In the midst of the dark cave, the group led by Alvar spent several days recovering, finally managing to reach their full potential. During those days, they had received food twice, but without further instructions. In those days, the group also dared to open the cave to look outside, finding that although the half-destroyed temple remained the sa, the surroundings had turned into a lifeless desert.
This inevitably made everyone uneasy about their next steps. After all, they now depended entirely on the food sent through the portals, which closed quickly, as if fearing soone might try to slip through. A valid fear, since the idea was on everyone's mind. It's just that, upon seeing the youths of the Arcane Order surrounded by terrifying Golems, they thought twice.
But restlessness and fear were beginning to take root in everyone's minds, which generated doubts. This was especially the case for Alvar, who, although he was still the nominal leader of the team, the power had now completely passed to the youths of the Arcane Order, which inevitably made him feel uncomfortable.
This led Alvar to look at the youths of the Arcane Order with increasing suspicion. But fortunately, before his ideas fully took shape, the hologram finally appeared once more. Under the expectant gaze of all the present youths, Elara's figure appeared before them again and announced seriously.
"Things on our side have finally been organized. From now on, the portals will begin to open, and the Golems will escort you inside. Youths of the Arcane Order and designated leaders, when the portal opens at your positions, guide everyone inside the portals. We will be waiting for you on this side."
""Understood, Direct Disciple Belmonte!""
The pair of youths replied in unison, and soon the hologram disappeared. At that mont, Alphonse turned to look at his companion and comnted seriously.
"Following the instructions of Direct Disciple Belmonte, we will cross through the portals in order. As an act of good faith, we will enter in two groups, one led by my fellow disciple and the other by ."
"…"
Upon hearing Alphonse, the others turned to look at Alvar. At that mont, one of the sorcerers from the Boreal League approached the young leader and whispered seriously.
"Should we follow them? It could be a trap."
"..." Alvar fell silent for a few monts but quickly shook his head and comnted seriously while looking at Alphonse.
"We will follow your arrangents."
"Perfect." Alphonse nodded, satisfied. At that mont, the sorcerer from the Boreal League nodded and stepped back.
After a few hours, the illusory water in the well began to fluctuate, and the door finally opened. At that mont, the Golems, which had been immobile until now, moved to create a corridor towards the portal. With great efficiency, the youths split into two groups led by Alphonse and Tobias and headed for the portal, with Tobias's group in front.
…
Upon passing through the portal, Alvar suddenly found himself inside what seed to be a square tallic fortress completely covered with densely carved runes. The interior, however, was fully illuminated, and for so reason, Alvar felt a strange heaviness in his body that he didn't know was there fade away.
But Alvar could not calm down. Instead, he tightly gripped the handle of his axe upon seeing the famous Tomás Arisndi before him, who was possibly the strongest person of the young generation. Furthermore, he was not alone; alongside the famous Tomás were six other fully ard youths, three mages and three knights, along with a small squad of 15 Golems.
"Welco. Before we proceed further, we need to ask you so questions."
Tomás comnted in a calm tone while looking at the newcors. At that mont, Alphonse and Tobias quickly stepped forward and spoke with serious tones.
"Reporting to Direct Disciple Arisndi, Revealed-level, Alphonse McLister."
"Reporting to Direct Disciple Arisndi, Ascended-level, Tobias Becker."
"Welco, follow ." Tomás nodded calmly while looking behind him, where several arranged chairs could be seen.
Soon, the entire group sat in the center. At that mont, Tomás began asking them their nas, families, specific power levels, and more. The group of youths began answering the questions one by one, but suddenly, a strange purple smoke started emanating from the body of one of the youths from the ridian Federation, surprising everyone, including the person in question.
But instead of being surprised, Tomás narrowed his eyes dangerously. In the blink of an eye, the youth releasing the strange purple smoke was on the floor, with Tomás standing over him, placing a foot on his neck and the tip of his sword in front of his face. With a cold voice full of killing intent, Tomás asked while staring into the eyes of the youth on the floor.
"You have two seconds to answer. Why are you under a blood curse?"
"No, you're wrong, I'm not—"
The youth, visibly panicked, tried to explain, but before he could finish, a subtle light shone from Tomás's sword, and the youth could see one of his fingers falling off, causing jets of blood to spurt out. With a cold voice, Tomás asked again while bringing his sword even closer to the youth's face.
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"Wrong answer. The next one is your entire arm."
"…"
The youth fell silent, staring fixedly at Tomás, but now his expression was completely different. On his face, there was no longer panic, but a calmness and coldness capable of chilling bones, making him seem like a totally different person. This change caused all his companions, who had intended to intervene, to freeze in their places as a sinister premonition enveloped them.
"An infiltrator, isn't that right?"
Tomás comnted with a cold smile, to which the youth remained completely silent, staring at Tomás with an expression devoid of any emotion. Having confird his suspicions, Tomás took from his storage bag a small tallic disc with carved runes forming different geotric patterns on the corners and channeled his mana into one of them.
At that mont, several dark chains ford out of nowhere, completely trapping the youth on the floor. Tomás turned to look at one of the Bikereas knights present and ordered in a calm voice.
"Take him away."
"Understood."
The youth quickly nodded, and soon two Golems moved to take the youth and head towards what seed to be the door of the tal fortress. anwhile, Tomás turned to look at the stunned youths and comnted in a serious tone.
"As you could see, this person was a hunter who infiltrated among you. Now you can proceed to the next room."
"All that questioning was to buy ti, wasn't it? Whatever you used to detect the curse takes ti to act." Alvar asked in a serious tone while looking at Tomás, who nodded calmly while sheathing his sword.
"You are very perceptive. You are right. We know the hunters have a curse that prevents them from ntioning anything about their motives, origins, and such, so we are using it to detect them. This makes three."
"I never noticed anything strange about him…"
The only youth from the ridian Federation couldn't help but murmur in disbelief, to which the others, including the two youths from the Arcane Order, couldn't help but nod with heavy expressions. At that mont, Tomás comnted in a calm voice, looking at the portal that was beginning to fluctuate slightly.
"Let's save the talk for later. I need to receive the next group."
Soon, Alvar and his group were guided by two Golems to go through a different door than the one used for the youth who had been taken away with the infiltrator. Soon, the group found themselves in a new room, equally made completely of tal, where they could see a young man with short black hair and red tips surrounded by two other warriors and two mages, plus nearly 30 Golems. He spoke in a serious tone the mont they entered.
"Pleased to et you. I am Direct Disciple Ethan Williams of the Arcane Order. I'm going to need you to remove all your equipnt and deposit it in the boxes the Golems will give you. It's simply a routine check. If everything goes well, you can proceed."
""Greetings, Direct Disciple Williams!"" Alphonse and Tobias quickly greeted in unison and began removing all their equipnt while Golems approached holding tallic boxes and cloth screens.
Although Alvar couldn't help but frown, upon rembering how soone had infiltrated among them without raising suspicion, he nodded to his other companions and began removing his equipnt. Once all the equipnt was in the boxes, leaving everyone almost naked, Ethan took a strange, thick tal ring full of runes that had a strange dallion inside.
Soon, the runes on the tal ring began to glow softly, causing the dallion to vibrate. Soon, the tallic boxes with runes began to glow one by one, all soon shining. With a nod, Ethan deactivated the tal ring and looked at the youths, then comnted in a calm voice.
"You are clean. You may proceed."
Soon, Alvar and the others put their equipnt back on and were guided to a new door, where they found a reception area attended by a youth from the Lotus Union behind a wooden table. He was accompanied by more Golems and a Fox Spirit in a corner. The youth was writing things frantically in several notebooks. When everyone entered, the youth rose from his place and took so wooden tablets with engraved runes, then comnted in a serious tone.
"Hello, everyone. I am Chen Ming of the Jade Lotus Union. You can now proceed to the designated cabins where you will find… If you have any questions, save them for the mont. Soon, we will have a eting with the leader of our team, Direct Disciple Erik, and you can ask your questions there."
Soon, everyone received wooden tablets and were guided by the Golems to climb tal stairs, where they found different rooms with numbers guarded by Golems. In the rooms, groups of six three-tier wooden bunks with white sheets could be seen.
After passing through several rooms, in which they could see youths from different factions, the group reached their designated room. They entered and sat on the beds while the Golems left.
…
…
…
In the workshop of Erik's portable shelter, Christine, Frank, and Erik himself were frantically carving runes into different magical artifacts when Zoe entered the workshop and headed straight for him. Seeing Zoe arrive, Erik stopped his hands and turned to look at her. At that mont, Zoe handed him a large number of sheets she was holding and began to report while Erik reviewed the docunts.
"Erik, your idea of using formations and the gas lamp to detect possible infiltrators was a complete success. We managed to identify 4 confird infiltrators and two suspects. One claims he has a curse because it's a family rule, and the other says he is an assistant to an artisan who signed a sowhat special contract.
"On the other hand, thanks to the communication dallion you managed to modify, we detected one person with an identical dallion and another with a perfectly functional communication talisman. They are currently detained and awaiting interrogation.
"anwhile, we have so far managed to rescue 157 youths who were divided into 21 groups that passed the two checks and are now in quarantine in the cabins. At the sa ti, the Golems managed to take down 23 'hunters' and 12 demonic cultivators, recovering 36 bodies of youths from the different factions."
"With the nearly 80 bodies we found in the cave, that's over 100 'dead'…" Christine couldn't help but stop what she was doing and comnt in a heavy voice. For his part, Erik, still reading the docunts, comnted, slightly surprised.
"The survival rate is higher than I expected… If we assu the suspects are innocent, that's 161 survivors confird."
"A mortality rate like that is terrible, Erik. Those who entered these ruins are not just anyone; they are the best of the best of the young generation of the galaxy. Even a 30% mortality rate would be considered catastrophic. If we can't get rid of the Illuminated levels, the mortality rate could exceed 50% or even 60%…" Zoe comnted in a solemn tone, to which Erik nodded seriously.
"You're right. Under normal circumstances, with all our defensive ans, the mortality rate should be very low. But for now, let's be glad we managed to rescue a good part of the youths who entered these ruins, and with so luck, there might be so more alive in the places we avoided."
"That is also true. Our actions prevented the worst possible scenario for humanity. Many were on the brink of death or starvation when we found them."
Zoe nodded with a smile, looking at Erik full of pride, since the reason all this was possible was thanks to him. His ideas and skills were what not only allowed them to survive but also gave them the ans to save others. For his part, Erik nodded thoughtfully and soon comnted in a serious tone.
"But since the situation is like this, we have to start preparing to attack the third exit. The ti has co to leave this hell."
***
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