[1. Perform perfectly (selected)]
[Accepting the quest.]
[Subquest (Branch Type)]
[Objective – Investigate the mysterious temple and retrieve any treasure found within!]
[Reward – ???]
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[27:08]
With the confirmation of the new mission window, I turned to my comrades.
"It is decided. We'll be going to the temple."
Shanny let out a grunt, upset by the order.
But fortunately she and the others readied their weapons and began marching toward the northward path.
I put my fingers on the back of my ear and reached out to the party leaders.
"Zecht, Ashta, Party 1 just discovered an unknown temple. We're taking a little detour to investigate it."
I told them.
[Okay, be safe, everyone!]
Zecht shouted. He was in the middle of fierce battle.
[J-just hurry! Some of us in Party 3 are starting to feel overwhelmed!]
Ashta said. She was too.
"Remember, should one side fall, all of you need to retreat to the inner walls."
[Got it!]
[Yeah!]
I disconnected the line and joined my comrades treading through the marbled road.
My detection field was still as overreaching as ever.
The transparent mist had engulfed the clearing surrounding the temple.
No enemy detected.
However, the temple was sealed perfectly that I could not know what was in it.
We only grasped the true size of the structure once we got out of the valleyed path and entered the opening within the mountains.
The first floor training ground could easily fit within the temple.
The majestic gates of the temple were at least the size of the space time rift back in the lobby.
Just like the rift, there were carvings of two winged-maidens on the temple's gates.
But this depiction in particular did not have the winged-maidens embracing each other.
Their backs were faced against one another. Their feathered wings were interloped in a way that they formed the shape of a twisted loop.
Instead of facing to the sky, their heads tilted to their chest, eyes closed.
This carving alone painted an ominous sign over the temple.
But the seductive voice grew stronger.
It did not speak a word I recognized. Even so, the voice filled me with this great desire to walk through the gates of the two turned maidens.
Despite the strong peculiar desire, I knew danger awaited us inside the temple.
I pulled out the remaining two golem cores in my pouch and imbued my mana into them.
[Elemental Attribute, Activation]
The golem cores flew from my palm.
The rocks and earth around the marbled road began to float toward the cores and amalgamated into hunched humanoid shapes.
My comrades took notice of my golems summoning.
The fact that I deployed them now instead of when we were facing goblins and ogres earlier indicated how much danger I was anticipating from entering the temple.
With two rock-and-dirt golems to our sides, Party 1 approached the large gates.
The moment we were five steps from the temple the gates opened by themselves.
It was as if the mysterious structure knew we were coming and welcomed us.
I let one of the golems entered the gates before us, in case something was waiting to leap on our party, though my detection field did not sense anything living inside.
After the golem went through, unharmed, Jonah and Shanny followed behind it, Trudy tailed them, then I, and covering our rear were Darius and the second golem.
To my surprise the room we found ourselves in were only as large as the first floor square.
It was vast and circular, roofed with a dome ceiling.
The chamber was mostly empty. But the expanse did not cover the entirety of the temple.
The two sealed gates at two sides of the room indicated more space further.
We would probably make our way to either of those entrances, but our attention was caught on something else.
Right at the center of the room stood a statue of the two winged-maidens whose backs were against each other.
The statue was overlooking a grand pedestal which was covered in a dome of bright white barrier.
I could sense the voice coming from the pedestal.
It was very clear to us, or to me at least, that whatever was on the pedestal would be the reason why we needed to investigate the place.
We made our way closer to the pedestal.
It was only when we entered further into the temple that we noticed a grand statue of a knight standing on a platform above the gates we entered.
The entirety of the sculpture was made of stone, of different kind from the marbled road, but none that I recognized.
The knight was covered in armor from head to toe.
The helmet, cuirass, gauntlets, and greaves were all seemed so real. The depiction made the statue seemed made out of steel instead.
The statue seemed so alive that I thought it would jump out anytime to strike us with its equally real-seeming great sword.
The sculpture took my gazes away that I almost forgot we were here for whatever was on the pedestal.
I turned my head back to the center of the room.
My comrades and I were eyeing the dome barrier and what was lying beyond it.
Sitting on the pedestal's velvet pillowed surface were two objects.
One was a crystal the size of two grown men's heads. It was glimmering with ethereal light.
The second object was a large thick book. Bounded in finger-sized chains, the book's leather cover had the icon of feathered wings on it.
As a mage, I knew what the book was.
A grimoire. A grand text containing knowledge of magic.
What's more, the very voice I had been hearing originated from the book.
I had expected we would find something valuable in the temple and I was right.
We still needed to see what the crystal could do, but the grimoire was something I could benefit from.
Right now, it was only a matter of obtaining them to our possession.
"These are what we're looking for?"
Shanny asked, eyeing me with the edge of her gaze.
I nodded.
"Yes. We need to take these crystal and grimoire with us."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's grab them and leave!"
She urged impatiently.
I quickly raised my hand and prevented Shanny from approaching the barrier.
"What's the matter?"
I eyed the dome surrounding the pedestal, specifically toward the high level runes which erected it.
Even without touching it I could sense what the ray of light was purposed to do.
Hunting sacrifice.
"You would kill yourself if you step into the barrier."
I told her.
All my comrades jerked their gazes to me, surprised by the revelation.
"What?! This dome could kill us?"
I nodded.
"The moment you step into the barrier the dome would drain your life force away. Only when the dome obtained enough life force that it would disappear and allow us to retrieve the items on the pedestal."
Shanny clicked her tongue upon my explanation.
"So we just wasted our time then?! Because I doubt you'll make one of us go through the barrier!"
I shook my head.
"There is something we can do."
I hovered my palms over the dome, sensing the intricate grand magic weaving the barrier together.
I continued.
"I can undo the runes which makes this dome. Once I untangle the incantations, the spell would reverse and the dome would disappear."
"How much time do you need to disable the dome?"
Jonah asked.
"The runes are quite complex. Their arrangement is like nothing I've ever seen before. But I'm certain I can dispel them in 16, no, 15 minutes."
We all looked to the timer window which remained hovering at the corner of our gazes.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[21:11]
There was still ample time before the temple would get destroyed.
"Couldn't you have done the dispelling thing with the runes surrounding the temple? That way we would not have to worry of the time limit."
Shanny asked.
I shook my head.
"Those runes are much more complex than these ones. It would take me hours to dispel them. There would not be enough time."
The woman sighed and pointed to the barrier.
"Agh, whatever. Let's just get this over with. 15 minutes is already too long of a detour in my opinion."
I agreed with her.
We needed to quickly be done with our business in the temple and resumed accomplishing our main objective.
I neared my hands to the barrier, with only a hair's breadth separated between them, and started channeling my mana to seep into the dome's rune arrangement.
If put in layman's terms, rune arrangement was like threads knitted together into a patterned fabric.
The fabric would contain numerous knots which tied the threads together.
All I had to do was to untangle the knots in order to dispel the runes which formed the barrier.
Simple Third Circle runes would have 12 to 15 knots on them.
Fourth Circle have 20 to 28 knots.
This rune arrangement had a hundred.
I needed to untangle each one properly and in correct order, or it would become more difficult to untangle the rest, if not impossible.
I focused my mind and let my mana grasped the first knot.
My threads creeped into the rune's own threads and let mine wove into them, probe them and separate each line apart.
Ssshhh….
I felt the fabric loosened slightly.
The first knot was undone.
Shinggg!!!
It was at that moment the turned winged-maidens statue shined with glorious light.
[Malaikat's blessing has descended to the land!]
[Fallen enemies have been reanimated!]
My comrades all took notice of the notifications.
"Hey! What's this? What's happening?!"
Shanny shouted.
"'Reanimated?' What does that mean?"
Trudy asked.
"Damn it!"
I grunted with a click of my tongue.
My comrades noticed my reaction.
But before I could speak a word to them, a barrage of notification bombarded us.
['Zecht (★★★)' has been inflicted with bleeding. His stamina will be reduced for a period of time.]
['Norn (★★★)' has been inflicted with bleeding. Her stamina will be reduced for a period of time.]
['Maddock (★★)' has fallen into the state of fear. All stats decreased by 30%!]
['Luan (★★)' has fallen into the state of fear. All stats decreased by 30%!]
['Tamo (★★)' is on the brink of death. His life is in danger!]
['Kori (★★)' has fallen into the state of panic. All stats decreased by 50%!]
['Rhyss (★★)' has fallen into the state of panic. All stats decreased by 50%!]
['Ashta (★★)' has fallen into the state of fear. All stats decreased by 30%!]
['Jyrgil (★★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]