Huxley ran, despite his injuries he kept running. It was as if his world collapsed all over again.

Why did it happen now?

Just as he was saved, just as Leo took him out of that place. Why did it have to be right when everything was supposed to be alright?

The more he ran, the worse his injuries got but he disregarded that. Leo saved his life but it is now his turn to save Leo and he's to be damned in darkness if he couldn't get help on time.

"Titus! Cenric! Help!"

And he ran towards the Mercenary Camp.

***

*An Hour Earlier*

"How's your leg?" Leon asked.

"It's killing me, man." Huxley kept limping as Leon assisted him.

It was good enough that he has a spear to walk on but he didn't realize his injuries were this bad. Sure as hell Pearl wasn't planning to send him to the afterlife in one piece.

Such a terrible act of mutilating the dead would never give the soul a final rest and deny it from becoming one with the light. A terrifying fate for a Light Devotee such as Huxley.

"What were you doing before we left the corpses earlier?" Huxley asked to take his mind off the pain.

His question was about some things Leon did before they departed from the place where Huxley was held.

"Hm? Oh! I was just setting a stage." Leon said.

"What stage?"

"There is a nobleman who was supporting that bitch friend of yours. We don't want him to find out that she was killed by other Mercenaries now, do we?" Leon asked.

"No, we don't. But you really have no respect for the dead?" Huxley asked.

"I didn't loot them if that's the respect you're talking about. I didn't cut their limbs either so that no one suspects I was going it out of hate. All I did was to replace the arrows with crude spears which I picked from the goblins, drag some goblin corpses to the scene, and stage it like it was a goblin ambush."

"That's sinister." Huxley laughed, "But you left the sword in Pearl's mouth as it is.x

"It was a masterpiece. How can you even suggest defiling such art?" Leon laughed.

"You're one sick motherfucker, Leo." Huxley said not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Leon indeed left Pearl's corpse as it is just to mess with the Prince. He would want to see how that spoiled little fucker acts now.

As this murderous yet harmonious atmosphere went by, Leon and Huxley stood in place and looked around.

"We're lost, aren't we?" Leon asked.

"Yep." Huxley nodded as he left Leon and rested his back on a tree.

Leon recovered a map and a compass from his bag and spread them on the ground. After finding his location on the map, he determined the best route to return to the camp.

"I guess it has to be that way." Leon pointed.

"Well… I am a little bit exhausted you see." Huxley said as he seemed to be refusing to move an inch now.

Even though Leon cast the Heal spell on him, it wasn't as effective as he would have hoped. Time and rest are vital for recovery, Magic only hastens the process and ensures that nothing goes wrong.

"You have a minute to catch your breath and we're moving." Leon said as he retrieved his navigation tools and started looking around the area.

"Something's wrong?"

"Hm? No, not really. I just saw that strange marker on the map which is supposed to be nearby somewhere. Not sure though." Leon said, "It looked like…"

"I can't read so don't expect me to know what a marker means." Huxley said as he struggled himself up on his feet, "Let's not waste any more time. We need to be in camp before it's dark."

"Alright. We'll be passing by it anyway."

Leon held Huxley once again and started walking out of the place they hid in towards the forest road nearby. Just as Leon said, they started to feel traces of civilization in the middle of the forest just as they got closer to the location of that marker on the map.

"A camp?" Huxley asked.

"Doesn't look like it. Hmmm… look at that."

In this forest, that sign of civilization they found appeared to be some rubble but nothing too old like some ancient ruins but rather something that was hit by an attack.

It looked like a small room but it had a peculiar structure near to it. The structure was profoundly long and it seemed that it was brought down very recently.

"Holy Light! It's the pillar." Huxley exclaimed.

"What Pillar?" Leon stopped his inspection and asked.

"The Holy Pillar, a device made by the Temple to ward off the influence of Darkness in the forest." Huxley said.

"Ah! You mean the Miasma Curse." Leon nodded.

"Darkness, Miasma or whatever… they're all the same thing. Once night falls, the forest will no longer be safe."

Contrary to what Huxley said, Darkness and Miasma are different things altogether but it is a common misconception that they are one and the same. The Light Temple even uses this misconception as propaganda for the sole reason that Miasma festers in the absence of Light.

Leon managed to see the structure as a pillar indeed after he spent some time contemplating its shape and realized that it is built of the same stone as the Temple he once visited. It even had those same wall engravings.

These so-called Holy Pillars are the same as the Pillar used in the Temple to offer the Reading Services which Leon used once. It meant that whatever this Pillar contained, it was probably a sealed spell.

One other thing that Leon noticed was how high this pillar should have been. As far as he knows, these Pillars are powered by sunlight just like the entirety of the Temples of the Holy Light faith. It seems that this pillar was taller than the rest of the trees around it thus it could reach sunlight.

Still, the sheer power required to bring down such a pillar is nothing to scoff at. You need to be at least as strong as a wrecking ball machine to accomplish such a thing with this result.

"So this is the thing that keeps the monsters at bay?" Leon asked, "How many of them are required to cover up an entire forest?"

"Covering up? I don't think anyone has such resources. Surrounding, however, is what they are meant to do." Huxley said, "It takes a lot of energy to clear an entire section of the forest of both monsters, Miasma, and shade. I remember that a few years ago, the Mercenaries participated in clearing an entire section of monsters then the temple cleansed it and relocated the Pillar to keep the Miasma from advancing. Impressive work if you ask me…" Huxley then held his side with pained expressions, "Ouch ouch! I shouldn't get excited when talking."

"Alright, rest a little."

Leon helped Huxley to the side and inspected the rubble.

"The pillar is rather interesting…" He said as he started touching it closely.

"It should be… but what's your point?"

"Rather than being round, it is square which doesn't fit the style seen in this Kingdom. It is also made of what seems to be ashen-colored granite. I wonder why the Temple gets to keep its style of architecture while ignoring the architecture style of this kingdom."

"I don't know, man… Whatever suits the nature of the light I guess." Huxley replied.

"You think so?" Leon paid no heed to Huxley at this point as it seemed like his knowledge only goes this far.

"The Pillar is thicker from its base… gets thinner when it goes higher… and it is made of a single piece of carved stone?" Leon analyzed as he kept scratching his chin.

Somehow, it all sounded really familiar to him.

"Where is the top of this pillar?" He asked but he was only monologuing with himself as he followed the rubble as it extended on the ground.

"Yo, Leo. Look at that." Huxley called as he followed after Leon.

"What?"

"There are stone arrows and spears… crude looking. Goblins."

In the vicinity of the pillar, Huxley discovered some arrows stuck to a tree and a couple of broken stone spears. Many footprints as well which belonged to Goblins as well as a few signs of struggle.

"Don't worry, there are no goblins around here anymore." Leon said as he kept inspecting the pillar.

"Let's just get out of here and report this." Huxley urged Leon to go.

"Be with you in a jiffy… tsk, where is a camera when I need one?!"

Even though the situation was alarming, Leon had a special interest in peculiar architectures and special glyphs thus this pillar was something interesting to him. Also, there is this feeling he couldn't shake off as he kept getting closer to the upper part of the fallen pillar.

At first, he found a brazier-like plate lying around. It looked like a big plate with strange kinds of glyphs on it. They were all in the shapes of rays, hands, suns, stars, and celestial objects.

His passive skill, Enhanced Mana Sense, was also feeling a lot of Mana from the plate.

"Read!"

——————————

[ Sun Brazier ]

- A special brazier that collects sunlight and channels it into whatever objects connected to it.

——————————

"Oh! Does it… Praise the Sun?!"

Leon chuckled lightly to his pun as he can do the same process with the Photosynthesis spell.

"What about you, Pillar? Read!"

——————————

[ Holy Pillar ]

- A pillar with a magical seal containing the spell [Protection from Good and Evil].

——————————

"Contains a spell? Why can't I analyze it?" Leon immediately put his hand on the Pillar piece nearby and tried reading once again.

"Aha! It seems I can't analyze the spell with the pillar in pieces."

Leon sighed outwardly and took distance from the brazier. However, as he did so, he found the last part of the pillar he was looking for.

"Holy… shit!"

And as if the thing that bothered him earlier suddenly became reality, Leon had to blink twice before looking between the other broken parts of the pillar and its top part.

He can now imagine how the pillar looked like. As his first estimation, it was carved from a single piece of stone as a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top.

This must be a coincidence.

"An Obelisk?"

Any Egyptian would recognize this object in a heartbeat. Such things were erected in ancient times by the Pharaohs as monolithic monuments that record their deeds. It was also used for the purpose of telling time like a sundial. They were called Tekhenu by the Ancient Egyptians and Masalla by the Modern Egyptians. Shady always wanted to steal one of those from the ones that were shipped to Europe but the scale was simply beyond him.

Still, it gave him a slight and humorous surprise as it can't possibly be related to anything Egyptian. An Obelisk would usually carry a ton of Hieroglyphs but this one contains lines and hands engravings as well as suns and things from this world's culture.

"Look at those beautiful Holy Glyphs!"

At that moment, Huxley approached the pillar as well and started touching the pillar.

"What's with you people and attaching the word Holy to every damn thing?" Leon suddenly facepalmed.

"Well… it's what the temple calls them… I don't know." Huxley seemed clueless as he shrugged his shoulders.

Leon shook his head but he could still feel a little bit weird. Hieroglyphs… Holy Glyphs… isn't the prefix "Hiero-" supposed to mean "Holy" in Greek?

"Come on!"

The sheer thought of things not being a coincidence was annoying him so much to the point where he turned his back to Huxley and called out the [Ring of Horus] which slowly manifested around his finger.

"Tell me you know nothing about this… tell me anything, damn you!"

Whether it is connected or not, Leon was already not in the mood to play around with this Obelisk or Pillar or whatever it is.

"Huxley, move aside." Leon called.

"What?"

"Just get away from that thing." Leon said with a bothered face.

As Huxley limped a few steps away from the pillar, Leon started preparing himself as he switched his classes to Mage and Hunter.

Slowly, he raised his arms and channeled all his strength to his torso, then with a strong step, he channeled his Mana to the Earth and cast [Earth Magic - Earth Control].

"HAAA!"

Using all his power, Leon manipulated the Earth beneath the fallen Obelisk and made it carry up the rubble together and slowly join it into a single piece. The process was painful as Leon exerted a lot of his Mana and put a tremendous effort into joining every one of those heavy pieces together. They were mostly eight large pieces and a few smaller ones. Leon ignored the small ones and made sure the large pieces are at least in line together on the ground.

"Woah!" Huxley opened his mouth wide and looked at Leon who was huffing from exhaustion, "What was that?"

"Ma… Magic… Hehe." Leon laughed.

Now the toppled broken Obelisk was barely connected by Earth. Leon took a few deep breaths before inspecting the thing up close.

"Unmistakably, that's an Obelisk. Totally alien. Very likely a coincidence." Leon said as he looked at the Obelisk with greed, "Read!"

"Tsk!" He clicked his tongue and lowered his head in exhaustion. He really wanted to analyze that spell sealed inside the Obelisk.

As he turned around, he saw that Sun Brazier lying over there and an idea bulb lit above his head. He quickly went to that brazier and carried over back to the Obelisk. After inspecting the brazier, he found that it has a base that fits to be crowned on top of the Obelisk. That proved to be a problem since the Obelisk was still lying down and the diameter of the brazier would prove to be a problem.

But not for long. With Earth Magic, this is not even a problem.

"I don't think this will fix the Pillar." Huxley said.

"Why?"

"You need sunlight… and the Pillar should stand up, right?"

"Probably." Leon replied as he started digging with Earth Magic to fit the brazier on the upper part of the Obelisk.

"Meaning?" Huxley asked.

"Heh!" Leon didn't reply except with a light chuckle and finally fitted the brazier on the Obelisk.

What was left is Sunlight, or in other words, Light Mana.

"I'm sorry, Huxley, but can you bring me a book from inside that bag over there, please. I don't want this brazier to fall down, sorry." Leon said with a polite smile.

"Whatever, man. Let's just hurry up, we've stayed here long enough." Huxley said as he turned away from Leon.

With a cunning smile, Leon found the bits of Light Mana he stored inside his body through the Photosynthesis spell and with his emotions stabilizing, he slowly started to cast out the Light Mana into the Sun Brazier. Slowly and carefully, he saw the Light spread on the brazier and at its lines and engravings spreading through it to its edges down towards the Obelisk.

"Wow!"

"Wh… what's happening? What did you do?" Huxley freaked out as he saw the light spreading across the pillar.

"…" Leon shrugged his shoulders not saying anything but he immediately moved to the Obelisk and cast Read.

Right at this moment, the spell worked.

"Yes!"

"You… You fixed it…"

Just as Huxley said so, the light on the pillar intensified all of a sudden and with a sudden formless burst, it all went away. The burst left behind a spectacle of light particles floating through the air as if the Mana had been condensed then released in a heavier form.

Leon and Huxley, who both covered their eyes, looked at the pillar in frustration.

"Fuck!"

"Well… at least you tried."

"Whatever… it's pointless."

Leon felt frustrated as he neither got the spell nor understood any clue about the Obelisk. It was all rather underwhelming.

"Right, let's move now. We'll report this to Chief Vadim."

Leon nodded and looked around for the backpack he dropped somewhere around here. Just as soon as he found it, he walked towards it and leaned down to pick it up but he noticed something.

Those tiny light particles that were dissipating slowly in the air started to cause a strange reaction whenever they dropped on the ground. The grass was suddenly being shrunk as if reacting to the Mana, not in a good way. From that, the ground started to slowly make strange vibrations.

Leon felt weird about this phenomenon and out of curiosity, he put his palm on the ground to feel through it. But the unthinkable happened…

All of a sudden, something rose from the ground and held his hand, a thorny root coming from the nearby trees. Before he could even react, they dragged him towards the trees and immediately started to go up along a high tree.

"Woah!"

"Leo, NO!"

At this point, Leon realized what held him was not a root but rather an extension of a vine that belonged to a monstrous plant perching on the top of the tree and he just became its prey.

Huxley saw Leon disappear; he screamed, shouted, panicked, then started running away despite the injuries. He must hurry, he must find help.

Leon was caught by a Strangler.