Chapter 614 (1/2)

With Zelyse’s frustrated cries at their backs, Fran and Urushi ran through the lake.

『From this point forward, we’ll use Dimension Shift to proceed』

「Nn」

『We don’t have that much magic to spare, so we’ll move quickly. And Urushi, follow me as I moved with your shadow transfer』

「Woof!」

I activate the Dimension Shift after feeling the Vivian Guardian’s attention towards me.

Urushi was moving through the shadows of the rocks and other objects on the bottom of the lake, as he couldn’t get together with us. But apparently, Urushi who was moving in the shadows was noticed by them.

The place where Urushi was hiding was then surrounded by the Guardians.

『Urushi! Get back!』

(Woof…)

If we forced the Guardian to follow him any further, they would get agitated and go out of control. So, we would have him wait here to intercept Zelyse.

Fran and I then made our way through the water without any problems. After a while, we caught a strange object in front of us.

『What’s that…?』

「A pillar?」

As Fran said, it did look like a pillar.

A white column, about five meters in diameter, rose from the water to the sky. And it was not just one there.

『Let’s take a look at it from above』

「Nn」

Looking down from above, we saw that there were twelve white pillars. They were evenly spaced in a circle. No matter how I looked at it, this must be the center of the lake.

『And I’m feeling some kind of magic power from it』

「It felt gross」

I felt a strange magical power coming from the center of the circle. It was not evil, but it was not normal magic power either. As Fran said, it was a weird and unpleasant magical power.

「Master, let’s get closer」

『We don’t have a choice』

I really wanted to act cautiously, but I didn’t have much magic power left to spare. But we couldn’t just leave it there, so we would check the source of this magic first.

Fran then plunged into the water with the momentum of her descent.

The water depth seemed to be quite shallow in this area. It was less than ten meters deep. And at the bottom of the lake, there seemed to be a mysterious structure.

At first glance, it looked like a temple. It was paved with the same white stone material as the stone pillars, and there was an altar-like structure in the center.

I think it was quite old, but it was still very clean for such an old thing. No moss, no debris, no dirt, just a pure white structure.

And in the center of the temple, there was a strange source of magic.

In this beautiful white temple, it was clearly a foreign and hideous-looking object. It seemed to be an artifact and was made up of a purple crystal.

「What is that thing?」

『That must be a magic stone weapon!』

Moreover, it seemed to be absorbing the magic power of its surroundings and pouring it into the temple. The creepiness we felt was probably the sickening feeling of having our magic power sucked out of us.

「You’ve gone so far, haven’t you?」

「!! Rhyn!」

Suddenly, the spirit, Rhyn, appeared.

「This place is special. It’s safe to cancel your Space-Time Magic now. The guardians won’t be able to get into this place」

I followed Rhyn’s words and canceled our Dimension Shift. There seemed to be no sign of the Vivian Guardians making any noise outside the temple. So, it seemed they really couldn’t get in this place.

I then put up a wind barrier and continued talking with Rhyn.

「Have you guys seen that huge magic stone?」

「Nn」

Rhyn stared at the magic stone weapon with sorrowful eyes.