When Gary opened his eyes again, he found that his "mother," who should have been at ho, had quietly disappeared, and in the blink of an eye, he had been transported from "Venus" to a strangely styled room.
Without hesitation, he instinctively grabbed the shining wheel giant axe from his back and shouted:
"Invincible in battle!"
The "activated beast hide" serving as his belt quickly spread to cover his entire body. The full coverage steel scale armor made from rhino shark, tough, lightweight, and providing him with a powerful strength boost, far surpassed any knight armor crafted with exquisite craftsmanship.
Fully prepared for combat, Gary began to carefully inspect the place he was now in.
Gently rotating the sharp-horned shark-head, which had almost beco part of his body as "activated shark hide," allowed him a full view without the dead ends of old-style knight armor.
"This seems like the ruins on the island?"
It was a narrow dwelling built of gray-white boulders, without windows. It had a distinct Kuma Empire style, not much different from when seen from outside.
For countless years, the room contained all sorts of furniture—no, things resembling furniture.
When Gary saw what those things actually were in the dimness, a chilling sensation rose instantly from his feet, and the back of his head went cold.
Because those "furniture" seed to be made from carved bones, woven hair, and various other biological materials from the human body, grotesquely forming shapes of furniture.
As a warrior experienced in battles and very familiar with human anatomy, Gary could easily judge that these pieces of furniture would require the entire body tissues of a healthy family of four... just matching the specifications of this house.
"Hiss—!"
No matter how strong a warrior, his hair stood on end, as if chased by ghosts, he quickly stepped through the narrow door and fled the room.
Outside the house, even though the light under the misty do wasn't sufficient, he quickly discovered there were many eerie things about this island.
Only when standing on the island could one find out it was actually shaped like a bowl, high on the sides and low in the middle. Starting from the outermost parts of the island, there were still distinctly Kuma Empire style buildings, gradually transitioning into an eerie style almost completely contrary to human geotry as one delved deeper towards the center.
Until the center "bottom of the bowl" of the island, there was a circle of severely twisted giant stone pillars, as if human limbs or serpentine bodies had been completely shattered then reassembled.
Inside the ring of giant stone pillars, innurable white bones lay prostrate on the ground, heads facing the circle's center, their number incalculable.
Not only were the architectural styles strange, but even the island's space seed distorted. Only by standing on the island could one realize its area was much larger than seen from outside, at least a hundred square kiloters.
The island was replete with gold and gemstones, yet they were hardly tempting in the face of such oddities.
Among the cities ford by various distorted buildings and graffiti, Gary's eyes lit up as he spotted a familiar figure not far from him:
"Is that Mr. First Mate? But why is he continuously moving towards the island's interior, clearly a very eerie place?"
After a slight mont of doubt, Gary couldn't help but call out, in need of a reliable companion after arriving at such a weird place:
"Mr. Boris!"
However, this shout didn't catch Boris's attention; instead, it set Gary on the journey towards the center of the island.
Sizzle—
This cursed island was obviously not just an endless treasure as seen from outside; brought by Gary's shout, so invisible thing lurking in the air launched an attack on him.
The powerful force made the air resound with a loud boom!
As a formal knight, honed through hard training and often under the influence of Aiven, the sword master, Gary certainly possessed combat qualities corresponding to his tier.
Relying on a strong combat instinct, he swiftly raised his wheel giant axe, perfectly blocking sothing akin to a whip or tentacle.
However, sothing strange happened.
Duang!
With a loud noise, instead of stepping back as he should have, Gary miraculously advanced half a step.
This Navy Major, who had followed Aiven through many strange incidents, imdiately realized sothing unusual about this place.
Similar to space distortion, here, aside from moving forward, any "movent" resulted in a direct consequence of displacing forward by a certain ratio.
And these bizarre invisible existences absolutely would not let any of them stagnate, forcing them deeper into the island's interior until reaching the altar-like place at the center.
"Troubleso. Is this an inevitable 'pilgrimage' path?"
...
At the sa ti.
In a dim space that clearly differed from the surface of the island, almost like a giant maze.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!...
Countless black tentacles tipped with scorpion-like barbs shot up from the ground, easily tearing apart a group of giant rats with human faces, with red blood, like that of humans, spilling everywhere.
[Magic-like Technique: Shadowy Tentacles]
Effect: Freely transform shadows into tentacles and various weapons, with the added effect of demonized weapons.
Olivia looked down at a monster's head that had rolled to her feet, with fierce yellow long fangs, resembling a shrunken, twisted, and corrupted human skull, and frowned silently:
"Human-faced rats? Low-grade monsters that should only exist in the cities or nests of ancient gods in the Spirit Realm actually appearing in reality, and what's with this real spiritual feedback?"
Praising Kaka, whose body length had already exceeded ten ters and fully possessed the form of a Shadow Sub-dragon, Aiven turned to Olivia beside him:
"This place makes feel like I'm back in the chaotic cities of the ancient gods in the Spirit Realm, with architectural styles that are eerie, twisted, and defy cognition and common sense, filled with various monsters.
As for the pure spiritual feedback, it's hard to say if it's a good or bad thing, but it allows physical side transcendents who can't enter the Spirit Realm to enjoy unprecedented benefits."
In previous Spirit Realm explorations, we often encountered cities belonging to ancient gods (Chapter 412), remnants from unknown eras of the Material World that had gradually sedinted in the Spirit Realm, consisting mostly of chaotic, disorderly, and evil forces and concepts.
In the Material World, however, these are very rare. These chaotic and disorderly forces are to the world as cancer cells are to a healthy body; they might have remnants during eras of transition but absolutely cannot be nurous.
At this mont.
The two were fully ard, wearing top-of-the-line "Venom" battle armor crafted with no expense spared, transford into two identical deep blue close-fitting combat suits.
With technology updates, the "Venom" series, which could freely modulate and add functions, had gradually shown vibrant life force surpassing ordinary "Activated Beast Hide."
At least, the top-tier "Venom" battle armors owned by Aiven himself, Olivia, and their sister had completely surpassed all of Aiven's previous creations.
Previously, when the two of them were caught off guard.
Due to the mysterious connection deeply ingrained between them, even when inexplicably teleported here, they weren't far apart, and the two highly synchronized wizards easily found each other.
Moreover, Aiven, relying on the wizard's spiritual perception and the "Vitalist School's" keen sense of bloodlines, could also sense that Anita was nearby. The first thing to do next was to gather the people and determine how many of their own had entered this maze-like enclosed space together.
Furthermore, they were now completely cut off from the outside world, and Shadow Jump was suppressed. Even if he was anxious, Aiven had no way out; ensuring his group's safety was the priority.
"Let's go, let's hurry and et up with my sister first."
Olivia stepped forward, taking Aiven's hand and tossed a piece of synthetic tourmaline.
imit——
[Gem Witchcraft: Mimicry]
A flash of colorful light vanished instantly, and the two figures disappeared. The purpose was obviously to avoid drawing attention from the owner of this place, while also avoiding unnecessary battles.
"The Maze Master Aihote"—this na jumped from the depths of their minds the mont they saw this maze, and how could they not be cautious against such an entity?
Olivia activated [Dark Vision], while Aiven used [Low-pressure Pulse] to substitute for his eyesight. Even in the gloomy maze space built with giant gray-white stone blocks, their senses were unimpaired.
Not long after they had traversed various chaotic, slanted, repetitive corridors, so completely devoid of gravity, where it was impossible to distinguish up from down or left from right.
"The ruler of all mazes, the fair Rule Maker, the great and generous god..."
A chilling chant with a bizarre intonation suddenly reached their ears.
Without needing even a glance exchanged, Aiven quietly took Olivia's hand and bypassed a circular corridor, reaching the top of a small round hall, and peeked down stealthily.
A group of four or five figures, wearing wide gray-white leather robes slick with moisture, and donning white animal skulls—antelope, wild horse, wild buffalo, giant hawk...—gathered in a circle, centering around a fresh corpse dressed in Sak Empire military attire.
Deep and murky prayers poured out from where might be called their throats like a flood:
"...All mysteries stem from that foul-slling mist, for the Devourer can manifest in any dampness; dead phosphorus fires dwell within this house, filling this chamber, and the Devourer's spirit shall also arise from it; it resides in the deep sea, waiting quietly for the ti to return to the surface. Its eyes see everywhere, its ears hear widely..."
Olivia's body shuddered slightly:
"They're not speaking Spiritual Text; isn't this... the language of the Kuma Empire?"
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