Sylas reached out, grabbing at the object. With a burst, its protective shielding shattered apart, and golden light sprinkled out, falling to the ground like embers.
Left behind, resting in Sylas' palm, there was a key. Or, rather, a portion of one.
There were no rewards, no items to take advantage of, just this broken key.
Odd. Itzam definitely said that there would be rewards, but there was nothing to be had.
Sylas looked at the key for a long while. A pressure fell from above, but he dismissed it. He knew what it was, as he had been in plenty of Dungeons until now. That was the teleportation function of the system. It was trying to give him the chance to leave this place.
But Sylas wasn't quite ready for that just yet.
If there was no reward, he was just going to have to find his own.
Sylas took a step and leapt across the platforms before kneeling at the starting position. He ran a hand along the edge, feeling out for sothing.
The bumps and changes glided across the roughness of his palms, but despite his calloused hands, he seed to make out every peak and crevice with ease.
'Fascinating…'
Sylas left his position and went over to the next platform. He repeated the process again and again until he ran out of platforms to look through.
'It's not complete…'
A flash ca to Sylas' eyes as he ca to a realization. He leapt off the side of a platform and into the water.
'Indeed, it is here…'
Sylas dove deeper and then started running his hands across the bodies of the platforms. The water wasn't very deep, maybe six feet or so. It was enough for Sylas to subrge himself if he ducked, but not to the point there was an endless amount of material to analyze and observe.
In the end, Sylas ended up spending more ti than he wanted before bringing himself out of the water. He was in a rush, but he also knew that this was too important.
Although he could rely on his Blade Aura to sever the connection ahead of ti, it wasn't sothing he could rely on for the sa reason he didn't want to bring out his Scorpion Warlord Armor too early. The drain was too heavy.
Even if he only used Blade Aura as a Will Ability, it was a significant drain on his Will. If he used it as a Gene Talent, it would fatigue his body. If he used it in its most powerful state and activated both at once… Well, the result didn't need to be explained.
However, if he could understand this formation, and shatter it ahead of ti, or disrupt it, then it would be far easier.
'This is the last piece…' he thought to himself as he walked to the body of Itzam.
Sylas should have known. Of course, the last piece of the puzzle would be in the bodies of the individuals linked to all of this in the first place.
He looked at the tattoos but couldn't find anything interesting. These tattoos weren't real Runes at all.
'Of course not. If they were, I wouldn't have taken so long to think to co back here. But these tattoos definitely acted when the formation was active. Why would they, and yet have nothing to do with the formation itself…?'
Sylas pressed a hand against Itzam's body and fell deep into his thoughts until he felt sothing stir.
With a flash of his gaze, Sylas activated Extricate, and Blood Essence was ripped out of Itzam's body.
As he pulled it out, the tattoos coating the man's body also slowly faded away. In fact, he even began to shrink until he was left as nothing more than a shriveled corpse.
The shriveled corpse wasn't a surprise. This tended to happen whenever Sylas sucked soone dry of their Blood Essence. But Sylas was certain he saw this giant shrink down until they were once again a normal human.
'Is this…'
Tattoos… Blood Essence… Will… This odd Flesh Mastery…
Flesh Mastery was the only way to explain a linkage between body and formation. That was sothing only those that could incorporate Runes into themselves could accomplish.
But this felt half-complete for so reason.
'The Dogons…'
Sylas didn't have enough information, but sohow he was certain that the Dogons were related to this sohow.
However, looking at this Blood Essence in his palm right now, Sylas could feel it even if he couldn't explain it. This Blood Essence carried the aura of the Dogons. That much Sylas was certain of.
And it also held the secret to linking all of these giants together.
Sylas stood and rushed to the next body, pulling on it with Extricate until he could feel the Blood Essence rush out as well.
He held the two balls of blood before him.
'The root isn't just the Blood Essence. There's a very particular… tainting within it. One person shared a drop of their Blood Essence with each of these giants, giving them their abilities…'
Sylas' eyes narrowed.
This changed everything.
He couldn't use Extricate against a target that was resisting, but that might not necessarily be true if he managed to target this drop in specific.
This piece of the Blood Essence wasn't owned by the target. As such, the protections to it weren't the sa.
Of course, that was far easier said than done, and Sylas wasn't sure if he could do it. But… if he sensed it for long enough, he just might be able to accomplish it.
Sylas manipulated Extricate, slowly separating out the two balls of blood into four, two still quite large, and the last two the size of marbles… golden marbles.
The first two larger balls seed to lose all their luster, while the latter two marble-sized balls pulsed with such a radiant might Sylas could hardly look at them straight.
'These… carry so much power… if I used them to draw Runes…'
Sylas' eyes glowed with a fierce light.
He had found his reward.
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