Chapter 108 The Ruin

An unknown time later, she awoke, finding herself sandwiched between the two men in the back seat of a car driving out of the city.

Evernya’s mind instantly snapped to attention, prompting her to contact Aya telepathically. “I’m not sure if you can hear me from this distance, but just in case these assholes don’t follow through with their word, I wanted to let you know I am with some goons from the Fleming family. I don’t know when I’ll be back, but hopefully, this won’t take too long. Please don’t try to rescue me. Just make sure Meira knows. I’m sure she will know what to do if they hold me for too long.”

A moment later, an angry Kitsune growled, “They better return Nya to Aya, or Aya has some hunting to do.”

Scared for her mate’s life, Evernya panicked. “Please don’t! The two men who took me are both stronger than Meira, and I’m sure they have more. I should be fine, but if I don’t contact you or return within a week, please make sure Meira knows.”

A little quick for Evernya’s liking, Aya replied, “Aya understands.”

“I hope you do. I don’t want you to get hurt over this,” Evernya stated, receiving no response in return.

With her whereabouts sent, Evernya turned her attention to the suited goons invading her personal space, commenting, “Did you really have to knock me out? I was going to come willingly.”

Evernya received no response as the vehicle drove through the southern gates of Druth. Stupid bullies, they could at least be considerate to their kidnapee. Evernya mentally grumbled, giving up on talking to the men.

Five minutes later, the car rolled to a stop on a random dirt road cutting through the forest, out of sight from the walls of Druth. The moment the car stopped, the goons opened their doors with the goon on the right, grabbing hold of her upper arm, yanking her out of the vehicle.

After forcing Evernya out of the car, it turned around back to Druth, leaving her alone with her two escorts. She sensed another spike of mana from the man on her left, causing her body to become unresponsive, forcing her to stand still. What the hell! What did they do to me!? I thought I’m resistant to mental magic. Evernya mentally exclaimed before calming herself down, allowing her to investigate her predicament. Interesting. From what I can tell, the spell has nothing to do with my mind. Instead, it somehow disrupts my body’s ability to move.

Evernya tried to fight the spell but made little progress, unlike the previous mental based truth spells. Against her will, Evernya stood still, watching both men walk a dozen steps forward. She sensed mana build gradually as the men mumbled something in unison.

A few minutes later, a gray rippling two-meter wide portal opened up in front of them. While one of the men stood in front of the portal, mumbling while feeding mana, the other man turned toward their captive. He grabbed hold of Evernya’s right upper arm before releasing the spell. Evernya stumbled forward as the man dragged her to the portal. Without giving her a chance to resist, the man pushed her through.

A moment later, they were in a drastically different environment. The dirt road in the forest transformed into a sandy stone road surrounded by kilometers of excavated foundations of buildings as far as the eye could see.

Evernya’s breathing became labored, as if she was breathing through a tiny straw. After only a few moments, she swayed on her feet, lightheaded as her mind fogged up. Unaware or uncaring of her predicament, one of the men grabbed her right arm, forcing her forward. Unable to focus because of her rapidly weakening body, her stride became unsteady after only a minute of walking. By five minutes, she could no longer support herself, causing the men to drag her forward down the sandy stone road.

Evernya attempted to investigate her surroundings to take her mind off her predicament, but her deteriorating vision was too blurry to make much out. As if deprived of oxygen, her vision dimmed, sending her sluggish mind into overdrive. What is wrong with me? I thought they cast a spell, but I didn’t feel any mana from them. Wait, why don’t I feel any mana!? There is always mana! Even in the mana isolation cell from the hospital! Unfortunately, her mind failed to come up with a solution before her body descended into unconsciousness.

An unknown time later, she regained consciousness on a hard stone floor. She cracked open her eyes, greeting her to a spinning view. Fortunately, the spinning toned down as her body adjusted to the thin but tolerable mana.

She remained laying on the floor observing her surroundings without tipping off the others in the room. The room appeared to be of a different design than the rest of the ruins, but that might be because it was intact, unlike every other building. The entire room consisted of some unknown polished silvery gray stone with engraved writing on all the walls. The room was devoid of furniture, with the sole fixture being a large, jet black stone slab at the opposite end of the room from the entrance.

Evernya’s zeroed eyes zero on to a familiar artifact embedded in the black stone. Unlike Neko, this one had numerous gouges on the half cylinder running along the center of the centerpiece, showing it had been through battle before its embedding.

A strong compulsion on par with what she experienced with her artifact took hold of her mind, tempting her to claim the artifact only a couple of meters away. Whoa, something really wants me to grab it. Is this the missing half of my artifact? The writing engraved on the wall behind the altar seems to allude to the theory, but even if I survived claiming the artifact, I doubt I could escape this place alive.

With an enormous amount of willpower, she forced her eyes away from the artifact to investigate the other occupants of the room. At the entrance is a group of four goons posted on both outside and inside of the entrance. The two guarding the inside were the ones who escorted her here. Besides the four goons, there was a group of three people huddled together with their backs to Evernya. She recognized one of the men right away as Archibald but didn’t recognize the older man and girl who seemed to be a similar age to her. The girl was a mana grade weaker than her, but she failed to get an accurate gauge on the older man who was much stronger than even Archibald.

Done with her observations, Evernya sat up, leaning against the wall while drinking a smoothie to help replenish her strength. While drinking, she attempted to contact Aya but didn’t get a response. How odd our bond still seems stable, but I feel a block on her end, not unlike when she ignored me. Maybe she’s sleeping? Either way, it doesn’t really matter. It’s not like she can do anything at the moment.

Evernya continued to drink her smoothie, ignored by the goons. Evernya made it well into a second smoothie before the group of three finally noticed her. She ignored their approach in favor of finishing her smoothie. After finishing her smoothie, she finally looked up at the group while storing away the empty smoothie jugs.

“Where did you get that?” The older man questioned suspiciously.

Evernya forced her fangs to recede before replying in a casual tone, “How else? A storage device.”

The man casted a glance toward the inner pair of goons while stating, “You do not have any enchanted items, and even if you did enchanted items do not work in this room.”

“Yes I do, yes they do, and no, I won’t tell you where it is. I am here to translate nothing else.” Evernya fearlessly replied before materializing another smoothie.

“Then stop sitting there and do your job unless my son was wrong about your qualifications.” The older man ordered.

After swallowing a mouthful of smoothie, Evernya replied, “Give me a sec after the rough treatment I received. I earned a break.”

“You will do as I say when I say it or else!” the older man ordered, releasing his mana aura for a second to drive the point home.

Evernya put on a brave show while trying to hide her slightly puffed tail behind her back. “Geez, impatient, are we? Just because you were born as a human to a powerful family, you think you can bully anyone you consider below you.”

Evernya’s only warning was another spike of mana from the man before pain engulfed her body. Overwhelmed, she fell onto her side, screaming and spasming. Mercifully, the pain vanished a second later, leaving a heavily breathing shifter on the cold stone floor.

“Read now!” The man ordered.

Evernya forced her trembling body to her feet while glaring tearfully at the group in front of her before scanning the room. Her eyes widened upon spotting something on the wall she was leaning against, but she hurried on.

“This room seems to be a monument to whatever happened to the city outside. The wall behind me has engravings of names and titles of important people who lost their lives. The wall behind you is a story that hints at what happened, and the wall behind the artifact says what I translated for Archibald.” Evernya summarized.

“That is Arch Wizard Archibald Fleming to you!” The older man interrupted.

Evernya flinched but held her ground, refusing to give her bullies any more power over her. “So, what do you want me to read?”

“Start with the story.” The man ordered.

Evernya turned her attention toward the engraving on the wall behind the trio and started reading. “There once was a city welcoming to all feline beings, ruled by a small but powerful family. For centuries, this city was a sanctuary for all feline beings, but this changed when a jealous neighboring kingdom enslaved and brainwashed the ruling family’s teenage daughter. This jealous kingdom commanded the daughter to kill innocent civilians.”

“Soon, the word spread that the culprit of these heinous acts was the ruling family’s daughter, causing cries for justice. Her parents stood by and did nothing, unwilling to hunt down their only child after centuries of trying. Unfortunately, the murders did not stop, as dozens of innocent civilians died nightly. It did not matter whether they were male or female, young or old, they were all killed.”

“In only a few weeks, the once peaceful city devolved into chaos. Only then did the parents finally act, but they acted far too late. Funded by the jealous neighboring kingdom, a violent rebellion burned through the city. Despite the power of the ruling family, they stood no chance against a city of several million, even with those who remained loyal.”

For an unknown reason, Evernya’s eyes tear up as she continues, “The father, with a small group of his most trusted, stood against the rebellion, buying time for his wife to find their daughter. Both father, mother, and even daughter were incredibly powerful, but their enemies were simply too numerous. Despite facing insurmountable numbers, the father continued to fight just to buy the mother even seconds more time. Eventually, after a day of nonstop searching, the mother found her daughter only to witness the commander of the neighboring nation’s army, commanding the daughter to kill herself.”

A phantom pain hit Evernya deeply, seemingly to her soul. She stared at the wall, trembling as she struggled to continue reading through her tear-filled eyes. “The mother tried to reach her daughter, but she was seconds too late. As she cradled her dying daughter wailing in front of the surrounding army, a soul deep searing pain shot through her body. She frantically searched for her mate bond, but found it gone.”

Evernya grasped her chest, pale faced as tears reigned down. “Overcome with grief and rage, the mother snapped, no longer caring what would happen to her. The grief-stricken woman connected herself directly to the lay lines powering her once-great city. She teleported both her daughter’s and mate’s bodies to this location, ignoring the surrounding army encroaching. The mother stood at this very spot, releasing the uncontrollable fury of a lay line, decimating everything for kilometers. All the rebels and the jealous nation’s army simply ceased to exist, but the explosion had a cost. Severed from the lay line, the land became permanently devoid of mana, condemning it to remain forever a desolate wasteland.”

As Evernya read with a shaky voice, the already thin mana seemly thinned further, “After accomplishing her revenge, the mother laid down next to her daughter’s and mate’s bodies, hoping for death to take her fried body. Only death did not come for her since her mate severed their bond with his dying breath, sparing her.”

“Once she realized this, despite wanting to join her family in the afterlife, she could not bring herself to an end her life because of her mate’s sacrifice. In sparing his mate’s life, her mate condemned their souls to remain separated forever, even in death. Unable to teleport with her ravaged body, she carried her family away to find a suitable eternal resting place, refusing to bury them in a place that will forever be dead.” Evernya choked out, whispering the last words.

At the end of the story, Evernya dropped to her knees, tears freely flowing from her eyes, overcame with grief as if she experienced it herself.

While staring at the wall, the older man uncaringly commented, “an interesting but useless story, it tells us nothing on how to claim the artifact.” Archibald and the teenage girl nodded in agreement, fueling Evernya’s rapidly growing rage.

With glowing eyes struggling to shine against the thin mana, Evernya roared, “How can you be so callous!? A woman lost everything, but all you can think about is retrieving an artifact! The artifact is probably the woman’s, and even if she isn’t dead, she won’t come back here to retrieve it!”

The trio returned their attention to the enraged girl with the older man sneering, “Who cares about something that happened tens of thousands of years ago.”

“I did what I came here for. Now bring me home,” Evernya demanded, barely keeping her rage contained.

“Not so fast! What do you mean the woman isn’t dead? You know something, don’t you?” The older man questioned.

“I never said she was alive. I said if she was alive. Besides, if she was, she probably disappeared like everyone else leaving the artifact behind.” Evernya stated with her eyes closed, watching her mana system to calm herself before she lost control of her temper.

Unconvinced, the older man insisted, “I don’t believe you. It can’t be a coincidence that you just happen to have an almost identical artifact and can read this dead language. Added to this, you are of a feline race and an unknown one at that. You have something to do with these ruins, and you’re not leaving until I find out what.”

“I found my artifact at a random stall in Minea, nowhere near here,” Evernya replied after wiping away her tears.

“Oh, I heard all about that. A girl matching your description suddenly appears in the middle of the street, turning into a mummy, then somehow appearing later, miraculously recovered. However, no one witnessed you acquire the artifact in the first place.” The older man stated, refusing to let the shifter off.

Evernya continued to argue, “Still, that doesn’t mean I have anything to do with this one. When I first touched my artifact, it was just a rusty fragment. Maybe its original form has nothing to do with this one.”

“I don’t buy it. I think you have a connection to this place, and I think you know this too. Don’t think I missed your pause on the other wall.” The older man insisted.

Evernya stood her ground, refusing to speak further, “It doesn’t matter because I have no reason to tell you anything.”

“Enough of this!” the older man shouted, casting a powerful truth spell on Evernya.

Evernya easily resisted the spell before it took full effect, finding it weak compared to the amplifier. However, a moment later, before she could react, she felt something sharp pressed against her neck from behind. She dried to spin around, but a familiar spell forced her body to still.

Satisfied with his position of power, the older man spoke. “As you can see, you have a very valid reason to tell us what we want. However, I don’t think I can trust you.” After a moment of thought, the older man continued, “How about you try to claim the artifact, then transfer ownership of it to my granddaughter if you succeed and I will let you live. If you fail or do not hand over the artifact, you die.”

After releasing the freeze spell, Evernya questioned with a skeptical expression recovered from her grief. “Your family has hardly been trustworthy either. How do I know you let me live either way?”

“You don’t, and it doesn’t matter because you have no choice either way. No one even knows you are here, so nothing is linking you to us.” The older man sneered.

“I had a feeling you would pull something like that, so I told my mate telepathically,” Evernya revealed sneering back, ignoring the blade pressed against her neck.

The older man called her out on her bluff, “No, you didn’t. You’ve been within a dead zone since my servants retrieved you. I’m sure someone like you doesn’t know what that is, so I will educate you. It means no magical transmissions or tracking will work on or by those within the radius of the dead zone.”

“Are you willing to risk that it worked on me? Even if it did, I could easily teleport outside its range, and yes, I know a spatial lock is in effect too, but that won’t stop me.” Evernya bluffed. She activated her spatial vision to find a weak point in a spatial lock before teleporting the smoothie jug she had dropped before into her hand, chugging it, ignoring the sword still pressed to her throat.

Without warning, a magical force flung her backward, with the servant pressing the sword to her neck, barely dodging out of the way. With her enhanced reflexes and balance, Evernya swung her tail, righting herself in midair, allowing her to land only a half meter from the slab. Unable to resist the compulsion being so close, her hand automatically shot out to grab hold of the artifact. Evernya’s eyes widened a moment later, realizing what she did, but found her hand glued to the artifact as it began the test.

Fortunately, unlike last time, the mana gently siphoned out of her body, seemingly considerate of her wellbeing. As the seconds tick by, the artifact repaired itself, appearing more and more like Neko. After a minute of silence with the trio watching her with keen interest, the test completed with the artifact painlessly finished burning the second half of the interconnected brand.

Once done, Evernya’s hand fell away from the newly repaired artifact she now knew as Mata, allowing her to stumble back a step from lightheadedness. After taking a moment to collect herself, Evernya grabbed hold of the raised half cylinder section of the now identical artifact and tried to pull it out of the slab, but it refused to budge. The only way Mata wanted to move was deeper into the slab, so that was the way she pushed it. Mata slid downward into the slab until half cylinder became flush with the slab, prompting a click to resonate through the silent room.

Evernya grabbed the half cylinder and tries to pull Mata out, but found it still stuck. After investigating the slab, she noticed a faint outline of her artifact about twenty centimeters to her left. Taking a wild guess, she materialized Neko, causing what little mana in the air to vanish, so she immediately pushed it into the indent until she heard another click. After the click, the artifacts allowed her to twist them outward, then out.

A moment later, multiple loud clunks in quick succession interrupted her ogling session, followed by the slab splitting down the middle, revealing a stairwell down. Unable to resist her curiosity, she ventured down the stairs that seem to go on forever.

Over ten minutes later, she finally reached the bottom, followed by the three Fleming family members, along with two goons, using Evernya as a shield. Annoyed by the mage lights the goons were using, she commanded Neko to absorb mana, instantly snuffing out the mage lights. After plunging the hall into darkness, Evernya picked up her pace, trotting down the hallway unimpeded by the total darkness while the humans fumbled with finding a light source.

By the time they pulled out a flashlight, Evernya was already twenty meters down the hall, far enough away from the light to not bother her eyes. The hallway continued for several kilometers before abruptly coming to a dead end. The humans behind her shoved her out of the way to inspect the dead end, but found nothing but a smooth black wall. However, unbeknownst to the humans, their shove sent Evernya straight through the wall as if it was never there.