After leaving Alex behind, Sherry immediately headed north.
She moved carefully at first, constantly checking her surroundings as she followed the direction of the disturbance. With the sentinels still patrolling the ruins, she couldn't afford to rush blindly through the abandoned city.
But there was something else she could do. She could summon Gleam and Bellio for help.
The two summons appeared beside her, and Sherry quickly explained what she was looking for.
Gleam immediately began looking around, while Bellio tilted his head slightly as if concentrating on something beyond what Sherry could perceive.
Although Sherry's mana sense was quite sharp, both Gleam and Bellio had their own ways of detecting living beings, which could prove useful in a place this large.
After consuming a large number of monster cores, Bellio could now use this ability outside of water as well.
By releasing tiny waves of water droplets into the surrounding air and sensing how they changed when encountering objects or movement, he could create a rough picture of his surroundings.
It wasn't as precise as his echolocation when submerged, but it was more than enough to detect unusual activity nearby.
Gleam, meanwhile, was useful for navigating the ruined city itself. The familiar moved effortlessly through the broken structures, helping Sherry cross collapsed sections and search places she couldn't easily reach on her own.
Sherry continued north with the two familiars assisting her. The disturbance Alex had noticed earlier was already gone, but the possibility that her parents had caused it kept her moving.
'Please be them.'
She quickened her pace.
The ruins became increasingly damaged as she moved farther north. Several buildings had completely collapsed, leaving piles of stone scattered across what had once been streets.
Then Bellio suddenly stopped, letting out his familiar noise as he moved toward a cluster of ruined buildings.
Sherry immediately broke into a run. Her heartbeat grew faster with every step, and the closer she got, the more difficult it became to keep her thoughts under control.
Then she saw it.
At the end of the ruined street stood a heavily damaged building. Most of its upper floors had collapsed, and large cracks ran across its remaining walls.
Yet something about it immediately caught Sherry's attention. There were signs that someone had been there recently.
She approached the ruined building carefully, her hands trembling slightly as she reached the entrance. Then she heard a familiar voice from somewhere inside.
"Mom... Dad..."
The words escaped her lips as little more than a whisper.
She rushed inside and came across a woman with tired eyes and disheveled hair—it was her mother, Emma Barnet.
For a moment, the woman seemed unable to understand what she was seeing. Her eyes widened as she stared at Sherry.
"...Sherry?"
Sherry rushed forward, and before Emma could react, she threw her arms around her. Emma remained momentarily frozen in shock before tightly embracing her daughter.
After three years of searching, waiting, and refusing to give up, the family that had been separated by the ancient ruins was finally reunited.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
Alex couldn't keep dragging the fight out forever.
His stamina was steadily falling, while the sentinel showed no signs of weakening. Every exchange ended the same way—Alex gained nothing, while the sentinel continued advancing without hesitation.
'At this rate, I'll exhaust myself before I can even scratch it.'
Alex glanced at the surrounding ruins.
The other sentinels were still patrolling their designated areas, and he couldn't afford to attract their attention. But continuing the fight like this wasn't an option either.
For once, Alex decided to be reckless.
'Screw it.'
He immediately created some distance between himself and the sentinel.
Aurora noticed the change in his expression and quickly turned toward him.
"Alex, what are you planning?"
"I'm ending this."
Alex raised his hand.
He had been deliberately holding back because of the other sentinels, but he was no longer willing to let the fight continue. If one powerful spell could stop the guardian long enough for him to escape, then the risk was worth taking.
Mana surged around him, and the temperature around him began to drop rapidly. A complex magic circle formed above the ruins, its intricate layers rapidly locking into place.
Alex didn't give the sentinel enough time to close the distance before casting
The moment the spell was completed, an intense wave of cold erupted outward.
Unlike the massive area-wide storm Alex had used before, this time he deliberately compressed the spell's effective range. The blizzard didn't spread across the ruins. Instead, its freezing power was concentrated almost entirely around the sentinel.
Frost instantly spread across the ground, climbing over the ruined structures surrounding the guardian. The sentinel attempted to move, but the temperature had already dropped beyond what its body could withstand.
Ice rapidly encased its massive frame, and within moments, the sentinel was completely frozen in place.
Alex stared at the frozen sentinel before finally letting out the breath he had been holding.
"That should keep it busy."
Alex didn't wait around to find out how long the ice would last.
He immediately pulled out an energy potion and downed it in one go. The effects spread through his exhausted body almost immediately, restoring most of the energy he had burned during the prolonged fight.
Then he turned and dashed away without even looking back.
He had already marked Sherry, so he could easily find her location on the map.
'Now I just need to get back to her before something else happens.'
Alex increased his speed and disappeared deeper into the ruins. Behind him, the frozen sentinel remained completely motionless.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then, deep within the ice, a faint light suddenly intensified.
The glow inside the sentinel's body grew brighter as its frozen frame began to tremble. At first, the movement was barely noticeable.
Then the entire construct started vibrating violently beneath its icy prison.
Unfortunately, Alex was already far away. Neither he nor Aurora noticed what was happening behind them.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
Alex followed the marker on his System Map, moving quickly through the ruins.
It didn't take long before he found Sherry. She was standing beside her parents, with the two other missing expedition members nearby.
Alex slowed as he approached.
"Looks like you found them."
Sherry turned toward him, her eyes still slightly red from crying.
"Alex!"
She quickly moved closer, while Emma and Fredrick looked toward the unfamiliar young man who had apparently accompanied their daughter here.
After a brief exchange, Alex finally learned what had caused the disturbance he had sensed earlier.
One of the old walls of a nearby building had finally collapsed, sending debris crashing down. Fortunately, the expedition members had already been on the other side of the structure, and no one had been caught beneath it.
Alex looked over the group before letting out a small sigh of relief.
'At least everyone is safe.'
With Sherry reunited with her parents and the remaining expedition members accounted for, one of the biggest problems had finally been resolved.
Now they only needed to get everyone out of the ruins safely.
With everyone accounted for, Alex suggested that they regroup with the remaining expedition members.
The ruins were still filled with sentinels, and the fact that one had already attacked him was enough reason not to remain in the same area for too long. He suggested that everyone regroup first and move to a safer building before deciding what to do next.
No one objected.
It took some time to gather everyone, but eventually, the entire expedition team was together again. The four members who had been separated eventually reunited with the other six, bringing the expedition's original number back to ten.
Once they reached a relatively safe building, everyone finally had a chance to catch their breath.
For a while, the atmosphere was strangely quiet. However, their reunion also brought them face to face with another problem.
"What do we do now?"
One of the expedition members was the first to raise the question. The answer wasn't as simple as it seemed.
"We should leave."
Several of them immediately agreed.
They had already been separated after encountering the sentinels, and they had no desire to risk their lives by exploring even deeper. Now that everyone was together again, they saw no reason to remain in a place that had already proven to be so dangerous.
"We haven't found much of what we came here for. We should take everyone back while we still can."
However, not everyone agreed.
"We can't just leave."
Another researcher shook his head.
"We've barely explored this place. We've already spent more than three years in these ruins, and now that we've finally come this far, you're suggesting we simply walk away?"
The discussion quickly became divided.
Some wanted to leave the ruins as soon as possible, while others still wanted to continue exploring. The discovery of the sentinels had certainly made the expedition more dangerous, but it had also made the ruins even more intriguing.
For researchers who had spent their lives studying ancient civilizations, abandoning a place like this was not an easy decision.
Alex remained silent as he listened to both sides. He could understand their arguments.
The people who wanted to leave had already endured enough, while those who wanted to continue had finally reached the place they had spent years searching for.
Neither side was being unreasonable.
Alex glanced toward the deeper section of the ruins shown on his System Map.
'Well, I still have my own reason for staying.'
The System had given him a clear objective. Somewhere deeper inside these ruins was a mysterious key that he had yet to find.