"Ask Andrea why she brought us here," Lu Li said to the Elder Sister, unfolding the map.
They had never been here before. These ruins were supposed to be sowhere between Belfast and Himpfast, but their location wasn't marked on the map.
Lu Li tried to recall if there were any ruins on the southern coast of the Allen Peninsula, but he ca up with nothing.
"It says this is your destination," the Elder Sister replied from beneath his hood.
Andrea had mistaken these ruins for the port of Himpfast.
A mistake, yet it felt like so sort of coincidence.
"Mr. Lu Li, the Everlasting Drear's prediction..." Prusius reminded Lu Li, having rembered sothing.
A soft rustle of paper...
Folding the newspaper, Lu Li surveyed the ruins, which were shrouded in a grayish-white haze.
The misty weather didn't leave much mystery to these ruins; ti had eroded everything that could be carried away. Standing in the center, one could take in almost the entire site at a glance.
Still, there were so oddities. For example, all the statues were missing their faces. This wasn't natural damage; their heads bore the distinct marks of a chisel.
"Are there any anomalies here?"
"I don't feel anything!" the Elder Sister said, retreating back into the hood.
After a mont's thought, Lu Li addressed Katerina and the others, who were looking to him for direction.
"Explore the ruins, but don't wander too far."
"Alright!"
Prusius sensed they had never been closer to an answer. He eagerly scampered off, his face pressed to the ground as he sniffed, saring it with dust.
Katerina headed in the opposite direction. Drawing her dagger, she moved like a panther, her back slightly arched as she began to investigate the ruins.
"I... will protect you."
Ofelia remained by Lu Li's side.
"Thank you."
Lu Li moved deeper into the ruins.
Stone columns stood everywhere, interspersed with toppled statues. Lu Li calmly searched for any traces that didn't belong here, such as writing, disordered footprints, or bodies.
With gravel crunching under his feet, Lu Li stepped into the center of the ruins.
From here, he could see Prusius and Katerina hunched over and sniffing in the mist. Out on the surface of the sea, the enormous black silhouette of Andrea was faintly visible.
Lu Li's foot struck sothing in the gravel. He cleared away the surrounding stones, revealing a square block protruding from the ground.
"There's an entrance here!"
Suddenly, Katerina's cry ca from his left.
Lu Li looked over and, along with Prusius who had co running on all fours, walked toward Katerina.
She was standing by the fragnt of a statue. Behind it, a deep, subterranean passage opened downward.
"Do you recognize these claw marks?"
Lu Li examined the claw marks around the edges; the cavern had been dug out by them.
"It's about twice our size, with fur, and limbs as flexible as arms," Katerina analyzed the characteristics of the anomaly that had left the marks. She took out a piece of fluorite and tossed it into the cavern.
The stone, emitting a faint glow, flew straight for so distance, struck the edge, bounced out of sight, and the sound of it rolling faded into the depths.
The passage veered to the side about four or five ters down.
"I... will go down first."
Ofelia spoke up, preparing to enter the cavern to investigate.
"Be careful."
"I... love you, too," Ofelia confessed hoarsely to Lu Li. Under the strange gazes of Katerina and Prusius, she crawled into the passage.
A strong sll of sothing burning wafted from the entrance, and in the dark cavern, dim patterns ignited like glowing embers.
The rustling sound disappeared into the depths of the passage. As the few people on the surface waited quietly, Ofelia's rough whisper echoed back.
"There's a cave... they're... gone."
"We're going down too," Lu Li said.
Katerina stopped him. Gripping her dagger between her teeth, she took the oil lamp and descended second.
A mont later, Katerina's call ca from the edge of the light.
"Co on down."
Lu Li picked up Prusius and slid into the cavern, holding him.
The dark-red patterns in the cracks of Ofelia's body dimd. Katerina returned the oil lamp to Lu Li, picked up the fluorite and put it away, then looked at the rock wall Lu Li was examining.
The tunnel led from the surface into this cavern, and the edges of the cavern showed signs of being worked by human tools.
"Is this a mine?"
"Or a shelter," Lu Li replied, his gaze shifting.
He knew there was a shelter on the Allen Peninsula.
Tesla and Baroness Joseph had been there... and the shelter had never been opened.
"A shelter? Here?"
Katerina looked up in surprise.
"We'll find out if we keep going," Lu Li's gaze fell on the depths of the cavern.
There were, however, other possibilities. For instance, it could be an abandoned mine or a cave dug by an exorcist long ago to deal with these ruins. But the probability of a shelter being deep inside was higher—
Anomalies wouldn't dig a tunnel leading here for no reason.
And there was the prediction from the Everlasting Drear, pointing to this very place.
Hopefully, they weren't too late.
Ofelia, the strongest among them, led the way.
Prusius followed behind Lu Li and Katerina, at their feet.
"Where did the anomaly's tracks go?"
Being closest to the ground, he hadn't found any tracks from the anomaly.
"Blown away by the wind?"
Katerina wet a finger by biting it, held it up, and shook her head at Lu Li, who was watching her.
"There's almost no wind here..."
"Perhaps its fur brushed them away."
The tunnel was still fresh; it hadn't been long since it was dug. At the very least, it hadn't existed before the last rain.
As they ventured deeper into the cavern, what they saw along the way confird Lu Li's suspicions.
Stone gates with breaches clawed out by the anomaly, winding steps descending hundreds of ters, several secret doors that blended into the rock but had been forced open by the anomaly—no one would build such things underground without a purpose.
Thud.
After passing through the last hidden door, the echo of a falling stone confird it: they had reached a space that was presumably the shelter.
This vast underground world was dark and silent.
The shelter appeared to have been abandoned for a long ti.
"There's... a sound over there."
Ofelia turned her head toward a corner of the subterranean space.
"Let's go take a look."
The oil lamp dispersed the surrounding darkness as they walked past a cluster of huts. The accumulated dust and decay indicated that these hos hadn't been inhabited for years, if not longer.
After more than ten minutes of walking through the shelter, they reached the stone wall from which Ofelia had heard the noise.
They saw a breach in a hidden door and heard chaotic sounds from behind it.
There was another space deeper within the shelter.
Slipping through the breach and continuing down a dark, descending passage, they finally saw the invading anomaly in its entirety: its body was even larger than they had imagined, its fur like a fluffy ball with dozens of slender, monstrous claws protruding from it.
They heard loud shouts from the other side, which was blocked by the anomaly—they were human voices.
"Can you handle it?" Lu Li asked Ofelia.
"It's... afraid... of fire."
A dark-red glow flickered in the cracks of Ofelia's body, slowly seeping out...
A scorching wave of heat forced Katerina and the others to retreat involuntarily. Only Lu Li, shielded, remained where he was, watching as lava erupted from Ofelia's body, flowed around him, and rushed toward the anomaly.
The fur beca the anomaly's undoing; the lava turned its coat into a ball of fire, and even its flesh began to burn.
A sudden, agonized howl erupted as the anomaly was consud by the lava and an even greater force.
The gradually dissipating anomaly revealed the scene on the other side: residents of the shelter, holding weapons and torches, were confronting the creature.
Lu Li's silhouette was also revealed.
Amidst the smoldering remains, which glowed dimly like dying sparks, a river of pulsating, crackling, dark-red lava flowed beside him.
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