novelraw Chapter 622: Devouring
Chapter 622: Devouring
Duke estimated that the reason these sand soldiers have such strong magic immunity is related to this ancient relic.
Otherwise, ordinary Level 1 Life wouldn’t have such strong spell immunity.
Duke is now a Level 1 Crystalized Mage, and is a powerful presence among Crystalized Wizards.
The spells he casts cannot have much effect on these sand soldiers, so we can imagine how others fare against them.
Because this competition area is filled with Level 1 Mages, the things Duke struggles with are also hard for others to cope with.
Generally, Level 1 Mages facing these sand soldiers have only one option: to run for their lives.
Avoid confrontation and do not engage these sand soldiers directly.
Although these sand soldiers are strong in defense and attack, their mobility is not as strong.
If a Level 1 Mage wants to run, chances are they can still manage to do it.
The strong magic immunity of these sand soldiers largely stems from the special environment of this relic and the strange sand particles that constitute them.
Even outside, even Level 2 Mages who summon Earth Element guardians might not have such comprehensive elemental resistance.
But what appears insurmountable to other Level 1 Mages, is quite a different situation for Duke, who has many tricks up his sleeve and conveniently possesses targeted abilities.
He can use his own ability to disintegrate and absorb these sand soldiers, directly resolving them from the source.
Right now, the bodies of these three sand soldiers are already starting to shrink, continuously collapsing onto the ground.
The movements of sand soldiers swinging their war axes and spears become feeble, their steps faltering.
They attempt to break free from the constant, bone-attached sand flow, waving their arms to slap, using weapons to chop, but the sand flow seems to have already merged into their bodies, rendering physical attacks almost ineffective and instead speeding up their loss of sand particles.
The sand soldiers’ bodies become smaller and smaller, shrinking from nearly three meters high to two meters, one and a half meters... Their movements become slower and more sluggish, eventually ceasing all attacks, standing still, with only two weak points of red light flickering unwillingly in their eye sockets.
Finally, when the last large piece of sand dissolves and is fully absorbed by the sand flow, there is a soft "puff" sound, like a candle flame extinguishing.
The three sand soldiers completely turn into three piles of loose, energy-less ordinary sand, accumulated on the ground.
Meanwhile, the last trace of dark red light in their eye sockets does not dissipate directly when extinguished, but instead each condense into a vivid, lively blood-like red filament.
These three strands of red energy filament seem to contain simple consciousness; at the moment of their birth, they hesitated slightly, then without a moment’s pause, with a swoosh, transformed into three nearly imperceptible red flows of light, shooting rapidly in different directions within the stone chamber.
But their target was neither Duke nor the exit.
Two of them directly submerged into the smooth walls, as if the walls were merely illusionary.
The last strand shot straight to the ceiling at the center of the stone chamber, similarly integrating seamlessly and disappearing.
The directions where they disappeared, without exception, pointed towards the deeper, more central regions of the relic.
Duke did not attempt to stop them, nor did he have time to prevent them as the speed of these red energy escapes is too fast; they seem to possess some spatial penetration attribute.
He didn’t even have time to try, as they are likely a component of the relic’s power.
"Indeed, defeating them isn’t the key; this red energy is the core," Duke mused as he watched in the direction where the red energy disappeared, analyzing in his heart, "Will it return to some control center? Report information about the intruders? Or is it the very fuel driving the sand soldiers, now merely returning to the energy pool, waiting to be recombined..."
No matter which possibility, it implies that the defense mechanisms of this relic are more intricate than he had imagined, and it suggests that deep within the relic, there might be a central core overseeing it all.
Duke walked to a pile of sand, crouched down, and used his fingers to pick up some.
The sand particles were coarse, devoid of their previous mysterious energy feel, akin to ordinary river sand.
"Apparently, once the red energy is extracted or flees, the sand particles forming the sand soldiers lose their magic, returning to ordinary matter."
He stood up, surveying the now silent stone chamber.
He had solved the guardians but the exit hasn’t appeared yet.
He scanned carefully once more and quickly found that near the spot where the red energy vanished into the wall, the energy patterns on the wall seemed to have undergone extremely subtle changes.
"This is not a simple trigger point of a mechanism."
Duke quickly identified the anomaly. On the seemingly smooth and even wall surface, using the disappearance point of the red energy as a center, extending outward, are several extremely fine grooves, which almost blend completely with the color and texture of the wall material.
These grooves are not physical etchings, but more like imprints or pathways left by a long-term, directional energy flow.
He gently placed his palm against the wall; spiritual power, like the finest sandpaper, softly brushed over these pathway marks.
"They’re not naturally formed... There’s a regular energy circuit structure," Duke’s eyes narrowed, and he immediately took out the Mind Crux.
The blue gemstone on the Mind Crux shimmered, the base’s micro-gears accelerated silently, and began aiding Duke in scanning, recording, and analyzing these pathways.
Soon, a vague but mostly clear pattern was constructed and projected in Duke’s consciousness.
It was an ancient rune array comprised of several concentric circular arcs and interconnecting, twisted vine-like lines.
The structure was exceptionally simple, even primitive, carrying a sense of rawness and directness from ancient times, a style distinctly different from any modern mage schools that Duke is familiar with.
"If my conjecture is correct, I need to inject a certain amount of energy into the starting point of this witch array to activate it," Duke thought.
He extended his right index finger, where the tip gathered highly pure magic power.
Duke pinpointed the starting point of the ancient witch array pattern on the wall, gently touching the tip of his finger containing a probing strand of magic power.
The moment the magic power touches the wall, the dormant ancient pattern suddenly lights up.
Immediately, with the point of his finger as the center, the invisible energy pathway within the wall, akin to ignited fuses, sequentially light up in a dim red glow, the same source as the red energy.
The glow meanders steadily and slowly along the patterns, filling out the incomplete concentric circular arc diagram.
When the final arc is connected by the dark red light, a low and distant resonance sound emanates from deep within the wall.
Immediately, the wall in front of them seemed to sag inward and soften like mercury spilling, not flipping but rather directly melting into a smooth-edged, roughly two-person high, one-person wide oval opening.