Spirit Taming

Chapter 611: Source Of Light?

The more  that they all moved down the stairs, the more that they felt an oppressive darkness. It was like they had walked somewhere that had not seen the light fro too long. Like a cave that had once been open to the sun but a cave in closed it off.

This feeling made the hairs on their arms stand on end. But most of all, Crim was acting carefully. He was showing signs of worry when they moved. Even Devi made his way closer to Clark just in case.

On the positive side, the group realized that they had more space when they moved all the way down the stairs. Ella was the first to show off the reason why. She had raised the torch even higher and even lit the second one she had to spread the light that they had so they could all see.

"So they made the ground beneath them the quarry for their stone." they could all see the condensed stone that the large temple was made of. But they could now see the lines where stone was cut and broken to make such a thing.

"They must have spent years cutting out this area and building up the walls then the other rooms." Jerold was in awe. He couldn't even see the real size of this space where the torches light hit. It was too large.

"For the elves, a few years is a short time. Humans live less than them. Well, fewer years. But we make the most of them." Maria made a somewhat crass comment about lifespans. However, it was well known that regardless of race, if someone grew strong enough, they could live longer.

"We will live however long we wish." Brad's words seemed to be truer than anything. Everyone felt more comfortable when he said this out loud. It was an uplifting phrase. An uplifting belief.

"Here, this looks like where they chipped away shards to make these spear tips." Jerold managed to find some spaces where the stone had been chipped. After a moment, he even pointed out a larger stone that had been brought from elsewhere and used as a tougher stone to smash softer stones here.

Each spot on the wall near the stairway looked like it had been chipped away by someone many times to carve the stairs and even a few spots that were similar to what was on the higher floor. The sleeping areas. Even some dust remained that proved to the group that this was the case.

"The bodies here are not… whole." It was Grace and Ralph that spoke and finished the other's sentence. They did so while Ella illuminated one of the bodies that they had nearly stepped on. It was only bones and dried skin of what had once been an arm. From the appearance, it had been burned by the same light attacks that caused the burn marks and other damage above this level.

"Then it means the beast we are looking for might be more powerful than we thought. But these ancient elves were weakened. It will be interesting to examine the remains of such an ancient and powerful beast."

From what Ella looked like, she had to find such a beast. She passed one torch to Grace and the two of them spread out. She then  watched as Ralph lit another torch and illuminated more space. When they were able to, they dropped their torches and spread out more.

As they did, the entire area was lit up showing off the carvings of pillars that held up the entire temple. Surprisingly, only two were damaged. The walls had beginnings of writing in the places where the ancient elves had finished cutting away stones. There were more of the clay jars too.

Over fifty of them containing nothing, the mutated drunken grape seeds, and remnants of food which had long rotted in to dust or crumbled bits.

This was a throne room though. Everyone's eyes were drawn to the end where it was still dark. Seemingly impervious to the light. But for whatever reason, they could all make out the shadowy figure of something sitting on a stone carved throne.

Clark halted his movements which put them all on edge. They wished that they could pushed forward, but when Clark stopped, they knew there was a reason. But if Clark told him what they say, they might not believe him.

'Fallen elemental- monster

Sensing the loss of his life and goals, the king of light which stood for his and other elven beliefs, took the only route he believed possible for his self survival.

After tearing out the core of his light grand light elemental beast which was his spirit beast. His strongest protector, he consumed it. In doing so, light energy was trying to escape the core since the elemental was the only beast able to control the density of the light energy.

Due to the immense pressure, the king of light went mad and began attacking and releasing the light energy constantly. It caused mana points of damage to his body during this rampage. Upon the loss of light energy, the king of light went back to his throne to rest.

During this, the absence of light allowed the core taken from the grand light elemental to be corrupted by a small bit of demonic energy that naturally resides in the world. It caused darkness energy to flood the body of the light king.

The creation of this monster that can only live in darkness and uses darkness as a weapon uses the body of the former light king as a core. The real core is within the head of the light king's body and must be destroyed to balance the temple and remove the monster that goes against both nature and the actual way of demons.'

The information that Clark got was much more than he expected. It appeared that the system was being kind today. Willing to shown him more. But he also knew that it was hinting at something.

It had mentioned demonic energy. But it also mentioned that demonic energy was the same as all energies. It should be everywhere in tiny amounts as other natural energies were. Yet, it had somehow made this monster worse. It had caused the body of the light king to become full of darkness mana when he forced himself to become a monster against the flow of nature.

It also reminded Clark of the joker card he still had. A dangerous item the system gave him that would bring a demon to him. Something dangerous that many could not handle. But it would be to make a deal. He shivered just thinking of what would have to happen so that he used such a dangerous item.

"That is a monster. A fallen elemental with darkness typing and it is looking right at us." The entire group had expected that they would fight a dangerous battle against a light type beast at most. Yet, where they were in the eyes of a darkness beast, no, a monster.

"It was trapped in here by its followers. Wasn't it. Because it went against its own values." Ella's intuition proved correct. However, she was already trying her best to discreetly prepare for battle. The darkness around the throne had begun to move. It seemed this monster knew they had realized it was looking at it.

"Crim will use a flame breath to make it retreat. We should get outside and try to get it in the light. That will weaken it. Here, we are weak." Clark knew he could use his spear here. But the black lightning spear needed to replenish energy from battles to be more useful. They were also at a disadvantage without Reese and Isa who might have some more strength.

Reese used to have his beast with a light affinity. It might have lost that when it grew to be a spirit steel sword, but it would still have more effect against a dark type monster like this. There was also the blaze elemental that would naturally make the area brighter when it was brought out.

"I can call out the flame skeleton. It will be harder-"

"If you do that, then things will be harder for everyone. You might pass out and the flame skeleton might suffer some harm. You already suffered when you called it out the last time. You can still not handle that much energy." Maria instantly cut Ella off. She knew that Ella had suffered more than what she let everyone see so far. She had a lot to grow in to.

Clark walked backwards with the others as the spindly limbs of a dried body began to become covered in thick darkness. An elemental was made of its elemental energy. Light would have made up the body of the grand light elemental. But now, darkness covered the body of the light king. He was a physical and energy based monster.

Something that should not be and was created through cruelty to the very beast that was tired to his soul.