The Glorious Evolution

”What happened in the past is no concern of ours,” Arthur said sternly. ”We must act quick and find the Sun Amulet and any other treasure before we are forced to leave... or god forbid, Dreads’ team and Buzzkill’s team get to them first.”

They were told that just their existence alone affected the stability of the site’s dimensional membrane... the layer that kept every planet and celestial body protected and hidden from the roots of the Tree of Death and Tree of Life reaching them.

But once there was a crack in this protective layer, or it became too weak... the two Primordial Trees’ roots would notice them instantly, like the Eye of Sauron atop the Dark Tower catching sight of anyone foolish enough to wear the One Ring.

In the case of Ashora’s Empire, the Primordial Tree of Death’s root got to them first, which made them linked to the Shadow Dimension.

Right now, the dimensional membrane was still holding... albeit extremely weak and unstable, it was still active, allowing the Shadow Dimension to slowly corrupt the planet instead of devouring it full out.

If they didn’t want to be there to witness it, they must act fast and efficiently.

”You’re right... time is of essence, and that’s why studying Ashora Empire’s history is an important step,” Levi replied while gazing at the murals. ”For a Radian to desire the Sun Amulet, it means it is a treasure heavily connected to the Ashora Empire’s rise and fall... it can’t be just a regular natural A grade treasure... a Radian will never look in its direction otherwise.”

”If we can uncover its location, the rest of the treasures will follow... it must be kept in a treasury, or at least near other treasures, given its immense significance to the empire.”

Hearing this, Jasmine and the girls nodded in agreement... they knew that Radians had access to such treasures quite easily... especially if they were related to Sun Laws.

The Sun Amulet must carry some sort of significance to the Radian... history-wise.

If it carried such significance to a Radian, it would be considered a sacred Relic to the Ashora Empire... which meant the answer of its location lay in the murals and any other historical piece that managed to survive time and corruption.

Unfortunately... the murals in the chamber spoke nothing about it, focusing more on the battles between the Ashora Empire and the Shadow Dimension’s invasion.

After Levi finished memorizing the important aspects of the murals, he faced Jasmine and requested with a hand sign.

-Can you get us out of here without the need to touch anything?-

Levi knew that the door could be opened through some sort of mechanism, but whether it worked or not, he had no intention of testing it out... He understood that the noise would be too loud, and he had yet to master a technique that could suppress sounds.

Although he was at 10% resonance access, it was still not enough for the complexity it would take to create a field that suppressed sounds... After all, creating sounds was one thing, and removing them entirely was another.

Jasmine nodded, and walked right away to the door. Then, she summoned her brush and tapped into her peculiar vision that turned the world black and white... besides the absence of color, it gave her the ability to see through objects like an advanced version of X-ray.

Then, she turned the door’s surface into a scroll and painted two dots... one next to them, and the other a few meters behind the door.

Once she signed it, the ink portals manifested and she showed her friends a thumbs up with a sweet smile.

”Having you and Levi on our side really feels like a cheat.”

Arthur grinned as he tried to deliver the same message through a broken sign language that he was learning on the side with the girls.

But all Jasmine and Levi read was:

-You and Levi are cheating.-

Still, both of them smiled in appreciation for his attempt to speak her language... Levi liked it when his brother went out of his way to learn anything new that was unrelated to muscles and strength.

Jasmine could see that Arthur and the girls had been working hard on their sign language in case neither dimensional messages nor Astra Ai would be much of a help.

The fact that all of them were putting such effort for her sake made her feel more included in their little party... for her? This was more love shown to her by anyone else than her father.

”If you weren’t too focused on learning cursing with sign language, you might have nailed it.” Jojo rolled her eyes at Arthur as they walked side by side towards the portal.

Instead of replying, Arthur lifted his hands with a faint grin... Then, he rubbed his palm in a slow circle over the top of his bare head, as if polishing something smooth.

Next, he jabbed a finger against his temple to make it clear what he meant... Without pause, he bent both hands up by his head, extending only his pinkies and index fingers like little horns.

A crooked grin manifested on his lips as he wiggled the horns and finished with clawed hands snapping forward.

Seeing this, Jasmine covered her mouth in amusement, knowing that he had just called Jojo a bald-headed demon again.

Then, she walked after Levi, leaving Jojo and Arthur behind bickering if he cursed her or not... of course, they were whispering throughout their fight.

However, after they stepped out of the ink portal, the mood shifted... they put a pause on their fight after noticing the corridor resembled a pathway to a demonic castle.

The yellowish walls were covered in shadowy sticky vines... and some of them were releasing faint black miasma, resembling pierced gas pipes in an underground tunnel.

”Use anti-corruption gels on your skin,” Levi ordered solemnly while pulling out a wooden totem in the shape of a small bottle.

Then, he murmured an incantation and opened the bottle, pouring a golden shimmering sticky liquid on his palm... He rubbed it over every inch of his exposed skin, making it shimmer with a faint golden hue.

The others did the same too, creating a protective layer against the corruption... this totem was a must when exploring ancient distorted sites since the corruption was highly concentrated in sealed areas compared to being in the open.

That’s because they couldn’t use any totem that removed the corruption entirely in those sites without affecting its stability.

After smearing themselves, Levi led the way in the direction of the exit... the corridor was long and split into many other corridors, resembling a minimized labyrinth.

However, after walking for a few minutes, Levi stopped them with a hand extended backward... then, he lifted one finger and pointed it at the right turn that awaited them.

Everyone understood that he meant a Corrupted was lying there. Jasmine stepped forward and signed.

-Do you want me to create a portal behind it?-

-No, keep your energy saved.-

Levi shook his head, knowing that Jasmine’s abilities consumed too much energy depending on their complexity... a spatial ink portal obviously devoured a sizable chunk with each utilization.

Levi pointed at Nurah and gave a slight head nod. When it came to silent takedowns, Nurah was the second best behind Levi... but Levi didn’t want to waste his spiritual energy this early on a mob, understanding that its recovery took way too long compared to solar energy.

No words traded, Nurah drew her dagger and walked in front, her footsteps were as light as a panther... once she arrived at the turn, she peeked with one eye and saw the slumbering Corrupted in the middle of the corridor, blocking the exit.

It was curled tightly, its giant body hunched and wings folded inward... Feathers clumped in blackened tufts, leaking faint trails of black miasma between cracks spread across its body. Its beak rested against its chest, and with every heavy breath it took, it released a faint shadowy gas as though the corruption itself exhaled with it.

’Corrupted... for it to survive for this long without substance, the corruption is really a zombie-like virus.’

Nurah thought inwardly as she used her ability to connect her shadow with the Corrupted. Then, she slowly lowered her hand, causing the Corrupted to sink into its own shadow.

Immediately after it disappeared, she gestured for the rest to move quickly. They increased their walking speed until they got out of the corridor. Once Nurah caught up to them, she deactivated her latest Pathfinder first stage innate ability... Shadow Slip.

The Corrupted slowly rose up from its own shadow and remained slumbering in its place like it had never moved.

Only when they put a decent distance between them did Levi whisper, ”We will be heading towards the depth of the temple... stay alert, our path is infested.”

Levi didn’t need to warn them... the moment they stepped out of the corridor, their eyes caught sight of dozens of Corrupted slumbering across the ruined hall. If not for the windows and the massive triangular gaps in the roof, where the moonlight and starlight seeped through, they would have been impossible to notice... their skin was as dark as the night itself.

”Silent Step Totem.”

Levi ordered under his breath as he scanned the spread-out Corrupted, wanting to find the best and safest path from their position to the door on the other side of the hall... He could see with his harmonic spine that most of the rooms had nothing in them but the Corrupted, and erased murals, failing to survive like the ones he saw in the Prayer Hall.

Meanwhile, he was able to see a hidden sealed chamber in the depths of the temple... his harmonic spine’s ’auditory vision’ range weakened immensely when it reached there, making him incapable of detailing its interior.

But it didn’t take a genius to realize that a hidden chamber either implied a safety bunker or a treasury.

After everyone applied the totem on their soles besides Nurah, who had an inbuilt silent step from her first perfect evolution mutation, Levi ordered them to remain in a line and follow his exact steps. Then, he walked calmly in the direction of the slumbering Corrupted, weaving between them with unflinching confidence.

Silent Step Totem gave them about two minutes of walking without emitting any noise or pressure... it was like their trails were being erased.

And yet...

Grrrrrrr...