The army was greeted by a landscape where nature had slowly reclaimed the stone. Thick shrubs and gnarled trees forced their way through the cracks in the granite pathway. The road was still visible, though much of it had been swallowed by dark soil and carpets of moss. Heavy vines were draped over the crumbling walls of the ruined buildings like tangled webs. Most of the structures were in bad shape; cracks spider-webbed across the stonework, and many of the towers were half-collapsed, though a few still stood tall and defiant against the passage of time.
They followed the wide main road until they reached a grand T-intersection. At the center of the crossroads stood the remains of a massive statue. It depicted a man with short, cropped hair, wearing a flowing robe. He held a staff that pointed straight toward the sky. Despite the weathered stone and the missing pieces at its base, the ten-meter-tall figure still felt majestic, as if he were a silent guardian watching the path.
"Alright, we need to be extra careful inside the ruins. We don't know what kind of defense mechanisms are still active," Luceran warned.
"Wait, Luceran," Kellen said. He began to weave his hands in a slow, rhythmic pattern. Shimmering glitters of purple light began to gather between his palms, swirling faster and faster. When he finally clasped his hands together, the energy didn't just explode; it dissolved into a fine, shimmering mist that rippled outward in a silent shockwave. This colorful wave of mana traveled through the ruins, washing over the broken towers and hidden alleys.
"There you go. This should help with our exploration and excavation," Kellen said. He called the spell "Arcane Resonance." The glitters didn't vanish after the initial burst. Instead, they drifted through the air and began to cling to specific areas, pulsing with light wherever they sensed a high concentration of mana. It was a perfect warning system; anything that glowed was likely a hidden mechanism or a forgotten treasure.
A few seconds passed, and in several spots away from the crowd, the glitters settled and stayed, marking areas of interest.
"We'll split into groups," Luceran commanded, his voice returning to its usual flat tone. "Cassandra, Kellen, and I will lead them. Borrin, Rhody, and Josh, you are with me. Dred and Greg will go with Cassandra. The rest of the soldiers will follow Kellen."
The groups spent a few hours fanning out to explore the different sectors of the ruins. In Luceran's group, the progress was steady. They came across several magic formations hidden along the paths. With the Prince's guidance, Rhody and Josh managed to disable them before they could cause any real trouble. A few were accidentally triggered, but they were so old and worn down by time that the magic merely fizzled out without doing much damage.
Soon, they reached a massive castle. Even though it was falling apart, some of the towers still stood tall against the sky. Large cracks ran down the stone walls like jagged scars. The front gate, which looked like it had once been made of white marble, was seven meters high and three meters wide. It was mostly in ruins now, leaving a wide, jagged opening into the dark interior.
They stepped inside and found themselves in a huge main hall. An old chandelier still hung from the center of the ceiling, though it was now draped in thick, heavy spiderwebs. The wooden floor was buried under a deep layer of dust and chunks of fallen concrete. Every time they took a step, the wood let out a loud, heavy creak that echoed through the empty space.
Debris was scattered everywhere. On the walls, there were frames that once held decorative paintings, but the canvases were torn and rotted. It was impossible to tell what the images were supposed to be.
Prince Luceran looked around the desolate room. He knew this city had been famous for its alchemy and complex formations tens of thousands of years ago, but he needed more specific details. There had to be some kind of record left behind in a place this large.
"Spread out," he commanded. "Look for books or anything that can give us information about this place." He then turned and walked toward a room situated at the back of the hall, his boots clicking softly against the dusty floor.
As he entered the next room on the back of the mainhall, he was greeted with a large bedroom. A large bed was situated at the middle end of the room. Beside the bed, there was a wooden table and a worn down wooden chair. Rusty iron chandeliers decorated each corner of the room. On top of the table, there was a wooden book.
Luceran walked slowly towards the table and picked up the book. He walked near the window situated near the table for light. Then, he cast a spell on the dusty book. A soft wind blew towards the book and cleared the cover. The book cover was worn down, and the letters on the cover could not provide any information as to what book this was. He opened the book and read it patiently.
While Luceran was reading the book, Kellen made his way down a narrow, quiet alleyway while the others were busy in the castle. On both sides, the buildings looked like simple houses where the city's residents once lived. Most were completely unlivable now; the roofs had caved in long ago, and the walls were mostly rubble. A few still stood, but they were made of old wood that looked like it could collapse at any second. Kellen didn't bother going inside, doubting they were safe to enter.
He eventually stopped in front of a much larger building that stood out from the rest. It was built with heavy stone and covered in deep, jagged cracks. As he stepped through the entrance, he realized he had found an old center for alchemy.
The first room was massive, designed entirely for storage. There were racks upon racks of shelves stretching up toward the dark ceiling. They must have held thousands of different ingredients once, but Kellen found nothing but dust and empty containers. He checked several rows, but there wasn't a single salvageable material left after all this time.
He moved into the next room and felt a heavy weight in his chest. This area was a massive archive, packed with scrolls and books. Kellen guessed these were the city's alchemy recipes and research logs, knowledge that would have been worth a fortune. However, as he looked closer, he saw that the paper was black with rot or turned to brittle flakes. The ink had faded into nothingness, leaving the entire library unreadable and broken by age.
The third room was clearly the workshop. It was filled with rows of glass tubes and heavy cauldrons. The tubes had been shattered, leaving the floor covered in a thick layer of broken glass that crunched under his boots. The cauldrons, which had once been used to brew complex tonics, were now just rusted, broken shells of metal.
"Such a shame that all the stuff here is unusable," Kellen mused to himself, his voice echoing off the cold, stone walls.
Outside the laboratory, the quiet of the ruins was broken by the harsh sounds of soldiers rummaging through the debris and old alchemy rooms. Their heavy metal boots crunched over broken glass and stone, and the clatter of their swords echoed as they poked through piles of rubble, hoping to find anything of value that the ages had forgotten.
Suddenly, Vena's voice could be heard calling out from a nearby chamber. "I found something!"
The sounds of boots clanking against the floor followed as the soldiers rushed toward her. Kellen also hastened his pace, weaving through the cluttered corridors toward the source of the shout. When he arrived, he saw Vena standing at the edge of a wide, dark opening. Right in front of her was a massive stairway leading into the depths of the earth. The staircase was impressively large, wide enough for three or four people to walk side by side, built with the same heavy stone that had supported the grand buildings above.
Seeing Kellen walking slowly toward the dark entrance of the underground passage, Vena asked, "Can you feel it?"
Kellen stopped beside her and focused his senses. To him, the air only hummed with the familiar, rhythmic pulse of mana. It was thick, certainly, but it felt like the same energy he had dealt with for years. However, he looked at Vena and saw that her face was clouded with a strange uncertainty.
"Hmm... Mana?" Kellen asked, testing her.
"I don't know," Vena said slowly. "I feel like it is something more."
Kellen did not ask her to explain, nor did he offer any word of doubt. He simply looked down into the pitch black stairwell and felt a flicker of genuine interest. He knew for a fact that his own power was far superior to hers, yet his senses only registered the mana fluctuations. The fact that she could perceive a layer of reality that remained invisible to him was fascinating.
He neither agreed nor disagreed with her intuition, finding it curious that her reach exceeded his own in this one specific way, at least by her account. There was definitely more to this girl than he had first thought, he mused to himself.
"Alright, some of you will set up a camp for us," Kellen said, turning his attention to the soldiers. "Half of you will come with me and Vena to scout down there."