Versatile: Alternate World - Chapter 988: Mirage of the Ruins

n(.-(.–.—.1)/n

After we embarked on our little journey, we soon realized that the thing we were looking at was not something near, but rather far in distance.

“Although I lived in this region for quite some time, I didn’t expect to encounter a mirage like this,” Queen Tanya shook her head seeing that the ruins that we just saw seemed to remain in the same distance even though we had walked far. We thought we just needed to walk more but we have covered quite a distance already and the distance between us and the place we are looking at seems not to have shortened even for a bit.

“A mirage?! Then, it must mean…” Alena frowned.

“It might be either closer than we thought or much farther than we hoped. We don’t even know if our eyes are just being played tricks at seeing how this mirage is looking clearer than normal. There is a chance that the ruins we are looking at are either too far from us or they were not ruins at all and were just illusions.”

“Then we are just walking for nothing?” Izmir frowned.

I shook my head. “No, this isn’t a waste. Remember that you guys have used the branch right? What was the reaction it had?”

“The light that it emits is much brighter, and the line that connects us from King Arthur is also much thicker but shorter. That alone means we are a distance away from the location but we are indeed close. We just needed to continue walking. Or maybe you guys are tired already?”

“No…we shall continue,” Renatta shook her head.

I sighed and shook my head. “No, let’s have some rest. There’s no way we can continue to proceed like this with our morale so low.”

Despite the grumblings, Avos and Mila agreed that we all need to rest for a bit. Since we prepared beforehand, we set up a temporary camp that allows us to have a little shade that will allow us to at least cover ourselves from the heat. With Queen Tanya’s spell, the heat is bearable.

Of course, we didn’t wait there for long. Once everyone has rested for a bit, we continue to move once more. As for the mirage, we have already passed by the mirage and it was indeed an illusion due to the heat which made Renatta and Izmir pretty angry. But since we passed by the mirage, one this is certain, the place which the mirage is reflecting is rather close, or perhaps we are only a few more steps away.

Because it is not easy to travel without anything to follow, I decided to use some Shikigamis and use them to track down the area and see whether there are enemies nearby or if the place that we are looking for is just around the corner.

As we continued to move, I soon detected in one of my controlled Shikigamis the place that we were looking for. And it wasn’t that far.

“Guys…I found the place we are looking for. Let’s go, follow me.”

Hearing this, everyone started to follow me. It was not that far so it didn’t take long for us to arrive to where I spotted the ruins. It took us all a few minutes before we arrived into the ruins that I saw using the Shikigami.

“This place…” Queen Tanya seems to recognize the place.

“Are you familiar with this place, Queen Tanya?” I asked.

“I am not sure but I sure remember something but I couldn’t properly remember where or how I feel familiar about this place.”

Father marveled on the ruins and compared to the normal ruins we have encountered in the past, this one is pretty much still intact.

“Wow, for a ruins, this place looks more stable than most ruins we have explored before. In fact, this is the most intact ruins I have seen in my life. I think it is more appropriate to call this place “abandoned” rather than a ruins. Look at this place, it is more intact than what we call ruins look!” Father nodded as he rub his beard.

“I agree with you there, this place looks like it was just recently vacated instead of being abandoned for a very long time already. But there is still no denial that this place is a ruins. Based on how some of the signs of wear and tear here, these are not recent and is looking more and more like a piece of ancient history,” Avos said as he pointed out on some of the signage and some posters placed on the walls.

Then, Mila interjected, “It still didn’t matter whether it was that long or not. We should confirm if this place is indeed the right place where that guy is holed up. It doesn’t matter much to us if this place is part of the ruins in the first place.”

Alena and Labo pulled out the branch and poured out their mana on it which then resulted to a burst of light that covers the whole place. It was quite bright that we are thinking that it might have caused the entire facility to lit up.

Checking up on the connection however, the light is indeed here seeing how it pierces through the place and the line is much thicker now compared to before.

“Looks like it is confirmed. This is the right place to look for,” Queen Tanya got serious as we looked at the light emitted.

I slowly grip the Blood Morgan that Almira has given to me and knowing the circumstances, it is much better for us to deal with the situation as soon as possible.

“Should we start splitting up and search the ruins? This place is big,” Riko asked.

“No, splitting up is a big no. We all stick together and that will be the best way to navigate this place and find him. Splitting up is the recipe for disaster and there is no way anyone will want to be the unlucky person to meet and greet King Arthur by themselves, yeah?”

Hearing my explanations, even the elves involuntarily swallowed their saliva in nervousness.

“I-I think you got a point. The only people who might even hold a proper fight against that guy would be either you, Queen Tanya or Pandora. The rest of us would be a nuisance or just a punching bag against that guy…” Riko gloomily said.

As much as I want to joke around on Riko’s words, she does have a point. Only I, Queen Tanya and Pandora would be Able to hold a candle against the bastard. Even my father, Avos and Mila are strong guys, they are not even considered someone who can go one on one against the guy and survive to live the tale. After all, the enemy we are facing is one dangerous son of a b*tch.

We didn’t dawdle long enough and started moving inside the ruins and explore it. The sooner we are done with it, the sooner we can get rid of that problem.

Currently, the whole place looks like a former castle. It does look like it was an old castle base on its layout inside but due to some delapidated structures left behind, it’s hard to determine the way the area is fully structured.

And although we keep saying it looks more abandoned than being a ruins, the deeper we go, the more we can see that it is indeed right to call it ruins. Not only the delapidated things present are making the whole place dated, it looks like it is even the whole floor we are looking is very old that we can see a few bricks slowly rising up from the floor and walls. One way or another can cause them to collapse.

“What do you guys think as to why the guy is staying here?” Renatta asked.

“Maybe this is his new base operation?” Sora tried guessing.

“Or maybe this place has something that he needed?” Rika also added her guess.

“That is indeed a big possibility. From the looks of it, he looks like he is searching for something. It must be one of the reasons why he was present in the Elven Kingdom and to receive the thing he was looking for, he has to either eliminate the people there or maybe there is other reason,” Pandora added her theory as well.

I didn’t add anything to the theory they had as all of their theories do have a possibility to be true. As we continue to explore, I suddenly felt the strong feeling of dread. This feeling is identical when I met King Arthur once again in the Elven Kingdom. Based on the looks of everyone, no one seems to have realized or felt the dread I am feeling right now.

“Let’s go this way,” I pointed to the direction where I felt the dread.

“You felt something, son?” My father asked.

“Yeah. It is faint but I felt it.”

Queen Tanya frowned. “I didn’t felt it at first but now that you mention it, there’s this weird feeling indeed.”

Without any other clue other than the feeling of dread as the only other thing we can use to move, we plunge deeper into the ruins.