Chapter 172

“That’s stupid.”Rhea’s words were met with stunned silence. Elia blinked, clearly not having anticipated such vehemence, and Nick struggled to suppress a chuckle.

The battle might have been genuinely dangerous, but they already knew they would risk their lives. Walking into the grassland alone, especially away from the beaten paths, was bound to put them in danger.

“What do you mean it’s stupid?! I have to do this, but there's no reason for you to come along! You have already helped me!” Elia shouted back, and for a moment, Nick could see the little girl in her again. She had grown a lot lately, and the strange inheritance of the previous miko’s memories—if it was just that—would surely result in a more mature outlook, but it was comforting to know she was still the Elia he remembered.

“What Rhea is trying to say,” he interrupted, not really interested in letting them bicker, “is that we have already come too far. Nothing is forcing us to go back, and more importantly, we want to help you. If you need to check on the remaining temples to ensure there is no more demonic taint, then you aren’t just doing it for yourself. Everyone in Floria is in danger.”

It wasn’t exactly true. Nick could think of at least three different problems he wanted to keep an eye on in town, but he doubted things had deteriorated much in the last week and a half.

Even if they visited the remaining temples, they would still be within their established time frame.

Elia deflated at that. Nick knew her well enough to realize that she had probably turned this whole situation into a huge deal in her mind, so finding them completely unwilling to leave must have taken the wind out of her.

“Yeah, that.” Rhea gestured vaguely in his direction. “It’s too late now to send us back. You might have gotten a cool trait, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need us! What will you do if the next temple is full of toxic gas as well?”

Elia grimaced, her shoulders slumping. “My healing magic has grown by an entire tier. I was thinking I could just keep restoring myself…”

Nick and Rhea exchanged a look of exasperation. Yeah, this was Elia, alright.

Gathering enough strength to rise from the temple floor took them a few minutes, but Elia insisted that they wait a little longer before beginning to explore. Apparently, when she cast out the demon, she also sent out a pulse of cleansing flames that should have cleared the rest of the temple of the poisonous air, but it took up to an hour for the toxins to decay completely.

That was a lesson the previous miko had learned the hard way. When she had managed to drive out That Which Corrodes, she had been too weak to address the leftover poison its mere presence created, and that was how the spirits they had encountered in the tunnel had been corrupted.

They started evacuating once she was sure the demon was gone, but by the time they realized something was wrong, it was too late. Most of the injured had already died during the confrontation, but the spirits were more resilient, so they reached the tunnels and only then began showing symptoms. They sealed the door shut and decided to prevent the corruption from spreading further.” Elia explained as they approached what was left of the altar.

The crystal shrine was entirely gone, as was the hand. “The previous miko knew she was going to die, so she cut her least corrupted arm off and made it into a relic, putting as much of herself into it as she could in the hopes that should anyone stumble into the temple, they wouldn’t be caught in the demon’s trap. She hadn’t known it was still lurking, but she thought it might.”

Elia looked forlorn as she stared at the broken altar. Evidently, her counterpart’s death affected her deeply, especially since the very demon that had killed her still remained at large.

“Actually, I wanted to talk about that. I know you said the miko didn’t know about this cult hiding among the disgruntled, but did she have an idea as to why the demons attacked? If destruction is the only thing they care about, they could have easily waited until Berea’s forces stormed in,” Nick asked.

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“I didn’t exactly receive a lot of knowledge,” Elia sighed, “It’s more like fragmented memories and a lot of conviction. She was already fading by the time she cut off her arm, and you saw the condition it was in. The damage she suffered weakened her presence over the years.”

“Still, she had suspicions.” She continued, “Demonology isn’t exactly a subject you can learn casually. Everything people know comes from the rare cases in which there are survivors of a summoning. What she knew was that demons had long sought to establish a foothold in the material world. Whether that is to escape the hells or simply to wreak havoc, no one really knows. But they will take any and all chances to come, and their targets usually end up being people related to the faith of the gods.”

Nick grunted. That was about all he knew from his old life. Unfortunately, any compendium claiming to be unbiased and comprehensive often turned out to be a demonic trap, because he would have loved to read them.

Shaking his head, he set his daydreams aside. Summoning a demon just to sacrifice it would likely end in tragedy. That was another thing to postpone until he was stronger.

“We should be good to search the rest of the temple now,” Elia murmured, finally pulling her gaze away from the altar.

The central chamber was large, larger than the entrance to Floria’s town hall, but the temple itself wasn’t that large, at least when compared to Sashara’s.

Elia led them to the far back, where two hidden doors opened when she pressed her hands to the wall. “The left one takes to the private quarters, while the right one leads to the communal areas and the exit.”

“We should probably check to see if there aren’t more corrupted spirits around,” Rhea commented, grabbing a few more vials of her antitoxins.

“I can’t feel anything of the sort,” Nick shook his head. “I’ve been searching for any moving signature or even anything out of place, but it’s all bare.”

His words proved to be true, as Elia guided them through the rooms, where they found little to nothing. A few personal effects remained, but they were all in a state of decomposition, and even more suspicious stains dotted the corridors and the rooms.

“There was a lot more stuff around once. Even the chamber we fought in. That was once full of beds for the injured. Now only the stone remains.” Elia murmured, sounding genuinely sad.

Nick wasn’t surprised. At least a century of exposure to the corrosive gases was enough to destroy nearly everything, and even the few trinkets they found ended up being completely inert. They had probably once been magical in nature, but that had eroded over the years.

Overall, it wasn’t a very interesting place. Oh, Nick was still scouring every surface with his senses, trying to see if hidden compartments might have saved anything of interest, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

Still, neither he nor Rhea showed any impatience. Elia moved from room to room, touching surfaces and reciting short prayers with her eyes closed. It was evident that the fragmented memories of the old miko were affecting her, and it was better for her to address them now rather than allowing them to fester.

Nick would still keep an eye on her, but for now, he was cautiously optimistic that she wasn’t possessed.

Eventually, they reached the end of their macabre tour. Elia placed her hands on the wide marble door, which served as the main entrance to the temple, and it swung open for the first time in a century.

Sunlight greeted them cheerfully, and Nick paused to reconcile the tranquil scene with what they had just been through.

A wide clearing opened up before them, with a gentle stream rushing alongside, eventually leading to a calm pool. Birds sang happily in the distance, and Nick could sense various critters busily going about their day.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t a hint of active mana from any of them. he realized.

Paradoxically, the area had become a kind of preserve, as anything strong enough to threaten the peace was likely sensitive enough to recognize that certain death lurked behind the marble walls.

The temple itself was a stunning piece of architecture. It wasn’t exactly what Nick had envisioned at first. There were columns at the entrance, of course, but the main structure resembled a Jain temple. It featured hundreds of carvings of foxes and other animals, illustrating their journey from injury to healing, while the lower carvings predominantly depicted scenes of childbirth. The white marble gleamed in the sunlight, giving the entire structure a majestic appearance.

If he didn’t know it had been built here to celebrate the blessing of good health for a child, he would have thought it a ruler’s vanity project.

“It’s beautiful,” Rhea murmured, staring at the intricate carvings. “I haven’t seen something like this since I left Toneburg. The temples there are bigger, but the level of detail is at least equal.”

Elia smiled, gently squeezing her hand. “It is beautiful, and the fact that it has been kept hidden for so long is amazing. It breaks my heart that it will be found now that the miko’s spell doesn’t hide it anymore.” Googlᴇ search novel·fiɾe·net

Looking around, Nick saw that indeed, anyone passing by for miles would notice it. Berea probably had some records of it, given that they had been conducting attacks during the time of the demonic incursion.

Adventurers would swarm it in search of treasure, though there was none to find, and eventually, word would reach the ear of an enterprising priest, and it would be pulled apart.

“Well, we could always cast another illusion ourselves,” he offered, getting an idea. Hiding the temple would be very difficult for them, but maybe he could turn this into a test to see exactly how much the previous miko had affected Elia.

She blinked in surprise. “Do you think we can actually do that? The miko was level one hundred twenty-seven when she cast the spell. She might have been weakened, but I don’t think we can match her power.”

“Well, we don’t really need to make it disappear. There is no magic inside that would draw attention from afar, and all monsters around here know better than to enter it. As long as we hide it from view, I think that might be enough.” He said, eyeing the area.