The disciple group exited the dirt island area very different from when they entered. Brock’s strength had surged upward. All six Elders were gone, their cores long absorbed. In their place, Jack and Brock now led the group, with everyone else flying behind them.
Starhair, of course, also enjoyed everyone’s respect. His strength was enough to rival Strawpin and Fiend Prince’s, while his friendship with Jack and Brock earned people’s envy.
In just a short few weeks, Jack and Brock had secured the disciples’ admiration. Their level of talent was unfathomable, but it wasn’t just that. Any other monster might have left these disciples to fend for themselves—Jack and Brock had taken responsibility for killing the Elders and promised to protect the disciples all the way to the Hall of Trials.
As for the disciples... Being escorted and protected by Elders was one thing, but experiencing the same from people of your own class... That was a different emotion altogether.
“Are you sure you don’t want a disciple, Jack Monstrous?” Fiend Prince asked, flying beside Jack. “I’ll be good, I promise. I can wipe and mop your floors if you want. I’ll work hard!”
“I’m good, Prince, thank you” Jack replied with a laugh. He’d interacted with the other disciples over the previous weeks, and Fiend Prince was one of the people he enjoyed. He was straight-forward to the point of being funny. As for Strawpin, while she was somewhat stuck-up, her heart was kind. She’d only acted aggressive to defend the disciples whose spots Jack’s group had taken.
Of course, now that she knew they more than deserved those spots, she’d completely switched her tune.
“How do you even know the way?” she asked, flying on Jack’s other side, between him and Brock.
“I can sense the Dao released by the Hall of Trials. At least, I think I can,” he replied. “If I’m right, the Elders were leading you in circles before.”
“Why would they do that?”
Fiend Prince frowned. “That’s weird. I understand that they’d want to explore the dirt area once they discovered it, but are you saying they were already moving in circles before that?”
“Yeah,” Jack replied. “I was hoping you’d have an idea.”
“No clue.” Strawpin shook her head. “I’ve read the records on previous delves. Unless all previous generations deliberately obfuscated something, there was never a reason to delay. After all, the faster the Elders can drop us off at the Hall of Trials, the faster they can go treasure hunting.”
“Owlhead did mention something weird,” Fiend Prince added. “When Strawpin asked them to take us to the Hall and then return for the lotus, he said there are some things we don’t know.”
“I thought he told me to go fuck myself.”
“That too.”
“Maybe they were afraid to go treasure hunting and wanted to delay so they had an excuse to take things slow?” Strawpin ventured a guess. It wasn’t too likely, but nobody had a better idea.
Jack didn’t participate in the brainstorming. He was aware of more things than the rest. The Second Crusade had just erupted outside the Space Monster World—with the Overlords desperate to strengthen their factions, this delve was very different from all previous ones. Great Silver himself had hinted at this. Using the records as reference points was meaningless.
The Overlord had also mentioned something else. After urging Jack’s group to meet up with the other disciples, he’d said, “Don’t rush to the Hall of Trials.” Maybe the Elders had received similar orders. The problem was, Jack had no idea why.
He was as lost as the rest of them.
In any case, thinking about that wasn’t something Jack could afford right now. The Dark Canal was a dangerous place. Just by himself and Brock, they couldn’t protect all these disciples forever. Rushing or not, they had to reach the Hall of Trials.
“What’s the Hall like?” he asked.
“I agree it’s important, bro, but I have no idea. Let’s figure it out when we get there.”
Jack nodded.
A few native monsters attacked them on the way, but thankfully, nothing above the middle A-Grade. Jack and Brock handled them all—every battle only enhancing the awe in the disciples’ eyes.
Eventually, the scenery changed again. The Dao stream Jack had been following turned more and more intense until everyone could sense it. It then kept growing until it was a brewing storm, a current of power simply waiting to erupt. It gave him goosebumps.
Finally, they emerged into an area where the black mist was thicker than ever. A stone island spread under their feet, far wider than any other, stretching into the darkness. Jack paused and strained his perception to the limit. What he saw made him gasp.
From the edge of the stone island, his perception could barely reach its center. He saw there a pyramid stretching into the sky, faint lines denoting six floors each an entire mile tall. Its base was seven miles wide, but it grew narrower the higher one looked. At the very top, it was flat, as if part of it had been shorn off. Tremendous power fell from up there—Jack wasn’t eager to visit.
The black mist hugging the pyramid was so dense it almost turned solid. It rolled off the walls as moisture. The walls themselves were the brown of sand, easy to make out in the mist, while their surface was bare. The front of the pyramid sported a massive double door, half a mile tall, carved with the striking image of a monster tearing apart what looked like a human.
It gave Jack the chills. This world and the outside universe didn’t communicate much. Why would there be the image of a human here, in this world’s cradle? Why was that human getting torn apart?
Not a human, actually, Jack corrected himself. An Ancient. They were genetically similar to humans, and with this world’s timeframe, it could only be one of them. Were the Ancients and the first space monsters at war or something? Did the monsters create this entire world as a fortress?
The more he saw, the more questions he had, and nothing seemed to make much sense.
Jack looked away from the pyramid, surveying the space around it, and was once again shocked. Before, when he simply brushed by its surroundings to reach the pyramid, he’d assumed it was surrounded by hills. Now, he realized they were statues. Three large ones formed a triangle around the pagoda, while another eight—smaller and farther away—created a diamond-like shape to encapsulate the triangle.
Eleven statues in total. Another weird number. What the hell was going on?
“What do you see?” Starhair asked, his perception not reaching the statues.
“You’ll see,” Jack replied. “Let’s go. There is no danger here.”
He knew that instinctively. The place carried such a heavy air of holiness that, even if there were native monsters present, Jack suspected they’d hesitate to disturb the peace.
Their group floated forward. Gasps echoed every once in a while as more and more people perceived the statues and pagoda. Some of the older disciples, who’d visited this place before, wore wry smiles. This was the same reaction they’d had the first time. The same reaction everyone had.
“Who are these bros?” Brock asked.
The larger statues were two miles tall, while the smaller ones were one mile. They really were mountains, completely made of stone. Any paint on them had long washed away, but the stone itself persisted, magically enhanced to endure billions of years of erosion.
As they approached, Jack could make out more details. The large three statues were the first he surveyed. One depicted a massive, tentacled sphere. The other two were humanoid, except their faces were featureless and the texture of their bodies odd, as if their skin was rippling.
“We have no idea who these are,” Strawpin explained, unable to hide the awe in her voice. “The records speculate they’re strong ancient monsters who helped build this place, but in truth, we don’t know.”
Jack cupped his chin. “I see,” he said. “I have no idea either.”