Chapter 825: t.i.tan Temple (Three in One)
As the giant door slowly opened, a powerful, imposing pressure came out of the room inside. Johnson faced it first. Since the force was so powerful, it couldn’t help but take two steps back. As it was Abel’s summon creature, naturally speaking, Abel would feel the same imposing pressure that it experienced. He wasn’t all that weak against it, though. Whether it was his spiritual or physical strength, he still had a very strong resistance against the imposing pressure.
After the t.i.tan Temple’s imposing pressure swept across him, he managed to stay on both of his feet. He was even able to help Johnson carry some of the weight. This way, it wouldn’t have to take too many steps back as it tried to make the door open completely.
And there it was. Once the door was fully opened, Abel began to see a fairly strange world. It was a world that consisted of the element of lightning. Countless sparks of lighting appeared in the thin air, meanwhile vanis.h.i.+ng and reappearing as instances pa.s.sed by. This made the entire temple s.h.i.+ne in a blinding white. Johnson switched to its lightning-resistant multi-surfaced steel b.a.l.l.s. Its resistance against lightning spells was put to the maximum.
Abel didn’t go with it immediately. His “vow of the ancient” s.h.i.+eld was lightning-resistant, too, but it was nowhere as effective as the defensive monstrosity that was Johnson. He would take a step back to see how it would against the defensive mechanism in this place. He couldn’t tell what spirits this temple wors.h.i.+pped. All he could see was that there was an empty that kept appearing in his sight. It was probably a natural defensive mechanism, designed purely so that no outside trespa.s.sers would invade the t.i.tan Temple.
Abel gave a command, “Be careful, Johnson.”
Upon hearing that, Johnson took a slow step into the temple after it made a bowing gesture. As soon as he stepped in, a very powerful force sucked it into the deeper part of the t.i.tan Temple. Even its ten-meter tall steel body was not enough to resist this force. Abel was not fast enough to call it back, so the first thing he tried to do was to contact it with his soul chain. He was lucky that the call connected fairly quickly. From what Johnson told him, it was being surrounded by countless streaks of lightning as they attacked him round after round.
If it were any other Abel’s summon creatures, they would’ve been severely injured by these lightning attacks. Johnson was a special case. Even without much of a special method to make an attack, its defensive ability alone made it one of the most difficult beings to defeat on the Holy Continent. It had the “mana burning” ability, which helped it have a 75% resistance against all magic. It also had all sorts of defensive runes drawn on its body, making it just have very high resistance against mana in general. This way, even though the lightning attacks were hitting it straight on ever since it went inside the temple, they were not sufficient to inflict any real damage to it in a short period of time.
Abel couldn’t help but feel quite anxious, though. Johnson did possess resistance against lightning, but no matter how little the damage was, they would still acc.u.mulate over the very long term. This was when he decided to switch on the digitalization ability of the world stone fragment. The streaks of lightning in front of him might seem to be flas.h.i.+ng at random, but he figured that there was some sort of pattern that they were showing.
It turned out to be true. The lightning streaks were forming a strange pattern. However, because of how fast they were appearing, it was hard to tell their real forms. It was bright at one moment, then dark at next. Now that Abel switched on his a.n.a.lyzing tool, he tried to make sense of what he was looking at. He was an expert on runes, and he did quite a lot of research into runes. As unfamiliar as the runes in front of him were, it was relatively easy to figure out where the energy conversion point was. All he had to look for was where the energy was changing. He never really figured out a way to break this spell circle, though. He had read the relevant books. He did know some of the basics, but it had been only so long since he first became a wizard. There was also the issue of how he managed his time in the dark world. As he spent most of his time fighting there, he didn’t really have sufficient time to make sense of his learning.
He only knew a little more than amateurs for a complicated field as the production and utilization of spell circles. He did know a very simple method, though. He could disrupt its internal structure by causing an unstable change in the flow of this spell circle’s energy. It was the method that was the easiest to comprehend, but at the same time, it was also the hardest to actually implement. This was because the mechanism behind spell circles was supposed to be kept as a secret. The creators would do as much as they could not to let the others know about them.
Still, all attempts were futile in the face of Abel’s world stone fragment’s a.n.a.lyzing ability. It was pretty much his main reason for having the confidence to break this spell circle. He decided to use the lightning spell for it because, well, this was a temple infused with the element of lightning.
There. A “lightning” spell rune appeared in his right hand, and he shot right at the balance point that he located. It wasn’t enough to destroy the lightning spell circle, but at least he knew that his method was correct. He just needed to increase his output to deal enough damage. By using his left hand as well, the lightning continued to shake constantly.
At the same time, a message from Johnson came through the soul chain. There were a lot fewer lightning streaks beside it now. It was finally starting to gain the ability to move again. This was when Abel decided to do something that he didn’t normally do. He took a part of his druid spirit and infused it into Johnson’s soul. It wasn’t something that he preferred doing because he didn’t like the idea of manipulating his summoned creature’s thinking. Sure, they were his summon creatures, but he respected them. He didn’t like the idea of “brainwas.h.i.+ng” them, so to speak.
Right now, he was using the “lightning” spell to attack where the lightning void’s balance point was at. It wasn’t ineffective, but there was still quite some time before he could actually break through it. This was when Johnson’s power was needed. By sharing a part of his druid spirit with it, he shared what it was looking at. This way, everything that Johnson was looking at was what he was looking at. It was like there was a split screen in his field of vision. The world of lightning might be something very complicated to make sense of completely, but after gaining the second world stone fragment, it became much easier to do this mission.
Next up, he planned to find the energy balance point inside of the lightning void. He planned first to observe it through his druid spirit. He would first digitize its movement, then use his main spirit to get a better picture for a.n.a.lysis. It was quite a process, as he would have to use up pretty much all of his spiritual powers.
Once the druid spirit managed to locate the balance point inside the lightning void, it sent an image marked towards Johnson. Knowing where to hit, Johnson unleashed its super knight large sword from its back. It let out a very energetic scream, and just when it was about to hit the energy balance with full force, Abel also attacked it with his “lightning” spell. What followed next was a ma.s.sive trembling. Then, the lightning energy exploded as though it had lost control.
Imagine that. An entire world was destroyed. That was how it felt like with the lightning void. Under such strong trembling, the lightning inside the lightning void was activated at the same time. The lightning then started to crawl around like snakes. This was when the druid spirit inside Johnson’s body felt the danger. It tried to make a defense by transforming its entire body into a ma.s.sive iron ball. The multi-layer steel ball covering it on all sides placed its head in the center. This was all thanks to the druid spirit. If it didn’t respond fast enough, Johnson would’ve had to replace a lot more of its components.
So, even with the lightning-resistant runes and the multi-layered steel b.a.l.l.s that were crafted with fine steel, Johnson still sustained quite a bit of damage. However, the special thing about Johnson was that as long as its head was intact, then there wouldn’t be too much of a problem for it to survive.
Anyways, after the last streak of lightning disappeared, the lightning void became a single dot that disappeared in midair. Abel could see Johnson standing only two meters away from him. It looked quite distraught, to be honest. Many of the steel b.a.l.l.s on its body were destroyed. Still, after switching their places with the not-so-damaged ones, it could get back to its original form.
Of course, Johnson was still quite mad about all this. It shook its ma.s.sive body grumpily as it stood up. That hit was probably the hardest hit that it had ever taken. As for Abel, he was just really glad that Johnson was still alive. As his strongest defending partner, he had many hopes for it to work with him in his future missions. While his status as a wizard provided him with many offensive capabilities, he needed to make sure that there was someone or something to rely on for his lack of defensive capability. This was even the case, even if he was a double elemental head knight commander.
The t.i.tan Temple began to show its truth right after the lightning void disappeared. Abel could see the floor tile now. It was made of a single block of clear white jade, which just proved how ridiculously strong the t.i.tans were, physically. Not just that, it was also quite hard to believe that such a large jade crystal even existed. There was only one possibility, and it was that this jade was made right here on very special ground.
So the jade floor was made to be extremely durable. Otherwise, Johnson would’ve crushed it a while ago already. When Abel looked up, he could see that the top of the t.i.tan Temple was decorated with a small sun. It was floating right on top of the t.i.tan Temple, and it was flaring in a white light that shone on the ground. This made the entire temple seem quite sacred.
Abel walked over to the gate and stepped on it. As soon as he did, a tiny lightning arc was pa.s.sed to the bottom of his feet. It wasn’t just any ordinary attack. If anything, it was like a special form of baptism that was supposed to improve his health. He could feel slightly numb from the sensation he was feeling. It was a bit of a shame, though, since his body had already grown so much that it could hardly have any effect on him.
By walking slowly inside the temple, he could feel that his every step was attracting more tiny lightning arcs. He was back in the world of lightning. By the way, he was just starting to notice how s.p.a.cious the entire t.i.tan Temple was. After walking halfway into the door, all he could see was an entire empty floor with nothing on it. It was like all the things that were here were taken away.
The t.i.tan Temple was a very large building. It took Abel a bit of time to notice that, especially when he noticed how long it took for him to finally see the wors.h.i.+p altar that was at the deepest part. The altar was made of gold, and even the ladder that stretched from it to the ground was made of gold. It was still a bit far from where Abel was at, but as a grandmaster blacksmith, he was sure that the structure was purely made of gold.
On the altar, there was a statue of a t.i.tan standing about ten-something meters tall. It held a lightning staff in its hand. At either end of the ladders, two more statues were about ten meters tall. They were shaped like warriors with spears and armor. It was their job to guard the stairs against any who dared to walk on it. The more Abel walked forward, the more imposing pressure he could feel from the statue that was on the altar. Seeing how it could’ve been very dangerous for Johnson, he immediately told it to stop walking with him.
He walked towards the golden altar alone. The imposing pressure emitted from the giant statue made him feel like he should stay still and make a bow. The imposing pressure made his body tremble slightly, but he could get himself back to an upright position. His pride told him not to be afraid of spirits because, as the wizards would have it, spirits were just beings that were stronger than most. There had been myths of ancient times where wizards had killed spirits, so he’d like to think of himself and the being in front of him as equals.
The imposing pressure continued to become stronger and stronger, and just when Abel was close enough to touch the golden altar with his hands, a golden light flashed out of it. This when the imposing pressure became much more powerful than before. It was aimed towards Abel. It pierced straight through his body and went directly into his soul. His sight started to blur, but luckily, his dragon essence repelled the imposing pressure quickly enough.
So the t.i.tan Statue exhausted its energy quite quickly. Soon, the imposing pressure it unleashed was longer a threat on Abel’s side. He was starting to regain the energy to keep going, so he went on to inspect the golden altar and the two statues in front of him.
Abel went to check on one of the statues, “This is not a statue!”
The “statues” were lifeless, but he could clearly see molecules with irregular patterns on the parts that weren’t covered with armor. He could even see through the blood vessels underneath. It’d be impossible to create such details through craftsmans.h.i.+p. He had learned how to make statues before, so he knew how real these anatomical parts were.
As it turned out, this was actually a t.i.tan’s corpse. That was quite weird. He didn’t understand why two t.i.tan corpses were placed here. As soon as he placed his hand on one of them, the corpses disappeared and went straight inside his portal ring. This was his way of confirming that the t.i.tan was actually dead. If it actually weren’t, the portal ring would’ve taken in any animate things.
After taking the first one, he went to put in the other one. He was lucky that he just got the “Valaya’s ring.” Without it, he wouldn’t have been able to fit the two dead t.i.tans.
After he was done with that, he stepped onto the golden altar and followed the steps. He was quite curious about the t.i.tan statue in front of him. He didn’t know why a mere statue could unleash such terrifying imposing pressure. And even now, even though it was no longer unleas.h.i.+ng the overwhelming pressure, he could still sense a certain serenity that was coming out of it. However, he wasn’t a t.i.tan himself, so what he felt towards it was more curiosity rather than respect.
He came to the front of the t.i.tan statues to try to put it inside his Valaya’s ring, but it wasn’t all that easy, unlike the two dead t.i.tans. Both his mind and body were starting to feel intense stress that he never felt before. The statue refused to be put inside the ring. This was when he realized something. The statue was one with the entire floating island. They were not two but one item, and there was no way that he had the sufficient power of the Will to fit it all in.
To recover from having a huge portion of his power of the Will being drained, he tapped on his belt and consumed one bottle of the “full recovery potion.” While he couldn’t recover the power of the Will that was lost immediately, he did recover his physical health quite well.
“A shame,” he said to the t.i.tan statue as he shook his head. He was starting to notice something, though. There was a jade sign in front of him that was half a meter tall. Lightning arcs would flash across it once every so often. He should’ve noticed it earlier, but just then, all his attention was towards the t.i.tan statue itself.
But that didn’t make sense now because the world stone fragment buffed his observation skill and focus. It seemed strange that he would see the jade sign when it was so big. There was only one possible explanation for this. The t.i.tan statue was probably trying to hide this jade sign.
If that were the case, the question would have to change to “at what point could he find this sign?” He was certain that it happened right after when the imposing pressure exploded. The sign showed itself when the imposing pressure was weakened, which indicated that the statue was here to protect it from being found. He became even more sure of it when he placed his hand on top of the jade sign because when he did, a very strong electrical current was sent straight towards his entire body. His druid spirit had to use up an entire bottle of the “full recovery potion” for it.
As his body was turned to charcoal dark, a purple light flashed by to help him recover. The druid spirit’s “fully recovery potion” helped him get through the danger this time. Cold sweat started dripping from his back. He had faced several life-threatening situations ever since stepping into the t.i.tan Temple. This was the only time that his instinct as a head knight commander actually sent a warning. He felt like he was really close to death back then. If it wasn’t for the regenerative power of the “full recovery potion” just then, the electrical current would’ve destroyed his body entirely.
Whilst looking at the jade sign in his hand, he sighed in relief with the thought of having escaped instant death. Perhaps it was better if he did fewer such expeditions in the future. There were places that even his most trusted sense would not work. This made him feel quite uncomfortable, to be honest because there were plenty of times where his life was saved because of it.
While using the little power of the Will that he had, he decided to have a good scan into the jade sign. The jade sign was a control card. It was the single device responsible for keeping the entire temple’s spell circle under control. Injecting his power of the Will into it immediately activated the function to declare owners.h.i.+p over it. As soon as he became its leader, notifications were sent towards his brain. Instead of explaining why the t.i.tans left, the messages were mostly descriptions of the temple in detailed length.
Basically, this temple was built on top of an extremely powerful t.i.tan. Since the other t.i.tans tried to get the priest to resurrect it from death, they decided to build a temple right here, in the middle of the ocean. As for a reason for not doing this on land, it was because this t.i.tan was originally a traitor. The t.i.tans, as an entire race, weren’t willing to see its rise. It was the same reason why Barbra was planted here. They decided to trap it in stone so no one could come to figure out the secret behind this once powerful t.i.tan.
Even in death, the powerful t.i.tan continued to absorb energy all around it. It was the reason that its corpse didn’t rot away even after tens of thousands of years. Knowing this made Abel quite hesitant, to be honest. He wasn’t sure if he should give this temple to the dwarves because while the temple was, technically, a t.i.tan temple, the owner wasn’t actually a real t.i.tan G.o.d.
As for what this powerful t.i.tan did when it was alive, that was pretty much lost in records. He didn’t even know if the priests were actually capable of resurrecting him. There was no telling what would happen if the dwarves did their attempt it.
Most importantly, there was the existence of Barbra. If the dwarves tried to go to this place, they had to first gain access to the jade stone control card. Abel’s already tried it then. The sign card didn’t cancel the function to declare owners.h.i.+p over this temple. This meant that it was impossible to hand the signed card over to the dwarves, so Barbra would drain out all of their energy if they decided to come here.
“Wait, I’m at the wrong place, ain’t I?” Abel slapped his head. If the control card was in his hand, he would have the right to force Barbra to go elsewhere. Besides, there was no point in transferring the card to the dwarves. He could just leave them an empty temple to them.
He decided to first shut down all the defensive circles inside the t.i.tan Temple with that in mind. He then disappeared from the temple in the flash of white light.
Abel reappeared next to Barbra, “I’ve come to see you, Barbra.”
Barbra said sarcastically, “I’ve felt the energy of the contract, Abel. I think I just found myself a new master.”
Barbra was the guardian plant of the t.i.tans. Without a master to serve, it had no goal to live on. Now that it felt the temple control card’s presence, it finally regained a new purpose, a new notion to follow.
Abel asked, “I’ll help you change a place to be. Is that alright with you, Barbra?”
Barbra explained in detail, “Master, you already have full access over the entire temple. You have the right to unshackle me, but let me remind you something. Every time I change a place to live, you’d have to provide a lot of energy for it to happen.”
Abel took out a perfect gemstone, “Sure. Is this good enough?”
Barbra replied very quickly, “I’ll need ten of this, Master.”
Abel was a lot happier when he heard that. He just wanted to make sure that the gemstone actually would work. The number was not his concern.
When ten perfect gemstones were handed over, Barbara’s roots started snapping as it left the ground that it was planted in. its body was completely separated from the ground, and the stench inside of it was starting to lose a lot more.
Barbra said obediently, “I’ve made full preparation, Mater. Please, find me a new soil to place within ten days, or else I will die from malnutrition.”
Abel opened his portal beast ring, “Sure thing. Get in my portal beast ring first. I’ll find you a new place very quickly.”
After putting Barbra inside the portal beast ring, Abel looked around to see if there was anything that he was missing. When he was done, he went back into the temple to continue on his quest. He very much admired Barbra’s strength. If it weren’t for the fact that he would have spent so many perfect gemstones to move it every time, he would’ve carried it around as his trustworthy partner.
Still, because of Barbra’s existence, he had a place to be and a way to be protected. Think about it this way. When a powerful wizard came beside Barbra, his “instantaneous movement” would be of no use, and all his spells would’ve been banished. The entire area that it was, it would’ve been mana-free. It was capable of unleas.h.i.+ng absolute nightmares to any powerful wizards. He did try to get out of its reach through his head knight commander’s ability, but he was still caught by it. No one on the Holy Continent would underestimate Barbra’s true strength.
Abel continued to stand inside the t.i.tan Temple. He’s already taken all the powerful items here. What was left inside the temple was nothing but an empty sh.e.l.l. While the building was still quite valuable (immeasurable, in fact), he still couldn’t help but feel the same towards the dwarves. They were the first ones that found it, after all, and he only came here on behalf of their request.
Judging from his friends.h.i.+p with the dwarves, he couldn’t find himself to do something like taking over this entire place. “I’ll just leave this place to the dwarves, then,” so he thought because he thought that he would still get to keep control over this place.
After coming to a decision, he took out the teleportation circle plate that the dwarves handed him. He placed it on the jade floor, then activated it with his power of the Will.