Monarch Chapter 202 (Patreon)

Chapter 202

The more Rayne and the others moved through the inner city, the more different the architecture became.

It was certainly old, far older than anything they had seen in the outer ruins, but much of it had been designed in a way that reminded Rayne of the ancient civilizations he had seen on Earth.

There were similarities in the way some of the roads had been laid out, the shapes of certain buildings, and even the decorations carved into the stone.

It wasn't identical to anything he remembered, but there was something strangely familiar about it.

Some of the houses they passed even had sections carved out in the middle, creating open spaces surrounded by walls, and Lyra explained that they were probably used for some sort of ritual, though she wasn't entirely certain what kind.

What surprised Rayne more was how complete some of the buildings were.

Most of the structures they had encountered in the Godless Ruins had either been completely destroyed or stripped of anything useful long ago, but here, some buildings still had intact interiors.

They found bathrooms, storage areas, old shelves and even rooms that still contained objects left behind by whoever had once lived there.

Unfortunately, almost none of it was useful.

The furniture had long since deteriorated, anything made of ordinary material had either rotted away or become too fragile to move, and the objects that had survived were either too strange for them to understand or simply too old to have any practical use.

There were, however, a few pieces of artwork and decorations that were surprisingly well preserved, and Rayne figured that some of them might be worth bringing back to Blackstone City to sell to collectors or nobles.

That was a low priority for them, though, so they didn't waste time searching every building and simply kept moving.

The problem was that they were moving extremely slowly.

They had only around three hours to explore the inner city unless they wanted to risk camping out here, and Rayne had no intention of doing that on their first day.

Even with three hours available, they would probably only be able to travel around one and a half street at their current pace.

Most of that limitation came from the pressure surrounding them.

Every step required more effort than it normally should have, and while the protective covering created by Weskins' potion kept the pressure from becoming truly dangerous, it didn't make the weight disappear.

They had used roughly half a bottle already, and the potion was supposed to maintain the protective layer for around five hours, which was more than enough for what they intended to do today.

The problem wasn't the potion. It was their bodies.

They simply weren't accustomed to moving under this kind of pressure.

It was particularly obvious when Rayne looked toward Weskins. The alchemist looked as though he was suffering far more than everyone else.

And Rayne wasn't entirely convinced that the man had ever exercised in his life.

His breathing had become noticeably heavier, and even his usual complaints had increased as they continued forward.

Dorin, on the other hand, was doing surprisingly well. The dwarf was maintaining a steady stride and keeping up with the rest of them without much difficulty.

It made sense when Rayne thought about it.

Dorin had spent years working with heavy metals, carrying materials, swinging hammers and performing the kind of physically demanding labor that would leave most people exhausted.

As they continued, Rayne also kept a careful eye on their surroundings.

He didn't keep [War Pulse] active constantly because he couldn't afford to, especially in an environment like this.

The mana pressure of the inner city interfered with the skill, making it more difficult to maintain and causing a sharp headache whenever he pushed his perception too far.

It was almost as if the pressure wasn't only weighing down his body but was also pressing directly against his mind.

Still, Rayne activated the skill whenever he could, particularly because he was still thinking about the strange silhouette he had sensed before leaving the outer city yesterday.

He had wondered whether someone had actually been following them, but so far, nothing suspicious had happened.

They had already entered the inner city, and explored multiple buildings, yet he hadn't sensed another person anywhere near them.

Perhaps he really had been mistaken.

It could have been some random adventurer moving through the ruins.

Rayne couldn't completely rule out that possibility, but he also wasn't going to lower his guard simply because nothing had happened yet.

He would rather remain suspicious for no reason than ignore something that later turned out to be dangerous.

He activated [War Pulse] again, pushing his perception outward, and for a moment the world around him seemed to sharpen.

Then the pressure hit his mind again, and a sharp pain immediately formed behind his eyes.

Rayne's expression tightened as he deactivated the skill before the headache could become worse.

He didn't say anything about it to the others, though. Instead, he treated it as another form of training.

He was almost certainly going to need headache medicine once they returned to Blackstone City, but that was a small price to pay if he could eventually adapt to the inner city's environment.

That was, after all, the real purpose of today's expedition.

They weren't trying to reach the magical fog yet.

They needed to learn how their bodies reacted to the pressure, how long they could remain inside the inner city, how effective Weskins' potions were and how quickly they could move without exhausting themselves first.

Once they had adapted to the environment, they would be able to travel deeper into the ruins and eventually attempt to reach the fog.

For now, simply surviving a few hours here was enough.

Unfortunately, the pressure wasn't the only thing they had to deal with.

The streets leading away from the sewer entrance had been surprisingly free of monsters, but they weren't completely devoid of life.

There were plants growing throughout the ruins, living plants that had somehow survived centuries of abandonment.

At first, Rayne almost didn't notice them because many were growing among the cracks in the road or around collapsed buildings, but they were far too large to be mistaken for ordinary vegetation.

Some vines were thicker than a man's arm and had wrapped themselves around broken pillars, while other plants had pushed their roots through stone and continued growing.

The moment Rayne noticed one of them move, both he and Lyra reacted almost simultaneously.

Lyra immediately moved to the side while Rayne drew his sword, and several thick vines erupted from the ground as the plant responded to their presence.

One of its tendrils snapped toward Rayne with surprising speed, forcing him to cut through it before it could reach him.

Green liquid spilled from the severed section as the plant recoiled, but more vines immediately began moving around them.

Lyra sent her own vines toward it, attempting to restrain the creature, only for her expression to change when the plant suddenly twisted around her attack and tore itself free.

"This isn't anything I've seen before," Lyra said as she pulled her vines back. "I don't know what it can do."

Rayne narrowed his eyes as another thick vine suddenly shot toward Lyra.

He stepped forward and cut it apart before it could reach her, then looked toward the massive plant as its remaining tendrils began twisting across the road.

"Stay back for a moment," he said.

Looking at the main body of the monstrous plant, Rayne didn't hesitate.

He immediately raised his sword and unleashed [Death Strike], sending a concentrated wave of death mana straight toward the creature.

The plant seemed to recognize the danger at once, and several thick vines rose from the ground to protect its main body.

Before they could completely cover it, however, blades and arrows flew through the air as Andrew and Bran reacted almost simultaneously, cutting down the vines that stood in the way.

Rayne's attack continued forward and struck the plant directly in its center.

The impact was strong enough to make the entire creature bend backward, its thick body caving inward where the death mana struck, but it didn't die.

Rayne narrowed his eyes as the plant's body slowly began to recover, and before he could ask Weskins to burn it with one of his potions, the remaining vines suddenly moved.

Rather than attacking them directly, the plant wrapped several of its vines around the broken pillars surrounding the street.

Rayne's expression changed when he realized what it was doing, but he didn't have enough time to react before the vines pulled with tremendous force.

The damaged pillars were ripped from the ground and thrown straight toward them.

"Move!"

Rayne barely had time to raise his shield before Jason rushed in from the right, bringing his shield up just as the first piece of stone came crashing toward them.

The impact made Jason stumble backward, but the shield absorbed most of the force, allowing the stone to fall harmlessly to the ground beside them.

More debris came flying from the opposite direction, but Lyra's vines immediately shot forward and wrapped around the broken pieces, dragging them away before they could hit anyone.

"I've got them!"

Rayne didn't waste another second. He looked toward Weskins and shouted, "Burn them up!"

The alchemist didn't need to be told twice.

Everyone immediately began putting distance between themselves and the monstrous plant while Weskins pulled out one of his potions.

Rayne had seen him use exploding potions before, so he already had a general idea of what was about to happen. What he hadn't expected was just how violently this particular potion would react.

Weskins threw the bottle toward the plant.

The moment it struck the ground, the potion exploded into flames.

Rayne's eyes widened.

The fire didn't simply spread across the plant. It seemed to catch onto everything around it, almost as if the air itself had suddenly become flammable.

Flames surged outward with far more force than Rayne had expected, rapidly consuming the space between them and the plant.

"What the—"

Jason shouted and Rayne immediately moved.

He didn't even think about it as threads of mana shot from his body, weaving themselves together in front of him and Jason.

[Weaver's Protection] formed almost instinctively, covering their bodies in a thin layer of protective threads while the others ran farther back.

The next second, the flames reached them.

Fire slammed into the barrier with enough force to make Rayne stagger, and for a brief moment he couldn't see anything beyond the burning wall in front of him.

The heat was intense enough that even through [Weaver's Protection], he could feel it pressing against his body.

Then, almost as quickly as it had appeared, the flames began to fade.

The protective threads remained intact for a few seconds longer before Rayne finally allowed them to dissipate. The burnt mana threads broke apart and mixed into the air as he looked toward the plant.

What remained of it was little more than a blackened mass.

The creature had been writhing while the flames consumed it, producing strange, painful groans that echoed through the ruined street.

Those sounds continued for several moments even after the flames began to disappear, but eventually they faded as well.

The plant stopped moving.

Rayne waited another moment before finally relaxing his grip on his sword.

The notifications appearing in his mind confirmed the monstrous plant was dead.

He let out a slow breath of relief and looked around the street. There didn't appear to be any immediate threat, and the others were slowly returning to where they had been standing before the battle.

Jason had dropped down onto the ground, still holding his shield, while Nate looked toward the remains of the plant with an expression that suggested he was still trying to understand what had just happened.

"What the hell was that?" Nate finally asked. "I thought I was going to be burned alive."

He then turned toward Weskins. The alchemist simply shrugged.

"Don't ask me. I didn't do anything."

Nate stared at him. "You threw the potion."

"I threw the potion. I didn't make the flames do that."

Jason, still sitting on the ground, looked toward them. "What do you mean you didn't make the flames do that?"

"It was the mana pressure."

Jason frowned. "Mana pressure?"

Lyra answered before Weskins could explain himself.

"Yes. Mana pressure." She glanced toward the burning remains of the plant. "This place has so much mana concentrated in the air that things like flames can react to it differently. Something that normally wouldn't spread as quickly can suddenly become much more aggressive because there's so much mana available around it. I don't want to go through the entire explanation right now, but that's basically how it works, so everyone needs to be careful."

Rayne looked toward the remains of the plant again.

He hadn't considered that.

If the mana pressure could affect something as simple as fire, then perhaps it could affect other things as well.

His [Death Strike] was already powerful on its own, and death mana was capable of tearing through things that ordinary attacks struggled to damage.

But if the air around him was saturated with mana, could he somehow take advantage of that? Could he allow the mana around him to feed into his attacks and make them stronger?

The idea immediately caught his attention.

Rayne didn't know enough about mana manipulation to answer that question himself, but Lyra might. He decided that he would ask her about it later, once they were somewhere safer and had time to actually experiment.

For now, there were still more things they needed to do.

Rayne turned his head, preparing to look toward the next building they planned to search, but something caught his attention.

For less than a second, he thought he saw something on top of one of the tall buildings in the distance.

It was far beyond the range of [War Pulse].

Rayne couldn't properly sense it, and there was no clear shape that he could identify.

It was more like reality itself had warped for an instant around the rooftop. Something seemed to be there, occupying a space that shouldn't have been empty, and then the distortion disappeared.

Rayne blinked.

The rooftop was still empty.

He stared at it for another few seconds, wondering if the headache caused by [War Pulse] had finally started affecting his vision.

Perhaps he had simply imagined it.

The pressure of the inner city had been weighing on his senses since they entered, and he had already pushed his perception further than he should have.

But the feeling hadn't been like a normal mistake.

It felt as though something had been there for sure. And then it hadn't.

Rayne slowly looked away without saying anything.

They still had two more buildings to check before they would leave the inner city for the day, so there was no point stopping here.

The others were already preparing to move, and Rayne followed them, keeping his attention on the surrounding streets as they continued forward.

Yet something had changed.

Yesterday, when he had sensed that brief silhouette near the edge of [War Pulse], Rayne had been willing to believe it was nothing.

Even after entering the inner city and finding no sign of anyone following them, he had continued telling himself that he had probably been mistaken.

Now, after seeing something he couldn't even properly describe appear on a rooftop far outside his perception range, he was no longer sure.

Whatever he had seen today, and whatever he had sensed yesterday, might not have been something he could afford to ignore.

Rayne glanced back toward the distant rooftop one final time.

There was nothing there.

But for the first time, he stopped believing that meant there had never been anything there at all.