1221 A Forbidden Ground
The journey wasn't as easy as Varian expected.
The unending wave of attacks consumed their aura reserves quickly, forcing them to rest every twenty minutes, delaying their travel by a lot longer than Varian would've preferred.
But now that it'd come to this, he didn't really want to leave them behind and go. He needed some guidance at least.
'What if I…' Varian activated his artifacts which were still humming in weird symphony.
The six artifacts worked together and boosted his aura recovery speed. Not all artifacts did this and the ones that did it worked on their own.
But these six artifacts worked together and their team worker produced far more synergy, allowing a result that was easily twice or even thrice higher.
He was only doubtful until now, but he's certain with this. The artifacts were working ridiculously well. Something was boosting their performance.
Varian's aura recovery speed, which was in a dangerous condition relative to his consumption during battle until now shifted to a different dynamic.
A few moments later, forty shadows attacked them. Thirty rank 5s. Ten rank 6s.
"Don't. I'll take care of them this time." Varian stopped his teammates and rushed into the pack.
It was a reckless decision. Any sane man would've chosen to preserve his aura as much as he could and fight with the help of his team, decreasing his aura consumption and increasing damage inflicted per unit of aura.
But Varian didn't do all that. He just smashed.
Like a war robot that had gone crazy, he punched, kicked and kneed the shadows. The emotion in his eyes was hard to discern, but it was definitely not one of stress.
Of the three heirs, Maria was the only one who could tell his mood.
'He's enjoying it.' The Princess felt her view of him was already wild. But this man just kept getting wilder. 'He's definitely enjoying it, this bastard!'
A few moments later, Varian crushed the last shadow into pieces and cleared the ground.
The first spiral was weird but wasn't very dangerous in terms of shadows. Even though they had to face plenty of rank 5s and dozens of rank 6s on the way, they didn't encounter anyone strong enough to pressure them all.
The heirs understood this from the start. It's a competition of endurance, not strength.
But…
"Hahaha! Go! Fucking kiss earth and die, you sneaky little bastard!" Varian stomped the shadow to a gruesome death.
These creatures didn't leak blood or tissues when cut open. They were utterly empty as if they were just made of paper. But nobody treated them like they were just paper dolls.
The Shadows were far more dangerous than they now seemed.
If not for Varian's unnatural ability, they'd have struggled for a much longer time before finding the end of the first spiral.
They needed to take a jump from the edge of the dark first spiral to reach the bright spiral which happened to be incredibly bright.
"What now?"
Standing on what seemed to be the edge of an endless black plain that was abruptly sliced off, Varian asked with genuine sincerity.
"Your aura, hold it out." It was Prince Soham again.
Varian heeded his advice and put a foot in.
This time, there was no darkness. It was pure light that engulfed him. There were no forests, no towns, no settlements. Only an endless tundra at colds that put even the rank 6s at risk.
But the real pressure came only after Varian put in the second foot.
The aura around him agitated and fluctuated violently before drilling into his body from all his pores.
Varian hurriedly blocked the aura but even so, he felt a painful feeling from his body. It was as if he was already full but had food shoved down his throat. It was approximately like a bloated belly but all over your body.
'It's the opposite, huh.'
The sky was imposing on them a heavy restriction from flying away. The ground is pure, smooth, and white soil.
He looked around like a child in the horror house. Only, there could be real ghosts here.
As if to prove his words right, three pale white spirits appeared nearby. If they put on some white robes and put on enough makeup, they could look like a magnified version of Boo, but that's where the similarities ended.
Instead of lunging at them, the spirits circled around them, carefully watching, treating them as prey.
Varian stomped the ground thrice in anger. If he did it even once on Earth, the poor planet would've cracked from the North to the South Pole. But the floor didn't even budge a little. "What kind of ground is this? This place is weird! Even weirder than the tower!"
He said those words clutching his stomach because all the aura that was slowly drilling into his body was racing towards his stomach, into his lower abdomen, accumulating into dangerous proportions.
It was slowly heading for an explosion that would turn his stomach into pieces of flesh and bones.
"Everything in this place has to be weird or it makes no sense. The Spirals are older than the Alliance, the Jai Empire, and possibly even the Primordial Tribes." Prince Sohan looked around with a vigilant expression while he chimed in.
"What even is Spirals Of Harmony?" Varian asked out loud.
"Do you know the Forbidden Grounds?"
"No."
"Just think of them as advanced areas based on the power of one avenue. As far as we know, there are three forbidden grounds for each avenue. This is a forbidden avenue of Order and Chaos, the third forbidden ground. Unlike other forbidden grounds which are frequented by divine rankers, no one comes here."
That was weird.
Varian's intuition struck. "So that's why you're here."
"Yes. This region only takes in rank 6 and lower." Sohan revealed another piece of valuable information.
Varian wanted to ask more, but the Spirits lunged at them, attacking them with full strength.
"I'll ask some, later."
The fight began.
