Chapter 171: The Spiral
Brennan's death was a silent, bloody period at the end of a sentence. No one in
the blockade dared to utter another word as Ronin and Vanessa moved forward.
Ronin didn't waste time with manual labor. He used Earth Style: Hidden Among
Rocks, liquefying the stone and soil blocking their path, then used the Golem
Technique to carve out a wide, structural tunnel.
As they walked through the breach, the stone behind them—no longer supported by
Ronin's Chakra—began to settle and solidify again, resealing the path.
The explorers left behind stared at the closing wall in disbelief.
Should they keep digging? Or wait for the "monster" to return with the loot?
The crowd split instantly. The weaker freelancers, recognizing that Ronin likely
had the backing of the Rock Mercenaries, decided to follow the re-sealed path,
hoping to scavenge whatever crumbs were left behind.
The core of Brennan's squad, however, stayed behind. Driven by grief and greed,
they reached a consensus: they would wait at the exit. No matter how strong
Ronin was, he would eventually have to come out. Ambushing him when he was
weighed down by treasure was the most efficient move.
Ronin didn't care about their schemes. If they were still there when he came
out, he'd simply kill them too.
The tunneling process was arduous. Despite the Golem's power, the distance of
the collapse was staggering.
As they pushed through, Ronin noticed that the "buried" section of the ruins
mirrored the residential skyscrapers of the left tunnel. However, these rooms
were eerily empty. No raptors. No spiders. No furniture.
It was as if the inhabitants had packed up their entire lives and vanished
overnight.
But mid-way through the excavation, Ronin's stone-hands unearthed something. He
reached into the loose soil and pulled out a tattered, blue-and-gold tunic.
A Kurta Clan traditional garment.
One could be a coincidence. Two found in different sectors was a pattern.
As they continued, they found more domestic debris: jars, bowls, and rusted
tools. The "atmosphere of life" grew heavier, more suffocating.
Finally, the liquefied rock gave way. Instead of another wall, they broke
through into a vast, pitch-black void.
Ronin tossed a Glow-Stone into the darkness.
The light was dim, but it provided enough contrast for Ronin to scan the area.
His En detected no living signatures, but the geography of the chamber was
bizarre.
The stone hit the floor with a sharp clack. The sound traveled for a long time,
followed by a series of warped, overlapping echoes.
The Golem dissipated back into rubble. Ronin and Vanessa stood at the edge of
the breach, listening intently.
When no sounds of predators returned, they stepped into the hall.
Vanessa tossed out more Glow-Stones, scattering them like seeds to create a
perimeter of flickering light. She remained close to the shadows, ready to
vanish at the first sign of a threat.
They were in a massive rotunda. Ronin fired a small Nen Bullet toward the
ceiling.
In the brief flash of light, he saw the dome was nearly eight meters high,
spiraling upward in a tight, dizzying screw-like pattern. The lighting
fixtures—ancient metallic brackets—were twisted into the same warped shape.
Ronin stared at the patterns. A sense of visceral familiarity crawled up his
spine.
I've seen this before.
The hall branched into three paths, all veering to the right—away from the
central "Monster Hive" of the ruins.
They took the nearest passage. It too was a spiral, descending in a slow,
winding curve. After a hundred meters, the tunnel opened into a large,
illuminated cavern.
The floor was covered in a carpet of glowing blue plants. Their leaves were
tightly curled into spirals, emitting a sickly, ethereal light.
The light revealed a village hidden within the flora. Round, domed tents stood
in clusters, each one adorned with a distinct Vortex Pattern.
The moment Ronin saw the tents, his memory clicked into place.
This village was a mirror image of the Kurta settlement he had fled. The
architecture, the patterns, the specific type of foliage—it was identical.
But Ronin felt no nostalgia. He only felt dread.
He approached the nearest tent and pulled back the flap. Inside, he finally
found the remains of the inhabitants.
Skeletons.
A single desiccated corpse lay on a bed. It was draped in the blue-and-gold
Kurta tunic. But as Ronin looked closer, his stomach churned.
The bones were wrong. The ribcage was twisted, the spine coiled like a snake.
The entire skeletal structure had been warped into a physical spiral.
It looked like the body had been wrung out like a wet towel before it died.
The image triggered a memory of a horror manga from his past life: Junji Ito's
Uzumaki.
The story of a town cursed by the spiral, where residents mutated into horrific,
coiled monstrosities before being consumed by an ancient, subterranean vortex.
Ronin stared at the twisted Kurta skeleton.
Did my clan... suffer from the same curse?
☆☆☆
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