Chapter 217: Encroaching Evil (1)

Before going inside the clearing to the black obelisk, Kyran first pushed each of the organs within the border to check what would happen.

The edge of the first organ he pushed in immediately disintegrated, while the second one managed to go in without a problem. This incident prompted Kyran to think that the second organ must be the lungs.

Kyran left the other two organs on the skull, and after much contemplation, also left his makeshift bag, the bone spear, and the tool belt before passing through the border. He did not believe there was any need for him to use them. Besides, within the clearing, there were rich magic energies in circulation, which meant he would be able to absorb and convert it to Void energy. However, whether the black obelisk allowed him to absorb it would be a different matter. Hopefully, there would not be any incident that would force Kyran to do so.

Whatever prevented others from entering the clearing seemed to have given Kyran a pass and did not destroy him with the correct organ in tow. As he walked toward the black obelisk, the magic energies in the surroundings circled him. He felt somewhat elated by the familiar feeling, and if not for his overly-cautious self, he would have started absorbing it and replenishing his already below half magic reserves.

The truth, when he molded the Void Spear and used it like how he used the Void Needles, his magic reserves dropped from 90% to 50%. The huge amount pained him, but he would already be dead if he did not do what he did. His magic reserves had dropped exponentially due to the size of the spear and how he covered the lack of the Regis Technique to create the same effect it would have with the Void Needles. It was his first time trying it out using the idea he had from Zephyr's information.

Because there was no available magic energy in this place, Kyran had to use his magic reserve to alter the composition of the spear. But altering its composition needed different types of magic energies. Thus, he had to first convert the nature of his Void energy. Doing so was mentally taxing. Aside from that, he had to do it within a very short time.

'I wonder if the obelisk will allow me to replenish my magic reserves after I give it this huge organ. I mean, this is an organ from a large-sized beast. Compared to the ones that had been offered to it, its size is bigger,' Kyran thought, trying to justify how big his offering was as compared to the other beasts.

'Who am I kidding? I don't even know what the point of all this is,' he added, looking at the offered organs below the obelisk.

With a sigh, Kyran picked up his pace and walked to the obelisk.

As soon as he was within fifty-meter away from the obelisk, the stench of decaying organs assaulted his nose. He did not smell it before because of the lack of wind in this place, but the foul stench was almost toxic. His expression turned sour, and tears even started to well up at the corner of his eyes. That was how bad it smelled.

'I know how bad I smell, but this... makes me smell nicer,' Kyran thought bitterly, trying to lessen the smell by covering his nose with his hand. However, it did no good, and for the first time after coming to this place, he was glad he could not use any Regis Technique, or else he would have suffered a fatal blow by the smell.

Kyran endured the smell, and finally, upon arriving within the thirty-meter radius of the obelisk, he sensed an invisible force swept through his body as if in probing.

Automatically, the remaining magic energy within his body circulated, preventing the force from probing deeper.

Suddenly, a dark red glow started to emit from within the black obelisk, its rhythm similar to a pulse as its hum reverberated within the thirty-meter radius.

Kyran abruptly stopped as the invisible force lifted the organ off his hand and flew to the rest of the offering. He did not try to prevent the organ from being taken. It was meant to be offered anyway.

Before the organ dropped with the rest of the offering, the pulsating dark red glow within the black obelisk hummed violently. Then a dark red beam shot out from it, directly hitting the dark blue organ. As soon as the beam touched the organ, grayish mists came out from it and were sucked by the obelisk.

Kyran's eyes narrowed as he watched the grayish mist enter the obelisk.

The more grayish mist it sucked, the faster the pulsating red glow became.

'Just what is it doing?' Kyran wondered.

His question was answered soon after as a massive magic array appeared on the ground, occupying the clearing around the obelisk. The magic energies inside the clearing became even richer, and they danced around Kyran as if to rejoice.

But the magic energies were second only to what piqued Kyran's interest. Because his heart pounded in excitement as he stared at the magic array beneath him.

The color of the magic array was purple, and more importantly, they emit the power of the Void.

However, Kyran's excitement was immediately replaced by doubt. Why would the obelisk require offerings to activate its array? The whole setting was too disturbing; it made him wary of his magic.

Was the reason why the Void path led him to this place was to tell him he would soon have to offer things like this to activate his magic? That sounded as if he was performing a very dark ritual.

'Don't tell me this is the reason why my predecessor was named 'Dark Sage'?' Kyran thought wryly.

As if in response to his snide remark, his Void core trembled in annoyance.

'I get it, I get it. Stop nagging. It is only a joke,' Kyran thought as if his Void core had a mind of its own. But it somehow worked as the trembling subsided.

When his Void core trembled in annoyance, it was pretty painful.

Ignoring what the obelisk was doing to the organ he brought, Kyran returned his attention to the magic array beneath his feet.

Since the magic array could rouse the Void, it meant the runes within it were Void runes.

Kyran immediately used magic sense to understand the magic array. The surrounding energies reacted at once when he activated his magic sense. However, they did not try to stop him. Instead, they even appear to assist him by amplifying his magic sense willingly. It confused Kyran for a second, but then maybe they felt a certain camaraderie with his magic sense because its nature was similar to the magic array?

This idea made Kyran mentally scratch his head. It sounded absurd that he seemed to talk about magic energies as if they had a life of their own.

Shaking his head push the random thought at the back of his mind, Kyran walked out of the thirty-meter radius around the black obelisk and sat cross-legged on the ground.

There was no significant reason he had to move away from the black obelisk. He found the foul stench of the offerings to affect his thinking, so he decided to move away.

For the next hour or so, Kyran studied the magic array. The black obelisk seemed to take its time absorbing the grayish mists from the organ he brought as well, so he also took his time in studying the magic array.

As time passed, Kyran's expression started to turn sour. He was now beginning to understand why there was an obelisk here and why it needed the offerings. Everything had something to do with the blood-red tower up ahead.

Kyran learned from the magic array that the array was meant to absorb metal magic only and would reject all non-metal ones. The beasts' organs were not an offering like some dark ritual to the obelisk. But a way for the beasts to be recognized by the obelisk and be allowed to enter its area.

The reason why they wanted to get inside the black obelisk's area of effect was obviously to absorb some of the rich magic energies within. However, the magic array had to maintain a certain amount of magic energies. Thus, the beasts had to hunt organs that correspond to metal magic and 'offer' it to the obelisk to make sure it could maintain that. If not, the obelisk would cease to operate, and the magic energies within would also disperse.

There were four more obelisks apart from this one, and all were located at a specific distance from the red-blood tower. The metal-based black obelisk was the third farthest away from the red-blood tower. 

Kyran had yet to understand the obelisks' purpose thoroughly, but he guessed that each absorbed only one type of magic. He came up with this conclusion after confirming earlier that every ten meters, there would be different common organs missing in the beast carcasses.

Previously, it was the stomach.

As to what magic the stomach corresponds to, Kyran had no idea.

But regardless of what kind of magic each obelisk was allowed to absorb, Kyran now understood why the magic array was created using Void runes. If the obelisk could only absorb one type of magic, it would not be able to generate rich magic energies that had no particular nature.

'I still don't know why the obelisk had to maintain these magic energies, but it definitely had something to do with the red-blood tower ahead,' Kyran thought as he looked toward the north direction where he could see the tower.

'In any case, this magic array...' Kyran's voice trailed off as he smiled faintly.

The truth, the moment he started studying the magic array, his Void core had begun to resonate within him.

'You made this, didn't you, predecessor?'

His Void core hummed softly as if to confirm his thought.