<h4>Chapter 156 Uncovering an evil scheme... Part-4.</h4>
"Uh… I think I know what this altar is for… I have seen a simr looking magic circle in one of the books in the academy''s library…" (Kira)
A look of hesitation appeared on Kira''s face, she said in a hesitant tone:
"T-this magic circle was used by the demons in the thousand-year war… to extract life force and artificially strengthen their soldiers…" (Kira)
Kira walked forward and pointed towards the various strange words written around the central area of the altar.
"I know thisnguage…" (Kira)
Hearing Kira''s deration, everyone looked at her with strange looks.
They all knew that Kira was indeed a theoretical genius, but nearly everyone in the whole group had a bad rtionship with Fade and Kira both, thus no one spoke or even nodded their head at her words.
Kira shook her head and exined.
"The demon army of that time seemed to have unlimited troops, but most of them were low-ranked cannon-fodder which were not capable of fighting the high-ranked individuals of other races…" (Kira)
"Thus they used artificial methods to create stronger demons… by forcefully feeding them the life force of thousands of warriors that died on the battlefield… including the life force of their own kind too…" (Kira)
All of a sudden Rio moved forward and asked in an emotionless tone:
"Just like what they tried to do in the ''Drift City massacre'' seven years ago?" (Rio)
Kira was surprised for a bit at Rio''s sudden question, she didn''t know how Rio knew about that incident, but she nodded her head.
"Indeed, just like the Drift City incident. They established an altar and wanted to sacrifice the life force of all the people that were killed in the Drift City, but the awakeners arrived on time and destroyed the altar…" (Kira)
"The ritual was stopped midway, if they had seeded they could have definitely created a new SS rank demon, although it would not have had the same strength as a genuine SS-ranker, but even if it was artificial it would still have been a genuine threat…" (Kira)
Rio nodded his head.
''Now things are clearing up a lot…'' (Rio)
"So, what I am trying to say is, this altar is quite simr to the one that the demon race uses to create artificial demons…" (Kira)
"And these orbs are quite likely the ''fuel'', or you could say the condensed life force of the dead beings, that work as the ''fuel'' of this altar and helps in producing stronger demons…" (Kira)
Kira pointed towards the weird writing and said in a solemn tone:
"See, here it''s written.. " (Kira)
*Any, who seeketh the strength of the demon kings, may provide a just sacrifice*
"And the conditions of the sacrifices are also mentioned here…" (Kira)
*Sacrifice to ''the Corrupted orb of soul and remnant wills'', your ''soul''*
*Sacrifice to ''the molten orb of magma'', your ''fear''*
*Sacrifice to ''the mesmerizing orb of time'', your ''future''*
"As described here, these are the conditions and sacrifices you need to fulfill to obtain all the three orbs…" (Kira)
Hearing the three sacrifices, Liam murmured.
"It seems that Link got that ''molten orb'' because he sacrificed his ''fear'' and jumped into the magma without any fear…." (Liam)
"To begin with, Link doesn''t fear anything anyway, so he didn''t actually need to make a proper sacrifice…" (Liam)
"Haha, I am amazing of course!" (Link)
"As for the ''time orb'', Mr. Damian sacrificed his own ''future'', he didn''t get to watch his daughters grow up and lost all the bonds he could have made in the future…" (Liam)
"Mr. Damian sacrificed his 10 year''s worth of ''future'' to that orb…" (Liam)
Hearing Liam''s deduction, Damian who heard everything, felt quiteplicated in his head.
"Sigh~ if only I hadn''t touched that orb…" (Damian)
Then Liam narrowed his eyes and stared at Rio with a solemn expression on his face:
"The only thing is, how did you get that orb Rio? If these conditions are true, then wouldn''t you have to sacrifice your ''soul'' to take that orb…" (Liam)
When Liam questioned Rio, Rio just shook his head and replied in his usual emotionless tone.
"No, I didn''t sacrifice anything… well, I have a skill that protected me from making a sacrifice… instead I think the soul orb might have sacrificed the soul of the undead that I was fighting earlier…" (Rio)
Hearing Rio''s answer everyone was relieved, they were worried that Rio might have to suffer like Damian, but it seemed he was doing okay.
Liam nodded his head and deducted:
"It must be that the orb changed the target of sacrifice when it didn''t work on you, and thus that undead knight''s soul got sacrificed instead, after all, it was the closest and strongest soul in your vicinity…" (Liam)
"Yeah, that''s entirely possible…" (Rio)
Even after Rio''s answer, Lia was still a bit concerned, she questioned Rio once again just for confirmation.
"You didn''t sacrifice right? Don''t lie to me… w-we might be able to find a way to save-" (Lia)
Rio put his hand on Lia''s head and said in a calm voice.
"Don''t worry, I am fine… these demonic schemes are too weak to work on me…" (Rio)
With Rio''s assurance, Lia finally put down her worries and acknowledged that Rio was okay. (It''s all thanks to ''True Immunity'', it really is a miraculous skill isn''t it…)
…
"Aside from the sacrifices there seems to be other things written here…" (Kira)
*The orb of soul made of the power of dead souls*
*The molten orb is made from the power of fear*
*The time orb is made from the power of stolen future*
Liam frowned and deducted further.
"It seems that all these orbs are made up of quite a few ''specific'' parts of a living being…" (Liam)
"The orb of the soul might be a condensed amalgamation of ''souls'' and ''remnant wills'' that died in the area of the battlefield…" (Liam)
"The molten orb might be the condensed form of the final emotions that the soldiers felt on the battlefield, which is obviously ''fear of death''…" (Liam)
"Other two are still fine, but this orb of time is more sinister than the others, it seems… it is condensed from the stolen future of the dead…" (Liam)
"Thousands of innocent people die in a war and their future ceases to exist… this orb might be preying on the ceased ''future'' of these untimely deaths…" (Liam)
Hearing all these deductions, everyone had a solemn look on their faces.
They all finally knew what the ''Evil scheme'' that the demons had nned in this ce.
All of a sudden everything dawned on Liam and he finally connected all the dots.
"I get it now… if my deductions are correct then… the demons dropped the ''Perfect Mana bomb'' in this ce not because they wanted to kill the dark elves…" (Liam)
"They did it because they wanted those millions of lives to create an extremely strong demon…." (Liam)
"And this ce is just a small imitation of the actual world..." (Liam)
"Which means, there must have been thousands of simr Altars created by the demons, which they must have used to harvest thousands of orbs created on the whole Maya continent…" (Liam)
Liam''s deductions were spot on. He had already guessed the whole n of the demon army.
"But did no one stop them from doing this atrocity?… howe the alliance of that time didn''t notice about this ''Evil Scheme''?…" (Liam)
Hearing Liam''s confused tone, Kira replied in a solemn voice:
"There are no records present in the current time about what happened on the Maya continent, right after the bombing… if there were… I would have already read them…" (Kira)
"It is very likely that the records might have been erased on purpose by someone…" (Kira)
[Ding! Congrattions! You have uncovered the secrets of the ''Hidden Dungeon of Maya'' sessfully!]
[Ding! You have sessfully conquered the dungeon!]
[Ding! You have found out about all there is to know in this dungeon!]
[Ding! The path to the Boss area is opened!]
With the sudden notifications, a huge portal appeared nearby.
[Ding! You can now challenge the boss!]
With the sudden appearance of the portal, everyone was confused and they all nced at each other with a look of doubt on their faces.
"It seems that we are on the right track guys… we have already fulfilled the conditions to enter the boss area…" (Liam)
"Moreover, we might find more about this ''Evil Scheme'' inside the boss area too… things are getting quite interesting now…" (Liam)
"Indeed" (Rio)
Everything that Kira and Liam exined went straight out of the minds of Riya, Fade, and Damian.
They didn''t understand a thing, but they knew that they were about to reach the end of this dungeon.
So they also cheered up with the others.
Rio just remained expressionless as ever, but he understood everything, now he knew what was going on in this dungeon.
Now, only a few more questions remained to be uncovered.
Link and Ellie didn''t put any mind into understanding it either, they were just standing there and nodding their heads, but they didn''t care about most of the part either.
They only wanted to fight, anything else didn''t interest them much.
Liam smiled and an excited look appeared on his face.
He pointed to the portal and said in an excited tone.
"Ellie let''s go, now I want to find out everything about this dungeon! It has sessfully raised my curiosity a lot!" (Liam)
Ellie nodded her head and led the way forward for Liam. (She transformed back into her human form earlier when they allnded on the altar…)
Rio tilted his head towards Lia and said:
"Now that we are already here, we should go and see it to the end…" (Rio)
Lia nodded her head and followed Rio into the portal.
"Well if Rio is going then I will too, let''s go!!" (Link)
And thus, everyone entered the portal one by one due to various reasons.
…
…
Author''s Notes.
Yo! It''s Your Beloved author here! I know this chapter is much longer than the other ones, but this is an important chapter guys, don''t me me if the word count is higher.
Question of the day.
Do you also think that Liam and Kira both have quite a good brain?
1.Yes
2.No
By the way, don''t forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.