Chapter 308 The Trap Of The Stele.

When Alvine was about to touch one of the skeletons to find out what he was made of, the bloody mist booed him at the same time.

But before he does anything,

"Everyone, it's time to help the master," Ashia murmured, grabbing her spear on her back.

But at the same time, their visual fields gradually degrade until they can no longer discern their environments!

It was as if the day had suddenly turned into a dark night.

"?! What is?!!" Myulan shouted in an alarmed tone, noticing that she couldn't see around her with her eyes!

But the next moment, everyone was speechless when they noticed this strange phenomenon.

Their already limited sense of eyesight became utterly useless following the forced collapse of Ashia's protective barrier.

"Is it a curse?" Ashia wondered, frowning with her eyes wide open, yet unable to see her environment.

"No, not exactly; it may be an array that aims to prevent intruders from going further," Alvine murmured, being himself affected by this anomaly.

'Even if I have lost my powers from the shadows, I can still use my Gehenna flames. So curses can't affect me.' He said to himself, closing his eyes and focusing on his other senses.

"Don't forget my warning. Go back to the others if you panic just for so little! See this situation as training; use your magical perception to defend yourselves." Alvine then replied.

*Master, even if we won't have a problem at this station, I don't think others will get by easily. Let me protect them while waiting for that--

*No, Ashia, do nothing for them. I would like to point out that they are generals who are supposed to protect hundreds of thousands of subordinates under their orders. Let them manage on their own; I hate weak and lazy people!* Alvine replied before Ashia finished her sentence.

*...Understood.*

At the same time, the skeletons possessed attacked them with their weapons rusted by time, but which were still as strong and sharp thanks to the evil energy permeating them.

But strangely, whether it was Alvine or the others, they did not have much trouble getting rid of the first waves that besieged them.

Because of their fragile corpulence, and their energies barely able to compete with those of the emperor mages, the others were able to get out of them after slightly adapting to their situations.

Unlike Alvine, who had an extraordinary magical perception, and Ashia, who had no trouble seeing three hundred meters around her, the other members, of whom only one person was an intermediate divine mage among the divine mages of the lower ranks, had difficulty extending their perceptions to more than twenty meters from them!

Hence, their previous panics when they noticed the uselessness of their eyes in this area.

'Something is wrong with these skeletons.' Fyora murmured to herself, noticing a mysterious energy trying to penetrate her body when she killed ten of them.

"Pay attention to yourselves, those who have the affinity for light, use it to protect yourself; as for those who do not have it, do your best not to face them head-on. These strange entities have cursed weapons!" Almost at the same time, Vlad, the general of the elite squad of elves, shouted these words.

As one of those able to use the affinity of the holy light, he had noticed this factor when he killed more skeletons at once with his aura arrows.

Well, this Vlad is more interesting than expected. What about the others?' While thinking about these words, Alvine checked the situation of the other generals with his magical perception.

-Freeze!

As usual, Fyora was the one who stood out the most among the four, thanks to her ice-deviant affinity.

She was like an ice queen, freezing all around her without too much effort. Her method was life-saving against curses and practical to immobilize skeletons without killing them to trigger the flight of the evil aura that emanated from demonic skeletons.

As for Barade, he was the only fury among the group to destroy everything in his path with his sizeable golden sword imbued with his golden aura. But thanks to the same affinity for light as Vlad and Myulan, he had no problem with curses.

Myulan was not too different from Barade. Except, her movements were more flexible and less brutal thanks to the mastery of her main weapon, which is a spear of divine rank. She targeted the weak parts of her targets, namely their joints, cervical vertebrae, and skulls.

Ashia did not need to be mentioned since the latter left nothing with her hell flames and did not care about the evil energy that only made her stronger.

'Well, since everyone gets by without too much trouble, this boring battle no longer needs to hold us back.' While retorting these words, a white pearl swirled in Alvine's palm and pulled towards the skeletal soldiers who were trying to get up.

His milky white pearl, created, thanks to his light affinity, interrupted the resurrection of other skeletal soldiers and, at the same time, exterminated the twenty skeletons that were affected by his purifying powers.

'Ugh! Due to the nature of my soul and this body, Lucine's pearl is more difficult to cast than my other pearls. But ironically, I feel this skill is necessary for me in this excursion. Sigh, it's boring.' He murmured, letting the others complete their respective tasks.

After another minute, which it took them to defeat their enemies, everyone put away their weapons and followed Alvine in silence.

-Thinking about it, I thought that defeating is enemies was necessary to be able to use our eyes, but the reality was something else.' Ashia murmured to herself with her eyes closed and relied only on her magical perception to discern her environment like the others.

...

After two additional hours, the two arrived in front of a large red stele with mystical hieroglyphs in a language unknown to the natives of the planet.

*Master, I think we have arrived at our destination.* Ashia spoke telepathically, not to hide this from others, but because of the significant factors that occurred during their journeys.

After their battles against the skeletons, they met other biped monsters with hideous appearances. But even worse, they had lost their sense of hearing and smell in addition to sight.

But at present, they could only use their sense of touch; otherwise, all their four other senses were blocked by the characteristics of the forest.

Even if only two hours had passed, they had to fight to survive the length of their paths in extreme conditions where they could only count on the natural forces offered by their bloodline or the race they belonged to.

*It's unfair. The person who created the arrays of this forest must indeed have a deep grudge against humans!* Being the only human on the team, Barade was the most disadvantaged.

Myulan and Vlad, the two elves of the group, were always able to hear well thanks to their natures as elves, which have sharper ears than the others and were able to enter resonance with the forest.

Ashia had an overdeveloped sense of smell and sensitive ears thanks to her dragon bloodline.

As for Fyora, as a succubus with extraordinary spiritual powers greatly helped her develop her magical perception as she encountered dangers along the way.

As for Alvine, being the only mystery of the group, not to mention using his bloodlines, he was able to make one with the darkness that was nothing compared to the perpetual darkness of the dimension.

Even if Ashia and Fyora could use their perceptions to see ten meters and three meters around them, Alvine could still inspect the hundreds of meters around him.

*You are right. But instead of the remains, there is nothing more in this forest than this stele. In addition, I can't understand the motives of this stele.* He says while touching the motifs engraved in the stele.

At that moment, Myulan approached the stele and touched it in turn to inspect it.

*That said, here rests the heavenly emperor who conquered the heavens and the earth. Dare...go out...? I don't understand these motifs.*

*Hm? Can you read that?* Alvine.

*Y-Yes, it was thanks to the ancient books that I read in the library of our kingdom. But as it is an ancient language that was used by the first civilization of this planet, there were not too many works; I'm sorry.* She whispered her last sentence.

*No, no need to apologize for that. You have already helped us a lot.* Affirmed Alvine with an ironic smile.

*Hm? A language of ancient civilization? If that's what I think, I think I can help.* At the same time, Barade approached the stele and also touched it.

After about ten seconds, he sighed sadly.

*Sigh, to say that we went all this way for nothing.* This was his first sentence after analyzing the stele.

*What does it say?* Ashia asked.

*In short, it says that this is where the tomb and the inheritance of the celestial emperor are located. His name is Adolph.*

*Adolph? I think I heard this name in one of the ancient books. If I remember correctly, it was the divine demon who had extended his domination on all the other races, including the race of the ancient giants who were on this planet of its glorious time.* Myulan briefly revealed this information in the meantime.

Barade nodded and continued his explanations that he had deciphered on the stele.

*According to the information of the stele, this stele has a teleportation function to its vestige. He is looking for an heir who will inherit not only his wealth but also his will. The problem is that his conditions are too skeptical. To activate the portal of the stele, the candidate must not only be a demon who has reached the middle divine rank but mastering at least ten affinities.* He said.

*Hm? Not to mention me, who meets all its conditions, but even Ashia will also be able to activate this stele. So what's the problem?* Alvine asked, slightly raising his eyebrows.

*Your majesty, it's not all; you must also have all the laws of the affinities that you masters, including the divine laws!*

*What?! But it's absurd. Who does he take this bastard for?! He will rot in his grave without having an heir!* Ashia replied with frustration.

*Ashia, I thought you mastered all the laws of your attributes?*

*Master, as a demon, it is impossible for me to master the divine law of holy light attribute. And it's not me alone; any pure-blood demons will be confronted with the same problem. What this old mummy asks for is simply impossible; unless it is an essential one!* Ashia explained when she heard Alvine's question.

*Ah, it's a little frustrating.* The latter replied in turn, following Ashia's explanations.

*But I don't understand. Your majesty, didn't you use a [divine law of light: The seed of the goddess] to purify the skeletons?* Fyora asked in a confused tone.

*Sigh, you are mistaken; it was not a divine law but a spell of purification that concentrates this affinity to the point of making it more powerful than divine law magic. But even if its power is not weak to other divine spells, there's a significant factor that must be taken into account; it does not bear the mark of law, even if it can transgress the rules that govern mortals.*

*...Can such spells exist?*

*It's not complicated; it's about the same as the traps you had activated in the artificial forest with the orb you owned.* He said, frowning.

'But will it be able to work?' He then continued in his thoughts.

*Master, you have to try to inject your magical energy to see if the stele will react.*

*This is a possibility, but there are two important factors to take into account in this kind of situation. First, we are not even sure that the words on this stele are true. And finally, even if this is the case, if the stele considers me inadequate, I would risk activating its defensive traps.*

*You're right, but the worst that could happen will be only that. But if we don't do anything, we'll go back empty-handed without being able to do anything.* Ashia insisted when she saw Alvine's concerns.

Seeing her insistence, Alvine had no choice but to try.

*...You're not wrong; we can't give up so close to the goal.* He also nods.

But just as he injected his energy into the stele, it lit up with a bloody red glow, followed by a gravitational pressure that was nothing compared to the pressure emanating from its gravitational pearls.

'Agh! Even I find it difficult to endure such pressure. Who was this bastard exactly to have such power? A master of arrays of divine rank? The situation couldn't be worse!' He said to Himself while looking at the others collapsed on the ground.

Apart from Ashia, who does not seem to have problems, everyone was in a similar state or even worse than him.

But as if that wasn't enough, mana chains booed them, and before they reacted in time, they were all chained and pulled underground the next moment!