of Omniscience.
Zeke walked with a lazy expression at the back of the group, but his mouth was anything but quiet.
"You know... if we walk in there and we see either a building filled with monsters, or traps, and the building suddenly explodes... I just want to say I told you so in advance," he muttered, just loud enough for Kieran and the others to hear.
Myra shot him a look. "Zeke, don’t."
He shrugged with the sa lazy expression. "I’m just saying."
"It’s always the quiet ones. Old, abandoned mysteriously different buildings in cursed death cities. That’s horror story 101. We walk in, and the walls begin to bleed, sothing screeches in extrely dark places, and then Boom!... Sothing extrely scary happens."
"What sort of fucked up horror stories do you watch?" Rhys muttered in disbelief.
Zeke wiggled his fingers with a smile, "The best horror stories."
"You’re going to jinx us," Aelric said dryly without giving Zeke a glance.
"Bro. If we walk in there and sothing bursts out from underground, rember this conversation."
Zeke’s voice was light, but his eyes weren’t. He kept glancing at the Archive with thinly veiled suspicion.
Kieran suddenly slowed his steps, and everyone else noticed.
"... Kieran?" Myra asked.
Kieran’s eyes were narrowed and focused on the towering structure, and for so reason, his instincts were warning him of sothing. He felt like he was missing out on sothing.
His brows furrowed deeply. "Sothing’s not right. I don’t know what it is, but... sothing’s off."
’What could it be? Why do I feel like sothing is wrong?’
’Wait... The mana... There’s no mana or any other type of energy radiating from the building. All the other buildings radiate even the slightest amount of mana in them.’
Kieran’s eyes widened in realization, and Corey glanced sideways at him. His expression, and then he subtly tapped the ground with his toes.
The ground vibrated so faintly to the point that none could sense it, but below the earth and above the sleeping monster, earth spikes suddenly impaled several parts of its body.
It caused no injury to the monster, but what it did was wake the monster up from its sleep.
Before Kieran could tell the others what he had figured out...
BOOM!!!
The Archive suddenly exploded.
There was no warning. No flare of mana. Just a sudden and violent blast of sound and pressure.
The glass windows of the Archive shattered, its ancient stone walls cracked into a million pieces, and waves of dust, rocks, and several debris billowed outward like a living thing.
An imnse shockwave blasted the party off their feet.
Dust and ash surged into the sky, and from the crater where the Archive had once stood... ca a roar.
The roar tore through the air, and it wasn’t a roar of pain, pride or hunger, but rage.
Just pure fury.
Corey could feel the imnse hate radiating out of the monster that it made the very ground quiver beneath them.
Its perception swept the ground above, and Corey knew that it was looking for the culprit that woke it up... The unfortunate source of its rage.
The Thirteenth Dawn were extrely disoriented and shaken by what just happened, but they were quick to react.
They had experience, and without hesitation, they got to their feet.
And then they saw it.
From the crater of the Archive, the earth split.
A spiraling tower of stone and shattered ruins of the Archive erupted skyward, and within this ruins was a form... A monstrous form.
It was segnted like a worm and plated in tarnished bronze-black armor. Dozens of pale, blade-tipped hands dangled from its underside like roots with so dragging along the ground.
Its body was massive, at least five hundred ters long, and it was also coiled like a serpent around what remained of the Archives’ shattered foundation.
Its three eyes glowed vertically along its faceless head- red, gold, and blue.
anwhile, the stitches along the vertical slit on its face bulged with every twitch, almost like they were trying desperately to hold sothing in.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
They were frozen in fear, and visible sweat could be seen dripping from their foreheads and bodies.
Why?
Because they could feel the aura of a Tier 6 radiating from the monster.
"Zeke," Myra said in a dead voice so monts later. "You jinxed us."
"Huhh... Yeah. Okay. That one’s on ... I’m sorry." Zeke with his face twitching between a strained smile and a crying face.
"RUN!" Kieran roared.
And in an instant, they all ran.
The group turned and sprinted with no hesitation, and no plan.
The only thing that was on their mind was survival.
That was their goal.
The monster’s roar ca again, and the Dying City trembled.
Windows shattered in buildings several blocks away, and dead trees that were kiloters away swayed and were uprooted.
Its spines surged flared as it surged forward, breaking through stones and whatever that was in its path like paper.
Debris rained from the sky.
Its tentacle-hands whipped through the air and slamd down with a force that cracked the earth.
One struck the ground behind Zeke, and he was flung forward with a curse escaping his lips as he rolled twice before scrambling up.
"What the hell is that thing?!" he yelled, but no one answered.
If he knew that Myra and the others were cursing him for jinxing them, he would not be so surprised.
anwhile, Corey’s eyes were calm, but even he didn’t underestimate the threat the monster posed.
’It’s faster than I thought.’
The group split naturally and instinctively, knowing that staying together was a bad thing to do against such a monster.
Myra and Aelric veered to the left, dragging the blind Rhys between them.
Kieran took the front, pulling Yara with him like she weighed nothing.
Corey moved on the far right, slightly behind the group.
And that’s when it happened.
Corey’s eyes flashed and he looked down.
A section of the broken road collapsed beneath Corey’s feet.
’I didn’t do this... Should I say I’m lucky or unlucky?’
Corey thought with a calm expression, as he calmly swerved his head to the right, dodging the creature’s attack.
The creature’s tail, or perhaps just another part of its grotesque body, had suddenly appeared beneath him.
It had targeted him, and the ground gave way.
He dropped without attempting to stop it in any way.
"RYAN!" Kieran yelled, but there was no ti for him to run towards Corey.
The monster was moving again.
It roared once again, and another slam of blade-tipped hands on the ground along with more debris flying around.
Zeke gritted his teeth when he saw Kieran staring in the hole Corey had fallen into. "We have to move! If we stay here, we die!"
Kieran hesitated for only a breath, and then he nodded. "Regroup further down! Find cover! We co back if we can!"
Everybody scattered once again, and the dust thickened all around the ruins of the Archive along with the screeches and roar of the creature.
Stone fell like rain... And Corey?
He landed hard in the lower ruins of the Archive. He was isolated, and he could hear the sounds of his fleeing allies growing fainter and fainter.
He remained on the ground for a second with his eyes half-closed, before he released a sigh and slowly got to his feet.
He looked up.
The monster was still rampaging through the surface. But its eyes...
Its red, gold, and blue eyes were no longer on its head but on another part of its body, staring directly at him in fury and blazing in killing intent.
Corey straightened fully, and dusted his body. He stretched out his right hand, and his Genesis Armant appeared in his hand, humming loudly while emitting an aura that made the world tremble.
The creature’s eyes beca solemn, and its body began to descend. Its head looked down at him from above, and fury leaked from its stitched maw like a storm ready to break.
A smile appeared on his face, and he wrote in the air with two fingers.
Flaming words appeared in the world, and although the monster couldn’t read Corey’s words, Kieran and the others would have been able to read what Corey wrote.
"Thank you."
That was all Corey said before he dashed at the monster.
Why?
Because had gotten what he wanted.
Separation.
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