The next five hours passed in a steady rhythm of movent, battle, and discovery.
The ruin did not remain silent.
Shadows continued to erge again and again.
The first humanoid form had only been the beginning.
Not all of them shared the sa shape.
The only constant was their color, black, and faces with no features.
Just smooth, empty surfaces where expressions should have been.
The group adapted quickly.
Michael moved less often, but when he did, the tide shifted imdiately.
Stronger shadows appeared as they ventured deeper. Larger. Denser. Their energy more compact and oppressive.
In those monts, Michael stepped in.
Sotis he intercepted a strike that would have forced one of the others into a dangerous exchange. Sotis he dismantled a creature with a single precise action, leaving the rest of the body to collapse harmlessly. Other tis he allowed the others to push to their limit before assisting, ensuring none were overwheld.
Through it all, the orbs continued to appear.
Deep blue and faintly glowing. Carrying that sa subtle hunger.
This ti, the distribution was more asured.
Even Arianne gained so.
The difference lay in what they did next.
Unlike the first encounter, not all of them grabbed the orbs the
instant they ford.
They discovered sothing by accident.
When one orb remained untouched for several minutes, the sphere hardened.
The deep blue light condensed inward, solidifying into a crystal-like object no larger than a fist.
It beca an item that could be stored and absorbed later.
That realization shifted Michael's approach, making him collect a few himself, but just like Arianne, he only kept them and did not attempt to absorb them.
When he personally dismantled a stronger shadow or assisted in finishing one that threatened to escalate beyond control, the resulting orb belonged to him by right of contribution. He did not touch it imdiately.
Only when it hardened into a stable object did he store it.
He had no intention of absorbing sothing he did not fully understand.
As the hours passed, they gathered more than just orbs.
Several luminous herbs similar to the first flower were harvested from crystal fissures.
The spatial container slowly filled.
Twenty percent would belong to the kingdom upon exit.
The rest would be theirs.
Yet despite the steady gain, Michael's unease did not fade.
The ruin was generous.
Too generous.
The faceless creatures appeared frequently, but rarely in
overwhelming numbers. The treasures were not hidden behind impossible trials. The orbs strengthened cultivation in asurable ways.
It felt almost curated.
As if sothing within the realm was encouraging growth.
Michael extended his perception again as they paused atop a low ridge, scanning the crystal-lit expanse stretching into endless twilight.
*
Elsewhere within the ruin, beneath the sa endless twilight canopy, was Group Two.
The tenth prince of the Lionheart Kingdom stood at its center.
Around him, the crystal-veined ground was stained darker than
before.
Bodies lay scattered across the stone.
Not of faceless shadows, but of n.
Their attire, now sared with blood and dust, marked them clearly as belonging to a neighboring kingdom. Their eyes were open.
Unmoving.
Renn stood a short distance away, sword resting loosely at his side.
His expression was cold.
He did not speak.
But the air around him had shifted.
The current situation had begun due to a conflict over a single herb
growing from a narrow fissure in the stone. A precious one, judging from the density of energy around it. Words had been exchanged. Tension had risen.
The tenth prince had not hesitated.
Instead of driving them back with force and superiority, instead of displaying dominance and allowing retreat, he had chosen the
simplest path.
He killed them.
Ren
gaze lingered
the fallen.
He looked more displeased than shocked.
The prince noticed.
A scoff escaped him.
His posture remained relaxed, his weapon still faintly humming with residual energy from the earlier clash. His expression carried faint disdain, as though Renn's silent judgnt amused him.
To the prince, weakness invited loss.
If the opposing kingdom's team was too fragile to stand their ground,
then they should not have contested ownership in the first place.
Renn's fingers tightened slightly around the hilt of his sword.
He had not intervened.
The prince was stronger, and the exchange had been swift.
But that did not an he approved.
The tension between them thickened, subtle but unmistakable. Other
mbers of the group shifted uneasily, sensing the divide forming
between noble authority and personal conviction.
Before the silence could harden into sothing harsher, one of their
teammates stepped back suddenly.
"Look."
All eyes turned.
The fallen bodies were changing.
At first it seed like a trick of the crystal light. Then the air above
each corpse shimred faintly.
Dark mist began to seep from their chests.
It was not blood, but the sa black vapor they had seen when
faceless creatures dissolved.
It gathered slowly, rising like smoke drawn upward by unseen
currents.
Renn's eyes narrowed.
The prince's expression shifted from mild irritation to focused
interest.
The mist above the first corpse condensed, compressed, and folded
inward.
A deep blue orb ford in the air above the dead soldier's body.
Then another.
And another.
Every fallen opponent produced one.
They hovered in place, glowing faintly, carrying that sa subtle
hunger the ruin's shadows had emitted.
The group fell silent.
This was new.
These n had not been faceless creatures of the realm.
They had been human.
From another kingdom.
No one moved closer to the orbs for a while. It was a distinct feeling
from how they had behaved before toward the orbs.
The only thing they could feel now was a chill in their spines.
It was not until the prince spoke that the silence broke.
"This should be different from the faceless monsters. These people
ca from outside like us, so why are they producing these orbs too?"
The prince paused for a few seconds as all eyes focused on him before he continued.
"I am not sure, but I believe these orbs exist because they belonged to the faceless monsters these people killed and absorbed their energy. Now that they are dead, their energy is returning to the ruin."
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