Chapter 1012: A Powerful Presence
Kyran, Leif, and Ias appeared on a square platform with glowing green runes that hovered vertically in several lines on its borders. The platform was also glowing, which meant it served as a teleportation platform connected to the designated area outside the tower.
With each passing second, the runes disappeared, and the three sensed several auras outside the platform’s edges.
Leif’s face contorted into a grimace as their surroundings came into view after each rune on the platform vanished in sync. The sudden reveal left them all feeling guarded. This was because they had been teleported to the end of a long hall with giant armored human statues on each wall.
“What…?” Leif looked at the statues warily because their height was twice hers. Apart from that, she sensed several auras just now, but besides the statues, there was nothing before them.
Frankly, due to the thick magic energy in the surroundings, it was hard to pinpoint the location of the auras they sensed. However, Leif, for one thing, was sure the statues did not emit any magic energy.
Unless…
“Are these not statues…?” she wondered aloud.
“No,” Kyran replied. “They are puppets.”
“Puppets?” Leif exclaimed in surprise. “But they do not emit any magic energy.”
Kyran was the first to recognize them as puppets rather than statues because of their body’s intricate outer design. In addition, how their joints were connected allowed for fluid movement that would not have been possible for statues.
Before Kyran could explain why he knew they were puppets, Ias beat him.
“They are puppets. Though their bodies’ texture is similar to that of statues, because of their marble-like texture, their joints are connected using an advanced method of Smithing. Their bodies can even be compared to an automaton. However, they have yet to birth a sentient. Not to mention, they are still reliant on their programming.”
Leif looked at Ias with raised brows and asked, “How… did you figure out all those things?”
Her question was valid because the platform’s glow did not give them good light. Ias also mentioned the puppets’ dependence on their programming, which would have been impossible to pick up just by looking at them.
“The Dragon Clan have good eyesight,” Ias replied as if that alone explained how he came up with all those things.
Leif only gave him a quizzical look and did not pursue the matter. She already sensed that Ias was not interested in answering her question, and she was not about to give him a reason to be more wary of them than he was. After all, she was only pretending to be a Lacus Clan representative.
The same was true of Kyran. Although he ultimately denied being part of the Lacus Clan and did not mention which clan he belonged to, Leif knew Ladon and Thorn were serious when they said they did not trust him. For this reason, they would have likely asked Ias to keep a close eye on him.
On the other hand, Ias’s response made Kyran narrow his eyes. He sensed something amiss, but given their situation, he could not point it out at the moment.
What situation were they in?
Kyran did not know yet. He only knew that the platform’s protective barrier was about to disappear, and they would be exposed to the puppets.
As Ias said, the puppets relied on the programming they had. If not, the moment they sensed the teleportation platform moved, and three mages appeared after, they would have already acted.
But they were still waiting. And Kyran was grateful in a way for that. If not, they would have already engaged in a battle with the puppets before they stepped out of the platform.
“We can’t stay on the platform,” Kyran pointed. “But if we stepped outside now, those puppets would start to move.”
“I’ll be the vanguard. You two can support me from the back,” Ias told them and stepped out of the platform, not giving Kyran or Leif time to react.
The moment Ias stepped out of the platform, the eyes of the first two puppets glowed and looked in his direction.
The puppet on the left stepped forward and raised its arm in a swinging position. On the other hand, the puppet on the right waved its hand, and a huge axe materialized in its hands. It raised the axe high above its head, preparing to cleave them down once their first prey arrived within their range.
“Wha—?” Leif almost thought her eyes were playing tricks on her as Ias disappeared from her peripheral view. But before she could blink and adjust her eyes, Ias reappeared at the nape of the left puppet. He struck his fist on the puppet’s neck the moment he landed.
BOOM!
The force of Ias’s regular punch was so powerful that not even the puppet’s seemingly high-quality armor could defend against it, as its neck exploded, sending its huge head tumbling down with loud crackling sounds.
Only after seeing the wirings and tubes on the puppet’s neck did Leif fully believe Ias’s initial observation. It was not that she did not want to trust him, but the fact that they were practically in unchartered territory; she did not want to judge the things around her at face value.
As the first puppet stopped moving, Ias disappeared again and reappeared before the second puppet’s face. The puppet adjusted its raised arm, but the axe’s shaft in its hand was so long that it would not have hit Ias even if it adjusted where it gripped the weapon.
Ias did not allow the second puppet to complete its movement, though. As soon as he appeared, he smashed his fist on the puppet’s nose, sending it stumbling backward.
BOOM! CRASH!
The puppet hit the wall, but instead of getting destroyed because of the collision, glowing gold runes shimmered from the point of collision and spread outward— instantly negating the damage caused by the impact.
Kyran’s eyes widened. He did not expect the whole hall to be an array formation. This was probably why thick magic energies surrounded them, and they could not pinpoint the auras around them.
Ias landed on the ground with a frown. Disappointedly, he looked at the two puppets and said, “Why are they so weak?”
Leif’s expression turned blank as she looked at Ias. In all honesty, she did not underestimate Ias. But the puppets were creations of the Ancients, so she expected they would have an intense fight with them.
Alas, a puppet was still a puppet. Even if an Ancient created it before a Dragon Clan member, it was nothing.
On the other hand, Kyran’s expression distorted slightly.
[That Dragon Clan member… why does he remind me… of you?]
‘…’
Kyran was speechless as Shaiha pointed out something he, himself, had noticed. Or maybe she pointed it out after sensing his thoughts.
Crack! Crack!
Four puppets moved simultaneously a few seconds after Ias destroyed the first two. He looked at the four puppets with narrowed eyes and said, “Looks like they are programmed to move with twice their number after the first ones are destroyed.”
Kyran and Leif agreed with Ias’s assessment. It was still early to confirm this. However, the fact that four puppets started moving after the first two were destroyed suggested this possibility.
Kyran and Leif stepped out of the platform before the runes around it disappeared completely.
At the same time, Ias had already gone for the next puppet.
On another location on the tower’s seventh floor, Thorn destroyed the puppets that came at them one after another.
Cyneah stood on the back, with Ladon standing beside her like a protector, ready to make a move if any of the puppets Thorn was fighting managed to slip past him.
Although their group was also fighting puppets, there was a difference between these puppets and the ones Kyran’s group was fighting.
For one thing, these puppets were human-sized, with the tallest being seven feet tall. Second, they swarmed them like frenzied locusts. And finally, there was a timer right above their heads as if to tell them when the puppets would stop attacking.
“Three minutes and twenty-two seconds,” Ladon shouted, informing Thorn of how long he had to endure the swarm of puppets.
“What? More than six minutes had passed? I barely warmed up!” Thorn complained with a snort as he grabbed two puppets that came at him on each side and smashed their heads together. After that, he jumped and landed on another puppet’s shoulders, smacking its head and destroying it in an instant.
Ladon smiled and shook his head at Thorn’s words. But then his expression turned solemn as he turned his attention to Cyneah.
“Sisi, how is it?”
Cyneah and Ladon did not stay behind and let Thorn fight off all the puppets just because the latter wanted to warm up. Rather, the moment they appeared in that big room, Cyneah sensed a powerful presence looking at them. However, the thick magic energy in the surroundings masked the presence’s location.
It was then that Cyneah suggested she would look at their surroundings. Thus, Ladon and Thorn agreed to protect her while she looked.
However, a timer appeared above the room, and the puppets started to appear. That was how Ladon decided to stay beside Cyneah while Thorn took care of the puppets.
“It is faint, but its presence is somewhere below us…” Cyneah replied, looking at a spot beneath them.
“Below?” Thorn, with his keen sense of hearing due to being a dragon, frowned and looked in their direction. “You’re telling us to move down one floor?”
As he said this, he elbowed one puppet that attacked him from behind and grabbed another before slamming it face-first to the ground.
“I know,” Cyneah replied, knowing why Thorn appeared to be in disbelief. “We are on the seventh floor, so why would we want to go one floor down, right? But I don’t think the tower works like that.”
Thorn nodded his head, “Yes. Each level of the tower has its own structure. It could have four floors, and yet you are still considered in the first level.”
“How come I didn’t know that?” Thorn grumbled, performing a roundhouse kick at the puppets in front of him.
“If you had read the tablet grandma sent, you would have known it,” Ladon replied with a sigh.
“Tsk,” Thorn only clicked his tongue in response, neither admitting nor denying Ladon’s accusation.
“Getting below is the question,” Ladon continued, voicing the main issue.
“Yes,” Cyneah agreed while looking at their surroundings. “I don’t see any doors in this room.”
Ladon looked at her with a wry smile. He knew Cyneah was blind. But because of her impeccable control of her magic sense, he would forget it at times.
“If there’s no door,” Thorn said with a huge grin on his face. “We’ll just have to create one!”