Chapter 298 (Patreon)

Chapter 298

The group returned to the monster country and explored a little more of the desert, but everyone quickly grew bored with it because there was absolutely nothing besides the beautiful orange sand, which they rescued some of for the domain. Sophia then took one of her good old portal stones to skip all the way to the inner layer of the monster country to get things more exciting again.

“Okay, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this certainly is a sight.” After taking the portal to the edge of the middle layer, Sophia looked around and tried to understand what she was looking at. They arrived at the desert's outskirts, and the sand had turned to a more grey, rocky area at some point. Focusing a couple of kilometers ahead of them, the entire horizon was covered in a seemingly never-ending, steep mountain range with a completely flat and even top that seemed to be a couple of hundred meters high.

“It’s not a mountain range, by the way.” Aura seemed to have read her mind. “It’s a massive plateau on top of the cliff face we’re currently looking at. The inner layer of the monster country is on top of it.”

“Also, no, we have no idea why it’s a plateau or how it came to be.” Fen already knew the next question someone would have.

“Are there any paths or something similar leading up there?” Anna strained her eyes while scanning the steep rocks. “It looks a little insurmountable to me.”

“There are some eroded areas where we can climb on top.” Aura reacted with a small nod. “We just have to find said place.”

“I just want to note that I’m not a good climber.” Ari had a bad feeling about what was to come.

“Same!” Chloe quickly sided with her.

“I have an alternative solution.” Sophia’s expression turned into a smirk as she took another portal stone and effortlessly threw it towards the plateau. “We just ended up here because we weren’t sure where the inner layer begins, after all.”

“So convenient.” The jaguar was a fan of their ways of traveling.

“Also, I’m finally detecting something.” Sophia paused for a second and concentrated a little harder. “It’s been a while, but it reminds me of the griffin that attacked me back when I met Maya. I can sense multiple spots with the same power levels all over the plateau from here.”

“Yeah, as mentioned before, that’s the main territory of the griffins." Aura reacted with a small nod as she was the first one to walk through the portal that just opened after a minute or two.

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“Woah!” Steph let out a small gasp as she arrived at the other side of the portal. The scenery had changed completely. The rocky outskirts of the desert were gone, and they found themselves in the middle of a lush forest instead. The temperature was also significantly lower, which pleased her greatly.

“I think you slightly overshot your portal.” The female wolf also scouted the surroundings before looking at Sophia. “Judging by the density of the forest, we’re already halfway to the center of the inner layer.”

“Really?” The blonde tilted her head. “I just did around 50 kilometers to skip a little, though. Is the inner part that small?”

“Yes, it’s only around 200 kilometers in diameter.” Fen just nodded.

“Time for griffins!” Steph didn’t care about the size. “Where do we find them?!”

“There are a few scattered around here and there, but the forest isn’t exactly the easiest to navigate, so I think it’s best we get to the demon ruins first. I can sense multiple of them over there, and the forest is a bit lighter over there. Well, it at least used to be. It’s been a while after all.”

“Let’s go!” The dog-girl liked the plan.

The group then quickly started navigating the overgrown forest and tried to get closer to the ruins. Doing so, they stumbled across something interesting only around 15 minutes later. The trees turned a little less dense, and some remnants of an ancient cobblestone path came into view. It was covered in shrubbery, and thick roots had completely destroyed most of it, but a few cracked and mossy stones could be made out even after all this time. It also still cut a visible path through the forest. A bit further down, the group found a partially collapsed stone arch spanning over the path that was completely overgrown with vines and moss.

Feeling they were on the right track, they decided to walk along the path, as it led in the exact direction where Sophia and Aura sensed the most griffin-like magic signatures. They leisurely followed the path for about an hour while taking a closer look at each stone arch, of which Steph definitely didn't accidentally destroy two by touching them.

The path led to a small clearing on a hill before entering the forest again. However, the view from that hill was quite the spectacle. From the height they were on, the group could overlook the entirety of the demon ruins that nature had been busy reclaiming for centuries, around a kilometer away in front of them in a basin hidden in the vast sea of a green forest.

The first thing they noticed was the massive building in the very center of the ruins. Surrounded by weathered-down, cracked grey inner walls covered in vines, was a plateau made of white stone that looked like light granite or maybe even marble. It was hard to tell exactly at this point because it had been shipped, was covered in debris, and was completely overgrown with all sorts of plants. In the center of this plateau were the decaying remnants of a castle with two massive towers that dominated the ruined city.

However, it was impossible to tell how tall the towers really were in the past, as a sizeable chunk of them had collapsed and a good amount of rubble had piled up around their bases. The towers, too, were covered in moss and vines growing out of the glassless windows.

The main keep of the castle between the towers had been faring even worse. The roof had completely collapsed, and one of its walls was mostly gone, with the others being severely weathered down, as well. The standing remnants had been claimed by ivy and more moss, while the inside was mostly filled with the caved-in roof and other debris. On top of that, a colossal tree had been growing in a corner of the keep, and it seemed like its trunk and massive branches were the only things keeping the remains of the building standing.

Looking past the deteriorated castle and inner wall, many dozens of buildings, or the remnants of such, could be made out. None of them still had a roof, and most were missing at least one wall. A good number of them had even less remaining, and some had turned into nothing more than a pile of rubble. Nature had been just as busy reclaiming them, too, as the vines, ivy, shrubbery, and moss didn’t spare any of them, either. The cobbled streets between them had been mostly swallowed by massive roots, various shrubbery, and broken stones from buildings. Only the main road leading from the castle, through a larger, empty plaza that probably used to be a marketplace, to the outside of the city, was still relatively intact.

The last thing they noticed was the massive outer wall that formed a circle around the entirety of the city. It was an enormous wall of grey granite that the forest has been busy swallowing from the outside in. A cobbled path out of the forest, likely the same one they were following, connected to a large arched opening in the center of the wall.

Numerous tall towers in the same design as the towers of the castle were spaced out along the wall, but many of them were missing their upper sections or had caved in almost completely. Just like everything else in the area, moss and vines covered nearly every inch of their surfaces. Looking even closer, they could make out some sort of empty nests on top of the tower’s remains. Although, they looked way too big to belong to regular birds.

"WOAH!" The girls all had the exact same reaction as they looked at the place, their mouths hanging open and their eyes sparkling.

“Hmm, it’s a lot more deteriorated than I remember.” Aura lightly tilted her head while gazing at the ruins. "Well, nature always wins when reclaiming places.”

“True.” Fen nodded a few times. “Also, when’s the last time we’ve been here? A little while ago would be quite the understatement, would it not? It makes sense that it’s looking like it does.”

“This is sooo cool!” Steph was rather excited over the sight. “This is what I mean when I said that I want to see more fantasy-like things!”

"I agree that it's an eleven out of ten on the cool scale, but I'm not sure if that’s the right example for the fantasy setting.” Sophia scratched her cheek. “I’m relatively sure that at least similar places exist on Earth, too.”

“Shush!”

“This is such a great view!” Anna was also amazed by what was in front of them.

“This is my first time seeing a ruin.” Ari nodded in agreement. “It’s breathtaking.”

“It really is super cool, and I want to see it up close, but I’m kind of missing the promised griffins.” Chloe fixed her gaze on the towers of the outer wall. "I think I can see some suspiciously large nests, but they're empty. Didn't you sense them around here?” She looked at Aura and Sophia at the end.

“They’re still here.” The two shook their heads.

“I can sense them a little further down inside the towers.” Fen joined them. “They’re likely wary of someone.” He simply stared at Sophia.

“How so?” The blonde innocently tilted her head. “Didn’t you say that they don’t exactly care about the powers of others because they’re so overconfident?”

“There are limits to that, though.” He shook his head. “They may foolishly think they could take the rest of the group, even with our new and increased authority, because they have the air superiority or whatever, but you, you radiate immediate and certain doom from every pore of your being.”

“I’m just a friendly neighborhood tiger who happens to have a little more power, though?”

“Shut up.” Fen rolled his eyes. “Also, wild animals have no way to sense your friendliness. Power is all they care about.”

"Though, even now, they are beyond cocky." Aura’s stare focused on one of the towers on the outer wall. “I can feel them looking at us.” Her predator side became active. “Every sensible being would flee as far away and as fast as they could if sensing you, but they are staying, watching, waiting for a chance to launch a surprise attack.”

“I feel like we should give them what we want~.” Sophia clapped her hands again. “Them attacking me probably is the easiest way to catch one.”

“And ride!”

“And pet!” Steph and Chloe were on her side.

“I’m even happier about the power boost now.” Ari let out a sigh of relief. “I still think griffins are way too scary, but I now know they can’t harm me.”

“Let’s go!” Sophia energetically raised her hand and entered the path they had been following before to reach the ruins.

Everyone else followed her, and the group entered the dense forest once more while descending the hill while using the cobbled path leading to the ancient city.